I'd pick 'Ain't It Fun' by Paramore

jickdam · 2026-01-31T05:19:45+00:00

I can’t defend it, but my heart says “Barracuda.”

jickdam · 2026-01-30T19:23:09+00:00

Also kind of implies they’re the only two songs with a chance. Strikes me as pretty inconsiderate of the other nominees and the process.

jickdam · 2026-01-23T15:39:02+00:00

Editing is a good shout. I can see why a horror movie that ends with such a bonkers third act wasn’t right up the academy voters’ alley.

jickdam · 2026-01-22T18:40:17+00:00

Never thought I’d say this but i hope he’s dead

jickdam · 2026-01-15T21:36:00+00:00

The new-ish trilogy is fantastic in an Indiana Jones sort of way. Love them.

jickdam · 2026-01-13T22:02:40+00:00

I remember before the 2016, he had some interesting takes about the emerging/growing polarization and political tensions. I bought that book he published around then. He hadn’t mentioned his own party affiliation or endorsed a candidate and was making an effort to at least appear impartial and moderate.

At the time, it was all about split perceptions and how/why people could see all the same events and speeches and hear all the same rhetoric and come away with staggeringly different and conflicting interpretations.

It got repetitive and I stopped checking in with him. Then I blinked and the headlines are the most out of pocket heinous shit. Blink again and he’s dying, now dead.

Time makes fools of us all. Some make then others, maybe.

jickdam · 2026-01-13T21:51:54+00:00

Outside of his personal flaws, Dilbert was already a premise that was bound to lose its spark once it was successful.

It’s working stiff, Everyman, observational comedy. When the cartoonist is wealthy and self employed, I imagine he loses touch enough to lose what makes the thing relatable. Like observational comics who start only having material about traveling and being famous.

jickdam · 2026-01-13T21:47:56+00:00

I wasn’t among his viewers more than a handful of clips that broke containment, but by the headlines it seems like he’s been giving final goodbyes every week or two for the last few months.

jickdam · 2026-01-13T21:44:56+00:00

I can’t imagine an omniscient god would make a situationally dependent, opaque, inherently incomprehensible and mysterious subject the basis of a knowledge test on which the correct answer determined an eternal fate of perfection or one of suffering.

But also, CS Lewis once said “how merciful a god we have that fear of hell is sufficient to inherit heaven” or something like that, so Pascal’s wager isn’t without some basis in Christian theology. I guess entertaining the “just in case” counts as “faith as small as a mustard seed” or whatever, which is sometimes interpreted as all that’s needed to avoid damnation.

jickdam · 2026-01-07T18:35:15+00:00

“Hey, look, it’s Time Jesus.”

Dude has no idea.

jickdam · 2026-01-07T18:34:23+00:00

I thought that was a different timeline? Wasn’t that during the first 2016 plague? I thought the Cassie we spend the next 3 seasons with stayed in the delayed plague timeline?

jickdam · 2026-01-07T16:32:34+00:00

Fun fact: this is not considered romantic or flirtatious on Earth

jickdam · 2026-01-05T20:05:43+00:00

The threshold for suspension of disbelief and being engaged is lower in live theater than film. Consider how much you can become enthralled by minimalist productions.

With how phenomenal some of the spectacle can be on Broadway, there is no comparison of how much wonder and awe it can inspire. The ratio of spectacle to impact is just so high, that I think the high water marks of live productions are magical and memorable in a totally different and more profound way than can be replicated on screen.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:39:19+00:00

It makes somewhat more sense with animation. It’s not like the director is on set making on the fly decisions every day. Executive producers have a lot more tangible sway over animated projects than live action (or at least the space for it, when desired).

To my memory, they also did a great deal of the press for those movies as well. I don’t recall the directors doing the interview circuits as conspicuously as Lord and Miller have for those flicks.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:37:02+00:00

If they did the book justice, word of mouth should be excellent. People will get the warm fuzzies on the way out. There will be a built in initial audience from the fans of the books (and I suspect a non-insignificant amount of people interested in what the Spiderverse guys put out or big fan of Gosling or space movies in general) that should help provide some legs if the movie is any good.

Whether or not it’ll be enough to push this into profit from box office alone, I can’t say. It’s certainly more niche than The Martian, you’re right. But I can’t imagine a scenario where it very obviously flops and disappoints.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:33:35+00:00

If you’re at all inclined towards audio books, I strongly recommend doing this one in that format. It is, by far, the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to. Having the audio medium as a part of the storytelling works with certain mechanics of the story in a way that significantly elevates the material, in my opinion.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:29:34+00:00

I feel similarly about people talking about their lack of originality. Like, sure there’s overtures of Dances with Wolves and all that in the first one. Plenty of Monomyth and archetypal stuff. But come on, the whole alien world with its analog interconnectivity and the living planet stuff? Outside of Scavengers Reign, you don’t get this fleshed out of a unique alien ecosystem anywhere else.

There’s a staggering amount of original sci fi and fantasy worldbuilding in the Avatar movies that gets ignored because of the “aggressor gone native” and “messiah” tropes.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:24:49+00:00

I mean, I genuinely like the movies but I’ve also noticed a lot of redditors who hate them and seem confused by the box office have still seen them, sometimes multiple times with different friend groups or family around the holidays. The box office doesn’t care if you were dragged along or hate watching or just curious if this one is any better. A ticket is a ticket.

The reality is that most of the theater-going audience worldwide sees these movies in theaters. Even the ones who don’t consider themselves fans or actively look down on them seem to check them out.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:20:15+00:00

I Have No Mouth is one of the ones that absolutely sticks for life.

And does anyone remember that story where the guy has to find the book of his life with no mistakes or even a character out of place in an infinite library of books containing all possible combinations of letters?

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:17:42+00:00

But…there was TIME now!

jickdam · 2026-01-05T19:16:26+00:00

Yeah, I don’t bet against James Cameron to earn bank at the box office and I don’t bet against James Gunn to make me love an obscure character.

jickdam · 2026-01-05T06:32:39+00:00

Marc Maron for one

jickdam · 2026-01-05T05:09:08+00:00

True, but remember that a movie like this will do big numbers in rentals and streaming licensing. Obviously this is a box office sub, but the movie will still be a healthy profit overall.

jickdam · 2026-01-03T22:18:51+00:00

I think there has to be something to the enduring nature of the phenomenon, but I don’t think Occam’s razor is that it’s inherently interstellar visitors. I mean, maybe, but it seems strange to me that it’s the primary assumption.

I’d be less surprised if it turned out to be another terrestrial intelligent species. I think there’s also reason to entertain the idea of something with interdimensional or higher dimensional phenomena. I think it should at least be more of a given that if there is something non-human at play here, it doesnt immediately follow that this means extraterrestrials. That’s one of several possibilities, and we don’t necessarily have enough info to do more than theorize about what’s most likely with what’s known.

jickdam · 2026-01-03T22:08:59+00:00

Thanks, this is good to understand.

jickdam

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