Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: March 2023

Alan:

Hello Heroes!

Beware the ides of March. Or as this year has it in the western US: Beware the never-ending winter. Seriously, as I write this on March 24th, snow is falling. Six inches of it in the valleys. I love winter, and I’m pretty much over it this year.

What I’m reading!

• The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. Just started The Lost Metal, so I’ll report on that next month. The Wax/Wayne books never hit me quite like the original Mistborn trilogy did, but in The Bands of Mourning, it feels like Sanderson hit his stride better. Setting these magic users in basically the 1910s-1920s, these should feel like Indiana Jones movies, or to reach farther back, the serials and adventure dime novels they’re based on. This one nails it. I liked this a lot more than the preceding two books. Excited to wrap up Wax/Wayne.
• Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. I’ve read a fair amount of Scalzi before (special shoutout to Redshirts for being incredible, funny, but also touching and thought-provoking,) but this is OG Scalzi. Man, he came out the gate firing on all cylinders! These books are GREAT! Super-fun world. Love the dog-weariness of the soldiers, just really fun, while also having plenty to say, but not beating you over the head with it.

What I’m watching!

• Finished The Last of Us season 1. I’m extremely excited for season 2, but I think I’m going to have to play TLoU: Part 2 before the show comes out. I’ve been dreading that for a long time, because I loved TLoU the game, but I hated playing it, if that makes sense. It was an incredible story, but not fun to play. Just stressful. Which would have been really fun when I was younger, and didn’t really have stressful things in my life. But now I have a marriage and kids and a mortgage and employees and people have expectations of me. I want my game time to just be like, "Hi, I am the God of this world. Kneel before me, or suffer my wrath."
  This had very little to do with The Last of Us, but I guess, I just don’t have much to say about a masterpiece?
• I’ve started (with the whole family) The Mandalorian season 3. And it’s fun. I like it a lot. I definitely miss Ludwig Göransson as the composer. His work is stellar, and the replacement composer is… not Ludwig Göransson. They should have hired Caleb Blood. Anyway, I’m a couple episodes behind, but it’s fun. I’m not thrilled that Grogu is back, honestly. I would have loved to see more of Mando just adventuring around the galaxy, and maybe running across Grogu (learning from Luke) later in the show. But what do I know? Not as much as Jon Favreau, I’ll tell you that much.
• I finally got around to watching The Mist (2007). And you know what? It’s good. I love Frank Darabont and his other films, so I expected to love this movie. It was honestly a little ham-fisted. The religious lady was so over-the-top that I wasn’t really buying anyone falling in line with her. Or at least, not in the numbers that they did. Didn’t help that the CG in many ways didn’t hold up particularly well. I mean, I get it. $18 million only goes so far, and it certainly wasn’t enough to buy the types of creature effects you need to stand the test of time, even 16 years ago. Still, if you love horror, well worth the watch, and it has certainly been influential, like, I see it’s influence in all kinds of things, especially all over Jordan Peele’s work.

What I’m playing!

• Still playing Skyrim. And likely will be for months. So, boring update. I have horse armor now.
• Excited by the announcement for Cities: Skylines II (Yep, I’m that nerd). Though I’m not loving that there is no MacOS announcement. Love that the original came on Mac. Bummed that it looks like this one won’t.

And…

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

Hello all! Hope you've been having a wonderful March! I've been reading You Can Be Happy No Matter What by Dr. Richard Carlson. I'm enjoying its practical solutions for combatting minor depression and anxiety symptoms; I think its principles can help with more chronic symptoms as well, though stronger treatment is likely needed in that case. Still, it's got great advice for the normal "trials of life" that we all go through, even if the title is a bit overly-optimistic. "You can be resilient no matter what," is something I'd espouse more whole-heartedly, or "you can find happiness, no matter what." But sadness is a part of life. Yet I digress. Overall, good book.

I've been getting back into The Clone Wars, which starts as "gee-whiz" kiddie fare and matures, starting in about season three, into some of the very best Star Wars there is. I'm just getting started on Agents of Shield and Heartstopper as well. 

What have you been watching and reading this month?