MoonShine

I am 2 episodes in and mostly loving it so far. It's been awhile since I read the books but it feels like they are staying remarkably true to the story. I was worried that they would dumb it down a lot but so far so good. The production values are excellent, better than a lot of movies, imo.

Some blues anyone?

^ Reality reflects film.

^ Have not played the game but am enjoying the show, especially the intros to the first 2 episodes.

I wanted to read this before watching the movie. Perhaps a mistake. It is one of the best written books that I have read in a long time and I fear that there is no conceivable way that the movie is going to do it justice. This is my 2nd Delillo after Underworld which I also liked but not nearly this much. The characters and dialogue are stellar. I am savoring it. Excerpt: Bee was quietly disdainful of wisecracks, sarcasm and other family business. A year older than Denise, she was taller, thinner, paler, both worldly and ethereal, as though in her heart she was not a travel writer at all, as her mother had said she wished to be, but simply a traveler, the purer form, someone who collects impressions, dense anatomies of feeling, but does not care to record them.

^ That Bryson is one of my all time favorite books.

Damn 😔

^^ Yeah I LOVE Rogue One & Andor. It just keeps getting better and better as the season progresses. That elevator scene with the spy was truly great (what have I sacrificed?) and both of the scenes with Saw Gerrera have been intense.

^I'm enjoying The Peripheral as well and agree, great book.

Sweet memories. Reggie & Bernie @ the height of their power. The title track alone is worth the price of admission and has always been a track I use to test out new phones/buds.

^^C6: $12 ain't bad for a Rider Waite.

^ Liked Gideon but couldn't get past Harrow. Maybe I will give it another shot.

I'm w/ T$ on this one. The writing in ROP is terrible in places and the pacing is awful. The audience manipulation with their guessing games (who is meteor man?) just feels contrived and sophomoric. I don't care about the "Lore" heresies that a lot of the haters go on about but I do feel that overall it just lacks heart. The Jackson movies worked because he is a FAN who LOVES Tolkien. It feels like most of the people involved in ROP are just in it for the $$$. Having said all of that, I am still watching it and I liked the last couple of episodes much better so I have hope. But yeah, HOD is better on every level. Edit: Also, much of the "drama" is removed by the fact that we KNOW that certain characters survive to make it to LOTR (Isildur, cough, cough).

Took my 13 year old grandson Logan up to see the Mariners vs Padres yesterday. It was his first ball game as well as his first train ride and his first time to Seattle. Fortunately we squeezed in before the rail strike caused a bunch of cancellations. It was a great day. Perfect weather and the short walk from King Station to T-Mobile Park takes you right by the Seahawks stadium so it was cool to see that. It was Hispanic Heritage Day and Rodriguez and Suarez both homered in the 1st inning so that was pretty badass. Mariners won 6-1. I am really liking the M's this year. Rodriguez is the real deal and Saurez is a beast, and they have good defense and pitching so the pieces are in place for a deep playoff run 🤞 I am a bit of a purist so in the past I was always a National League guy because I hated the DH rule and I loved the chess game-within-the-game and small ball type baseball. Now, given the ubiquity of the DH rule, I have decided to dump the Dodgers and go full rabid fan on the Mariners. I just can't do the Dodgers anymore. They are the new Yankees (best team money can buy). So GO MARINERS!!! The other American League team I thought about are the Angels. The Angels and I were both born in LA in the same year and I really like Ohtani but I don't think he's going to be an Angel for long and in the end I decided to go NW local. I also looked hard @ the Rays because I admire how they are perennially competitive despite their relatively low salary and TB is my initials 😆. Speaking of purism: stop fucking with baseball! The rule next year forbidding shifts is ridiculous. They should play wherever the hell is most strategic and if it's causing you grief as a hitter then learn to go opposite field. Adapt. Although I suppose the shift is a relatively recent phenomenon so I dunno. Seems like they are trying to make the game more offensively oriented and for me a 1-0 pitcher's duel is a thing of beauty. So crack a cold one Al, there is one less Dodgers fan 🍻

^ I tried Discworld a few times years ago. Not bad but not for me is what I remember thinking.