Friday, June 13, 2014

Week 1: Jeremy Watches Awesome Movies

I'm going to give this a try in celebration of a whole week completed of awesome movies and the frantic and crazy reactions that went along with them. This is just me talking about stuff from the week and various related thoughts. Everyone should comment on whether this post is something they'd like to see on occasion or if it's a total disaster that should go away and never come back, so I'll know whether the experiment works and what to do or not do in the future. Onward to my brain words!

Folks, I'm just in awe of some of the movies I've watched this week. Obviously we know where the crown goes, but let's not sell short the amazing, witty and I'm-totally-going-to-watch-it-again Princess Bride, the exceedingly entertaining Ghostbusters or the angry metal skeleton with a heavy accent that was Terminator. Everything that I watched this week, I enjoyed. Going forward I expect it'll be a while before something Star Warses me again, but now I have hope that some really amazing stuff is on its way.

The first week's been swamped with requests and recommendations. I'm impressed that there's just so much media that people are willing to stand behind. In the future I want to get more books (I have a Kobo now and it's an incredibly cool device), start trying video games and even get music recommendations. Eventually I'll start watching a TV series, too; Roomie has been hinting that I need to get into Star Trek.

Roomie tells me that I've got a lot more readers than I thought. He asked me to guess, and I figured 30-40 just based on the number of times I see a new name in the comments. "Higher." 50-60? "Higher." 100? Bit more than 100. he tells me. Folks. Folks. I'm so thrilled you don't even know. A little over 100 people actually taking the time to read all the crap that I write? There isn't a :D in the world big enough to show just how great that makes me feel. I'm not the most outgoing talker when it comes to offline, and I don't think I've ever had more than 20 people listening to me in one go. That would be for like class presentations, too, which doesn't count because nobody's really listening. Now I'm saying stuff and there's people who want to hear it... and lots of them! If my grin were any wider I think my face would stretch. I'm so glad you're all here and that I'm able to give you a little back of what you've given to me.

Movies and writing have been a great distraction from how crappy things are otherwise. Roomie's nice, but he's only here so often with work and life and shit. Lacy's over more often than anyone could ask and she's in touch through the day to deliver comments and things for me to respond to. I'm still stuck here, though, except when I have to go deal with more crap outside. I've gotta say, the thing nobody ever tells you about a cast until you get one is that you're just going to smell. Nobody says anything but I'm pretty sure they're just being nice, because I can practically feel myself just marinating in gross. You can't shower, you can't have a bath; your personal cleaning consists of have a washcloth, good luck. I'm lucky the setup of our washroom makes it convenient, because I could see this whole thing being hugely obnoxious to someone who can't sit in front of the tub near the faucet. Leaning's a bitch but that will turn around in time.

The other thing they forget to share? The flipping itch. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I've still got feeling in my legs, but holy balls and smoked herring I just want to jam every fork and knife in the place into the casts and rake all my cares away. It's a damn good thing they told me not to or holy hell the infections.

I'd just like to give a big shoutout to Roomie, Lacy, Kaito and Brian for helping out with general life upkeep crap - life just wouldn't be possible without some lended hands right now. I hope to get back into enough shape that I can pay you all back someday with heavy lifting or crafty puck stoppage. Probably the former.

Once I figure out how I want to do book, TV and/or video game reactions, I'll start posting those as a way to keep active with my brain during times when nobody's around to safety the movies. That reminds me, I promised a description of the whole "ritual" that goes on.

I guess a lot of my geek friends (and some of the supposed non-geeks) have had a lot of experience with spoilers (leaks) for plots and episodes and movies and even books. Roomie and Lacy are extra-vigilant to cover that angle for me. How it typically goes is that either a movie's already set up and I just have to press the Play button, or else they do the full ritual.

First, I'm not allowed to see the DVD case, because apparently those can spoil things. They don't tell me anything about the movie that I don't already know. For The Princess Bride, I was allowed to see the DVD menu and wasn't paying attention anyway, but thanks to a stray candy demon walzing through the Ghostbusters menu I'm now banned from even doing that without supervision. I saw the Terminator menu and it would have spoiled things for me too. Seriously, what is it with movie companies and thinking DVDs are only for repeat viewers? Roomie says they actually put a leak in the THX logo for Terminator 2, which is incredibly dumb on a whole new level. Is it like a sport to try and ruin things for people ahead of time? Is this deliberate, or just hugely short-sighted?

Anyway, this has been Some Wonderful Kind of Life. If you hated it, please be honest in the comments so I can make sure not to do it again. If you want me to do it again, tell me that. If you want me to do it again so you can hate it again, then... good for you? Anyway, thank you all, you're from good people, and I'm loving my pop culture baptism.

48 comments:

  1. I eagerly await your continued posts, and let me tell you, this sort of weekly retrospective is great!

    And good luck with the cast!

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  2. It's been funsies reading along.

    As for a recommendation, on the First Reactions some of the films people haven't seen in a while. So like in Star Wars making very pointed remarks about the scene especially as it gets setup is super helpful to know where you are in the plot. Terminator devolved pretty quickly into OMGOMGOMG at some points and that made it a bit harder to follow. Plus I don't have it memorized, unlike Star Wars =p

    Anyways, glad you're making the most of your situation to catch up on all the awesome you've missed out on and sharing your newfound enthusiasm with the rest of us!

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    1. I'll try to polish that up, as much as I can when a metal skeleton's all up in everyone's face like an analogy I don't know how to finish. Thanks for the tip!

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    2. I agree with Trevin, it was much easier to follow the plot in Star Wars. Otherwise, keep doing what you're doing, it's awesome!!!

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  3. Your enthusiasm has been so much fun to read, I can't even tell you. For 'Star Wars' in particular, since I knew it so well, it was like watching it again for the first time.

    I would echo Trevin's suggestion that it would be nice to have some sort of way to follow along with your comments, as people's familiarity with the movie will start decreasing. With Star Wars it didn't matter, but as you hit more obscure things, it'll become more helpful. But not required--it could easily become too much work, and thus not fun any more, and thus you stop, and that would be much worse than being slightly confused about where you were ;-) Maybe some dedicated geek out there could help annotate your posts with screenshots!

    As far as videogames go, maybe you could record yourself playing them, and post it to YouTube? Or play it on twitch.tv? People playing videogames on YouTube is a serious phenomenon; often called "Let's Play" videos.

    (And I'll reiterate: if you need a Steam copy of Portal, I have a giftable copy I've had for years that you're welcome to.)

    Good luck with the cast!

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    1. A practical suggestion: slide in those minor descriptions of what's going on in italics AFTER you watch the movie, so they don't interrupt your flow of thought.

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    2. If there were some thing that could like... note the time when I start typing, that would be incredible and fit the bill perfectly. Beyond that, I guess it's just on me to figure out.

      I'll take you up on that offer if it's still available after I've got the basics down. I'd like to start with something really basic just to get the idea.

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    3. Remember that "Let's Play" can also consist of text recaps of what you've played so far with screenshots of the highlights mixed in. That could be a good option for less action-heavy games if you feel it's not worth constant video recording.

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    4. Any IM program can note the time when you hit "enter", which in most cases is almost as good as noting the time when you start typing. If you want something arguably better, I wrote a Python script that I'll be posting online in a few days once it's polished. If you or somebody you trust can read Python code to verify that I'm not trying to hack you're computer, I'd recommend using that. If not, I'd recommend not running programs from some random stranger on the Internet unless you have a reason to believe they're safe.

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    5. I'm a little surprised your DVD player doesn't have a time-played display. That wasn't just a VCR thing, was it?

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    6. Plenty of DVD players or computer media programs show the time elapsed. The difficulty is with getting that into a text document without wasting time looking it up or putting extra effort into something other than watching the movie.

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    7. I'd have to be pausing constantly to jot those down. It would get old fast.

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    8. I was thinking of making a script like the one Daniel is writing, where you'd hit the start button when you start the movie, and every time you start typing something on a new line, it inserts the elapsed time in front of it. Once I see what Daniel's posted, I might try to modify it so it can output subtitles files. Then, you could upload those with your blog posts and people could "watch along with you"...your comments would be displayed as subtitles. I think it would bring this blog to the next level.

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  4. You MUST keep doing this. :^) It is awesome.

    Also, I bet you have thousands of readers at this point.

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    1. Oh I will. It's the best part of my day.

      Thousand's got to be an exaggeration, though. Maybe 200 at the ceiling but... I mean I can't even imagine a thousand people coming to read my stuff. I'd be thrilled if that was the case but I'm not worried about it. Quality over quantity almost any day (pizza is allowed exceptions from time to time, I have learned).

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    2. you maybe surprised. This has been posted to two huge link aggregators (reddit and MetaFilter) and was wildly favorited.

      PLEASE keep doing "State of the Noise" updates, too. I'll say it again, you're a great writer. You have the insight and skill to be a very good movie critic if it's something you want - you're picking up some 8th level ninja plot related themes, movie themes, etc... that are worthy of top critics AND your enthusiasm and lack of contempt for the genres makes it SO accessible to the laymen like myself.

      I'm 45 years old. I saw Star Wars for the first time as a grade schooler in the theatre. The combination of your wonderment and excellence at articulating the themes brings it all back to me as if I was back in 1977 in the theatre again.

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    3. You have 50,730 pageviews. That counts people who look at the same page more than once, I think, but is still impressive.

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  5. I am liking these brain-dumps. Carry on, and hope you get out of the cast soon.

    P.S. If I ever break something, I want one of these: http://www.evilldesign.com/cortex

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    1. That looks interesting. I don't get what it does, though.

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    2. I believe it's a cast, just like the one you're complaining about. Except not just like it, because this one is breathable (so less itching) and has holes so you can scratch the itches anyway. I wish I had that when I broke my arm.

      I was too young then to know not to touch the cast, so I pushed it up my arm to scratch the itch. Fortunately, I only did this late enough that my arm healed fine anyway.

      Does this exist now? Does it cost more than a regular cast?

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    3. Ohhhh that would just be the best thing. Would it be available for legs, though? I feel like sturdier stuff is needed for legs.

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  6. Know that while I'm not commenting I'm fascinated by your posts.... It's really fun to read the posts and visualize these movies I've seen so many times and try to see them thru your eyes.

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  7. I highly recommend Portal as the game to go with. Super fun and not super long.

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    1. Seconded. I've been trying to get my mom to play it but Steam doesn't like her. I'm going to somehow get it hooked up to the TV and just have her use my computer when I'm next home.

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    2. They're planning to start me with Super Mario Brothers.

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  8. Ordinary unspoiled "Where I Watch" threads are one thing. An almost completely sheltered pop-culture newbie such as yourself is something to treasure. :D

    On your level, so far as I know it's just you and a guy named Mark Oshiro who seems to be making a living from being PERPETUALLY UNPREPARED FOR EVERYTHING.

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    1. I'm glad there's more than one of me out there getting to catch up on such amazing things. Tell your friend Mark I said hi and isn't Star Wars amazing? If he's seen it, I don't know. If he hasn't he should :D

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    2. I think you'd like Mark, but don't seek his blog out just yet, he's seen things you wouldn't believe...

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    3. Mark Reads is good. The format's different, and I think he does more books than movies. He started with the Twilight saga, then did Harry Potter, then got his own site and did a whole bunch of things. I haven't looked at most of them because I haven't read/watched those things.

      I'm also starting a blog that does this (inspired by you and Mark): http://first-consuming.tumblr.com/about.

      I'm uploading my own Terminator post soon (I watched it so that I could follow your blog). I suggest you don't read it if you intend to watch more in the Terminator franchise, because I have spoilers for later movies that I mention in my "prior knowledge" post, and I don't know if they're all covered in Terminator 2.

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    4. I'm sure I would like Mark! Let him know that I'm going to catch up and then we can have a mutual WHAT THE AWESOME over one thing or another. It would be really fun to compare notes with someone else who's just gone through seeing something for the first time.

      Daniel: I'm glad I inspired you to join the fun. We're going to set up some pages on the blog for supplemental things; I'll tell Roomie to put your link in there for people who want to read more reactions. :D

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  9. Yes, I think watching you do a "Let's Play" of Portal and Portal 2 would be awesome.

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  10. Just wanted to drop by to say I'm loving your watch-along notes, and general recaps and musings like this post are very welcome too.
    And like others have said, the combination of your enthusiasm, and lack of fore-knowledge is what sets these apart from the myriad of other review blogs. Keep having fun with it :)

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  11. The weblog Metafilter has ~20,000 regular users and over 100,000 occasional readers, and they're talking about you (http://www.metafilter.com/139791/Already-stoked-and-nothing-is-happnSHIP-LASERS) -- so yeah, I would imagine you have far more than "just over 100" people reading your words. They might not be commenting, but they're reading....

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  12. BTW - if you read that Metafilter thread, don't be disheartened by the cynics -- Metafilter has been through a lot of "we got taken in by people making things up on the internet" things over the past decade-plus that they've been around, so there are a lot of very wary adults there (also they can't imagine a world without Star Wars because they are all older and saw it when it came out). It's also very US-centric, and "The Dambusters" is not as ubiquitous in the US as it is in Canada and England and so on, so that's why some of them are skeptical. If you read all the way through, you'll see that you have lots of people who totally get you and are enjoying what you do and think this whole experiment you've taken on is terrific. Your joy and excitement at all of these movies is keeping me reading. I probably won't comment more after this, but you should definitely know that lots of people, young and old, are reading this and are thrilled by it.

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  13. The numbers are going to be going up. I only just found out about what you're doing, and have been loving this, and have been passing around this blog, to various friends of mine -- some of whom have fairly large readerships of their own.

    The thing about geek fandoms is that, well, we're FANS. And, as much as we love the work ourselves, and always will, there's something very special about the first time you encounter something you're going to love.

    And the only thing that's better than encountering something you love for the first time is watching someone else encounter it for the first time and fall in love with it.

    It's a risk, reading this blog. What happens if you watch something I love and you HATE it? Or, even worse than hating it, you just go, "Meh, whatever." But the payoff is worth it. If it turns out that you love this, and I get to watch you fall in love with something I love, like STAR WARS, I get both the memory of falling in love with it to start with, and also the joy of sharing it.

    I once was watching a production of Hamlet, and the person in front of me had never seen or read it before. And watching HER react to it was even better than watching the play itself. And things like Shakespeare, and like Star Wars, are so embedded in our culture that we rarely get to watch people encounter them for the first time.

    And that makes it great.

    I hope you continue to fall in love with these works. I hope you continue to fall in love with the same works I fall in love with. I hope that, if you DON'T love something, you HATE it passionately, because that's better than being bored by it.

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    1. I'll be honest: I know at some point I'm not going to like something that gets recommended to me. I'm determined to be fair and truthful when that happens and not hold anything back. If it spoils it for people... well I hope that doesn't happen, though I doubt anything I say about a movie at this point will be new or worldshattering.

      Now I liked Hamlet; we read it in Grade 12 and they had us do an assignment where we had to write in the voice of the character, and I had this clever "false true parent" line where I told off Hamlet's mom for going along with Claudius. I know like... three Shakespeare plays. I mean I know the gist of Romeo but we never did it in school. We covered Caesar, Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet across three grades. Something to catch up on, then :D

      I'm an excitable guy. On the ice I'm always just GO GO GO even though I'm the stationary one, but it's just this incredible drive and energy that propels me. Like, I feel so much more TIRED these days just from having to heal up; I eat pizza and ice cream and pasta and I'm still visibly down from my normal weight. When I've got something to do, though, something I can get engaged with, it gives me a jolt of energy. There were parts in Star Wars where I was literally rubbing my hands together with sheer unmitigated glee.

      I feel like I got off topic there but the point is that I love that I'm enjoying these stories, and I love that there are people out there getting a kick out of that. I hope the recommendations to come are even half as good as this week was. :D

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  14. By the way, I shared your blog on Reddit, so be prepared for a bunch of new visitors.

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    1. That's exciting! 200 here I (hopefully) come! :D

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  15. Wow, I had not realized that the reason you have time to watch movies nonstop is that you have a major injury! Best healing wishes!

    I meant to ask -- have you studied music? I have rarely heard people analyze movie scores as you do.

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    1. Yeahhhh I'm not in the best of shape right now. I spend a lot of time reminding myself that it could have been much much worse.

      I haven't "studied" music per se; my grandmother and her brothers and sisters and actually all of my aunts and uncles, come to think of it, are all really musical people. They're in church choirs and they all play the piano really well. I play a little, but I don't have the greatest manual dexterity. What I do have is perfect pitch and an ear for music, so I can plink out tunes with two fingers. Nan's just the most wonderful lady. I inherited her passion for music as a thing to enjoy. Wish I had gotten her passion for music as a thing to do, but everyone can't be good at everything.

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  16. "A little over 100 people actually taking the time to read all the crap that I write?"
    This is a cherry popping, so of course it draws interest. Also you write entertaining things and we like reading them.

    -Anonyman

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  17. You really should go with your roomie's suggestion and watch Star Trek. Star Wars and Star Trek are both major contributors to popular culture, and are often considered the classic example of dueling franchises; Star Wars is lighter on the sci-fi, more action-fantasy-in space, more romantic; Star Trek is more classic sci-fi, more grounded in science, more philosophical. To really "get" geek culture, it is essential to watch both.

    I would recommend starting with the original 1960s Star Trek, then the first six movies, then The Next Generation, then the rest of the movies. As for the rest, I would definitely recommend Deep Space Nine for a darker and grittier look at the same universe.

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  18. Maybe the original "Planet of the Apes" should be on your list? Not sure if the surprise in that one has already been ruined for you or not, but if Luke Skywalker's parentage was still a surprise, then it seems possible. And it's another famous movie that gets referenced a lot.

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  19. I like these digest/wrap up posts. Keep doing it, as it'll be interesting to see the rapid expansion of your pop-cultural awareness. It'll be especially interesting to see your awareness of the internal consistency of these films grow - the way they refer to each other. You're getting a hell of an education.

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  20. this is beyond entertaining and now I just want to watch a lot of this stuff over again, and have some new ones. Sorry your legs itch, good luck!

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  21. I should really get some sleep, but I can't stop reading your blog. It is an amazingly fun adventure. All of the things you have watched so far are things I have seen so many times, I have almost forgotten how great they are and why they gripped me in the first place.

    Thank you for reminding my why all of these things have been such a big part of my life. In a way, I am jealous that you get to do this, all in a big festival sort of way for the first time. It is just amazing and I love every article. Keep going, and cherish the fun and amazement. And thank you for sharing it all with us.

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