Hard to pick a favourite, but Small Gods helped me get through a very nasty night in hospital (in imminent danger of losing a limb, hallucinating with extreme vigour). Keeping my eyes on the page kept my mind away from the Things climbing the walls.
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The Subgenius have a concept of a short duration personal savior. I’ve had lots. But Terry Pratchett and John Darnielle have been at the top of my list for a long long time. They’ve been with me through the worst. I don’t really want to get further into it on a fandom related thread but I owe them a lot.
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The usual suspects:
Doctor Who
Brit comedies (Monty Pyton, Might Boosh, anything Rowan Atkinson related)
Star Trek (especially DS9)
Buffy (lately, watching with my kiddo)
Much of Joss Whedon’s other stuff (Firefly was great)
Game of Thrones (more books, but also the shows)
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Sandman/any Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett (Discworld might be the single best fantasy series of all time)
Alan Moore
Also:
Music
weird films
history (duh)
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Yeah, nothing too out of the ordinary.
Books - mostly SF&F - anything by Tad Williams - he has a new series of Osten Ard books coming that I’m really looking forward to, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland, William Gibson, Tolkien, Discworld, Malazan Book of the Fallen series lately, China Mieville…
Graphic novels - Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Preacher, Fables. Trying to work through Judge Dredd, Moore’s run on Swamp Thing and Hellblazer.
Lately I’ve been on a bit of a 70s film kick - New Hollywood stuff, also random low budget British arthouse films. Anything but bloody superhero films. So bored of those.
Not really a TV person. Used to be a big fan of Red Dwarf and Bottom, also Buffy, DS9, Farscape (I really should go back and watch that again). I think I could get into Bojack Horseman if I had the time, but TV just seems really daunting. Too much to watch.
Craft beers?
Also lots of sportsball. Anything to do with either Leicester or Seattle teams, really.
Music I am way out of the loop on. I think I’m stuck in the same stuff I liked in the mid-90s.
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How did you like the jazz selection you got from the library earlier?
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I liked the Miles Davis stuff a lot - esp Kind of Blue.
Struggled a bit more with John Coltrane - esp A Love Supreme.
Although it was all easier than the Captain Beefheart I tried after watching Frank.
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That falls under the you have to sit up and pay attention to it music category and not for everyone. I love Sun Ra but I also realize that much of his stuff isn’t going to be to everyone’s liking.
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I’m mostly stuck in the groove of stuff I liked in the 90s. Last thing I bought was Primal Scream’s new album.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga
Star Wars
Star Trek (why pick just one awesome space opera?)
Ray Bradbury
Old Doctor Who (especially Four)
And uh … as of this last month I am a rabid Hamilton fan. Like, to the point my family is ready to disown me.
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Ahh MrsTobinL brings home all kinds of new things, well newish… some I like and add to my ripped library and some I don’t… then there is old but new to me things like this box set from Rhino we borrowed from the library last weekend.
I remembered something else - loved X-Bomber/Star Fleet when it was Saturday morning TV, and still loved it when it was eventually released on DVD fairly recently. Miles better than Gerry Anderson’s stuff (although I do still really like Captain Scarlet and Terrahawks)
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I have fallen so behind on Pratchett, but I did go through the Tiffany Aching books they are great fun. I have yet to get the last one cause I have such a huge stack of stuff already and I am sure the hold wait is ginormous still. I have found patience in my older years.
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Oh I just remembered… a more current obsession, Hong Kong martial arts cinema of the 60s/70s and a bit into the 80s.
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Did you listen to Trout Mask Replica? It is so… damn… dense. I mean that in the “a lot going on” way. Yet as many others have said, it’s really blues underneath. It took me a few times through the album before the whole vibe really started to jell.
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Anything involving Death or the Witches. Anything with Sam Vimes is a close second.
Don’t hate me, but I have never even attempted to watch any of “the Doctors”, because the canon is so massive, and because its fandom is just so fucking daunting. One day, maybe…
Seriously though; it’s utterly ridic how fine he is.
Lucky Sofia Vergara!
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I think I’m the only person who thinks the Tiffany Aching ones are the least interesting Discworld books (okay, apart from the Van Lipwig ones, but there’s a reason for those…).They just don’t have the edge or humour of the other ones.
That’s the one. It’s growing on me over listenings. The first time…WTF?
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Some tabletop fandom items:
Critical Role - D&D 5e livestream on Twitch with youtube VODs on Mondays. All the players are professional voice actors.
The Adventure Zone - D&D 5e podcast from the McElroy brothers (and dad) who play a beer and pretzels game for the laughs and post it every other week.
King of Dragon Pass - An excellent adventure game set in Glorantha, a world I only care about from RuneQuest.
Curse of Strahd - I normally am not a huge published adventure guy, but I’m old and they’ve come a long way. Ravenloft was always one of the most famous adventures in all TTRPG history, and WotC rebooted it for 5e consulting with the original designers of the adventure and expanding it to a lengthy and incredibly well done adventure. Incredible art, maps, and a true sandbox that puts my normal home game to shame.
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I was just about to tell you your first link was broken but you stealth edited and fixed it before I had even finished typing out my comment.
Kudos.
Spiegelman’s oevre is fascinating; I love looking at his fragments in Breakdowns and other collections.
Plus, edits some nice kids’ anthologies I’m looking forward to introducing to my kids.
I love comics, but… I’m not a fan? Not a Marvelphile, or a DC-zombie, or whatever.
I am a big fan of an old 1980s book that only had 12 issues, and some scattered stories prior to its run – B. C. Boyer’s Masked Man.
After the scattered stories got him the series, he quit his job – running his own cleaning company – to do the comic.
Which only made it for 8 issues; the other 4 came later.
Man, that had to suck on so many levels.
Not many people liked it, I guess. It’s never even been collected in a trade. But I love that series.
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Somewhat similar here; I love graphic storytelling, but superheroes bore me witless.
So, Maus, Sandman, Cerebus, etc.
And some really obscure small press stuff: Weird Stress Kittens, Modern Murder, Wang, etc.
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