Clockwise from left: The Good Lord Bird (Photo: William Gray/Showtime); Tiny Pretty Things (Photo: Netflix); The Flight Attendant (Photo: Phil Caruso/HBO Max); Destiny 2: Beyond Light (Image: Bungie)Graphic: Baraka Kaseko
If you’re like us, you spent this past holiday season catching up with the movies, shows, books, podcasts, music, and games on your to-do list. So, this week we’re asking:
What pop culture did you spend the holidays with?
Attack On Titan
My hesitant march into the world of anime continues. I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion (and endured the monstrous wonder of End Of Evangelion) for the first time over the summer, and now I’m kicking off 2021 with another staple of the medium, Attack On Titan. Based on Hajime Isayama’s manga series, the post-apocalyptic tale centers around a city surrounded by giant walls designed to keep out of the hulking, man-eating humanoids that patrol the world beyond. It’s horrifying stuff, gorier and more chaotic than I would’ve imagined, but what really gets me is the utter vacancy on the faces of the Titans. Their unfeeling idiot grins give them the feel of giant, naked babies, which is infinitely scarier than any horror movie I saw last year. Nightmares are fun, even over the holidays. [Randall Colburn]
Not sure if a classic of medieval Chinese literature counts as pop culture, but I’ve been immersing myself in Journey to the West since October. That was when I realized Sun Wukong is my favorite fictional character of all time. I picked the novel back up where I’d left off over fifteen years ago, not coincidentally in one of the early chapters with no Monkey. I have found two separate podcasts of English-speakers reading through it, Journey to the West the Podcast and Journey of the Monkey King. The former is more informative, but the latter is funnier. I bought the blu-ray of the BBC/Japanese version Monkey from the Seventies and discovered that the Chinese version from the Eighties is entirely on Youtube, free and legal, with subtitles. I’m watching Monkey by binging one disc at a time, and watching the other an episode every few days. Heck, I’m even wearing a Sun Wukong t-shirt today.
I have a Shambala Classic version of that I reread every few years. The Monkey King remains one of my favorite Trickster characters in lore. There’s a decent movie version of the story starring Jet Li as Sun Wukong called “The Forbidden Kingdom”. The only problem is that it’s a little whitewashed with a young caucasian kid in the role of Tripitaka. But I thought it was entertaining.
I have the three volume Chinese Foreign Language Press. Both podcasts recommend the Anthony C. Yu translation instead, so I plan to read that next. It’s also multi-volume.I saw Forbidden Kingdom in the theater years ago, late in it’s run. At the time it was advertised as Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally doing a film together. It was a bit of a flop, as I remember. I saw it near the end of it’s run and I remember telling people that if the ads had told me that Jet Li was playing Monkey I would have been there on opening night. Pity it’s not streaming anywhere I have. I would like to give it a rewatch now that I know more.
“The nature of monkey was irrepressible” feels like the perfect summation of why he’s my favorite character. I have yet to see an adaptation so bad that I didn’t enjoy watching Wukong being Wukong.
Oh man, have you seen the Korean fusion adaptation, A Korean Odyssey? It’s pretty fast and loose with the source material, but it’s very fun and super well cast. I highly recommend it. (On Netflix.)
In a case of almost suspicious timing, Netflix recommended it to me about a week after I decided Sun Wukong was my favorite fictional character. It was far better than I expected, and closer to the source. I’m still kicking myself for not realizing Kuan Yin was a character until two characters lampshaded it. The frenemies thing between Monkey and Devil King Woo makes me so, so happy. I’m going to rewatch sometime, I’m sure.
I have never loved an action star the way I love Cha Seung Won, Mr. Devil King. He does a great tough-guy send-up and is surprisingly charming and funny! That the other leads manage to keep up is to their credit.
Streaming:Watched The Good Lord Bird and loved it. Ethan Hawke absolutely killed it and we were riveted by his performance. But the writing, production and the rest of the cast, particularly the young Joshua Caleb Johnson as the lead/narrator, brought it all together.We also tore through Cobra Kai S3 in the space of two days. It was cheesy, nostalgic, funny and inspiring all at the same time. My only complaint is that fight scenes have gotten worse. As a practicing martial artist, I can honestly say that it was more karazy than it was karate!Gaming:I’m about seventy hours in on Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and am really enjoying it. So glad they brought back some of Assassin vs. Templar lore as well as the stealth/assassin mechanics. Despite the pillage & plunder aesthetic, I’m more or less following The path of the Raven. Even completed one entire via stealth and killed only my assigned targets. It was immensely satisfying. Music:Reacquainting myself with the legendary Johnny Winter after watching a documentary about him on Amazon last month. Have a lot of his stuff on “obsolete media”, so I reordered a bunch of it on CD and have been jamming out ever since. Enjoy!
Watched Wonder Woman 2 and fell asleep on Christmas Day. On New Years, watched a live stream of Jean Michel Jarre’s live concert from a virtual Notre Dame Cathedral. It was pretty good.
The Harley Quinn show, which has really grown on me. I particularly love Tony Hale as Dr. Psycho. I discovered that HBOMax has EVERY. SINGLE. Looney Tunes season!! My son was cracking up during “Duck Amuck”, “Wabbit Seasoning” and “DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24TH AND A HALF CENTURY!”? I’m also enjoying Isaac Arthur’s YT channel about Science and Futurism. It’s really fascinating.
Hi Guys Good discussion going but here we want to offer something to these who want to move him/her self anywhere in world for visit purpose and want to move his/her belongings as Cargo then you can give us chance. we are a growing Packers Movers in Gurgaon to All World company by direct or contact moving service. Our web site https://serviceatcall.in/
The last week has seen me pull out Strange Days, The Truman Show, The Straight Story, Spider-Man 2, Starman, and Bubba Ho-Tep from the boxes of films I’m unpacking one at a time. Why yes – my movies were alphabetised in my old house – how did you know. I’m not unpacking the whole lot until I have somewhere to put them, though. (If anyone has recommendations for about ten metres of good media shelving, I’m listening.)Netflix told me to watch Tag, so I did. I laughed hard and often, but it’s basically a non-apocalyptic riff on The World’s End with the character-classes shuffled around, and there’s so much feinting by the characters that when real revelations come, they have much less weight than they should.Aside from that, I finished season 2 of His Dark Materials: having long since forgotten the plots of the books, I’m being properly shocked by each death.Games: Started A Way Out with a friend. It’s an interesting mechanic, and we were entertained solving problems together, but we’ve not gone back to it since.
Horror:La Llorona – Shudder Host – Shudder The Mortuary Collection – shudder Blood Quantum – shudder Sputnik – hulu 1BR – netflix Color Out Of Space – Shudder The Beach House – shudder The Wretched – Hulu Amulet – hulu Monstrum – shudder Underwater – HBO Max Lingering – Shudder The Grudge Z – shudder Anything For Jackson – Shudder The Cleansing Hour – Shudder The Lodge – hulu Run – Hulu Imperigore – shudder Satan’s Slaves – Shudder The Deeper You Dig #Alive – netflix The Dark And The Wicked Scare Package – SHUDDER The Other Lamb – HULU Shirley – HULU Sea Fever – HULU She Dies Tomorrow – HULU Don’t Listen – netflix Vampires Vs The Bronx-netflix His House – Netflix The Call – netflix I’m Thinking of Ending Things (not horror)
I’m increasingly watching the media for fun. I guess it’s an adult progression from games and stories to games for adults, or politics. A kind of pop culture reading of the world out there as I gradually rebuild myself back in to being. Also, some of them are hot Christian nerds and I get to say ‘hahahah I’d tap that’. which I usually don’t do with screen actors, and I never do with the Australian media pundits and their constant pious bureaucracy-making.
Record of Youth was one of the biggest disappointments in Kdrama this year. Such a great cast, so little story, such slow pacing.After binging Bridgerton (part of the 2020 Fusion Sageuk comes to the West trend), I was in the mood for hot men in period garb, so rewatched oldy but goody Sungkyunkwan Scandal (I had forgotten how delightfully comely Song Jungki was pre-military) and 2020’s Mystic Pop-Up Bar, which was an underrated gem of kdrama this year.
I’ve been bouncing between ESO and Fenyx on my xbox, and Octopath Traveler on the Switch. I also went through my 2 new D&D books, Xanthar’s Guide and Volo’s Guide, in an effort to get my homebrew off the ground.
Cyberpunk 2077, just finished it last night with ~140 hours in. I took what I thought was pretty much the only reasonable choice and it made for a surprisingly downbeat ending. Got me a little depressed tbqh but it was also realistic and well told with a good amount of character growth for a modern AAA game.
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Haku Bobby InganoBecause, hey all y’all, I needed some serious chill.
Wow. This is nice.
He is astonishing. And a very kind and gentle spirit (I had the pleasure).
I played Yakuza: Like a Dragon and watched Schitt’s Creek.
Not sure if a classic of medieval Chinese literature counts as pop culture, but I’ve been immersing myself in Journey to the West since October. That was when I realized Sun Wukong is my favorite fictional character of all time. I picked the novel back up where I’d left off over fifteen years ago, not coincidentally in one of the early chapters with no Monkey.
I have found two separate podcasts of English-speakers reading through it, Journey to the West the Podcast and Journey of the Monkey King. The former is more informative, but the latter is funnier. I bought the blu-ray of the BBC/Japanese version Monkey from the Seventies and discovered that the Chinese version from the Eighties is entirely on Youtube, free and legal, with subtitles. I’m watching Monkey by binging one disc at a time, and watching the other an episode every few days. Heck, I’m even wearing a Sun Wukong t-shirt today.
I have a Shambala Classic version of that I reread every few years. The Monkey King remains one of my favorite Trickster characters in lore. There’s a decent movie version of the story starring Jet Li as Sun Wukong called “The Forbidden Kingdom”. The only problem is that it’s a little whitewashed with a young caucasian kid in the role of Tripitaka. But I thought it was entertaining.
I have the three volume Chinese Foreign Language Press. Both podcasts recommend the Anthony C. Yu translation instead, so I plan to read that next. It’s also multi-volume.I saw Forbidden Kingdom in the theater years ago, late in it’s run. At the time it was advertised as Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally doing a film together. It was a bit of a flop, as I remember. I saw it near the end of it’s run and I remember telling people that if the ads had told me that Jet Li was playing Monkey I would have been there on opening night. Pity it’s not streaming anywhere I have. I would like to give it a rewatch now that I know more.
Born from an egg on a mountaintop
“The nature of monkey was irrepressible” feels like the perfect summation of why he’s my favorite character. I have yet to see an adaptation so bad that I didn’t enjoy watching Wukong being Wukong.
Oh man, have you seen the Korean fusion adaptation, A Korean Odyssey? It’s pretty fast and loose with the source material, but it’s very fun and super well cast. I highly recommend it. (On Netflix.)
In a case of almost suspicious timing, Netflix recommended it to me about a week after I decided Sun Wukong was my favorite fictional character. It was far better than I expected, and closer to the source. I’m still kicking myself for not realizing Kuan Yin was a character until two characters lampshaded it. The frenemies thing between Monkey and Devil King Woo makes me so, so happy. I’m going to rewatch sometime, I’m sure.
I have never loved an action star the way I love Cha Seung Won, Mr. Devil King. He does a great tough-guy send-up and is surprisingly charming and funny! That the other leads manage to keep up is to their credit.
He is my favorite character in the show by a long way. So much fun!
OSP has been doing a retrospective on Journey to the West.
Streaming:Watched The Good Lord Bird and loved it. Ethan Hawke absolutely killed it and we were riveted by his performance. But the writing, production and the rest of the cast, particularly the young Joshua Caleb Johnson as the lead/narrator, brought it all together.We also tore through Cobra Kai S3 in the space of two days. It was cheesy, nostalgic, funny and inspiring all at the same time. My only complaint is that fight scenes have gotten worse. As a practicing martial artist, I can honestly say that it was more karazy than it was karate!Gaming:I’m about seventy hours in on Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and am really enjoying it. So glad they brought back some of Assassin vs. Templar lore as well as the stealth/assassin mechanics. Despite the pillage & plunder aesthetic, I’m more or less following The path of the Raven. Even completed one entire via stealth and killed only my assigned targets. It was immensely satisfying.
Music:Reacquainting myself with the legendary Johnny Winter after watching a documentary about him on Amazon last month. Have a lot of his stuff on “obsolete media”, so I reordered a bunch of it on CD and have been jamming out ever since. Enjoy!
Watched Wonder Woman 2 and fell asleep on Christmas Day. On New Years, watched a live stream of Jean Michel Jarre’s live concert from a virtual Notre Dame Cathedral. It was pretty good.
The Harley Quinn show, which has really grown on me. I particularly love Tony Hale as Dr. Psycho. I discovered that HBOMax has EVERY. SINGLE. Looney Tunes season!! My son was cracking up during “Duck Amuck”, “Wabbit Seasoning” and “DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24TH AND A HALF CENTURY!”? I’m also enjoying Isaac Arthur’s YT channel about Science and Futurism. It’s really fascinating.
Yes, seconded on Harley Quinn. After a couple of iffy first episodes it really settled into a groove and got very funny.
We binged the delightful trash fest that is Bridgerton. I did not realize how much I wanted to see a super horny version of Downton Abbey.
Hi Guys Good discussion going but here we want to offer something to these who want to move him/her self anywhere in world for visit purpose and want to move his/her belongings as Cargo then you can give us chance. we are a growing Packers Movers in Gurgaon to All World company by direct or contact moving service. Our web site https://serviceatcall.in/
The last week has seen me pull out Strange Days, The Truman Show, The Straight Story, Spider-Man 2, Starman, and Bubba Ho-Tep from the boxes of films I’m unpacking one at a time. Why yes – my movies were alphabetised in my old house – how did you know. I’m not unpacking the whole lot until I have somewhere to put them, though. (If anyone has recommendations for about ten metres of good media shelving, I’m listening.)Netflix told me to watch Tag, so I did. I laughed hard and often, but it’s basically a non-apocalyptic riff on The World’s End with the character-classes shuffled around, and there’s so much feinting by the characters that when real revelations come, they have much less weight than they should.Aside from that, I finished season 2 of His Dark Materials: having long since forgotten the plots of the books, I’m being properly shocked by each death.Games: Started A Way Out with a friend. It’s an interesting mechanic, and we were entertained solving problems together, but we’ve not gone back to it since.
Horror:La Llorona – Shudder
Host – Shudder
The Mortuary Collection – shudder
Blood Quantum – shudder
Sputnik – hulu
1BR – netflix
Color Out Of Space – Shudder
The Beach House – shudder
The Wretched – Hulu
Amulet – hulu
Monstrum – shudder
Underwater – HBO Max
Lingering – Shudder
The Grudge
Z – shudder
Anything For Jackson – Shudder
The Cleansing Hour – Shudder
The Lodge – hulu
Run – Hulu
Imperigore – shudder
Satan’s Slaves – Shudder
The Deeper You Dig
#Alive – netflix
The Dark And The Wicked
Scare Package – SHUDDER
The Other Lamb – HULU
Shirley – HULU
Sea Fever – HULU
She Dies Tomorrow – HULU
Don’t Listen – netflix
Vampires Vs The Bronx-netflix
His House – Netflix
The Call – netflix
I’m Thinking of Ending Things (not horror)
You watched all those in a single weekend? When did you have time to go to the bathroom?
I’m increasingly watching the media for fun. I guess it’s an adult progression from games and stories to games for adults, or politics. A kind of pop culture reading of the world out there as I gradually rebuild myself back in to being. Also, some of them are hot Christian nerds and I get to say ‘hahahah I’d tap that’. which I usually don’t do with screen actors, and I never do with the Australian media pundits and their constant pious bureaucracy-making.
Record of Youth was one of the biggest disappointments in Kdrama this year. Such a great cast, so little story, such slow pacing.After binging Bridgerton (part of the 2020 Fusion Sageuk comes to the West trend), I was in the mood for hot men in period garb, so rewatched oldy but goody Sungkyunkwan Scandal (I had forgotten how delightfully comely Song Jungki was pre-military) and 2020’s Mystic Pop-Up Bar, which was an underrated gem of kdrama this year.
I’ve been bouncing between ESO and Fenyx on my xbox, and Octopath Traveler on the Switch. I also went through my 2 new D&D books, Xanthar’s Guide and Volo’s Guide, in an effort to get my homebrew off the ground.
Cyberpunk 2077, just finished it last night with ~140 hours in. I took what I thought was pretty much the only reasonable choice and it made for a surprisingly downbeat ending. Got me a little depressed tbqh but it was also realistic and well told with a good amount of character growth for a modern AAA game.