Dork&Beans

Greetings and salutations. Today's episode is about 3 or 4 things, but I thought that title had a nice ring to it. Through a patchwork of streaming, snap stories and reading micro articles afterwards, I managed to get a picture of the Oscars. Really nothing special this year, and after following up the next day breezing through as many articles as I could get my hands on, I'm even more convinced it was a remarkably unremarkable year. There's been the constant low-laying buzz around pretty much every award category or nominee. Just click-bait, fake news type content asking baseless questions and trying to turn things up on the spicy meter. But there was no spice this year, the spice, like the host, was absent. Oh well, I guess we can have a bad year. But this has been a pattern of decline after several bad years. It's really a shame, to see what might be the beginnings of an end for the most iconic night in Hollywood. People just don't appreciate film as we used to. I mean, just look at theater etiquette, that can bring a person to murder (see the Aquaman episode).

On a more positive note, Season 8 looks amazing. Fortnite is knee deep in the cycle of having to one-up themselves every 3 months with the coming of a new season. This time, there was nothing so grand or exciting to crank up the interest. There's just been a much needed overhaul to the North Eastern corner of the map, balanced weapons, better map indicators which are visible to teammates, and a ton more stuff. Giving love to the fundamentals. But of course the real fun is in exploring it over the season, finding secrets, and for once; fighting around, on and inside an active volcano. I mentioned in the pod that this is my first time wielding the Battle Pass. I earned it though blood, sweat, and a long weekend during the Overtime event. I'll happily be reporting to you guys what life on the fancier side is like, but I'll already say it's tight butthole. Ya'll know I love pirates, specifically Blackbeard. So Blackheart the pirate? Yes please Epic, ya done right by me.

That's it for now mateys, see you on the field! 

Boof. That's my preferred dog noise, it rings like a St. Bernard vocalizing at you. Anyway, hello everyone. Thanks for coming back. Today we're doing a semi deep-dive into the world of Warhammer 40K. I could go on all day about this (and I have before) but Warhammer is sick. I love fantasy, 40K, Inquisimunda, Mordhiem, LoTR Tabletop, all that Games Workshop goodness. As you'll hear in the pod, I arrived at the Sons of Russ many editions ago, and I paint a picture of why they're great, the game's great and why I'm definitely not biased. I played many Fantasy armies, but only ever the Wolves in 40K. I explore the lore, talk the army and keep it accessible for Blood Claws and Long Fangs alike. 

Besides that, you know, just more of the usual. Fortnite because you know we do. And whatever else is packed in there for lunch. Thanks for listening guys, I'll be back with another pod soon.

Zoltan! 

Oh hello there. Today is the first time you're going to hear someone that's not me in the podcast, so there you go. We're going to be tinkering with the Bubbies in Suits channel David and I produce, so we just had the usual WoW session and recorded it. As per usual let us know any comments, suggestions, etc. We're obviously still figuring out the technological scope of the channel, so if there's a preference for it to stay a podcast, versus become a YouTube style video channel we'd like to know. Personally, I'd take the path of most lazy.

Thank you folks, and keep on trucking.

P.S. check out "Bubbies in Suits" on Podcasts.com and iTunes.

Welcome, and if you didn't expect a Glass pun in the title then it's probably your first time here.

Today's episode is (as they all are) a bit of everything, but I wanted to go into some detail on the two larger features. I went with my wife and some friends to a "Drag Queen Brunch", which is hosted by a very old and trendy Toronto bookstore and LGBT culture spot. The Glad Day Bookstore for any of those curious and Toronto-side. We heard it's a good time, and good food, so we went. Maaaan both of those statements aren't true. The sound sucked and was blaring, the acts were so so, and the food (after taking an hour and 15 minutes for my grilled cheese) was lukewarm and bad. Now I could have just gone to a sane person restaurant if I wanted great food, granted. But where I drew the line was the racist comedy routine done by one of the queens. I get it; White people are easy to make fun of. God knows I do it a lot. But racism is weak comedy. It's low hanging fruit. And further, this person was more just using it as a chance to make actual racist comments. Anyway, I go into it more in the pod, but you can make jokes better. And being progressive means we all treat each other with respect, not "we've been victimized, so now it's our turn to make others the victims". That's a bullshit mentality that only continues the cycle of intolerance. The scene has a lot of potential to be a blast, but get a real sound system, keep out the hate speech, and grill your cheeses faster.

Thankfully the evening went way better. I was at a Mandarin to get the taste out of my mouth (literally and figuratively) from brunch. That place is such a gem, the staff and mangers are always friendly, you can eat until you die, and I can get my favorite Chinese cuisine for dinner and then Nanaimo bars with Coolwhip for dessert. If that kind of cultural collaborating doesn't bring a tear to your eye then you're a monster. But the feast was only the beginning, because I finally got to see Glass following. This movie though, damn. He didn't fuck it up. M. Night really kept it together, and pulled off a trilogy of (basically) superhero movies that are all fantastic, and technically all even function as stand alone movies. I really go into why and what I loved about the movie in the pod, but I wanted to expand on something here. The single most rewarding lesson and takeaway from Glass (spoilers ahead) is; that you can believe in yourself, you can believe in something greater and you are justified in being mistrustful of the government. I'm not trying to advocate for general conspiracy theories to run rampant. And I certainly don't want to encourage suspicion of anything one way or another. But I thought there was something so powerful about Mr. Glass being right, despite the villainy. He believed in himself and his own superhuman abilities, as well as David's. He also helped the Horde see theirs, and ultimately allowed the world to unmask the "clover" organization. Don't let the world, the government, the media or anyone tell you what you can accomplish. We can do amazing things, and are sometimes only limited by fragile walls others put up around us. In the words of the Sphinx "I believe in my powers, and in the powers of my teammates".

Stay super guys.

Greetings friends. 

   I know, the name is dumb. But honestly one of the more satisfying parts of the movie was watching the Symbiote blobs be so viscous, gross and well, sticky. The whole thing kinda reminds me of those sticky hands that you get at a carnival or dollar store. You swing it at smooth surfaces, people, etc. Until one day it's darkened and covered in layers of dirt and fur, and then it's no use to anyone. That's all probably some kind of analogy for the movie. But look, I didn't hate the movie (sorry Dave), I even thought some of it actually had franchise potential. But there were 2 big problems for me; firstly the pacing was terrible, meaning that you watch the entire first hour of the movie not giving a shit about the failing, overacted, "everyday life" that Eddie "the handsome hobo" Brock leads. Relationship jargon, career obstacles and a bunch of other things fail to interest the viewer, leaving me asking myself "when is he going to start Venom-ing?!". Once the action builds, the problem becomes more centered on your terrible, predictable villain and unsure footing on the nature of the film. Is this a comedy? I don't know. You don't know. In the ep. I go into the unique marketing challenges they faced domestically and abroad for Venom, but its just been a mess. My wife, with no exposure to Venom in the comics, was actually surprised to find out after he's a Marvel bad guy (or at least was for the longest time, pre modern story arcs).

Let's talk about something better. After getting into (and being transformed by) the vignettes in Ballad of Buster Scruggs, I was on a Western bender. So that meant dusting off Red Dead Redemption 2, and putting it back on top of the "to play" pile. I've well exhausted the amount of ways to praise that game, but I will say I'm still finding new ways to have fun. After hoofing it out to the wilderness for an adventure, I found my first alligator. And then another, and so on. Long story short, I spent most of Sunday shooting, exploding and dying with the swamp's deadliest creature (save for Swampthing and Swamp Benders maybe). It's a good time, just don't drop your gun in the water!    

In real life news, I have a son that's in development. My wife's rounding the 23 week mark in her pregnancy and we're getting pretty pumped. I actually felt the first little boop from our player 3, and it was awesome. The question remains; can we name him Arthur without everyone thinking it's Aquaman based? I have witnesses, it's not because of Arthur Curry, jeez. Or even Arthur Morgan. And probably not other Arthur's of renown either. But oh well, wait until you hear his middle name. 

Anyway, that'll probably be my whole wrap on Venom and such. Take a listen and let me know what you guys think. And as always, feel free to hit me up with suggestions or comments on twitter.

https://twitter.com/dorkandbeanspod

   Happy new year! Although chances are more people will catch this episode long after New Years Day, but whatever. Welcome back folks, today we're cutting through a few solid pieces of culture. I've got some games, some movies and some other stuff on the menu. I guess it's worth warning you of spoilers, but I always feel the kind of people listening to this have probably gotten caught up on the source material first anyway.

   Yes, there is a background noise. I'm sorry. I wanted to test filming in this huge, industrial turbine space at my work. Fear not, no work was sacrificed in the process of making the episode (unless that is your sort of thing, then yeah totally). I tried to keep it to a minimal dull roar, but hopefully it isn't a distraction or unpleasant for ya'll.

   Well I go right into Fallout 76 finally, and it's really not pretty. That's not to say that the game is an out-rite disaster; I specifically say in the title you should "wait to buy" the game. The reason is that it's not done. At least, it feels like it's not. It feels like my copy of Fallout 4 was patched to include malicious, dick-headed NPCs and 0 glitchy combat encounters. But you'll hear me go into it more. The real victim here, and what's been the most upsetting is the loss of story in the game. Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4 all had AMAZING stories. Real, emotional and plot driven adventures were set as the standard for the gaming experience, and when you realize that Fallout 76's campaign is a shadow of the former game potential, it's already too late. My wasteland experiences have mostly just been MMO style wandering, with little to no care or attention to the world around. My hope will be for DLC, patches and fixes (and they better be free *shakes fist*) so that there can be a remedy for the game. It's got tons of potential, but is also full of tons of shit.

   Movie wise, Aquaman is still fantastic. It's still climbing its way up to the 1 Billion box office mark, so godspeed little fish. I loved the movie, and really understood that when in the face of the worst movie going experience in years (see previous episode), I still had such a positive time watching it. And Marvel had a home run of their own though, with Into the Spiderverse web-swinging into everyone's hearts. I liked it. It wasn't "the rebirth of Spiderman as we know it" or any other hyperbole I've heard. But it's good. Between playing Spiderman on the PS4 and this new movie, I'm all in with the web-slingers. My only concern has been that we've pretty much nailed the formula with Tom Holland as Peter Parker. So I think we just showed how great of a character Miles Morales can be, but I hope it's not a replacement for Peter. I also want to say what a time it is to be alive, that we had Nicholas Cage play Superman and Spiderman Noir in the same year. And no one loves that more than me (well except him, and probably his son Kal-El).

   Lastly; Ready Player One. This was a gut punch for me, because I had such high expectations for the movie. Hailed as "the most ambitious pop-culture movie to date" it literally collapsed under the weight of its own references. Now I don't go too negative on this show, I mean you really have to deserve it for me to start making beans on how bad something is. But this one got me. The absolute bukkake of cultural references, Easter Eggs and cringey audience fulfillment was downright hard to watch. As I said, I still have to get through the second half of the movie. I'm not gonna judge it unfairly. But man oh man, I'm going back in with low expectations. I really thought after Wreck It Ralph studios would understand how to make a tasteful video-game/culture tribute movie, but oh well. Also too much of the movie is animated. That really takes a lot away from it, and did it feel misleading to anyone else in the trailers? I don't member thinking "I'm going to watch pretty much a whole animated movie", hell even Tron was way more live action.

   Ahh well, it's good to be back guys and I hope you like the episode. 

Let me know any comments or suggestions on the channel twitter account:   https://twitter.com/dorkandbeanspod

This episode existed somewhere between a lengthy work marathon, an Aquaman showing and was 3 fueled by coffee and Reese's Pieces. 

Splish splash, it's Aquaman time. Which is the