Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves

broderic on April 7, 2023

Should I start watching movies again? It’s a question I ask myself all the time especially when I am sitting home bored out of my mind. I guess I’ll go check what’s playing at the local cinema on this holiday weekend.

Well lookee here! Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves!

It’s something.

Because I needed to watch something, I ended up watching this. It’s a mindless caper set in the D&D world. It was a classic caper for a small band of adventurers to steal the macguffin in order to do the thing that advances the plot towards the end. Like a game of D&D, there was plenty of random stuff happening — plans made, plans failed. If you need it to happen, role the dice it happened.

Chris Pine was classic smug Chris Pine. Michelle Rodriguez was classic Letty mode but with an axe. The group also had a wizard and a shape-shifting druid. Fun was had and the adventure was completed.

I too had fun. It isn’t the perfect movie per se, but it satisfies the itch to go to the theatre and gobble a bucket of popcorn for about 2 hours.

3 of 5 stars.

Go Stream De la Soul

broderic on March 3, 2023

De la Soul, that most famous of rap groups, is now streaming. Fire up your favorite streaming service and give them a listen.

Me? I’m gonna pop in my disks and listen to them on physical media. You should, too. Go out and buy their CDs or vinyls or whichever way you enjoy analog sounds.

Reminds me of a story…

You see my original CD of 3 Ft. High and Rising was all scratched up. I bought it again sometime in the early 2000. I may buy it again in! Anyhow, go listen.

3 Is The Magic Number

broderic on February 12, 2023

Darnit. Time moves forward and it robs us of some of our favorite people. RIP Dave AKA Trugoy.

De La Soul had some of the finest rap albums ever and Plug 2 Trugoy was right there with some of the best lyrics. I can not express how much I loved their albums. This one is tough.

We’re all aging. Some of no longer. De La 4 Ever. Plug 2 out.

アトノマツリ

broderic on December 13, 2022

From their 31st single, a unit song with the rappers, Kitagawa and Hayashi. The arrangement to this song is unlike any other in Nogizaka’s catalog. Normally, it’s a through line from member to member.

This one’s set up like a classic R&B, hip-hop song from the 90s. Plus also has a bit of lofi sound to it.

I didn’t think it was written by their old AF producer, but I guess it was. I thought the rapper pair wrote it out and the lyrics to to chorus was added in. I wonder if that’s how this happened?

Anyhow, I think it’s my favorite this year…

Mt. Fuji (Extended Edition)

broderic on October 20, 2022

This is the extended edition to the previous post. Most likely it’s the one they watched in studio. Surprisingly, this is the first of its kind from the show — a long, uninterrupted journey with the members. It’s also the first time I believe we’ve really gotten an extended glimpse of these newest members. Again, their effort really makes me happy. If you’re not a fan after this, I don’t know if you have a heart.

Fujisan

broderic on October 16, 2022

Well the rumors were true. Fifth generation climbing Mt. Fuji.

I’ve always loved these episodes — part of the hit campaigns. The ones that they go climb Mt. Fuji are especially favorites. This episode has Nogizaka’s 5th Generation members doing the climb. Amazingly they all made it up to the summit — in fact they went further than any of the members going to the real summit and not just to the last lodge at the summit. It seems fairly easy, but I am sure there can be some more difficulty.

Here’s the reason, I love the group.

20 Years of Richest

broderic on October 15, 2022

I remember sliding the CD into my car’s CD player and absolutely falling in love with the songs on this disc. I had just made the turn from Borders in Timonium onto York Road heading for the beltway. At night and the orange glow from the sodium halide lights just contributing to the atmosphere of the opening song, Heaven’s Gonna Burn Your Eyes. For the next month or so, it was always playing. I figure that it was my favorite album for the longest time. The remix album came out the next year with my favorite version of Resolution. I believe I have mentioned that I would love this album to be playing at my wake.

Give it a listen. Thievery Corporation’s Richest Man in Babylon.

“Why is it that everyone’s solution to everything around here is some sort of covert plan?” “That’s a secret.”

broderic on September 9, 2022

Remember when I decried the lack of movies to watch this past Labor Day? Remember that I did say that I did watch a movie that weekend? Well the film we watched was The Invitation, one of those low budget horror movies that always seem to be a staple of the end of summer movie releases.

This one starts with a lady who had just lost the last member of her family, her mother. She conveniently takes a DNA test and is connected with a branch of her family from England. They invite her to their home for a family reunion as well as a wedding. Things start of fine, but then we never meet the bride and groom. Later we find out why.

It turns out that her long lost relatives were a cabal feeding the last vampire. The head vampire has three brides. They had lost one. Guess who is the third?

I didn’t want to watch this one, but I really wanted to watch a movie. I guess it was something. A lot of this was easy to see coming. There were a few jump scares, but overall it wasn’t too frightening.

2 of 5 stars.

“There’s nothing like the sound of 1500 people not laughing.”

broderic on September 6, 2022

This past weekend was Labor Day here in the States. Usually, there’s a move good enough to watch being released in theaters. This year that was not the case. I really wanted to watch a movie this weekend, but there wasn’t one worth to see. Eventually, I did, but it wasn’t a choice I made — you’ll have to wait for that one later.

What happened? Where have all the movie releases gone? Is it over for movies in the theaters? Are we no longer going to go to a dimly lit public space and watch a movie on the silver screen with many people in the audience? Do we just like it at home? Is streaming movies worth it?

Sometimes I just want to get out of the house. Spend some time away from my computing devices. In darkness would be fine tucked away watching a movie. But there must be something to watch.

What was playing this weekend was movies from earlier in the year. If there was a new release, I did not notice it. I was expecting a somewhat recognizable cast and a particular genre. It wasn’t there. It was gone.

The cinema experience in the theaters is dying. Maybe. It’s not really doing well.