One of the funniest books I've read in years. From Park Milland Press. Free if you have Kindle Unlimited!

https://a.co/d/4ZZRVAn

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Der Film fühlt sich an wie ein Kurzschluss im RomCom Kino der frühen 2000er. Er weigert sich, angenehm zu sein. Intimität ist hier kein Versprechen, sondern ein Risiko. Ich sehe hier aber keinen „Sandler-Film“, sondern nur eine präzise Studie über männliche Fragilität. Wut als Körpersprache und Liebe als etwas, das nicht heilt, sondern fordert. PT Anderson blickt nicht ironisch auf seinen Protagonisten, sondern mit einer fast schon unbequemen Intimität. (ZDF, Wh.)

„Romantische Komödien“ finden Sie hier eher selten. Eigentlich gar nicht. Ich bin in dem Genre einfach nicht genug unterwegs. Doch hier habe ich mal eine, die sich demonstrativ fast jeder Konvention verweigert und wohl genau deshalb funktioniert. Nur zwei Figuren, nur ein Wochenende, zu viel Wein, nur Gerede, kaum Handlung, aber Sex im Freien (FSK: ab 12). Menschen mit nichts als Luxusproblemen. Eigentlich lasse ich mich auf sowas kaum freiwillig ein. Hier handelt es sich jedoch um was anderes. Denn das hier ist kein Eskapismus. Das ist pure Konfrontation. Mit Winona Ryder und Keanu Reeves. (ARD, Neu)

Media — November 2025

Got so busy with re:Invent and the holidays that I’m backdating this post of things I enjoyed (or not) in November.

Reading

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

We finished The Battle of the Labyrinth (which I think is my favorite of the five so far) and started the last book, The Last Olympian. Not sure what we’ll read together after this!

Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground

It’s rare to have a book that takes over your brain for a while. This coffee table history of RPGs by Stu Horvath of Vintage RPG really clicked for me. I’ve mostly just been a D&D player for almost 30 years, but have had some light exposure to other games over that time.

I picked it up on a whim at the Ballard library where we were wasting some time while waiting for our car to get finished at our nearby dealership. I devoured it all weekend!

I loved his capturing of the cover art in his collection, as well as talking about the bigger trends in the RPG space and how different systems influenced one another. It really has me motivated to play more often.

The book is skewed more towards early D&D, which was some interesting history. I would have liked to know more about what happened with 4e, which didn’t even get its own section. I didn’t participate much in that discourse, although I did play a few times and had the books. There are sections on a few more recent indie RPGs I’ve tried, but also some I’ve enjoyed that got no mention. There’s so much out there these days, and that’s exciting.

Stu included his own Appendix N which I want to look over more and think about what the big influences on me are. It also had me wondering about the alternative universe where I got into the Star Wars RPG but read D&D novels about Drizzt instead of playing D&D and reading a bunch of EU novels.

Memos of Blood and Fire

A long and beautifully written take on the right’s decades-long war on higher education (and almost everything else) coming to fruition.

The expressed conviction that the greatest goods of civic life belong by right to the winning classes, and to everyone else go the knockoff approximations, actually precedes our present-day authoritarian vandals by decades.

They’re Doing to America What They Did to Christianity

I liked this piece from Bill McKibben from a mainline Protestant (in his case Methodist) perspective on the decline in influence from the progressive denominations in favor of a theocratic takeover by non-denominational Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions.

One interesting point was his musing on why historically distinct but largely theologically compatible denominations, already in Communion with one another, didn’t unite to provide a counterpoint as their congregations were mostly dying.

five or six declining and theologically similar denominations never really considered uniting into one more powerful one

Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons and Dragons to Be Racist

Interesting discussion from Adam Serwer on the increasing diversity in the player base of RPGs and the perverse interests of race essentialists like Musk. Some nice quotes from Aabria Iyengar, whom I mostly know from Dropout appearances.

Watching

Thanksgiving usually marks our transition from our traditional Friday night movie rotation to Christmas movies whenever we feel like it. This year we started even earlier.

We mostly return to our usual favorites like Elf and While You Were Sleeping. The only new one this year so far was Princess Switch 3, which was pretty silly bad and made even less sense than the previous two.

Wicked: For Good

We rewatched Wicked at home before catching this one in the theater. It was our first movie at The Cinerama SIFF Cinema Downtown since we saw The Rise of Skywalker in late 2019 before it shut down for COVID and then a change in ownership. Thankfully our beloved chocolate popcorn remains! This is still one of our favorite theaters, although sadly their single screen programming has been largely skewed away from family films. There is still something to be said for seeing certain kinds of movies on the big screen with everyone cheering and clapping for big moments.

I liked the second act a lot, although I think overall as with many musicals it’s not quite as strong as the first. I had managed to stay spoiler free despite the book and show being out for years. “No Good Deed” might be my favorite of these songs? And they did a good job of interweaving elements of the 1939 film, which is the version of the story most people know, without trying to update the iconic look of Judy Garland.

Listening

With everything going on in the world I was convinced to start listening to Christmas music earlier. Yes, before Thanksgiving. We mostly have our traditional favorites but we usually try something new every year.

The Backstreet Boys — A Very Backstreet Christmas

We’re Millennials so of course we’re biased but this fairly recent Christmas album of theirs is a pretty good take on some classics.

Pentatonix — Christmas in the City

Pentatonix seems to mostly do Christmas albums these days, and their new one is solid. Their original tracks aren’t anything to write home about but I’m always a sucker for a cappella harmonies.

DJ Cummerbund — Enter the Sandstorm

I’ve long enjoyed a clever mashup and this combination really works. The video editing is good too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5NaqkM2k6E

The Rest is History — Disney

Everyone seems to be talking about how this is their favorite podcast. They did a three episode run on Walt Disney and Disneyland, culminating in an interview with Bob Iger!

• 614 Walt Disney: The Great American Storyteller
• 615 Disneyland: The Modern American Utopia
• RIHC Disney’s Legacy, with Bob Iger

Some pretty interesting trivia throughout and covering the influences from theme parks past.