2024.01.03
Movies at the Cinema (5 (+3))
A Fish Called Wanda, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Clue
The 2 4 stars are 80s classics at birthday parties...
Movies on Video or Streaming (28 (-2))
Swiss Army Man, Glass Onion, Jackass Forever, Baby J, Bio-Dome, Dazed & Confused, The Fault in Our Stars, Cocktail, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Clue, American Beauty, Annihilation, Police Academy, Backbeat, The Naked Gun, Across the Spider-Verse, Interstella 5555, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, The Mummy, The Princess Bride, Assembled: Making of Loki (1+2), The Nice Guys, Pete Holmes: I Am Not for Everyone, Marriage Story, It's a Wonderful Life, 12:01, Monty Pythons's The Life of Brian, The Secret Life of Brian
Backbeat has long been one of my favorite movies - the early Beatles in Hamburg and the love triangle of John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Astrid Kirchherr.
TV Show Seasons (18 (-1))
What We Do in the Shadows Season 4, White Lotus Season 1, Rick and Morty Season 1, Derry Girls Season 3, Documental Season 1, Documental Season 2, Documental Season 3, Crashing, The Mandalorian Season 1, Ted Lasso Season 3, Rick and Morty Season 5, FLCL, Rick and Morty Season 6, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, What We Do in the Shadows Season 5, Loki Season 2, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Lego Masters Season 4
A lot of animation here. "Crashing" by Phoebe "Fleabag" Waller-Bridge was fun.
Books (35 (-2))
Wisdom for the Way, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories, Galapagos, Answering the Atheists, The Uncontrolling Love of God, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Good Life:, The Giver, Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy, Jailbird, Life, The Universe and Everything, Ask Iwata, Starting Small and Making It Big, God Soul Mind Brain, So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish, Player Piano, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, Mostly Harmless, Why Gender Matters, Timequake, The Fault in Our Stars, The Anthropocene Reviewed, The Brandy of the Damned, The Information, Eifelheim, A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, Available: A Memoir of Heartbreak, Hookups, Love, and Brunch, Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel, Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, What I Mean When I Say I'm Autistic, The Aviary, How Pac-Man Eats, The Power of Myth
I finished up my "all Vonnegut" novels kick and a reread of Douglas Adams. Of that, Vonnegut's "Player Piano" really lept out as prescient in a year where ChatGPT and its ilk are poised to reshape many information worker landscapes. "Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories" was some great scifi - "Lena" really did a haunting outline of a future of uploaded workers. "The Fault in Our Stars" was really lovely, precocious teens grappling with way serious issues of mortality and other challenges. "The Brandy of the Damned" was an obscure book with some Dyscordion vibes - a bit of Vonnegut and Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams all in there. "The Power of Myth" was a great intro into thinking about what different religions and cultures have in common and why, and is making me thinking about what stories I do or should tell myself.
Podcast (12 (+1))
2.0, Baby Geniuses, Poetry Unbound, Beef and Dairy Network Podcast, Making Sense, Into the Vertical Blank, Strong Songs, Get Played / Get Anime'd, My Brother My Brother My Brother And Me, Complementary, Retronauts, The Talk Show
"2.0" is the interesting find here, where two brothers riff on how to improve some things that are fine. (Real flights of fancy, plausibility is no stopping point.)
Comic / Graphic Novel (14 (+12))
UK in a Bad Way (Part One), This One Summer, Chainsaw Man (Public Safety Arc) Vol 1-11, Rusty Brown, Rusty Brown, Giraffes on Horseback Salad, Adams Family: The Bodies Issue, Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, Gender Queer: A Memoir, The Illustrated Happiness Trap, Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds, Chainsaw Man Vol 12, The Guy I Almost Was, In a Bad Way
I had to construct a crude mirror for "The Guy I Almost Was", but the tale of techno-optimism and jobless despair hit home this year.
Video Games (6 (-3))
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass 1, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, Desk Job, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Earth Defense Force 5, WarioWare: Move It!
Tears of the Kingdom's idea of building was just brilliant.