Daily Entertainment

[thisisnotajournal]

First, some housekeeping! Don's elected to hand over DE responsibilities for the foreseeable future to yours truly, so I'll be doing them all week now instead of just Monday-Wednesday.

Second, the DE itself!

-I got nothin'.

Canon recommendation time! What're we watching, what're we reading, what're we liking?

Comments

[thisisnotajournal]

I've worked my way through Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood over the past few weeks. And, you know. Not bad. Akira is up next.

I also watched Seven Samurai, Moneyball, and Grave of the Fireflies, and am splitting the remainder of my free time between reading Matterhorn, The Killer Angels, and Heart of Darkness.

Of these, about the only ones I wouldn't recommend are Grave of the Fireflies (because I can only see a toddler be a toddler for so long and to no apparent end before it starts to grate on my nerves) and Heart of Darkness (because Marlow is one of those cunts that's in love with the sound of his own voice).

I'd particularly recommend Moneyball if you're looking for a good underdog story, and Matterhorn if you're looking for a good war story.

[tu_vas_triompher]

....well i mean

there's, uh. definitely an end with the toddler in Grave of the Fireflies.

[annalalaith]

Cowboy Beebop and Trigun are the only two anime that I can stand in English. Also, two of my favorites.

[1nv1nc1ble]

I'm about halfway through "K," and it's intriguing. If you've got Netflix, I recommend watching the first episode.

The Stories of Vlad Taltos. If I were a good enough writer, I would have apped Vlad a long time ago. Stephen Brust writes brilliant banter and his world is wonderfully built, and every book brings more interesting things into it. As an added joy, the Khaavren Romances quintology is Brust retelling The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne as set in his fantasy setting.

[bjornwilde]

K is interesting and seems like something I should be all over. I think I am having trouble with all the dramatic posing. :p

And highly seconding the Vlad Taltos! I may have thought of Sethra a time or two.

[sdelmonte]

Reading: DC Comics came of its move to LA with a revamped lineup, and a lot of really good comics (so far). Grayson was great before the revamp, and remains great, a fun mix of spy thriller and Comic With Dick Grayson. Grayson co-writer Tom King also has a stunning new space opera comic revamping the 80s title, The Omega Men. This one is a bit complex, and operates with a lot of shades of gray, and is informed by King's years with the CIA. (If you thought a former CIA man would see the world in black and white, think again.) Both boast stunning art as well. Other DC books worth noting are Batman, Black Canary, Red Hood and Arsenal, Secret Six (by Gail Simone, but radically different than the previous series) and Constantine: Hellblazer.

In terms of words without pictures, Brandon Sanderson is king. His Cosmere books - the Mistborn trilogy and its pseudo-Western sequel, the Stormlight Archives books, Warbreaker - and his YA series, The Reckoners, are all amazing. And he tends to have a new book in one series or another every six months.

IF you like history, I have to recommend Ben McIntyre, who specializes in the history of spies, and Erik Larson, whose newest book is about the sinking of the Lusitania.

Watching: Current series I love are iZombie, The Flash, Arrow (even after a down year), and Elementary. I am also making my way through Ken Burns's 14-hour series on the Roosevelts, a worthwhile if perhaps too admiring watch for history buffs. Also about to finish up my rewatch of the original four seasons of Futurama.

[sunbaked_baker]

I have Erik Larson's new book on my To-Read list. Love his style. I highly recommend Erik Larson's thoroughly haunting Isaac's Storm, as well, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.

[sunbaked_baker]

I've been on a short fiction kick lately. I recently bought To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix, and Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning, and then made the mistake of reading Neil Gaiman's book first. The fantastic quality of each short story in that book had me needing to tell people about them after I finished each one. Now I'm having to fight to finish Garth Nix' book of short stories simply because they don't shine as bright, which is unfair of me. He has some cool ones, though, and most contain enough world-building that I really want him to expand them into full novels.

I'm also one season into Vikings, and am loving it. ^_^

[gods_that_haunt_me]

I'm also one season into Vikings, and am loving it.

\o/

[athelstanthescribe]

*beams*

It only gets better.

[athelstanthescribe]

Also, Athelstan's EP is still open if you want to send him a Sunshine. Whichever EP you prefer, the dramatic one or the quietly hiding in a corner one.

[lunamystic]

I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and I'm not loving it as much as I feel like I should. It's clever and all, but I can't seem to get past the complete lack of women, except for the spoiler spoiler in the spoiler, which made me livid. If you have read this book, I bet you can guess what I mean there! *grumps* Tony assures me it gets better and that I will love the pirates in book two.

Maybe I'm meh about it because I am eagerly awaiting ALL THE BOOKS coming out this fall. I might have a list in my journal, because I am ridiculous. XD

BUT. I read Uprooted by Naomi Novik recently and really loved it. And I'm digging the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Highly recommend both!

Alex is visiting and is FORCING me to watch the TERRIBLE, and by terrible I mean terribly wonderful, series Moonlight. Vampire PI Mick has a lot of FEELINGS, the hot news show is broadcast on the Internet, webcams are enormous, and I'm pretty sure the nice cop is going to get eaten. She also brought BSG, possibly as a palate cleanser. (No, really. This show is so bad. I love it.)

[annalalaith]

>.> I love the show too, I have it on DVD. Moonlight that is.

[ceitfianna]

The second book is better. I struggled through the first part of Locke Lamora as it didn't seem to have its feet and then it caught me. I love the world building and characters and the second book has many, many more women, the third finally has Sabetha but is uneven. I like Lynch's ideas, but wish he was better.

Uprooted was fantastic. I had to finish it in one gulp as it was due at the library and I still think about it sometimes. Great book.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Netflix, it turns out, has the original Battlestar Galactica available on streaming. I've been watching that. I'm oddly happy with small details like 'oh hey, people in different job functions and different parts of the ship have uniforms more visibly distinguishable than just a tiny marking on their shirts' and 'hey, they have fire extinguishers!'. I'm also starting to get curious about neo!BSG folks' reaction if someone like original!Tigh or original!Boomer were to walk into the Bar.

[bcgphoenix]

....ahahahahaaaaaa.

Gaeta would...hell, I don't even know how he'd react. He's got some idea of the whole "stories bleed across universes" thing, so he'd probably see it as his universe getting a bit lost in translation as its story bled into another world. BUT IT WOULD BE SO WEIRD.

And he'd also take out some of his frustrations re: his Tigh on classic!Tigh, sry2say

(I'm also imagining his reaction to classic!Baltar, which I think would boil down to "stare a lot, immediately regret going sober because he needs to down a full bottle of wine to wipe that memory away.")

[sdelmonte]

Ah yes, the show that gave us "By Your Command," Dirk Benedict's Han Solo impersonation, and Fred Astaire's weirdest role.

[alexiscartwheel]

I read Patrick Ness's new book The Rest of Us Just Live here yesterday, and holy crap was that a book that was exactly what I wanted it to be. It's a super-genre savvy YA about the kids in a Sunnydale like town who aren't part of the Scooby Gang, but still have there own problem, some of them more pressing on a daily basis than "is the high school going to blow up."

Moonlight is, in fact, terrible. It's a fanfiction.net vampire fic come to life... on CBS.

At home I've been rewatching Leverage, which has become a comfort food sort of show for me. I love watching the team grow into a family. While planning heists!

[annalalaith]

I've been watching True Blood last week or so. It started out of severe boredom on my days off. To be honest I wasn't sure I liked it through the first 3 seasons. It hit me as Twilight for adults. Then it started to get interesting, and OMG I am almost done with it. I do plan on reading the books when I get a chance.

I have also been watching Wayward Pines, The Whispers, and Hannibal. I can't wait for a new season of Vikings.

I reread Gloomcookie. I love that comic, it is just so old I can't replace the volumes of the graphic novel I have without Amazon. I have ordered them, just to let you know. (also, my cat just licked my toes. He might be hungry, I should feed him.)

On the Vinland Viking front, I still don't have a name. Antler is very very hard to deal with; I am messing everything up. Oh, and I am weaving a belt. I still need to spin more yarn, though I might just go buy some wool yarn of the correct color to save on time.

[lazy_but_loyal]

True Blood is much better as just the Pam & Eric Show, but I may be biased :p

[yakalskovich]

I'm still doing the Les Misérables read-through on Tumblr; in addition to that, I have recently read the 'Magpie' series by KJ Charles, and the first Auntie Lee whodunnit by Ovidia Yu, with the second one waiting on my Kindle app for my next longer bus ride.

In June, I got myself an Amazon Fire TV Stick, which means that lots of nice canon are now on tap, so to speak, for free -- they were before, but I didn't really have anything to watch it on. So, since then, I've been mainlining a number of interesting canons -- all of 'Turn', the first four seasons of 'Downton Abbey', 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell', and quite a lot of NCIS.

[astrangebell]

\o/

[bjornwilde]

Comics: Wayward (Image comics) is a great urban fantasy set in Tokyo which seems to treat the Japanese folklore with respect. DC Bombshells (DC Comics) great and wonderful Elseworlds type thingy. Loving it so far.

Books: Just about to finish the latest in the Kate Daniels world and dang but these guys write good. About to read God's War, which I am looking forward to. I have been trying the diverse reads since March and so things have been challenging but I've mostly had good success.

Anime: Season two of Knights of Sidonia is on Netflix. Yes, the humor can be middle school, but the sci ii & horror elements make up for it, imho.

I've also picked up Monster Musume which is trash and definitely aimed at middle school boys, but I love it just the same. I wish the monster girls did more than chase the boy around though, as I find the premise fascinating.

I've also been consuming all things Appleseed. If you've never read the manga or watched the animes, give them a chance. Great cyberpunk!

[bjornwilde]

ALso Gatchaman Crowds is fun, though it's wacky filter is set a bit high for my regular consumption.

And Steven Universe is a thing everyone should watch.

[guppy_sandhu]

Thanks to Don for doing the DE for so long :)

[dejah_thoris]

This deserves a post of it's own!

[nocarename]

I'm fresh back from the local anime convention, and so have something to contribute here.
Looked Interesting: Bride of Deimos (in the manga grab bag from the vendors, so we'll see how that goes), Sound!: Euphonium (On Crunchyroll. It's a concert band anime. The sound of tuning and warming up drew me in), and Shinju: Secret of the Stellar Wars (My soft spot for a protagonist who is not only in over his head, but knows it and is going to try anyway was hit. Also the meta awareness that comes from having a character notice the protagonist's asides to the audience and as 'Your brother is weird!')
Down voted: Strike Witches. Too many crotch shots, not enough aliens being blown up and hi-jinx under taken.

I spent a lot of time in the AMV and cosplay tracks, and less on the screenings.

[annalalaith]

Noca!!!!

[tu_vas_triompher]

Let's see! A few long bus trips helped me finish reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, huzzah! And um, I've been on a binge of watching all the productions of Henry IV, pt 1 that my library system will let me get my hands on. Shhh. Don't judge me.

Aaaaand I watched High Noon for the dozenth-or-so time!

[harryhotspur]

AHH WAIT you finished???

[inlovewithwords]

Watching: I have started going through all the Treks except original flavor because I do not believe I can handle The Shatner. And, well, I gotta admit, while there are many things about the show that annoy me, I think that Voyager is my favorite for content (even if Scott Bakula renders arguments invalid, and Patrick Stewart renders all arguments invalid especially when given excuses to quote Shakespeare for no good reason, best thing).

Also been watching a lot of Clone Wars and just started Rebels. In love.

And a re-watch of Babylon 5. So many feelings. So many.

Reading: In general I have some recs. In today's mood, I'd say yay Jo Walton, and to go read Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and its sequel. Oh, and Gwenda Bond's book Fallout (Lois Lane) which is the first of at least two is hilarious, adorable, and brilliant. I read Brian Staveley's books, which... were fine, standard high fantasy fare, I think I like the author more than I like his work. Kind of disappointed in Charlie Stross' most recent Laundry book. And by the way, for those of you playing at home, I'm about to pick up October Daye series next. But I have a very serious recommendation to make:

Max Gladstone.

He is without question my favorite author at the moment. I mean, I'm biased because he's local and an awesome guy. He also happens to be deeply aware of things, and he writes truly fantastic people of gender, sexuality, religion, color, culture, and class of all kinds.

The premise of his Craft sequence is "What if AIG et al were pagan gods?"/the observation that the true black magic of our time is economics and finance law, so everything is contracts, bargaining, and mastermind plots with demons, undead skeleton capitalist lawyer or CEO archmages, lightning bolts, and sometimes dragons and such thrown in.
- Book one: Three Parts Dead is about bankruptcy
- Book two: Two Serpents Rise is risk management
- Book three: Full Fathom Five is off-shore banking
- Book four: Last First Snow is slum development negotiations and riots.

It's semi-alt-Earth, semi-high fantasy. Not high fantasy epic like Sanderson, not quite urban fantasy, but an interesting place between the two. Also, he happens to be a phenomenal wordsmith. So that is my rec, because he is super-fun and amazing.

[bjornwilde]

I've been wanting to read THree Parts Dead for some time now. Glad to see a recommendation for it. =]