2016 hasn’t been a great year and the future feels uncertain. It’s hard to find a lot of good news coming out of this year but we did have some good things like the fact I didn’t post anything for ten months. So, here’s a new lounge to look on the bright side of things or to wallow in doom and gloom…whatever works for you.
251 thoughts on “Lounge: The Reboot”
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Muggy: Winter Edition
What was your favorite movie of 2016?
my favorite movie in 2016 is still buckaroo banzai
You’re a man who sticks with what works.
The Nice Guys.I think that movie was made just for me. A funny, semi hard boiled, detective story. The only way it could have been more up my alley is if it included a Natalie Portman nude scene.
It might actually be Rogue One. Also: I havent seen many new movies this year.
I haven’t seen very many either. I doubt I could fill a top 10 list. I saw Rogue One yesterday…I just couldn’t get into it but I seem to be in the minority on that one.
10 Cloverfield Lane.
Literally because I went into with no expectation and no background.
i don’t usually go for true-horror, but:
I don’t know that I saw more than one movie this year.
How do you spend your free time? I’m guessing ice fishing.
Mostly waiting for the sweet release of death.
The FK Way.
the correct answer here is Deadpool
Thanks, and go As.
As in all years, it has to be Star Trek: the one they made this year.
I know I saw the last Star Trek movie but I don’t remember a single thing about it. I feel the same way about most of the comic book movies too…they all just sort of blend together.
That’s my second favorite… Marvel: the one they made this year
I finally watched the first two reboots on a long plane flight. I liked them a lot! Looking forward to the remaining one.
They’re kinda fun to watch, but I just don’t like them in comparison to any of the earlier series’.
Just comparing them against the earlier movies, they are solidly mid-tier. I didn’t want to like them, but they are just too much fun. The casting choices are mostly outstanding which does a lot of the work.
I do like the casting (except for Burning Man Crumblesnatch; really, you can’t find an Indian actor to play an Indian character?). And many of the earlier movies were crappy. I might like the new movies more if they were preceded by a TV series that allowed the characters to develop more. As it is, they’re not quite like the characters in the original series and I’m not quite sure who they are.
Agreed on Cumberbun. He would be better served to shave his head and be a rebooted Picard.
That would be brilliant!
Everyone knows the only Indian actor is that kid from Slumdog Millionaire/Skins and he isn’t old enough yet.
What, you can’t see Aziz Ansari as Khan???
That would be amazing.
The “science” in the first one was pretty hilarious. So there’s a substance (“red matter”), a small globule of which can spontaneously create a black hole? And there’s no explanation for where in the hell the Vulcans got it from? And Spock has, like, 10,000 times the amount that can implode a planet? OK.
So there’s a device that can cause a planet to regenerate life, including a corpse turned into a boy with accelerated growth into adulthood, before blowing up?
I’ll thank you not to besmirch the groundbreaking work of original-timeline Dr. Carol Marcus.
Is it ok to ask how going around the sun in the reverse direction can take you back in time, and why they don’t do this on a regular basis to fix their mistakes?
Re the “long plane flight”: you’re scouting places to live for the next four (eight) years?
Heading to Chile at Easter with this in the back of my mind …
Watched the third reboot on the return flight. Not sure the plot made much sense at all, and it needed more Stringer Bell, but still pretty fun.
Barely knew ‘er?
Reviewed the RT list of “Fresh” movies to remember what I saw.
My favorite from what I have seen was Everybody Wants Some!! (best baseball experience of 2016) or Captain Fantastic. I enjoyed The Nice Guys, The Invitation, Hell or High Water a lot as well.
Probably Moonlight
I also really liked The Witch.
Sing Street
Just watched it (like an hour ago) and it was *awesome*. The ending was pretty far over the top, but still great.
This quote from the movie is for Bed:
I can’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as when they were filming their first music video. The ending was very Hollywood, but other than that I loved it.
I think that the ending is supposed to be a fantasy, like the fantasy that he has while shooting the US prom-themed video, but it’s left pretty ambiguous.
Your favorite TV show of 2016?
the good place
The season finale was amazing.
Testing again.
Me too. It’s great.
I watched the first episode (and maybe the second?) but couldn’t get into it. Might try to give it another chance though.
MOAR testing
i like it. But I liked it from the start. I am not sure it “picks up” but i think it was the 3rd or 4th to the end that i watched twice because I thought it was that funny.
of course you liked it. it’s like veronica mars meets 30 rock at an albert brooks joint.
just finished it last night. very enjoyable.
—
i’ve also been enjoying search party. and not just for the harsh rips on millennials. though those are great too.
I liked Search Party too. Was going to say something else about it, but it is a big spoiler and we don’t seem to have a spoiler button anymore.
I ran into that problem earlier today. You can manually add it with <span class=”spoiler”> … </span>
OK spoiler:Ending of that one reminded me of Altman’s Long Goodbye
it ends on a series of imperceptively slow zoom-ins??
don’t tell me, don’t tell me. i risked the spoil but i’m still not at the end.
protip: if you copy/paste colin’s code, re-type the quote marks.
Fixing those tag buttons is on my list.
(spoil) the team is gonna suck, no matter how many dingers (em) rosie (/em) hits (/spoil)
O.J. : Made In America.This one was a total surprise for me and I had to be talked into watching it. I really didn’t follow the O.J. stuff when it went down as I didn’t find it interesting but this documentary is about more than O.J. Simpson. It’s about race, crime, class, and what it means to live in America.
I just finished it about 30 minutes ago. Also something that I never would have chosen on my own, but my wife really wanted to see it and I was also swayed by the glowing reviews. Oh wait, I think I’m talking about the other OJ documentary — American Crime Story. Anyway, it was shockingly relevant to our 2016 situation.
Game of Thrones.
Mine too, but it’s close, with Westworld, Better Call Saul, and Fargo very close. Also Alone, fantastic show.
If Fargo Season 2 counts as 2016, it would be very, very close. I thought it aired late 2015 though?
One of these decades I want to catch up on Better Call Saul. I’ve never heard of Fargo outside of the movie and the town. I tried Westworld for a couple of episodes but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
I have loved both seasons of Fargo. Really enjoyed Better Call Saul as well (and I haven’t watched Breaking Bad). Probably need to try out Westworld.
The second season of Fargo was such a surprise. I expected to like it less, basically because of no Billy Bob, but it was so much better. It was such a great show.
@ FSU – Just finished the current season of Alone. Great stuff, I wished all of the final 5 could have won. After this season, is it worth it to go back and watch the previous seasons?
Yes, definitely. Seasons 1-2 both had more predator encounters and fears, and #2 particularly more psychological drama. Season 3’s hallmark was the abject perseverance, just amazing.
Agreed. I also really liked Billions
So…Billions, Atlanta, and Fargo sound like shows I should look into.
Atlanta.
^^^^^^^^
Tough call. I found my favorite shows of GoT, Silicon Valley, Mr. Robot, and Bloodline all to be pretty disappointing relative to prior seasons.
I would probably go with Stranger Things or Atlanta, with a slight edge to Stranger Things.
As I said earlier, I really liked Fargo.
Better Call Saul is just amazing, and seems to be gaining speed. Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, and the surrounding cast are all impressive. Good writing, good pacing.
Game of Thrones I did not find at all underperforming, although I think being okay with season six of GoT really probably has a lot to do with at least having a small soft spot for Cersie.
I’m sure I will enjoy the final bit of Rectify, if I can find access…
House of Cards bounced back for season four. It was entertaining and I enjoy both leads a lot.
Stranger Things was a good surprise.
The Tonight show with Johnny Carson. Especially on the weekends when they have the 90 minute version from the 70’s. You get George Plimpton or Dr Heimlich to go with your Charles Nelson Reilly and Adrianne Barbeau.
Your favorite book of 2016?
This one seems obvious…Phil Collins autobiography is the choice…although to be fair I haven’t read it yet.
I think the only book I read that was released in 2016 was The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead). That was very good. Also, the last chapters feature a violent white suprematist backlash and I read them on November 8 after I could no longer handle watching election results.
Out of all the books that I read this year, my favorite was probably Station Eleven (Emily St John Mandel), with honorable mentions to Slade House (David Mitchell) and The Blizzard (Vladimir Sorokin).
Your favorite album of 2016…if anyone still buys albums in 2016.
I’m old and I do buy albums. My favorite was Everything At Once by Travis.
Bent Shapes – Wolves of Want
Savages – Adore Life
Blood Orange – Freetown Sound
What is the one word you would use to describe the 2016 Oakland A’s?
Mine would be…nondescript.
participated
Punchless
forgettable (then)
forgotten (now)
Who?
Laundry
Irrelevant.
Happy solstice, one and all!
Thanks for the party last night. Nice to see you and some other FKers.
yeah!
especially since the way impossible things’ve been going, that old saw about how the sun always comes back seemed actually in question.
Sorry I couldn’t make it!
2016 has been such a fetid sewer of a year; it’s somehow fitting that the best thing to crawl out of this river of shit is the Oakland Raiders.
Luckily the playoffs and Super Bowl are in 2017 so it won’t have the taint of 2016 on it.
So I have zero snow on the ground at my house at the Winter Solstice, and in fact yesterday I did a decent hike getting up over 7500′ before running into any significant snow. However…12 to 18 inches forecast at lake level for the peak holiday travel time from early Friday to early Saturday. I shall have sufficient provisions by the end of the day tomorrow to hunker down and stay completely out of the road craziness through the holiday weekend.
We had a little bit of snow but it quickly melted. I’m totally cool with that being it for the year.
Yeah. It’s been so cold here that I’ve occasionally turned on the heater.
Hang in there…all of our prayers are with you.
I appreciate it. It’s been brutal.
“12 to 18 inches forecast” translating into “1/2 to 1/8 inch of actual snow” >:-(
I’m glad I’ll just be missing a Colts game this weekend…it’s hard when you have family stuff to watch football on Christmas Eve. This will be the third game I’ve missed this year…I’m becoming a shitty fan.
I only missed 162 A’s games this past season so I’m solid footing as an A’s fan.
It’ll be like picking up an all-star fan in the offseason!
Smash Mouth is back on board?
Ok, but they also think Trent Baalke is a competent GM, so their opinions are suspect.
They also think their music is good, so their opinion is garbage.
Good point. I only know the one song.
I on the other hand will spend Christmas Eve at the Coliseum for teh second straight year. The NFL hates us.
Wouldn’t watching your team kick the shit out of another make for a wonderful way to spend the day? Along with alcohol & tailgate food? Or am I falling down the sar-chasm again?
I wouldn’t complain too loudly. A Christmas Eve game in Las Vegas would be a super-high demand ticket.
Well, Bed, our alma maters combined to go 7-17 in 2016…but, satisfyingly, 2-0 vs. the Texas Longhorns.
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=18090303
Tuck Fexas
Losing to the Jayhawks in football is and should be a fireable offense.
The most dead workday I have had in years. All the time in the world to read and comment, and Bed finds a way to blow up the site all day long. Thanks man…
Happy to help.
the subway toy that goes boom.
What is your favorite holiday only food or drink?
It would appear this is the most interesting question I’ve ever asked here on http://www.freekraut.net
There are no foods or drinks we gluttons limit to just the holidays.
Pandoro
friend of mine has a standing party on 1/1 where he just cooks bacon and opens champagne all day long, and all you gotta do is show up, toast some toast, dollop the fixin’s, and BLT the new year in. i only had 4 this year. personal best is 7. one of the better combos is the pepper bacon on potato bread with extra avo, but that’s just a suggestion. feel free to experiement.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and that the new year treats you well.
Even me?
Well, just this once I guess.
That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.
Movie: Hell or High Water
TV Show: hard, maybe Horace & Pete, the Louis CK one you have to pay to download. Or Survivor, two great seasons.
Book: Between the World & Me
Album: Black Mountain, IV (though my fave discovery of the year may be Foals)
BA is reporting that the A’s have signed Norge Ruiz. This is a nice signing by the A’s. Ruiz has a good track record of international play and BA considers him the top Cuban pitcher still on the island. He likely heads to AA.
30 for 30 marathon is the new alfred hitchcock presents marathon.
on the strawberry/godden episode they interview bob forrest and tag him as an “addiction specialist.” that’s a pretty rich euphemism, bob.
The Carr injury is just not fucking fair.
That sure as hell wasn’t what I asked Santa for.
Happy Rickey’s birthday, FKers!
I spent some time last night with the kids watching NORAD’s Rickey tracker.
If you could split Rickey in three, you’d have three Hall of Famers, and yet one.
I don’t like the way the romulans look in this reboot.
Horrible non-call on LBJ hanging on the rim. That’s ok, I don’t mind them losing this game, unless it’s an indication of how a future playoff series will be ref’d.
I wouldn’t expect a future playoff series to be ref’d any better than the last one. Oh look! Someone got within 10 feet of LBJ. Better call a foul!
All those British singers are the same, I guess.
I imagine it’s also been a rough time for the family and friends of Michael Cera.
You mean since his birth?
Real talk: I have been humming Karma Chameleon all day for some reason.
You could do worse.
For the longest time I couldn’t be in a laundromat more than a few minutes before “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya” was bouncing around between my ears.
Optimistic biography about new A’s stadium coyote, Dave Kaval. He got one of the actual seats from his family’s season ticket spot in Cleveland Municipal Stadium and has it in his office.
Does that mean if he gets a new stadium built, we’ll have to call it The Mistake by the Lake?
The Prayer by the Square
The Wart by the Port
The Cemetery by the Estuary
The Decay by the Bay
Vera Rubin should have won the Nobel Prize.
pffft. if a woman wants to be noted and admired (hell, heard-about and remembered even) for her advancements in how we all think about space… she’d better get herself a role on a children’s movie with the word star in the title, i always say.
29:47… f-bomb, right?
He tried to defuse it mid-detonation.
What a badass.
Is this about me? I feel like it’s about me.
Just watched “Star Wars” again for the first time in a long while. So Leia figures out that Vader put a homing device on the Falcon to follow it to the base, but then they go straight there anyway? The rebel engineering geeks who figured out the Death Star’s achilles heel in like 20 minutes deserved medals more than than Solo did.
Have you seen Rogue One?
Not yet. I wanted to watch SW again before I go.
Ok, I won’t say anymore until you see it.
Did someone say something about an American football coach with no idea how to organize a defense getting shitcanned?
No, but benching the quarterback who has actually played very well over the past two seasons, and allowing the GM who hired the coach and has traded away multiple draft picks both lead me to think Buffalo is well on the way to turning this thing around.
i’m out of podcasts again.
I’m here to chew bubble gum and listen to podcasts and I’m all out of podcasts…but, I do have plenty of bubble gum if anyone wants a piece.
there ought to be a gumchewing podcast.
It’s important that they don’t get too close to the mic
Close enough?
At the risk of asking the obvious – WTF with Mark Maron? He’s over the 700 mark now for episodes.
he’s definitely in my lineup. but that’s one of the easier podcasts to skip for the week without even starting it. his voice … all those comedian guests … the 15 minutes before the thing even start-starts.
It is sometimes really hard to take him, and I go months without listening. But then he’ll drop a great one, like the recent Dana Carvey episode, and I remember why I subscribe.
i skipped that one. am circling back now.
Agreed, picking and choosing is definitely the way to go.
In sad podcast news, Sam Miller and Ben Lindbergh are no longer co-hosting the Baseball Prospectus “Effectively Wild” podcast, I guess because they ended up on opposite sides of the ESPN/Bill Simmons cold war. The podcast will continue (under the Fangraphs banner?) with Ben and Jeff Sullivan.
I like Sullivan, but without the Sam/Ben dynamic I’m skeptical it will work.
I just read Sam and Ben’s book, The Only Rule Is It Has To Work, about the 2015 season when they ran the Sonoma Stompers and tried to bring sabermetrics into independent league baseball. Very entertaining!
Nice to be reminded that not everyone has abandoned all principles.
CHINA IS KILLING ME.
especially how well he’s been performing ever since gago’s return to midfield.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/dec/29/carlos-tevez-shanghai-shenhua-chinese-super-league
In the past two weeks, the main Chinese league has plucked foreign stars from Europe and South America with contracts reported to be worth as much as $40 million a year, the highest pay for any soccer player in the world. A Chinese club offered the real Ronaldo $105 million a year, but he declined, his agent said last week.
NYT
So apparently the A’s broke open the piggy bank to make a run at Encarnacion, right? So how about going after Wieters and moving Vogt to 1B? Thoughts?
My thoughts are as follows…cottage cheese is actually molten lava and if you eat too much of it you’ll turn into a dodo bird.
Sorry, I just finished season 2 of Mr. Robot and my brain is fried due to confusion and boredom.
All right batgirl, you win today’s round. But Team FSU is expecting a win Sunday to get back even.
As long as the Raiders can score more than 10, you’re gonna be just fine. {sigh}
I’m pinning all my sports hopes and dreams solidly on the Puppy Bowl.
If Derek Carr had just put his faith in Zeus then…well, he’d still be hurt because there are no higher powers and life is a random series of events that continue until you die from heart disease: Bed 3:16
Ace is the place with the helpful hardware staff: Bed 3:17
I particularly like going in with bizarre brewing hardware problems (like needing an airtight seal between a rubber bung and a corny keg gas-side fitting) and having them kludge up a fix using only the hardware on hand. They haven’t failed me yet.
I briefly worked at Ace many moons ago…I failed most of my customers.
Are they a bunch of MacGyvers?
Okay, a few of my last posts have been weird…I just needed to get it out of my system. I wasn’weird enough in 2016.
A few? Last?
Afternoon bathroom break: John 3:16
And andeux wins the lounge.
So, to get back to baseball…I think Sandy Alderson should sign Mike Moore this off-season.
To hold things down for the TVP experience?
I like to take the macro view when thinking about microwaves.
Wait…I posted this?
Wait…I thought this?
Wait…do I cut the red wire or the blue wire?
Lellow Wire
This might be a bad time to admit I’m color blind…and I have a spastic colon…and I voted for Jill Stein.
Okay, enough of this random posting nonsense…I’m back on point. This blog is about the exploits of the Oakland Athletics and their struggle to survive in the small market of the 6th largest metropolitan area in the United States.
At least we’ll get back to the World Series before the Cubs.
The 49ers? Unlikely.
I’ll be shocked if the 49ers ever reach the World Series.
Seems likelier than the Super Bowl, anyway.
On the other hand, the Cubs are more likely to reach the Super Bowl too.
The West Coast Browns.
To encourage gender equality anytime I walk past a construction site I yell for all the men to show me their boobs.
So I was watching the Dick Clark New Year’s eve show-which is an odd name since Zombie Dick did not show up.This year they were also having a feed in New Orleans. They made a big point of the host saying she had a bunch of beads and asking if anyone wanted any. Then the eldest Ace asked why my head snapped towards the TV so fast and I got to spend a few minutes on 12/31 explaining the traditions of Mardi Gras.
I’m seeing a fair amount of Stars Trek talk in this lounge and you know what that means…this lounge is never going to get to kiss a girl.
Too lazy since Im at work and dont have the headphones in the laptop, but this is where the Shatner SNL skit should be placed.
“Get a life!”
My newest kink is I like to buy organic figure newtons at Whole Foods and then never eat them.
I do this too. The problem is I expect them to be as good as the ones at Berkeley Bowl, but they turn out to be rock hard.
So, in conclusion I think it should be clear my client, Colonel Mustard, could not have committed the crime he is being accused of…if the candlestick evidence doesn’t click you can’t convict.
If the rope doesn’t pile, you must mistrial.
Hi Jennifer.
Hi!
Some ozzman99 facts you may not know…
He made the quarter finals of Wimbledon in 1977.
He was briefly married to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
He was one of the original founders of El Paso, Texas in 1867.
He’s a member of the Dollar Shave Club.
He eats his pizza crust first.
He can bench press 4 lbs.
What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
1. Ask what are some folks New Year’s resolutions for 2018 on a Oakland A’s related blog next December.
To have as much fun as I can because I’m not sure there will be humans by 2018.
Spend more time on FK instead of coming on to all the threads three or four days late.
I like that one!
Me too!
crap! i honestly thought one up and now i can’t remember.
oh right. get back on the DJ horse and play out with people at actual factual venues with booze and dancefloor (that aren’t my basement).
Did you know in Spanish that San Diego means large city located in California?
I thought it meant “whale’s vagine.”
Vagina, even.
vagine is funnier
That’s what I shall call it from now on. The ladies will be impressed.
Zlatan just got absolutely robbed of a classic Zlatan goal by the terrible Premier League ref.
The refs giveth and the refs taketh away.
This is sick.
I could do that too…
nice pass there, sanchez.
Maybe he was trying to set up the guy behind Giroud? Otherwise…
was in silver spring for christmas. did a bunch of the smithsonians. Went out to Dulles for the Air and space out there.
I saw a kid wearing a death star t-shirt looking at the enola Gay. Seemingly unaware.
We were in Baltimore during Christmas, with a little drive up to Vermont (visit with little miss specialK’s old teacher) one day and a little drive to Delaware (to visit a cousin and aunt I hadn’t seen in 21 years) the next. We also went into DC to show the little one the WH and a few other things.
A few observations about driving in the NE.
1. New York state had the worst drivers (caveat – we did NOT go into Boston or Filthydelphia)
2. Connecticut had the worst traffic. It was like northern CA – all of the roads look to be about 20 years out-of-date.
3. Although I’ve heard plenty of negative things about it, I loved the Jersey Turnpike, especially the section where you can drive in lanes where trucks are excluded.
4. My iphone seemed to have trouble with consistently updating its position (yes, wifi was on), which made for some navigational errors. I don’t know if this is an issue with the phone or with Verizon, but my wife’s phone also had some problems, and hers is on AT&T.
5. We used the MARC and the Metro to get into and around DC. I have no idea why anybody who lives in the DC ‘burbs would consider driving into that swamp.
6. Our route back from Vermont took us through Yonkers, the Bronx, then across the GW Bridge into NJ. The traffic was surprisingly good, especially after the agony of getting through CT. NYC is one of those places that is far more attractive at night from a distance (kinda like me).
7. I’ve now driven both ends of I-80 (in addition to a large amount of the middle).
8. It was very hard to see the exits for Newtown and Sandy Hook off of I-84.
9. I really love numbered lists.
9. Speaking of I-84, I thought this was a highway in the northwest, not in the northeast.
5.
New York and Delaware here, so driving the same stretch of the turnpike as you. I’m partial to taking the truck branch since they’re not allowed in the outside lane so you get it to yourself.
But what kind of rental car company (a) closes their Newark airport office at 9pm, and (b) only tells you this at 6am on the day of your flight?
I-84 in the Northwest was originally “I-80N”. The numbering rules were changed to discourage N-S-E-W suffixes (though not eliminated entirely, e.g. Minneapolis-St. Paul) and the two I-84s are sufficiently far apart that the duplication wouldn’t cause confusion.
There are plenty of duplicate 3-digit numbers that are closer together; California and Nevada both have an I-580.
Apparently 3-digiters are just spur & circular routes off the main 2-digit routes so they’re allowed to be duplicated all over the place.
4. Where did you have trouble with position accuracy? (And stupid question that I will ask anyway: was GPS on?) GPS should be very accurate most places, but can fail completely around tall buildings due to the urban canyon effect. Wifi location can be reasonably accurate if you happen to be in a place where your phone can see several different wifi networks (which conveniently covers a lot of those places where GPS fails), but isn’t as useful on highways. Cell towers give only crude location information based on signal strength; better than nothing if GPS is failing, but usually not good enough for accurate navigation.
Another issue could be refresh rate. iOS and Android APIs both can update position at 1 Hz, but apps might try to save battery by polling at something slower than that.
The fails were everywhere. The car we rented had on-board wifi – I don’t know if that contributed to the problem. I was using the Google Maps app for navigation. I kept the phone on continually on a charger, so there should not have been any battery-usage issue. The worst thing was if the position seemed to jump around a lot, then I would get a number of very confusing instructions in a very short amount of time.
I’ve used Google Maps in Israel (using an iPad with a data plan supplied by the rental company) twice in the last year with no problems, other than being directed through an air force base, and through a residential neighborhood in a town where they probably don’t like Americans very much. It’s curious that I got better results there than in the US.
Ed, when was the mural painted on your house?
January 2015? 2014?
Damn, has it been that long?
did you see it when you were here?
No