The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Classics of the 21st Century?

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Interesting list of films from the BBC culture team. 100 movies apparently destined to become long-term classics.

Let’s play a game.

Let’s have 2 lists. A top 10 list built from the 100 here and a top 5 list of your favourite movies of the 21st Century that are not on this list.

I’ll post 2 comments, one with the BBC’s top 100 and one with my lists.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160819-the-21st-centurys-100-greatest-films?ocid=twcul

Spotify is not the enemy

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Something I’ve been saying for a while is articulated so much better by David Byrne.

Spotify is paying a lot of money to the “music industry”, it’s just not making it to the artists.

In this day and age, I have no idea why a new band would chase a record deal that will just deprive them of a modest income.

Thoughts?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/opinion/sunday/open-the-music-industrys-black-box.html?_r=0

I’m looking forward to Friday!

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This week, I have dealt with work arguments, sick kids, solicitors and too much to do in too little time.

So on Friday, I plan to drown a crappy week with some good beer, good food and good friends from the good ship Atferword. The Thames Valley Mingle in Bracknell will be a lot of fun and I’d love to meet some new faces if anyone fancies adding their name to the guest list at the last minute.

But either way, How’s your week been and what are your weekend plans?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJLoYd8xak

Lock In

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Author:John Scalzi

For me, the best Science Fiction is the writing where the science takes a back seat to the fiction. In John Scalzi’s Lock In we get a straight-down-the-middle political and corporate thriller with all of the plot points and developments you would expect. The setting for this narrative is what gives Scalzi the opportunity to stretch out a little and give us a twist on the average whodunnit.

In the world of Lock In, after a catastrophic pandemic, some people are trapped in their bodies, unable to move or communicate with the outside world without the use of a neural network that allows them to interact via robot facsimilies or even human hosts.

As science fiction, this is a great premise that sits quietly in the story once the exposition has been dealt with. On the actual human story, Scalzi is at his thoughtful best addressing the social and political issues of funding disabled people as well as digging into how corporations exploit everyone for profit.

If you are a fan of political potboilers, you aren’t going to find much to surprise you in this book. It’s pretty much by the numbers and I found the ending to » Continue Reading.

So, What did we learn?

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In an interesting sojourn to that Zuckerberg’s place, we all got a little bit more exposure than we might have planned.

I learned that Moose’s real life name *is* Moose the Mooch, but Minibreakfast is really called Mini Dinner.

What did you learn?