For Great Justice

This Too Shall Pass

Stuff!

Posted on May 02, 2019
Categories: Code, General, Roleplaying, Vancouver — Tags: #pirates, #podcasts, #movies

I’ve done stuff lately, I swear. Totes! Totes!

Movies

Uh, I think I’ve watched one or two things…

Captain Marvel

It was OK. I have a hard time parsing my feelings for this one. On the one hand, I like that it wasn’t an explicitly feminist story — it was there, but more as subtext. And it was quietly radical to have women in so many of the lead roles. But on the other hand, I think her arc might’ve been stronger if the feminist themes were foregrounded.

(spoilers from here out)

There’s also an interesting anti-colonialist element. At one point she realizes the people she’s been working for are imperialists engaged in literal genocide. It’s pretty ballsy of Marvel to put out a movie where a white American woman realizes she’s complicit. (But we’re talking about aliens, so it’s OK. Don’t read the subtext.)

My biggest complaint is that the ending sucked. As soon as she got her powers, it should’ve been over. Keep her refusal to fight the guy, ax the stupid spaceship, done.

The Marx Brothers

I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the Marx Brothers before. Thanks to the Sneaky Dragon podcast’s Full Marx sidecast, I decided to give them a watch.

So, two things:

  1. I realized that I’d confused the Marx Brothers with the Three Stooges. I saw the latter group on TV when I was a kid and didn’t like them, which led to me avoiding the Marx brothers. Doh!
  2. I kinda get it. It’s actually funny. I can’t say The Cocoanuts is particularly great, but I really dug Animal Crackers. The brothers are incredibly talented (although it’s a pity that Zeppo doesn’t seem to get to do anything). There’s an anarchic spirit where I have no idea what’s going to happen next, but the plot doesn’t particularly matter so it’s all grand.

Performances

The Critical Hit Show

I love it so much. They reached seven years a few months ago, so I tweeted all this:

I think I’ve been to all their shows so far this year. Whee…

Critical Hit Show

Vancouver Theatresports

I’ve been back a couple of times, mostly with Gavin. The last show had a large (high school?) group from Alberta, to whom the performers shamelessly pandered. It’s good times!

Éveline

My cousin came to town and played a show! It was good stuff. Very… art-pop, I think that’s a genre. Think pop music, except harp-driven instead of guitar-driven. Check her out on Bandcamp.

Éveline and the band

Sarah Millican

Comedy show! English comedien! I swear half the audience were British. She mentioned Mark & Spencers and got a big “WOO!” from the audience, which… I guess if I were still in Dublin and saw a Canadian comedian in a crowd of Canadians, I’d probably cheer Tim Hortons and the Bay. It was still weird. But very funny.

Sarah Millican

Welsh Men’s Choir

Part of Celticfest. It was a good performance, but I couldn’t help but think that some of the songs were meant to be sung in the pub, not a fancy cathedral. There was one point that a fiddler, pianist, and singer got a sesh going, but it was more them performing for us versus anything communal, if that makes sense.

Still, good show!

Sean Mallen book reading

I got there late and missed most of it, but I had to go and pick up a copy. He was at Book Warehouse to promote his book Falling For London. A memoir (I’m not sure that’s the right genre, but close enough) about a Canadian’s experiences living overseas? Yes please.

(To my shame, I haven’t actually read it yet. It’s been a month. Oh, my backlog…)

Stuff

Pirates!

My gaming group had been alternating between two different campaigns, a D&D 5e game and a GURPS fantasy game. The DM for the latter game burned out (it happens), so, after saying I should do it for like a year, I finally offered to run a game. More specifically, I started running a pirate-themed adventure using the Savage Worlds system.

It’s going OK!

I’m definitely rusty, and there have been plenty of events that I wish I’d prepared more for, or done something differently. The group seems to be having a lot of fun. I get a little anxious while running things, but it’s also exciting.

I’m using

  • The Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorers Edition book I bought for seven quid at a games store in Cardiff back in, like, 2014.
  • The Lazy DM Guide. I’m actually using the practices from the revision, which came out last fall and thus not that long ago… but I also bought the first version, also back in 2014.
  • Advice from the Fear the Boot podcast, which I’ve probably been listening to since about 2014 (definitely from back in Ireland, anyway).

So when I say finally, I mean this has been nearly five years in the making.

game prep

Nodeschool

I’ve been going to Nodeschool meetups for a while. A few months ago I actually hosted one of the meetups at work. My experience was mostly going up and down the elevators repeatedly. It went well.

Snowshoeing

Work also took us all snowshoeing, which was my first time. Tiring, but fun.

Cycling

I didn’t manage to keep cycling to work last fall, but I’ve been making an effort to get back into the routine. And Gavin’s taken me out for a few rides, mostly along the seawall. It’s nice living somewhere with cycling infrastructure.

I made a snowman

Not a good snowman, but there was so much snow at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square when I was walking home one night, and I couldn’t help myself. It was frankly surreal making a snowman in the middle of city centre.

snowman