Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. šš»
My big thing this week was opening up a paid tier on All the Fanfare.
I donāt want to repeat myself, but getting to this point was hard. I generally feel pretty confident about my ability to combine words in fun and inventive ways. Putting those words behind a pay barrier requires a level of confidence I donāt easily have, apparently. Pushing āsendā only required a pep talk from my wife and a few hours uselessly tweaking the text of the email. I even progressed to the āAre you sure you want to send this?ā screen 3 times and backed out 3 times because I wasnāt sure, actually, thanks for asking.
Itās only been a day but the initial response has been overwhelming. Iām seriously awed by the level of support. Like Moff Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi, I shall double my efforts. That means more Star Wars references, penis jokes, and an obnoxious number of footnotes. Youāre most welcome.
Thanksgiving is only a few days away here in the States. I can practically taste the turkey and stuffing. I have a lot to be thankful for. Family and friends. Health. A Detroit Lions team that doesnāt suck. Near the very top is this community of readers and friends.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading and commenting. Thanks for making this crazy dream a little more real.
Last weekās poll was fairly evenly-split. I like to do all of these things, other than shop. Unless weāre talking about shopping for new books or video games.
Have a great weekend!
5 Things I Enjoyed This Week
Captain America: Civil War
My Captain America trilogy rewatch concluded this week. If you missed them, here were my initial thoughts after revisiting The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier. All of this is fodder for a piece Iām working on exploring the Bucky/Steve bromance.
Civil War is an Avengers film in all but name, and it includes some of the best action scenes in the entire MCU. The airport fight sequence in particular laid the groundwork for the comic book splash page style fights weād get in Infinity War and Endgame, but while these later efforts were bigger and sometimes better, the airport fight retains a purity of spirit that remains appealing. Itās the same reason Superman (1978) will always be one of my favorite superhero films, no matter how dated the effects look. (Superman actually holds up really well, despite being 45 years-old.)
The airport fight is also a microcosm for the filmās theme. There are no winners here. Everybody loses. When pretty much every superhero movie ends with the hero triumphant, itās refreshing seeing the good guys take an L.
While I still enjoy all that, I find myself drawn more to the filmās quiet moments. The inhalations before the exertions. We canāt care about the spectacle if we donāt care about the people first. This is where Marvel thrived during its amazing run.
Civil War also has my favorite movie trailer. Not just in the MCU. Period. Still gives me goosebumps.
This incredible article about being a girl gamer
I thoroughly enjoyed
ās article about her experience playing multiplayer shooters online. Itās a heartbreaking read.Itās weird to say you enjoyed reading something that elicits those kinds of feelings. Iām not a masochist or something. But sometimes good art stings.
What they were really asking, or at least what it felt like they were saying, was, āWhy are you here?ā What they were saying was the same thing I could read on the expressions of every GameStop employee who stared at me from afar as I browsed the shelves or who asked me if I was shopping for a boyfriend or a brother. Girls donāt game, and if they do, they canāt be good.
Conan OāBrien plays Starfield
Clueless Gamer is one of the Internetās greatest gifts to humanity. Thereās nothing quite like watching Conan fumble around in a video game while keeping up a hilarious monologue.
I thought the series had concluded, but a Starfield episode popped up on my feed this week. As you maybe know, I like that game quite a bit.
Going on the Gotta Pop! podcast
I had the pleasure of being hosted on
ās podcast yesterday. Iāve known Buddy longer than any other writer. We met as part of a community thatād formed around a fiction podcast at least 10 years ago. We kept in touch a bit before reconnecting on Medium. Buddy wrote under a pen name for a while, which basically means I knew Bruce Wayne was Batman the entire time.Buddy is a great guy and a warm host. Had a wonderful time talking about Point Break, movies, NaNoWriMo, and other things. Iāll drop a link once the episode airs.
Podracer Trailer Fan-Film
Now this is podracing.
This fan-made trailer dropped yesterday and it took my breath away. Sadly, the trailer is the extent of the production. In a very real sense, the action is the juice.
Modern trailers have proven itās easy to make anything look good with 60 seconds of random footage. Remember when everyone lost their minds over the initial Superman v. Batman trailer? That trailer was the best part of the movie. Itās not alone in that distinction.
However.
The one thing you can reliably glean from a trailer is tone. Podracer imparts a level of pneumatic oiliness Iāve never really encountered in Star Wars before. It feels like a blend of Gran Turismo, Days of Thunder, and Gone in 60 Seconds. It feels fresh yet familiar.
Iāve been saying basically forever that Iām dying to see Star Wars step out from the Skywalkersā shadow and maybe put the lightsabers away for a bit. To this point, Andor is the anomaly. Hoping for more in that vein.
Which leads to this weekās poll.
Buddy is both extremely easy to talk to and impossibly nice. I had a lot of fun on Gotta Pop, and am sure you did too! I'm looking forward to checking the episode out! Any idea when it'll be released?
I hope he considers me for that honor sometime.