I lift my remote beside the golden door!

[zdashamber]

Some of you noticed that I haven't updated in a month... Me, I generally don't notice for a couple months, and then I think, "Hm, I wonder where X has gotten to?" and I think about them about once a month after. So if you didn't notice, no worries. :)

What have I been up to? Well, I decided not to be a cop, and I soaked up a hell of a lot of good media. For point one, there were of course many reasons to be a cop and many not to, but as I approached the end of the process the unwelcome aspects of it loomed larger. For example, in pretty much every interaction you have as a cop, you're causing someone to have a bad day. Bah!

For media: The shining, glorious stand out has to be the BBC miniseries adaption of John Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley, and a bunch of excellent British character actors as other major characters. The atmosphere of not knowing and the focus on character are demonstrated by the ballsy way that out of six episodes, the first just begins to set things up, and only towards the end of the second does the plot starts rolling. That kind of understated determination is also seen in the characters... Really, it's the best miniseries I've ever seen, better than the BBC Pride and Prejudice, very, very good.

I'll probably talk about all the rest of the stuff I watched/read later, but for the nonce, does anyone local have a PocketPC or a Palm or a hackable PSP? Apparently all I need to make my DVD player region-free is to enter a code with a remote, but the code includes things no normal remote has buttons for, so I need something that produces IR that can pretend to be a remote.

Then I can see what the British version of Tinker, Tailor looks like... I hear it's cut differently from the American version, so there are seven episodes instead of six. ;) Bearer-of-the-ersatz-remote can watch with, and we can drink along with the characters on screen. :D

Comments

[evilmagnus]

If you liked TTSS, you'll probably like Edge of Darkness - it's easily in the same league, although grittier and with the Politics of the writers (and the time of writing) more clearly visible. It was one of the inspirations for my old Utter Dark campaigns (MI-5/MI-6 Shenanigans in the mid-80s. With superpowers and Nazis and Eldrich things).

And, if you've not already seen it, the 1984 Carleton / HTV version of Robin of Sherwood is, in my humble opinion, the best screen adaption of the Robin mythos ever done. Skip the third series, though. The 12 eps of seasons 1 and 2 (half a US season, dammit!) are just wonderful stuff.

And yes, I do have both series on (region 2) DVD and a region-free DVD player and the ability to make region-free backup disks. Just so you know.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Oooo. Edge of Darkness does look good. And I'd heard of Robin of Sherwood because people constantly used images of Michael Praed for Benedict... Intriguing to hear that the series is a lot more than just eye candy.

Your Utter Dark campaign sounds really neat. How did it go?

[a2macgeek.livejournal.com]

I heartily second the Robin of Sherwood recommendation. I loved that series, and not just because of Michael Praed (although he sure didn't hurt it any).

[(Anonymous)]

I've run it twice, and *I* think it went quite well. I think I broke some of the players, though. :) You know you've succeeded when one player lets another get blown up by a car bomb to prove a point (and it was /years/ before the bombed player realized they'd been set up).

Very gritty. Helped by the fact that I can (or used to, London's changed a lot since I lived there) really guide people around London in novel ways, with little moments of sudden, unexpected violence in everyday situations. Including the Tensest Cup of Tea in High Holborn.

That was me, by the way

[evilmagnus]

Stupid cookies.

[aiyume.livejournal.com]

Why, yes... I have a Palm. I know that Omni Remote is shareware, though, but I think you can use it for awhile for free. I can check into limitations of the free version if you decide to go this route.

One caveat: I have heard that there are a (very) few DVDs that check to make sure they are playing on a Region encoded player. I've not played around with region free players, so I have no personal experience on the matter.

[aiyume.livejournal.com]

Looking through that article, I also see you can use a "One For All" remote. I have an older one of those which may work as well. And then you don't need to register shareware.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Oho! Brilliant! Let's meet up sometime this week and twart The Man! :D (I don't think I have any other-region DVDs to test it with at the moment, though.)

Today I have to wrap things to be mailed, and go see Cliff's band (http://obadiah.livejournal.com/50257.html)...

[aiyume.livejournal.com]

Holy crap!!! We just played in a Serenity with that guy Friday night. I was wondering if it was the same Cliff, but didn't think to ask. And obviously I'm terrible with faces. Wish I was in the mood to be more spontaneous, but I'm being a slug this weekend.

Let me know next time you're going to see him, though. In the meantime, I'll hope his recordings come out well, and I can listen to some mp3s.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if you guys were in that Serenity group! Cliff mentioned it was mostly poly people, but I was like, eeeh, there are bound to be lots of Serenity-playing poly people in the Bay Area... :)

He's playing again next Sunday, but I will be at gaming then. However, his stuff is good, particularly if you like the George Harrison stuff the Beatles did. Also, they do a neat cover of the Dr. Who theme...

[obadiah.livejournal.com]

Serious small world, yep.

[southernwriter.livejournal.com]

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