Doctor Who
I haven’t really watched, or finished reading, anything this week, so let’s talk Doctor Who, which is one month away from the new season. It’s been a while since I discussed it here, so let’s do a quick recap of what I’ve skipped: * Season 9:
Film
I’ve looked at the reviews around the place, and as far as I can see, if you read the book first, you’re very down on Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and if you didn’t, you think it’s a masterpiece.[1] I read the book earlier this
SundayDiary
I was recommended What the Duck the other week and so far, I’m really enjoying it. It’s hard to go past an episode about how snakes have two clitorides.[1] Ann Jones is a pleasure to listen to, though I think I’ll need to slow down my
There’s a global setting in macOS (in the General pane) where you can choose to “Prefer tabs” in all applications. This means that any time a new window would get created, you get a new tab instead. Which I love for Terminal, because I hate getting swamped by random
TV
The Next Generation season two is a revelation. Not in the sense that it’s unimaginably better than season one — it is, but just a bit. No, it’s a revelation because I never knew that Dr Pulaski existed. She's actually a pretty decent character, arguably more interesting
Star Trek
> Spoilers for 1987! Netflix recently allowed you to save some videos offline, and the entire history of Star Trek appears to be up for grabs. So I’ll be watching Trek on my daily commute and reporting back here. When I get to it. I’ve just started season
TV
Gosh, the world is depressing right now. Not that worse things haven’t happened before, but apparently I had some emotional investment riding on the idea that the USA had broadly sensible leadership. This was clearly a mistake. Let’s talk about television instead. Sherlock I am a little bit
Politics
Who Are All These Trump Supporters? [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/george-saunders-goes-to-trump-rallies] — George Saunders in The New Yorker I’ve been trying to write something about some of the bullshit you see about political correctness these days… where it’s evolved from being a term criticising the
Film
It's your regularly-scheduled Sunday post. Oh yes it is. Every Sunday since this one. You remember. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd heard good things [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/26/the-babadook-review-mark-kermode-brilliant-chiller] about The Babadook [http://letterboxd.com/film/the-babadook/]. And it is very well-made. But. There'
Gay Talese in The New Yorker: [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs-motel] > Finally, I will be able to satisfy my constant yearning and uncontrollable desire to peer into other people’s lives. My voyeuristic urges will now be placed into effect on a plane higher than
The Financial Times has a 404 page [http://www.ft.com/foobar?ft_site=falcon&desktop=true] that should be an inspiration to 404 pages everywhere. It turns out they've been playing around with several experimental 404 pages [http://labs.ft.com/2015/08/four-oh-four/], which are
1. Edge 2. Opera 3. Chrome 4. Firefox 5. Chrome with Material Design 6. Vivaldi 7. Internet Explorer 8. Brave
I was pretty ambivalent about Man of Steel [https://thegreatescapism.com/steely-man/]. The thing that bugged me at the time (and a lot of other people, as it turned out), was the wanton destruction and general boringness of the last act. It turns out that Batman v Superman does not
I was minding my own business, listening to the Accidental Tech Podcast, when John Siracusa delivered a brand new thing to be neurotic and obsessive about: 24 frames-per-second content being delivered over 60 frames-per-second output.[1] I’ve been casually streaming my films over my Apple TV like a chump,
> I envision a glorious, artisanal return to the bespoke backstabbing of yesteryear. If craft beer can do it, then so can we. — Annabel Crabb, Backstab all you like, but please do it in private [http://www.smh.com.au/comment/backstab-all-you-like--but-please-do-it-in-private-20160219-gmyia0.html] in The Age. Mmm. Beer.
> Through eavesdropping and small talk, I start to pick up on the cast of characters. The courtroom drama most relevant to this scene is, of course, 12 Angry Men. But trapped here in close quarters with a small group of people, I feel instead like I’m in The
It doesn’t seem fair to compare a brand new movie to how you feel about something after years of it growing on you. I’m not sure I liked Zoolander immediately, but at some point it crept into my brain and made a cosy home for itself. Freak gasoline
On a whim, I have moved this blog to Ghost. Not much should change on your end, except probably the RSS feed will fill up with crap you’ve already seen.
In ‘Haunted by Data’, Maciej Ceglowski draws a pretty interesting comparison between big data and the nuclear industry. And wakes me up to the fact that radium underpants were once a thing. Woah.
> Feminist criticism isn’t about ripping something to shreds or making others feel guilty for liking it. It’s simply about pointing out a specific creative weakness and then taking that a step further to explain the real-world social ramifications of that weakness, all in the hopes of dissuading
How to design a metaphor – Michael Erard – Aeon [http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/how-to-design-a-metaphor/] I have never put this level of thought into a metaphor. I have never even imagined such a thing possible. This is why I’m as bad at metaphors as a prawn is at flying, and
