Books, More Robots, and Movies
Daily Ramble 157: Books, More Robots, and Movies
Today’s ramble takes me back to Westworld, back to the books of January, and onward to my sixth degree and I have a bunch of interesting moments in my travels. In Westworld, we’re learning more about the amusement park and the hosts that run around in it. Some of those in charge a concerned about the pace of changes to the robots and things feel like they may be getting a bit outta hand. In my reading journey, I read through 7 books in January and I feel really good about it. That’s the most I’ve read in a long time. Last but not least, I take the final step in my first Six Degrees of 2018 when I travel to Assholes Watching Movies. The site run by a trio of avid movie watchers seems to have similar tastes to myself when it comes to movies and I think I’ll be using them to help me decide what movies to see in the future.
Assholes Watching Movies
The last site in my Six Degrees this time around is Assholes Watching Movies. As the sixth degree, this site is the furthest from Beyond Tannhauser Gate and it’s a place I’ve never been to before. These guys, Sean, Jay, and Matt (actually, Jay is a woman), watch a lot of movies…many more than I do and I think they’ve posted about more movies in the past few days than I’ve seen all year. And looking at the reviews I think this is a place I’ll come back to before I head out to the theater in the future. As far as reviewers go, I’m really tired of the main stream critics who blather on about this or that when it comes to movies and I’d much rather read what people more like me think about the movies. From what it looks like, these guys are much more like me.
Granted, I haven’t seen any of the movies they reviewed yet but I like what they have to say and how they say it. Sure, everyone has been going on and on about Black Panther but Sean actually looks at it in relation to the entire MCU, pointing out that the lack of other Marvel heroes really makes things work in this film. And I like his interpretation that Killmonger is not necessarily bad, he’s just complex and being in a superhero tale, complexity means punching when you don’t get your way. Beyond that movie, I appreciate what Jay had to say about Darkest Hour. I’ve always loved Gary Oldman and this review really has me interested in seeing this Winston Churchill picture. Other reviews of things like All The Money In The World and American Assassin point me in the direction of not seeing the movie which is something I value from any review site. Finally, they also review The Cloverfield Paradox and I’m a bit torn on this one. I loved the first movie and tolerated the second and from what Sean says, this film “sucks ass”. It doesn’t sound too good but this I’m sure I’ll watch it anyway. For some reason even though these guys didn’t like it and other critics have blasted it, I still feel the need to torture myself…oh well.
In any case, I enjoyed reading what these guys had to say about the various movies that are out there and I can see myself referring to this site before I head to the theater in the future.
This has been an installment of my Six Degrees 2018 series in which I take a look at the wonderful blogs that surround Beyond Tannhauser Gate. The blogosphere is large but there are so many friends to be found within Six Degrees.
Books of January 2018
Wow! I just took a look at my reading from last month and I am really surprised I steamed through over 2800 pages. That’s 600 more than during any month of 2017 so I guess I feel pretty good. In all though, I’m sad to say that I didn’t read anything that I would rate an A or A-, as the highest rating I gave out was for Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart. That was a fun period piece that’s kinda based on the historical events of the Kopp sisters. I rated that a B+ but even though that was my highest rating of the month, the 7 books I read averaged out to slightly lower than a B with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley coming in last place at a C+. While I enjoyed that book, I just didn’t get into it as much as the others.
An interesting thing I noted was that the average age of the book I read last month was 83 years old. With Frankenstein and the Federalist Papers being over 200 years old I really tackles some old stuff. On the whole though I certainly enjoyed all the books as you should be able to tell by how much I read. While none of these books made it into my overall top books which only have As and A-s, I’ll start up a new list with those from this year…
- Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart, 2015 (B+)
- Touch by Claire North, 2015 (B)
- Magician: Master by Raymond Feist, 1982 (B)
- Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov, 1950 (B)
- The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, 1788 (B)
- The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, 1975 (B-)
- Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, 1818 (C+)
And even though none of this month’s books makes the overall list, I’m still gonna post it here…
My Top Books
Rated A (5)
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (2007)
- Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1977)
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2014)
- I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (1968)
Rated A- (10)
- Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (2009)
- Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2014)
- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederick Pohl (1980)
- Lock In by John Scalzi (2014)
- Heechee Rendezvous by Frederick Pohl (1985)
- Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (2016)
- Arcadia: A Novel by Iain Pears (2015)
- Magician:Apprentice by Raymond Feist (1982)
- The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov (1952)
Westworld Episode 1: Minutes 30–42
So yesterday, we learned more about the inner workings of the park while today we go back to the narratives and see how the glitches integrate with them but in doing so, we jump around a bunch. We start with Dolores’ father who finds a picture of someone in Times Square…not really the type of thing you’d see in an old western town and it causes him some problems.
Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman), one of the main story writers in the park, is concerned about the software update and how Ford and Bernard keep trying to make the hosts more human. He senses a bigger picture for the corporation behind Westworld but he can’t figure out what they might be aiming for. Instead, he just thinks the updates should be rolled back and Ford and Bernard should be pushed out.
Meanwhile, back at the saloon we see Maeve (Thandie Newton) heading home for the night saying goodbye to Kissy who happens to be the unfortunate next victim of the Man in Black but we don’t see what he wants just yet.
We then get a Truman Show type scene where one of the hosts is malfunctioning in a pretty bad way and they freeze everything and shine spotlights on the immobile android.
It really seems like things are out of control since the new update was released and Theresa decides its best to pull all the updated hosts and flush out their programming so they can be sure there are no more glitches.
All these pieces are somehow connected and we’re just not sure how they fit yet, but the mystery is growing and that’s part of the fun of this show. Looking at things in 15 minute or so increments is pretty fun but it makes me realize how much actually goes on in each 15 minute segment.
And as I said, so much goes on that I almost missed the scene where Teddy has a fly on his cheek. This seems to be indicative of the glitches as the sheriff has a fly on his cheek earlier and Dolores’ father and Dolores herself have had them as well. I’m sure this will be revealed as something but since this is only the first episode it’s just adds to the questions.