I've read The Hobbit nine times and read through the trilogy three times. I was happily surprised by how well done the movies were. Even the three-part film series of The Hobbit, which I thought was going to be a bit too much, was great.
As we guessed, John Oliver went all in after the Danbury mayor wanted to name their sewage plant "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant". And it was glorious.
pretty much any of our victories over ucla, since the dawn of BruinsNation, causes them to demand that the coach be fired, the players all be sent away, and the whole thing burned to the ground.
Fatal shooting at Portland protest. This time a right-winged counter-demonstrator is shot and killed. Dunno about you, but I suspect that this will not be the last shooting.
There is a segment of the law enforcement culture that discounts patient care as a consideration, treating casualties as an acceptable consequence. It can be very scary.
Vandy has a separate "campus" where all the freshman live called the Commons. It's next to the SE corner for campus. There have been daily gatherings in the lawn at night with 100+ people. Apparently they start out socially distancing but quickly congregate in large groups. Apparently quite a few freshman have let the campus know via all methods of reporting these gatherings. It'll be interesting to see how the whistleblowers are treated since their names are in the article.
I remember after UNC beat Georgetown in 1982 the first thing Dean Smith did was go embrace his good friend John Thompson, even before celebrating with his players. Thompson was one of Coach Smith's assistants for the 76 Olympics team.
"The influencer twins I'm weirdly obsessed with just tested positive for COVID while on campus at Baylor; I'm fascinated with their attempt to do influencer COVID"
Found out over the weekend that a friend and his mum and his dad had all gotten it in March. He and his mum recovered quickly, but his dad was touch and go for a while. He's home now and recovering well, but had been in two different hospitals for 2 months.
Friend showed me the bill for one of the hospitals. It was just a string of numbers and I had to count in order to figure out where to put the commas. $4.8million+ for a month of treatment.
The latest White House advisor about Covid 19 is a reactionary radiologist who thinks that Sweden is the way to go, which is a big bet to make with other people
I thought so, but 1) the military is 45% non white, and 2) they might not be enthusiastic about having someone who doesn’t get civil / military boundaries, counters court martials, etc.
I think the Russian and Iranian bounties that Trump has done not a goddamn thing about is, as Joe Biden might say, a big fucking deal to many military people.
Jaguars waive Leonard Fournette, set to be really really bad in 2020. Minshew probably realizing now that they're already tanking to take Trevor Lawrence.
The Nuggets Jazz game last night was crazy, and I only saw the last quarter. Game 7 will be amazing. It's too bad the Mavs got knocked out. I'd love to watch a 3 team playoffs just between Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell, and Luka.
Hey, as a former resident of San Diego myself, I have nothing but love for the Pads, with the exception of Minnie Machado, of course...he's a bum. But whatever team wins this year is going to have the unfortunate asterisk up there, so I guess it might as well be the Fighting Friars....
The Oakland A’s reported a positive coronavirus test on Sunday, and their afternoon game against the Houston Astros has been postponed.
The identity of the person who tested positive is not public information, and could be a player or other staff member.
The A’s and Astros have an off-day Monday, but the game will not be made up at that time, reports insider Brian McTaggart. They still have one more series together this season, in Oakland from Sept. 7-10.
A’s general manager David Forst says the club learned about the positive test Saturday night just before 10 p.m., reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. The test that yielded a positive result was taken on Friday, per Brodie Brazil of NBCS.
Through six-and-a-half innings, the San Francisco Giants had been one-hit by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
And for six-and-a-half innings, they led anyway.
It only took a few minutes for the Giants to take the lead, with Alex Dickerson launching one deep into (Chase Field closed dome-confined) Arizona night.
Zaidi is smart, tho I don’t trust his baseball chops. He’s now whiffed on improving, either for the long or short term, his middling ball club at the deadline in back-to-back seasons, and the decision to jettison Pillar still looks puzzling.
Don’t worry, everyone. The Dodgers’ streak of winning every series to begin the season will continue. I know, I know, it was essentially life or death if they didn’t. LA took care of business on Sunday afternoon, taking down the Rangers, 7-2.
It was a strange day at the plate, as the Dodgers struck out 14 times. If I were to tell you that, you’d likely think they struggled at the plate, right? Instead, they scored seven runs while hitting three homers. Speaking of homers, the Dodgers set a National League record. For the month of August, they hit 57 homers, the most home runs in any calendar month in MLB history by an NL team.
Corey Seager got things started immediately in the first inning, swinging at the first pitch he saw for his ninth homer of the season.
these are among my favorite books and long story arcs. i have read the trilogy a few times and read them aloud to my kids.
i too did not expect the movies to be so well done, but i really enjoyed them. overall i thought Fellowship was the best movie but the siege of Helms Deep in The Towers was the best battle scene ever filmed (not counting some Japanese stuff)
good chunks of the Silmarillion are unreadable. Pulling the plot and character out of those stories is a different thing and there is some good stuff there.
I liked the original trilogy of films better after my brother made me watch all the "Making Of" material in the DVD sets. The amount of thought and detail and craft that they put into making it was impressive and made me appreciate the final product a lot more.
Weird dream I had this morning. I usually don't remember my dreams but I did remember this one probably because it was during my snooze. I was watching Cal ND on the computer. The stadium was mostly empty. Cal was driving down the field past the 50 yard line. There were about 30 seconds left in the game. They ran a play where the QB pass the ball back to Keenan Allen for a trick play but he ended up throwing it away since the receiver wasn't open. Then the QB, I assume Garbers ran a keeper to get about 10 yards. Then a TO. Then I noticed the scoreboard show ND 16 Cal 15 with only a few seconds left. I believe it would've been a 55+ yd FG attempt. I briefly remember them showing the kicker during HT not making it. Then I lost internet...aack... Then my alarm went off.
Update: Longhetto lined up for the 55-yarder. ND kept two men deep to defend against a fake. Longhetto kicked the ball high, but short. The ball was caught by a deep defender at the one. He spikes the ball in celebration, which bounces out of the back of the endzone as time expires. Safety.
As part of my dedication to being out of the entertainment mainstream, I haven’t seen any for the films. I didn’t care for the books at all, so I figured I’d skip the films.
I saw the first one in the theater mostly bc of all they hype surrounding it, but interest severely waned when the next two films came out. I still have yet to see them.
DC - Honestly, I don't feel like I have a good handle on what you like in films, BUT, not liking the books has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you would like the films. I have the blurays and years ago FBF & his wife were over and she was opining about how she hated the idea of fantasy films in general. I was "are you sure? Just check out the first half hour" - and she ended up loving them.
Just on a technical level, there is an abundance of great film-making on display, solid acting, and the breathtaking scenery of South island. And whether or not you believe it's an allegory to WWII (Tolkien steadfastly denied this) the films have 100 times more gravitas than the Harry Potter films.
I agree, although I liked the books as well. The movies are really good, when I first heard about them, I thought, "nah, no way they can do this justice" - then I saw the first clip of the wargs attacking and "you know, on the other hand, maybe".
I haven't seen them, even though everyone else in the family loved them. I just am not interested in the middle earth genre. I even bought them the DVD movie platinum edition with the bonus items. Those were pretty cool.
I've read The Hobbit nine times and read through the trilogy three times. I was happily surprised by how well done the movies were. Even the three-part film series of The Hobbit, which I thought was going to be a bit too much, was great.
DBD AV Club
John Oliver and Danbury, CT.
As we guessed, John Oliver went all in after the Danbury mayor wanted to name their sewage plant "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant". And it was glorious.
Danbury is not far from here .. about an hour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn7YGFJ9CHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxIR5Ej9Cns
Follow any location on earth as continental plates slide around the surface over time
https://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth#170
Cobra Kai on Netflix is... AMAZING. The inside jokes throughout the first 4 eps we watched were killing me and the missus
I really enjoyed watching these. I watched seasons 1 and 2 after season 2 came out. I can't wait for season 3.
i have only seen the first season but really liked it. i should make it a point to watch S2.
A Cal victory that was so dominant that it made the opposing fans, media, players, and/or coaches turn against each other.
Not dominant per se, but most of our recent upsets over UW have had similar effects.
pretty much any of our victories over ucla, since the dawn of BruinsNation, causes them to demand that the coach be fired, the players all be sent away, and the whole thing burned to the ground.
BLM
LA County: When the gangsters are the police
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/public-safety/2020/08/30/whistleblower-testifies-deputy-who-shot-gardena-teen-was--chasing-ink--
Completely plausible and has been for decades
Crowdfunding for Kenosha shooter raised triple the amount of the combined amounts raised for his three victims
https://www.givesendgo.com/GUCZ
https://www.gofundme.com/f/249yn2bzqo
https://www.gofundme.com/f/anthony-huber-family
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kenosha-protestor-with-medical-bills
Those motherfuckers
Fatal shooting at Portland protest. This time a right-winged counter-demonstrator is shot and killed. Dunno about you, but I suspect that this will not be the last shooting.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/30/video-captures-deadly-shooting-of-man-in-patriot-prayer-cap-during-portland-protests/
These patriot prayer guys are just a bunch of troublemakers
https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2019/08/26/27039560/undercover-in-patriot-prayer-insights-from-a-vancouver-democrat-whos-been-working-against-the-far-right-group-from-the-inside
Portland police excel themselves by herding away people trying to help the victim - so while they “stabilize” the situation, the guy dies
There is a segment of the law enforcement culture that discounts patient care as a consideration, treating casualties as an acceptable consequence. It can be very scary.
Trump/Miller's master plan working to a T
Elsewhere in college
TIL: Baylor pays some students to be influencers for their brand. tee-hee, we have the rona
https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1299765232584110080
who are these people? reading the thread it sounds like the mom is exploiting the kids on social media?
They appear to be Mormon, so of course mom was exploiting the twins. Then they started exploiting themselves and Baylor.
Vandy has a separate "campus" where all the freshman live called the Commons. It's next to the SE corner for campus. There have been daily gatherings in the lawn at night with 100+ people. Apparently they start out socially distancing but quickly congregate in large groups. Apparently quite a few freshman have let the campus know via all methods of reporting these gatherings. It'll be interesting to see how the whistleblowers are treated since their names are in the article.
https://vanderbilthustler.com/33941/featured/university-to-investigate-reported-50-200-person-gathering-at-commons/
Roll Invisible Tide. Over 1,000 of the 30,000 students at U of Alabama have contracted Covid19 within the first two weeks of school.
https://uasystem.edu/covid-19-dashboard?0
Shocked.
John Thompson passes away. I'm about a mile from Georgetown and once saw him in Safeway. He was a big man in more than one way.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/john-thompson-death-georgetown-coach/2020/08/31/cd8f4846-eb69-11ea-ab4e-581edb849379_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_thompson-obit-1010a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
I remember after UNC beat Georgetown in 1982 the first thing Dean Smith did was go embrace his good friend John Thompson, even before celebrating with his players. Thompson was one of Coach Smith's assistants for the 76 Olympics team.
Hoy en la 'rona
It was only a matter of time, really.
https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1299709449330810882
"The influencer twins I'm weirdly obsessed with just tested positive for COVID while on campus at Baylor; I'm fascinated with their attempt to do influencer COVID"
Found out over the weekend that a friend and his mum and his dad had all gotten it in March. He and his mum recovered quickly, but his dad was touch and go for a while. He's home now and recovering well, but had been in two different hospitals for 2 months.
Friend showed me the bill for one of the hospitals. It was just a string of numbers and I had to count in order to figure out where to put the commas. $4.8million+ for a month of treatment.
The latest White House advisor about Covid 19 is a reactionary radiologist who thinks that Sweden is the way to go, which is a big bet to make with other people
https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1300475215173091331?s=21
I've been informed that radiology is the specialty you pick if you don't like to interact with other human beings.
Failing that have them all die of the ‘rona
Anesthesiology too
It's the "easy" specialty that pays well. They're also all the first people to get automated out when that hits the industry IIRC.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
DNI stops briefing Congress on election security
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/514383-angus-king-ending-election-security-briefings-looks-like-a-pre-cover-up
Bit of a surprise: Biden leads Trump among active-duty troops.
https://www.axios.com/trump-biden-poll-active-duty-military-troops-ee92657b-e106-483c-bc59-ff623bcf956d.html
I thought so, but 1) the military is 45% non white, and 2) they might not be enthusiastic about having someone who doesn’t get civil / military boundaries, counters court martials, etc.
Military leadership also seems pretty unhappy with Trump, so perhaps that trickles down over time.
I also have to imagine his handling of the COVID outbreak on that Navy ship was not well-received.
I think the Russian and Iranian bounties that Trump has done not a goddamn thing about is, as Joe Biden might say, a big fucking deal to many military people.
Courts martial I should have typed.
NYT (via more accessible Esquire article): Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein obstructed justice to ensure Mueller didn't pursue Russia/Trump ties.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33848359/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-block-robert-mueller/
That jackass
PRO
Jaguars waive Leonard Fournette, set to be really really bad in 2020. Minshew probably realizing now that they're already tanking to take Trevor Lawrence.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1300409852280418305
What was the deal with Fournette? He was pretty beastly in college.
He was also pretty good when he was with the Pats wasn't he?
He never played for the Pats.
Hmm...not sure why I thought that.
Oh I was thinking LaGarrett Blount. Another brusing RB.
Uplifting tweet: Jaylen Brown and Enes Kantor teaching Tacko Fall to swim.
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1300503762847502337
The Nuggets Jazz game last night was crazy, and I only saw the last quarter. Game 7 will be amazing. It's too bad the Mavs got knocked out. I'd love to watch a 3 team playoffs just between Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell, and Luka.
Padres were busy over the weekend. Got Clevinger from the Indians and Nola from the Mariners. They've got an offense and now have a No 1.
Shooting for San Diego's first ever Championship, with a huge ass-terisk.
We aren’t the Astros so I will have none of this talk!!
Hey, as a former resident of San Diego myself, I have nothing but love for the Pads, with the exception of Minnie Machado, of course...he's a bum. But whatever team wins this year is going to have the unfortunate asterisk up there, so I guess it might as well be the Fighting Friars....
Here's to Bodacious Tatis!!
With the best of 3 in the first round all you need is 2 good starters and even an 8 seed can upset a 1 seed.
Oakland A’s report positive test for coronavirus, Sunday game postponed
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2020/8/30/21407691/oakland-as-coronavirus-positive-test-contact-tracing-postponed
The Oakland A’s reported a positive coronavirus test on Sunday, and their afternoon game against the Houston Astros has been postponed.
The identity of the person who tested positive is not public information, and could be a player or other staff member.
The A’s and Astros have an off-day Monday, but the game will not be made up at that time, reports insider Brian McTaggart. They still have one more series together this season, in Oakland from Sept. 7-10.
A’s general manager David Forst says the club learned about the positive test Saturday night just before 10 p.m., reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. The test that yielded a positive result was taken on Friday, per Brodie Brazil of NBCS.
Giants take off in eighth, win their first road series
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2020/8/30/21407829/san-francisco-giants-diamondbacks-final-score
Through six-and-a-half innings, the San Francisco Giants had been one-hit by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
And for six-and-a-half innings, they led anyway.
It only took a few minutes for the Giants to take the lead, with Alex Dickerson launching one deep into (Chase Field closed dome-confined) Arizona night.
Are the Giants sellers or buyers? They still have a chance at the playoffs.
I suspect they mostly stand pat, or maybe add a minor piece without giving up any big prospects.
Their ceiling is .500 for the next decade...
Not sure it will take that long. I think Zaidi is pretty sharp.
Zaidi is smart, tho I don’t trust his baseball chops. He’s now whiffed on improving, either for the long or short term, his middling ball club at the deadline in back-to-back seasons, and the decision to jettison Pillar still looks puzzling.
Dodgers set National League record as they defeat Rangers
https://www.truebluela.com/2020/8/30/21407923/los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-news-rumors-trade-deadline-cody-bellinger-corey-seager
Don’t worry, everyone. The Dodgers’ streak of winning every series to begin the season will continue. I know, I know, it was essentially life or death if they didn’t. LA took care of business on Sunday afternoon, taking down the Rangers, 7-2.
It was a strange day at the plate, as the Dodgers struck out 14 times. If I were to tell you that, you’d likely think they struggled at the plate, right? Instead, they scored seven runs while hitting three homers. Speaking of homers, the Dodgers set a National League record. For the month of August, they hit 57 homers, the most home runs in any calendar month in MLB history by an NL team.
Corey Seager got things started immediately in the first inning, swinging at the first pitch he saw for his ninth homer of the season.
CAL
SJ Merc: Radical change coming to Pac-12? How hot is your seat, Larry?
https://twitter.com/wilnerhotline/status/1300504532942598144
not hot enough.
Sizzling!
Go Bears!
Tag! You're it.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1782770243794/
Yes let's walk closer to the bear to film a video. Although I guess as long as you run faster than the slowest person you should be fine.
20 years ago seems like yesterday. I feel old. Fav of the trilogy? The Return of the King.
Are we talking books or movie? RotK was a great book, but too long as a movie. I think TTT was a better movie.
Also, Tolkien really has a way with words and TTT took much better advantage of that.
these are among my favorite books and long story arcs. i have read the trilogy a few times and read them aloud to my kids.
i too did not expect the movies to be so well done, but i really enjoyed them. overall i thought Fellowship was the best movie but the siege of Helms Deep in The Towers was the best battle scene ever filmed (not counting some Japanese stuff)
Yeah, when I saw that Helm's Deep scene I immediately compared it to Seven Samurai. It was on that level.
also i have read almost all the other ancillary Tolkien stuff except never managed to make it thru the Silmarillion.
good chunks of the Silmarillion are unreadable. Pulling the plot and character out of those stories is a different thing and there is some good stuff there.
I liked the original trilogy of films better after my brother made me watch all the "Making Of" material in the DVD sets. The amount of thought and detail and craft that they put into making it was impressive and made me appreciate the final product a lot more.
Upon immediate viewing my favorite was Two Towers, but after going back I like Fellowship the best.
Weird dream I had this morning. I usually don't remember my dreams but I did remember this one probably because it was during my snooze. I was watching Cal ND on the computer. The stadium was mostly empty. Cal was driving down the field past the 50 yard line. There were about 30 seconds left in the game. They ran a play where the QB pass the ball back to Keenan Allen for a trick play but he ended up throwing it away since the receiver wasn't open. Then the QB, I assume Garbers ran a keeper to get about 10 yards. Then a TO. Then I noticed the scoreboard show ND 16 Cal 15 with only a few seconds left. I believe it would've been a 55+ yd FG attempt. I briefly remember them showing the kicker during HT not making it. Then I lost internet...aack... Then my alarm went off.
DID WE WIN!!! I need to know.
Update: Longhetto lined up for the 55-yarder. ND kept two men deep to defend against a fake. Longhetto kicked the ball high, but short. The ball was caught by a deep defender at the one. He spikes the ball in celebration, which bounces out of the back of the endzone as time expires. Safety.
Hahahaha oh, I hate dreams like that.
I was also disappointed that i wasn't there, though I wonder if the reason the stadium had so few fans was due to Covid.
As part of my dedication to being out of the entertainment mainstream, I haven’t seen any for the films. I didn’t care for the books at all, so I figured I’d skip the films.
I saw the first one in the theater mostly bc of all they hype surrounding it, but interest severely waned when the next two films came out. I still have yet to see them.
fortunately the pages and pages and pages of description in the books, float by on some beautiful new zealand landscape shots in the movies.
DC - Honestly, I don't feel like I have a good handle on what you like in films, BUT, not liking the books has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you would like the films. I have the blurays and years ago FBF & his wife were over and she was opining about how she hated the idea of fantasy films in general. I was "are you sure? Just check out the first half hour" - and she ended up loving them.
Just on a technical level, there is an abundance of great film-making on display, solid acting, and the breathtaking scenery of South island. And whether or not you believe it's an allegory to WWII (Tolkien steadfastly denied this) the films have 100 times more gravitas than the Harry Potter films.
I think finding the story tedious might have some effect on my enthusiasm for the films 🤷🏼♂️
I haven't read the Tolkien books, but the films were fun and well-made, and I enjoyed them.
Maybe, maybe not. Films move a hell of lot faster than the books. Well except for the end bit of RotK
I never finished reading the books, but thought the movies were really great. For me they found the best way to make the story engaging/entertaining.
I agree, although I liked the books as well. The movies are really good, when I first heard about them, I thought, "nah, no way they can do this justice" - then I saw the first clip of the wargs attacking and "you know, on the other hand, maybe".
The first movie really stunned me with how gripping and entertaining it was. Just succeeded on every level. I was all-in after that.
I haven't seen them, even though everyone else in the family loved them. I just am not interested in the middle earth genre. I even bought them the DVD movie platinum edition with the bonus items. Those were pretty cool.
I didn't mind the books, but was not motivated to see the films.
Didn’t read any of the books, despite their immense popularity. Only saw the first movie.