{"id":3949,"date":"2017-03-12T20:19:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T19:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/?p=3949"},"modified":"2017-03-13T21:38:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:38:37","slug":"mixed-media-sunday-12-march-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2017\/03\/12\/mixed-media-sunday-12-march-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Media, Sunday 12 March 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Musically, I&#8217;ve been mostly obsessed with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Thundercat\">Thundercat&#8217;s<\/a> new album <a href=\"http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/22895-drunk\/\">Drunk<\/a>. It&#8217;s full of short, punchy, strange tracks. One of which features Kenny Loggins <em>and<\/em> Michael McDonald, and is probably the smoothest thing you&#8217;ll hear all year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thundercat - &#039;Show You The Way (feat. Michael McDonald &amp; Kenny Loggins)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/62EmHhZSjEI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dutchuncles.co.uk\/\">Dutch Uncles<\/a> have a new album out, <i>Big Balloon<\/i>. Listening to it now.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dutch Uncles - Big Balloon\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n_TQwB4f6Hk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;TV&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1474684\/episodes?season=4\"><i>Luther<\/i> season 4<\/a>: I find it a bit rich to call a two episode special a <em>season<\/em>, but at least they were good episodes.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt5269594\/episodes?season=1\"><i>Marcella<\/i> season 1<\/a>: intense police detective drama. Perpetuates the stereotype that most police detectives are deeply fucked up.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4130418\/\"><i>Hip-Hop Evolution<\/i><\/a>: great netflix documentary about the history of hip-hop from the seventies to the early nineties. This view of the roots of hip-hop makes me understand lot more about why hip-hop concerts are <a href=\"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2016\/12\/26\/talib-kweli-at-bitterzoet-sunday-18-december-2016\/\">the way they are<\/a>. I think I&#8217;m making my peace with that. Although I love listening to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mos_Def\">Mos Def&#8217;s<\/a> recordings, I chose not to get a ticket to see him on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paradiso.nl\/web\/Agenda-Item\/Yasiin-Bey-Mos-Def-afscheidstour.htm\">farewell tour<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3240784\/\"><i>Sneakerheads<\/i><\/a>: entertaining documentary about sneaker collectors and sneaker culture.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2467372\/episodes?season=3\"><i>Brooklyn Nine-Nine<\/i> season 3:<\/a> still enjoying this show a lot, but it has lost a bit of its sharpness and speed as it has got more polished. (I like Andy Samberg, but he&#8217;s not everyone&#8217;s cup of tea.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4295140\/episodes?season=3\"><i>Chef&#8217;s Table<\/i> season 3<\/a>: the show looks at some very different types of chef this season. Jeong Kwan and Ivan Orkin are not trying to break into the list of the world&#8217;s top 50 restaurants, but they do have fascinating stories to tell about their lives and their craft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Films:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0472399\/\"><i>The Mechanic<\/i><\/a>: I wanted a Jason Statham action movie, and I got a Jason Statham action movie.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4116284\/\"><i>The LEGO Batman Movie<\/i><\/a>: Good. I thought they tried to cram too much into it. I found some scenes (especially at the beginning) hard to follow because there were too many moving parts, and it was hard to know what to pay attention to.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3960412\/\"><i>Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping<\/i><\/a> As I mentioned, I like Andy Samberg, and I liked this film. Some of the songs, which are obviously meant to be terrible, but terrible in a particular way, missed their mark. The final number with Michael Bolton deserved to be better and more memorable.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3315342\/\"><i>Logan<\/i><\/a>: Wow. Intense. Left the audience kinda stunned and silent when the credits rolled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Books &#038; comics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3315342\/\"><i>Ms Marvel vol6: Civil War II<\/i><\/a>: Marvel&#8217;s massive crossover events leave me a bit cold, but Kamala&#8217;s story here was relatively self-contained, and focused very much on her personal story rather than the bigger picture.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Karnak-Flaw-Things-Warren-Ellis\/dp\/0785198482\/\"><i>Karnak: The Flaw In All Things<\/i><\/a>: Warren Ellis needs a hug.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sheriff-Babylon-Vol-Pow\/dp\/1401267262\/\"><i>The Sheriff of Babylon vol2: Pow Pow Pow<\/i><\/a> concludes the story, but don&#8217;t expect a happy ending. Harrowing and gripping.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Corporation-Wars-Dissidence-Ken-MacLeod\/dp\/0316363650\/\"><i>The Corporation Wars: Dissidence<\/i><\/a> by Ken MacLeod. I made a strategic mistake here, because I thought that the third volume in the trilogy was out sooner than it actually is. (It hits the streets in September.) It&#8217;s good. Around a distant star, a bunch of exploratory robots accidentally become self-aware, and re-invent warfare from first principles. It&#8217;s a fine blend of the themes of clashing economic systems and nature of consciousness that MacLeod deals with so well. However, once I started picturing the small <i>frames<\/i> that the human fighters inhabit as Sackboys from LittleBigPlanet (with big silly grins on their faces and a lolloping gait), I couldn&#8217;t take them quite so seriously any more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/LittleBigPlanet_(2008_video_game)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/images\/2017\/sackboy.jpg\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Update 13 March:<\/b> I completely forgot about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destinythegame.com\/\"><i>Destiny<\/i><\/a>. I picked it up in February (with all the current expansions), loved it, and played it a ton during the school break. But then I hit level 40, and stopped kinda dead. Even without a social group to play with, the single-player experience up to level 40 is fantastic, and I have regrets about the time I did put into it. Great environments, and a fluid first-person combat experience. However, although there are still missions left for me to play, progress from this point onwards feels hollow: what am I doing it for? I enjoy the story missions, I like playing PvE, and I like playing co-op, but I don&#8217;t feel like putting in dozens of hours to get good enough not to be an embarrassment to a group of strangers on a raid. If I had a group of friends that also played, it would be a different matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musically, I&#8217;ve been mostly obsessed with Thundercat&#8217;s new album Drunk. It&#8217;s full of short, punchy, strange tracks. One of which features Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, and is probably the smoothest thing you&#8217;ll hear all year. Dutch Uncles have a new album out, Big Balloon. Listening to it now. &#8220;TV&#8221;: Luther season 4: I find &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2017\/03\/12\/mixed-media-sunday-12-march-2017\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mixed Media, Sunday 12 March 2017&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mixed-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3949"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3957,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions\/3957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}