Lego Xmas has begun...

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A post shared by Zack Schwartz (@thatwordyguy)

 

 Lego Xmas has begun over on my Instagram... First up is the Xmas Wreath and then  on December 1st, I'll start posting all figures and builds from this year's Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar.

Come To Daddy! Far Beyond Frodo...

Elijah Wood has excellent taste, from helping to produce mind-bending films like Mandy and Colour Out of Space to voicing Wirt on Over the Garden Wall, post-Hobbitsing, Wood has gone in interesting directions.

Come to Daddy is an off-kilter, suspense thriller that takes full advantage of Elijah looking much younger than his age. Even with Norval’s mustache and bowl cut, he looks like a mid-20s hipster, especially when contrasted with an extremely grizzled looking Stephen McHattie, who radiates pure menace from the first moments of the film.

With a slow build and moments of dream-like violence that come interspersed in long uncanny sequences. The film builds an odd world that seems like a time out of place despite Norval’s name-dropping and the presence of smartphones. Everything works together to create a experience that feels unexpected and specific; showing off a juvenile machismo that haunts the men of the movie and using the unique location, dated set dressings and soundscapes of the house and its isolation in nature to create an ambiance of dread and barely contained brutality.

Even on a second watch, there were still delightful surprises to be found and it was satisfying to see how bits that I missed the first time through connected to and built up the movie's climax. If you can handle a bit of gore, I cannot recommend enough this movie, which at its center, chronicles the dangerously earnest attempts of Norval to connect with his daddy, even if it means he must push past his comfort and perhaps life itself...

5/5 Nightgoers

 

 

Come to Daddy is currently out on DVD/Bluetooth/Digital and available to stream on Amazon Prime Video (11/25/20)

Albums to be Thankful for...

This is special. pic.twitter.com/1b3jeu71WY

— Weird Christmas (@weird_christmas) November 23, 2020

I am a big fan of Bandcamp, as amply demonstrated by my collection there—I make about 90% of my music purchases there, occasionally buying direct from an artist or from Amazon when the black hole of american capitalism is the only place an album is available, but for the vast, vast majority of my purchases, I use Bandcamp.

More a music and merch store for artists and labels than a streaming service, though Bandcamp does offer some streaming—Bandcamp seems, from what I have heard and can tell, to actually pay artists! So, when you make a purchase you don't have to worry about the musicians only making fractions of fractions of a penny. Plus, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, they have been doing Bandcamp Friday, where they waive their fees and funnel that money to the artist instead.

And, in this turbulent year, there have been a bunch of bands and labels that have put out albums on Bandcamp where the proceeds went to a worthy cause, so without further ado, here are a slew of albums you can pick up on Bandcamp that I both heartily recommend and that also will pass on some of your money to a cause worth supporting! Plus for almost all of these albums, you can stream one or more tracks for a taste before you buy.

25 albums that support worthy causes & are worth checking out!

 

hey! another blog?

 Yo! Behold! Hey?

So I start another blog, to have a place to put up some wordthings about stuff immaterial and material. Occasionally, I find myself wanting to write about music, books, movies or other things that don't seem to belong over on my Tabletop RPG blog (antagonistrelations.blogspot.com) or my even more neglected poetry blog (underatvsky.blogspot.com) and so, lo and behold, furthermore, et cetra, now there is this: hwæt! a blog.

 

some things, perhaps to be written about...

 

 So, what to expect from hwæt! a blog? Book, music & movie reviews (or at least recommendations, or at least what I'm currently enjoying or pondering), digressions, tangents, ponderings and way too many parentheticals...

 

A WARNING! I have every intention of putting up a post after Thanksgiving of Xmas music that delights me.

 

A glimpse of the future! I need to rewatch Come to Daddy and shall unburden my delighted opinions about it here probably.

 

Upcoming! A list of recommended albums to purchase on Bandcamp Friday (or any day).

Potentially? Reviews of cocktail recipes, to give myself an excuse to fancy up my boozing occasionally.

What else? Who knows? We shall see.