MarkHoog

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Posts posted by MarkHoog

  2. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Chris said:

    Not that it really matters much but unless my memory is totally crapping out, I think the wacky slot machine conga line music was the Nutcracker, not Swan Lake?

     I just posted a slowed down version of that conga line stuff, a couple of posts above. It kinda sounds like the brushes from The Bookhouse Boys from the Original Soundtrack, with some strangely cut piano stuff over it.

  4. Posted

    I've been enjoying most (but definitely not all) of this season, but this is the first time that I've actively disliked an episode. Sure, it was funny that I could've learned a foreign language in the time it took that French lady to leave Cole's room, but frankly I've had my share of that this season. I'm sorry, but unlike my ability to love and be kind my patience actually has limits. The podcast often discusses the fact that a lot of what we see will/might be appreciated differently once we've seen the whole batch of episodes, so yeah, until then I can't be bothered with whatever's rattling in Sarah's kitchen, Billy's (?) whereabouts and whether the two women in the Roadhouse have any relation to that armpit scratching lady that we'll probably never see again.

     

    The only scene that really grabbed me was the one with Ben Horne. There's was a sad, pensive sort of sweetness to it.

  10. Posted

    About the long sequences without checkpoints, isn't that how the first 45 minutes of Nier: Automata are? I love how that game plays with conventions by putting a kind of 'endgame run' at the very beginning.

     

    Also, Rob's discussion about the "Tears" song in Max Payne 3 was totally spot on. That moment is my all time favourite music moment in games. It's funny how Rob almost described it the same way that I did in my book (only I did it in Dutch :-D)

     

     

  11. Posted

    2 hours ago, Eraserhead72 said:

    People sitting on a sofa watching a glass box.
    Waiting a long time for something to happen.

    Getting off on the secrecy of it all.

    They miss Cooper (literally).

    Something else appears in the glass box instead.

    Its dark. Unrecognisable. Raw. Ugly. Violent.

    It completely messes with their heads.

    Welcome to the new Twin Peaks.... :)

     

     

     

    Whoa, great interpretation. Also, I think Death by Motion Blur is going to be the name of my new post-punk band.

  12. Posted

    I did not like the scene with Michael Cera, but I loved the exchange that Gordon had with Denise. The lines, the timing, the composition - it really clicked with me. Same goes for the interrogation of evil Coop. Boy, that was creepy. (Is MacLachlan wearing dark matte lenses while playing that character or something? His eyes just look so... dead... like a shark's.

     

    By the way I am starting to get a little worried about the kind of 'stunt casting', for lack of a better term. Whenever we get an exterior shot of a new location, my head's going: 'I wonder which A-list tv actor/Lynch alum will show up for a single scene in this one.' Of course, that's totally me, but there are just sooo many familiar faces in this. Am I alone in this?

  15. Posted

    I am still not sure whether I enjoyed this first hour of TP. I agree that it felt more like an extension of Mulholland Dr. or Inland Empire than a return to the quirky 90's TV show that everyone remembers. There were a lot of moments I enjoyed (the bad Coop driving with the bad ass beat over it, the scenes with the glass box - despite Madeline Zima's - intentional?- horrendous acting), but I felt the 'Fargo' storyline consisted of overlong scenes and misfired weirdness. Hastings' interrogation was stellar, though. The episode DID affect me in that subconscious way that Lynch often does; I (dreamt that I??) woke up screaming because I was sure something was about to happen in the still darkness of my bedroom. I can only assume that something was a video effect.

     

    Probably not a popular opinion, but I felt the return of some of the old cast a bit... unfitting, somehow? I can't put my finger on it, but a part of me would've liked this episode better without the likes of Lucy and Ben Horne (the scene with Margaret and Hawk was powerful as hell, on the other hand - given the context). It's like Lynch is standing with one foot in the past while the other is taking things in a totally new direction. What I also didn't like is the explicit gore. In Mulholland Dr. that obscured image of the corpse on the bed haunted me for days. Here we get a long close up of a severed head. Why? Don't get me wrong, I love me some buckets 'o gore, but this felt out of place and somewhat gratuitous... it's kinda like how monster movies are at their best when you can't really make out the monster and your imagination gets all fired up.

     

    One more tip, and I don't mean to sound like one of those oversensitive internet douchebags; I would go for somewhat less revealing image for the episodes. Various (re)tweets for this podcast episode showed me tan, long haired Coop before I'd had a chance to watch the episode (I'm in the Netherlands), and that was a visual that I would've liked to have come at me out of the blue while watching. Just a thought.

     

    Still love you guys and everything you do! Can't wait to hear all of your your ponderings and interpretations these coming months.

     

  18. Posted

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't spaff also British slang for semen?

     

    Somehow, the name Manic Mark has always been stuck to me in my friend circle. There's an absurd abundance of Marks there, so each has their own adjective; Metal Mark (the metal fan), Funky Mark (the bass player), Money Mark (the owner of our favourite bar), etc. Somehow, because I was into Manic Street Preachers way back when (and wore their t-shirts), I ended up being Manic. Using that in an email address might've cost me a few callbacks on job interviews, though....

  21. Posted

    Is Cathedral what you would recommend reading next if people enjoyed this book? I don't know a whole lot about him but really enjoyed this book and want to read more.

     

    It might be a matter of taste, MechaTofuPirate, but in my experience Cathedral was the superior collection - it had more heart. So yes, if you enjoyed WWTA I would definitely recommend Cathedral!

     

    On a side note, if you like Carver, you might also enjoy the short stories of John Cheever. His The Swimmer is one of my favourite stories of all time.

  22. Posted

    Looking forward to this episode, since I really enjoyed the stories in this collection. Having said that, I would recommend reading the story 'A Small Good Thing' after having read 'The Bath'. The first, featured in Carver's excellent collection 'Cathedral', is kind of an extended remake of the latter, which is in WWTAWWTAL. It's a nice showcase of Carver's evolution as a writer, and I confess ASGT brought me to tears. I won't spoil the differences between the two, but I've googled for it and you can read the entire story online. 

     

    Kind regards,

    Mark

  23. Posted

    About the reason behind Hidden My Game By Mom translation quality: like WickedCestus said, it's really hard to tell! It's definitely some genuine-feeling bad translation, so I don't think it was manufactured by someone who can secretly speak better English. But my gut take on the situation is they knew their translation was probably bad, and also knew it would probably be funny if they didn't bother to fix it, and that happens to be a wonderful excuse not to invest in doing it "properly".

     

    Oddly enough, when I tried to find this game in the Play Store, I ended up finding it by its Dutch title - 'Verborgen Mijn Spel Door Moeder', which is the literal translation of Hidden My Game By Mom. I doubt that the developer has translated the title for each country themselves, so maybe there's some Google translate formula at work here? One that the devs couldn't care less about, or maybe found out along the publishing process and decided to implement/go along with?

  24. Posted

    The featured image from the episode reminded me of Orchids to Dusk, a tiny little indie game which involves an astronaut walking around a planet while his oxygen is running out. It has an interesting twist at the end, which provides food for thought and made me feel... connected? I can't say more without spoiling this nice, existential experience, but I thought I'd share it. You can find it here on itch.io. 

  25. Posted

    I never finished Doom 3 because it was simply too jump-scary. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this game seems to rely more on gore and heavy gunplay than building up and scaring you. I remember Doom 3 taking its time in the intro, with like an hour of exposition before you even fired your first shot, and it seems this new Doom just goes into full action mode from the get go - at least, that's the impression I got from a stream I watched. Like the poster above me says, I might pick this up on a sale... if it's not too scary.