Signal Wave

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Good morning, all!

What I'm watching this week:

Arthdal_Chronicles.jpg

The Arthdal Chronicles depicts a fantasy world based on Korean prehistory, at the beginning of organized agriculture and something approaching a nation-state. I've been casting about looking for a new series since I exhausted the new season of Lucifer ; if I have one criticism of Netflix it's that they are a bit parsimonious when picking up these series. Given how incredibly popular Lucifer was, I think they could have done a few more than ten episodes. I tried the Lebanese noir show The Writer, the Turkish fantasy show The Protector, and several others, but none really took till The Arthdal Chronicles came along.

The show begins at the moment that one tribe decides to wipe out another with their equivalent of smallpox blankets, after making a pretense of negotiation (which was always in bad faith). The mastermind of the scheme is the young son of the tribal leader, Tagon, who seems to be more than a bit of a sadistic sociopath, though later you find out there are reasons for this that go back to his childhood.

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Meanwhile, a woman who is a member of the priest caste all unknowingly carries the smallpox blankets to the Neanthals. She also gets herself pregnant by one of them. Horrified by finding out she has been made an accessory to a cowardly, deceitful mass murder, she flees with her baby, down an impassable cliff, across something that looks like an acidic bog. She dies, but her child takes refuge with a people called the Wahan.

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Her child grows up a Wahan, and therefore, when Tagon and his conquerors come down the cliff on a mission of conquest, he becomes his enemy, with the help of a mythological horse.

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So far, it's good stuff. I recommend it.

What I'm reading this week:

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I'm still looking for a good new mystery series after having exhausted Broadchurch, Hinterland, River, and many, many others too numerous to mention. My appetite for mysteries and detective fiction is endless, but quality books and shows sadly aren't. My latest attempt at finding a new, good series is the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. The first book is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

The protagonist is a pre-adolescent girl smarter than her years, a character for which I always have a soft spot--though Martha Grimes did such a bang-up job of that character in Hotel Paradise that nothing else will probably ever live up to it. (The first line of the book: "My mother is not a Paradise." Read it. You won't be sorry). Anyway, Flavia de Luce is a little-regarded youngest sister in 1950s England whose mother died when she was a baby. She's also an amateur chemist. One day a corpse turns up in the garden patch just below her window. She's the one who finds the body--or, well, finds the dying man. He whispers Vale, or the Latin for "goodbye" to her, and we're off to the races.

Except that, well, the race is a bit more ponderous than I would like. Let's hope it picks up, because the character shows promise.

Here's one of my favorite clips from one of my favorite movies of all time--Strictly Ballroom. Just to give you all a little boost to start the week!

One of the most romantic things I've ever seen is Fran and Scott dancing in front of the giant Coca-Cola sign as the dawn breaks.

How are you all today?

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

Jimmy does a good job lampooning Rick Perry and "freedom gas" in this 5 min clip...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cUcG3AEqvU]

Hope you all have a nice Sunday!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace

is the one I keep watching, over and over, mainly because Stef Zamorano does a hilarious Neera Tanden impersonation. That's the one AspieCorner posted last week:

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

here this morning, but supposed to go to 72 later. Much to do outside, as usual, so off I go.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

I wish it only got up to 72 in the summer here...on the other hand, we don't usually get bad winters...

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
this is the tail of a three day cooling trend. We've been holding off bking for a couple of weeks now and it's been a real drag.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

Are you in the Southwest, or is this just global warming flexing its muscles?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
is quite rare and I think it's climate change because we had unusually wet Jan thru April.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
(VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK!)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQbf4vrVo8Q]

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

introduced me to Agatha Christie one summer.

To my surprise, my fourth grade teacher accepted Murder on the Orient Express as book report worthy. (I'd had some notion that the book had to be weightier to attain that status.) However, it was always more Sis's genre than mine. For pleasure reading, I liked biographies, autobiographies and other kinds of fiction.

Currently, however, I am Netflixing Midsomer Murders. Inasmuch as you are a mystery buff, you have no doubt seen as much of the series as has already aired. (I understand they are still filming!)

I am not sure if I care about the plots as much as I am taken with acting and with the villages in "Midsomer" County. (actually, Somerset). Although I doubt that I will follow up on it, this weekend, I actually googled cottages for sale in Somerset.

If any of our UK posters see this, I'd love to know what makes a British cottage a cottage, as opposed to a house.

Have an enjoyable Sunday and a good week, everyone.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace

Little known fact: In an early season episode, Orlando Bloom had an uncredited appearance as a chiseling schmuck who gets killed fairly quickly.

When John Nettles, the original Barnaby, leaves the show (after 13 seasons), the series becomes a lot less interesting to me. The detective sergeants stay good until Jason Hughes (Ben Jones) leaves. After that, I pretty much stopped watching.

But hey, 13 good seasons is pretty amazing!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

see a Nettles-free episode. However, as my first post stated his acting is among the reasons I got sucked into watching as much as I have. I am such an "originalist," though that I am still missing the humor that Sergeant Troy brought to the first six seasons. Oh, well, the English villages and cottages will be there until the series ends.

I've watched from the beginning, but missed spotting Bloom; and, shame on me, I don't read credits, even though a beloved family member of mine is a camera operator.

I have developed an compulsive inability to watch a series if I cannot watch from the very beginning. And, while I don't have a compulsion to binge watch, I do love to. So, Netflix and its ilk have been blessings.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

that Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce series, was 70 when he wrote his first Flavia book!

Just goes to show you that you shouldn't believe that old saw about how if you didn't start doing something in your twenties--or, more likely, when you were three--you might as well not try.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

one of my favorites too.

Paso doble!

So many wonderful scenes. I just watched Disqualification dance clip and got tears in the eyes. Never fails.

Thanks and best wishes.

https://www.miramax.com/movie/strictly-ballroom/

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@irishking

And it's great to "see" you, irishking.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver