What are you reading, watching and listening to?

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Herra Ratatoskr
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Herra Ratatoskr »

I will soon be watching one of my favorite so-dumb-it's-amazing movies ever. I finally broke down and bought my own copy and it came with a free digital download that's coming down the wires as I type.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Ryusenshi »

Currently listening to N.W.A., which is surprising for someone who never liked hip-hop.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by jmcd »

I am likewise an uncharacteristic listener of hip-hop at the moment. I had no idea the music of Griogair Labhruidh would be classed as hip-hop though. But then that's partly because I listen more to his more traditional music than the examples on this link.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by alynnidalar »

The new Wintersun album is out.

(no, it's still not Time II, calm yourself, it's called The Forest Seasons and is loosely inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons)

It's... fine, I guess? I like it well enough. Spring's probably my favorite, although I need to listen to it another dozen times before I can say for sure. But if you're expecting it to completely blow your mind and cure your cancer and create world peace, it's not gonna do that.

(Time II is the Half-Life 3 of the metal world. The sooner you accept it'll never be released, the happier you'll be.)
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by linguoboy »

For perverse reasons, both the films I've in theatres this year have been mediocre big budget vanity projects. The second of these was Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and this spoilerific piece sums up what's wrong with it pretty well. I don't regret seeing it--it is visually stunning, especially for someone like me who hasn't seen a big-screen scifi film in forever--but I will be so happy to see some of the tropes in it retired for good.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Ryusenshi »

I'm currently playing Baldur's Gate. The question on my mind is: why did it take me so long to play this game? I had heard about it when it was released, and I had a decent gaming PC, so why didn't I play it at the time? 1999-me would have loved this game.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Mornche Geddick »

I'm going through the National Geographical Magazine's Our Mathematical World series, and have just started 20. Creativity in Mathematics.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Pole, the »

I've finished bingewatching the four seasons of RWBY yesterday. I got hooked on it and the withdrawal's kicked in.

I can't stop listening to the soundtrack. Say what you want about the quality of the CG, or about the writing in the early seasons, but the music has been amazing all the way through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmOZL_0rj70
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by alynnidalar »

I do love RWBY's music. Jeff Williams (not to be confused with John Williams!) is a really stellar composer. The female singer in many of the songs is Casey Lee Williams, his daughter, and her voice is amazing--I believe she was only 13 when she did the vocals for Red Like Roses (the song in the Red trailer), and she sang on one or two Red vs. Blue songs before that.

(but don't worry! You only need to wait a couple weeks for the season 5 premiere!)
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

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Wait, that song has only two vocalists?
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by alynnidalar »

Which song? Red Like Roses (the version from the Red Trailer) just has Casey as the vocalist, and Red Like Roses Part II has Casey and her mother Sandy Lee Casey on the vocals. For any background vocals, I dunno if they did them or not.
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by alice »

Right now I'm reading this thread. More generally I've just started a biography of Isaac "clonk; ouch; enlightenment!" Newton.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by rotting bones »

Most believably flattering love poem of all time? http://ia902506.us.archive.org/25/items ... _128kb.mp3
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by rotting bones »

Comedy martial arts web novel: http://www.wuxiaworld.com/awe-index/

(What am I doing with my life?)

Edit: More web novels I liked: http://royalroadl.com/fiction/10286/the-good-student (fantasy) https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/ ... f-Learning (HPMOR-style optimizing, fantasy)
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In reality, our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, which indeed is a divine gift. - Socrates

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Ars Lande »

Stranger Things. Really good, in a let's overdose on 80's nostalgia kind of way.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by hwhatting »

Ars Lande wrote:Stranger Things. Really good, in a let's overdose on 80's nostalgia kind of way.
Yes, I liked that, too.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Ryusenshi »

Currently listening to the soundtrack to Amélie. Bizarrely, I like this soundtrack although I didn't like the movie.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Pole, the »

I have seen the Netflix adaptation of Death Note last night and I have to say it's quite good and memorable movie, even though it's just loosely inspired by the source material.

The only explanation of the surprisingly low ratings in the webs I can think of is that it has been horribly mismarketed and the only people who saw (and rated) it were the fans of the original manga and/or anime who expected it to be the same story as in the original manga and/or anime.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by rotting bones »

Dwarf Fortress role playing let's play: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... F2902Vf4DQ (If you like it, see the channel for more playlists in the same series.)

PS. I also finished reading Lurid & Cute, The Escape and Politics by Adam Thirlwell recently.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Salmoneus »

I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo.
At current reading rates, I expect to still be reading The Count of Monte Cristo next week. And next month. And next year. And possibly at the heat death of the universe.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by gach »

I got in the mood for some progressive rock that fits to a rainy day,
Pekka Pohjola – Harakka Bialoipokku

I also got the last two parts of the Mars trilogy in mail, hoping that having them in the bookshelf will motivate me to start reading the first part. Thus far the dense layout has pushed me to choose other things to take as reading.

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Pole, the »

gach wrote:I got in the mood for some progressive rock that fits to a rainy day,
Pekka Pohjola – Harakka Bialoipokku
Interesting. What is this? Also, where does the title come from — I guess “bialoipokku” isn't Finnish, but I can't find what it is?
I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo.
At current reading rates, I expect to still be reading The Count of Monte Cristo next week. And next month. And next year. And possibly at the heat death of the universe.
Hm, that's not good.
I've read a lot of nice things about the book / whatever it was adapted to, but I've never tried to read that.
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by gach »

Pole, the wrote:
gach wrote:I got in the mood for some progressive rock that fits to a rainy day,
Pekka Pohjola – Harakka Bialoipokku
Interesting. What is this? Also, where does the title come from — I guess “bialoipokku” isn't Finnish, but I can't find what it is?
Pekka Pohjola was the bassist (among other instruments) in an early lineup of Wigwan before starting his solo career. Wigwam themselves are a staple of Finnish progressive rock. Here's a live studio session from them as a sample.

"Bialoipokku" doesn't mean anything. It might be derived from somewhere but I think it's just an interesting sounding fantasy title. The English title of that album is simply "B the Magpie".

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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Salmoneus »

Pole, the wrote: Hm, that's not good.
I've read a lot of nice things about the book / whatever it was adapted to, but I've never tried to read that.
It's not bad exactly - well, it is, in some ways, but also very good in other ways - but it's titanically long (a bit under half a million words), and it's the opposite of a nailbiting read. It's divided into 117 chapters, and each feels fairly self-contained - sometimes there are teasers for what's going to happen next, but never really cliffhangers, so while I'm enjoying reading it, I have to push myself to start each next chapter. [And does things like abandon the POV character to throw in 200 pages of seemingly unrelated action in a different country with a different protagonist for reasons that only become clear later on...]. And there are a LOT of chapters. So...

[It was originally serialised, and I can imagine it would work well like that - a little intriguing morsel every week. But it's not designed for binge-reading...]
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Post by Torco »

I've spent the last couple months listening to a few 19th century pianists: alkan, chopin, czerny, tchaikovsky. I especially recommend alkan's les mois op 74.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzth1MU5JFY
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