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Showing posts from 2015

PLEASE CONSIDER WATCHING CONTINUUM

Continuum is the best show you've never heard of with all of its episodes available on Netflix, so go watch it now. Do you want a show that deals with time travel and stopping a bad future like the Terminator franchise, but in a way that actually makes sense?  Do you like the idea of Minority Report dealing with technology's possible misuse by government, but wish the show was actually well-done? Do you want a cutting-edge exploration of technology as both problem and solution like Mr. Robot , but from four years ago and starring Canadians? Well, here you go! Not to mention, the cast is refreshingly diverse and non-stereotypical. No character is totally good or bad -- everyone has their reasons. In fact our heroine has been happily serving an evil corporate empire, while the "terrorists" she fights (who are pretty damn ruthless) are trying to prevent a dystopian hellscape future. And, thank Cthulhu, she is too busy with her goals to spend much ti

MY LATEST WEIRD ART PROJECT

I've been having fun with the Artstudio app for iPad and the Sensu stylus lately. It was coming up on October, and Guillermo del Toro was talking about his favorite horror stories on Twitter (Dude must have been a librarian in a previous life, because his Readers' Advisory game is ON POINT. Go follow him). That inspired me to read 31 of my old favorite Victorian & Edwardian horror stories and draw illustrations for each of them for Halloween. Of course, it took me longer than that, but they are finally finished. I was inspired, in my lazy and casual way, by great illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley, John R. Neill , and Alastair .  Here is the list of stories: “Caterpillars” -E.F. Benson “Casting the Runes” -M..R. James “The Horla” - Guy de Maupassant “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” -Robert Hichens “Afterward” -Edith Wharton “The Great God Pan” - Arthur Machen “ Yuki-Onna” - Lafcadio Hearn “Green Tea” - J. Sheridan LeFanu “The Monkey’s Paw” - W. W.

PLEASE CONSIDER WATCHING PERSON OF INTEREST

It's on streaming, finally! If you had told me 5 years ago that my favorite network show (and right up there with more highly-praised cable shows) would be a show on CBS called Person of Interest, there would have been scoffing involved. I associate CBS with bland-but-comforting investigation shows that exploit some technology (usually inaccurately) to give the story a little twist, then tie up a mystery all nice-&-tidy, with occasional breaks for truly cringeworthy depictions of the investigators' personal lives. Except for a few bad apples, all authority figure have our best interests at heart. Well, this is not that. Getting murdered or almost-murdered by corrupt authority figures is one of the top concerns for characters in this universe. When you're one of the few people who know about an all-seeing AI that watches us for the government, it's kind of an issue (and yes, social media was created to get us to give up our personal information so the a

JFRO AIRWAVES TAKEOVER 2015

For those of you who missed it, here is my reunion show on WMCN . Please forgive any glitches. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6kjp24gbaw2hnfg/Soundtrack%20of%20our%20Lives%20-%20Andrea%20Herman.mp3?dl=0 Playlist: "When Doves Cry" -Prince "Bizarre Love Triangle" -New Order "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls" -Gleaming Spires "TV Party" - Black Flag "Institutionalized" - Suicidal Tendencies "A Million Miles Away" - The Plimsouls "Puro Teatro" - La Lupe "Mysteries of Love" - Julee Cruise "In Dreams" - Roy Orbison "If You Leave" -OMD "Little Town Flirt" - Altered Images "Party Party" - Elvis Costello "Can You Rock It Like This" - Run-DMC "Reckless Rivalry (Combat)" -Chris "The Glove" Taylor & David Storrs with Ice-T "Wild Thing" - Sister Carol "When Doves Cry" - Patti Smith "Driving the Dynamite Truck"

SOME STATISTICS

Remotes: 1. Blu-ray 2. TV 3. Receiver 4. Apple TV 5. VCR 6. HDMI switcher 7. Audio switcher 8. Universal 9. iPod Touch (controls iTunes on computer via Remote app, can cast to Apple TV, Chromecast, Blu-ray) 10. iPad  (ditto) Items that can connect to the Internet: 1. Desktop computer 2. iPad 3. iPod Touch 4. Nook 5. Cell phone 6. Blu-ray 7. Apple TV 8. Chromecast 9. Wireless printer 10. Mobile hotspot Items that can take a picture: 1. Camera 2. Cell phone 3. iPod Touch 4. iPad 5. Web cam Items that can play music: 1. Blu-ray 2. Record player 3. Tape player 4. Desktop computer 5. iPod Touch 6. iPad 7. Portable CD player Items that can play video: 1. TV 2. Blu-Ray 3. VCR 4. Desktop computer 5. iPad 6. iPod Touch Items that need to be charged: 1. iPad 2. iPod Touch 3. Cell Phone 4. Mobile hotspot 5. Backup battery 6. Nook 7. Camera 8. Cell Phone 9. Dustbuster Items that can be used for a phone call: 1. Landline phone

HOME ENTERTAINMENT UPDATE: THE EMBIGGENING

  Chromecast CD storage Antenna Blu-ray player Apple TV Receiver Record player VHS Tape player So, I decided to spend my tax refund on home entertainment this year, as TV keeps getting better, whereas movies... not so much. My computer is old, but it still works, and replacing a computer seems less urgent when you have mobile devices. It feels like a long time ago when RAM and processor power seemed so important in order to use the latest bloated software, but now with so many webapps and sites designed for mobile, as long as your Internet is fast enough, you're OK. Lifehacker says to spend money where you spend most of your time, and I now use my tablet more than my desktop. Also, with all the streams I have access to, there was one chink in my entertainment system -- my TV was not actually big enough to appreciate high definition. Well, it seemed like a good deal in 2007, at $200 more than my new one which is almost twice as big. The main thing stopping me

GO HOME HOLDEN CAULFIELD, YOU'RE DRUNK: A RANT ABOUT HYPOCRISY

The older I get, the more I find myself unable to muster up any caring about the sin of hypocrisy. Everyone is a little hypocritical sometimes - no one can live up to their ideals 24/7/365. When you're a kid, it's shocking that your parents don't always practice what they preach, but when you're an adult, maybe it's more important to care about actual bad things that happen rather than the way people act towards those things. Like if someone is against gay marriage, I don't care if they are 100% faithful to their spouses or wild swingers, I just disagree that their personal views on marriage should prevent gay people marrying. So, how about we all care less about hypocrisy, do our best to live up to our ideals, encourage good things and discourage bad things? Would that work? You know who's never hypocritical? Awful people, that's who. Anyone who says they're always honest and "tell it like it is" -- run far, far away from them. They

JFRO'S 2014

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/actually-its-about-ethics Format once again ripped off shamelessly from the Librarian in Black :  Books -- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Peripheral, The Summer Prince, Ride The Pink Horse, The Quick, The Golem & The Jinni, Nexus, Hild, The Lions of Al-Rassan Comics -- Order of the Stick, XKCD Movies -- Big Hero 6, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Obvious Child, Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, Rigor Mortis, New World, Veronica Mars, The Grandmaster, Let The Fire Burn, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Wolf Children, Mama, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bronies, American Juggalo, Citizenfour, The East, The To-Do List. TV Shows --  The Killing (US), Red vs. Blue, Broad City, RuPaul's Drag Race, Burning Love, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Continuum, Adventure Time, The Americans, The Strain, Lost Girl, Nikita, Danger Five, The Walking Dead, Falling Skies, Arrow, The Flash, Agents of SHIELD, Person of Interest, Portlandia, Masters of Sex, Sons