My parents had an extra ticket and I found a cheap last-minute fare, so took an early flight to St. Louis this morning for the 12:15pm Cardinals game. 5:30pm flight back to DC tonight, so let’s hope these games move as quickly as advertised
Oh man, a replica of the old 930 club is opening next month by doing 44 shows this summer for $44 each. The lineup is—ahem—impressive.
I’m going to spend a lot of money
Current Things: April 2023
Currently Reading
- Still nothing! But I really need to start Sea of Tranquility!
Currently Watching
- Succession, Season 4
- Yellowjackets, Season 2
- Ted Lasso, Season 3
- The Mandalorian, Season 3
- Party Down, Season 3
- Star Trek: Picard, Season 3
Currently In Queue
- Tetris
- Shrinking, Season 1
- Babylon
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forver
- Aftersun
- Emily the Criminal
- After Yang
- Speak No Evil
- Catherine Called Birdy
- Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
- The Bear, Season 1
- Reservation Dogs, Season 1
Currently Listening
- Upgrade: I’ve Come Around to Reality
- The Vergecast: Solo Acts: Marco Arment and his podcast app Overcast
- Stratechery: Interview with The Ringer Founder and CEO Bill Simmons (subscription required)
- Filmspotting: ‘23 Oscars Special
- App Stories: Listener Q&A
- Saved by the City
- Dithering (subscription required)
- The Talk Show
- Accidental Tech Podcast
Concurrently
- We knocked out most of the Oscar nominees before the ceremony, but there’s so many from 2022 that I want to catch up with! Either from directors I like/think are interesting (Babylon, Catherine Called Birdy), that had great reviews, but didn’t get Oscar noms (Aftersun, After Yang), or that I just generally want to see (Black Panther, Speak No Evil). Here’s hoping that I actually get to them!
- While I finished Ocarina of Time, I’m taking a break from my Zelda playthrough for Metroid Prime: Remastered. So far, it holds up really well!
- I’d been hesitant to put podcasts in the “Currently Listening” section since the core of what I listen to doesn’t change much. But I think it’s worth it for documenting the shows I don’t listen to every episode of and keep my “listen to every episode” shows at the bottom.
Finished in March:
Andor, Season 1: Star Wars has always been so fun that the full impact of the strife between the Rebels and the Empire was always glazed over.
No more. Andor makes you feel how simultaneously important and pointless this all is. No one wins in war.
Poker Face, Season 1: this and Star Trek: SNW have made it very obvious how unsatisfying non-episodic TV has become. Imagine getting the satisfaction of a story ending every night!
(As for PF: the conceit started to wear thin in the middle, but those last two episodes were <chef’s kiss emoji>)
The Last of Us, Season 1: it’s always nice when shows that give you something to think about are also entertaining. Doubly so when they become popular enough to ensure it’ll last at least as long as it needs to
The Fabelmans: there’s an artifice of movies that allows for more truth than real life
Cocaine Bear: not sure anyone will buy that this took place in Georgia when we all know it actually took place in Kentucky
Women Talking: here to take the minutes
Triangle of Sadness: wealth is a disease that none of us can escape
The Banshees of Inisherin: being human is awesome, but hard(but being a donkey is harder)
(also, the world is a hard place to live in, but good news: we’ve got each other)
Previously, in Current Things…
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
Tetris: if you can suspend an L-shaped block’s worth of disbelief, there’s a lot of fun to be had here
Tetris, 2023
If you can suspend an L-shaped block's worth of disbelief, there's a lot of fun to be had here
Yesterday’s Cardinals v. Blue Jays game was fun to watch even though the Cards lost. The new anti-shift rules seemed to have a bigger impact than the pitch clock, but I’m sure that’ll balance out as the year goes on. It’ll be fun to re-learn the rhythms of the game with these new rules!
Andor, Season 1: Star Wars has always been so fun that the full impact of the strife between the Rebels and the Empire was always glazed over.
No more. Andor makes you feel how simultaneously important and pointless this all is. No one wins in war.
We found out last night that Jude got into our neighborhood school for (free) Pre-K 3 next year. He was guaranteed a spot, just not necessarily at the school where Vale is already going.
Very very grateful to live in a place that has universal Pre-K. Let’s do what it takes to get it for everyone!
Happy Opening Day to all that celebrate! May you all beat your pitch clocks and stay out of the shift!
Just was assigned the star/best role in the annual Passion play (i.e. Pontius Pilate). Just have to determine how much Jesus Christ Superstar I need to incorporate into my performance
I love the framing of this NY Times article on the three major rule changes MLB is implementing this season.
The goal is to better balance the style of the 70s and 80s with the optimizations the Moneyball era. If they can pull this off, it’s gonna be a fun season.
One of the things I keep turning over in my head about Triangle of Sadness is the idea that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you come from: wealth will corrupt you.
Trust fund babies, arms dealers, single mothers trying to make ends meet, service workers, supermodels, whatever. Give any of them wealth and give them enough time and they’ll be corrupted.
And wealth doesn’t have to be money: it can be fame, in-need skills, pretzel sticks, etc. Anything that creates a system of haves and have-nots. Whatever it is and whomever you are, wealth will corrupt you.
I don’t think the movie was particularly successful at depicting this (too much time on the boat, not enough time on the island) and I don’t know if I really agree with any of it, but it’s been hard to shake in the weeks since I’ve seen it
The Kiss from a Rose clue in the NY Times crossword today has led me down a Seal rabbit hole and I’m honestly a better person for it
It’s that time of year! It’s getting warmer, the birds are out, and I swear to myself that I’ll catch up on the movies from last year that I didn’t get to before sheepishly deleting them some time in June.
I love the epic feel of season-long story arcs! But they’re not mutually exclusive with each episode telling a self-contained story.
Not every TV show needs to be “like an eight-hour movie”. I can barely watch a two-and-a-half hour movie!
Poker Face, Season 1: this and Star Trek: SNW have made it very obvious how unsatisfying non-episodic TV has become. Imagine getting the satisfaction of a story ending every night!
(As for PF: the conceit started to wear thin in the middle, but those last two episodes were <chef’s kiss emoji>)
I know they’re completely different-styled shows, but who at Showtime thought that debuting the new season of Yellowjackets the same week as Succession was a good idea?
Does anyone know the animator for Apple’s yellow iPhone commercial?
(I ask because I get big Bojack Horseman/Tuca & Bertie vibes and I’m wondering if it’s the same)
At this point it would be more efficient for everyone to just send a percentage of my paycheck directly to ChiKo