A New Twist for RPG Gamemasters

Today at work I played Dungeons & Dragons with some colleagues over our lunch break--genuinely great team-building exercise, as there were at least four people there who I only infrequently work with and whom I got to know a little better.

The experience must have sparked my imagination, because on the drive home tonight a thought occurred to me. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought, if you gathered a group of friends to play one roleplaying game or another, but with a twist: instead of playing Jandalor the Barbarian or Maxi the Hacker, what if your players played themselves, but tossed into the roleplaying setting with only their own skills plus their knowledge of pop culture tropes? And, furthermore, what if the characters/players knew that they were not the originals tossed into the roleplaying world, but perfect copies, with the originals living out their lives back in the real world, a la Black Mirror? (I stipulate this because if this actually happened to us, I know we'd spend the entire scenario trying to get back to our loved ones in the real world. Copies might feel conflicted, but they'd be comforted to some extent by the knowledge that they're copies. Plus this adds an existential crisis angle to roleplay! Postmodern fun!)

In my own case, I was thinking specifically of the new Star Trek roleplaying game that I'll likely never play simply because we're all too busy at this point to cram another game into our lives. But it made me laugh to think if, for example, perfect copies of my Gaming & Guinness friends were tossed into that milieu, but with random roles assigned.

In fact, I'm going to pause right now and randomly determine (by rolling a d8) which of my friends gets assigned which roles in this kooky scenario. The setting is the U.S.S. Excalibur in the year 2266, right around the time of "The Corbomite Maneuver," the first regular episode of the original series.

Captain: Mike T
First Officer: Scott
Science Officer: Rob
Chief Engineer: Steve
Chief Medical Officer: Pete
Helm: Colin
Navigation: Island Mike
Redshirt: Jeff

All right. This is going to be inside baseball to some folks, but these results are hilarious to me. Mike has a pretty good handle on Star Trek trivia, knows the episodes, and would probably do a pretty good job of using inside knowledge to keep the crew safe. He's pretty well suited to the Captain's role in this scenario, but he can also be rather volatile in a gaming setting, and might wind up ordering crazy shenanigans just for fun; for example, I can see him saying "Let's mix things up by slingshotting around the sun and going forward in time to the Next Gen era," or "I've always wondered how powerful the weapons are supposed to be. Let's see if we can shatter a planet with torpedoes."

First Officer Scott, on the other hand, is somewhat infamous in our circle for getting heavily invested in the rules of the games we play, but sometimes, as we all must, misinterpreting them. So I can see him and Mike arguing a bit over what the group can do as opposed to what they should do.

Rob, I can see having fun throwing his hands up in the air and saying "WTF do I know about microbiology (or whatever)?" and simply ordering his staff around to do the actual science work.

Actually, that probably holds for Chief Engineer Steve, too, who (I believe) does not necessarily have the technical knowledge to maintain a 23rd century starship. But he, too, has a lot of Trek trivia knowledge, and could rely on his team to do the real work.

Poor Pete winds up as the doctor, and for some reason I see him as taking on the role with ghoulish relish, choosing to trust in his tools and hope that by this time, medicine is pretty much automated.

As the helm officer, I imagine Colin would have fun flying the ship around, since that, too, is controlled mainly by computer, with only gross inputs from humans required. This should also be true for Island Mike at the navigation station. They also get the fun job of managing weapons and shields, and I think Colin, in particular, would enjoy blowing things up with photon torpedoes.

Poor put-upon Jeff winds up as the red-shirted security officer, which is funny to me because of all of us, Jeff has gotten into the most accidents, most of them not his fault. I can just hear him saying "OH, GREAT!" when he (or rather, his copy) arrives on the Excalibur.

I, of course, would serve as gamemaster. I'd provide the initial setting, the first initial problem for the players to solve, and I'd play the roles of the other 422 Excalibur crewmembers. I'd play them as rational but compliant beings, following the orders of the senior officers if not without question, then with only reasonable resistance to truly crazy decisions by the team. But ultimately, what the players say goes.

I think playing this out would be hilarious, although the idea probably tickles me more than my hapless friends. Even so, I think the basic idea is sound, and could be fun if used for other roleplaying genres: high fantasy, superheroes (Villains & Vigilantes approaches this, but you're not supposed to have metatextual knowledge of the setting and tropes), spies, the old west, etc.

Fun to think about! 

Wacky Racer: Yellow

Hello Daylight

Hello daylight my old friend
I’ve come to lecture you again
Because I’ve reconciled my failure here
To hang on to the things that I hold dear
And ambitions I had chosen turned to dust
Of course they must
So here we are
In conference.

And as I burned under your gaze
I kept my counsel in the maze
Of the arguments both weak and strong
Forever doubting if we could belong
To a homeland that rejected all our loves
With velvet gloves
And stole away
Our best selves.

(with apologies to Simon & Garfunkel)

Preening Autumn

Preening Autumn

Exploits her moment in the waning sun

Defiant joy on every breeze

That ferries leaves of ruby and lemon

Down boulevards still drenched in golden light

Pouring out her cornucopia

Spilling bounty freely given

But her moment fades until, at last,

Her face flushed persimmon orange

She collapses into Winter

And sleeps just one more year

Wacky Racer: Green

Wacky Racer: Blue

Pakhet vs Hammer Squad

Pun-ished

An abominable pun, to be sure, but this seems a harsh response all the same. 

Dada Comics #5

Late Night Lunchtime

Conan or Jimmy Kimmel or one of those guys should film a sequence in which they pick up pedestrians and drive them to a McDonald's or Burger King or what-have-you for lunch. The catch is, the diners must collectively consume every single ketchup packet that gets tossed into the bag. If the fast food chains are reasonable, this shouldn't present a problem. But based on the extra-half dozen ketchup packets I routinely receive whenever I go through a drive-through, I'm betting more than one participant will wind up pretty nauseated. 

Animal Man is All Wet

Today I learned the iPhone is now capable of taking (limited) long exposures. So I stuck Animal Man in the sink and ran some tap water over him. The results are not as dramatic as I had hoped. 

Enjoying "Despite Yourself" Despite Myself

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S

"DESPITE YOURSELF" 

Star Trek: Discovery returned this week by paying off two of the worst-kept secrets about the show: Ash Tyler's reveal as a Klingon Manchurian Candidate, and the appearance of the infamous Mirror Universe. One of these developments was handled with great panache; the other presents viewers with some troublesome subtext. 

First, the good. Following the events of "Into the Forest We Go," the Discovery finds herself lost in space, jumping not to Starbase 46 as intended, but into a field of starship debris. Captain Lorca orders Ash Tyler to retrieve a data core from one of the stricken ships, and the intelligence in the core reveals that they've jumped to a parallel universe, specifically one longtime viewers are familiar with: the dreaded Mirror Universe, home to the fascistic Terran Empire. Realizing their peril, Lorca and company react with commendable logic, reskinning the ship and manufacturing uniforms to make themselves indistinguishable from the I.S.S. Discovery they have inadvertently displaced (into the prime Star Trek universe, they theorize; who knows what mischief that crew will perpetrate in "our" universe?) 

My highest commendation goes to the costuming department this time around - the Mirror Universe uniforms are amazing, with a corruptive allure that it's difficult (but necessary) to resist. It's also fun to see Sylvia Tilly being forced to act against her nature by playing the Discovery's captain, as she apparently is in this universe, having backstabbed her way up the chain of command. The dreaded agony booths of the original "Mirror, Mirror" also appear in this episode, and they are genuinely terrifying. 

I was surprised and delighted most, though, by the reference to the U.S.S. Defiant, which as Star Trek: Enterprise viewers will remember, was captured by the evil versions of Jonathan Archer and Hoshi Sato in that series' fourth (and best) season. Naturally the ship's appearance confuses Lorca, Burnham, and company, since from their perspective the Defiant is currently still on normal duty back in their home universe. They don't know what the audience knows, namely that the Defiant was thrown back in time and into the Mirror Universe some dozen years in the future (from their perspective). These are the kind of wacky hijinks that are only possible in science fiction, and only then in long-form storytelling like this. At this point, Star Trek has become a period piece, in a sense, a setting with a reasonably consistent history, look, and feel. Continuity callbacks are important because they acknowledge the established reality of the setting, and respecting continuity gives writers the obstacles and complications that are often necessary to create good material. Yes, it's also shameless fan service, but it works for me here. 

As for Ash Tyler's story, I'm somewhat disappointed because the reveal does, in my mind, undercut the PTSD storyline that was so essential to his character. Now, given that we still don't know the exact nature of Tyler/Voq's...existence...perhaps this reveal can still remain thematically satisfying. It really depends on how the writers develop the character from this point forward. It appears as though Tyler/Voq's body is Klingon, surgically altered to appear human, with Ash Tyler's memory engrams/personality/soul overlaid on top of the original Voq personality. Depending on your spiritual point of view, you could argue that this person is really the Klingon Voq, with a ghost imprinted on his brain; or, you could argue that Tyler is, in a sense, still alive, only living in Voq's altered body. 

If Voq is written as the real person, then Tyler's story becomes even more tragic, since we never really met him. On the other hand, if Tyler's engrams/personality/soul/whatever are presented as "real," then Tyler's story...becomes even more tragic, since he suffered all that torture and was also ripped from his physical body and stuck in a Klingon. 

I imagine the two personalities will fight over who gets to keep the physical meatspace, but philosophically this is a hugely complicated mess, to put it mildly. But again, this is the sort of story that science fiction was designed to handle. 

Sadly, when Dr. Culber realizes something is up, Tyler promptly snaps his neck - a surprising shock moment, to be sure, but one that brings to an abrupt end the notion of whether or not his relationship with Stamets can be sensitively handled in a satisfying way. 

Or does it? I immediately thought of the "kill your gays" trope when Culber died, but according to actor Wilson Cruz and writer Aaroc Harberts, there's more to Culber's death than meets the eye, and Harberts and Cruz, both gay men themselves, were quick to say that this isn't what's happening, and furthermore, that Cruz will return. They're not going to replace Culber with a Mirror Culber, so maybe he's not dead and his neck is just broken? Hmmm. 

This is the first episode of Discovery to be directed by Jonathan Frakes, AKA Will Riker, who started directing episodes way back during the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Frakes has a reputation for adding a dark sort of flair to his episodes, and he was clearly well-suited to "Despite Yourself." The episode manages to be campy fun and loomingly creepy at the same time - no mean feat. 

So, despite my reservations, I feel like this was another surprisingly solid outing for Star Trek: Discovery. If the Empress of the Terran Empire turns out to be a descendant of evil Hoshi Sato, well, I'll be pretty darn impressed. 

Former Acklands, 2009

Shot by my brother Sean on black and white film on Mom and Dad's Canon T70 in 2009 in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. Mom and Dad set up the store and Dad managed it until we left in 1979. I used to play in a bin of Zorbal in this building, and cut up my Star Wars novelization to photocopy the colour photo section. The results were disappointing. I also loved playing with the Telex machine and watching for incoming messages. And I was fascinated by the display of vehicle lights up on the wall near the ceiling behind the sales counter. One of them was a big red police or fire engine flasher, though I don't know if Dad ever sold any of those. 

Urbano Pizza Review

Last night I tried Urbano Pizza's Mexicana pie: cheddar, mozza, fresh tomato, jalepeno, chorizo, green peppers and meat sauce on a thin crust. I'd never heard of Urbano until I ordered it, and for once I was rewarded for culinary exploration: this is a great slice, tangy, robust, sinus-clearing and filling without leaving you feeling bloated. This pizza has only one fault: a crust that isn't quite rigid enough to bear the weight of the toppings. That quibble aside, it's very nearly perfect. I look forward to trying Urbano's other offerings. 

Bat-Can

Beached Boat

Dada Comics #4

Things to Look Forward to in 2018

One year ago today, I wrote about some of my hopes for 2017. To my surprise, a lot of the items on my list worked out quite nicely, including Mom and Dad's big birthdays, our tenth wedding anniversary, our trip to see the solar eclipse, G&G, voice acting lessons, seeing friends, paying down some of the mortgage, and the return of Twin Peaks and Star Trek, which both exceeded my expectations.

We didn't finish all the house projects we wanted to, and we didn't wind up doing much to celebrate Canada 150. But by and large, Sylvia and I made the most of a difficult year.

For 2018, my number one hope is a big one: health and happiness for my loved ones. And really, if that one comes true in 2018, I'll consider myself blessed beyond measure.

My second biggest hope is that I can ensure Sylvia has a great birthday celebration in October. She has a big one coming up, so we're hoping to head to New York for the occasion.

Gaming & Guinness comes in May, and that's always a blast.

More prosaically, some projects I'd like to work on:

• Get my home office in shape
• Pick up new office chairs for Sylvia and me
• Pick up some DVD storage for the theatre room
• Replace aging theatre room seats
• Start thinking about replacing the hot water tank
• Read 150 books
• Get Mom and Dad's Super 8mm home movies rescanned in HD
• Get closer to finishing the big Woods family photo scanning project

So those are my hopes for 2018, some modest, some not. We'll see what we can accomplish. 

Movies I Watched in 2017

Happy New Year!

Since 2012, I've kept track of the films I've screened each year. This year I watched more movies than ever, as my Letterboxd statistics confirm:

As you can see, I watched a little over 600 films, comprising almost 675 hours of viewing. (Many of the films I view each year are shorts, some just a few minutes in length. This screen capture also shows the 2017 films that impressed me most, though of course most of the films I watched in 2017 weren't actually released in 2017.

Here's a breakdown of how many films I watched each week, and my favourite days for viewing films (Sunday by a long shot, as it turns out).

Only about eight percent of the films I watched this year were released in 2017. I reviewed only ten of them. I knocked 32 films off my watchlist, but added over 400. And here you can also see my ratings spread; I don't give out too many 4.5 or 5 star ratings.

Here are my most-watched actors and actresses of 2017. Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance are right up top thanks to my attempt to see all of Chaplin's films. I'm pretty close - just one or two left on the list. Sly Stallone is up there because I marathoned all the Rambo movies. Basil Rathbone ranks high on this list because I watched all of his Sherlock Holmes movies.

And here are the directors I followed in 2017. Alice Guy is one of the early pioneers of film, though she's not well-known to the general public today.

Three people liked my Logan review! Sweet validation. The most obscure film I watched, for those wondering, was The Medical Aspects of Nuclear Radiation (Unknown, 1950).

Letterboxd doesn't keep annual statistics on the release dates of the films I've watched, so here's the breakdown:

1890s: 61

1900s: 35

1910s: 35

1920s: 22

1930s: 42

1940s: 39

1950s: 63

1960s: 39

1970s: 42

1980s: 26

1990s: 20

2000s: 50

2010s: 148

I watched 46 Best Picture nominees this year (not counting any 2017 releases that earn nominations in 2018):  

Alfie

Pygmalion

7^th Heaven

In Which We Serve

Crossfire

Hacksaw Ridge

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

La La Land

Lion

Fences

Hidden Figures

All That Jazz

An Unmarried Woman

Anthony Adverse

Captains Courageous

The Big House

In Old Chicago

David Copperfield

The Piano

Lady for a Day

The Informer

Libeled Lady

San Francisco

Stage Door

The Good Earth

The Life of Emile Zola

Nicholas and Alexandra

Kitty Foyle

The Descendants

Sayonara

La Grande Illusion

Wall Street

Arrowsmith

Scent of a Woman

In the Name of the Father

Fanny

Bad Girl

Here Comes the Navy

The Gay Divorcee

The House of Rothschild

Viva Villa!

Kings Row

The Best Years of Our Lives

A Tale of Two Cities

The Crowd

Finally, for those interested, here's the full list of films I watched in 2017: 

January: 42

The Unholy Three (Tod Browning, 1925)

Outside the Law (Tod Browning, 1920)

The Beast with a Million Eyes (David Kramarsky and Roger Corman, 1955)

The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood, 1975)

Convoy (Sam Peckinpah, 1978)

Saskatchewan (Raoul Walsh, 1954)

The House of Fear (Roy William Neill, 1945)

The Woman in Green (Roy William Neill, 1945)

Cliffhanger (Renny Harlin, 1993)

Character Studies (Unknown, 1927)

The Goat (Buster Keaton, 1921)

Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)

The Getaway (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)

Olympus Has Fallen (Antoine Fuqua, 2013) 

Seven Wonders of the World (Tay Garnett, Paul Mantz, Andrew Marton, Ted Tetzlaff and Walter Thompson, 1956)

Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)

Ghost Rider (Mark Steven Johnson, 2007)

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, 2012)

Ascension (Mairzee Almas, Nick Copus and Mark Lieberman, 2014)

Search for Paradise (Otto Lang, 1957)

In the Picture (Matt Strohmaier, 2012) 

Last Man on Earth (Sidney Salkow, 1964)

Dr. Cyclops (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1940)

Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955)

The Mole People (Virgil W. Vogel, 1956)

The Monolith Monsters (John Sherwood, 1957)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)

Monster on the Campus (Jack Arnold, 1958)

Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval (Susan Lacy, 1995)

Cult of the Cobra (Francis D. Lyon, 1955)

The Land Unknown (Virgil W. Vogel, 1957)

The Deadly Mantis (Nathan H. Juran, 1957)

The Leech Woman (Edward Dein, 1960)

The Black Scorpion (Edward Ludwig, 1957)

The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)

Alfie (Lewis Gilbert, 1966)

The Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 1961)

The Prodigal (Richard Thorpe, 1955)

Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks, 1955)

No Blade of Grass (Cornel Wilde, 1970)

Pursuit to Algiers (Roy William Neill, 1945)

February: 99

Hot Rods to Hell (John Brahm, 1967)

Skyjacked (John Guillermin, 1972)

Zero Hour! (Hall Bartlett, 1957)

The Big Cube (Tito Davison, 1969)

Bill Burr: Walk Your Way Out (Jay Karas, 2017)

Caged (John Cromwell, 1950)

Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970)

Conquest of Space (Byron Haskin, 1955)

The Illusionist (Neil Burger, 2006)

Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973)

Joe’s Violin (Kahane Cooperman, 2016)

4.1 Miles (Daphne Matziaraki, 2016)

Terror by Night (Roy William Neill, 1946)

Dressed to Kill (Roy William Neill, 1946)

Nosferatu the Vampyr (Werner Herzog, 1979)

Girl Crazy (Norman Taurog, 1943)

Prairie Thunder (B. Reeves Eason, 1937)

Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Edward Zwick, 2016)

Pygmalion (Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith, 1938)

Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)

7th Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927)

In Which We Serve (Noel Coward and David Lean, 1942)

Team Thor: Part 2 (Taika Waititi, 2017)

Dillinger (Max Nosseck, 1945)

Born to Kill (Robert Wise, 1947)

Danse Serpentine (Louis Lumiere, 1896)

The Cabbage Fairy (Alice Guy, 1896)

A Nightmare (Georges Méliès, 1896)

The Haunted Castle (Georges Méliès, 1897)

The Merry Skeleton (Louis Lumiere, 1898)

Parade of the Award Nominees (Walt Disney, 1932)

Flora (Jan Svankmajer, 1989)

42/83 No Film (Kurt Kren, 1983)

Shot/Countershot (Peter Tscherkassky, 1987)

The Scavengers (Unknown, 1987)

Blue Peanuts (Todd Graham, 1987)

Apocalypse Pooh (Todd Graham, 1987) 

Good Grief! Cancer Boy! (Todd Graham, 1990)

Memorial Procession in English Country Town (Unknown, 1915)

No Mischief Here Can Satan Find for Idle Hands to Do (Unknown, 1917)

Mattress Man Commercial (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2003)

Tetra Vaal (Neill Blomkamp, 2004)

Greed (Roman Polanski, 2009)

Fire & Rain (James Benning, 2009)

A Gathering of Cats (Makoto Shinkai, 2007)

Fireworks (Pes, 2004)

Fresh Guacamole (Pes, 2012)

Game Over (Pes, 2006)

Western Spaghetti (Pes, 2008)

Submarine Sandwich (Pes, 2014)

The Fireplace (Pes, 2008)

Une Femme Coquette (Jean-Luc Godard, 1955)

Roof Sex (Pes, 2002) 

KaBoom! (Pes, 2004) 

The Deep (Pes, 2010)

Black Gold (Pes, 2014)

Pee-Nut (Pes, 2002)

Moth (Pes, 2004) 

My Pepper Heart (Pes, 2008)

Cake Countdown (Pes, 2008)

Dogs of War (Pes, 1998)

Marriage is For… (Pes, 2009)

Baby Nut (Pes, 2009)

Coinstar (Pes, 2009)

Drowning Nut (Pes, 2009)

Prank Call (Pes, 2008)

Human Skateboard (Pes, 2008)

Honda Paper (Pes, 2015)

Mussel Beach (Pes, 2015)

Scrabble (Pes, 2008)

Orange Telecom (Pes, 2009)

Coinstar “Book” (Pes, 2009)

Coinstar “Gift” (Pes, 2009)

Tuck Me In (Ignacio F. Rodo, 2014) 

How the Dook Stole Christmas (Jennifer Kent, 2014)

Empire (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)

One Last Dive (Jason Eisener, 2013)

Dinner (Andrew Byman, 2012)

Ars colonia (Raya Martin, 2011)

Star Wars: The New Republic Anthology (Eric Demeusy, 2015)

Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947)

The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer, 1952)

Clash by Night (Fritz Lang, 1952)

Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson, 2016)

Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

Piper (Alan Barillaro, 2016)

Lion (Garth Davis, 2016)

The White Helmets (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2016)

Extremis (Dan Krauss, 2016)

Blind Vaysha (Theodore Ushev, 2016)

Fences (Denzel Washington, 2016)

Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi, 2016)

Passengers (Morten Tyldum, 2016)

The Red Turtle (Michael Dudok de Wit, 2016)

The Champion (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

In the Park (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

March: 77

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)

Gunslingers (Wallace W. Fox, 1950)

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)

Gods of Egypt (Alex Proyas, 2016)

Act Your Age (Unknown, 1949)

Age 13 (Arthur Swerdloff, 1955)

The Ladykillers (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2004)

The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen, 1994) 

Barton Fink (Joel Coen, 1991)

Borrowed Time (Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, 2016)

King of the Hill (Steven Soderbergh, 1993)

High Anxiety (Mel Brooks, 1977)

Hot Dog (Jules White and Zion Myers, 1930)

The Terrible Truth (Unknown, 1951)

Kong: Skull Island (Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017)

Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) 

Cimarron (Anthony Mann, 1960)

Silent Movie (Mel Brooks, 1976)

Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015)

Relentless (George Sherman, 1948)

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (Barney Elliot, 1940)

The Mermaid (Georges Méliès, 1904) 

Rescued by Rover (Lewin Fitzhamon and Cecil M. Hepworth, 1905) 

New York Subway (Bill Bitzer, 1905) 

Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter, 1908)

The Unchanging Sea (D.W. Griffith, 1910) 

Banks of the Nile (Charles Urban, 1911)

The Cameraman’s Revenge (Vladislav Starevich, 1912)

Falling Leaves (Alice Guy, 1912)

Easy Street (Charlie Chaplin, 1917)

Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

The Accountant (Gavin O’Connor, 2016)

Deluge (Felix E. Feist, 1933)

The Devil and Miss Jones (Sam Wood, 1941)

Canada Vignettes: The Fashion Designer (Unknown, 1977)

Fire Maidens of Outer Space (Cy Roth, 1956)

Indestructible Man (Jack Pollexfen, 1956)

The Man Who Turned to Stone (László Kardos, 1956)

Pearl (Patrick Osbourne, 2016)

Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Robert Valley, 2016)

Indice 50 (Sylvain Amblard and Alexandre Belmudes, 2016)

Once Upon a Line (Alicja Jasina, 2016)

The Head Vanishes (Franck Dion, 2016)

Happy End (Jan Saska, 2016)

Asteria (Alexandre Arpentinier, 2016)

Sing (Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy, 2016)

Silent Nights (Aske Bang, 2016)

Timecode (Juanjo Gimenez Pena, 2016)

Enemies Within (Selim Azzazi, 2016)

La femme et le TGV (Timo von Gunten, 2016)

Legend of the Lost (Henry Hathaway, 1957)

Warning from Space (Koji Shima, 1956)

Barquero (Gordon Douglas, 1970)

X the Unknown (Leslie Norman, 1956)

U.S. Marshals (Stuart Baird, 1998)

Battleship (Peter Berg, 2012)

Why We Fight: Prelude to War (Frank Capra, 1942)

Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike (Frank Capra, 1943)

Why We Fight: Divide and Conquer (Frank Capra, 1943)

Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain (Frank Capra, 1943) 

Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia (Frank Capra, 1943)

Why We Fight: The Battle of China (Frank Capra, 1944) 

Why We Fight: War Comes to America (Frank Capra, 1945)

Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941)

Independence Day: Resurgence (Roland Emmerich, 2016)

Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)

WHIH Newsfront Promo – July 2, 2015 (Unknown, 2015)

A Jitney Elopement (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

By the Sea (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

Work (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

A Woman (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

Dave Chappelle: The Age of Spin (Stan Lathan, 2017)

Shanghaied (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

Dune (David Lynch, 1984) 

Absurda (David Lynch, 2007)

Lady Blue Shanghai (David Lynch, 2010) 

April: 102

Netflix Live (Unknown, 2017)

The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927)

Rich and Strange (Alfred Hitchcock, 1931)

Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002)

Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)

All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)

An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 1978)

Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

Kim (Victor Saville, 1950)

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (Irwin Allen, 1979)

Bananas (Woody Allen, 1971)

Atlantis, the Lost Continent (George Pal, 1961)

Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (Pietro Francisci, 1963)

Nothing but the Night (Peter Sasdy, 1973)

The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua, 2014)

The Man with the Iron Fists (RZA, 2012)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle, 1939)

Anthony Adverse (Mervyn LeRoy, 1936)

Cavalcade (Frank Lloyd, 1933)

Captains Courageous (Victor Fleming, 1937)

The Big House (George Hill, 1930)

In Old Chicago (Henry King, 1937)

David Copperfield (George Cukor, 1935)

The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)

Doodlebug (Christopher Nolan, 1997)

Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage, 1967)

Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (Lee Savage, 1968)

Look at Life (George Lucas, 1965)

Brain Dead (Jon Moritsugu, 1987)

Balloon Guy (Chris Wedge, 1987)

War Machine (Duvet Brothers, 1984)

Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (Theodore Case and Earl I. Sponable, 1925)

Two Pence Magic (Hans Richter, 1929)

The Secret of the Marquise (Lotte Reiniger, 1922)

Between Calais and Dover (Georges Méliès, 1897)

The Famous Box Trick (Georges Méliès, 1898)

Feeding the Doves (James H. White, 1896)

Divers at Work on the Wreck of the Maine (Georges Méliès, 1898)

La petite fille et son chat (Louis Lumiere, 1899)

The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (Enoch J. Rector, 1897)

A Railway Collision (Walter R. Booth, 1900)

The Lonely Villa (D.W. Griffith, 1909)

An Exciting Pillow Fight (Robert W. Paul, 1900)

Entry of the Scots Guard Into Bloemfontein (Robert W. Paul, 1900)

Cronje’s Surrender to Lord Roberts (Robert W. Paul, 1900)

Seeing New York by Yacht (Frederick S. Armitage and A.E. Weed, 1903)

Parade of Exempt Firemen (Unknown, 1903)

Train Taking Up Mail Bag, U.S. Post Office (Unknown, 1903) 

Pilot Boats in New York Harbor (James H. White, 1899)

Statue of Liberty (James H. White, 1898)

Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (Unknown, 1899)

A Perilous Proceeding (Unknown, 1901)

N.Y. Fire Department Returning (Unknown, 1903)

A Morning Alarm (James H. White, 1896)

The Burning Stable (James H. White, 1896)

Waterfall in the Catskills (Unknown, 1897)

Giant Coal Dumper (James H. White, 1897)

Overland Express Arriving at Helena, Mont. (Unknown, 1900)

Scene in Chinatown (Unknown, 1900)

A Nymph of the Waves (Unknown, 1900)

Comedy Cake Walk (Unknown, 1897)

A Ballroom Tragedy (Unknown, 1905)

Ella Lola, a la Trilby (James H. White, 1898)

Bowery Waltz (William Heise, 1897)

Cupid and Psyche (James H. White, 1897)

Lurline Baths (James H. White, 1897)

What Demoralized the Barber Shop (William Heise, 1898)

Fisherman’s Luck (William Heise, 1897)

Hotel del Monte (James H. White, 1897)

Leander Sisters (James H. White, 1897)

Down the Old Potomac (James H. White, 1917)

Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (Lee Sholem, 1949)

Logan (James Mangold, 2017)

Lady for a Day (Frank Capra, 1933)

The Informer (John Ford, 1935)

Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936)

Sense8: A Christmas Special (Lana Wachowski, 2016) 

Colossus: The Forbin Project (Joseph Sargent, 1970)

San Francisco (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936)

Stage Door (Gregory LaCava, 1937)

The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937)

The Rink (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

A Night in the Show (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)

A Burlesque on “Carmen” (Charlie Chaplin, 1915) 

Police (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Floorwalker (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Fireman (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Vagabond (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

One a.m. (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Professor (Charlie Chaplin, 1919)

Burlesque on ‘Carmen’ (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

Behind the Screen (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Count (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Pawnshop (Charlie Chaplin, 1916)

The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937)

Nicholas and Alexandra (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1971) 

Kitty Foyle (Sam Wood, 1940)

A Slice of Lynch: Uncut (Charles de Lauzirika, 2007) 

The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)

Sayonara (Joshua Logan, 1957)

La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

Broadway Bill (Frank Capra, 1934)

May: 37

Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)

Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)

Reap the Wild Wind (Cecil B. DeMille, 1942)

The Discovery (Charlie McDowell, 2017)

Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

Panorama du Grand Canal vu d’un Bateau (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

New York: Broadway at Union Square (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

Lion, London Zoological Gardens (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

Chicago Police Parade (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

Children Digging for Clams (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

Colleurs d’affiches (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

The Pyramids (Overview) (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

Football (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

Whitehall Street (Alexandre Promio, 1897)

New York, descente des voyageurs du pont de Brooklyn (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

Mosquinha (Etienne-Jules Marey, 1890)

Preposterous (Florent Porta, 2016)

See You Soon (David F. Sandberg, 2014)

Raw Data (Jake Fried, 2013)

Los Gritones (Roberto Perez Toledo, 2010)

L’envol (Angelin Proljocaj, 2011)

Edgar Allan Poe (D.W. Griffith, 1909)

The Close Call (Robert Thornby, 1914)

Artoo in Love (Evan Atherton, 2015)

Creating Twin Peaks: Secrets From Another Place (Charles de Lauzirika, 2007)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (James Gunn, 2017) 

Underworld: Blood Wars (Anna Foerster, 2016)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, 1992)

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (David Lynch, 2014)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Robert Zemeckis, 1978)

Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972) 

Bandolero! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1968)

Those Redheads from Seattle (Lewis R. Foster, 1953)

A*P*E (Paul Leder, 1976) 

Death Race 2050 (G.J. Echternkamp, 2017) 

Vixen (James Tucker and Curt Geda, 2017) 

The Lost World (Harry Hoyt, 1925)

June: 40

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017) 

That’s Entertainment! (Jack Haley, Jr., 1974)

Who’s Minding the Store? (Frank Tashlin, 1963)

Union Pacific (Cecil B. DeMille, 1939) 

Red River Range (George Sherman, 1938)

The Face of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1965)

Billy the Kid (David Miller, 1941) 

Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves, 1950)

I Can Get it For You Wholesale (Michael Gordon, 1951)

Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)

Hotel Room (David Lynch and James Signorelli, 1993) 

Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967) 

Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982) 

Rick and Morty—Alien: Covenant (Unknown, 2017) 

Highlights (Eric Cloutier, 2017) 

Entrance to the Grand Burial Chamber (Eric Cloutier, 2017) 

MailShrimp (Ed Kaye and Alex Mavor, 2017) 

KaleLimp (Ed Kaye and Alex Mavor, 2017) 

JailBlimp (Ed Kaye and Alex Mavor, 2017) 

Suez (Allan Dwan, 1938) 

Deadpool (Tim Miller, 2016) 

Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017) 

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Oliver Stone, 2010) 

A Cure for Wellness (Gore Verbinski, 2016) 

T2 Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 2017) 

Chino (John Sturges, 1973)

Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973) 

The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) 

Another Earth (Mike Cahill, 2011) 

Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016) 

Bus Stop (Joshua Logan, 1956) 

End of Days (Peter Hyams, 1999)

Arrowsmith (John Ford, 1931) 

Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest, 1992) 

London Has Fallen (Baback Najafi, 2016)

The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979)

In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993) 

Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)

Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 1984) 

Screwballs (Rafal Zielinski, 1983) 

July: 37

Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962) 

Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969) 

Ensign Pulver (Joshua Logan, 1964) 

Thunder Bay (Anthony Mann, 1953) 

How to Murder Your Wife (Richard Quine, 1965) 

How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953) 

Knock on Wood (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, 1954) 

Wolf Hunting in Russia (Unknown, 1910) 

La Marseillaise (Georges Mendel, 1907) 

His Only Pair (Robert W. Paul, 1902) 

Electrocuting an Elephant (Thomas Edison, 1903) 

Sack Race (Louis Lumiere, 1896) 

The Race for the Sausage (Alice Guy, 1907)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017) 

Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015) 

Monster Trucks (Chris Wedge, 2016) 

The Lego Batman Movie (Chris McKay, 2017) 

Dark Hoser (Unknown, 2017) 

Batman is Just not that Into You (Unknown, 2017) 

Cooking with Alfred (Unknown, 2017) 

Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That? (Unknown, 2017) 

The Master: A Lego Ninjago Short (Jon Saunders, 2016)

Outland (Peter Hyams, 1981) 

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (Larry Blamire, 2010) 

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017) 

Sunset in the West (William Witney, 1950) 

Fanny (Joshua Logan, 1961) 

The Sea Shall Not Have Them (Lewis Gilbert, 1954) 

Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)  

Escape from Tomorrow (Randy Moore, 2013) 

The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, 2014) 

The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009) 

Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012) 

Meet Walter (Luke Scott, 2017) 

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader (Rick Morales, 2016) 

The Peter Weyland Files (Luke Scott, 2012) 

Gold (Karl Hartl, 1934) 

August: 47

The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray, 2017) 

The Pleasure Garden (Alfred Hitchcock, 1925) 

The Nebraskan (Fred F. Sears, 1953) 

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) 

Red Nightmare (George Waggner, 1962) 

The Rookie (Clint Eastwood, 1990) 

War for the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2017) 

Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) 

The Andersonville Trial (George C. Scott, 1970) 

Duck and Cover (Anthony Rizzo, 1952) 

Operation Doorstep (Unknown, 1953) 

Target You (Unknown, 1953)

The Medical Aspects of Nuclear Radiation (Unknown, 1950) 

Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947) 

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) 

Dracula Untold (Gary Shore, 2015) 

Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman, 1953) 

High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963) 

Ikuru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) 

La Cage aux Folles (Edouard Molinaro, 1978) 

Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 1986) 

Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004) 

Desk Set (Walter Lang, 1957)

Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 1967)

Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959)

I Never Forget a Face (Unknown, 1956) 

C’est l’aviron (Norman McLaren, 1944) 

A Phantasy (Norman McLaren, 1952) 

The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966) 

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) 

Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon, 2017) 

First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982) 

Rambo: First Blood Part II (George P. Cosmatos, 1985) 

Rambo III (Peter MacDonald, 1988) 

Rambo (Sylvester Stallone, 2008) 

Microworld (Paul Cohen, 1976) 

Ballet Adagio (Norman McClaren, 1972) 

Back to God’s Country (David Hartford, 1919) 

The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996) 

Bad Girl (Frank Borzage, 1931) 

Here Comes the Navy (Lloyd Bacon, 1934) 

The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934)

The House of Rothschild (Alfred Werker, 1934)

Viva Villa! (Jack Conway, 1934) 

2036: Nexus Dawn (Luke Scott, 2017) 

Last Supper (Luke Scott, 2017) 

Loom (Luke Scott, 2012) 

September: 43

The Brides of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1966) 

The Vengeange of Fu Manchu (Jeremy Summers, 1967) 

The Mummy (Alex Kurtzman, 2017) 

Scream and Scream Again (Gordon Hessler, 1970) 

Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch, 2017) 

The Cat and the Canary (Elliot Nugent, 1939) 

Hillbillys in a Haunted House (Jean Yarbrough, 1967) 

The Golem: How He Came into the World (Paul Webener and Carl Boese, 1920) 

Just Imagine (David Butler, 1930) 

Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953) 

Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli and Busby Berkeley, 1943) 

The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961) 

The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and his Airship (Edwin S. Porter, 1902) 

Ripples (Jim Henson, 1967) 

The Paperwork Explosion (Jim Henson, 1967) 

Pierre and Sonny Jim (David Lynch, 2001) 

Dream #7 (David Lynch, 2010) 

Room to Dream: David Lynch and the Independent Filmmaker (David Lynch, 2005) 

Out Yonder (David Lynch, 2007) 

Ballerina (David Lynch, 2007) 

Sailing with Bushnell Keeler (David Lynch, 1967) 

Idem Paris (David Lynch, 2013) 

Bug Crawls (David Lynch, 2007) 

Blue Green (David Lynch, 2007) 

Boat (David Lynch, 2007) 

Darkened Room (David Lynch, 2002) 

Absurd Encounter with Fear (David Lynch, 1967) 

Tango Tangles (Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin, 1914) 

Kings Row (Sam Wood, 1942)

The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946) 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, 2017)

if… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) 

Robetta and Doretto, No. 1 (William K.L. Dickson, 1895)

New Blacksmith Shop (William K.L. Dickson, 1895) 

De boulevard van Scheveningen (William K.L. Dickson, 1898)

Bath Scene (William K.L. Dickson, 1897)

Panoramic View of Conway on the L. & N.W. Railway (William K.L. Dickson, 1898) 

2048: Nowhere to Run (Luke Scott, 2017) 

Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream (Unknown, 2009) 

Cosmic Voyage (Bayley Silleck, 1996) 

The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934) 

Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968) 

Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (Shinichiro Watanabe, 2017) 

The Crossing (Ridley Scott, 2017) 

October: 55

Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964) 

Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, 1961) 

Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950) 

The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, 2017) 

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (Nunnally Johnson, 1956)

A Terrible Night (Georges Méliès, 1896) 

Bataille de boules de neige (Louis Lumiere, 1897) 

Playing Cards (Georges Méliès, 1896) 

Seminary Girls (James H. White, 1897) 

The Pillar of Fire (George Méliès, 1899) 

An Up-to-Date Conjurer (George Méliès, 1899) 

Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter (Alice Guy, 1899) 

Rough Sea at Dover (Birt Acres, 1896) 

The Temptation of St. Anthony (George Méliès, 1898) 

A Sticky Woman (Alice Guy, 1906) 

Madam’s Fancies (Alice Guy, 1907) 

Faust and Mephistopheles (Alice Guy, 1903) 

Pierrette’s Escapades (Alice Guy, 1900) 

At the Hypnotist’s (Alice Guy, 1898) 

Bathing in a Stream (Alice Guy, 1897) 

The Burglars (Alice Guy, 1897) 

The Glue (Alice Guy, 1907) 

Matrimony’s Speed Limit (Alice Guy, 1913) 

Serpentine Dance by Lina Esbard (Alice Guy, 1902) 

Wonderful Absinthe (Alice Guy, 1899) 

The Fisherman at the Stream (Alice Guy, 1897) 

At the Bal de Flore (Alice Guy, 1900) 

Little Tich and his Funny Feet (Alice Guy, 1901) 

Turn of the Century Surgery (Alice Guy, 1900) 

On the Barricade (Alice Guy, 1907)

The Turn of the Century Blind Man (Alice Guy, 1898)

Surprise Attack on a House at Daybreak (Alice Guy, 1898) 

Midwife to the Upper Classes (Alice Guy, 1902) 

A House Divided (Alice Guy, 1913) 

Black Widow (Nunnaly Johnson, 1954) 

Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) 

The Three Faces of Eve (Nunnaly Johnson, 1957) 

The Zodiac Killer (Tom Hanson, 1971) 

Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) 

The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971) 

The Secret Garden (Fred M. Wilcox, 1949) 

The Best Man (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1964) 

The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) 

Wedlock House: An Intercourse (Stan Brakhage, 1959) 

Tales of Manhattan (Julien Duvivier, 1942) 

The Iron Mistress (Gordon Douglas, 1952) 

OSS 117 Is Not Dead (Jean Sacha, 1957) 

The Golden Arrow (Antonia Margheriti, 1962) 

Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014) 

Dune (David Lynch, 1984) 

Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949) 

Beach Party (William Asher, 1963) 

Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 1950) 

Five Weeks in a Balloon (Irwin Allen, 1962) 

A Tale of Two Cities (Jack Conway, 1935)

November: 16

Show Boat (George Sidney, 1951) 

The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017) 

Corvette Summer (Matthew Robbins, 1978) 

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982) 

Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017) 

Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, 2017) 

Inhumans: The First Chapter (Roel Reine, 2017) 

John Wick (Chad Stahlelski, 2014) 

John Wick Chapter 2 (Chad Stahlelski, 2017) 

Dragonslayer (Matthew Robbins, 1981) 

Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983) 

The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928) 

Big Hero 6 (Don Hall and Chris Williams, 2014) 

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) 

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017) 

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Patrick Hughes, 2017) 

December: 33

Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008) 

Taken 2 (Oliver Megaton, 2012)

My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)

Taken 3 (Oliver Megaton, 2014)  

The Belko Experiment (Greg McLean, 2016) 

Justice League (Zack Snyder, 2017) 

The Circle (James Ponsoldt, 2017) 

Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders, 2017) 

Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets (Luc Besson, 2017) 

The Fury (Brian De Palma, 1978) 

The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 (Adrian Wood, 2017) 

The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece (Jean de Rovera, 1924) 

The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 (Jean de Rovera, 1924) 

The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (Jean de Rovera, 1924) 

The White Stadium (Arnold Fanck and Othmar Gurtner, 1928) 

The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam (Unknown, 1928) 

The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928 (Wilhelm Prager, 1928) 

Youth of the World (Carl Junghans, 1936)

The Beast of Hollow Mountain (Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodriguez, 1956) 

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938) 

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)

XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (Castleton Knight, 1948) 

Fight Without Hate (Andre Michel, 1948) 

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932) 

Rose Marie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1954) 

Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954) 

Mother! Darren Aronofsky, 2017) 

Intervalometer Experiment (David Lynch, 2004) 

Industrial Soundscape (David Lynch, 2008) 

Moby: Shot in the Back of the Head (David Lynch, 2009) 

The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 (Tancred Ibsen, 1952) 

Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh, 2017) 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh, 2017) 

Books I Read in 2017

This year represents a step back for me on several fronts. I read less this year than last, my fare was less diverse, my reading more concentrated on the present decade than ever before, and I still can't seem to reach gender parity. All in all, I read 123 books this year, down from 135 last year. 150 remains an elusive dream.

You'll also note that several of the books I read this year were novella or even novelette length. I included them on the list, after some debate, rationalizing that some of the larger books I read this year could count as three or four regular-length novels, so hopefully it all evens out.

I started a new job this year, and I'm talking half-hour lunches instead of the one hour I indulged at ATCO. That's cut back on my reading time quite a bit, as did our road trip in August and some stress issues I don't want to write about here. Excuses, excuses, yes.

On to the books themselves. There's a lot of Fred Saberhagen on this list, as I had intended to read all of the Berserker books this year; I didn't make it.

There's also a bunch of Lois McMaster Bujold, because I think her stuff is great. I must say, though, that the Penric and Desdemona series isn't quite grabbing me; I don't feel like there's much jeopardy to be had. I realize that things tend to turn out fine in the end in most of her work, but even so, the stakes seem pretty low here.

I read and enjoyed two books by people I know this year: Kevin Taft's latest political book, Oil's Deep State, and my colleague Nerys Parry's novel Man & other Natural Disasters. Kevin's book is thoroughly researched, well-argued, and important reading for anyone who cares about the corruptive influence on natural resource economies on democracy; Nerys' novel is haunting, evocative, bizarre (in a good way), and has a climax I really did not see coming.

I started reading Dashiell Hammett this year, and while I enjoyed Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon really blew me away, and not just because of nostalgia for the film(s). Sam Spade is a once-in-a-century character, and he's embroiled in one of the truly great detective stories in this one. A real treat.

Jo Walton's trilogy of novels about Greek gods who decide to try and create Plato's ideal community is ambitious, tragic and funny, but didn't move me as much as her earlier, standalone works.

Film and television tie-in novels often aren't worth commentary, but I thoroughly appreciated Mark Frost's two Twin Peaks novels this year, particularly the latter, which provides frustrated viewers of season three with, if not closure, at least some interesting material to chew on. Most of the Star Trek tie-ins I read this year were, as usual, mundane, but David Mack's Section 31: Control, a Julian Bashir story that ties up a long-running subplot from the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was suspenseful and satisfying. And the comedic DS9 novellas from Paula Block and Terry Erdmann are good-natured and fun.

Connie Willis is always amazing, and I loved her latest, Crosstalk, a novel of romantic telepathy and overbearing relatives.

Here's each month's tally of books I read in 2017, followed by a genre, gender, and decade breakdown:

January: 9
Hag-Seed (Margaret Atwood, 2016)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Sacraments of Fire (David R. George III, 2015)
A Man Lies Dreaming (Lavie Tidhar, 2014)
Under the Moons of Mars (John Joseph Adams, 2012)
The Long Tomorrow (Leigh Brackett, 1955)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Ascendance (David R. George III, 2016)
The Evolution of the Iron Giant (Unknown, 2016)
Last Year (Robert Charles Wilson, 2016)
Red Harvest (Dashiell Hammett, 1929)

February: 10
The Feast of St. Dionysus (Robert Silverberg, 1975)
The Dain Curse (Dashiell Hammett, 1929)
The Maltese Falcon (Dashiell Hammett, 1930)
The Twilight Zone Companion, Second Edition (Marc Scott Zicree, 1989)
My Brother’s Keeper (Charles Sheffield, 1982)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Force and Motion (Jeffrey Lang, 2016)
Art of Atari (Tim Lapetino, 2016)
Star Trek Titan: Sight Unseen (James Swallow, 2015)
No Truce with Kings (Poul Anderson, 1963)
Ship of Shadows (Fritz Leiber, 1969)

March: 13
There Will be Time (Poul Anderson, 1972)
Anywhere but Here (Jerry Oltion, 2005)
Ideas of the Year: A Celebration (Unknown, 2016)
The Embarrassments of Science Fiction (Thomas M. Disch, 1975)
Big Ideas and Dead-End Thrills: The Further Embarrassments of Science Fiction (Thomas M. Disch, 1992)
The Art of Bombshells (Marguerite Bennett, 2016)
Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (Laurie Lamson, editor, 2014)
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire (Karen Elizabeth Gordon, 1993)
The New Well-Tempered Sentence (Karen Elizabeth Gordon, 1993)
International Financial Reporting Standards (Unknown, 2011)
MD&A: Guidance on Preparation (Unknown, 2009)
Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Prose (Constance Hale, 2013)
The Secret History of Twin Peaks (Mark Frost, 2016)

April: 18
Crosstalk (Connie Willis, 2017)
Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness (Karen Elizabeth Gordon, 1998)
Torn Wings and Faux Pas (Karen Elizabeth Gordon, 1997)
Star Trek Prey Book 1: Hell’s Heart (John Jackson Miller, 2016)
The Lady Astronaut of Mars (Mary Robinette Kowal, 2013)
Nine Lives (Ursula K. LeGuin, 1969)
The New Atlantis (Ursula K. LeGuin, 1975)
Bloodchild (Octavia E. Butler, 1985)
The Faery Handbag (Kelly Link, 2005)
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea (Sarah Pinkser, 2016)
The Orangery (Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, 2016)
You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay (Alyssa Wong, 2016)
The Art of Space Travel (Nina Allan, 2016)
Touring with the Alien (Carolyn Ives Gilman, 2016)
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars (Unknown, 1979)
The Disheveled Dictionary (Karen Elizabeth Gordon, 1997)
The Collapsing Empire (John Scalzi, 2017)
Star Trek Prey Book 2: The Jackal’s Trick (John Jackson Miller, 2016)

May: 11
Blood Grains Speak Through Memories (Jason Sanford, 2016)
Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation (Jamie Lendino, 2017)
Gwendy’s Button Box (Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, 2017)
Old Mars (George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, 2013)
The Last Man (Mary Shelley, 1826)
Crooked (Austin Grossman, 2015)
The Tomato Thief (Ursula Vernon, 2016)
In Sea-Salt Tears (Seanan McGuire, 2013)
It Takes Two (Nicola Griffith, 2009)
Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast (Eugie Foster, 2009)
Eros, Philia, Agape (Rachel Swirsky, 2009)

June: 10
The Monster (Stephen Crane, 1898)
The Skylark of Space (E.E. “Doc” Smith, 1928)
Skylark Three (E.E. “Doc” Smith, 1930)
Subspace Explorers (E.E. “Doc” Smith, 1965)
Berserker (Fred Saberhagen, 1967)
Brother Assassin (Fred Saberhagen, 1969)
Berserker’s Planet (Fred Saberhagen, 1975)
Flower Fables (Louisa May Alcott, 1855)
Hospital Sketches (Louisa May Alcott, 1863)
Berserker Man (Fred Saberhagen, 1979)

July: 10
Star Trek Prey Book 3: Hall of Heroes (John Jackson Miller, 2016)
The Ultimate Enemy (Fred Saberhagen, 1979)
The Berserker Wars (Fred Saberhagen, 1981)
The Sagan Diaries (John Scalzi, 2006)
Judge Sn Goes Golfing (John Scalzi, 2009)
How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story (John Scalzi, 2007)
Star Trek Section 31: Control (David Mack, 2017)
Star Trek The Next Generation: Headlong Flight (Dayton Ward, 2017)
Man & other Natural Disasters (Nerys Parry, 2011)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Long Mirage (David R. George III, 2017)

August: 8
The Berserker Throne (Fred Saberhagen, 1985)
Berserker: Blue Death (Fred Saberhagen, 1985)
Mash Up (Gardner Dozois, editor, 2016)
Star Trek: The Face of the Unknown (Christopher L. Bennett, 2017)
We Who Are About To… (Joanna Russ, 1976)
The Berserker Attack (Fred Saberhagen, 1987)
Berserker Lies (Fred Saberhagen, 1990)
Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Klingon (Dayton Ward, 2017)

September: 10
This Shared Dream (Kathleen Ann Goonan, 2011)
Metropolis (Thea von Harbou, 1925)
Clash of the Geeks (John Scalzi, editor, 2010)
Berserkers: The Beginning (Fred Saberhagen, 1998)
Hearts in Suspension (Stephen King, 2016)
Mighty Protectors (Jeff Dee, 2017)
The Female Man (Joanna Russ, 1975)
The Just City (Jo Walton 2014)
The Falling Woman (Pat Murphy, 1986)
Children of the Dust (Catherine Asaro, 2017)

October: 6
The Philosopher Kings (Jo Walton, 2015)
Oil’s Deep State (Kevin Taft, 2017)
Necessity (Jo Walton, 2016)
Star Trek The Next Generation: Hearts and Minds (Dayton Ward, 2017)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Enigma Tales (Una McCormack, 2017)
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier (Mark Frost, 2017)

November: 3
The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok (Richard Matheson, 1996)
Career of Evil (J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, 2015)
Shield of the Gods (Christopher L. Bennett, 2017)

December: 15
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence, 1974)
Sleeping Beauties (Stephen King and Owen King, 2017)
Proto Zoa (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2011)
Penric’s Demon (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2015)
Penric and the Shaman (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2016)
Penric’s Fox (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2017)
Penric’s Mission (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2017)
Mira’s Last Dance (Lois McMaster Bujold, 2017)
The Prisoner of Limnos (Lois McMater Bujold, 2017)
Rules of Accusation (Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, 2016)
Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found) (Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, 2014)
I, the Constable (Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, 2017)
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (J.K. Rowling, 2016)
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies (J.K. Rowling, 2016)
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists (J.K. Rowling, 2016)

Nonfiction: 20
Fiction: 103

Genre
Fantasy: 23
Mainstream: 14
Science Fiction: 48
Star Trek: 18

Top Authors
Fred Saberhagen: 11

Lois McMaster Bujold: 7

Karen Elizabeth Gordon: 5
John Scalzi: 5
Unknown: 5

J.K. Rowling: 4

Paula M. Block: 3
Terry J. Erdmann: 3
David R. George III: 3
Dashiell Hammett: 3
Stephen King: 3
John Jackson Miller: 3
E.E. “Doc” Smith: 3
Dayton Ward: 3
Jo Walton: 3

Louisa May Alcott: 2
Poul Anderson: 2
Christopher L. Bennett: 2
Thomas M. Disch: 2
Gardner Dozois: 2
Mark Frost: 2
Ursula K. LeGuin: 2
Joanna Russ: 2

Books by Women: 59
Books by Men: 64

Books by Decade
1820s: 1
1850s: 1
1860s: 1
1890s: 1
1920s: 4
1930s: 2
1950s: 1
1960s: 6
1970s: 11
1980s: 8
1990s: 9
2000s: 9
2010s: 69

Six Word Story 18

Ask not for whom the bell--

Be Yourself!

I'm Still Considering It

A Woman of Science

E-Waterloo

A couple of weeks ago, I finally gave in an ordered an e-reader, which arrived on the Friday before Christmas. I resisted for many reasons, some of which still bother me:

• You don't own e-books, you licence them, which means you can't resell, loan, or give them away without breaking the terms of your licence
• They don't smell right (or at all)
• You can't fill shelves with them
• The reading experience is sterile
• How much electronic waste are millions of generations of e-readers going to generate over the next couple of decades? 

I finally gave in because something I feared eventually happened: some of my favourite authors are no longer publishing traditional books in the physical world. Unless I resort to piracy, I can't read their stuff. 

It was Lois McMaster Bujold who broke me. She's written several new books set in the same fantasy universe as The Curse of Chalion, The Hallowed Hunt, etc., and you can't buy print copies because they don't exist. 

Hence my surrender. To ease the pain, Sylvia bought me a very generous Amazon gift card, which I've used to fill my new Kindle with electronic books. 

I knew it would happen eventually; I just didn't expect it to be this soon. E-books, how does it feel now you've won the war?