Lothair - My own self

Posts tagged with "Lothair"

The Wire, seasons 4 and 5

Friday, 16. May 2008, 21:14:57

always-wanted-to-do-that, Non-Whedon-Television, Lothair

As I wrote in my review of the first three seasons of HBO's The Wire, this is some damned good television. And that did not change with the last two seasons.

Something did change, though. The fourth season is a much lighter story than the three seasons coming before it, but it's also less of a self-contained-story, being the one season of the show where the number of loose ends at the season finale almost rivaled the number of plots neatly finished up. By all means, The Wire always have plenty of loose ends on which to build the upcoming season, but in season 4, they were more plentiful than before. I don't think this made it weaker, though.

While I sorely missed a few of my favourite characters from earlier seasons, the show keeps introducing new ones as well as bringing out old minor characters into the light, and they are quite frequently an interesting bunch. Because The Wire is first and foremost - the way I've experienced it - a show about the people trapped in the system, and to make that story work, the characters must be as interesting as the system is screwed up. And believe you me - on this show, the system is not only screwed up, but nailed, glued and hammered up, and it is only sticking together due to the self-sustaining shit it creates. Luckily, the show has the characters to match.

Season 5 was, of course, a trip straight downhill after the relatie respite of the fourth one. Everything goes to heck, and somehow, for everyone. Needless to say, I loved to hate every minute of it.

Easily one of the best shows I've ever seen, and considering it's basically a cop-show - a genre I'm so sick of I could puke - set in present day, without any dragons, wizards, droids or lightsabers, that's one huge accomplishment. It's no coincidence that if I were to list my favourite shows, I don't think anything that's both got a contemporary setting and is devoid of supernatural or sci-fi-elements would match it. Veronica Mars before the less-than-ideal third season, maybe. That's it. The Wire is a show that's frequently funny, often tragic, sometimes exciting, and always, always captivating. If I were to compare it to something, I'd say it lands somewhere between Deadwood and The Sopranos, but it really is its own thing, and it's highly recommended.

0 Comments

The Severity Of An American Presidential Election

Sunday, 20. April 2008, 13:01:29

politics, Lothair

Oh, the ~~human~~pocket monstrosity!

2 Comments

The Wire, seasons 1 through 3

Thursday, 17. April 2008, 12:05:54

Non-Whedon-Television, I implore you, always-wanted-to-do-that, rant ...

What's there to say? Except Wow. This is some damned good television. Many thanks to Lothair for nagging me thoroughly and steadily until I started watching it.

The first few episodes of the first season bears what I'm almost starting to think of as the HBO-syndrome - slow start, many characters, little happening. Especially The Sopranos was similar to The Wire in this respect (and in many other, actually). Then, unnoticably, about halfway through the first season, the show's Captivating and you're Committed.

What is The Wire about? Well, it's about Baltimore City, and its corruption and misery. The focal point in the first season is the police department and the drug trade, shifted to (without ever dropping the first two) the docks, unions and politics in the second. The third sees a return to the drug trafficking-focus, but the politics keep being played up very heavily as well. And in the fourth, which I've recently started watching, we get introduced to the disfunctional school-system.

What the show does so well is introducing each of these aspects of the city's problems and spheres on top of each other, causing an eventually very layered understanding of what's going on and how everything affects everything. Most of the main characters are policemen - competent and incompetent, well-meaning fuck-ups and abusive bastards, they've got all flavours - but there is also a sizeable portion of the screen-time given to various criminals, both high- and low-level. And as the series progresses, an increasing amount of politicians start claiming their share of the screen time as well.

Several of the characters are quite awesome. In particular I love Rawls, a magnificent asshole of a high-ranking policeman, Lester Freeman, a silent and manipulative bastard with the best intentions, and even more so Stringer Bell, one out of the two main men behind the West Baltimore drug-operations. Every season introduces new people to the main cast, though, and every season does quite a darned good job of it. And almost all the existing characters all go through very good, interesting arcs - several of my favourite characters in season 4 used to be among the most two-dimensional and maybe even boring ones in season 1.

The plot is intricate, complex and engaging - a tiny bit predictable at times, maybe, but the predictable bits gets drowned out in the richness of all that's going on that you didn't see coming anyway.

A thoroughly recommendable show, and possibly - probably - among the top ten shows I've ever seen. Off the top of my head, I'll describe it as a few small notches over the thematically similar "The Sopranos", for instance, and I'm pretty sure it'd come out swinging after a comparison to geek classics such as "Babylon 5" and huge hits such as "Lost" too - because it might never have the Huge Big Awesome Episode shows like those three serve once or twice per season, but every single episode is as good as the one before it - and often better. And THAT's accomplishment. "The Wire" isn't so much a tv-show with a given number of episodes per season - it's more like an awesome miniseries, where every season is a well over ten-hour-episode.

And with the exception of "Battlestar Galactica", I know for damned sure I'm not currently watching anything remotely comparable to it. And what I've watched before that can compete can be counted on two hands - maybe just on the one. And people? I've watched a lot of TV.

0 Comments

"Hi, I'm a Marvel!" "And I'm a DC."

Saturday, 5. May 2007, 20:54:42

I implore you, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, lists ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6fWfmugds "It's just... everybody loves Batman..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvFjo5TTY6c&mode=related&search= Hulk-hug is in the cards!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytqV6GEHW24&mode=related&search= "Oooh."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0uMwUsa834&NR=1 Goblin Bloggin'!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VgLd26dxDRg Goblin Bloggin' encore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rp2f2OcCpQ&mode=related&search= "What did you get?" "I got a ROCK."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azGhHh9mV_Q "Ahh, no it's fine, it's very original, it's good."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q_taep3ElI "Spidey. Mask."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohZB8ef0nVg "I can take'm! I can take'm!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuSI9akJ9_s "Supes?! You mean you're friends with that clown?!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnHHDzQ4Axw Villains edition!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=diIYOvGvmg4 Only way the Fantastic Four can win is if Batman doesn't show!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRh9MFW9FU "A movie by David Goyer, who directed Batman Begins!" "And wrote Blade Trinity I believe." "... What?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDdGnuwXUIw "And that pocket?" "Meow-mix. ... It's personal."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3v0ZaZn23I "Hey, Lex?! Venom just puked over the balcony! I think it's moving!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv3KWBc3eV4 "Shi-!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNOUKZ0EdWk "He gets frikkin' Sam Jackson and I get DAVID HASSELHOFF!"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QXMSDrcABDk "I'm the Master of Magnetism!" "But I've got wood."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ekuznjH0JLI&feature=related "We're as close as two friends could possibly be without going over any boundaries which would be indicative of us being more than friends!"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DSsWVwFpNzs&feature=related "A date's a date, Norman, just roll with it."

Watch. I implore thee.

9 Comments

LINKS OF THE YULETIDE

Sunday, 7. January 2007, 14:09:47

time, webcomic, Jon Stewart, religion ...

And no, they're not particularly Christmas'y.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20061220 ETHAN! XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM XDXDXD What a rant! I love rants, when they're funny. Like this one. Funny.

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=79947 If only God would release a Top Ten-list... you know... things that are important to Him...

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=79786 Balls!

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20061227 OMGWTFPOLARBEARDEADSANTA!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6222153.stm I WANT TO JOIN IN!

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/lyrics/re-your-brains XD LISTEN!

4 Comments

Happy New Year, everybody

Saturday, 6. January 2007, 14:05:49

Rowan Atkinson, Obdormio, megalomania, blueberry scone ...

Or, hopefully, anyway. I'm not handing out guarantees.

Is this post late, you say? Is this not in keeping with the fine standard I set last year? And what about the Prime Minister Speech Review? Didn't do that one this year, either. Nor did I do the review of the King's Speech which I wanted to do to make up for last year.

Fear not, gentle reader.

Oh, and fear not, violent readers, I hadn't forgotten you, either, I'm just favorizing my gentle one.

Anyway, fear not.

'Cause I've got me some explanations.

I was at my grandfather's this New Year's Eve and Day. So, no internet. Zap. Zilch. Nil. Nada. Splonge. Bupkiss. Bippers. I might have made up some of those words. No net, though. Net-depravement is big around those parts.

He lives in a valley so secluded you had to transport your cars there by boat 'til 1989 'cause there were no roads.

Anywho.

No net, no immediate ability to Report On My Thoughts and such. Also, I've been busy. Busybusybusy. As in the kind of state where you're, you guessed it, busy. (Good guess, by the way, were you peeking ahead?) I've had other stuff on my mind. Plus, this whole (non-)blog-thing isn't as new and fancy and interesting now as it was a year ago. Then again that's life. ("That's liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife! That's what all the people saaaaay." That commercial has killed my taste in music)

The Prime Minister's Speech, that one I would have done a post on. Had I fracking watched it. I just caught the last five minutes. Probably a blessing in disguise, it's not like they ever say anything new. I caught the King's Speech, though, naturally, I'd be a poor sod of a monarchist if I didn't catch the one time throughout a year the King actually speaks directly to the people. But it's been so long since, now, I can't remember enough of it to comment properly. It was the same old same old with the thematic twist of the year, as usual, but I liked it. It dealt a lot with xenophobia and common decency and that kind of thing. Very humane. Sappy, but that's the point, I guess. Kudos to Harald and his speechwriter(s?).

Just for the record, though, I caught the national anthem after both speeches, and the King's song before his speech, and I rose and stood through all three. I might be a closet nationalist. I might just like the song. Or I might just think it's plain cool to revere something which is purely symbolic.

So, the year. Interesting thing, the year. It's a natural cycle. It's not man-made, like the second or the hour or the century or the millenia. There actually would be such a thing as a year even if we hadn't made up a name for it.

Sorry, I digress. I meant "the PAST year", not years in general, and by believing that was obvious, I seem to have misled myself, 'cause apparently, it wasn't. I need to stop taking everything I write literally.

So, the past year. Well, it's past. And it was a very good one. For me, anyway. They hung Saddam, though. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can do. I mean, he's even in the South Park-movie. He's like Cæsar; you just can't picture the guy die. Sure, he's a swine, but even so. He's like an icon. Doesn't ring right, his being dead. Like you kind of can't really believe it. It's scary, that, realizing how frail human life is even when you're the world's possibly best known genocidal maniac. If HE can die, everybody can die. He didn't lose his cool, though. Kudos to him. I'm generally opposed to execution as a form of penalty - I figure that nobody can really know what it entails without having died themselves first - and I kind of think imprisonment for life is the worse sentence anyway. Apparently, though, the Iraqi government was clear on this being to spare the people of him, not to punish him, so, that's a moot point. I just can't quite wrap my mind around his being gone. Even though the world is probably a slightly better place for it.

Other people I have never known, met or really wanted to meet have died this past year, too. The only ones of them to make an impression on me, though, were a couple of actors and the like. Right now I can only remember Sverre Holm and Peter Boyle. Thanks, guys. You've made me laugh.

So, that's the morbid section of this post. Me, I'm good. Good year. Better than good. No major bad occurancies in my immediate family, me included. Good health. Good life, rather good economy. Good getting-my-civic-service-postponed-indefinetely. Good studying. I'm regretting I didn't take an additional course in spring, 'cause one of the two I did take turned out to be far less work than I could have ever dreamed, but still. I re-took an exam in March, and improved my only post-high school grade below B, a D, to a B. One of my prouder moments, that. I had two more exams in June, one in an interesting subject where I got really lucky with the questions on the exam, and one in a dreadfully boring subject where I wrote my bachelor's assignment and somehow did extremely well without having read more than 10% of the curriculum. Summer was nice, but uneventful, maybe. Other than making my webcomic. Of which I'm rather proud, to tell the truth. Otherwise, this summer, I took a short trip with my family like we usually do in summers, and beyond that, I mainly just worked. I'm starting to tire of working where I work in vacations and weekends where I'm home. I'm starting to grow more comfortable there, yes, with the people there and the assigments there and so on, but I'm tiring of it. It's so dreadfully boring. Anyway, on to the autumn, where I took three *very* interesting courses, making for my academically most interesting term since spring 2005, and the two I've learned the results of yet turned out really well, too. January 17th will prove whether or not the third one followed suit. I have hopes. ("He's got HIIIIGH hopes. He's got. HIIIIGH hopes. He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes!" I love Goofy) If it does, it'll be pure awesomity. Personally, too, it's been a great year. I'm very lucky, I have a very easy life and no major worries, never really did have. I hope it'll last a long while yet. I've grown more social, too. This spring, I kind of regressed, I didn't share courses with anyone I know and I didn't really make much contact with the ones I knew outside my courses from before. Right before summer, though, it changed, and I made an effort to keep it up the first few weeks this fall, and voilà, it held. Suddenly, I find myself socializing almost one day or so every week. It's crazy. Nice people, too. Not a lot of people, but very nice people. Obviously. I'm way too picky to keep up seeing people I don't think are very nice. And I incresingly realize, I know a lot of very nice people online, too. You know who you are, but thank you for making my year that much better for having chatted with you and listened to me. So, great year. And in the humble beginnings of October, it got even better. Sure made me glad I don't keep this weblog in Norwegian.

I hope next year will be as good. Or possibly even better. I've signed up for some courses in Latin on top of my full-time studying history, so academically, it's suicide, but I'm hoping it will be a good year even so. This far, it's looking pretty promising.

To all of you out there reading this, happy new year. I wish you all the best. And thank you for all you've done for me in the old one. ^^ Keep flyin', people. I implore you. As does Mal.

Oh, and if any one of you tries making jokes on how late this post is, there will be fatal beatings administered.

8 Comments

Quoted-all-together-like!

Wednesday, 1. November 2006, 15:29:27

Obdormio, megalomania, Lothair, quoted!

So, Lothair Mantelar, who shouldn't be confused with the Lothair who helped write the Gahr Støre-article on uncyclopedia, has quoted the article in his signature on tidshjulet.net. The part he quotes is written half by Obdormio (the first sentence) and half by me (the rest), but credit goes to all three of us, seeing as me and Obdormio preferred it when the article just ended with the sentence Obdormio wrote, while Lothair wanted to expand the Trivia-section, causing me to write my part in what has been quoted. (Useless Trivia TM) Anyway, it's attributed "Loki and friends", not so weird as Lothair Mantelar doesn't know the other two, but hey, I'm not complaining.

The quote is

There is absolutely no reason to believe that Gahr Støre is the Antichrist.

Seriously, if he had been the Antichrist, the Heavenly Host would have caved already and there would have been a very eloquently phrased memo.

by the way.

0 Comments

Jonas Gahr Støre

Sunday, 29. October 2006, 17:08:56

Obdormio, politics, Lothair, always-wanted-to-do-that

That he hadn't gotten such a page already was beyond belief, so I, Obdormio and Lothair set out to do something about it.

We did.

We're quite happy with the result.

At least I am.

All hail the Jonas.

12 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - to whom will you turn?

Tuesday, 3. October 2006, 11:10:36

Lothair, Olaf, always-wanted-to-do-that, webcomic

This winter, even Abraham Lincoln tosses in the towel, as the Rubik's cube starts turning.

6 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - Armageddon with a twist

Sunday, 24. September 2006, 19:15:56

always-wanted-to-do-that, Lothair, Olaf

0 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - where will you turn?

Sunday, 24. September 2006, 19:10:36

norse religion, Olaf, Lothair, always-wanted-to-do-that

4 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - as the gods turn, will you?

Saturday, 23. September 2006, 20:00:02

Lothair, always-wanted-to-do-that, Olaf

0 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - eight corners, six colours, one world, no escape

Saturday, 23. September 2006, 19:53:14

Olaf, Lothair, always-wanted-to-do-that

0 Comments

RUBIK'S CUBE - The turn-around of the century

Saturday, 23. September 2006, 13:37:06

Lothair, Olaf, always-wanted-to-do-that

4 Comments

Quoted, yet again

Saturday, 23. September 2006, 00:16:41

megalomania, MSN, Lothair, Olaf ...

Replying here, I thought I had made some amusing comments, and I linked my reply to Olaf, whom I was at that point chatting with on MSN.

And, without saying anything, he suddenly quoted me in his subnick. Again. Yay!

The quote: "Favourite animal? CATS. Because they wouldn't keep pets, either."

0 Comments

Mounts and beasts of burden on North Geona

Thursday, 21. September 2006, 15:32:34

Jeeb, conworld, Lothair

Dwarves - original trainers of donkies, exported by the Gnomes, causing the breeding of the mules which would later be introduced to the Dwarves and out-compete the donkies in the North.
Gnomes - used donkies, bought from the Dwarves, until the Nemman Empire started breeding horses on a large enough scale for export, and they finally bred the mule, which is dominant among Gnomen beasts of burden.
Bendoria - most warriors can afford a horse for riding, but they have never evolved any form of cavalry. Got their horses from Nemman import. Farms use oxen and mules.
Nemm - the nobility and merchants are the only ones who can afford horses, and use them mainly for travel and pulling carriages - not carts, they use oxen mules for that and farm-labour. Light cavalry exists, but only nobles serve as such, and therefore they are relatively few compared to the forces of infantery.
Taug - no animal of burden is known. In battle, some very few Taug have been reported as riding giant mountain bears.
Gong - use enslavened Ogres for animals of burden, no other is known. Similar rumours as the Taug regarding giant mountain bears.
Ogres - none.
Mimoh - none, though have been known to use big rams as animals of burden.
Other Minotaurs - none.
Orks - boars and domesticated plain-wolves, both for cavalry and farm-labour. Also use enslaved Ogres to a lesser extent (Goblins are too small to be able to carry enough to make them worth the trouble of feeding them). Some small use of plain-lizards in the south-east.
Goblins - mules and plain-lizards, and, in some tribes, enslaved Orks. Use boars and plain-lizards for cavalry, but not to any great extent.
Leonines - no animals of burden, no cavalry - but those few integrated into Nemman society tend to elect riding horses into battle.
Nomadic Centaurs - obviously no form of mounts, and no form of trade or farming which leads to no beasts of burden, either.
High Centaurs - have experimented with rhinos as farm-labour, but other than that, no domesticated labour-animals at all.

Note on horses: originally wild beasts on the Plains surrounding the great lake, originally domesticated by the Cunnmen, developed from mounts for travel to mounts used in organized warfare by the Nemmans when they conquered Cunn. (Cunn officers had ridden horses into battle, but no entire regiments of horsemen had existed on North Geona prior to the Nemman cavalry)
The fact that the horses came from the eastern plains originally seem to indicate that the civilization(s) for the unknown lands in the east may make use of horses as well.

Thanks to Lothair for pointing out such a list was needed.

4 Comments

Linkie Linkers of the Weekie Weekers

Sunday, 10. September 2006, 11:26:28

Angel-referances, Jade, webcomic, DC Comics ...

That didn't even make the kind of sense that is not.

Oh, well.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0344.html Funny!

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20060904 More funny!

http://www.arekalvo.no/syning.asp?id=554 Even more funny! (In Norwegian, sorry, people)

http://www.superherohype.com/news/batmannews.php?id=4706 Iiiiinteresting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdd2gOBqHsQ This was extremely well done, it really told a story.

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060906.html Genre NAILED! Courtesy of Ole!

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Links of the Week

Sunday, 28. May 2006, 13:22:41

Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Jon Stewart, lists ...

A feature given to you by Lothair's Demands and Loki's Kind Attempt At Pleasing The Guy

http://www.olafsolstrand.no/forumserie.html

Even though parts of this was rather bad, most of the drawings were wonderful and Olaf's page near the end was marvellous.

http://www.newsarama.com/JoeFridays/JoeFridays52.html

Maxi-interview with people like Joe Quesada (Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief), Brian Bendis ("Ultimate Six", "Ultimate Spider-man", "House of M"...), Joss Whedon ("Angel", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Fray", "Firefly", "Astonishing X-men"...), Jeph Loeb ("Hush", "The Long Halloween", "Spider-man: Blue", "Superman/Batman"...), and J. M. Straczynski ("Rising Stars", "Babylon 5", "Midnight Nation"...). Very, very funny.