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Return of the Codex

A heads-up that over the past couple of weeks, following a hiatus of quite a few months, I’ve released three new episodes of my Codex podcast65, 66, and 67. I also created mixes for last month’s PechaKucha Night at Tokyo Designer’s Week and this month’s PechaKucha Night Vol. 108 — music to play before the event and during the breaks — and I’ve shared them as Spotify playlists here and here(they’re meant to be shuffled).

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Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!

A sequel to this game recently came out, which reminded me that I had bought the first one, but hadn’t really gotten around to playing it much. I have now done just that, and wow, this game is really well done. Yes, it’s based on the old choose-your-own-adventure books, but the presentation and interactive elements really make it feel more like a game than a book. Can’t recommend this enough, and I’m already excited to play the sequel too (and the 3rd and 4th games, which have already been announced). An adaptation of the old Lone Wolf books has also just come out – by a different developer – and I’m looking forward to checking that out too.

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Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia

I’m a huge fan of the books – grew up reading them – and I did like the second film they did  (Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra), but I just didn’t get into this one. It should be silly fun, but I didn’t find myself laughing at all, and found that the soundtrack was especially bad – either feeling out of place, or just too obvious. 

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The World’s End

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As expected, this was so damn fun to watch – and what a killer soundtrack (my early 90s represented). I’d say it only becomes a bit less interesting during the last half hour, when there’s less laughs and too much action – didn’t find much joy in watching extended brawls with the “invaders.” In fact, could have done without the whole invasion aspect, loved just seeing these guys interacting with each other.

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Frances Ha

What is it with black and white films shot in NYC? As cringe-inducing as the main character can be – I winced my way through the dinner scene – there’s so much to like here. My favorite sequences are the tracking scenes where the camera is following a character walking or running for an extended period of time. Great soundtrack too.

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The Wolverine

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I just didn’t like this. I wanted to like it, and thought that the Japan setting would make for an interesting film, but I didn’t like the story, and the action sequences did absolutely nothing for me (except for the fight on top of the Shinkansen). You can tell it was shot here, and most of the actors are at least Japanese, but there was just too much ridiculousness – making sure your yukuza dudes quickly get shirtless so you can see their tattoos, heading 500km from a non-winter Tokyo to a snow-covered village, or the Nakagin Capsule Tower as a love hotel in some city outside of Tokyo. And I thought we were over spandex in films – that Viper character looks ridiculous, and is just lame through and through. The only bit I did enjoy was the after-credit sequence, that I assume is a lead-in to the Days of Future Past film.

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November Spawned Monster

This post has nothing to do with Morrissey.

Does my last update date back to the summer? Oh my. You can probably guess that it’s been some busy times, first with the big PechaKucha Global Night we did back in September, and then this past week’s design festivities, which saw us do 3 PechaKucha events over the past 5 days (at the British Embassy on Monday, our big Tokyo Designers Week event on Wednesday, and then a collaboration with Artek at DOVER STREET MARKET GINZA on Thursday) — and we still have a regular PechaKucha Night (Vol. 108) this coming Wednesday.

Can I breathe yet?

As successful as this past week was, I did take great pleasure in getting back home last night after work, cracking open a tall boy of Yebisu Kohaku, munching on famichiki, while watching more episodes of Twin Peaks – I’m currently watching the series for at least the 4th time in my life.

Fire walk with me.

Speaking of Twin Peaks, my wife made an interesting observation last night. Although most people feel that the series went downhill after we learn who killed Laura Palmer, she feels it gets even more interesting from that point, more weird. I don’t know if it gets better, but I certainly love the entire series, and love being in that world again. We even dance and snap our fingers along with the show, when that paricular funky music comes on.

I really do hope that the rumors of a return to Twin Peaks are true. It’s all I want for Christmas.

How about that new Arcade Fire album? Pretty great, huh. A lot of great music has come out over the past couple of months, and I really do need to get a few new episodes of the Codex recorded.

I have been watching lots of stuff during this time, and playing games of course. Don’t believe me? Check my Tumblr for proof. I’m much more active on Twitter too.

There were rumours he was into field hockey players.

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Savages

I’d sort of been avoiding this movie because I hadn’t heard great things about it, but found myself in a mood for something like it a couple of weeks ago, and you know what, I had a pretty good time watching it. I’m sure going in with low expectations helped, but I did like how the story gets told, including the tease ending.

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Silver Linings Playbook

Well, everything that has been said about how good a film this is is deserved. Enjoyed the fuck out of this – although, yes, I’ll admit that I’ll watch pretty much anything with Jennifer Lawrence. Definitely not your average romcom – it’s too weird for that, and too interesting.

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Orange Is the New Black

I’d been wanting to watch this since it first came out, and I’ve finally gotten around to it and I’m really loving it – definitely one of my favorite shows this year. I’m about halfway through the season, and it just feels like it keeps getting better and better. Can’t recommend it enough, and I really do hope that Netflix orders a second season.