Lyric Entry #011

History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues

I'm just the oily slick
On the wind-up world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel

I hang around dying to be tortured
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel

So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice

You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly

Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous

And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And leave discreetly

I might make it California's fault
Be locked in Geneva's deepest vault
Just like the canals of Mars and the Great Barrier Reef
I come to you beyond belief

My hands were clammy and cunning
She's been suitably stunning
But I know there's not a hope in Hades
All the laddies cat-call and wolf whistle
So called gentlemen and ladies
Dog fight like rose and thistle

I got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief

midway 2018: what I'm watching

YouTube & Twitch
I follow a ton of YouTubers, but, aside from pro musicians and directors, the "amateur" ones that post frequently and I look forward to watching:

• acgameryoutube (Twitch)
• Cinemassacre
• CinemaTyler
• Michael's shenanigans
• IdeasOfIceandFire
• RedLetterMedia
• Rifftrax (Twitch)
• Sam O'Nella Academy
• Sardonicast/YourMovieSucksDOTorg
• Shadow Glass
• Summoning Salt
• TierZoo
• Trekspertise
• troutjerky87 (Twitch)
• videogamedunkey

Picard returns to Trek

So they've announced another Trek series reviving the TNG Captain Picard character...

[YouTube announcement]

Sir Pat is 78 years old... by the time this series gets underway and released, he'll surely be 80...

Honestly this series is going to focus on mentoring youth. Sure, there will be Data and Worf guest drop-ins, but I don't see a full reunion happening unless ratings dip. I'm cautiously optimistic, but also fearful that Alex Kurtzman will screw it up.








And also... Professor X... would he just be imitating that role mentoring kids?

So! Let's play the name lottery. What will be the title of this new Trek TV show?

• Star Trek: Archeologists
• Star Trek: Academy
• Star Trek: Admiralty
• Star Trek: Family Ties
• Star Trek: Mentors
• Star Trek: History Repeats Itself
• Star Trek: Nothing Original
• Star Trek: Diplomacy
• Star Trek: Extended Captain's Holiday
• Star Trek: the Generation Gap
• Star Trek: Octogenerians
• Star Trek: the Line Must Be Drawn Here!
• and obviously, Star Trek: Make It So!

By the way, Rolling Stone published a great article in 2013 proposing they bring back the TNG cast in a revival series. Check it out.

Recommended GLQuake Console Commands

+mlook
r_wateralpha .8
r_mirroralpha .8
sv_aim 1
showturtle 1
r_timegraph 1
r_shadows 1
crosshair 2

* http://www.gamers.org/dEngine/quake/QDP/qconcmds.html
* https://www.quakewiki.net/archives/console/commands/quake.html
* http://quake.wikia.com/wiki/Console_Commands_(Q1)

How do you set resolution?

For Steam, additional launch options must be set for "-width X -height Y". If you need windowed mode, use "-window"

Best of the Year 2017: Movie

I wait until about March to send this out, because January-February are times of low quality and I can catch up. There's no real way to be totally ready to say "the best film of the year is ____" without a few years buffer. But here's what I think.

Get Out
Dir: Jordan Peele

Wonder Woman
Dir: Patty Jenkins

Good Time
Dir: Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie

Blade Runner 2049
Dir: Denis Villeneuve

Spider-Man Homecoming
Dir: Jon Watts

For the record, my money is on Phantom Thread to win the Oscars. I haven't seen it, but that's my educated guess.

Indiana Jones 5 title speculation

With the nearing release of Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One, I wanted to take the opportunity to try and predict the plot and title of the announced sequel to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here goes...

Credit

It's going to be about the afterlife. Hell, they've already covered aliens... How do you top extraterrestrials? I can guarantee mortality will be the motif.

Now for setting, I suspect something Egyptian. The Lost Ark was in Egypt, but the Ancient Egyptian culture is ripe for Indy. Perhaps the founding of Israel? It could be about Jewish/Christian mythology, too, but that's already been played in two of the movies. Maybe undead things?!? I'm going to maybe surmise there will be a sacrifice or even a zombification of the hero. Maybe that's a reach...

I definitely know things that it won't do: dinosaurs, killer sharks, friendly aliens, the Holocaust (see a theme here?)

My educated guesses:

• Indiana Jones and the Afterlife
• Indiana Jones and the Cult of Osiris
• Indiana Jones and the Land of the Dead
• Indiana Jones and the Torment of the Undead
• Indiana Jones and the Spectre of the Tomb
• Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Messiah
• Indiana Jones and the Mortal Coil
• Indiana Jones and the Deathly Hallows
• Indiana Jones Meets the Grim Reaper!

Blade Runner & BR2049 opening crawl text

I kept getting lost in Google searches looking for this info, so I'm posting this info for all the world to find. I left the grammar and punctuation intact. Forget about Star Wars opening crawls, these are the gold standard.

Blade Runner (1982)

Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL CORPORATION advanced Robot evolution into the NEXUS phase - a being virtually identical to a human - known as a Replicant.

The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them.

Replicants were used Off-world as slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and colonization of other planets.

After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6 combat team in an Off-world colony, Replicants were declared illegal on earth - under penalty of death.

Special police squads - BLADE RUNNER UNITS - had orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any trespassing Replicant.

This was not called execution.
It was called retirement.

***

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

REPLICANTS ARE BIOENGINEERED HUMANS, DESIGNED BY TYRELL CORPORATION
FOR USE OFF-WORLD. THEIR ENHANCED STRENGTH MADE THEM IDEAL FOR SLAVE LABOR

AFTER A SERIES OF VIOLENT REBELLIONS, THEIR MANUFACTURE BECAME
PROHIBITED AND TYRELL CORP WENT BANKRUPT

THE COLLAPSE OF ECOSYSTEMS IN THE MID 2020s LED TO THE RISE OF INDUSTRIALIST
NIANDER WALLACE, WHOSE MASTERY OF SYNTHETIC FARMING AVERTED FAMINE

WALLACE ACQUIRED THE REMAINS OF TYRELL CORP AND CREATED A NEW
LINE OF REPLICANTS WHO OBEY

MANY OLDER MODEL REPLICANTS -- NEXUS 8s WITH OPEN-ENDED LIFESPANS -- SURVIVED.
THEY ARE HUNTED DOWN AND 'RETIRED'

THOSE THAT HUNT THEM STILL GO BY THE NAME ...

BLADE RUNNER

***

Sources:

* http://www.trussel.com/bladerun.htm
* https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/comments/75lmev/request_the_opening_text_for_2049/?st=jcj8n5t3&sh=0ec32b14
* https://youtu.be/u9L0pord5jE
* https://youtu.be/-fu7jN2_2pE