We moved during the pandemic. And, because it was the pandemic, for a while, it didn’t really hit home how far east we moved. But, you guys, let me tell you, when you have to go to Ontario Place for a concert and you live in the east end, it’s far. It’s so far we …
Author: rnhaas
And I’ll Scratch Yours (2013) by Various Artists
I quite enjoy Scratch My Back and love New Blood but, for some reason, it took me years to get around to listening tot he other half of Scratch My Back. But the thing I love about New Blood doesn’t really apply to this project (or Scratch My Back either, really, even though they sound …
Ode to Joy (2019) by Wilco
Weirdly, I bought this and then completely forgot about it. It was only when I was listening to Cruel Country that I realized I had skipped an album. And then I discovered I had indeed purchased a digital copy and just flat out forgot to listen to it.
Jennifer Lopez: Halftime (2022, Amanda Micheli)
This is an official but rather insightful look at Jennifer Lopez as she tries to put on the Super Bowl Halftime Show while worrying about whether or not she’s going to get nominated for her first Oscar. All at the age of 50.
Cruel Country (2022) by Wilco
Despite supposedly being a very big fan of this band, I completely ignored Ode to Joy. I think it’s because I mostly haven’t enjoyed their post Sky Blue Sky output.
Slow Horses (2022)
I’m always a little unsure of whether to review a series at the end of the first season if I know for sure there is more coming. But with shows where the second season hasn’t even premiered yet, I feel much more inclined if only because I’m not sure if I’ll get there. And given …
Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills (2006) by David Milch, David Samuels
For me, Deadwood is probably the second greatest English-language dramatic, fictional television show in the history of the medium. But it is also horribly under-watched (if not completely under-known). I have watched the show through at least 3 times and I still believe it’s kind of a marvel of combining big ideas with a compelling …
The Lost City (2022, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee)
This is a pretty funny riff on Romancing the Stone style adventure films. Really, it’s a direct parody of Romancing the Stone and its sequel, in many ways.
Ator the Fighting Eagle [Ator l’invincibile] (1982, Joe D’Amato)
This is a classic terrible ’80s fantasy film, made in Italy but starring America’s Tarzan because, why not?
Killer Fish [L’invasion des piranhas] (1979, Antonio Margheriti)
This is an extremely lame film that attempts to combine the heist film with horror, I think, but which fails to do either even moderately well. SPOILERS
The Glass Key (1931) by Dahiel Hammett
This is my second Hammett novel but I really don’t remember the first one. (I had to re-read review of it to remind myself what I felt and, even then, I really didn’t remember it.) Hammett is known as the king of American detective fiction but he’s arguably more of an influence with the aesthetics …
Riley Goes to Colorado Day 5: Tuesday May 31, 2022
I didn’t “sleep in” as much as I wanted to on our last day. I think I generally have trouble when I know I have a flight to catch, even if that flight is in, like, half a day.
Eternals (2021, Chloe Zao)
Well, we have a winner for the “Worst MCU Movie.” I’m sure you’ve heard that already but apparently I had to see it to believe it.
Riley Goes to Colorado Day 4: Monday May 30, 2022 – Denver
We “slept in” for the only time this trip. I used quotes because it wasn’t very late. I blame the time change.
Riley Goes to Colorado Day 3: Sunday May 29, 2022 – Fort Collins to Denver
We got up and realized that we might have trouble watching the race, as the place we were staying didn’t have cable. Fortunately, it did have Roku, something I have never used before. And fortunately, there was ESPN. However, if you watch F1, you know there was some rain and there was a bit of …
Riley Goes to Colorado Day 2: Saturday May 28, 2022 – Estes Park to Fort Collins
We woke up earlier than we would have liked, having forgotten to book a new entry at Rocky Mountain National Park. I checked and saw there was still time at 1PM only. One of the hikes we looked at was not in RMNP but had quite a strenuous rise over a short distance. I was …
Riley Goes to Colorado Day 1: Friday May 27, 2022 – Denver to Estes Park
Pre-pandemic, we used to travel to the States fairly often, both overnight in the summer to see minor league baseball games, and longer trips, usually in spring or fall, to cities we’d never visited. Our first of these trips in over two years was to Denver, Colorado, and environs. We went for 4 nights.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021, Jon Watts)
The MCU Spider-Man movies are probably the best overall series within the whole massive thing, though there may be better individual movies. But this is the weakest – and longest (and most self-important) – of the three and, in many ways, reverts back to the usual Marvel crap. There is a difference here, of course, …
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (2018) by Hank Green
I’m not really sure how I ended up reading this. I am a huge fan of Crash Course but I’ve never followed anything else they’ve done and I’ve always had zero intention of reading John’s novels. But somehow, this book showed up on my fiction pile. I must have added it to my list one day due …
The Cold War Part 1 (part of The Village of Small Huts) Live at Video Cabaret on May 13, 2022
This was my third Village of Small Huts/Video Cabaret experience and it was a reminder of how distinct their performances are and how much underknown I think the whole thing is. As a reminder: Video Cabaret is a theatre troupe that incorporates audio and visual elements into their productions. The Village of Small Huts is …
You Are Now Less Dumb (2013) by David McRaney
In many ways, this is You Are Not So Smart II with all that implies: it’s a similar catalogue of cognitive biases and heuristics that affect our ability to be rational, most or all of which you’ll here on the podcast.One major difference is the chapters are longer; rather than focusing on one bias every few pages …
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at the Phoenix Concert Theatre Thursday May 5, 2022
This was my first concert in possibly close to three years. The pandemic played a major part in that but I also don’t remember what the last show I was before the pandemic closed everything down over two years ago. It had been a little while. This was my third time seeing Godspeed. Regrettably, it …
Freedom (2010) by Jonathan Franzen
Hot take: I enjoyed this more than The Corrections. Note: Very minor spoiler
White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie and Fitch (2022, Alison Klayman)
I know very littles of Abercrombie and Fitch. For all I know, my first introduction to them might have been that “Summer Girls” song. More likely it was one of their ads, but I wouldn’t have known it at the time. Anyway, this was all news to be. But, for someone who didn’t know anything …
The Day Time Ended (1979, John ‘Bud’ Cardos)
This is one of those films that I watched courtesy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I can’t really imagine doing it without. I wonder if my rating would drop a point if I had to watch it on my own. It’s one of those terrible films that appears to be just very, very boring.
Arcane (2021)
This was recommended to me by work colleagues whose pop culture tastes I don’t yet know. I mention that because I might not have started this show if I’d known much about it. It is apparently associated with the League of Legends game franchise, something I know nothing about.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021, Andy Serkis)
So I liked this substantially more than the first movie and I think it’s for one main reason: Venom is present from the beginning. I don’t remember if there were this many wisecracks in the first film but, if there were, I was already pretty bored when they started. Here it’s clearly a comedy (in …
Your 2021-2022 Toronto Raptors
There are people who will tell you that this season was a disappointment. (I saw one commenter in the normally reasonably sane comment section of The Athletic call the season “a disgrace.”) These people, as far as I know, are fans who joined due to the championship, or the years of success preceding it, as …
Exhumed at Birth (1997) by Faxed Head
This is a bonkers and pretty funny metal album that defies categorization a little bit, which is probably one of the reasons nobody seems to like it.
The Heiress (1949, William Wyler)
Full disclosure: I read Washington Square years ago and hated it. I hated it because of Catherine, the main character, whom I felt was one of the worst characters I’d ever encountered in a novel. So I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t realize this was an adaptation of that novel. SPOILERS