Nappi

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by Nappi

  1. I never bothered to check the name of the actor, but yeah, I'm never gonna forget that face. That scene was brilliantly constructed and he did a great job. That scene was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me. Usually, I don't like seeing a smile slowly turning into a frown, but in this case it would sort of have been a blessing. Amanda's character being angry/horrified at her boyfriend using so much cocaine felt like a glimpse of a way out for her, but that was short-lived because she decided to do some herself and feeling "good" again. I was also expecting something terrible to happen during the grinning scene, but nothing happening was pretty horrible too.
  2. Yeah, that scene was super uncomfortable for these reasons. Very well put together, but I cannot take much more in one episode. I wonder many keywords (owl, coffee, gun, agent...) Cooper still needs to find before he is able to return to normal.
  3. Really interesting episode! I have read all of the Philip Marlowe novels except for Playback, and The Long Goodbye is definitely my favorite. It is also the darkest and most melancholy of Raymond Chandler novels, very likely because of the situation he was in at the time: his wife was terminally ill and he himself was devastated and suicidal. Before reading any of the Raymond Chandler books, I assumed that Philip Marlowe would be the sort of hardboiled detective who got all the women, had the best wisecracks, and was incredibly competent at what he does. Chandler may maintain that impression for a couple of pages, but it quickly becomes apparent that, at best, the women may show interest in him in order to use him, that his wisecracks amuse nobody and regularly lead to him getting his ass kicked, and that even if he is not cracking wise, he is often so incompetent in basic sleuthing that he gets his ass kicked regardless. This, combined with the occasional glimpses into his revulsion about how the world and he himself operates, makes Marlowe a really fascinating character to me. I find Chandler's writing style pretty incredible. It is hard to find a paragraph in his books that doesn't have dry, humorous sentence I would be so happy to have come up with, stuff like "She had wide blue eyes and eyelashes that didn't quite reach her chin," or "His suit fitted him like a stable fits a horse." As the novels are written in first person, you almost get the impression that Marlowe has gone through the events over and over again in his head and created the most wise-ass version of the narrative just to amuse himself. He seems like that sort of a guy. Chandler's writing is also very efficient in many ways. A good example of that is Marlowe's interest in chess problems, which is mentioned briefly in several several of the books. It is such a small thing, but as mentioned in the podcast, it tells a lot about the character. The discussion about the effect of World War II on the characters was really good. It would be interesting to go back and read The Big Sleep, which was published in 1939, to see if makes any references to the current world events. I also find it so hard to reconcile that Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie were contemporaries (with Christie's being active both before and after Chandler's career). The world of Christie's novels, with perhaps few exceptions, feels so distant to me, while Chandler's feels merely like a slightly outdated version of the world we live in.

  4. WIZARD JAM 5 // Welcome Thread

    Nappi replied to zerofiftyone's topic in Wizard Jam 5 Archive

    Niiice! Amazing work as usual!
  5. This is a really sweet thing. Thanks for linking.
  6. After being pretty worried after two episodes, and cautiously optimistic after the third, I'm happy to say that I absolutely loved this episode. It is not just that it has more humor, it is more that it has something to care about (Cooper, Gordon Cole...). Take Five spit-take to be precise. That scene was fantastic! I really hope we get to see Naomi Watts' character's reaction to revitalized super-confident Cooper in the next episode. Man, Kyle MacLachlan's performances have been great. Also, that Michael Cera bit was so fucking awkward. I loved it! Yeah, I'm with you. To me they feel like guest spots in this huge production and not something that adds to the overall atmosphere of the series. I can't pinpoint what makes them feel that way for me. Anyway, fortunately, it is not that big of a deal, at least for me.
  7. Haha.. Just watched the episode. You are totally right.
  8. I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the previous two. I hope this means that the plot "normalizes" a bit at least for a while, because all that red room stuff was getting a bit numbing. The one thing I actively disliked in this episode is the drug addict mom and her child. I hope that they at least go somewhere with it and not just use the imagery as a cheap way to highlight how fucked up the world is or whatever. Also better brush up on my knowledge on numerology I guess.
  9. Looking forward to extensive discussion on analog glitches on Windows surface laptop in the next podcast episode. Still feel like I should watch a couple more episodes before trying articulate my feelings towards the show. Scattered thoughts: - Very atmospheric, most of the time. - I'm wondering if this series will actually introduce someone to relate to or root for or whatever. So far everyone feels very distant which is the polar opposite of the original run. - I like that they let Amanita Design design the Arm. - I hope there will be a bit less Red Room bullshit in the following episodes. - I wish the song at the end had felt either more or much less fitting for the scene. I think I would enjoy the song on its own quite a bit, but in the context it felt like a slightly overproduced tribute to Twin Peaks bar music (which I guess it kinda is). This wasn't helped by the fact that the song is very synth heavy, but no one was playing one. Unfortunately, this didn't create that jarring sensation Lynch is so good at conjuring up. To me it felt like a fan video made by combining a song and a sort of fitting scene in a TV series.
  10. I have a feeling that I need to watch a couple of more episodes before it makes sense to comment on the series. I'll just say this: The first episode definitely got the oppressing atmosphere right, but I hope they will introduce more humor and warmth in the later episodes, because that was what really made the dark bits of the original run so effective.

  11. The McElroy Family of Products

    Nappi replied to jennegatron's topic in Idle Banter

    The final episode of Car Boys was pretty amazing: The latest episode of The Adventure Zone not so much, unfortunately. Well, Travis' speech was pretty good.
  12. Haha.. I went through the exact same thought process.
  13. Yeah, I hope that even though Jeff, Jason, and Ben all seem to love fighting games, they don't play them during every Unprofessional Friday. I rarely find watching other people play fighting games fun unless they play at a very high level or the game is totally crazy.

  14. Life

    Nappi replied to gdf's topic in Idle Banter

    Nice! Congratulations!

  15. The McElroy Family of Products

    Nappi replied to jennegatron's topic in Idle Banter

    Did Roman Mars tweet back at you when you voiced similar concerns after it was finally announced that The Bugle would be part of Radiotopia?
  16. Judging by the latest GBE Megadate, Abby seems to be a great fit for Giant Bomb East, so I hope she will get to be in more stuff.
  17. Yeah, Nick's story combined with Chris' menacing Hoist 'im voice had me looking like a crazy person while having a walk. Good stuff!

  18. The McElroy Family of Products

    Nappi replied to jennegatron's topic in Idle Banter

    I finally watched the Seeso series. I liked it a lot overall, although some of the bits were definitely a bit awkward. Not surprisingly, I prefer their spontaneous humor to the more scripted stuff. It would be interesting to know what people who haven't listened to the show thought about the TV series. I imagine that the transformation from geeky TV boys to these super confident, well-liked live show hosts in the last episode must have come as a surprise to some viewers at least.
  19. The NyQuil-induced dream the reader had bears many similarities to the recurring nightmare I had as a kid during high fever. I do not remember what my exact medication situation was, unfortunately, but it is highly likely that I was on some kind of cold medication. I posted my experiences on the forums some time ago related to the discussion on the Tetris-effect.
  20. This is one of those games that I think I couldn't actually play (at least alone) because I would find it too stressful, but love watching other people play it. The Giant Bomb Battlegrounds streams, for example, have been really fun so far. The setting creates really interesting tense moments ("The doors in that building are already open." or "Oh shit, did you hear that car?"), and fortunately the game doesn't dwell on the gross Battle Royale setting.

  21. Something True 6: Häxprocesser

    Nappi replied to Jake's topic in Something True Episodes

    Haha.. I haven't listened to the episode yet, but saw Gävle mentioned in the description and hoped that the show would reference the ridiculous Christmas goat thing.
  22. I watched a few more episodes of the new season. I'm still not super into the disjointed, one-line riffing, but at least I have gotten somewhat used to it. There are some nice observations I would have missed without the commentary, but overall I would still prefer a more organic feel even if it meant half the goofs.

  23. Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

    Nappi replied to dartmonkey's topic in Video Gaming

    I have never owned a Mario Kart game and only played previous games in the series a couple of times, but I'm excited to get in on that crazy Luigi death stare action. I'm about done with Breath of the Wild too (well, the story and shrines anyway; I will probably still return to it quite often). The only thing that is holding me back a little bit is that I probably wouldn't be able to play local multiplayer that often. I imagine that playing with friends on the same couch is the best way to experience Mario Kart, but is the game still fun when played single player or online?

  24. Something True 4: Ruska Pravda

    Nappi replied to Jake's topic in Something True Episodes

    Yup. I love the stories and the production quality is superb!

  25. The McElroy Family of Products

    Nappi replied to jennegatron's topic in Idle Banter

    I appreciate Griffin trying out different game styles, and I think that moving away from D&D format would probably be beneficial, but I don't think the German-style board game-esque mechanics (or whatever this should be called) that focus on resource/experience collecting, while dealing with the story mostly on a macro-level is the way to go. In fact it feels like the opposite of what TAZ is all about. When they finally got the game running there were very few small, interesting character moments that make the series so interesting and fun for me. I hate to say this, but unless things change drastically after this one, I really hope that this arc doesn't last for much more than two episodes.