My group seems burned out on crime games for right now, but man, this looks *so* stylish and original. Plus Blades itself produced some great gaming memories (urchin in the cake; swapping out the elephant twice). This was an instant back for me. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

I have come to the realization that I experience sports the way normal people experience the MCU. You know-- got the basics when I was a kid; seems a little silly now; the events are still OK if samey; I don't know who all the new people are and there's too much homework you're expected to know.

Slightly diminish a game: Changeling: the Napping

Hey RPG folks! I'm trying to decide on my 2026 campaign. I'm hoping to find something whose character options strongly prescribe player-driven arcs like Masks or Chuubo's (late era MotW seems to be edging into this territory). Recommend games to me?

Make a Bond movie casual: Dine Another Day

A movie that takes place where you’re from. Or as close as it gets, here in the northern suburbs of Detroit.

So excited for this! I just backed Apocalypse World: Burned Over on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

Don’t really care who wins, I just hope they don’t come THIS close to being the longest world series ever only to fall one inning short!

Halloween Movie 31: Ninth Gate (1999, Rewatch) I still have a few more of these to write up, starting with goth Indiana Jones here. boxd.it/bzpM5h

Halloween Movie 30: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Some point in the 2010s Detroit became a sort of cinematic symbol for decay. Not entirely fair, but it did make for a number of solid horror movies... if something this elegiac counts as horror? letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween movie 29 It follows (2014, second viewing) About as Freudian a horror movie as you can get without actually invoking Oedipus. boxd.it/bwWVMX

Halloween Movie 28: Oddity (2024, first viewing) Well-shot low-budget Irish horror film that pulls in more directions at once than it can sustain. boxd.it/bwUCsb

What is the state of the art for live-streaming movies with a group? Watch Party? Teleparty? W2G? Twitch? Youtube? Hypothetically, if I wanted to end my Halloween movie marathon streaming a shared viewing of the Exorcist, at midnight on Halloween, what would be the best way to do that?

Halloween Movie 27: Ghostbusters (1984) Four decades on, I still ain't afraid of no ghost-- but much more concerned with repetition. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 26: Weapons (2025, first viewing) This movie rips. It's a nonlinear series of vignettes where the mystery is clearly supernatural nonsense, but it takes a little while to identify which set of weirdness would add up to this set of facts. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 25: Wicker Man (1973, First viewing) Iconic folk-horror masterpiece best watched unspoiled if possible (unlikely) as it has a lot of fun subverting the cop thriller genre. Lee is always great. Could maybe use more bees? letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

That new AI game clip looks awful, but aside from "can AI make games? Can it make real art? Should it?" -- there's just a really special feeling you get when you see the richest, most powerful people in the world dedicating nigh-limitless resources to totally eliminating your job in particular.

Halloween Movie 24: Oculus (2013, first viewing) A nice cursed object flick that reminds us of what Mike Flanagan can do when he's on his game. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movies 23: John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) There are better action-vampire movies out there, you should watch one of them instead. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Under the Shadow (2016) Light on overt supernatural elements until late in its run, the greater terror comes from forces much harder to escape than any malign spirit. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 21: The House on Haunted Hill (1959, First Viewing) A pleasant romp that keeps you guessing but doesn't play fair-- a little *too* in love with its twist-reverse-double-twist-triple-reverse setup! letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 20: Firestarter (1984, First Viewing) Seriously, what was with psychics in the 70s and 80s? letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 19: Dracula (1979, First viewing) There are better Dracula movies out there to watch. But are there better Dracula movies out there to *listen* to? letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 18: Host (2020) The ghost is coming from inside the Zoom. A gimmicky film, but packed with plenty of scares in its short runtime. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 17: Insidious (2010, First Viewing) For something so over-familiar, Insidious works far, far better than it has any right to. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 16: The Descent (2005, First Viewing) Almost strange for what is so clearly a horror movie to run with the constant-tension vibes of a thriller. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie #15: Society (1989) This kinked-out 80s body horror fever dream isn't actually good by what you might call conventional metrics-- I'm not sure if, for me, it is able to wrap around into something that's actually kinda ... fun? letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 14: Hereditary (2018, First Viewing) It's a real slow burn, almost two movies stuck together, but once it gets rolling I think it might be the scariest movie I've watched all year. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie Lucky Number 13: The Cat and the Canary (1927) I honestly don't know what to make of this 1927 episode of Scooby Doo. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie #12 The Substance (2024, First Viewing) Wow, they were really not kidding about the body horror on this sucker. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 11: Werewolf of London (1935, first veiwing) This appears to be the first 'talky' werewolf movie, and the oldest one not lost. But there's a reason The Wolf Man (1941) became the trope definer--- sadly, Werewolf fails to deliver on its potential. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie Marathon #10: Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (1943, first viewing) Well. This is some delightful nonsense. No score given because while it's not actually *good*, it absolutely delivers the Avengers action-figure mashup it promises on the tin. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie 9: The Host (2006) A movie I wish I liked more than I did, and have the creeping suspicion that I *ought* to, if I could just step outside myself enough to enjoy it. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movies Day 8! Gather round, kids-- John Carpenter's going to tell you a ghost story around the campfire... letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Day 7: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) For my personal preference (and with much respect to the Lugosi and Lee versions), I feel like this might be the definitive adaptation of the Dracula story-- even if it isn't, in some key respects, the most faithful. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movies Day 6: A classic monster movie that brings the age of atomic horror movies to Japan, and still holds up as a reflection of their very specific historical experience. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Day 5: Psycho (1960, First Watch) I am a pretty spoiler-tolerant guy, and I think this film illustrates why-- it's set up to run on pure shock value with twist after twist, but even coming in knowing them well in advance... it absolutely still works. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Day 4: Carrie (1976, First Watch) I can definitely see why it's a classic, but the intensity of its climax has to make up for a film that is less than it could be. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie Marathon Movie 3: 28 Years Later (2025, First Watch) 28 Years Later was very much not what I expected, and probably all the better for it. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie Marathon Movie 2: M3GAN 2.0 (Unrated Cut) Not a great movie, not a terrible movie, but also very much not the horror thriller it was marketed as. letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Halloween Movie Marathon 2025 Movie 1: The Babadook (2014) letterboxd.com/adamianix/fi...

Hey. So. This is my second year doing a Halloween 31-days-of-horror-movies marathon. It kind of evolved into doing a real short reaction essay about each movie I watch. I hope folks who have followed me for other reasons won't be too upset if l post them on Letterboxd and crosslink them here?

Based on Israel's own data: "Between March and June, Israel allowed just 56,000 tonnes of food to enter... less than a quarter of Gaza’s minimum needs for that period. Even if every bag of UN flour had been... handed out... starvation was inevitable. Palestinians did not have enough to eat."

What a strange delight this has been. Having told the story of a number of real revolutions in ultra-longform podcast format for ten seasons, Mike Duncan synthesizes the elements and style into a new, fictional revolution. It’s tremendously good, and worth your time if you like sci-fi and history.

Man. Last time it took three and a half years to get to mass street protests in standoffs with law enforcement. Really speed-running this one.

Can someone explain why today is Bluesky-is-dying sackcloth-and-ashes day around here?

Sitting here trying to figure out if I have an obligation to avoid purchasing Stellaris expansions because of their AI use, or if their stated use (mood board ideation, deliberately-artificial-sounding voices with compensation for the voice actors) is sufficiently minimal to merely be mad about it.

One of the marks of a good installment in a long-running franchise is that it somehow makes better the things that inspired it. Andor makes Rogue One, and the broader Star Wars saga, better by giving us a glimpse at the struggle beyond the laser swords and space magic.

Wait. Are you telling me that in the last two weeks, anti-Trump backlash has swayed elections in Canada, Australia, and the *Vatican*?