Exactly, it was just horrible . Duly noted; I'd still like to check it out, though probably when it's on DVD. By the way, not sure if you watched/read the Death Note anime/manga but Netflix is doing a live action adaption - and I just found out today the director was also behind Blair Witch. I'm even more interested in seeing both of them now. Willem Dafoe was just cast in it, too.

Alright, I hope you enjoy Stranger Things! I just binge-watched Bojack Horseman; it took the first half of season 1 to grow on me but by the end I really fell in love with the show. Next in my queue is Lucifer, which I'm planning on starting tomorrow, and then Preacher. Vancouver's not called Hollywood North for nothing!

I cannot recommend Orphan Black enough. It's one of my favourite shows and feels like a really fast watch because its extremely fast-paced. It doesn't drag out storylines for the sake of cheap drama, and it has multiple plot twists every episode... it's intense and refreshing! And yes, Tatiana Maslany does an absolutely incredible job. It's such a shame she hasn't won any major awards for her performances. She was just nominated for her second Emmy and I'm rooting for her!

That's a good question!

Yes! I'm really looking forward to it! I was worried it would be like the last sequel which was horrible... but I'm so relieved to see such positive reviews.

My friends didn't think there were many cliches so I was probably just really nitpicky. For sure it does a good job as a homage - there are lot of small details that make the 80's nostalgia particularly strong, even the font of the title cards (very Stephen King, who is a big fan of the show). I'm going to check out Preacher; I like the sound of it a lot! I also want to check out Lucifer. Filmed in Vancouver and a spinoff from the Sandman comics which I loved. Hmm I'm only in season 2 of the Office so I haven't gotten to know the less important characters all that well, but I like Jim a lot so far. Sometimes though I have to take a break from watching it because it can be physically painful watching Michael be so mean . Apparently he gets humanized a bit later in the series. What about Orphan Black - have you been watching that?

OH MY GOODNESS the bees are the worst. The WORST. I know this isn't CGI but it never gets old for how bad it is:

Heh, I can see that. Yeah the hard punk really fit the tone well. The whole movie felt really gritty and that contributed.

I know, I know . I just felt that it was all too familiar and not original enough. On the one hand I know it's supposed to be a nod to the 80's and feels like a mish-mash of a lot of references, but I wish it wasn't so familiar. A lot of the situations and characters were cliche and predictable. To be fair, it did take common cliches and pleasantly change them when you didn't expect it, but it just didn't feel like enough to me.

I've heard of Preacher! I've seen ads for it but haven't watched it. I'm slowly going through The Office right now. I always caught clips and episodes on TV but never sat down to watch it from episode 1.

Oh that's interesting, I didn't know that! Yeah I remember the banshee... . I wish they used more physical makeup instead of CGI all the time. Nice! I'm so happy to hear you're looking forward to it!

You're not alone; I don't think tanukis are well known outside of Japan. I only knew about them because of the Zootopia easter egg myself! Alright. I'm curious what could be going on in this scene you're talking about... I'm definitely going to check it out. Maybe even tonight!

Edit: Just finished watching Green Room. Super intense and definitely not holding back on the brutality. It was really well done.

I thought Stranger Things was entertaining and it's decent horror. I wasn't as taken with it as most people though. Everyone I've talked to about it has gushed about how amazing it is so definitely don't just take my word for it. I can see why people love it but maybe it wasn't for me. It was good to see Winona Ryder! She's been a supporting actress in a lot but it was nice to see her in a bigger role.

Sounds good!

Yeah the CGI wasn't always the best. I'm always curious what their budget is and how they distribute everything. I always thought they got rid of a lot of classic rock in favour of better CGI but maybe not... or maybe they're just getting lazy! When is school starting up for you? Or if you're in school right now how far into it are you? How's it going?

I guess we'll find out tomorrow! I heard great things about Zootopia. One thing I heard is that depending on where you see the movie, the newscaster changes. So in the North America it's the moose Peter Moosebridge (and actually voiced by the Canadian newscaster Peter Mansbridge), in china it's a panda, in Japan it's a tanuki, etc - it's a cool touch. Right? That's what I'm thinking . I'm really bad at staying up to date with lesser known movies so I should really start to do more digging. Sounds like I should definitely watch it!

That's fair! And at least it's only 8 episodes so it's not a huge time commitment. I find if I'm in the mood to binge a show I can, but it only happens in spurts and usually I'm really slow.

I'll keep it in mind then, maybe for a Hallowe'en movie. OVER 100 DEGREES? ... wowzers yeah I wouldn't be able to last in that heat! I take back what I said earlier, 82 F is just fine thank you very much...

"Fight the fairies! Fight the fairies, Sam!" . One of the best Soulless Sam episodes I think. I hope you're enjoying season 11! Yeah Casifer is pretty great, character-wise and name-wise.

Naw just that 60 years is a pretty long time, making the Grey Cup almost twice as old.

I think the Tuesday night movie plan next week is to see Star Trek. When it actually gets released in a couple days, I'll be interested to hear what the general public thinks. We saw Finding Dory today which was great. I'd love to pop on the Blair Witch project and say it's just a good 'ol documentary or something. There's one guy who doesn't come to movie night but is a horror fan and I've been trying to recruit him. You're right about it being a great year for horror! Horror can be so delicate to get right... good horror is hard to come by because it's so easy to make it gimmicky, cliche, or just plain ridiculous. I really want to see Green Room not just for the horror but also because of Patrick Stewart... I always think Jean-Luc Picard when I see him. I take it it was good? And have you watched Stranger Things?

I haven't seen Hocus Pocus, but heard it was pretty bad! Yeah, he's done a lot of work with Guillermo Del Toro. Seriously?! I feel like I'm melting!

Yeah, Weekend at Bobby's was fantastic. I always like The Man Who Would Be King from that season, too. The Bobby/Rufus episode is a real treat! I had no idea it was coming before I watched it and it was such a nice surprise. Almost teared up a bit at the very end of it. Well, I can always find the actual Impala on the filming set (and I have in the past) so I figured I wasn't missing out on too much. I liked Metatron a lot more in this season than previous ones, so maybe you'll grow to like him more. Excuses, excuses!

Yeah, pretty big differences actually. Of course I'm biased but I like the Canadian version (CFL) a lot more; it's a lot more fast-paced and games are generally much higher scoring. "Only" 60 years . I will give you that football is way, way more popular in America though. Especially college football.

Good point about the director, I had actually forgotten it wasn't J. J. Abrams this time. I just looked at the early reviews for the movie and they look pretty good. I'm optimistic!

Lights Out has gotten great reviews. I'd like to see it but I know none of the people I work with would want to. There's a half-price movie night every Tuesday so us summer research students go and pick a movie together. I'm the only one okay with horror though.

Darn, that's far from it then! Haha, I considered even driving just south of the border and picking it up there... I've heard there are post offices that do that for Canadians wanting to order US-shipping-only stuff. Doug Jones, cool! Not a name that's heard often but he's really been in a lot. Sorry to hear about his panel, that sucks. As a Vancouverite I definitely don't experience really hot summers, but the rest of Canada at the same latitude generally does... you in California might not think this is out of the ordinary but I'm dying in 28 C (82 F) here . I just want my clouds and rain back.

Season 6 did give us The French Mistake which is still one of my all time favourite Supernatural episodes. The season wasn't my favourite but I feel it's not nearly as bad as so many people think. Baby is considered a standout episode of season 11! Probably another of my favourites. There was an Impala at the comicon too, on display and you could pay to take a picture of it. It was much to shiny though . Ahh okay, yeah the Chuck spoiler was what I was most curious about if you knew. The episode it's revealed in was really well done. As you should be!

Thanks! Really excited about the coming year. American football. Well, the Canadian variant (I know, I know, but there are key differences between Canadian and American football ). Obviously hockey is way more popular here, but the small percent of us that are fans love our little league. And hey, the Grey Cup is way older than the Super Bowl

The first trailer had me really worried with the way it was shown - all explosions, motorcycle racing, rock music... not that I have anything against any of that of course but it didn't feel like Star Trek. The second trailer was a lot better though. I'm excited that Simon Pegg co-wrote it, so overall I'm looking forward to it, albeit cautiously.

A very appropriate reaction.

No problem! Hope you were able to have a good celebration! And thanks! Really glad to hear you're having a great summer! That's a strange spot for a mosh pit . Were you at the barrier then? Heh, I just came from a comic convention as well. My best find there was some Batman converse. I've been trying to find DC converse for years but no-one ships to Canada - or the designs are pretty bad. Also got an autograph from Robin Lord Taylor from Gotham, and he's super sweet and genuine. I hope you make it to Australia next year then. I've never been! Going in their wintertime is a good idea! I'm sorry to hear about your dog... my best wishes to you.

YES, you've heard right - season 11 has been a huge improvement. A lot of people have said it's the best since season 5 and I agree with them. Ahh so you're not free of spoilers? I'm curious about how much you know... Yeah, Casifer was pretty hilarious. And hey - you're the one that got me hooked on Supernatural. You can't stop now!

Since we last talked, I graduated! I'll be starting my master's degree in September, and I'll be publishing my first paper within the next few months... I've got a lot to look forward to. Right now I'm in a research position at another university and it's been a really good experience. My parents are actually going to come visit me in a couple weeks and I'll be taking my dad out to a football game .

Happy birthday!

How have you been? How's your summer going?

Happy New Year to you too!! Hope it's a fantastic one

My goodness, I got so carried away with writing up the Star Wars review last message that I completely forgot to wish you a Merry Christmas then!

Thank you and I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and are enjoying the holiday

Ahh I see! Haha I think I remember that happening but I never watched it.

Yeah I know some hardcore Musers who have met the band and they've told them it's a bad assumption. It's too bad because so many "rarities" in NA shouldn't be rarities!

You've seen it right??

That's a good point, they did announce the tour really late. Yeah, I had a great time . I hear you about the guitar-dropping. At least he didn't do it for the whole song and did play all the guitar solos, but it is really nice having him play the whole time. I agree about UD and Madness - together with Revolt all in a row is a bit much! If only they played SS!

What's that from?

Haha maybe I should have brought a sign. It's too bad that CE was played at pretty much every single Euro show but not really at NA shows. I've heard that Muse don't think NA people know pre-Absolution songs well.

One of the only people dancing to any of the songs, really! My brother and I were definitely most of the energy singing-wise coming from our section of the floor, seemed like it was just us and one other near us that knew the lyrics to all the songs.

Lining up early went well. In fact, too well... there were barely 10 people in line by 4pm at my gate. I have no idea where everyone was. I'm used to dozens of people lining up by noon! Also it didn't seem like any VIP people had floor tickets, or maybe there weren't many of them... I was able to get a great spot at the barrier. Muse's performance was great; the 360 stage worked a lot better than I expected and they made sure to play to both sides evenly. The visuals were amazing as usual, and I'm always happy with whatever setlist they pick (Matt could sing the phone book and I'd be happy!). Of course I would have loved if they played CE or mixed up the setlist from other tour dates but there were still some nice surprises; like I wasn't expected USoE at all so that was pretty great. Unfortunately the audience seemed pretty dead except for a few groups of people around the arena. Of course there was cheering at the end of songs, a few shout-outs to the band, but to think that I was at barrier and actually had space to stretch my legs behind me and take a few steps back because the second row wasn't even moving in? My group was going crazy the whole set but it seemed like most people barely moved. That was disappointing.

Ahh exams... I need to start focusing on those. Hope your studies are going well! Best of luck on exams.

I've definitely had that happen to me quite a few times. Similarly with Guiding Light, and Revolt which is definitely not the best but is SO catchy.

That's true . I'll look up Ex Machina. Almost on winter break so it's great timing! I wasn't the biggest fan of Gravity but it did ignite a lot of interest in space films.

I guess I was told wrong, because one of my friends just got 10 (the maximum number he could get) a few days ago. He asked everyone who wanted one first-come-first-serve so I got one. Planning on lining up really early on the day of the movie to get good seats. I've heard the stage setup is actually pretty good (at least for the American batch of tour dates; Mexico's was more of a preliminary setup?). I'm worried about the talk of VIP people getting first dibs at the GA spots, since they get in before everyone else; I'm planning on getting to the arena in the morning to line up for barrier but it would be disappointing if the whole front row was already taken up. Haha I can't help but look at the setlists! I'm pretty happy with them so far. Of course, for the songs that seem to be getting switched out every now and then I've got some preferences. Like I'd love to hear Citizen Erased which hasn't been played at all the shows.

Gotham is now on hiatus for the winter so it's a great time to catch up . Flash and Arrow have both been good so far. Glad you're enjoying it!

That's fair. Yeah readings for classes are extremely time-consuming . Heh, yeah, the Mars stuff was a lot more enjoyable. I was surprised about the swearing too! Unfortunately sci-fi gets ignored so often except for things like special effects and sound-mixing. However I'm really glad to see space movies reaching broader audiences, through movies like Interstellar and The Martian. I'm hoping it'll somehow ignite some more interest in space studies as a whole! (says the possibly biased astrophysics student, but yeah )

Ahh, that's too bad. And wow, I didn't know about the South America prices. Muse tickets for the concert I'm going to were about $90 after taxes for the most expensive option, which is $70 in USD (yes our dollar sucks right now )

Thanks. Being at the barrier will be painful, but worth it. Nice! Glad you got those tickets. For big movies like the new Star Wars and the last Harry Potter movie I like to go to my local theatre for opening night. Not the best quality theatre but it has a great community atmosphere. Unfortunately tickets aren't on sale there until December 11th... hopefully I get in line early enough to get on. I'll also have been waiting in line for the Muse concert the day before for like 12 hours

Have you been caught up on Gotham? I think this season has been a huge improvement on the last one.

You definitely should. Not sure if you've read the book, but it sounds really good too. I understood some of the science, but only some . My thesis supervisor who's been a consultant for a lot of sci-fi shows said it was pretty good science. How was Sicario? It's gotten great reviews, and I like Emily Blunt a lot. I'm planning on seeing it when I can.

Damn, sorry to hear about the bad timing. Have you made a decision yet?

Just bought tickets for the Vancouver concert this morning during presale. Thank goodness it doesn't conflict badly with finals for me, though some of the others I'm going with (at the moment) aren't so lucky. I'm curious to see how the setup is in the centre of the arena now, instead of on the traditional stage at the front.

Your dogs qualify

That's awesome!

I was given a pre-screening pass for the Martian and saw it last night. It was fantastic. It had a great level of laughs through the whole thing without making it overpowered, had good science and was really tense at some points (not predictable). I'd see it again!

Darn :\ might still be worth it though, who knows when they'll be back!

Yeah Reading is awesome value for all the bands you could see. Yeah the camping is a bit iffy, I think. When I walked by the grounds on the way to the stages there were beer bottles and party cups everywhere - and I mean EVERYWHERE. It's a very loud, young crowd. That being said, I've heard some areas are better than others. The different camping areas are different colours, and one of them (I think the white-camp) was meant for families, so that one is meant to be a lot quieter.

Oh man, the more I listen to The Globalist the more I love it. It's become my favourite song on the album. Also, guilitly I actually love Revolt

Unfortunately no, it was a bit too expensive to get there by bus and I didn't have a car. Oh well! The amusement park in Vancouver here is open a little longer so maybe I'll just have to settle with that instead haha. That's a big list of movies, a lot of which I haven't heard of. I'll look them up. Glad you've got a lot to look forward to!

I think you're right; it makes sense and it really is strange to announce dates so late if they really are going to be here within the next few months.

My 2011 experience at Reading was a lot of fun, though I wasn't one of the weekend campers so I can't comment about that experience (it would definitely be interesting though!). It's a neat atmosphere and has so many great bands playing, your bound to find out some new music!

I enjoyed all the previous ones, so I'm sure I'll like it. Thanks! Having a nice time so far, very relaxing. Might try to get to the old Six Flags park that's about 2 hours out of Amsterdam; been a long time since I've been on big roller coasters . Ehh, well JW was just as you said, a decent mindless summer film. To be honest I'm getting a bit tired of seeing Chris Pratt. Only movies I'm looking forward to now for the the rest of the year are The Martian and of course Star Wars.

Ahh yeah, those are so bad

Same, I'm still surprised they haven't made any announcements yet, not even anything past some extremely vague comments here and there! I heard about the UK tour too. I really wonder where they will fit in the US tour, and if it'll be extensive (i.e. come to Vancouver ). Revolt? Interesting choice.

Haha yeah my family isn't big on musicals either, so thankfully there aren't any cast recordings on repeat or anything

Wow, that's great praise then! I should definitely see it when I'm back home (in my last week living in London, by the way... then it's off to Amsterdam until September). So glad you enjoyed it! Aww I wish Maggie Q was in it too, definitely hope she'll return. Oh man, I'd love to see them making fun of the heels! It was really so stupid

That just reminds me of silly things in shows and movies in general, like zooming in on crappy security footage and getting impossible resolutions. Some things you just really have to shake your head at!

Apparently Muse will be touring the US sometime later this year, so maybe the tour will start around December and continue into 2016? I hope they announce it soon...

Haven't played with Sergeant! I'll look out for him when I play Fallout 3. Definitely sounds like it makes for an interesting playthrough

Haven't seen a concert yet, but I did see Phantom of the Opera at the West End, which was fantastic. Last time I'd seen it was when it toured Vancouver 9 years ago. I haven't seen many musicals I've liked but that one is definitely an exception.

So glad to hear that! Haha sounds like an interesting summer. Let me know the movie is; I hope you like it!

I think I got Eugene but haven't used it because my Guns score is so low! Same with grenades, haven't ever gotten that good at them. Maybe on my next playthrough...

Yeah, I like Arcade Gannon, he's pretty funny! And ED-E is really useful. I'm not playing on a hard difficulty so even if they die they come back . I'd go through them so fast if I was on a harder difficulty

Agreed!

Yeah, I did . Ahh no, I've looked up bands playing here but I didn't see any that I was interested in. It might be worth it to go somewhere just for the experience because London/England has such a great music scene. Honestly, I haven't been sightseeing a lot; probably should though. I think I'll see Stonehenge next weekend!

How's your summer going so far?

I'll keep working on it . Yeah I really like the big guns. The Tesla Cannon is super satisfying to use and SO strong. Yeah I've been looking at all the news updates and speculations, it's exciting!

Finally heard the album now! I did enjoy the Globalist, not my favourite though. Drones is definitely a weird closer. I can tell what they were going for with it but it wasn't my thing. Yes, Revolt is pretty hated here . It does sound a lot like that "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" part in the Killers song All These Things I've Done.

California was pretty nice! Very hot though. I was able to get a day in San Francisco which was a LOT cooler than Mountain View. Got to see Fisherman's Wharf, and then Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz... not close up, but from the wharf. Other than that I was at the SETI institute for a bit and later got to see NASA Ames. Pretty cool! Now I'm in London for the next two months.