I spoke too soon...
Good times were still had nonetheless
I lost my job
At the beginning of the month I was notified that I had been laid off from my job. Maybe it was the anti-depressants I was taking, but I feel like I took the news pretty well, all things considered. I was coming up on my 5th anniversary of working for this particular company and had gone almost 2 years without a significant raise in pay and my team was bounced around to 3 different managers in as many years. I’m kind of glad to be moving on, but I can’t deny that the perks of working there will be missed.
Luckily after only 2 weeks of searching I have been offered an opportunity to return to my old position at a previous employer. I’ll be back in the company of familiar faces, in a setting that I worked in for 12 years prior. Fingers are crossed that things haven’t changed too much.
An Evening with David Byrne
This last weekend my wife and I took a trip down to The Anthem in Washington, DC to see David Byrne perform on his Who is the Sky? tour. We had pretty great seats up in a balcony box on the third floor with a great view of the stage.
His show was very unique in that his backing band (Ghost Train Orchestra) played a mobile arrangement with all members wirelessly dancing and playing along on stage. The stage was outfitted with an 180-degree backdrop that accompanied each song with neat artistic videos and scenes. He played a lot of Talking Heads songs, but I even enjoyed his solo stuff that I wasn’t familiar with. There was always something cool to look at even if the music wasn’t getting me.
What I watched
The Naked Gun
A comedic breath of fresh air that hearkens back to the days when broad comedies actually had jokes and gags. This Liam Neeson-headed reboot of the classic spoof series has more jokes per minute than physically possibly to perceive. Without a doubt this will end up on my best of the year list.
Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut
This one has been on my bucket list to watch for several years now, but I never had the time to devote to the 3-hour epic tale of 12th century Jerusalem and the crusades. Honestly, I was a bit let down by this one because of how overstuffed and kind of hard to follow it was. At times I felt like the story would better be absorbed in print form.
The Long Walk
Finally, the long-awaited adaptation of my favorite novel is here, and it (mostly) didn’t disappoint! The strongest point here is the casting, which nailed the troupe of boys perfectly. No notes at all on that (specifically going to praise Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, and Charlie Plummer). My only rub is that they needlessly changed the ending, which is arguably my favorite part of the novel, and undercut a main character’s entire development.
Dangerous Animals
A serial killer abducts and feeds his victims to sharks. Jai Courtney absolutely holds this entire movie on his back and it’s actually a pretty goofy and entertaining watch. It takes some pretty stupid turns, but it’s half-winking at the camera most of the time so I give it a pass.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
What a huge let-down for me. I was eagerly awaiting the Fantastic Four’s entrance into the MCU because of the numerous times it had been botched in the past, but what I got was a very benign and uninteresting take that I honestly may have liked even less than the 2015 Josh Trank attempt. The casting just felt very flat and uncharismatic and the story beats felt chopped and screwed to the point where the first third felt like a recap of movies we never got.
What I played
Hollow Knight: Silksong
I only got a few hours to put into this before my Game Pass subscription ran out, but yeah it felt like a slightly more (fr)agile Hollow Knight. I never got too far in the original game because I was really bad at it and pretty much the same thing happened here. Maybe one day I’ll pick it up on a sale on Switch and play it all the way through.
Silent Hill f
I think I’m about halfway through the game at this point. From reviews that I’ve seen, there is supposed to be a pretty substantial change in the narrative coming up, but I don’t think I’ve hit it yet. I can see peoples’ issues with the increased focus on combat this time around, but it’s also not bothering me too much. I care more about the puzzles, which are satisfyingly creepy. Still not entirely sure what is going on in the story though.
Hades II
The same day that Silent Hill f dropped, Hades II had its soft-launch on the Switch. I had already purchased this on PC in early access, but I enjoyed the first game on Switch so much that I figured I’d pick it up there as well. It feels great and looks surprisingly awesome on the Switch 2. Along with my new dbrand Killswitch case/grips this is the perfect handheld game to play right now.
Adding these movies to Oct tbw. fun reviews!