What would you adapt?

Billy Budd, with all the real sex that's missing in the book? It would be revolutionary, IMO

@tunic/ilducio - i trained boxing for a bit in my teens and then a decade later and it's BRUTAL. i should do it again. stuff like jumping rope or (my favorite) hitting the heavy bag really give you a workout like no other. and the fighting takes tons of skill. but anyway, pretty as the sport is when good technique is applied (i appreciated boxers as opposite to each other as sugar ray leonard and mike tyson), ultimate fighting is closer to real-life situations when there are no rules limiting what parts one can use/attack. so in that sense watching boxing is like watching tennis these days, whereas mma is more life-and-death/gladiatorial.

yeah that's how i read anna karenina-- a chapter or 2 a day in a very hot summer with nothing else to do. i wouldn't mind a do-over.

best get the hammock ready...

yeah that's how i read anna karenina-- a chapter or 2 a day in a very hot summer with nothing else to do. i wouldn't mind a do-over.

best get the hammock ready...

oh and hell yeah i wanna read his theory of history ha ha

I'm grabbing the War and Peace now, thanks for the recco!

this neither here nor there but the constance garnett version which is sorta canonical for the english language i think should be available free of copyright

I've read a ton of her translations of FM Dostoevski. She's good enough. I've got a quite elegant slipcovered illustrated (woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg) 1938 C & P (Heritage Press) in my voluminous Library of Babel, which also includes the Menard Quixote.

here's the fronstpiece, where Raskolnikov awaits the landlady....

I've heard this case made for mma before, but it still doesn't really sell me. I think I like boxing specifically for the technique and skill involved in it. It's actually kind of a slow-burn sport, and like baseball it's long-form strategy "game" so that appeals to me. Not that I watch a lot of boxing, but I do like the sport.

I used to live in an apartment complex with some dudes who were SUPER into mma or ultimate fighting or whatever, and I had a couple just total binge-sessions watching it with them over beers (#guystuff #makesmenervous), but as much as I could admit that it was entertaining, I just couldn't really get into it to the point where I saw it as a "real" sport for whatever reason. Obviously it is a real sport, but it just doesn't feel that way to me when I'm watching. I like the rules of boxing, the restrictions that force fighters to make something happen without just going... what's the word... "beast mode?"

Anyway, I'm sure it's fine. Just not for me.

I'm impressed that you boxed though.

SYMBOLS --

I just started watching season 1 of Preacher.

Surprised at how much I'm liking it so far. Really surprised. The lady who plays Tulip is just ... wow.

shes's the woman with the flower dress in agents of S.H.I.T.

so much better here!

and yeah boxing is the better sport and can be a long match-- that's why i compared it to tennis.

the other stuff is more brutal and takes less understanding so it belongs in the reality tv era ha ha ha. less sport, more combat.

the boxing i didn't really fight, wasn't competitive-- i just trained which is different. you don't get your head bashed that much. at least the sparring we did was (on purpose) head was off-limits. but the training is hard fucking core. and sometimes a glove would slip off your shoulder and bonk ha ha ha. i was in college and couldn't afford subdural hematomas though. was just to learn. also did a bit of tae know do for shits and giggles. there's an appeal to combining both though... hence, mma.

Well, she *was* that chick. But that chick became another thing altogether (same actress) and then died. Hahaha. She was irritating as fuck.

I trust you won't mind the spoiler because it's from a few years ago and you don't seem inclined to try the show out again -- though it has gotten a LOT better.

Anyway, I'm pumped about Preacher now. I can't imagine how some of the stuff from the comic is going to translate to TV, but whatever. I'm game to find out. First episode really grabbed me, and seemed to work on all levels.

I wish the show was on Netflix though. Maybe I should invest the $8/month Hulu. This iTunes shit is getting pricey. I didn't used to watch so much shit, but life is stressful and I don't drink, so... yah.

yeah she became a porcupine or some such shit. then her prophecy was all bollocks. utter crap, that show. an endless jerkoff. why wouldn't they kill off angel already. and "daisy" went from supersmart hacker to an imbecile mutant with a dumb superpower. what a load of crap.

i tunes! ha ha ha ha. so bougie.

the way to play the subscription game is to binge-watch the lot they offer. then change the channel.

say you wanna catch up with gaymotron. you rent a month worth of hobo, watch the 8 or so episodes, brush up on other stuff you left out, cancel. next month, get something else. or go on a media fast.

amc is in what? i dont know. i rent amc via disc a year later.

since i have poor internets i am dependent on netflix dvd but i can go from as low as 2 per month to 8 at a time, depending on the season and how busy i get, and if there are sports, etc. this month im maxed out, next month i go to 2 or 3 again.

i did watch preacher on netflix (net not stream) and the blurays looked awesome.

i might do hulu for a month maybe for master chef and some other nonsense. provided they allow for offlined files cuz my connection can't handle decent streams in high quantities: those are reserved for el sócker.

ps- it's not an "investment." stop using that word the wrong way. sure, everyone does it. but it's a stupid mind trick to rationalize more expense. if you wanna invest, take a course or something.

I know it's not an investment. I didn't even mean that in a clever way or anything. was just in a hurry and wrote that instead of "try" or "buy some." ;)

yeah i know. it's a common language artifact. which is why it happened-- it's so ingrained. marketese becomes common parlance.

but yeah hulu would save you a ton of money over itunes ha ha ha-- if you can find what you like there.

i'm getting into prime video a bit. not such a huge selection, so it takes some exploration to find the good stuff, but the thing is that it's "free" for me (since i really get a lot from prime, living here in the sticks). and it can be offlined in places with good connections.

speaking of shit, tried watching some anime by miyazaki's son and my fuck it was such utter garbage. 2 hours of a baby going googoo gaagaaa-- no. he's got some sort of daddy issues for sure and i don't blame him for them, but i can't watch his fantasy projections.

it's like that movie about louis khan. did you ever see it? made by his lovechild. jeezus christ. i pity the fool. i did learn about louis khan though, who was a great architect. just did not care for the therapy session.

O Sa Mire, the Albanian sitcom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_alAOmSZbBQ

I'm a little bit in love with Ruth Negga's TV Tulip.

PREACHER.

Recently got HBO Now so I've started watching Westworld and enjoying that quite a bit, not too far into it though, only seen 3 episodes.

Yeah. I liked that. Kinda want to watch it again. Dammit. You're making me want HBO back.

Maybe I'll do what Symbols said and just buy a month of HBO Go and binge on the shit I need to finish, like VEEP and Silicon Valley.

yeah. dont be a sucka. play it smart.

speaking of suckas: i think you jinxed my old iphone 5 cuz a few days ago the battery swelled up and popped the glass and then it lost all phone connectivity and it fucked my life.

so

i bought an android phone for less than $200 and it's fucking great haa haa haaa

gotta be really careful with massive privacy issues ("okay google", stfu--etc) but very happy for the return on the money.

oh, also we're not getting an ipad pro. but the old ipad air 2 has been renamed and repackaged and now sells for 300 bucks haaa haa haaa.

so yeah. viva el agnosticismo.

currently watching season 4 of orange is the new black. good and hilarious. yes yes i know you said 5 is great. im not a premature ejaculator so i'll hold it till it comes.

also watching an old hbo thing on amazon about queen elizabeth the ancient one. with helen mirren in it. the story is so-so but she is so fucking good in it it's highly watchable.

also: 12 monkeys season 2. as terrible as season 1 but good to have on while trying to repair broken iphones lolololol.

(my super-ancient 4s is still rocking as my pomodoro timer though)

Snowfall. Everybody is rolling in cash, which isn't actually how drug dealing goes.But it does have some promise....

for those of you enjoying HoBO, Tour de Pharmacy was pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTIqkD9fPA

oh yeah i saw an ad for that somewhere

i'll catch up with it one of these days

watching ENDEAVOR. which is a (50s?) period piece based on the young INSPECTOR MORSE. never seen morse actually, but i saw a bit of his successor, INSPECTOR LEWIS, which was okay

anyway, endeavor looks pretty well made! but as detective period pieces go so far GEORGE GENTLY takes the cake.

still finishing up season 3 of Gotham. This show is BATshit crazy (pun intended)

The National Parks: America's Best Idea



This stuff is on Amazon and just caught the first couple of hours of it. Mostly about Yosemite, Yellowstone and John Muir.

Pretty fucking great so far. Also depressing, because humans are utter shit.

This is great. And yes, depressing.

I've always liked Ken Burns. I've sat through Baseball and Civil War multiple times. I want him to do a series on the Beat Generation. I think that would just be awesome. Also, perhaps, boxing.

the beatniks were too degenerate for his "american" paeans, but i can't wait for his chapter on joe louis

DUDE. Wait until the last 5 minutes of the last episode.

TOO

FUCKING

STUPID

FOR

LIFE

OH! What could have been, if this had been a violent AF HBO crime drama with no baby Batman bullshit and no superpowers god Fucking damn the man. Goddamn the man I say!

Seriously though ... last 5 minutes of season 3 are UBFORGETTABLY FUCKING STUPID.

you're not... talking about a... super... hero, movie. are you?

--

haha sorry i couldn't help myself!

but yeah there are smart superhero stories. like...

you read the latest prometheus comics?

Supposed-to-be non-superhero comic-book television show, actually.

There are tons of smart superhero stories, but that's neither here nor there. Gotham, season 3, ends with the dumbest fucking shit ever. Holy fuck, so goddamn dumb I can't believe it. Seriously, I'd tell you to google it or something, but you probably need to have seen some of the show to appreciate just how dumb-as-all-holy-fuck that final scene is. Yowza.

Hey Symbols, are you still watching Doctor Who? Or did you give up before shit got fucking real?

Doctor Who is basically a superhero story, really. He's the British Superman: a god among men, with unthinkable powers that are purely mental instead of purely physical. An alien savior who reflects the ideal of humanity back at itself. Etc. And Doctor Who is smart AF.

More like Wonder Woman now ...



https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...ed-13th-doctor

yeah im watching of course. it's entertaining. not genius mindblowing anything, but pleasant. so i watch on the regular but not bingeing.

good point about him being a superhero i guess ha ha ha. yeah. i don't mind him. as long as he doesn't wear A FUCKING CAPE. or hide his identity behind a pair of... eyeglasses! when i wear eyeglasses my wife can't tell who i am.

so, hm, i forget what i came in here to say

oh hell yeah RED OAKS!!



watched first episode on amazon this morning and was hilarious-- turned out david gordon green directed it. aaa haaa haaa. great stuff.

--

eta: timelords please let michelle ryan be my doctor oh hell i just found she was in it already i'd better hurry

Leela was my favorite Dr sidekick.

Coo deal.
Where are you in the chronology? Have you made it to Tennant yet?

Some of the latter-day Tennant episodes are, in my mind, truly mind-blowing and brilliant. Not in a "The Wire" kind of way, of course, but in an exquisitely crafted HORROR kind of way (see episodes: "MIDNIGHT" (ohmigodmidnight!), "SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY.) Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one-two lunch of "THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET" and "THE SATAN PIT," which is not one of the later episodes, but still might be my favorite fucking thing ever on television... maybe.

Have you seen any of these?

The Doctor peaks with Tennant, but those who follow don't really slack either. The stories and overarching themes get more intense AFTER Tennant, actually, as "one-off" and standalone stories become less and less frequent during the Smith years. Oh, and production values go up as the audience got back into it. Some of those Smith episodes could almost work as movies. No shit.

I read about this. I was not nuts about the actress in Broadchurch, but maybe she was kind of trying to be despicable? I don't know. I'm totally willing to give it a go. Some fans are losing their shit, which I think is weird.

Was Missy not INIFITELY better than the Master?
Was River Song not a total fucking badass?
I'd watch an entire show devoted to either of those female Timelords/half-Timelords. Absolutely. So what's the rub?

I guess I'd be a little taken aback if Clark Kent suddenly became, like, Chloe Kent, and Superman became a chick (we already have Supergirl and even Superwoman), but there's a lot more flexibility with the Doctor. Maybe that makes me a sexist (the taken-abackness) but I say nope.

I just laugh at anybody in fandoms that gets pissy about introducing heroines into sci-fi worlds. Same happened with Rey in Star Wars. Cause you can create a sci-fi universe that promotes infinite possibilities and alien species, but make it focused on a female and a percentage of vocal fans will cry over them ruining a great universe by incorporating a female hero into it.

@severian - i saw unfamiliar words and unfocused my eyes. shhh, man. im still in the first season of the reboot-- with dickens, and the farty aliens, and that museum in nevada with donald trump in it and the dad-- yeah the last i saw was the dad. now shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....


lol @ the menzes indeed

give them a boot to the head