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Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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39 Responses

  1. NewDealer says:

    I rewatched Goldfinger and Thunderball. I think the best thing about the Sean Connery James Bond movies is their absolute refusal to take the Cold War seriously. There is a jauntiness to Sean Connery as Bond that is lacking in the other versions. Also I was somewhat amused by seeing the henchmen in Thunderball fight in Sperry Top-Siders. However, the movies are still somewhat corny to my 21st century eyes. Though Tinker Tailor Solider Spy took the Cold War seriously and is good.

    I also just started Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time by Ira KatznelsonReport

    • NewDealer in reply to NewDealer says:

      60s fashions seem funny. Some of the dresses women were in the Bond film look like they should be sofa slipcovers.Report

    • NewDealer in reply to NewDealer says:

      And I feel a bit odd that Sean Connery was my age when he first played James Bond. He seems more adult than I feel at times.Report

    • greginak in reply to NewDealer says:

      Goldfinger, in most ways, was the first bond flick that had all of the tropes that became mandatory for all later bond movies. Most of those tropes became boring, formulaic and made many later bond movies almost unwatchable. Okay for some people those dead boring tropes are what they because they want to see a paint by numbers film but, hey, i’m not making any judgments here. Thunderball is a good movie but the Shirley Bassey theme song really makes it a solid win.Report

      • NewDealer in reply to greginak says:

        I agree that a lot of the Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton Bond movies are unwatchable but I think that is because they tried to combine seriousness with the tropes. I don’t think the Connery Bond movies took themselves very seriously. Connery’s Bond just strolls through what should be a lot of high stakes and nerve wracking situations. Thunderball is a great example of this, the pacing for the most part is just like a Bahamas holiday even though they only have four days to find two nuclear bombs.

        This is also the reason why the old Errol Flynn Robin Hood is the best Robin Hood. The movie is jaunty fun! Fun is exactly what Robin Hood should be like.

        Most filmmakers seem to have forgotten how to make an adventure story jaunty. We want these dark and brooding superheroes. This might work for Batman but it does not work for Superman. Christopher Reeve made Superman work by being charming.Report

      • Kim in reply to greginak says:

        +1. Superman as dark and brooding seems… like people are missing the point.Report

  2. Chris says:

    Netflix took my fringe, so I have absolutely nothing to watch! OK, I’ve watched a few episodes of Alphas (eh) and Wallander (I want to move to Sweden). But I have nothing else to watch.

    I just finished There Eyes Were Watching God, which I read in high school and had forgotten about. It is beautiful. I mean really, really beautiful. I don’t think I thought that in high school. I think I thought, “How is anybody supposed to read a book in which the people talk like that?!” Now reading Americanah (going to read Half of a Yellow Sun next if this goes well), and just about ready for Blindsight (where’s Glyph at?).Report

    • Glyph in reply to Chris says:

      Yipes, I better start Blindsight tonight, because you are undoubtedly going to read it faster than me.Report

      • Maribou in reply to Glyph says:

        Yay! Peter Watts!!

        (Also, yay! Zora Neale Hurston, although I have not read any of her novels yet, just half of her letters. stoopit school getting in the way of my reading life.)Report

      • Chris in reply to Glyph says:

        Well, I can read it at any pace, so no worries (I can just read it on the bus!). I know you have other things on your plate at the moment, like the new After Dark compilation, the new Superchunk, and something else… I can’t remember… something big… what is it? I’m smelling poopy diapers. Shoot me an email sometime.Report

      • Chris in reply to Glyph says:

        Also, Maribou, feel free to read it with us, though of course if you’re going to read it we will both have to start reading it two weeks ago to keep up.Report

      • Glyph in reply to Glyph says:

        Maribou, have you read any other Peter Watts (Blindsight is the only one I have read, have not yet tacked the Rifters trilogy)?

        Chris: you may find this an entertaining teaser (there’s also an illustrated PDF transcript if you prefer to read rather than watch it). It’s a faux-conference presentation.

        It is…a little more light-hearted than the book (and is only related to one portion of the story, which is actually a first contact story):

        http://www.rifters.com/real/progress.htmReport

      • Chris in reply to Glyph says:

        That was pretty… creepy. I’m looking forward to it.Report

      • Maribou in reply to Glyph says:

        Yes, I have pretty much read ALL of Peter Watts, at least all the non-video-game-tie-in novels, his short story collection, and a few random uncollected short stories too. One of my favorite writers. I won’t be rereading Blindsight right now, though I appreciate the offer :).Report

      • Glyph in reply to Glyph says:

        I’m going to have to delve into some of his other stuff. I am liking this book even more the second time through I think. His website is also worth a visit.Report

  3. Will Truman says:

    I’m finishing up Book of Fate, by Brad Meltzer. After that, I am going to re-dive into What To Expect When No One’s Expecting, since I have forgotten too much of it to write my post on it. (No religion. No politics.)Report

  4. NewDealer says:

    This is something that should be read ever September 1st:

    September 1, 1939
    by W. H. Auden

    I sit in one of the dives
    On Fifty-second Street
    Uncertain and afraid
    As the clever hopes expire
    Of a low dishonest decade:
    Waves of anger and fear
    Circulate over the bright
    And darkened lands of the earth,
    Obsessing our private lives;
    The unmentionable odour of death
    Offends the September night.

    Accurate scholarship can
    Unearth the whole offence
    From Luther until now
    That has driven a culture mad,
    Find what occurred at Linz,
    What huge imago made
    A psychopathic god:
    I and the public know
    What all schoolchildren learn,
    Those to whom evil is done
    Do evil in return.

    Exiled Thucydides knew
    All that a speech can say
    About Democracy,
    And what dictators do,
    The elderly rubbish they talk
    To an apathetic grave;
    Analysed all in his book,
    The enlightenment driven away,
    The habit-forming pain,
    Mismanagement and grief:
    We must suffer them all again.

    Into this neutral air
    Where blind skyscrapers use
    Their full height to proclaim
    The strength of Collective Man,
    Each language pours its vain
    Competitive excuse:
    But who can live for long
    In an euphoric dream;
    Out of the mirror they stare,
    Imperialism’s face
    And the international wrong.

    Faces along the bar
    Cling to their average day:
    The lights must never go out,
    The music must always play,
    All the conventions conspire
    To make this fort assume
    The furniture of home;
    Lest we should see where we are,
    Lost in a haunted wood,
    Children afraid of the night
    Who have never been happy or good.

    The windiest militant trash
    Important Persons shout
    Is not so crude as our wish:
    What mad Nijinsky wrote
    About Diaghilev
    Is true of the normal heart;
    For the error bred in the bone
    Of each woman and each man
    Craves what it cannot have,
    Not universal love
    But to be loved alone.

    From the conservative dark
    Into the ethical life
    The dense commuters come,
    Repeating their morning vow;
    “I will be true to the wife,
    I’ll concentrate more on my work,”
    And helpless governors wake
    To resume their compulsory game:
    Who can release them now,
    Who can reach the deaf,
    Who can speak for the dumb?

    All I have is a voice
    To undo the folded lie,
    The romantic lie in the brain
    Of the sensual man-in-the-street
    And the lie of Authority
    Whose buildings grope the sky:
    There is no such thing as the State
    And no one exists alone;
    Hunger allows no choice
    To the citizen or the police;
    We must love one another or die.

    Defenceless under the night
    Our world in stupor lies;
    Yet, dotted everywhere,
    Ironic points of light
    Flash out wherever the Just
    Exchange their messages:
    May I, composed like them
    Of Eros and of dust,
    Beleaguered by the same
    Negation and despair,
    Show an affirming flame.Report

  5. Tod Kelly says:

    I am pretty much up to date on Breaking Bad after a two weeks of binging. It’s really quite an outstanding achievement; I’m sorry I waited so long to watch it.

    Tonight I believe I will watch Seven Psychopaths with the boys over porterhouses.

    I am knee deep in two great reads. The summer-reading book is Wild Thing by Josh Bazell, which is a follow up to his mob doctor crime noir Beat the Reaper. On a less brain-candy-y note, I’m also wrapping up The United States of Paranoia, by Reason’s Jesse Walker. It is outstanding – a truly fascinating read – and is one of those books that will probably forever after color my view of political storytelling.Report

  6. Maribou says:

    Mostly I have been reading school things. But also, Laura Anne Gilman’s PUPI series (think CSI for magic users), Divergent by Veronica Roth, and an odd but often very interesting memoir/lit crit/extended essay called Awkward: A Detour.Report

  7. Glyph says:

    FIRST WORLD PROBLEM BLUES

    duh-NUH-nuh-nuh-nuh

    I had a 1.5 TB hard drive die (boo!)

    duh-NUH-nuh-nuh-nuh

    But, I have a RAID-for-dummies (Drobo) so I was A-OK data-wise (yay!)

    duh-NUH-nuh-nuh-nuh

    But, for some reason iTunes lost like 80% of my artwork (boo!)

    duh-NUH-nuh-nuh-nuh

    So, I am upgrading to the most recent iTunes version to see if that corrects the problem (tentative yay!)

    duh-NUH-nuh-nuh-nuh

    If history is any guide, I’ll be spending the rest of the day checking iTunes and screwing around to see if my other Apple-ecosystem devices that are linked into my iTunes still work they way they did before the upgrade (boo!)Report

  8. Well, we had the Better Half’s brother, his girlfriend and their parents over for supper last night. Made lobster, then lobster stock.

    And today I’ve been trying to get the lobster pot to stop smelling like lobster, despite the fact that we only ever use it for making lobster.

    Did I have a point with all this? *pauses to consider* No. No, I did not have a point with all of this.Report

  9. Nob Akimoto says:

    Reading some random RPG sourcebooks to get a better sense of how I want to approach my next project.Report

  10. Reformed Republican says:

    Still reading War and Peace, though I made some good headway on my flights from Tampa to Houston and back. I think I will make an effort next weekend to do nothing but read.

    Over the weekend, I watched Platoon. That was a difficult movie to get through. When they were clearing out the village, after finding the guy with his throat slit, I gave serious consideration to turning it off and watching something else.

    I started watching Freaks and Geeks, though I only got around to watching the pilot. I will probably watch some more this week.

    My son and I also watched the first two seasons of Red vs Blue, a halo machinima. I had seen it before, and I figured he would enjoy it. He is finally old enough that I am finally willing to let him.Report