So … whatcha been listening to/reading/watching?
4After not watching tv/film length vids for a while, in May/June for some random cause, I starting binging a bit.
Saw Coyote vs Acme in a theater, I think first form in theater since Top Gun Mav
Tho that wasn’t utterly great, I found it v good and v fun and esp appreciated the storytelling, lovely animation, and two lead live actor performances.
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Media watched streaming or whatever:
The Pitt s01-02 HBO
a tiny bit over melodramatic s02 w main character but still great)
Stick s01 Apple
Sort of Ted Lasso lite. But not too lite. Owen Wilson dies a fine job on a script fully within his talent sweet spot.
Ted Lasso S01 Apple
Loved it I’ll get back to season two and three and whatever else soon enough
Nashville (classic Altman film)
White Lotus s01-s02 HBO
The seasons are pretty self-contained, although not entirely so
I’ll get to season three soon enough
1 particularly loved season two because of the one character I sort of loved the most out of all of this
I was interested to read what I didn’t already know which was that the series was conceived of as something that could be shot within a voluntary isolation bubble during the pandemic
So for season one the cast crew and everybody else who had to be on set, they all had to agree to be in a bubble at a resort, shooting something that in dramatic time runs a week
So the writers came up with the concept of the happenings that resort in that time. So that they could have a set without outsiders
Essentially
Then the concept sort of worked quite nicely dramatically. The writing is very good and so now they don’t need to do pandemic, friendly shoots anymore, but they retained the original limitations because they worked for a miniseries.
WeCrashed Apple
This one really surprised me with its quality
I watched it just because I was interested in the whole wework story
I didn’t expect to get so drawn in
Both the lead actors who are Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway probably did the best work of their careers and they were completely compelling to watch
Even though I kept reminding myself, I was watching a staged script on a I kept getting drawn further into it and how narcissistically compelling these two characters are in action
And how they essentially created a business fraud cult
If either one of them had been even a tiny bit closer to emotional adulthood they would probably still be among business leading lights today, but they were both so delusional and self-indulgent that they blew it day by day and completely and it’s astounding how they kept it going for so long
And then Hathaway and Jared Leto just suck you right in
The other cast and the script was superb and the thing has the look of a movie somebody spent big bucks on. It just looks great.
I’ll probably have to rewatch it in a while just to admire how well it was done
I think I’ve watched a couple of other things along the way along with a lot of soccer in June and July, but for some reason they’re not popping into my head at the moment
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I’m curious about what any or all of you have enjoyed lately either in theater or on your TV or streaming or whatever
/image Coyote vs Acme

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Currently reading the second of Seanan McGuire’s Velveteen books. Can recommend, if you like any of her other stuff.
I saw Disclosure Day in the theatre. I thought about going to End of Oak Street but for various reasons didn’t
On the boob tube, been watching the second season of Center Seat on Tubi. for a free streamer, i like the interface better and they have a bunch of brit and Canadian tv. (been watching Murdock Mysteries as well)
Read the most recent Seanan Mcguire October Daye novel. I like that universe a lot.
If you ever read Hamilton’s Merry Gentry stories, there is a 2 book conclusion coming out soon,
@Cerridwyn
Murdock was a lot of fun. Liked the way they wove in historical facts/events/people into the plot.
@chienfou me too. A hint of Sherlock Holmes in there. You know it’s still in production. I think Toby has 16 seasons of the 20. And there’s also three movies that came before with different actors
Books
The 13th book of He who fights monsters was finally released so I’m starting that tonight.
Recently finished the last book of the Everflame series.
Similar series I finished earlier this year was the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas.
Also recommend the Dungeon Crawler Carl books.
I’ve also read six crime/thrillers waiting for the new HWFM book. They’re by Shannon Hollinger, “Chief Maggie Riley”. They’re easy reads but a touch predictable IMO.
Shows
Alien Earth - just rewatched it for the third time. It’s really well done and I’m a sucker for anything in the Aliens series.
Lanterns - it’s not mind blowing but is definitely entertaining.
Severance - It’s crazy ape bonkers. I’m still in the first season. I don’t watch telly that often so I think I’m only five episodes in.
If you like GOT, I also recommend the Knight of Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon.
Ted Lasso is fabulous as well even if you don’t like footie.
The Gentlemen - uk based, lots of drugs drama and crime. Highly recommend.
Films
The Mummy - 2026
Watched this today while purging my bedroom and bathroom. Was unexpectedly good.
Undertone - came on after the mummy. Was decent. Another thriller/horror. Not Gory.
They Will Kill You - Another Horror-Thriller. This one is heavier on the gore but not over the top. Definitive black comedy moments. And it has Draco Malfoy.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die - it’s like a fever dream but definitely recommend.
The Rip - l mean I’m a sucker from the besties when they’re together. This is Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in a money heist film.
Project Hail Mary - Book is better but that’s almost always the case. Ryan Gosling and rocky in space. It’s ace.
That’s all I got for the moment.
@sillyheathen
Pretty good list
I’m looking forward to getting to Severance at some point.
Also love DCC. I own all the books, but I’ve only read or listened to. I think the first four.
I’ve got to get back into the mood for it
I agree about the Martian and also about project Hail Mary
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A somewhat distressing fact about Audiobooks and the current digital audiobook market:
Regarding the Martian, I also love the film by the way, although you miss a lot of super great detail that’s in the book
If somebody is going for the audiobook, see if you can get the previous first recording of it from your local library or a friend or something
It was re-recorded by Will Wheaton when the movie came out but Wheaton it’s just not as good as the first narrator RC Bray.
Unfortunately, the way the audiobook market works right now. Stuff is basically only released to the digital download Audiobooks and not on CD or cassette anymore because nobody buys them because they’re too expensive.
And also in the audiobook market was very rare exceptions if somebody who holds the audiobook publishing rides besides to record a new version, the old version simply vanishes from the marketplace completely and can’t be bought that’s due to publishers, pushing the new version and that’s in all the contracts that the publishers have with Audible or Apple or Kobo or anybody else
So you can’t really go by the old recording on physical media like CDs or cassettes
Although the Martian as a book is old enough that the original audiobook recording by Mr. Bray might be available on CD or cassette on eBay or in a used book market it may have been released that way originally because it was released before 2010
But basically the only way to listen to the original recording, which is so much better because the narrator is that much better
Is to either track down a CD or cassette copy on the used bookmark
Or to track down the older version and borrow it from a public library or similar resource
Or to find a friend who has a copy and will let you listen to it
Or similar
Most of the world will be stuck, listening to Will’s version of the Martian and it’s good. There’s nothing wrong with it and it’s the first recording I heard and I enjoyed it immensely.
But it’s not as good as the brave version which I heard because one of my best friends owns it and loaded it onto an old phone and let me borrow the iPod and listen.
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This problem also occurs with utter Audiobooks. Sometimes the most recent recording is just not the best.
Michael Jayston is the best narrator for all or most of John Le Carre’s books.
However, the most recent version out is Simon Vance recordings. Now those are perfectly fine. There’s nothing wrong with them. They’re just not as good as Jayston’s.
Older books that are out of copyright anybody can make a record recording and release it
So if somebody wants to listen to the Oz books or Jane Austen or somebody like that, you’ll find tons of recordings of all the books from different narrators
Only a few modern best sellers that are still under copyright have multiple versions out with different narrators that are still legally for sale at the major, digital audiobook markets
This includes the Harry Potter series (Stephen Fry and Jim Dale versions were both for sale in the United States the last time I checked, and had been for several years
and The Hobbot and the Lord of the Rings books (Rob Inglis and Andy Serkis versions are both for sale in the United States)
But very few books that are still under copyright get that treatment where they keep more than one narrator’s version for sale in a given national market
An exception to that would be something like a big selling book such as by Stephen King for sale in Spain on the Apple or Audible or Kobo market
With a best seller like that, you’re gonna have both the English and the local language recorded versions for sale in the Spanish or French or Portuguese or Chinese or Hindi or whatever market
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Also, another annoying thing about the audiobook market is that a book will sell well enough to be recorded, but then only be made available in a digital download version in the most likely high sales market for that book
This won’t happen to the top best sellers, but there are some numbers of British history books that have been recorded and for sale in Audible UK but not in the US
This is because the publishers were just lazy and didn’t bother to sell the rights to the audiobook to the US audiobook markets
Since it cost those markets just about nothing to upload the book to their servers and slap it onto their marketplace and put a price on it. It’s just a publishers being so lazy that they wouldn’t draw up and sign the contract contracts.
And since audiobooks aren’t published on CD or cassette anymore, that means that if you find a book that was recorded in English for another market, usually the UK market but sometimes Canada or Australia or whatever else
You literally cannot buy it in the United States legally anyway
Which makes audiobook lovers, want to pull their hair out and bang their head against a hammer
But that’s the way things are
Arghhhhhh!!!
@f00l @sillyheathen
Oh no, I do not want to hear a book narrated by annoying little Wesley Crusher. Yes I know he is older now; not sure of what happened to his fan-base of teenage girls.
Narration is really important on audiobooks, since you will be spending hours with them, ideally.
Some of my recent library adds are from Patrick Stewart and Guber-nator Arnold. Both narrated by the authors. So great to hear it from them!
@f00l @sillyheathen one of the most interesting Merchants at this year’s worldcon was somebody who sold old audiobooks. Some of them were actually still cassettes. Others were cds. They had a multi CD set of something like 25 or 50 older books that are no longer under copyright. They’re not my thing but my daughter likes them so I bought them for her. Because they both really love to have physical media
@Cerridwyn @f00l @pmarin I must confess. I don’t do audiobooks. I actually had a dream last night that I went to a bookstore in Seattle with a DCC fan art shirt I made and Dinniman saw it and started a conversation. In that convo, he said he was sad Jeff wasn’t there. Then he lost it when I said it wouldn’t matter because I’d never listened to the audiobooks.







I just prefer to create it all in my head. I appreciate certain narrators but I prefer the actual act of the reading of the words.
@Cerridwyn @pmarin @sillyheathen
FWIW
The DCC audiobooks ROCK!
Those audiobooks are about as good as it gets.
@Cerridwyn @f00l @pmarin about as good but not better than mine own brain piece!





@Cerridwyn @f00l @pmarin @sillyheathen
I’m seeing some really good reviews for the brand new TV episodic version of Stephen King’s Carrie which was just released on Amazon video.
I presume it’s free viewing for people who have prime
I’ll have to take a look at it but first I have to rewatch the Spacek/DePalma version from 50 years ago
How can it have been 50 years since that movie came out but I think it has been ???
So the film and the TV series might be very good pics for October
@f00l Oh no! Only a couple TV adaptations of King novels have been decent (IMHO - in particular, the Gary Sinise/Molly Ringworm miniseries of The Stand).
And (also IMHO) the original Brian DePalma film adaptation of Carrie is the only one worth watching. I can only shudder to think of the useless filler that would be wedged into a TV miniseries…
@macromeh
The review I saw of the new Amazon miniseries have commented on how bad most Stephen King video or film adaptations are
I just saw one review and it praises the new miniseries. It didn’t say it was better than the movie. It said it was almost as good.
I’ll check a few more reviews before I decide whether or not to spend the time on it
In the meantime, I will rewatch the 1970s movie which I just love mostly because of Spacek.
/giphy Carrie sissy spacek

@f00l Oddly, as badly botched as most of the TV adaptations of King books have been, most of the TV adaptations of Dean Koontz novels have been pretty good (again, IMHO). In particular, I thought that the TV adaption of Intensity was excellent. And yet, they seem to be nowhere to be found these days.
Been reading Needful Things, and I finished The Great and Secret Show. On the movie side, I finished The Thing, Child’s Play, Hellraiser, and Friday the 13th. Need to finish Candyman and Halloween (1978)
@Wollyhop Re: The Thing
Was that the 1982 John Carpenter film? That was my favorite - the 2011 movie The Thing was actually a prequel for the story of the earlier film. Not quite as good as the 1982 film (IMHO), but not bad.
(And there was also the 1951 film: The Thing from Another World. Similar story, without all the modern special effects. Mostly just jump scares)
@macromeh The 1982 Thing! I LOVED it! When watching a movie, I always look for the pratical effects, and this movie delivered on that and surpassed it!
This is just one part of it, but it’s gotta be my favorite Thing from the movie.
Truly enjoyed
Ted Lasso. Loved his character (literally and morally) and interaction with Beard was fun as well.
Resident Alien. Very fun vehicle for Alan Tudyk. The guy’s face is truly elastic!
Now You See It (movie series 3 films so far) fun heist movie with nice twists.
Neahly (Reacher spin off with stronger character arc and less over the top violence)
Dept. Q great English procedural with compelling characters
@chienfou beard and Ted are both my spirit animals. I have one on each shoulder.

Just got done listening to Humankind: A Hopeful History.
It took us a few road trips to get through it, but it was well worth it. We spent several hours in the car discussing humanity as a whole, which is the point of such books.
It has a clear risk of going political, so I’ll keep the synopsis brief:
It debunks several studies that weren’t peer-reviewed or were later proven to be skewed or tampered with, which the news shouted from the rooftops as proof we live in a terrible world.
It was pretty uplifting overall, and I strongly recommend it.
I enjoy neither audiobooks nor non-fiction. This one had me from the jump.
@Thumperchick That pretty much matches my experience, too. (But maybe that’s at least partly because I have mostly lived in smaller rural areas.)
@macromeh @Thumperchick
Ok this looks interesting.
It’s going on my list. (I’m into non-fiction)
@Thumperchick
Re audiobooks
I got into the one I was driving an awful lot (anlone) and they were perfect for that. Obviously, you don’t wanna read with your eyes when you’re going down the road at 70.
And then I realized that with headphones, you could just do all sorts of personal stuff or chores or work or whatever and still listen to a wonderful book so long as you paused it when you needed a concentrate or got to something that required your full attention for a minute or two
So I just got way into them
A lot of liking audiobooks is do they fit into your life habits and your current daily agendas or not
Kind of similar to podcasts
If you ever get to the point where having somebody narrate a book in a really wonderful way fits into your life, then give it a try maybe
There are a whole lot of people who don’t get into audiobooks ever, because audiobooks just don’t fit the way that particular person lives their daily life and that’s fine
And there are a whole lot of people who just prefer reading with their eyes and that’s fine too
As long as people still “read” with either their ears or their eyes
And are a bit cautious about being silo’s too much
I guess that might help humankind’s odd for a hopeful future.
Just my normal YouTube channels and Formula 1 races.
I have watched a lot of Nick Zentner on YouTube. He is a geology teacher at Central Washington University. His Downtown Lecture series is great. Come for the geology and stay for the chalkboards!!