Spyder

Venues - Ignite

Happy birthday, Hiro. Sorry I'm late! 

Bully - Running

I really wish the Steelers would try winning a game without it coming down to the last play . It doesn't seem like a lot to ask that there be a game every once in a while that doesn't stress me out.

It was 2-3 weeks ago now, but I saw Justice League and actually came out hopeful for the future of the DC movies. 

The Bugle podcast

Don't really do much in the way of live music, but I did get to see Chris Rock live back in May, which was awesome.

Toothache. I go fetal just thinking about getting kicked in the nuts.

Ume - The Task

o_O

My bad. Thought I had shared it with you guys before now. Have had it for 3-4 years now. 

The Mysterious Cities of Gold. My one true favorite. Everything else was just playing for second.

Well, the Steelers were bad, but at least they were playing a team that they could be bad against and still get a win. Thankfully it doesn't have to be pretty to count.

Pearl Jam - Black

@PyroCJ I'm adding you to the list of degenerates that have declared themselves as such in this thread.

I know the Steelers needed the bye week, but damn was Sunday kind of boring without them. Need that game I really feel invested in to make it feel like it's not just another day.

So, I was catching up on some articles, and I get around to something about a potential Lord of The Rings TV series that Amazon is trying to acquire the rights to make. This is all well and fine; I'm always up for giving a new show based on fantasy books a try. 

Now, that being said, it might be an unpopular opinion but I'm not a big fan of the books. The movies were entertaining enough and I know they had to pare down, streamline and remove sections of the story to make things work. So while it would obviously be retelling a story that I'm familiar with, there would probably be more meat on the bone with a TV series and it would, simply through time available to tell the story, be a "truer" adaptation of the story. I don't know that I would necessarily watch, but I'd at least give it a try.

However, in the article linked above, it's said that Amazon was eyeing Wheel of Time, which has been optioned for TV by Sony. Part of that is that Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is purported to be a big fan of SciFi and Fantasy fiction. He recently shuffled things up and sent down an edict that he wanted to do big, splashy TV shows with Amazon Studios rather than just doing a bunch of shows and hoping something happens to blow up. So the rights to a LoTR TV series are out there and not only would this be a big splash, but it's maybe the biggest name in fantasy (I guess there's an argument to be made that Game of Thrones, right now, is the biggest name in fantasy, but it's probably a 1A and 1B situation). And there's the rub: if you're going to do a catastrophic evil wants to destroy the world as we know it fantasy story, you want the biggest possible built in audience, potential story fatigue be damned. Obviously the most recent foray into the world was The Hobbit, but there were three of the damn things when all they really needed was and extra long one or maybe two. 

Now, I'm biased. WoT is my favorite fantasy series. If I had the time I'd reread the books every year. I have a a line from the books as a tattoo on my left arm (Sa Souvraya Niende Misain Ye). I really want there to be a good adaptation of the series on television. I know that changes would have to be made, that there's too much story to do a book by book adaptation; to start, you'd at least have to combine Crossroads of Twilight with Winter's Heart so that you have a coherent story.

Anyway, this all been a long way of saying the following: FUCK. 

And of course I know that Amazon isn't the only network that could do WoT. Sony has had a great working relationship with AMC here in the states, what with the success of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, so that could be an obvious outlet. But the reality is that WoT would, most likely, do better with somebody like Amazon because they aren't afraid to splash cash, and WoT would, in all likelihood, be an expensive adaptation, and the network has a history of (relative) stinginess with its biggest hit, The Walking Dead. Of course, this is me putting the cart way, way, way in front of the horse and worrying about problems I can only hope may occur, but it's part of why this is so damn frustrating.

I want to see a story I love get a real shot at a visual adaptation so that the characters, places and things I've had visualized in my mind for so long are on my TV screen. That's part of why I enjoy Game of Thrones so much! But that opportunity may be taken away, by a series that's already been adapted in a different, ridiculously popular iteration.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, LOTR, YOU HAD YOUR FUN, AND THEN YOU HAD SOME MORE FUN WITH YOUR PREQUEL. YOU AREN'T EVEN THAT FUCKING INTERESTING.* GIVE SOMEBODY ELSE A CHANCE TO PLAY.

*Opinions may vary, but I'm right about this.

The Jezabels - Come Alive

I mean, companies must think that the natural evolution of food, rather than making something well and sticking to it, is to make something ridiculous that garners headlines.

Headlines > Quality

Taco Bell with the Doritos Locos Tacos and the Naked Egg breakfast taco, for example, or perhaps the KFC Double Down. Or, the most obvious and egregious example in this eponymously named thread, Pineapple Pizza.

Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy

Thor Ragnarok - Hilarious movie. Easily my favorite of the Thor trilogy and maybe one of my favorite Marvel films.

DeShaun Watson tore his ACL in practice today. Blech.

Just a craptastic year for injuries. The game is just a war of attrition at this point. Last team with its stars intact gets the Super Bowl trophy.

White Lung - Below

Having internet on my computer again. It was a very expensive blu ray player the last couple days.

The Isley Brothers - Ain't I Been Good To You