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Off Topic / Re: It's a bit warm/ wet/ cold outside
« on: 30 July, 2021, 09:40:39 PM »
Portland.
Yeah I believe the heatwave was even more extreme up in Canada.
Yeah I believe the heatwave was even more extreme up in Canada.
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Off Topic / Re: It's a bit warm/ wet/ cold outside
« on: 30 July, 2021, 05:55:21 PM »
In the last twelve months I (West coast USA) have experienced:
Wildfires burning 20 miles away from my house that cloaked the entire city in a terrifying orange haze.
An ice storm that brought down trees and branches all over the state (including multiple branches from the tree in my back garden), knocking out power and heating for tens of thousands of people for as long as a week (myself included).
An insane heat wave that saw temps reach 45c (and not drop below the high twenties for a week solid, even in the middle of the night) and required the city to organise 'cooling centers' around the city to help prevent houseless people from dying in droves.
It's been quite a year....
Wildfires burning 20 miles away from my house that cloaked the entire city in a terrifying orange haze.
An ice storm that brought down trees and branches all over the state (including multiple branches from the tree in my back garden), knocking out power and heating for tens of thousands of people for as long as a week (myself included).
An insane heat wave that saw temps reach 45c (and not drop below the high twenties for a week solid, even in the middle of the night) and required the city to organise 'cooling centers' around the city to help prevent houseless people from dying in droves.
It's been quite a year....
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News / Re: The new 2000 AD Humble Bundle deal is available now!
« on: 26 July, 2021, 10:11:04 PM »
I literally just had to give away the vast majority of my 2000ad graphic novels due to not being able to store them with family in the UK any more (and not wanting to pay exorbitant freight shipping costs), so this is perfect timing.... 
In particular that replaces a huge chunk of my old Dredd GNs with their digital versions, which takes the sting out of it a bit!
In particular that replaces a huge chunk of my old Dredd GNs with their digital versions, which takes the sting out of it a bit!
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Film & TV / Re: The Mandalorian
« on: 08 June, 2021, 08:52:17 PM »Quote
I think Star Wars works best when it's based on old western, samurai and WWII movies and riffing on fantasy tropes. Star Wars is kinda shite when it's based on Star Wars and riffing on EU geegaws.
This sums up how I feel perfectly, and it's a large part of why I don't rate Dave Filoni's work, despite most Star Wars fans thinking he's the second coming. Constantly coming back to the exact same set of characters and visual motifs and having storylines revolving around 'explaining' bits of lore or backstory that don't need explaining is exactly the opposite of what I want from Star Wars movies and TV shows.
Everything memorable from the original movies was memorable because it was fresh and creative. The AT-ATs from Empire Strikes Back were cool because they were a striking piece of visual design and unlike anything we'd seen on screen before, not because they were a nostalgic throwback to something we liked from a previous movie.
I can't think of a single memorable or iconic visual from the sequel trilogy that isn't a callback to the original trilogy.
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Film & TV / Re: Current TV Boxset Addiction
« on: 08 June, 2021, 08:40:27 PM »
(As a complete aside, even after all these years I remain astonished at the scale of houses depicted in US TV, even where the characters are specifically established as working-class poor barely surviving).
This ^^^
As someone who lives here, I still find it weird that you can be considered poor/working class and still own a huge house that has acres of land and multiple vehicles (including cartoonishly huge pickup trucks & RVs and even boats).
I imagine debt has a lot to do with it, but still.
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General / Re: The DAVE EVANS TRIBUTE BOOK — LAST(ish) CALL
« on: 04 June, 2021, 08:27:26 PM »
Bit out of the loop and just hearing about this now.
Only had limited interactions with Dave (through the fanzine scene and meeting him at the Dredd movie screening), but he was one of the good ones. RIP mate.
Only had limited interactions with Dave (through the fanzine scene and meeting him at the Dredd movie screening), but he was one of the good ones. RIP mate.
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Off Topic / Re: Things that went over your head (non-prog-related)
« on: 26 April, 2021, 10:13:56 PM »
After watching through The Sopranos half a dozen times over the last decade, I literally only just realised that Richie Aprile isn't played by Armand Assante (Rico from the 1995 Dredd film) and is actually played by an actor called David Proval. Damn they look alike!
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Off Topic / Re: Y'know what really grinds my gears?
« on: 16 March, 2021, 04:09:04 PM »
NFTs.
Just thinking about the whole thing is enough to make me start hyperventialting.
This future we're living in is unfathomably stupid.
Just thinking about the whole thing is enough to make me start hyperventialting.
This future we're living in is unfathomably stupid.
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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
« on: 16 March, 2021, 02:44:34 AM »
Sound of Metal
This was a phenomenally good film with a trio of truly amazing central performances at its center - the guy who plays the character of Joe was all the more impressive for being a virtual unknown. Something about the themes of the movie really struck a chord with me. Not because I am deaf, or really have a comparable condition to that of the main character (played by Riz Ahmed). It was more something about his particular personality type that really resonated with me on a deeper level.
This was a phenomenally good film with a trio of truly amazing central performances at its center - the guy who plays the character of Joe was all the more impressive for being a virtual unknown. Something about the themes of the movie really struck a chord with me. Not because I am deaf, or really have a comparable condition to that of the main character (played by Riz Ahmed). It was more something about his particular personality type that really resonated with me on a deeper level.
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General / Re: What Defines a Dredd Epic?
« on: 09 March, 2021, 08:10:12 PM »
To paraphrase some guy, I couldn't define exactly what constitutes a Dredd mega epic, but I know a one when I see one. Loosely, it would generally have to be something that ran in the prog rather than the Megazine and usually something that ran for 20 episodes or more - the sweet spot being 25/26 episodes (though there are clearly some exceptions to these definitions).
For my money the definitive Dredd mega epics are:
The Cursed Earth
The Day the Law Died/Judge Cal saga
The Judge Child Quest*
Block Mania/The Apocalypse War
Oz
Necropolis
Judgement Day
Mechanismo/Wilderlands
The Pit
The Hunting Party
The Doomsday Scenario
Total War
Origins
Tour Of Duty
Day of Chaos
*I would count City of the Damned as a follow up to/continuation of the Judge Child storyline as it isn't really substantial enough to constitute as an epic in its own right.
A 10-12 parter like Sin City would count as a 'mini epic', and while America is an iconic Dredd series, it's not an epic. but that's a whole different kettle of fish.
For my money the definitive Dredd mega epics are:
The Cursed Earth
The Day the Law Died/Judge Cal saga
The Judge Child Quest*
Block Mania/The Apocalypse War
Oz
Necropolis
Judgement Day
Mechanismo/Wilderlands
The Pit
The Hunting Party
The Doomsday Scenario
Total War
Origins
Tour Of Duty
Day of Chaos
*I would count City of the Damned as a follow up to/continuation of the Judge Child storyline as it isn't really substantial enough to constitute as an epic in its own right.
A 10-12 parter like Sin City would count as a 'mini epic', and while America is an iconic Dredd series, it's not an epic. but that's a whole different kettle of fish.
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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
« on: 08 March, 2021, 11:09:31 PM »Quote
He is unassailably good in both Trading Places and 48 Hours, his two best films IMO. If you haven't seen them, I humbly suggest adding them to your list.
Murphy in Trading Places is charisma personified. Absolutely electrifying performance. Same goes for Beverly Hills Cop. And IIRC he was scarily young in those movie, like early twenties young.
Coming 2 America
In itself, its harmless enough. The cast all look like they’re enjoying themselves, so fair play to them. And it’s nice to see Eddie Murphy and especially Wesley Snipes getting a late-career revival - the latter being a truly gifted and underrated comedic actor.
But for me, this film encapsulates almost everything i dislike about modern filmmaking.
It’s a pointless, belated and unimaginative sequel to an old classic, which leans heavily on nostalgia and callbacks in lieu of actual jokes or original ideas.
It’s full of gross product placement and unnecessary and distractingly cheap looking cgi.
It has that offputting sense of lots of scenes being shot where the actors weren't in the same location and have been cut together in post.
It has that modern thing of looking like it cost a lost of money (in financial terms) but also looking really gross and cheap aesthetically at the same time. I’ve been trying to put my finger on this for a while, and I think it’s because modern movies, especially those made by the streaming platforms, tend to really skimp on things like location shooting, set dressing and digital compositing, which (imo) makes them look jarringly small scale and un-cinematic to my eyes, looking almost more like those old MTV movie award parodies than actual big budget movies. Adding to this, everything in the film seems to be coated in a really unappealing digital gloss.
I also watched Minari.
Not much to say as it’s more of a slice of life/character piece, but its a lovely little film with some great young (and old) performances.
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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate
« on: 05 March, 2021, 05:50:20 PM »Quote
I'd say the conflict in Middle East is all for oil
Is this even a conspiracy theory at this point? It was clear even prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that the US led coalition clearly had their own motives for getting involved in that region.
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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate
« on: 05 March, 2021, 05:48:31 PM »Straight up, I believe that conspiracies do exist, but much less than people are making it out to be. I mean, I don't think you can fool majority of global population that Earth is flat, right? To me, people who create conspiracies are those who try to make something sensible with their lives, rationalizing events around them, that don't seem instantly aligned. You hear that Epstein was a sex predator. Then, it transpires to every celebrity person. I believe however in what Alan Moore says. I'll paraphrase:"The truth is that the world is anarchic and rudderless".
...and thats the ultimate irony of conspiracy theorists, endlessly imploring everyone else to 'wake up' and see the evil cabal controlling everything, because deep down they're too scared to 'wake up' themselves and realise that the world is chaotic, no one is really in control, and everyone is just making it up as they go.
Also 100% agree that some conspiracies are real, its just that they are generally quite mundane sounding and are usually motivated by greed and/or people in power trying to cover up their own incompetence.
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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate
« on: 03 March, 2021, 08:45:53 PM »As Conspiracy Theories go, this one leaves crazy in the rear-view mirror.
https://www.thejournal.ie/adrenochrome-dublin-anti-covid-lockdown-protest-qanon-5369654-Mar2021/
It's more widespread than you might think, sadly. My next door neighbors (nice, friendly people who recently gifted us a bottle of bourbon for helping them out on something) have a 'Q' sticker on their pickup truck. I'm fascinated with Qanon. All you really need to know about it is that its basically a way for people to express a yearning for authoritarian/fascist rule, even if they don't consciously think or understand that's what they are doing.
I suspect that the majority of Q followers' don't literally believe the things they accuse 'elites' of (ie the whole child-eating, blood-drinking demon thing). It's simply a way to 'other' and dehumanise their perceived enemies just enough to justify their own irrational belief that they all need to be rounded up and jailed or executed and a hard-right, fascist regime take control and put everything back to how it 'should' be.
This is the absolute best explanation I've heard of phenomenon: https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44
Video starts with a discussion of Flat Earth theory, but then makes a hard turn into Qanon around the 38min mark.