Michael Hopcroft

A good way to begin.I'm listening to Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, "From the New World". He wrote the work while he was living in New York working as a conductor and head of the New York Conservatory. He seemed to enjoy his sojourn in the US, and it meant that he was beyond the reach of Austrian conservatives. The American influence in the work if often touted, particularly the hymn featured in the lyrical second movement, but the Czech influence is ever stronger. (Dvorak was a persistent advocate of Czech independence from Austria. He found Austrian arrogance hard to deal with and defiantly wrote an opera in Czech and premiered it in Prague. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to see the collapse of Austria and the Czech independence he longed for all his life.)

A good way to begin.I'm listening to Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, "From the New World". He wrote the work while he was living in New York working as a conductor and head of the New York Conservatory. He seemed to enjoy his sojourn in the US, and it meant that he was beyond the reach of Austrian conservatives. The American influence in the work if often touted, particularly the hymn featured in the lyrical second movement, but the Czech influence is ever stronger. (Dvorak was a persistent advocate of Czech independence from Austria. He found Austrian arrogance hard to deal with and defiantly wrote an opera in Czech and premiered it in Prague. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to see the collapse of Austria and the Czech independence he longed for all his life.)

"One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider."

"There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders. You acknowledge their sentience, but ignore their personal liberties and freedom. Order a man to turn his child over to the state? Not while I'm his captain."
 
"No, I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed!"
 
"Fortune favors fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise."

Put the text you want spoilered between [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ] (but without the spaces).

Damn Army. I retract my earlier implied criticism and scorn following the near loss of my Sooners in overtime.
 
You scary. 11-2, best season in school history. Absolutely rolled your bowl opponent (and Navy - but that's only really important to Army). Most disciplined, ball controlling, triple option running team I've seen in years.
 
Respect.

"I'm supposed to be one of the good guys, to always do the right thing. The line is supposed to be clear. But for me, back then, it wasn't. A madman was threatening the city, and I had to stop him. So I became Red X, a ruthless thief who could get closer to the madman than Robin ever could. But I didn't tell my teammates, and my plan didn't work. I almost lost my life and my friends. It was the closest I've ever come to crossing the line, and I thought it was in the past. But now, someone else has crossed that line, and it's my job to stop him!"

The X-Man sing "Silent Night", but listeners wish it was a literal silent night because Wolverine cannot carry a tune to save his life.

Yeah, good stuff.  It was quite good, and I found myself far more entertained than I thought I would be.  As Mike said, the visuals are amazing AND different - it has a unique aesthetic, rather than just the standard CGI that even PIXAR is kinda settling into.  And then, on top of that, Spiderman Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker each have their own unique animation style.  And it works.  I'm not sure how they got away with doing something this experimental in a main-stream film, but I'm glad they did.
 
Which would be enough to deserve seeing it, but then it nails the story as well, as well as the editing and pacing.  It doesn't really waste any time or pad out anything.  Even the inevitable big 3rd act fight scene is kept moving and interesting.
 
Oh, and stay through the credits.  It's worth it, but to say anymore would be spoilers.

I went into this expecting good things and it still exceeded my expectations. The visuals are beautiful and distinct from any previous mainstream animation. The sound track is awesome and fits the  background of the characters. All the characters are on point and the voice actors nail them(especially Mahershala  Ali as Uncle Aaron).  And the plot is tight with great action, humor, character development, a few surprises and believable villain motivations. This movie can stand against any other of Marvel and Pixar's superhero stories.

I wouldn't use a d20 for this job. There are so many chances for manufacturing errors to warp something in it to make it less fair. I'd use a single casino-standard d6 for the job with equal weight on all sides. That gives you a better chance of a fair roll.

I wouldn't use a d20 for this job. There are so many chances for manufacturing errors to warp something in it to make it less fair. I'd use a single casino-standard d6 for the job with equal weight on all sides. That gives you a better chance of a fair roll.

He helped me get rid of that annoying gray cat who's always hanging around and trying to catch an even more annoying mouse, all the while trying to be a good father.
 
NT: Subtle signs that Santa Claus is working for Vladimir Putin.

Putting on a Santy Claus hat and a coat, in an effort to steal it.

If Godzilla wants to be paid not to burn down your city this week, you find a way to pay him.

So will the Niners do what Jim Kern accused the Cleveland Indians of doing back in the late 1970s: "When [the team] finds out you have any talent, the first thing they do is trade you for three guys who don't."

It reminds me of one of my favorite late-night movies growing up, the classic French comedy/satire The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, in which a duel for control of an espionage operation hinges of the surveillance of a randomly-chosen airline passenger. it's a perfect send-up of (and antidote to) Cold War/Watergate paranoia which struck a chord with American art-house audiences.

Who should stay away from Twitter?
 
Pretty much everybody...

Mom invited me for Christmas dinner at her "retirement community" (actually rent-supported apartments -- but she loves it there) and I accepted. We're going to do the family holiday party either on Boxing Day or a little after that.
 
We've already exchanged our gifts -- Mom gets a copy of the original Going in Style with George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. My present was shirts from Burlington Coat Factory, which I got to select.

If you are a musician in an orchestra, you know what the gestures mean. It's not just calisthenics -- they are telling you something, even if that something is helping someone in the orchestra is having trouble keeping up.
 
Of course, the real work of the conductor is in the intense rehearsals required to prevent such occurrences, as well as to put the orchestra's stamp on the work. It's very hard work and very demanding.
 
Putting your stamp on includes managing the soloist in a concerto (of which there is one in every program). One time, for example, Leonard Bernstein was preparing for a concert where Glenn Gould was playing the solo part in a Brahms piano concerto. Now both had their ideas on how the work should be played, and both were stubborn as donkeys. Eventually, Bernstein was forced to relent and gave a short speech to the audience on the dispute and what they were apart to hear. Actually, they were very good friends off the stage, but both were also supreme artists and Gould had a deserved reputation as being difficult for conductors to manage.

Oh, it's worse than that. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is something Bill Cosby would have said to reassure his victims -- he even gives "the Mouse" (the female voice) a roofie, which is already having an effect as it goes on ("Say, what's in that drink?") So it's not just harassment -- it's rape.
 
The question of why anyone ever found the Chipmunks funny (whose records were made by speeding up human singers who sang very slowly -- normalizing the tempo to match the other tracks but driving the pitch way up) is as great a mystery as the hula-hoop Alvin craved. (Now that I think about it, it's an early example of the capabilities of the then-new technology of multi-track recording. As much as they may have cringed at the content, musicians and producers were definitely paying attention.)
 
If you need a remedy for some of the kitsch of the holiday, I present Malinda Kathleen Reese, master of mistranslation.
 
 

The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes...

"Agent Blackadder reminds me of a young woman I autopsied once."
"When'd she die?"
"Oh, gosh, in Hollywood. Let's see, it's got to be at least 20 years ago. She was an assistant film editor and the film editor's wife caught them in flagrante delicto--"
"This one, Ducky. When did this one die?"

I haven't seen a Deadpool movie, but a PG-13 Deadpool movie is not a Deadpool movie.