2017.01.02
As always, something that I enjoyed and meets expectations is "3 star", something that I really liked is listed in red for 4 stars, potential all-time-favorite material, 5 star, is listed in red and bolded. Stuff in gray was below all that.
Movies at the Cinema (6 (-4))
Star Wars: The Force Awakens,
Spotlight,
Deadpool,
RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion,
Ghostbusters: Heed the Call,
Rogue One
The MST3K really made me laugh. More and more I think that should be what I favor in media.
Movies on Video or Streaming (33 (--))
RocknRolla,
Interstellar,
What,
Hannah and her Sisters,
Fish Called Wanda,
Donnie Darko,
Spirited Away,
Chinatown,
8 1/2,
Down Periscope,
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan,
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,
Mystery Men,
Hail Caesar,
The Graduate,
Captain America: The First Avenger,
Captain America: Civil War,
Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
Face-Off: Gates vs Jobs,
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask ,
Voices of a Distant Star,
Kentucky Fried Movie,
Age of Ultron,
Inside Out,
Streetcar Named Desire,
Absolutely Fabulous,
Star Trek Beyond,
The Martian,
Tropic of Cancer,
The Jerk,
Look Who's Back / Er ist wieder da,
Drumline: A New Beat
Heh, exactly as many videos as in 2015... some of that was catching up on Marvel stuff on the flights to and from Malaysia. No real standouts here.
TV Show Seasons (26 (+12))
Rick and Morty Season 2,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 5,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 6,
Girls Season 5,
Broad City Season 3,
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,
Modern Family Season 7,
New Girl Season 5,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 7,
Extras Season 1,
Extras Season 2,
Game of Thrones Season 6,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 8,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 9,
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 10,
Silicon Valley Season 1,
The Expanse Season 1,
Orange is the New Black Season 4,
Silicon Valley Season 2,
Lady Dynamite,
Scrubs Season #1,
Silicon Valley season three,
Scrubs Season #2,
Pulling Season 1,
Pulling Seasons 2,
Black Mirror Season 1
I guess it's not surprising that "Rick + Morty" and "Black Mirror" were the highpoints, both interesting scifi lenses on alternate versions of our own world.
"Scrubs" deserves a special nod given how LONG is seasons were - I watched it while doing a giant scan-o-thon. And you know, Episode 4 of the first season made me weep; it's a goofy comedy but grounded both in real hospital life and in real emotion.
Books (56 (+10))
The Atari Book,
The Enthusiast,
The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture,
Trump Temptations: The Billionaire and the Bellboy,
Dreaming in Code,
Egghead,
The War of Art,
Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One,
Existentialism for Beginners,
When Nietzsche Wept,
Speak,
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History,
Fear of Flying,
Spelunky,
How I Conquered Your Planet,
The Violet Hour: Great Writers at The End,
Couples,
The Psychology of Romantic Love,
Sleights of Mind,
Constellation Games,
Travels with Epicurus,
is it evil not to be sure?,
Shader,
A Game Design Vocabulary,
World of Warcraft (Bossfight Books),
Dead Presidents,
The Birds,
Still Life with Woodpecker,
Super Mario Brothers 3,
Save the Cat,
Don Quixote,
The End of White Christian America,
Letter to a Christian Nation,
10:04,
Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialog,
The Joy of Leaving Your Shit All Over the Place,
Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales,
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals,
Instructions for Living Someone Else's Life,
Zen in the Art of Archery,
Rules for a Knight,
Kiss Me Like a Stranger ,
The Neurotic’s Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-brain Plays Unending Games of Self-improvement ,
How They Were Found,
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,
Boss Fight Books: Mega Man 3,
The Fermata,
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates,
How to Save Your Own Life,
The Shephard's Crown,
Aqua and Bondi: The Road to OS X & The Computer That Saved Apple,
The Princess Diarist,
Anthonology,
Four Reincarnations
I'm always wary about how keeping this kind of log (for like 17 years now!) threatens to be "gamification", where I'm doing stuff just to add to the year tally - not the way I want to be. But the dip in "books" in 2015 (which had been down 15 from 2014) was on the back of my mind. Somewhat corrected this year. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was a reread, and still one of my favorites. "is it evil not to be sure" by Lena Dunham was a great little read - interesting thinking of the parallels with Carrie Fisher's. (You can see a minireview with quotes I made on it. "Fear of Flying" was excellent in general. (Interesting how all of the stuff I rated 5 stars were in the form of first person storytelling.)
Comic / Graphic Novel (9 (--))
Mastermen,
Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus,
Zap Comix 16,
Paying for It,
Anatomy of Melancholy: The Best of A Softer World,
Mauretania,
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 2: Squirrel You Know It's True,
Frog and Toad (series),
Hyperbole and a Half
Chester Brown's sparsely drawn works ("Mary Wept..." and "Paying for It"), with their thoughts about sexwork, probably stood out the most.
Video Games (1 (-6))
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
I guess what's most striking is how little I'm playing. Some of my friends have disdain for video games, and some regret over the time they themselves put into 'em over the years. I don't really - I liked 'em, I like physically interacting with and exploring virtual worlds. But- I guess I don't as much as I used to? Have games changed, or have I? Or is it just a busier schedule? (There's some games I played but didn't finish, like Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and GTA: San Andreas, both repeats.)
Deacon: I think we drink virgin blood because it sounds cool.
Vladislav: I think of it like this. If you are going to eat a sandwich, you would just enjoy it more if you knew... no one had f***ed it.
--"What We Do in the Shadows", a funny "reality tv" movie about vampires sharing a flat. This quote is such a funny take on that usual "true love waits" line...
Watching the rose bowl parade on ABC. Good lord how I hate those tweets blatted to the screen. Just let us watch the damn bands and floats, please?
While I'm in my cranky old blogger man mode...
FB begging us to make Live a thing. Share the moment. But the examples they show are like, startling events? Big plays at the game etc.
The thing is, if it was a really good time, maybe you were watching the game, without your device up, and then maybe you were taken surprise by a big play? So they're offering to share, like, the moment after the moment? Or encouraging us to go further down the path of devices up for recording/broadcast all the damn time.