Desipio Message Board

Somewhat surprised based on the age/nerdiness of this board that there's no entry for the new Amazon series yet.

Full disclosure: I spent many a hungover Saturday guffawing at The Tick cartoon in college. I saw very little of the 2001 live-action series and have not read the comic.

I'm liking the new series a lot. Peter Serafinowicz is damn near perfect as the Big Blue Bug of Justice and Griffin Newman does well as Arthur. The rest of the cast is also very good with an honorable mention to Alan Tudyk's voice work as a character that is basically Night Boat from The Simpsons.

Anyway, it's exactly what I want from The Tick: he's a good-hearted, bombastic, mostly oblivious indestructible tank of a hero. Just as likely to invite a homeless man he met on patrol to spend the night as he is to scold another hero for his overzealous use of deadly force. And the 4th episode, where Tick crashes Arthur's stepdad's birthday party could have come directly from the cartoon.

I would like to add one SPOILER however. The pilot for the show (shot well in advance of the rest of the series) is only okay as it's more involved with Arthur's back story and features very little of the actual Tick, to the point where it seems like one of the major themes for the show will be whether Tick is just a manifestation of Arthur's imagination. Luckily the 2nd episode dispenses with this possibility, but I do want to urge anyone turned off by the pilot to keep going, the series gets much better.

Bobby Heenan, the best manager, the best announcer, just the goddamn best.


http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-bobby-heenan-dies-20170917-story.html

RIP Rollie.



http://deadspin.com/longtime-villanova-coach-rollie-massimino-dead-at-82-1798641234

Created for the 3rd catcher who twice came through in the pinch.

I see a lot of theories out there (and have a few of my own) so I thought we could consolidate everything into one thread.

So, who's fault is all of this?

-Joe Maddon for managing his team the way he has all season
-John Lackey for not being able to pitch more than 5 innings
-Javy Baez for getting hot as shit for 2 weeks and not 3
-Willson Contreras (same as above)
-Kyle Schwarber for being just well enough to give us some hope
-Jorge Soler for not being fast enough to prevent a run or hit an inside the park homer
-Theo Epstein for not being willing to part with Schwarber for Andrew Miller
-Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant for mostly being a rumor at the top of the order this series
-Jason Heyward for not breaking out
-Joe West because fuck Joe West
-Random chance

Add more as you see fit.

Written in co-operation with Henry Hill, this book claims to shed new light on the Lufthansa Heist (partially detailed in Goodfellas), but doesn't really get past the fact that while Hill knew the basics, he didn't take part in the planning or execution of the robbery.  So basically the narrative ping-pongs between 1st person narration from Hill and what can best be described as "historical supposition" as the author describes the events as they (probably) occurred.  Still, it never moves past the basics which is that a bunch of guys pulled off one of the largest cash robberies in history at JFK and then Jimmy Burke killed them all so the crime was never solved.  The last 1/4 of the book is basically a rehash of Hill's arrest and entry into the Witness Protection Program based on the hope that he'd be able to connect Burke and Paul Vario to the crime (instead he connected them to a bunch of other ones).

Since both Goodfellas and Wiseguy exist, you're probably better off watching/reading those instead.

Disclaimer: I have never read Wiseguy but I have to believe it's a much better read than this book.  The author seems to have spent the 3 years between Hill's death and the book's publication perfecting the art of torturing similes to death.

Abe Vigoda, no longer alive.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/abe-vigoda-sunken-eyed-character-actor-dead-94-36528884

I've watched the first couple of episodes and I'm trying to decide if I like this show, or if I just like the people in it enough that I want to like it.

Basically an update of the old Police Squad show, but so far the best comedy has come from guest stars (Lisa Kudrow and Gary Cole are the best part of the pilot) or recurring characters like Alfred Molina's coroner.

Also, because I am 9, I will never not laugh at the German Shepherd cop who does people things.


Anyway, I'm planning on watching the rest of season 1, unless one of you warns me off it.

Between walking and the train, I've got about 2.5-3 hours of commuting every day.  During that time I like to listen to podcasts, and I while see names get dropped in various threads periodically, I figured we can use this one to aggregate.

Here's what I listen to regularly:

The Flophouse - Bad movie podcast
We Hate Movies - Also a bad movie podcast
How Did This Get Made - There are a lot of bad movie podcasts

The Adventure Zone - 3 brothers and their dad play Dungeons and Dragons with hilarious results

Hardcore History - Listened to the WWI series on Slak's recommendation, it was great. I'm now about halfway through the Spanish American War episode and it's very good as well.

The Star Wars Minute - Two guys and various guests watch the Star Wars movies minute by minute and record a podcast episode analyzing each minute. They did the entire original trilogy already so there's a big back catalog.  They're now about 45 minutes into Phantom Menace. The episodes are shorter (usually 20-30 minutes) than most but are released daily.

The James Bonding Podcast - Two guys named Matt watch and review all the James Bond movies.

A Match Made in Space - Bort can tell you about this one.

I Was There Too - Just started this one, but one of the Matts from James Bonding interviews actors who had very small parts in very big movies.

I'll definitely be checking out  You Must Remember This based on Slaky's post.  Anybody else got anything they like and listen to?

The son of a plumber, the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.

http://www.wbtw.com/story/29298174/professional-wrestler-american-dream-dusty-rhodes-dies-at-age-69

AWA big wig Verne Gagne.


http://www.startribune.com/sports/301579061.html

Tony Gwynn.


http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11091626/hall-famer-tony-gwynn-san-diego-padres-died

Lee Marshall, latest voice of Tony the Tiger, who apparently died two weeks ago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/lee-marshal-tony-the-tiger-dies_n_5282963.html

And no, the esophageal cancer is not ironic.

Drop dead Fred.

http://ksn.com/2014/03/20/founder-of-westboro-baptist-church-rev-fred-phelps-sr-dies/

Philip Seymour Hoffman

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626804579358943360702878?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304626804579358943360702878.html

SYSTEMS OF FOOTBAW

I feel like this needs a thread.  Probably the greatest television move in the history of everything.

Sometime Bort antagonist, inspiration for Bill Murray's "Nick the Lounge Singer" character and all around Chicago Guy Jimmy Damon.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-27/entertainment/ct-ent-0429-jimmy-damon-obit-20130428_1_playboy-club-singer-frank-d-rone

William Moody, AKA Paul Bearer

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/03/06/wwe-legend-paul-bearer-dead-at-58

Excellent book by Tim Weiner *SNORT* who also authored the CIA history "A Legacy of Ashes" - which I previously recommended just prior to the great Rattoing.

The title is a bit misleading, there is virtually nothing on this book about police work.  The author's focus is on the FBI's task of serving as a domestic intelligence agency, in particular the COINTELPRO program started by J Edgar Hoover to track anarchists, communists, homosexuals and anyone else he determined to be "subversive".  Hoover's original intent was to compile a list of people who would be herded into detainment camps if WWIII were to break out.  Later the focus shifted to trying to establish a link between the Soviets and the various leftist organizations the sprung up in the US during the 1960s.

This leads into Hoover's death, Watergate, the agency's attempt to shift to investigation of terrorism at home and abroad up to the present day.

Anyway, excellent read, and if you haven't read Legacy of Ashes you should check that out too.