Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)

Original Audio? Commentary? Why Not Both?

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I’m watching the new 4K restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and one of the nice things about this release is that not only are there commentaries, but there are subtitles for the commentaries (this is a very rare thing, unfortunately). So I can watch the movie with the original audio, but pop on the subtitles for one of the commentary tracks to read that as I watch.

At which point Prairie looks at me and says, “Oh my god, you’re such a nerd.”

Yup.

🖖

Meatloaf Again?

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Content warning: Morbid, dark humor.

Seems the Weber grill company sends out regular “recipe of the week” emails, which I’m sure are pre-written and pre-scheduled and just go out automatically.

Today’s was for BBQ meatloaf.

Screenshot of a Weber “recipe of the week” email with a recipe for BBQ meat loaf.
Screenshot of a Weber “recipe of the week” email with a recipe for BBQ meat loaf.

They had to apologize.

Screenshot of a Weber email apologizing for sending the BBQ meatloaf recipe on the same day that recording artist Meat Loaf died.
Screenshot of a Weber email apologizing for sending the BBQ meatloaf recipe on the same day that recording artist Meat Loaf died.

“Meatloaf again?”

Riff-Raff, Frank N. Furter, and Magenta around the dinner table in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Riff-Raff, Frank N. Furter, and Magenta around the dinner table in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Also: I honestly did not know until today that Meat Loaf was a vaccine-denying Trumpublican and (at least according to a lot of online scuttlebut) very likely, and unsurprisingly, died of Covid-related complications.

I can simultaneously be disappointed at the death of a long-time favorite musician, be disappointed that he got sucked into MAGAland, and think that it’s his own damn fault for dying that way — which makes it even more disappointing, because it’s quite likely that it was preventable.

PKD Award 📚 Nominees

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This year’s stack of Philip K. Dick Award nominees have arrived! (Actually, nominees plus one — Finna is the precursor to Defekt, and I don’t like starting in the middle of a series.) As usual, this looks like a strong selection of books; of note for me is Far From the Light of Heaven, as this is Tade Thompson’s second time as a nominee, and I enjoyed all of his Wormwood trilogy, the third book of which was the earlier nominated work.

Time to get reading! (And if you’re interested, I’ve created a PKD reading challenge on StoryGraph that you’re welcome to join!)

📚 The Case of the Colonist’s Corpse: A Sam Cogley Mystery by Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella

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3/2022 – ⭐️⭐️

A somewhat amusing murder mystery and courtroom drama; basically Law & Order: TOS starring Samuel Cogley. Unfortunately, the poor treatment of the two primary female characters (one an overly stereotypical shallow, bitter wife; the other bitter at past events who fares badly) marred my enjoyment.

📚 A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

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2/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A recommendation from my 10-year-old niece (V.E. Schwab is her favorite author), this was a fun fantasy adventure through multiple magical Londons. Neat worldbuilding and magic rules and styles; perhaps a bit more violent than I would have expected from a pre-teen’s recommendation (apparently Schwab also writes YA books, which is how my niece came across her, but this is one of her adult novels), but her parents also read and enjoyed it, she’s none the worse for reading it, and I’ve certainly read far worse.