Recent content by jian

We’ve been enjoying the National Theatre (NT) Live showings in one of our local cinemas in Vancouver (International Village, for anyone who cares). These are recordings of NT productions from London and they’re very well done and very recent, only a few weeks after their runs and it’s a very...

They often add too much stock or water to make it runny, which can work for some settings but they aren’t mash. Mash is for soaking up gravy.

King Edward for roasting or chips, Charlotte for dauphinoise, Yukon Gold for a balance.

Reminds me of the classic: Darth Vader: Luke… I know what you’re getting for Christmas. Luke: No, it’s not true! It’s not possible! Vader: Yes… I have felt your presents.

Read The Trees by Percival Everett (James, Erasure) and it’s a slow burn, starting with the murder of two men in Money, Mississippi which seems to have some mysterious connection to the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. The story gradually builds through the long and horrible history of lynchings...

John Scalzi argues here that KDH is a genuinely grass roots hit that nobody saw coming, and I’m inclined to agree: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/01/the-december-comfort-watches-2025-day-one-k-pop-demon-hunters/ It’s wild that the three Huntrix singers did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade...

Something like Labyrinth Lord, probably tweaked to not have classes and thus more flexible character creation and development, and aimed at taking characters from 1st level to punching out gods from Legends & Lore.

That would be great but sadly they’re probably both a bit old now. Rege-Jean Page seems a good fit, as I suggested.

Just read Crystal Heart, a graphic novel that is basically the collection for the webcomic of the same name, which in turn is all about the Savage Worlds RPG of the same name from Up to Four Players. The comic is basically an actual play and an excellent representation of running and playing in...

Just finished Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp (she also wrote The Rescuers, on which the Disney film is based, a bit like Dodie Smith and 101 Dalmatians, I guess). I picked it up because I liked the 1946 film of the book, the last one made by Ernst Lubitsch (Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner)...

Yes, I agree Ogres and Firewalkers (2020) and even Ironclads (2017) handled what sounds like similar themes well. And of course he’s really good at the murky atmospherics of Heart of Darkness type settings, as seen in Cage of Souls (2019) and Alien Clay (2024). Maybe he gave it to an assistant...

Long may Benoit Blanc continue to be in films. I’m also looking forward to what Johnson and Peter Dinklage will do with their new TV series.

Thanks very much. Damn, that is disappointing, and quite unlike Tchaikovsky at his usual level - it almost sounds like he’s writing on autopilot. I’ll check out the first chapter since I bought it anyway a while back.

Yeah, it's not a huge thing here in Vancouver but it's a reason for White Spot and other places to offer turkey dinners to cook at home, for cafes to offer turkey cranberry croissants, that sort of thing.

Just read Spark, a beautiful fantasy novel by Sarah Beth Durst about the strength of quietness, and also about a girl and her lightning beast in a kingdom which controls the weather. Her fantasy books are generally excellent. The other one for younger readers I've read is The Shelterlings, which...