Pretty much.
Meh, I’ll Probably Watch This
https://youtu.be/YEG3bmU_WaI
Stranger Things, part the third. Being a fan of Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg, I was completely blown away by the first season. Absolute lightning in a bottle. Honestly, it could have ended there with that perfect little cliffhanger as the cherry on top and I would have been a happy customer.
The second season suffered a bit, in my humble-but-accurate opinion, and felt like your garden-variety sophomore slump. (I’d give it a B-.) Hopefully, the Stranger Things creative team has had enough time to recharge the batteries and recapture some of the magic. We’ll see.
July 4, you sci-fi-loving bastards!
Hail Satan!
I’ve heard good things about this.
Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colorful and controversial religious movements in American history, Hail Satan? is an inspiring and entertaining new feature documentary from acclaimed director Penny Lane (Nuts!, Our Nixon). When media-savvy members of the Satanic Temple organize a series of public actions designed to advocate for religious freedom and challenge corrupt authority, they prove that with little more than a clever idea, a mischievous sense of humor, and a few rebellious friends, you can speak truth to power in some truly profound ways. As charming and funny as it is thought-provoking, Hail Satan? offers a timely look at a group of often misunderstood outsiders whose unwavering commitment to social and political justice has empowered thousands of people around the world.
Another Podcast You Won’t Listen To
Jaw-dropping deception. This podcast is especially recommended to the medically inclined among us.
Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye? How did the woman once heralded as “the next Steve Jobs” find herself facing criminal charges — to which she pleaded not guilty — and up to 20 years in jail? How did her technology, meant to revolutionize healthcare, potentially put millions of patients at risk? And how did so many smart people get it so wrong along the way? ABC News chief business, technology and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, along with producers Taylor Dunn and Victoria Thompson, take listeners on a journey that includes a three-year-long investigation. You’ll hear exclusive interviews with former employees, investors, and patients, and for the first-time, the never-before-aired deposition testimony of Elizabeth Holmes, and those at the center of this story. New episodes post Wednesdays.
Check it out here. By the way, the title is a double entendre I just got.
Speaking Of Cthulhu …
Received this in the mail yesterday! Even better than I expected, and the photo doesn’t really do it justice. Shout out to sculptor Joe Broers, who was nice enough to ship this thing in the middle of a massive snowstorm. The free demon magnet (also one of his originals, I assume) and the little doodle on the box were nice touches, too.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.
H.P. Lovecraft
“The Call of Cthulhu”
1928
Sociopaths Are Creepy
And this looks amazing.
Although I always feel a little icky about getting excited for these types of documentaries, like I’m a fan of Bundy’s or something. I’m not. This heap of shit killed at least 30 women. But the way he did it – and how he got away with it as long as he did – is fascinating.
Anyway, January 24th.
Anybody Seen It?
(See what I did there?)
Reading Is Fundamental
What are any of you bastards reading these days? Believe it or not, I put down the band bios for a minute and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of John Dies At The End. It’s got kind of a MIB vibe, if the agents were a couple of twenty-something college dropouts.
In this reissue of an Internet phenomenon originally slapped between two covers in 2007 by indie Permutus Press, Wong — Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin’s alter ego — adroitly spoofs the horror genre while simultaneously offering up a genuinely horrifying story. The terror is rooted in a substance known as soy sauce, a paranormal psychoactive that opens video store clerk Wong’s — and his penis-obsessed friend John’s — minds to higher levels of consciousness. Or is it just hell seeping into the unnamed Midwestern town where Wong and the others live? Meat monsters, wig-wearing scorpion aberrations and wingless white flies that burrow into human skin threaten to kill Wong and his crew before infesting the rest of the world. A multidimensional plot unfolds as the unlikely heroes drink lots of beer and battle the paradoxes of time and space, as well as the clichés of first-person-shooter video games and fantasy gore films. Sure to please the Fangoria set while appealing to a wider audience, the book’s smart take on fear manages to tap into readers’ existential dread on one page, then have them laughing the next.
Movie Crush Podcast
Not sure how you bastards feel about podcasts or which ones you fancy, but I’ve gotten into this one pretty hard in the last few days.
Movie Crush is an interview show where Chuck Bryant from Stuff You Should Know sits down with your favorite people to talk about their favorite movie. Simple enough, but what we get is much more than that. It’s a look at what makes a favorite thing, and why someone’s favorite movie says so much about who they are. More conversation than interview, Movie Crush, at its heart, is about the love affair we all have with the silver screen.
About the Host
Chuck is the co-host of the long-running Stuff You Should Know podcast. Born and raised in Atlanta, he spent time in New York and LA working in the film industry before returning home and eventually starting his career as a podcaster. Since then, SYSK has grown into one of the biggest podcasts in the world and Chuck has found himself as an “accidental” veteran of a new medium. In his spare time, Chuck likes to hang out with his wife and daughter and play in his “old man band” El Cheapo.
Recently, Chuck’s co-worker Casey joined him for a three part series on the genius of Stanley Kubrick. He and Chuck dive deep on Casey’s pick for part one, The Shining. Hit play and settle in …
