It really was.
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Every now and then I am blessed with a silent film with live accompaniment of a brand new score which was composed especially for the event. It is always an absolute treat, and makes for a really unique experience of the film.
For instance, as well as playing their instrument, one of our musicians tonight sang a vocal for the performances of âMargueriteâ in Faust (who is played by the two rival actresses Christine and Carlotta in the story); and with Christine being our heroine, Carlottaâs singing was made to be hilariously bad! That is not a feature of the (very different) pre-recorded soundtrack I have heard for this film :).
The film is 100 years old this year, and the theatre it was played in turned 100 late last year, and the film was (primarily) directed by actor/director Rupert Julian who was born and raised in New Zealand, so it was a good fit.
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Do you know if Fantasticfiction will not just notifiy when something is announced but when that book is also published?
Got some notification about a book release in February 2026. I wonder if it will send me another notification when the book is out.
Do you know that?
Not sure to be honest!
(I have now checked and their website says this: ââFollowâ authors and get an email alert whenever we add a new book and when a book is published.â So I guess it does!)
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Amazon Prime has both:
Miami Vice (unbelievably stylish, very violent, little bit of 80s sexist, absolutely incredible for 1984 when tv like that just didnât exist)
and the original black and white series of Peter Gunn from 1958, which 5 mins into the first episode is also surprisingly great and entertaining. (Pretty sure Iâve played the theme tune on the trumpet).
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Whoa, for a 1958 show, Peter Gunn was VERY hardboiled. Did not expect that at all. Lots of shooting, sophisticated lounge singers, fisticuffs with hoodlums, but with a much more brutal tone than I thought would be around in '58.
That was kinda awesome.
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I am (re)watching the first season of House on Amazon. I had caught a bunch of (pirated) clips on YouTube shorts and resparked my interest in the show. I watched during its initial run, but lost track of it and never finished it.
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I never watched the final season (though I do own it). I really enjoyed the show, but it really felt a bit shark jumpy by the penultimate season. I should really watch the last season at some point to see if it ended on a high note.
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I also stopped watching at some point. I think I learned what I could from it though (i.e. that itâs probably lupus).
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Funny, I learned the opposite: itâs never lupus.
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Weirdly, my partner has also been rewatching House recently. Something in the air?
In any case I started the 2nd season of Jujutsu Kaisen. I now remember what I enjoyed about the 1st season 
(plus rewatching Solo Leveling for the 3rd time)
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Swing Time (1936) and Paddington (2014). A fine evening.
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I finally finished Frieren (being cold). She or rather Fern (far) and Stark (strong) grew on me after a while. I really didnât enjoy the first episodes much but after having watched so many more other anime since first seeing those first episodes I can appreciate it more. Iâd watch another season.
Also the German names are too funny
- Denken = To think
- Ăbel = Bad
- Richter = Judge
- Kraft = power
- Sense = Scythe, German word for Death is also âSensenmannâ (man with a scythe)
- LĂźgner = Liar
- Himmel = Heaven/Sky
- Heiter = Happy / Joyous
- Lawine = Avalanche
- Kanne = Pot (as in a pot of tea)
- Ehre = Honor
- Scharf = Sharp
- Genau = Accurate
- Lernen = To learn
- Serie = Series (yes some words are just the same)
- Wirbel = whirl / maelstrom
- Flamme = flame
Place names are also funny
- ĂuĂerst = extremely but also placed at the extreme (aka a border-town)
- Rohr = Pipe (as in waterpipe)
- KĂźhl = cool
- Vorig = before
- Offen = Open
- TĂźr = Door
- Eng = Tight
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I just finished Andor season 2. It is still great Stars War for folks that want Wars Star.
Watching it did lead me to further work on my hypothesis of Star Wars success.
Star Wars success is attributable to a combination of three energies: âbig fast car energyâ, âbig goofy dog energyâ, and âjust got out of school energyâ
New Hope has all three: Millenium Falcon, Chewbacca, harvest is done and Toshi station is hopping
Phantom Menace and the prequels broadly fail all three: have to take the chickâs silver ride and itâs engine is blown, R2D2 is small angry dog energy not big goofy dog, child soldiers who take detention seriously.
Clone Wars cartoon works because Anakin has his own van and Ashoka doesnât take detention seriously.
Rogue One and Andor sing so well because K2 brings big goofy dog energy back to the droids and finally successfully leverages big goofy dog energy without Chewbacca. Also, folks in Andor show contempt at all times for detention.
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Iâve been reading the manga and itâs still really good. The anime covers the first 6 volumes and volume 14 just came out in Japanese, so thereâs definitely enough for another season.
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Frieren Season 2 IM SO READY 
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I just want more proper stories set in the world of Star Wars. Youâve got the entire genre of war and spy films and tv to pilfer. Band of Brothers set in Star Wars? Yes please!! Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, set in the outer Rim? Iâd watch the shit out of that.
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The test Iâve had (and I canât remember which friends to credit with hanging around when it emerged) is that the ultimate test for Marvel/Wars/Trek is when one does a full on formula RomCom in the setting. Like itâs just âsleepless in Seattleâ but in universe with no earth shattering doom but all the vibes and set dressing
Thatâs when a franchise will have transcended
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Marvel have plenty of material they could adapt for this. They used to publish lots of romance comics and several of those characters ended up persisting in main Marvel continuity.
Many of the best She-Hulk comics are just straightfoward romcom or legal drama plots being disrupted by the fact that the protagonist is 8â tall and green.
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