Salome G

I thought it was aggressively fine.

Country music largely died around 2000; I will accept no questions. But I do love old-time country.

Yeah, I'm not a fan; I don't feel like it enhances my experience. I wanted to take my nieces to see Toy Story last week, but the only standard showing was not at a very kid-friendly time (8:40 PM). There was an earlier showing at 5 something, but it was 3D and both of them wear glasses. And I can't find 3D clip-ons for kids.

Oh, I was on Thursday. The episode's been uploaded to youtube at least once, but Sony's pretty quick about yanking it. You can see a clip here, though.

No, he was the returning champion when I got there and then the first game I saw him was play was Monday's episode, where he lost.

Oh, you have to pay for it--at least, the first time you go (the show will pay for subsequent flights)--but it was a great experience all the same. I met a lot of really cool and smart people.

I was! After taking the online test, I apparently did well enough that I was picked for an audition. I had mine around May 2017 in Nashville. We took another test and then we were called up in groups of 3 to play the game. It's like a mini version of the show--you get a signalling device and you get to ring in and answer questions, then they do an interview segment. (When you fill out your paperwork for the audition, you're asked to put down a few anecdotes.) Mine was about the many (many) times I've been attacked by animals--"...enough not to take it personally." Then it's over. You're then in the contestant pool for 18 months. My 18 months came to an end last November, so I figured, well, I'll just have to audition again. (Some people audition multiple times before making it on the show.) In fact, I had just registered to take the online test again when I got the call in late February. After that, I had two weeks before I flew to Los Angeles--two weeks that I spent watching so many old episodes, practicing playing, and trying to cram facts into my head. In that two weeks, Alex's diagnosis was announced to the world. They film 5 shows a day and the process of being picked for each one is random. So we got to the green room and they were like, "This is James, he's the returning champion--do you want to tell them how many games you've won?" Obviously, it was a staggering number but it was pretty abstract for most of us, I think, until we saw it on TV--his episodes hadn't begun airing yet. Then we went through legal stuff, makeup, and rehearsals before we started filming. I was finally picked for the fourth game of the day, Thursday's game. It went pretty well, I think. I was hindered by never finding any Double Jeopardys, so I wasn't able to build my money like my opponents. When we got to the category reveal for Final Jeopardy, I spent a few minutes doing calculations before I was like, "This is your category, you're gonna know this, bet everything." And I did and I did. One of my opponents did the same, though, and he had more money than me, so he won. As for Alex, you don't really spend much time with him--after the quiz show scandals of the 50s, TV game shows are very regulated, so he doesn't interact with us much to avoid any accusations of bias. Basically, the interaction you see on TV is it. But here he is yelling at me during the interview segment. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUZijEuNDQ WELP. But at least I had fun.

Meanwhile, I sprung for the Annual Bucket last week, so I'm set.

I think some people make it part of their identity, but for me, I just prefer Android's user interface. I don't like the i icons, for example. If you've ever seen the youtube video of the guy who hates Tennessee football, down to such minutia as their team color, that's me (about Tennessee football and also iPhones). And like @Mecha Jaraxxus said, the price is ridiculous. I'm far too cheap to spend more than 'round about $200.

I am allergic to one specific liquid detergent and I always have to call my mommy from the store to remind me which one it is.

The Changeling (the George C. Scott one, not the Angelina Jolie one). No, thank you.

Wow, it's my time to shine. I love popcorn so much. I would say "almost too much," but that's not true. I do love it too much and springing for AMC's A-List program has only made it worse. As for alternatives, I did try AMC's 1.5lb soft pretzel. Once. With a large popcorn. That was too much food. So if you're looking for a popcorn alternative, idk. Give me yours.

I would like to try it. I'm not sure I wanna try it enough to drive two hours for it, but we'll see.

And here's a piece about something I was curious about--how they film the horses on GoT.

Yeah, they don't have every movie, but I think it gives a good overview of how they do certain stunts without causing harm. I actually found the site because I was curious how they did the stunts in Sleepwalkers. (Answer: Well-trained kitties and some fake ones.) It's the same with horses, I think. There are stunt horses who have been trained to do things like fall on cue and the rest is practical effects plus CGI, probably. Like, here's a line from their review of True Grit: "After being cued to lay down, the trained horses were then replaced with stuffed prop horses to make it appear as if the horses were injured/killed."

The American Humane Association explains how it's done.

I mentioned this in my review of the final episode, but I'm expecting Bobby Sheridan, the Purge propaganda guy, to come up.

I'm a Cantina Patron!

[extremely bell biv devoe voice] i think it's poisoooooon.

Somehow Rick ends up outside the house next week, which...dude. There's like, two more hours left on Purge night. Stay inside and watch The Haunting of Hill House or something.

Joe? I think that's it--I feel like there are a lot of Joes on the shows I'm watching. If we're talking about Lee Tergesen's character, he appears to be using the pro-purge propaganda--say that 3 times fast--to psych himself up to save people. I think we'll get his flashback this week. Well, I meant USA, the network airing the show in the US. They've really gone all out for their promotion. There's the aforementioned factoids during the commercials and they were running faux Purge Shopping Channel ads before the show even started.

Yeah, unsurprisingly, they want eyeballs on their money-makers (the commercials), so it's a clever way to keep people tuned in. I know some fans got freebie Purge candles from one of the commercials.

Me, running in here with my Goodreads account: Oh, you mean one you can watch? Lessee: The Invitation, El secreto de sus ojos (I haven't seen the English remake The Secret in Their Eyes), Sharp Objects, Creep...

Yeah, I'd like them to be separate for a bit, too. I'm not sure how they'd blend the supernatural into Riverdale, but they may be working up to that with the CULT!!! that's coming.