The SomethingSomethingCast

Sometimes a music video provokes a feeling of amazement at the world or astonishment at a special effect or it ties a song in with visuals that you never considered. 

Sometimes it’s about street racing and hot women.

This week, the Somethings delve back into the world with music, looking at some fast moving speedy four-wheeled auto-vehicular-transportative-combobulative machines that make sharp turns, deep drifts, and bootleggers reverses across the country while playing some of the songs we all know.

So shift into a higher gear, because we’re about to take you for a ride!

But before we do – we ask you to PLEASE take a look at this survey. It’s short. It’s to the point. It will help the show.  I swear.
The Something Survey

We mention in the episode that we would post links to Livestream for the Cure, but donations are now closed – but do not hesitate to donate directly to the Cancer Research Institute.

Now though – here – we – go!

Full Episode

My issue with Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder is what you might call ‘polarizing’.  You either seem to love or hate his films.

For myself, when he’s held to fairly strict limitations (IE 300, Watchmen), his films can be amazing to watch.  WHen left to his own devices and creativity, his films can be an absolute convoluted shit show.
The only exception to this may be his first movie, “Dawn of the Dead”.  It was brilliantly done, and really put Snyder on the map as having not only an eye for cinematography, but… dare I say ‘reverence’… for the original material?  Romero’s original is beloved among fans, and it was a dicey proposition to take on a remake of that property, but is usually regarded as his best work.

300 and Watchmen (and yes, I can forgive the creative change to the squid), were visually stunning to the point that, to me, it felt as if the pages of those graphic novels came to life.  The way the scenes were shot, the feel of it, the faithfulness to the original material (again, squid notwithstanding) made them, for me, highlights of what Snyder was capable of.

Then… you get absolute messes like Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman… all which COULD have been amazing (in my opinion, some do actually like them), except for the fact that Zack Snyder remembered he’s “Zack Snyder” and had to Zack Snyder all over them.  If you’ve seen any of those movies, my statement needs no explanation.

Which, brings me to Army of the Dead.

The pre-title bit was actually amazingly intriguing, and set my expectations for a fairly specific story which…  Zack being Zack…  completely went sideways and off the rails, and not in a good way.  By the time the opening credits were completed, it felt like the entire concept of the movie had changed, and yet.. .I was still curious to sit through 2 and a half hours of Zack being Zack to see where it went from there.  Sadly, the rest of the movie seemed to not give a shit about not only the pre-title stuff, but even the stuff that happened during the opening credits.  Was the CGI cool?  Sure, but Snyder movies are always visually stunning, even when the stories are shit.  Was the acting good?  Hard to say, and, in a zombie movie, is that really THAT important when zombie tigers and over-the-top gore are your primary drivers?

I’m sure people get in to the film business because they have stories they want to tell, but in my opinion, Zack Snyder should stick to telling other people’s stories in a different medium.

– PCR

Last week, we were honored to be a part of Livestream For The Cure and if you weren’t there, you missed out on a helluva party.

That said, we wanted you to see our hour of the party and hopefully you’ll get in on the fun next year.

Joined, and judged by Nick of the Epic Film Guys, the Somethings are on an elevator, and we only have a few brief (..or not so brief..) moments with Mr. Anthony Michael UsementPark to sell him on our great idea that merges an oft ignored movie franchise and give it the big park treatment.  Roadhouse Bumper Cars? Karate Kid: The Crane Kick Dropper? It could be anything – and before we get to our floor, one of us will get to live our ‘big ride’ dreams…

BUT FIRST! – If you are looking to donate to help us live in a world without cancer – click here for the current donation page.

Now, settle in and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times – Ok, here we go!

Full Episode

You should have known it was coming. Of course we’re going to talk about the last episode of the most recent foray into the wild world of capes!  But the Somethings are not alone.. you see, when you have to take down a bunch of politically gray terrorists and argue over a hunk of tin.. sometimes you need a friend – and that’s why we have brought in our long time friend . You may know him from Geek Stuff, or maybe from rollin’ dice and taking names with Role For It on Twitch – it is none other than OG Matt!

Was the end of the series a solid place to leave off? Admittedly, we dive into the whole of the series a bit more than usual as well as tackle the future of the MCU.. 

It’s time for The End: Falcon & Winter Soldier

Before we jump in though, don’t forget – starting Weds. – Livestream For the Cure begins! Listen to a marathon of amazing podcasts and we’ll be live on TGIF spot of Friday at 8!

Ok, here we go!

Full Episode

Since ‘This is the May’ or ‘The Fourth Be With You’ or ‘Revenge of the Sith’ or ‘Bleep Bloop BawThirteeneep’ month, we decided to not just give you ONE episode of a galaxy far far away, but a couple of them!

This one was live on Twitch on May 4th, so go sign-up so you don’t miss next month’s. We could have talked Mando again.. we could have talked Battle of Endor – we decided to go back and check to see if the Star Wars from a decade ago holds up. Does the Trade Alliance negotiations make a good story? What about a 3 hour podrace? And love stories abound…. that’s right, it’s the heel turn of Anakin himself, the Star Wars Prequels.

So settle in as we dive into 6+ hours of everyone’s life that has been hotly debated since the’sa come out to the biggum movie screens.

Ok here we go!

Full Episode

A few months back, I did a list of some of the games that have kept me sane while we while away the hours in our bubbles. A lot of them were the big hitters like God of War and Dead by Daylight, but recently I’ve started to deep dive into my Steam backlog to look at a lot of the games that I didn’t give enough of a chance or, more often, missed completely.

Some were bought through a Bundle pack, others were Early Access (a practice I now avoid, but that’s a rant for another day..)

So here’s a short list of some of the little Indies that I’ve checked out, a few I played to completion, and my thoughts as to whether they’re worth your time.

PORTAL RELOADED – Let me start with a cheat. This only recently came out, but I would be doing you a disservice to not mention it. Portal is two of my favorite games of all time, so a well done fan mod that adds a 3rd Portal made me wary. I’ve been hurt before. Fact is, it’s fantastic. The third portal opens a window to the future and the puzzles make you think in an entirely new way about lay out solutions.  Highly recommended.

QUBE – On that note, let’s go with the ‘inspired by Portal’ game, QUBE. You wake up in a big white room and have big white gloves that give you powers over the space. The puzzles never twist your brain too hard and the ending is lacking – but you could do a lot worse than losing a few hours to this one.

GRIS – I have a fairly deep opinion of the good and bad ways to use vehicles like games as art. In short, they’re mostly not my thing… but on occasion, there is a game that is so gorgeously rendered that it is impossible to not fall into it. Gris is that. Every moment feels hand drawn and, where you will have very few real challenges in it, it hasn’t been since Transistor that I took so many screenshots just to revisit the world.

NANOTALE – I have a weird love of typing games. It probably is because I honestly have some fast words per minute and do enjoy stretching those muscles sometimes. I assume this is how sports people feel about holding balls.. maybe..  anyway.. Nanotale is the spiritual sequel to Epistory, another typing game by the same publisher, where you use words to adjust magic, discover nature, defeat baddies, and it is all done with a beautifully built world.

These are just a few of the games I’ve attacked the last few weeks, and I’m sure sometime in the future I’ll revisit this list, as there were some real bombs amongst these gems.

That said, I’m always looking for suggestions on little indie titles I may have missed, so don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know what you’re playing!

A Long Time Ago… On A Podcast Far Far Away…

The Somethings are getting in on all of the May the Fourth fun, jumping parsecs ahead of all of the other podcasts and discussing some of their favorite toys of the Star Wars universe. From blasters to droids to ships to those cool binocular things – Hatton and PCR are breaking down some of the coolest toys from the universe of the light and dark sides. 

And if you happen to be seeing this the day it posts, the boys will be live on Twitch tonight with another sojourn into a particular star war – some come hang out!

So sith right back… ok, here we Grogu…

Full Episode

Hey Somethings!

So, this is an interesting topic, but one I enjoy talking about.

Years ago, when AOL Instant Messenger was a thing, a friend of mine and I were watching the Winter Olympics on TV and chatting about it through IMs.  We were watching curling, and had no idea what was going on, how it was scored, or anything.  So we did some sleuthing….  and, while we were sleuthing, my friend stumbled across some interesting information…

Friend  : “Hey, did you know there’s a curling place like… 20 minutes from both of us?”

Me : “No shit?”

Friend : “Yeah, it’s $50 for three two-hour lessons, and if you join their club.. like.. their Curling Elk’s Lodge… they take that $50 off the yearly membership”

Me : “$50?  I’ve spent more than that on far dumber stuff…. ”

And a plan was born.

We arrived at the building in Central NJ (Yes, Central New Jersey exists.  No, I will not argue this point.  No, you are wrong if you suggest otherwise) and are immediately greeted by an interesting cast of characters.  Short, tall, skinny, not…skinny, business cut look and ‘lived in the woods and lived off roadkill’ look… one thing was for sure, there’s no such thing as a ‘standard look’ for a curler.

They were amazingly friendly, and when we told them we had found them online and wanted to take the lessons, they said absolutely, but, we have one question “Why curling?”

Friend : “Well, we were watching it on the Olympics and were curious about the rules, scoring, play style and such and saw that you had lessons… so we figured.. .why not?”

Me : “There’s two ways I’m getting to the Olympics.  Curling, or buying a ticket”

Luckily for us, both of those answers were acceptable.

They ran us through the rules for scoring and the rules for playing.

They impressed upon us 2 VERY important rules to start.

Rule 1 – Never step onto the ice with your “slider” foot first (as opposed to your “gripper” foot which has the traction)

Rule 2 – Always take your keys and phone out of your pockets before playing.. because you will forget Rule 1.

For scoring, the large ‘targets’ on each end of the ice (called “The Sheet”) is called “The House”, the center of which is “The Button”.  Each team throws (slides) a total of 8 rocks.  The team with the rock(s) closest to The Button gets 1 point for each rock that is closer to The Button than the opponent’s closest rock…. cool, so like, shuffleboard mixed with bocci.  Got it.  The thrower pushes off from The Hack and slides forward, releasing the rock before the Hog Line (think, Blue Line in hockey).  The sweepers can control the speed of the rock, as it reduces the friction in front of it.  What we didn’t know, was the bottom of the rocks aren’t smooth… they’re concave.  Only a very thin lip actually contacts the ice.  The ice isn’t smooth either.  Before each match, they lightly spray deionized water on the ice to give it a dimpled texture.  This texture, along with the bottom rim of the rock, and the slow rotation given to the rock upon release, is what ‘curls’ the rock… the speed of that curl and the distance it travels down the sheet, is aided by the sweepers, and those sweepers are guided by the thrower.

Now, each team has 4 members… 3 players and The Skip (team captain or “skipper”).  It’s The Skip that will stand at the far end of the ice and let the thrower know where he wants to shoot for.  Skip determines placement, one thrower throws, the other two sweep.  When it’s the Skip’s turn to throw, the 3rd thrower will take the Skip’s place at the far end of the sheet for aiming help, but the Skip still tells him where to stand.

Each match is 8 to 10 “Ends” (think innings in baseball) and each End is over when each team has thrown all 8 rocks.  The team that throws first is the team in the lead.  The last rock (from the team behind) is called “The Hammer”…and advantageous rock to have as you can completely change the scoring for that End, but.. you only get that advantage by being behind so… it comes at a cost.

A tournament is called a Bonspiel, and, as is customary in curling, there is an overt amount of good sportsmanship.  Good shots can be quietly hi-fived, bad shots are never mocked, and… at least in the rink we were at.. at the end of every match, the winners by the losers a round, and the losers reciprocate by buying the winners a round.

It was AMAZINGLY fun to play, and MUCH more of a workout than we had imagined.  Our first lesson was all about balance.  Second lesson the following week was form, and third lesson the week after was a mini-match of 4 ends.  We had a blast.  We forgot Rule 1 a handful of times and paid for it.  We were sore for days, but man… it was fun.

We didn’t become members as the ‘local Bonspiel’ was in Canada, and we just couldn’t commit to taking the time to go there when needed to play, but, would I do the lessons again?  In a heartbeat.