Book (and TV show) Backlog Cull

Hot Lead, Cold Iron by Ari Marmell - A Fae detective uses magic to fight gangsters in 1930s Chicago. Fun for a chapter as a short story; I wasn’t in for 300 pages of it.

Gonnes, Sons and Treasure Runs: Volume Two by Michael Tresca Tresca is a really nice guy who I met at I-Con; he runs a great gaming panel. This is a write-up of his D&D campaign with his kids. Which is adorable, but not actually very interesting.

Happy This Year by Will Bowen - If you want to be happy like Ayn Rand, Donald Trump and Bill Cosby, read this book! Like reading the works of a pick-up artist, there's some decent advice mashed up into offensively tone-deaf rich-white-boy theorizing. And, of course, the tone of superiority that comes with the declaration that being happy is all in your head. Didn't work for me.

The Soprano Sorceress by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - I really wanted to like this—I had actually gotten it in October 2016 with the intent of reading it before seeing Modesitt at PhilCon (obviously, that plan didn't bear fruit)--and after getting through a third of it and getting constantly distracted by other books (including other fantasy books), I've decided to give up. I like the world building and the concepts, but it's terribly over-written and focused on minutia: The obsession with how hot it is, the specifics of the food and how much water Anna needs to drink at any given point is kind of ridiculous. The fact that Modesitt isn't really a “music” person comes through in his cool concept and weak execution, from a musical standpoint. All of the spellsongs are four-line nursery rhymes with simple melodies. You don't need a opera singer to perform those. Imagine, though, if she strung up her lutar, faced down the Dark Ones, and jammed into “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” That's the book I want to read.

Don't Trust the B-- in Apt 23 (TV Series, Season 1) - While the first couple of episodes were funny (and I loved James Van Der Beek as “himself”), I found that it got repetitive and I got bored of the “she's terrible but actually kinda cares” thing. I didn't bother trying to finish it before it left Netflix because my appreciation for the actress (who was wonderful on Jessica Jones) couldn't carry it.

Riverdale (TV Series, Season 1) - Archie isn’t quite as stupid or accident-prone as his comic counterpart. Moose is closeted, Jughead’s a goth. Fred Andrews not only has hair, but a beard, too. Of all the character changes from the comics (which are near and dear to my heart), I think the one that really got me was Ms. Grundy being turned into a 20-something hottie. I’m totally cool with the race lifts (Reggie is Asian, Pop Tate is black, Josie and the Pussycats are black) and making Kevin a main character. The thing is, though, after you appreciate the “Archie” facade, it's a teen thriller that isn't really capturing my interest. I want a “wacky misadventures” Archie series, not a grim and gritty one.

Other Very Random Reviews

Thor: Ragnarok - Yet another solid, very fun Marvel movie, that manages to stand alone nicely despite being in the middle of other events. I miss Jane and the Earth-based supporting cast, but acknowledge they would have basically nothing to do here. I'm going to guess Lady Sif doesn't appear so they can pull her in later, rather than having her get killed with the Warriors Three. Given the continued characterization of Loki, I suspect they're eventually going to make explicit that he was being influenced by Thanos / the Mind Gem in the first Avengers movie. (Also, Loki totally pocketed the Space Gem from Odin's hall, right? We all know that happened.) And I'm amused by the continued portrayal of Heimdall as the only responsible adult on Asgard.

The Impossible Burger - I recently made it to a Bareburger and tried the Impossible Burger, an all-veggie patty that is supposed to better approximate meat than any other. And yes, it does—if you presented it to me as a cheap frozen beef patty, I'd believe it. It's not as good as a Bareburger beef patty (which are very good), but we're really getting there with the fake meat offerings.

Brigadoon (Encores production at City Center) - I was a bit surprised at how much of this show I'd forgotten until I realized that I performed it with the St. Killian Players 20 years ago. It was a delightful production with fantastic dancing and a cast that was clearly just having a good time.

We were able to take ARR to The Brownstone Diner for the first time in three years, because his ability to eat baked milk means that he can have their pancakes without throwing up, and the pancakes are the reason to go there. They are still very, very good.