Yeah. This show is the biggest thing in his life right now, if he’s not willing to set aside a few days to show up on set for the final season, it’s for emotional reasons, not practical ones. Perhaps his relationship with the showrunners deteriorated, or he’s unhappy with the direction the show has taken. Or maybe he…

I haven’t seen Green Book, so I can’t comment on its quality directly. But as far as I can tell, no one really liked it - it got crummy reviews, it didn’t make much money, and all the people I read online defending it say things like “it was fine” and “I enjoyed it.” Damning with faint praise...

I grew to love Japanese whiskey after living briefly in Japan, but it’s too expensive here for me to justify buying it. If I want to get scotch with a similar flavor, what do I ask for? I don’t really know how to describe it except “mellow” or “drinkable” and I feel like that will get interpreted as “I don’t really…

“ as the time limit runs out, the lights in the hall are shut off, forcing the remaining applicants to scratch their essays to completion in total darkness.”

While I know museums have a certain image, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse the event of being elitist or inaccessible - it looks like full 3-day pass cost $128, which is FAR more affordable than a typical music festival. Hell, it costs more than that to go to a Taylor Swift concert. 

Technically, his ancestors are the ones that *didn’t* jump, and chose bondage over death...

I think you’re right about the speeches - it’s not that the audience doesn’t care about who wins best cinematography etc, it’s that the audience doesn’t care about the acceptance speech afterwards. It’s people you’ve never heard of thanking other people you’ve never heard of.

This looks better than I was expecting. Also, it sort of reverses the timeline in a interesting way - Taking the imagery and symbolism that Tolkien created decades later to help digest his experiences in his early life and in WWI, symbols which are now familiar as part of our larger culture, and applying them back to…

Yeah, I don’t know how anyone was surprised by The Upside, it’s got a killer premise and two likeable stars. Lots of people love these kinds of life-affirming stories, and the original was a massive global hit.

What’s with this trend of gay romances having big age gaps? Carol, Call Me By Your Name, this... 

It won’t happen, but it’s a shame because I think a well-done animated film could be a Frozen-level phenomenon. Though maybe it’s too dark for younger kids. 

Sadly, I found that Runpee has a different opinion of what’s missable in a film than I do - it’ll tell you to go during the people-talking-to-each-other scenes, whereas I’d rather miss the people-punching-each-other scenes.

Battle Angel Alita is a much more evocative title than Alita: Battle Angel

It’s been a loooong time since I read the book, but didn’t they marry young in that culture anyways? Paul starts out as 16-ish, and he’s got a kid by halfway into the book. 

“the plot involves “any comfortable, domestic interest” (Kelly mentions scrapbooking and, enticingly, “crafting criminality”)“

That has to be the plan, right? 

The article you linked quotes 1,800 deaths for a 7.8 quake, which is the worst case scenario - 7.5 is the average they’re expecting. That’s less than Katrina, and a lot less than 9/11.

But does anyone really think the dog isn’t gonna make it home? Who would go to see the version of this film where the dog doesn’t make it home?

That was a very interesting listen, because I really like bluegrass/americana/folk music, but have never found anything to enjoy in metal music. It’s so silly, I find it almost embarrassing to listen to.

This is exactly the kind of recipe that does not need precisely controlled quantities of salt. It’s potato chip butter!