Culture

Nothin’ ain’t somethin’ till there’s mashup DLC.

SSC: I’ve been waiting for Chinese Democracy to come out, because I wanted to hear it. First single (also titled “Chinese Democracy”) is here (original).

I mentioned last night that Oz was in the public domain, and that there was a thriving subculture of fans writing and publishing Oz books. I would not be me if I were unable to provide a link or two. Or three. I find this whole thing inexpressibly charming.

(Not Fringeworthy, that’s different.) Use Nemesis, which is fairly simple and free. A couple of nomenclature changes – Madness Meters are Stability Meters, and most difficulties are fairly low. Things are weird but not alien weird. The Unnatural track is the Fringe track. Trump dice are likewise Fringe dice. There is no supernatural, but there is fringe science, obviously. Those versed in fringe science might go above 5d in a given stat. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nina turned out to have 6d in Body, and Dr. Bishop has 6d Mind. Perhaps more. ...

I’ve been enjoying the Filmspotting podcast; decent opinions, good chemistry between the hosts, a wide variety of topics. One of the regular features is a movie marathon (original). Over the course of a month or two, they watch one movie per week from a given genre and comment on it. The idea is that listeners can follow along. They just finished a heist marathon, and will be moving onto a 60s British Angry Young Men marathon in September, which sounds cool. So I’m gonna hop on board. I will no doubt post reviews here, and if anyone local’s interested in joining me and my Netflix queue for viewings, feel free to speak up. ...

For reference. Quantum of SolaceJCVDSynecdoche, New YorkW. (if I get to it) MilkFrost/Nixon, depending on reviews The WrestlerThe Brothers BloomSlumdog Millionaire

eBooks on the iPhone are pretty obvious; I’ve been keeping an eye out for a good reader. Here’s the first cut: Stanza (original) (App Store link). The key is being able to download your own books, which Stanza allows. Grab Stanza Desktop (original) and load your books into there, then select Enable Sharing from the Tools menu and fire up the iPhone Stanza app. Shared Books -> Books on Macintosh displays the list of currently open books in Stanza Desktop. Select the ones you want, and there you go. ...

Squee! (original)

“It was Dungeons & Dragons, but I wouldn’t have owned up so quickly a few years ago. But it gave me a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance. You’re creating this modular, mythic environment where people can play in it.” -- Jon Favreau (original), director of Iron Man (original) So there you go.

I’m in love with Massachusetts And the neon when it’s cold outside And the highway when it’s late at night Got the radio on I’m like the roadrunner