A recipe with a story this time!

I'll bet you thought I wasn't gonna update this, huh?  Well, I haven't been cooking anything especially "great", but the chicken I made today was SO GOOD that I had to share it.

St. Augustine Chicken
Ingredients:

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tsp to 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp minced onion flakes
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/4 c. Spanish olives, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/4 c. chicken broth

Instructions:

1. Combine paprika, garlic, onion flakes, cumin, and thyme in a small bowl. 
   
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine chicken, olives, and olive oil.  Add your spice mixture.  Mix it all up with a rubber spatula.  Make sure everything is good and coated with the spices.
   
3. Heat a small amount of oil over med-hi heat.  (You don't need a lot of oil because there's oil on the chicken, plus chicken thighs have a lot of fat on them.)  Add chicken and brown on all sides.
   
4. Once chicken is browned, scoot it over to one side and sprinkle flour into the pan.  I used about a tablespoon of flour.  Make sure to lightly scrape the bottom of the pan to stir up all the little bits of fat and seasoning. Add the chicken broth and stir the chicken back into the mixture, and let it thicken and cook until chicken is at least 165 degrees. 
   
5. If desired, soak up some of the excess oil with a paper towel.

Served tonight with brown rice and peas.  I'm going to get about two servings out of this, but it depends on how hungry you are.  Besides, leftovers are good, right?

Now, I hear you asking "Why is this called St. Augustine chicken?".  Well, earlier this year, I went to St. Augustine and got the most delicious chicken empanada from The Spanish Bakery.  I've been trying to recreate that flavor ever since.  This comes pretty close.  If you are ever in St. Augustine, hit up The Spanish Bakery for their delicious pastries.  I hope that once this virus has gotten under control, I'll be able to go back and get another empanada (or two....or three....) with datil pepper sauce to dip it in. 

If you want a smokier flavor, you can add chorizo to your chicken.  However, chorizo is really oily, so use caution.  Red bell pepper and carmelized onions are also really good with this, but I didn't have either on hand at the time.  You could probably make this into an empanada filling, too, but you might want to add a little extra flour to thicken it before you load it into the pastry so that it doesn't leak everywhere.  

A note on the chicken broth: I freeze chicken broth in a plastic-wrap-lined ice cube tray so that I have small amounts on hand when I need them.  Ice cube trays are a great way to portion out ingredients you only need a small amount of, like broths, lemon/lime juice, fresh herbs (freeze them in olive oil or water), and tomato paste.  I recommend lining them with plastic wrap so that the flavor of whatever you're freezing doesn't seep into the plastic of the ice cube tray, or in the case of the tomato paste, stain the tray.  

As always, if you tried this, let me know how it came out.

Three! Three posts, ah-ah-ah!

We'll just ignore the gap of a whole day between this post and the last one. 

Today's recipe: Pork in Tangy Mustard Sauce

This sauce is an explosion of tangy deliciousness that you can put on pork chops or pork loin.  It tastes really expensive and fancy, so if you're trying to impress someone, I think this is a good recipe to pull out for company. 

• 1 pork chop, thin center cut is my preference for pork chops because I can either have them as chops or cut them up for stirfry.  When I made this the other night, I actually used this pork I get from the local farmer's market that is labeled "shish-kabob pork", and it's basically pork loin cut into cubes. It's usually inexpensive and easy to portion out into one-person servings (about a handful of meat per packet).  
• Salt and pepper
• 3 T apple cider vinegar
• 1 - 1/2 T dijon mustard
• 1-2 t (or so) honey
• dried rosemary (careful with rosemary - it likes to show off and gets bitter if you add too much.  I didn't measure mine, but I'd say I used about half a teaspoon)
• rubbed sage (again, I didn't measure, but I'd say no more than 1/4 tsp or it overpowers the sauce)
• 1-2 small fresh mushrooms, sliced, or a can of sliced mushrooms.  
• about 1T of butter

1. In a small bowl, combine vinegar, mustard, honey, rosemary, and sage.  You may want to use a whisk to make sure that the honey combines in fully.  

2. Pat dry pork chop or whatever pork you're using.  If you're using a thick cut of pork, pound it flat with a meat tenderizer so that it cooks quickly in the pan.  Salt and pepper both sides of the pork.

3. In a lightly oiled skillet, brown the pork on both sides over med-high heat.  Add butter and mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms have started to brown a little bit.  

4. Turn on your exhaust fan or open a window.  When you pour the sauce into the hot skillet, the vinegar's going to be pretty pungent and it might irritate your eyes and throat a little.  Let the sauce thicken, and cook everything together until the pork reaches at least 145 degrees.  It won't take long if you're using thin cuts of meat, so watch it.

This is a good one to serve with egg noodles, but I had mine with brown rice with a side of steamed broccoli.  

And there you have it. Let me know if you tried this one.  If you cooked this to impress your future spouse, be sure to invite me to the wedding!

Oh look, two posts in a row!

New day, new recipe.   How's everyone hanging in there?

As promised, I'm going to lead with the recipe so you don't have to scroll through a page of rambling.  This is a recipe that is pretty quick and easy, and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive.  You can always splurge on fancier mushrooms or wine for the sauce, but if you only have a can of sliced mushrooms and cheap plonk available, this sauce will still be pretty impressive.

Chicken with Mushrooms in Cider/Wine Sauce

• 1 - 2 chicken tenderloins, thawed completely 
• 2 fresh mushrooms, sliced, or a small can of sliced mushrooms 
• 2 T of flour
• About 1 tsp of garlic powder, or more if you like your chicken with more garlic flavor
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bottle of whatever light alcohol you have on hand. This recipe is pretty forgiving.  I made mine tonight with a bottle of IPA-style hard cider, but you can use any wine you happen to have on hand.  You can also use apple juice if you don't have anything harder on hand. 
• 2 T of unsalted butter (or more if necessary)
• 1/2 cup of egg noodles

1. In a zip-top baggie, combine flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Pat chicken tenderloins dry and add to baggie.  Now, put on "Hey Ya" and "Shake it like a Polaroid picture!".  (Fun fact, shaking Polaroids can actually cause the film to separate and cause bubbles in the picture, so it's recommended to just lay them flat.  But, by all means, shake that chicken bag.)  Get it good and coated.

2. Gentlemen, start your noodles! In a small sauce pan, cook your noodles according to package directions, but make sure you don't overcook them.  Meanwhile, melt butter over medium to med-high heat in a small skillet.  Once it's melted, add the coated chicken and brown on all sides.  Watch the butter, though. It likes to get a little TOO browned.

3. Pull that chicken out of the skillet and deglaze the pan with your alcohol of choice.  You don't have to use very much, just enough to make a light sauce.  Make sure to scrape the bottom to get all the lovely brown bits up.  Add your mushrooms and let it cook about a minute or two.  Add chicken back to pan and let it cook through.  Make sure that your chicken hits 165 on your thermometer, but make sure you don't burn your sauce, too.

4. By this point, your noodles are probably done.  Drain them, butter if necessary, and serve with your chicken and sauce.  Pairs nicely with a side salad and whatever was left over in the bottle.

Mine came out a little too brown, but it was still pretty tasty!

So, if you tried this at home, let me know how it came out, or if you made any changes.

I don't have anything to ramble about regarding this recipe.  This is a modification of a Chicken Marsala dish my mom makes at home.  Marsala wine isn't terribly expensive, so if you can get a bottle of it, try this sauce with Marsala wine.  It's lovely.

In which I post a recipe and a long absence is swept under the rug....

I was suddenly reminded that I have this blog.  I haven't updated this thing in, what, two years?  Yeesh.  But, now that I'm stuck at home because of the whole "social distancing" thing, I guess I can bring readers up to speed.  Not that I don't practice social distancing regularly anyway, but not out of concern for germs.  I just don't like crowds.  It takes me about a year of banking social energy to go to a convention, and then after a weekend, I'm all people'd out.  I digress.

It was suggested to me that I start posting recipes for things you can make for one person.  I enjoy cooking, and am constantly frustrated by the fact that many of the things I want have to be made in amounts large enough to feed a small army (ex: my grandma's pirogi recipe).  So, through trial and error, I've developed a few things that can be thrown together relatively easily, inexpensively, and quickly.  So, without further ado, here's the first recipe.  In the future, maybe I'll lead off with it.  I dunno.  We'll see what sticks.

This is a really quick, easy recipe.  It reheats pretty well, too, so it's good for lunch at work.

Chili-lime Sweet Potato Rice Bowl

• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Tajin chili lime fruit seasoning (Or you can use lime zest and chili powder.  I get this stuff at Aldi, and apparently it's supposed to be sprinkled on fruit, but it's also a nice chili lime seasoning for stuff like chicken, sweet potatoes, etc...)
• 2 T of black beans, rinsed (Canned black beans can be rinsed, portioned out into about 2T size amounts, and then frozen.  To use them later, you can thaw them out under hot water, and then you can serve as is.  I get about four little, tall, skinny square Rubbermaid containers out of one can of black beans.)
• Shredded cheese (or you can chop up one of those deli slices, your choice)
• Other vegetables and toppings (such as tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc)
• About half a cup of cooked brown or white rice.  Either works fine.  I like the nutty flavor of brown rice, but use whatever you have on hand.

1. In a small/med size bowl, toss sweet potato, enough olive oil to coat potato, and a generous amount of seasoning until well coated.  Spread onto a foil-lined jelly-roll pan (you know, those cookie sheets with a rim around them).  I use a rubber spatula to make sure that everything gets evenly coated and distributed.  

2. Set toaster oven to 350, and bake potato for about 30 minutes.  

3. Once the potato is cooked, scrape them into a paper-towel lined bowl to soak up any excess oil.  

4. Assemble the bowl.  Start with rice, then add potato, black beans, any other veggies and toppings, and top with rice.  If the potatoes or rice is still warm, a quick stir will melt the cheese pretty well.  If you're reheating this at work, set the cheese and any cold toppings aside until after you've reheated the rice, potato, and beans.  

This is a really basic recipe that you can dress up with pretty much anything else you have on hand.  I used steamed broccoli in the one I made this afternoon, or you can add kale (if you really must) or spinach.  

You can also turn it into a pretty tasty quesadilla by swapping out the rice for a tortilla, and adding some corn and cilantro to the black beans.  However, if you're going to make it into a quesadilla, I recommend either mashing the filling to keep the beans from flying out of the side of the quesadilla when you flip it (I'm still finding black beans in weird places in the kitchen), or just browning it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese and crisp up the tortilla.  

If anyone reading this decides to try this out for themselves, please let me know how it came out.  Did you make any changes?  What did you try?  

Persona 5

I have been a fan of the Persona series ever since I got Persona 3 for my PSP many years ago.  I love the music, the stylish character designs, the storylines, and the use of mythological imagery for the plot and monsters.  I'm also a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor series, which the Persona series spun off from.  When Persona 5 was announced, I eagerly awaited updates on the game.

It was the second Persona game I'd ever completed.  The first was Persona 4: The Golden, but I didn't get the "true" ending to the game and have yet to go back and complete my New Game + run.

Persona 5 uses the themes of outlaws, imprisonment, and corruption in places of authority.  The protagonist is accused of assault and battery of a man who apparently has a lot of power over small-town police, and is shipped off to live with a friend-of-a-friend in Tokyo to live out his 1 year probation sentence.  At his new school, the protagonist is subjected to social rejection as other students have already learned of his criminal record (though not the unjust part), and both the students and teachers are hesitant to get to know him.  To make matters worse, the student body and faculty seems to be under the thumb of an absurdly overly-important athletics department - in particular a rather sleazy volleyball coach who treats his female athletes like eye-candy and male athletes like cannon fodder.  After accidentally stumbling across a strange castle run by a speedo-clad version of the volleyball coach, the protagonist discovers that he has the ability to step between the real world and the "Metaverse" and to take on a Persona, specifically that of Arsene Lupin the famous phantom thief of French literature.  The protagonist decides to use his newfound powers to fight against corrupt adults around him by stealing their Metaverse "treasure" to change their behavior.  He's joined by several other teens with similar motives, but the Metaverse is full of more dangers than just the odd boss-battle - there's some real political conspiracy going on here and if the protagonist and his friends aren't careful, they're likely to end up in some serious hot water.

I loved the stylishness of the game - from character design to menu design to music, this game is just dripping with style.  The controls were also pretty easy to get the hang of.  I also liked how timely and relatable the storyline was - it's not just teens tired of corruption in positions of authority.  It's nice to be able to "fight the power" and see immediate change in the hearts and minds of the corrupted, even if it's just in a fictional world.  Unfortunately, solving problems in the real world isn't as fun or easy as stealing a "treasure" and fighting a boss-battle with a kickass soundtrack in the background. 

I only have a few complaints about the game.  They all occur at about the same point in the story - the Big Bang Burger storyline.  Not only is the inter-group conflict poorly written, but the dungeon related to that part of the storyline has one of the most frustrating puzzles and battles out of the entire game.  Plus, you are given your final party member at this point, but in order to max out the social link with that character, you have to be really, really good at managing your time in-game or have maxed out other relationships earlier in the game to the detriment of non-party (but still valuable) relationships.  Basically, they could have established a social link with Haru a lot earlier in the game and had it change to a party-relationship later in the game (like they did with Akechi).  I mean, Haru was introduced before the class trip to Hawaii, and that would have been a great time to squeeze in a social-link establishment scene. 

A lot of people complained about Mementos, the underground dungeon that basically serves as a level-grinding dungeon.  I actually didn't mind the Mementos dungeon, and I liked how it was worked into the overall game.  It gave me a chance to get Personas I missed in the boss-level dungeons (which become inaccessible once the boss is defeated, unlike the dungeons in Persona 4). Plus, I liked being able to correct small social wrongs as well as tackle the big ones like corrupt politicians and businessmen. 

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this game.  And, perhaps this game will get a similar treatment that Persona 4 got with The Golden, only instead of introducing another character storyline, they smooth out the existing flaws with the latter part of the game.

Blackout - Mira Grant

Because I'm something of a completionist, I am reviewing the third of the Newflesh series. I thought it was just a trilogy, but apparently it's four books now, plus a collection of novellas.  Anyway, this review will contain spoilers for the last two books because, well, when you're reviewing the third book in the series, it's hard not to spoil stuff.  So, if you haven't read Feed or Deadline, don't read this post.  Or do.  What am I, your mother?

So, first spoiler - They cloned George.  I'm actually rather upset about this.  It would be like somehow George R.R. Martin brought Ned Stark back from the dead and sent him out to go talk sense into Stannis or something.  It just...look, if you kill someone, leave them dead and figure out how to get along with them.  Or, y'know, don't kill off someone that's important to the continuation of the story.

So, yeah.  George is alive.  Ish.  Her brother is still acting like a crazy, violent jerk, and he's currently being studied by one of the local Mad Scientists to figure out how/why he became immune to the zombie virus.  Second spoiler - his exposure to George has magically made him immune to the zombie virus because...reasons?  I'm assuming it's because of his sexual relationship with his adopted sister, as I doubt that people that are just regularly in the same room with someone who has dormant zombie virus in their body will trigger the same immunity.

And, yeah, the sexual relationship is confirmed.  I know that they're adopted and not blood-related at all, but it's still kinda squicky to me.

Really, this book should have been chopped up into two shorter books.  The first "half" covers Shaun's team attempting to break into the CDC to get evidence to support their findings about the zombie virus and the CDC's complicity in the spread of the most recent devastating mutation.  In the mean time, Clone-George is trying to figure out how to get out of the CDC's clutches after she discovers that she's going to be used for Nefarious Purposes.

The second "half" of the story is the newly reunited siblings and their friends trying to break the story about the CDC's involvement in the zombie virus's spread and continued evolution, as well as the truth about the possibility of a cure (spoiler: there isn't one, but humans are evolving to adapt to the virus's presence in their DNA).

I'm not going to give away too much more of the ending.  Honestly, it's not going to be a happy one since, y'know, zombie plague.

This book, like the last one, has a lot of repetition and over description of mundane things.  However, when there's something really awesome that could be described, such as the zombie bear attack, the author chooses to gloss over things and scurry on to the next mundane thing.  I mean, how can you introduce a goddamn zombie bear and not have an epic battle?!  I felt cheated by that scene.  Sure, it's minor in the grand scheme of things, but if you're going to introduce something like that for tension, then do it right!  However, the author does choose to describe fights between humans with more tension and detail - I guess they are trying to suggest that humans are a far greater threat and enemy than nature could ever be... but still... zombie bear.

Overall, I felt like I was just slogging through this book to get it over with.  I won't be picking up additional works by this author.  Feed was great, and I really think that expanding the story with these characters as the central focus was a mistake.  I think it would have been better to have each book in the series take place with different characters in different regions, and maybe have a final book where the government and CDC's Nefarious Plans are revealed and dealt with.  But, that's just me.

The Silenced

I stumbled across this movie on Netflix one day.  It sounded like a ghost story - and I am a sucker for Asian horror ghost stories - so I eagerly queued it up to play.

During the 1930s, South Korea was under Japanese control.  During this time, the Korean people were forced to adopt Japanese culture and language.  This is actually pretty important for the plot, and not just some random piece of trivia I'm spouting here.

The story focuses on a young girl who has been sent to an isolated private girls' school outside what is known at the time as Keijyo, but we now call Seoul.  The girl goes by the Japanese name Shizuko, and she is suffering from what appears to be tuberculosis.  However, under the headmistress's specialized treatment, her symptoms quickly disappear - in fact, she seems to be even healthier than she'd ever been before - but it becomes clear that all is not as it seems at this sanitorium/private school. Students are acting strangely and disappearing, and then there's the peculiar way that Shizuko's body is getting stronger...

I don't want to give too much of the story away.  It's not really a ghost movie as I first thought, but there are definitely some supernatural elements going on here.  It's really more of a mystery-thriller with a strong critique of the Japanese occupation of South Korea.

I enjoyed this movie, despite it not being what I thought it was.  It takes a little while to really get moving, but the breadcrumbs of mystery strewn throughout the film keep your curiosity piqued while it builds up steam. I didn't really think that the ending fit with the rest of the film, but then again, I don't know how they could have possibly resolved everything.  The only real complaint I have is that the supporting characters never get a chance to develop beyond "girl bully clique that's prone to violent emotional outbursts", and they're largely interchangeable as far as personality goes.  It's hard to get worked up about the disappearance and possible death of a character that's never done anything particularly notable in the short time she's on screen.

Overall, this movie was about average in terms of horror.  It's not a supernatural thriller like it was trying to appear to be, and I'm a little disappointed on that count, but it wasn't a bad mystery-thriller.  I wouldn't mind watching it again, though.

Rabbits episode 3

It takes me a while to get to these Rabbits posts because I usually have to listen to each episode twice to really catch what's going on.  So, although episode 4 is out already, today's post will be about episode 3.  Anyway, spoilers ahead and let's dive in.

So, in this episode, Carly plumbs the depths of pirate radio while pursuing a lead on an older iteration of Rabbits in an attempt to understand what kind of game it is.  She also recovers a mysterious, impossible photograph from her friend Yumiko's password-locked laptop that holds a secret message encoded within.  And if that's not enough, Concernicus gives Carly some information about her parents' death that....well, let's just say that things haven't been as cut and dried as she once thought.  The episode ends with a dramatic in-person meeting with Concernicus Jones and a cliffhanger (argh!).

All right, so let's look at this impossible photograph first.  The photograph is considered impossible because it shows Carly and Yumiko in a Starbucks that had only been in a specific location for a year, and yet Carly is wearing a distinctive t-shirt that she lost three years ago.  Now, you could argue that the picture is doctored, but then doesn't that make it even creepier?  I mean, sure, you could splice a couple of individual photos together, but unless you were a photo editing software genius, I doubt that you could get the lighting and everything just right to make it look right.  Why that specific, distinctive shirt in that specific place?

But the weirdest part of this impossible photo isn't the subject matter, but the extra information encoded within.  Someone has created a "version" of a painting called Christina's World, a painting that Carly has a deep, personal love for, and hidden it within the "impossible picture" of Carly and Yumiko.  Now, like the impossible photograph, this picture of Christina's World is also subtly wrong, but unless you really  knew the painting the way Carly did, you probably wouldn't even notice.  Carly seems to think that these pictures were sent to Yumiko, but, what if someone is trying to get Carly's attention?  Could these pictures be from Yumiko?  Or is someone else trying to draw Carly into something?

Then there are the death certificates that Concernicus sent Carly.  They're extremely suspicious, not just because of the obvious discrepancies, but because of his implication that her parents were involved in some kind of "mysterious underground plot" of some kind.  This, combined with the dramatic cliff-hanger ending, makes me really suspect Concernicus of suspicious shenanigans.  I mean, he's the one who sent Carly the pictures of Yumiko from that escort site in the first place, and he's been her primary source of information about the Rabbits game.  He knows way too much to be trusted at this point.

As for the pirate radio station - I am hoping that there will be more about the connection between Marigold and the game aside from one transmission.  Maybe episode 4 will have more to offer.

So, does anyone have any thoughts about episode 3?  Theories?  Corrections?  Leave me a comment.

Rakugo

A lot of my exposure to Japanese culture comes by way of Japanese anime, manga, and literature.  It's not the most efficient way to be learn - it's kinda like trying to look at a landscape painting through a keyhole.  One of the things that you typically don't get exposed to in the West is Japanese theater and comedy.  Part of this is probably because puns and certain comical trends just don't translate very well into English.

Most anime fans are probably familiar with manzai comedy, which relies on two-man teams.  Think of classic Western comedy duos like Laurel and Hardy - one man is the funny-guy and the other is the straight-man.  We're less familiar with a more minimalist form of performance comedy - the one-man skit performance known as Rakugo.

Rakugo is similar to stand-up comedian acts like Louie Anderson and Gabriel Iglesias.  One man performs the skits and plays all of the parts, using changes in his physical position on the stage, his body language and posture, and his voice and speech style to convey each character.  You may not have ever heard a full Rakugo performance, but if you've ever watched Fullmetal Alchemist, you've at least heard part of Jugemu Jugemu.

Rakugo acts should really be viewed rather than just listened to, but if you can't get to your nearest rakugo performance, you can at least listen to some translated stories here: Rakugo.  Some of the stories do require a little bit of understanding about Japanese culture, but the hosts do a wonderful job of explaining things like the festivals used for backdrops for the stories or cultural practices, and of course the actual performance of the rakugo skits is top-notch.

So far, I think that the podcast has been family-friendly, so it's a good way to expose kids to something outside of their usual culture.  If you have an interest in Japanese culture or stand-up comedy, or you just want something to listen to on your commute that doesn't require a lot of concentration, I think you'll enjoy this podcast.

Rabbits - Episode 1 & 2

I posted earlier about how excited I was that I was going to be able to listen to a new podcast from episode 1.  I did a short post about the first episode, but it was pretty skimpy.  There wasn't much to go on, but now that there's a second episode, I'm going to go ahead and talk a little more about episode 1 before going into episode 2.  There will be spoilers here.

In episode 1, we're meet Carly Parker and learn a little about Yumiko Takata, her missing friend.  She disappeared shortly after getting involved in a game called Rabbits.  (Well, Rabbits isn't exactly its "real" name, but it's the name that it's known by.)  Rabbits is, apparently, related to a category of games called "ARG"s (alternate reality games).  ARG's rely on immersive storytelling and role-playing to progress, and can sometimes trek into "conspiracy theory" territory.  It's a little hard to understand the connection between ARGs and Rabbits, but it seems that Rabbits steers a little closer to "conspiracy theory" than "immersive role-playing game".  Because of the secretive nature of the game, it's difficult to find much concrete information about it, but here is what we know:

• If you play, you cannot tell anyone that you're playing.
• There are Wardens that make sure that you are following the rules and/or honoring the spirit of the game.
• Consequences of breaking the rules while playing can result in serious physical or mental harm.
• The modern version of the game has been played eight times, and this is iteration number nine.

Presumably, the prize for winning the game is worth the potential dangers, but no information about previous winners has ever surfaced.  If Yumiko is involved in this game, did she catch the attention of a Warden? Or is she caught up in the pursuit of clues?  Or could her disappearance be completely unrelated?

The first episode focuses on establishing the relationships and histories among the different characters and giving background information about Rabbits and people that may or may not be related.  At this point, the only things that are known about Yumiko is that she has gone missing, she started acting strangely shortly before her disappearance, and that she visited the Natural History Museum before she disappeared.  Before its ending, Carly receives her first clue about Yumiko - a pin-up girl style photograph of young woman from an escort website - from someone called Concernicus Jones. 

But even as you get that clue, you're left with so many questions:  Who is Hazel, and how were they involved with the previous iterations of Rabbits?  What is Concernicus Jones's angle? 

So, episode two starts with a snippet of a conversation with the mysterious hacker Concernicus Jones.  But, before we can dive into that tantalizing little chat, it's time for a bit more background on the Yumiko situation.

Apparently, before her disappearance, Yumiko had become obsessed with learning more about people who had died while playing video games.  Yumiko herself became so absorbed in her research that, had Carly not had plans to meet with her, she might have followed the gamers who died playing MMORPGs in Korea.  Clearly, something is not right with Yumiko, but she can't talk too much about it.

Carly also follows up on what exhibit Yumiko looked at when she visited the Natural History Museum.  She doesn't learn much, but apparently, passenger pigeons have something to do with Rabbits.  Perhaps it's a clue in the game?

Finally, we can get into Concernicus Jones and his information.  It turns out that he knows quite a bit about Rabbits, and he encountered Yumiko while he was "watching" someone else.  He provides Carly with another lead - a website devoted to reviewing escort services like the one that Yumiko's picture had been on.  This new lead eventually turns up a new clue - "How many steps to the lighthouse?".

The latest episode has made me wonder - is Carly now an unofficial player of Rabbits herself?  How long until the Wardens turn their eyes on her, and will she be in danger if they do?  Or, since she's following another player, would the Wardens just consider her one of the fans/observers that have always existed in the game?

So far, this podcast has been pretty top-notch and interesting.  I am a little concerned, though, that this is going to turn into TANIS 2.0, as it has a lot of the same elements: the Deep Web, conspiracies, a trail of clues that lead to more clues, and hackers that know way too much.  I am hoping that I'm wrong. Despite this, I am enjoying how stimulating this story is.  It's definitely something that I have to stop everything and pay attention to, but I don't mind because it's so absorbing.

So, is anyone else following Rabbits?  Any theories you'd like to share?

The Unwritten vol 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - written by Mike Carey, art by Peter Gross

Tom Taylor and Christopher Robin Milne have a lot in common.  They're both the inspiration for their father's greatest literary works. They both have quite a bit of resentment toward their father for that fame.  But, unlike Christopher Robin Milne, Tom Taylor may not be quite who he thinks he is.

Tom Taylor's father wrote the popular Tommy Taylor series, which follow the exploits of a boy wizard and his friends as they try to survive the rise of a powerful dark lord.  After writing the final Tommy Taylor book, Wilson Taylor went missing, leaving his son to grow into a rude, cynical slacker.  There's no love lost between Tom and his father - his father never seemed especially affectionate toward him and insisted upon drilling seemingly useless knowledge of literature and literary geography into his head at every available opportunity.  Although Tom has attempted to distance himself from his fictional childhood self throughout his life, he always finds himself returning to the convention circuit.

It's at one of these conventions that he encounters two people that throw his life into turmoil.  The first is a very eccentric man who believes himself to be Count Ambrosio, the villain of the Tommy Taylor novels.  He has been stalking Tom Taylor's convention appearances for a while, and his behavior has been getting increasingly erratic.  The second is a woman named Lizzy Hexam, who asserts that Tom Taylor is not the real son of Wilson Taylor - in fact, the boy known as Tom Taylor may not have ever existed at all.  There's no evidence of Tom's existence - no birth certificate, no real social security number, nothing.  So, who is he, really?  Before Tom can fully digest this revelation, "Count Ambriso" kidnaps him and attempts to livestream his villainous triumph over the boy wizard. And the "Count" isn't the only one that seems to be out for Tom's blood.

The Unwritten may sound like AU Harry Potter, but it's a lot darker and grittier than the beloved children's series.  It's kind of like what Harry Potter would have been like if it had been crossed with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

The first volume's pacing fluctuates.  During the action parts, it's pretty quick, but then there's an entire chapter following the literary life of Rudyard Kipling that's pretty slow.  The Rudyard Kipling chapter isn't included just for giggles - there's important things being established in this chapter - but it's slow and hard to read because you're reading handwritten diary entries.  It was my least favorite chapter, but don't skip it or you'll be confused about the overall "shadowy cabal" stuff that's going on.

I can't say that any characters stood out as being "favorite character" material in the first volume.  Tom Taylor is an unlikable, self-centered jerk, and you don't really know enough about anyone else to really form a strong opinion of them.  Lizzy Hexam is interesting - why does she know so much about Tom, and why was she researching him in the first place?

The real star of this book is the world-building that's going on.  We may think we know what's going on in the modern world, and we may think that literature is just a form of entertainment, but the line between the two may not be as clear as we think.  Authors might be more than just spinners of fanciful tales, but just how much power do they wield if that's the case?

The art is pretty good - it conveys emotion and movement really well.  The action sequences are paced well enough that you can follow what's going on without having to study each panel for five minutes.  You should definitely take the time to study the cover art and alternate cover art gallery at the back, though.  I think that a couple of them would make nice posters.

I think that this would be good reading for older teens to adults who were fans of the Harry Potter series or like darker fantasy stories.  It's definitely not something you'd get for your ten-year-old Pottermaniac nephew for his birthday.  There is a lot of strong language, and it's pretty violent - they don't shy away from committing grisly acts of murder with, for instance, farm tools or nail bombs.  (Okay, your ten-year-old nephew might be mature enough to deal with this, but, y'know, full disclosure and all.)

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living - Meik Wiking

Before I get started: it's pronounced "Hoo-ga", and you can listen to the pronunciation here. (Incidentally, Forvo is an excellent free resource for language-learners.)  This does not stop me from reading "hygge" every time as rhyming with "pig", and I apologize to Denmark and all Danish speakers in advance.

So, what is hygge?  It's pretty hard to explain, as the word doesn't translate very cleanly into English, but - picture yourself in an overstuffed armchair, your warm beverage of choice within reach, a fireplace crackling and popping before you, the scent of baking bread in the air, a snowstorm swirling beyond the windows, and your favorite comfort-novel in your hand.  That's basically hygge.  You can hygge alone or with a small group of close friends.

The purpose of this book was to explore hygge and give tips about how to add hygge to your everyday life.  After all, if the Danish are frequently ranked #1 in happiness, there must be something to this hygge thing, right?

The book is fairly short, and the chapters are typically only a few pages long.  As I read it, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Marie Kondo books I'd read earlier, as both talk about how changes in one's environment can help change one's mood.  They also both emphasize mindfulness as one of the secrets of being happier.  I got the sense that, once you've gotten rid of your clutter using the Konmari method, you can start introducing some hygge to your life using Wiking's tips.

I would be doing a disservice to the idea of hygge if I tried to break it down into a simple list, but some of the things that Wiking mentions as important to hygge is: candles, food, companionship, and comforting surroundings.    If it weren't for the fact that I don't speak Danish (yet...) and that winter last about eight months up there, I think I'd move to Denmark just so I could be among like-minded individuals.

Fortunately, you don't have to move to Denmark, or make a lot of money, to add some hygge to your surroundings.  In fact, Wiking maintains that the more humble and simple something is, the greater its hygge factor.  A home-made knitted pair of socks is more hygge than cashmere socks, especially if you made them yourself and can fondly recall the experience of learning to turn a heel or cast-on when you wear them.  A humble but hearty beef stew with home-made crusty bread is far more hygge than a gourmet meal at an expensive restaurant, especially when made and shared with friends.  Hygge is about simple pleasures.

I can't say that I see hygge catching on in a widespread fashion here.  We're too addicted to our toys, our noise, and our pursuit of "the next big thing" to slow down and appreciate the simpler things in life.  It would pretty much require a complete cultural overhaul to have a chance of catching on around here.  But, you can at least make your "down-time" more refreshing and pleasurable by taking a few tips from this book.  For introverts, this is basically a how-to book for building the perfect nest, and they might be the ones to benefit most from reading this book.  As for me, well, if you need me, I'll be in my hyggekrog.

Rabbits

It's rare that I get to post about a podcast from its beginning as it's being produced, so let's see how this goes.  So, I'll be following the podcast Rabbits and talking about it on the blog as new episodes are released.

My first blog-along! I feel like a real blogger now!

Carly Parker's best friend, Yumiko Takata, has gone missing.  Carly believes that she has gone missing because of her participation in a mysterious secret-society game called, in a roundabout way, Rabbits.  But, just what is Rabbits?  A recruiting tool for the CIA?  A super-secret club that runs the world from behind the scenes?  A method of uncovering the secrets of the universe?  No one has ever been able to track down previous winners since the game's first iterations in 1959, so it's difficult to tell what the aim of Rabbits is.  Whatever it is, the game has some pretty strict rules, and some apparently terrifying consequences for breaking those rules.

If you listened to TANIS or The Black Tapes, then you'll be familiar with the investigative-report-style used in this audiodrama.  The story is told through first-person narration of experiences and research and supplemented by interviews with other people  who are connected with the game or people who played it.  It's produced by the same group of people behind both, so the production is pretty high-quality.  Not only do you have some good voice acting, but there's background noise layered in under the narration to add audio-depth that emphasizes different parts of the narrative.  It's amazing what stock sounds can do for an audio production.

Since it's only the first episode, you only get a teasing taste of what's to come in the series.  Still, if it's anything like The Black Tapes and TANIS, you'll definitely want to subscribe to this one.

The Fireman - Joe Hill

Draco Incendia Trychophyton, better known as Dragonscale, is the hottest plague to sweep the nation - literally.  Once contracted, it's only a matter of months before the sufferer spontaneously combusts, sometimes setting off chain reactions with other Dragonscale victims and creating conflagrations capable of destroying entire city blocks.  The world has looked on in horror as civilization crumbles into a sea of flames and molten concrete, unable to trace the source of the infection or the method of its transmission.  Amidst the chaos and smoke, a mysterious man known only as The Fireman has emerged like an urban legend.  It's said that he can control the 'scale - bend its flames to his will - without being consumed. He comes to take the infected to a place where they can be safe from the threat of spontaneous combustion, or worse, execution by their frightened friends and neighbors.  Newly-infected Harper Grayson hopes that these rumors are true, if not for herself, than for her unborn child, who may yet be uninfected.

You may recognize Joe Hill from the movie Horns starring Daniel Radcliffe.  Or you may have read Locke and Key, a fantastic dark fantasy/horror graphic novel series.  My first exposure to Hill's work was through Locke and Key, and it wasn't until much later that I discovered that he was Stephen King's son.  (Although I guess if he'd kept his father's name, he'd be Joe King....)

The idea of a plague that not only kills you, but kills you in such a horrific and destructive fashion, was intriguing.  Sure, zombies are scary, but they are a threat that can be contained and dealt with given enough time.  Walking, contagious wildfires, however, are a different story.  I was fascinated by the level of detail and thought that had gone into the nature of the infection, its transmission, and its management.  If not for the whole possibly-ending-in-flaming-death-throes thing, Dragonscale sounds like a pretty cool thing to have.  Unfortunately, Dragonscale was about the only unique thing about this book.

When you get down to it, this book is just Lord of the Flies meets Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix while playing with matches.  People separate into tribes - infected/uninfected, those in the Bright/those outside of the Bright, with us/against us - and try to take over limited supplies for the good of their tribe.  Mother Carol, the eventual leader of Camp Wyndham, is basically Professor Umbridge without all of the pink, and Harper's plucky band of rebels is Dumbledore's Army - complete with its own traitor.

That wouldn't be so bad in itself if the author had just stopped trying to cram stuff into the book to compound the horribleness of the situation. And what would make things worse, you might ask?  Oh, a roadtrip from hell while pregnant and being pursued by your crazy ex-husband might qualify, I suppose.  Really, it's just absurd the amount of awfulness that happens to these people.  Even Lemony Snicket knew to spread the awful out across thirteen books.

Another complaint I had about this book is Hill's tendency to tell readers that a chance to discuss something would never come after all, or that a character was about to act really horribly toward another character instead of letting the action unfold on its own.  I seriously considered making a drinking game out of it.  Authors, for the sake of my liver, please don't do this.  Remember, show, don't tell.

Finally, there are the characters. The titular Fireman is actually only in about a third of the pages, and he spends almost all of his page-time recuperating from injuries or doing something that gets him injured.  I was kind of hoping for a cool superhero-like character, but instead I got an angsty Brit with broken ribs, so that was disappointing.  Harper is pretty bad-ass, but after a while her obsession with children's literature and movies got annoying. It seemed that she couldn't be on-page for a few paragraphs without making reference to Mary Poppins or some other sugary-sweet children's story.  The only characters I felt were even remotely believably written were Allie and Renee.  Everyone else, even the side characters and villains, felt like strawmen or caricatures rather than real people.

Fans of Stephen King may enjoy this book, if nothing else than for the shout-outs to King's works. I've only ever read It, so I couldn't tell you any specific references that I noticed, but I did feel like this book had a lot of the same pacing and ending issues that It had.  Around the second third of the book, everything slows to a crawl and it's really hard to keep up the desire to keep reading.  The action picks back up toward the final third, but then you get to the end and it sort of fizzles out like a wet match.  There is an afterword hidden in the author acknowledgements at the end that may be setting up for a second book, so if you do decide to read this one, make sure to read it all the way through.

Overall, I thought that the book had an interesting premise, but the execution was lacking.  It may just be that it was being executed in the wrong medium.  This story makes for a long and laborious read as a novel, but the visual language used to describe the ways the Fireman can manipulate fire, as well as the shoot-outs and car chases, make it ideal for making a graphic novel or t.v. series out of it.  I mean, with fire, it's more captivating to watch it than to read about it.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay - J.K. Rowling

One of the most anticipated films of 2016, at least in my circle of friends, was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  It was the first Harry Potter universe film to be set fully outside of Hogwarts and the English countryside, and it gave fans another glimpse into the fantastic world of magic that might exist right beside them on the subway platform, on the street, or even in line at the local deli.  For those of you who were unable to get to the theater, or who just want to relive the movie before its home video release, the screenplay was published and released in an attractively-bound book just in time for the holidays.

It's a turbulent time in the 1920's magical community.  Notorious criminal Gellert Grindelwald has evaded authorities, Second Salemers roam the streets calling for the execution of witches and wizards, and Newt Scamander has accidentally unleashed a suitcase full of strange and fantastical creatures on the unsuspecting city.  With the aid of a No-Maj/Muggle named Jacob Kowalski, Newt must round up his wayward creatures before attracting more unwanted attention on the magical community and the ire of MACUSA (the American Ministry of Magic).  

The best part of this movie was the world-building.  J.K. Rowling has created a colorful world with its own culture and mythology, and I have wanted to ramble around in it ever since I read the first chapters set in Diagon Alley.   In this movie/screenplay, we get more exposure to different aspects of the wizarding world that Rowling didn't get a chance to explore in the Harry Potter series.  Sure, we know that magical creatures, mind-reading witches/wizards, and other magic schools exist, but this movie gives us more exposure to the magical-using world and culture outside of England.  

However, I felt like the darker part of the story involving the Obscurus wasn't developed very well.  There's this monster tearing apart parts of New York, but it's basically background noise for about two-thirds of the movie.  Gellert Grindelwald is mentioned at the beginning and in an argument later, but he doesn't seem to be too important until the very end, and even then it's unclear how Newt was able to figure out that he was there in the first place.  

I had hoped that the screenplay would have more detailed information, or even some "deleted scenes", that might help develop some of the characters and world a bit more.  I would have been happy if it had at least explained/developed Grindelwald's involvement a little better than the ending's "I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids" moment.  Sadly, this is pretty much a direct transcription of the finished film, so you really aren't missing anything if you don't read it.  

If you're a film student, you might benefit from reading this because it has some pretty detailed information about the types of angles and directions used in the film, as well as some cues for the timing and delivery of certain parts of the script, and there is nice glossary of terms to explain some of the specialized vocabulary.  If you're a collector of Harry Potter books and memorabilia, I think you might like to add this to your bookshelf for continuity and collection's sake.  However, if you were hoping for a novelization or fleshing-out of the movie's skeleton, you should skip this one.  

Rune Factory 4

For the last few weeks, I've been totally wrapped up in playing Rune Factory 4.  I love games that incorporate role-playing and making stuff, so games like the Alchemist series by Gust and the Harvest Moon series are a slam-dunk for me.

The basic premise of any Rune Factory game is that you have to farm and kill monsters to save the world.  In Rune Factory 4, you are trying to save the land of Selphia by replacing the Guardians with Rune Spheres so that the land won't shrivel up and die.  Like any Rune Factory or Harvest Moon game, you can interact with the townsfolk, participate in events and competitions, farm, create and upgrade items, and start a family.  In Rune Factory 4, you can play as either a male or female protagonist - a departure from previous games.

As in nearly every game, your protagonist starts out as a blank slate, unable to remember his/her past or name.  In this one, you're amnesiac because you were attacked while enroute with a mysterious package that you were taking to Selphia, and then to add insult to injury, you were pushed off of your airship to drop to your death.  Fortunately,  you were saved by a lucky landing on top of a dragon - yes, a dragon.  This dragon is the ruler of Selphia, and is called Ventuswill, or Venti for short.

Venti decides that you're the visiting prince/princess that they were expecting, and promptly puts you to work promoting Selphia and farming vegetables to nurture your Earthmate powers.  However, Venti has a darker secret.  For generations, she has been the force keeping Selphia vibrant and living, but the years have taken a toll on her. In the past, Guardians had sacrificed themselves to keep Venti alive, but even their sacrifices and powers have limits, and it soon becomes apparent that if you, the heroic protagonist, don't do something, Selphia is doomed.

The game itself is a good balance between farming/life simulator and role playing game. You fight monsters, complete mini-quests, and save the world by degrees.  If you are constantly being defeated by the same dungeon, you can increase your stats by sleeping, farming, creating and upgrading equipment, and even eating dishes with specific properties that give you resistance to ailments or elements. You also build relationships with the residents of Selphia Town, which allows you to invite them on quests or start a family.  Some relationships need to be built to a specific point before the game allows you to progress, so make sure that you talk to residents daily, complete their tasks, and give them their favorite items.

The game has flaws, though.  The only way to learn most of the recipes for food or items is by consuming "breads", and after a certain level, you can't learn anything new from these breads.  You have to get access to the post-game activities to get full completion of your various recipe books.  Some of the recipes require rare item drops, or in some cases, oddly specific items (ex: medium size milk) to create.

Another flaw in this game is that you practically require a game guide in order to complete some of the main-line quests.  Some events don't trigger unless specific conditions are met, but it's not immediately obvious what sets them off.  There are three main story arcs, but the trigger for the third one seems to be especially difficult to set off.

It's also really challenging to find all of the fishing, mining, and drop items for some of the recipes.  You don't necessarily have to have those recipes to beat the game, but if you're a completionist, this game is going to be a bit of a grind-fest for you.  I still haven't managed to catch a sunsquid or a blowfish despite hours of fishing, and don't even get me started on trying to find light ore.  I beat the game, but I admit that the higher level equipment recipes and upgrades probably would have resulted  in less cussing and trips to the infirmary.

Some of the things I liked about this game is the adjustable level of difficulty.  If you're not sure about your coordination in the fights, or you are just tired of the same boss one-hit-k.o.'ing your party, you can easily bump your difficulty down to Easy, or you can set it higher if you want more of a challenge.  You also have a wide variety of weapons that you can master, and a ridiculous number of skills and spells you can use, so there's a weapon and skill-set for every gaming style.

The art and character designs are up to the usual standards of the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games, making the game visually appealing as well as fun to play.  Finally, the characters in Selphia are fun to interact with.  I enjoyed going around town getting to know everyone and their favorite items, and the town events involving each character revealed a different side of everyone.

If you're new to Rune Factory series, I'd recommend this one as a starting point because of the adjustable difficulty level and more streamlined controls.  It's not a perfect game, but despite my complaints, I did enjoy my time in Selphia.  The three story arcs, and post-game Sharance Maze, give you hours of play-time and probably the most bang for your gaming buck.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some squids to catch.

Deadline - Mira Grant

Because this is a review of the second book in a series, this review contains spoilers.  If you have not read Feed, don't read this review.  I will also be spoiling this book, as there are some things I absolutely have to get off my chest about it.  So, you've been warned.

One year after the events of Feed, Shaun Mason is in charge of After the End Times.  One year after the events of Feed, Shaun is still deep in mourning over the loss of his sister, Georgia "George" Mason, and he's hell bent on discovering who really killed her and why.  He gets his first solid lead one day when a scientist from the CDC shows up on his doorstep with a gift-wrapped package of information and data - a scientist that's supposed to be dead.  And the implications of the data she's brought with her are too terrifying to contemplate.

This book is told entirely from the point of view of Shaun Mason.  Unfortunately, Shaun isn't a very good narrator.  He's a thrill-seeker turned investigative reporter, and he's not very good at making incisive observations or asking the questions that need to be asked.  To shore up his weaknesses, his dead sister has taken up residence in his skull to provide insight and prompt him to ask about things.  At first, this seemed like a normal coping mechanism, but after a while it just felt like the author was regretting her decision to kill George off in the first book and was looking for a way to bring her back into the action.

The other reason Shaun isn't a good narrator is because his emotions range from "brooding" to "angrily punching walls" without a lot of in-between.  Some of it, yes, can be related to grief, but in a world dominated by grief and loss on a daily basis, it seems unbelievable that someone can be so dysfunctionally grieving a year after a loss.  I'm actually surprised that his coworkers/friends have stuck around him for a year without holding an intervention meeting.  Even under non-zombie apocalypse circumstances, there's only so much that people will put up with.

The world-building is fleshed out a bit more in this book, and readers get their first glimpse at how the Rising was handled overseas.  The virus is also somewhat "fleshed" out as well, and we learn a little more about how it ticks and why it's so difficult to contain.  (The short answer is: because of government conspiracies...)

Unfortunately, as a sequel to Feed, this book falls pretty flat.  The pacing is far too slow, and too much time is spent having the characters argue with, distrust, and complain at each other.  In addition, like Feed, this is a zombie outbreak story without a lot of zombie action,.Unlike in Feed, it doesn't make sense that there are so few zombies showing up.  I mean, there are points where the characters are on long, deserted stretches of road that would be prime zombie hoard locations in any self-respecting survival horror game or horror movie, but the worst they encounter is lousy convenience store food and the odd zombie deer.  For a world overrun with zombies, it's pretty convenient that our intrepid heroes never actually have to deal with them.

Some of the "emotional impact" moments felt pretty hollow, too.  Characters die, but they don't have the same emotional punch as the deaths in Feed.  I think this is largely because the supporting cast doesn't get very much fleshing out due to Shaun's disconnectedness from them.  It makes sense that he's disconnected - after all, he's suffered a great loss and he's hesitant to let anyone else get that close again - but when you kill people off and lock readers into the point of view of someone who doesn't have strong connections to the people that were killed, it's hard to get the readers to care about the loss.  Sure, it's sad that someone died and left people behind, but there is nothing to give it that personal sense of impact.

The book also goes a long way to try to either undo what Feed was trying to accomplish, or create "edgy" complications that there isn't any need for.

First, there's the Targaryenesque relationship between George and Shaun that was never, ever mentioned in Feed.  I mean, I guess it isn't technically incest because they're not blood relatives, but if something like that was going on, you'd think that George, a trusted Newsie narrator who never shied away from divulging uncomfortable details before, would have dropped a few mentions of this relationship during her narration in Feed.

Next is the introduction of Shaun's plot-armor, er, I mean, strange immunity to the zombie virus.  Sure, he can still be killed in other ways, but taking away his infectability removes a lot of the tension and risk for him. Suddenly, the Big Bad's most dangerous weapon is rendered completely useless against him, so they'll have to try more conventional - and harder to cover - ways to get rid of him.

Finally, there's George's resurrection as a clone.  Even if I were willing to believe that they were able to create a complete clone - aged up to the proper age and everything - and memory transfer of a young adult in a year, I feel like it completely undoes the impact of George's death in Feed.  What was the point of killing her off if you were just going to bring her back at the end of the second book?  Did the author realize she'd written herself into a corner by removing her only good narrator?  Was she just checking "edgy" boxes?  How do they even manage to transfer George's memories, anyway?  No technology is ever indicated to exist that would allow human brain data to be transferred  between brains - I mean, they're still basically using technology similar to 2014-era technology.  It leaves a lot of questions to be answered in the next book, and I'm not sure that everything will be answered satisfactorily.

Overall, I'm really disappointed in this installment.  I'll probably still read the third one in order to complete the series and find out the answers to some of my questions, but it won't be for a little while.

Lego Batman - with pictures!

Lego Batman is everything you could want from a Batman movie, plus a few other movies.  Following closely on the success of The Lego Movie (who would have seen that coming?), Lego Batman tells the story of brick-ified Batman learning to move past his painful experiences and let people get past his cape and cowl again, all while kicking butt and laying down some sick tracks.

This was a great movie for families, though I think parents will probably enjoy it more.  There are a lot of references and jokes aimed at the older audiences, but everything stays child-friendly in terms of language, violence, and message.

For my part, I enjoyed the continued characterization of Batman as a self-centered narcissist, since it gave room for the character to grow and change, unlike the Batman I grew up with.  Plus, you get to have super mature moments like this one:

Batman is a super mature superhero, really.

Lego Robin/Dick Grayson was totally adorable, too.  I mean, look at this face!

I dare you to say no to this face.

Of course, adorableness is not just limited to orphan sidekicks.  Even The Joker, a self-actualized super-villain (think Doctor Phil in clown makeup), gets to look vulnerable and cute for the camera.  

I mean, you shouldn't make the clown cry, right?

The Joker isn't the only villain threatening Gotham City.  Every villain Batman ever faced (including obscure c-listers), and villains from other franchises come in to get a piece of the action.  It's like The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny but without Mister Rogers coming out the victor.  However over-the-top the action gets, the movie doesn't lose its light-hearted tone, and there are plenty of jokes and visual gags for audiences.

As far as weaknesses go, there is so much going on in this movie that at times it feels overwhelming.  The action scenes are very, very active and it's easy to miss stuff.  There's also the odd inclusion of live-action video in the movie - as in clips of Jerry Maguire directly imported into the movie instead of being converted to Lego minfigs.  It's a little jarring, and feels kind of lazy compared to all the other complex stuff they did in this movie.

I would love to go see this movie again, as there were a lot of jokes and visual gags I'm sure I missed, but that's what home-video releases are for.  If you're trying to decide what to go see this weekend, I highly recommend Lego Batman.  

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

In her quiet, valley village on the edge of the dark and dangerous Wood full of shadows and corrupted things, Agniezka knows what her future holds.  She and the other girls of the valley will stand before The Dragon on the Choosing Day, he will choose one of them to live in his tower for the next ten years, and she will go on with her life in the valley, same as always.  Everyone knows that the local beauty, Kasia, will be Chosen, and Kasia has been training for the duty her whole life.  Agniezka's path may be boring and well-trod, but at least she knows what to expect from it.

Until she's the one that's chosen.  Until she shows magical aptitude.  Until she's the only one who can stop the Wood's sinister plans.  Until everything she thought she knew about her future is uprooted and tossed aside like so many weeds.  Now she's treading a path so overgrown that the last person that could have possibly walked it was Baba Jaga herself, and the Wood is closing in.

I picked this book up after a patron recommended it to me a few years ago.  I had been lamenting the lack of many fantasy novels built up around Russian and eastern European folklore and mythology.  Fantasy is full of stories based on the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen, and more diverse folklores and mythologies are being introduced these days, but eastern Europe is only remembered for its vampires.  The patron, an English teacher and fantasy aficionado himself, recommended that I give this book a whirl, and I'm grateful for his recommendation.

The book uses Russian folklore as a trellis on which to hang the vines of the story.  The Dragon, Sarkan, immediately calls to mind the story of Koschei the Deathless (and if you haven't started listening to the Myths and Legends Podcast where this story is recited, you really should).  He is a powerful wizard-lord that takes young, beautiful women away with him, imprisons them in his tower and...well, no one really knows what he does with them, but they assume that they're not playing endless hands of euchre.  The heroine, Agniezka, sets herself to mirror Baba Yaga, although not the scary wicked witch Baba Yaga that I'm familiar with.  Her "Jaga" is more Granny Weatherwax than Wicked Witch of the West.  But it quickly develops a lore all its own that's both new and familiar at the same time.

I liked the pacing of this book.  Novik doesn't get bogged down in intricate world-building and political machinations, so she's able to keep the story chugging along at a regular pace that rises and falls in a natural rhythm.  I get the feeling that she is able to do this because she is locking the reader into the point of view of Agniezka, whose magic and experience of the world is more in tune with the natural rhythm of life and the world around her.  Had she chosen to tell the story through The Dragon's point of view, we probably would have been subjected to endless lectures of history and political affiliation, but that's just my own speculation.

I enjoyed the way that the characters grew and changed over the course of the story - Agniezka went from a self-doubting peasant girl out of her element to a confident witch-woman who fully embraces her magic and way of doing things, and The Dragon goes from an aloof, arrogant jerk of a wizard to the more approachable, fallible man Sarkan.  Even minor characters showed development, or the consequences of arrested development in the case of Prince Marek.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was the way that the romance, and I use that term hesitantly, was developed.  I didn't feel like it was really "love" so much as "magic-based lust" - mingling of magics creates a similar desire to mingle other things, so it wasn't so much that the characters were in love as it was that they were intertwined by other intimacies.  It wasn't bad writing, I just felt that there wasn't any necessity to include a sex scene.  It always feels voyeuristic to read them, and an exhaustive description of a sexual encounter rarely furthers the plot.  Still, it's only three pages you have to skip instead of half a chapter, so it's really just a minor complaint.

If you were a fan of the Tiffany Aching books by (GNU) Terry Pratchett, you'll enjoy this one.  Agniezka and Tiffany have a lot of similarities, particularly in their intuitive understanding of magic.   For readers looking for a good fantasy read that are unwilling to commit to a long-running series that might not get finished anytime soon, Uprooted is a good choice because the whole thing is contained in a single book with no dangling threads to hint at a second or third volume.  For those of you who lamented, as I did, that eastern Europe is only known for vampires - check this out.  You'll be glad you did.

Livingstone vol 1 - Kataoka Tomohi

Have you ever wondered if life, the cosmos, or whatever you believe in, has a plan for you?  If you're conscious and over, say, 16, I'd say you probably have.

The central idea behind the Livingstone manga is that, yes, every soul has a plan.  This differs significantly from a "life" plan, as a soul plan can span across several lifetimes.  When you deviate from your soul's plan, your psycholithe, basically a stone that contains your soul, can shatter and leave behind wicked, evil feelings that can taint an area and affect the soul plans of others nearby.  The story's protagonists, Sakurai and Amano, exist to save psycholithes whenever possible, and if not, then to clean up the fragments of the psycholithes to prevent further damage.

This isn't really a new concept for supernatural/paranormal manga.  The idea that areas carry negative energy, and that things like murder, suicide, or sudden accidental death can compound that negative energy, is really common.  I haven't seen a lot of "clean-up crews" for this kind of energy, so that's why I picked this one up.

The characters of Sakurai and Amano are complete opposites of one another.  Sakurai is a straight-laced, professional whose job is to basically convince people not to go against their soul's plan.  Amano is a bit childish and impulsive, and he frequently pushes people in the opposite direction of Sakurai since it doesn't matter to him whether souls get to reincarnate or not.  This might be because Amano isn't even of human origin, whereas Sakurai is (though it's not really explained in the first volume). I didn't really find their "odd couple" dynamic to be endearing, but their out-of-syncness was different and unusual.  I did not get the feeling that Sakurai and Amano were ever going to come to a grudging understanding/respect for one another in the next two volumes.

The art for this manga wasn't very good. The artist, Kouji Seo, is known for hit series such as Suzuka and Fuuka, so I suspect that this three-volume manga was just a filler-project for him.  It wasn't bad art, just not especially good.  It could also be that, because the story itself is about things that aren't visually or psychologically appealing, neither is the art.

The stories were hard to read, too.  Sometimes they were funny, or the author tried to inject a little humor into the scenes to lighten them up, but more often than not, they were emotionally uncomfortable.  The things that cause a psycholithe to shatter are traumatic, horrible events, and part of the clean-up process involves Sakurai reading (and viewing) these events.  If you are even slightly the squeamish type, I strongly recommend avoiding this manga.

Overall, I can't really say that this was a great manga or one that I would recommend to a lot of people.  Clearly I wasn't the right audience for it, but I couldn't really get a sense of what the ideal audience would be.  This was only the first volume, too, so it's possible that the author hadn't really formed a clear idea of what the story was going to be when it was published, but it didn't show enough potential for me to want to continue the remaining two.