We saw Ready Player One this weekend. Damning with faint praise, but it was actually better than the book. More visual, a bit less flabby and fanfic-like. Kept the central Special Orphan Saves the World and Gets the Girl with Help of Plucky, Diverse Sidekicks plot, so it was still cliched. But it made my kid happy and watching Spielberg do a pop culture mashup with an unlimited budget has its moments for sure.
Oft times I was entertained as much by the notion of the screenwriting huddle as by the movie. The author worked with veteran screenwriter Zak penn and with Spielberg to write the movie.
I would imagine the original author gushing, "So in the book, the first challenge is the kid has to play Joust against an old wizard. But like... in the video game! He plays a video game inside the video game!" Spielberg: "Yeah. We're not doing that." Penn: "How about a car race through a shifting Manhattan with Godzilla and King Kong attacking?" Spielberg nods.
RP1 is latter day Spielberg... effortlessly competent, epic in scale, a bit hoary and worn in underlying story/theme.
Lost in Space is good middlebrow to upper-middlebrow tv. If you go at it with the sharp blades we use for prestige tv these days, you can slice it to pieces. But it's very successful at its goal of being a family adventure show. Simon is digging it a bunch.
I'm delighted to have something to watch with him that is not animated and is better than the CW DC shows, so it gets a thumbs up from me on that basis.
It's shot, scored, scripted, and acted with a straight faced "This is a real and serious grown-up show" vibe, but the underpinnings are all Family Adventure/Kids in Peril. Older kids might sniff that out and resent it. Hard to say.
Saw an amazing band last night. 7 piece jazz group. Not fully "free" but wild and aggressive. They just happened to be playing at a bar I was meeting friends at.
Can't remember the last time I just stumbled upon a new favorite band.
Weird thing is, they have NO internet presence. No FB, website, soundcloud. etc. Not sure how I'm going to see them again. They are my Cinderella.
Has anyone seen Faust lately? Very excited they are coming to a nice intimate place in Baltimore. Werner “Zappi” Diermaier and Jean-Herve Peron are the sole original members. Just curious about what a Faust show sounds like in 2018.
I succeeded. I went to the venue page and someone posted a video and tagged the band members. So I reached out to the saxophonist and he confirmed that they don't do anything but post on their own personal pages. So I befriended him.
Has anyone seen Faust lately? Very excited they are coming to a nice intimate place in Baltimore. Werner “Zappi” Diermaier and Jean-Herve Peron are the sole original members. Just curious about what a Faust show sounds like in 2018.
I saw them a few years ago, 2009 or 2010. It was a good show, it made me happy and a bit verklempt: I thought I wouldn't ever see them play, I finally did, and it was good.
I succeeded. I went to the venue page and someone posted a video and tagged the band members. So I reached out to the saxophonist and he confirmed that they don't do anything but post on their own personal pages. So I befriended him.
What's their name? If they ever put something online, tell us about it.
Comments
Oft times I was entertained as much by the notion of the screenwriting huddle as by the movie. The author worked with veteran screenwriter Zak penn and with Spielberg to write the movie.
I would imagine the original author gushing, "So in the book, the first challenge is the kid has to play Joust against an old wizard. But like... in the video game! He plays a video game inside the video game!"
Spielberg: "Yeah. We're not doing that."
Penn: "How about a car race through a shifting Manhattan with Godzilla and King Kong attacking?"
Spielberg nods.
RP1 is latter day Spielberg... effortlessly competent, epic in scale, a bit hoary and worn in underlying story/theme.
Guffaw!
I'm delighted to have something to watch with him that is not animated and is better than the CW DC shows, so it gets a thumbs up from me on that basis.
Can't remember the last time I just stumbled upon a new favorite band.
Weird thing is, they have NO internet presence. No FB, website, soundcloud. etc. Not sure how I'm going to see them again. They are my Cinderella.
I've heard of bands doing that.
I keep hoping Macca will go on tour again soon. My kid is super into the Beatles right now and it would be a good first show.