Tag: Blog
[BLOG] A Little Something Bout’ Wrasslin…
Tagged 2023, BlogAs a fan of professional wrestling, even when I’m not wholly invested in the product, my favorite weekend of the year is this weekend – The Royal Rumble, where 30 people enter the ring 2 minutes apart and the last one standing at the end gets a big title match at Wrestlemania. It has been a yearly tradition for me to gather with friends, pick numbers, and enjoy it. In 2018, that same group got to watch live in person as Shinsuke Nakamura won the Men’s Rumble and Asuka won the Women’s. This year is the first time in three years we will all gather together again after .. well, ya know..
So I thought I’d take a minute and talk about a few wrestlers, modern and old, that never won the Rumble but should have, or just won’t.
Kofi Kingston – When I was a kid, I was really into wrestling. Now, I get occasionally invested in a wrestler or a story. The story of Kofi’s rise to WWE Champion was the last story WWE did that I felt so full-heartedly invested in that when he lost in a garbage match to a garbage person, I stopped watching and haven’t gone back other than the occasional big event. To see him win the Royal Rumble… I’d probably be back to weekly viewing unapologetically.
Mr. Perfect – Curt Henning was an amazing performer from top to bottom. A technical wrestler before the era of smaller framed guys was the thing. A character that exuded so much obnoxiousness you just wanted someone to beat the snot out of him. The mileage he could have gotten out of a Rumble win would live on to this day. In 1990 he was the last person thrown out by the winner, Hulk Hogan.. but imagine a world where he won it.
Bryan Danielson – If you know anything about the history of Bryan and the Rumble… you’ll know how his lack of appearance, or quick elimination, drove an audience to turn on The Rock, Roman Reigns, Rey Mysterio.. for two years in a row. For a minute he was the only person in wrestling people cared about, and he did great for himself without that win, but it would have been amazing to see him get it.
Barry Horowitz – Ok, here me out.. because non-wrestling fans are going ‘Who?’ and wrestling fans are going ‘..wait, what?!’ – The Rumble is supposed to be this moment where anything can happen, and yet year after year it is the people who you probably expect to win.. winning. You walk in knowing the top 5 options and sometimes the only option. For as much as its touted that anything can happen – very often it is an hour long showcase of ‘won’t happens’ and 10 minutes of ‘which obvious answer’. So why shouldn’t a guy like Barry Horowitz, who is known as one of the greatest losers in wrestling history. A man who lived to make other guys look dangerously good. …What happens if he wins? What happens if someone you just don’t expect comes out and wins?
Why can’t the Rumble be a place where, out of nowhere the least likely candidate becomes a Main Event Contender.
The answer is money… obviously, but I hope one day we get a Rumble that defies all expectations.
Maybe it’ll be this weekend.
[BLOG] PCR’s trip down British TV Nostalgia
Tagged 2023, Blog, TVHey Somethings,
You’ll hear about me talk about this a bit on an upcoming episode, but, I recently purged a bunch of my streaming services to cut down on expenses, and have been living the Tubi life lately. Every time I start up a new free service (I did the same with Peacock), I inevitably find myself wrapped up in shows I don’t have to think very hard to watch just to see what they offer… so it’s a lot of “Fail TV” and “IdiotTV” and such as I typically watch as I’m going to bed and it’s easy to fall asleep when it’s something you don’t have to devote a lot of thought or attention to. Invariably, I start looking for something else to watch, and… as the tug of nostalgia is strong.. I end up stumbling upon a show I’ve seen before but loved, and I watch it all over again.
Enter “James May’s Man Lab” and “James May’s Toy Stories”
James May is from the trio that, along with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, brought you Top Gear on the BBC for many years. Beyond that, he brought us these two amazing shows as well.
Man Lab tries to ‘bring back’ the heyday of when men did (or could do) manly things… like.. change a tire, woo a woman, how to duel, or build a remote-controlled picnic table. Airing from 2012 to 2013, Man Lab takes popular science and ramps it up just ‘extra’ enough to be hilarious yet still amazingly entertaining.
“Toy Stories” does the same when it comes to ‘going big’, but with less tongue in cheek and far more ‘extra’.
From building a nearly three mile long slot-car track, to a fiberglass Supermarine Spitfire at a 1:1 scale, Toy Story takes toys from May’s childhood, and blows right past “11” while ramping them up to 15.
If you’re a fan of British humor, science, and attempting the absurd, I highly recommend checking them out!
– PCR
[BLOG] Hatton on Games in 2023
Tagged 2023, BlogNew Year, New reasons to zone out in front of a video game machine and lose countless hours to creating worlds, destroying monsters, leveling up, grinding away at horrible unending boss-fights, and forgetting you were supposed to do a blog because you just had to have one more match. So here are is a handful of the games that are supposedly going to be released in 2023 that I am tentatively excited to get my hands on:
Storyteller – This indy-ish title is currently a Switch game, possibly PC, and the playstyle seems so simplistic I wonder how it will hold up as a full game, but the premise alone has be salivating. Simple drag and drop to evolve a story – with multiple (possibly many many multiple) paths. I have only done a little bit of reading up on it, and actively avoided more, because I want this game to be a complete surprise for me.
Hollow Knight: Silksong – Hollow Knight was one of the most engagingly frustrating experiences, but sits amongst Celeste and Crypt of the Necrodancer as games that I will grind at until I can’t feel my fingers anymore just to get that sweet sweet achievement. If you’ve never played the original, and you enjoy platformers, there are few better.
AEW: Fight Forever – I’m hesitant on this one, but excited to find out if I’m wrong. The world has needed a better big name wrestling game that doesn’t have the WWE name connected to it, that stops trying to make a wrestling game like you make a football game. Wrestling isn’t a sport, so its game shouldn’t feel like one. Fight Forever has that look, although its recent addition of zany minigames makes me curious if it will just be all gimmick and no substance.
Colossal Cave – Ken & Roberta Williams are names that gamers of a certain vintage will remember as the cause of sleepless nights as they tried to figure out how to stop the guard, only to realize you have to buy the macaroni salad to give to his pet fish so that you can use the bowl to pretend you are a space man. The grandparents of the modern adventure, they are going back to where it started with a reimagining of one of the first adventure games ever made. And it comes out next week!
…and a quick shout to games I’m very interested in, but don’t have big hopes for (and hope I’m wrong)
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space – Another attempt to eat a slice of Dead by Daylight’s cake… I’ll be ok if it’s a budget title with a banging soundtrack.
- Minecraft Legends – Minecraft meets old school RTS? I love the universe, I’m iffy about what I’ve seen.
- Starfield – The new Bethesda IP.. I’m hyped, I just don’t expect it will actually come this year.
- Dead Island 2 – I expect this one will come out and be a disappointment, but I don’t WANT it to be
[BLOG] Here comes 2023!
Tagged 2023, BlogHey Somethings!
As having the honor of posting our first blog of 2023, I wanted to lay out some of the things we were happy about for ’22 and what we’re hoping to accomplish in ’23!
We had a great year for 2022! Great episodes, fantastic guests, we re-launched our Patreon, got out to PAX Unplugged, and even got a mention on G4!
In 2023, we’re going to get back to streaming on Twitch, we want to grow our Instagram followers (and our Twitter followers.. provided.. you know.. it doesn’t burn itself to the ground by then…), get out to some more conventions (currently working on Shore Leave Con), and get even more guests on (we already have some great ones lined up for the first few months of the year so far)!
We also want to do a bigger and better job of promoting our side-hustles.. SO.. that being said….
You want some T Shirts? Check out PCR’s Teepublic shop, and the Somethingcast Teepublic shop!
How about some custom-etched glassware? Check out Scratch the Surface!
Vinyl for your belongings? Hatton has you covered at Really Shameless! (He’s working on updating the site but you can email him at reallyshameless@gmail.com and check out his Insta gallery)
You can also check out Hatton’s writings over here and here!
– PCR
[BLOG] ThankSomething
Tagged 2022, BlogThis is the last ‘official’ blog before we go on our usual December hiatus, and we’ll usually put up a Seasons Greetings card or something before the year is out, but the way the dates fell left it to me. Rob gave his thanks two weeks ago to all of you, and I think it goes without saying that I also thank each and every one of you for sticking with us over the years. This summer marks a Decade of Something, which isn’t our official title for it.. but that’s what I’m voting for.
Anyway, the past year, Rob and I revisited some topics, we tried out another ‘Meta’ episode where there was something else going on while we talked, we reviewed a surprising number of horror movies, and tried to figure out what shows make ‘The End’ work, because it is Rob has a closer finger on the pulse of what makes a good choice there. (Behind the curtain, notoriously my picks get listened to the least) We are in a constant conversation about what we can do and what we may want to do and it is so fantastic to have a partner in this that, unless there is a damn good reason not to do something, is willing to live by improv rules and ‘Yes, and…’ with me.
So, to keep this brief, thank you all for being part of the journey. As someone who has always tried to have some outward facing creative thing going on, it’s because there is amazing, uncut, pure, columbian-grade seratonin that runs through your blood when someone tells you that you made them snort with laughter or made them so pissed off about how wrong you are they needed to charge in and correct you even though you still stand by that Gremlins 2 isn’t a good movie even if it is for a good reason.
Thanks for being part of the ride and watch this space for some extra episodes coming soon.
To you and yours, sláinte. We’ll see you at the Christmas Party.
– Hatton
[BLOG] Wrapping up 2022 and beyond
Tagged 2022, BlogHey all, PCR here!
We’re closing in on the end of yet another year and, as always, I wanted to thank you. Those who listen, those who buy our merch, those who became Patrons.. if it wasn’t for you all, James and I would just be two guys talking to each other.
As in years past, we’ll be taking December off for the holidays, but we’ll still have content! While we’ll be putting a pause on our Patreon content and billing as well as our blogs, we are compiling our favorite episodes of 2022!
Every Tuesday and Friday, we’re going to re-release one of our favorites from the past year and.. who knows.. we might even drop something new along the way, and.. if you’re looking for some swag, we’ll have some new shirts up before the Holidays as well!
It’s been a great year for us, and we’re looking to do even bigger and better things for 2023!
– PCR
[BLOG] Games PCR is looking forward to!
Tagged 2022, Blog, GamesHey Somethings!
A few weeks ago, Hatton posted some games still to come in 2022 that he’s looking forward to and, although my ‘wish list’ goes beyond the end of the calendar year, here’s a list of games I’m really chomping at the bit to get when they release…
Need For Speed : Unbound
We’re going big right out of the gate. While some of the NFS games feel like they never get out of second gear, I’ve always been a sucker for them.. and with Unbound hitting on Dec. 2nd, I won’t have to rev the engine too much longer. Cell-shaded graphics, comic book-like overlays and effects, Criterion.. my clutch foot is tingling with anticipation.
Sons of the Forest
The original “The Forest” game was one of the most fun AND terrifying games I’ve played in recent memory, and the ending is setting the bar high for what the sequel will bring. It’s been pushed back until Feb ’23, but based on how awesome the first one was, I’m willing to have patience to get this one in my games library.
The OG Bloodlines was brilliant IMO. It gave you the feel of the TTRPG which, for an atmospheric game world like VtM with it’s many and varied Clans, is no small task.. so when Bloodlines 2 was announced, I was over the moon. I had tried Bloodhunt (a VtM licensed Battle Royale game) but it didn’t feed the beast in the way I hoped. With Bloodlines 2 “still in development” after a much postponed 2021 release date, I just hope I don’t end up in torpor before the release.
Warhammer 40k MMO
A pipe dream, I know.. but for YEARS (ever since I stopped playing WoW after Mists of Pandaria..) I’ve been praying… Praying to the Emperor of Man, Khorne, Kaela Mensha Khaine… I didn’t care WHO brought me one.. but I wanted one. And no, I’m not talking about ‘Eternal Crusade’ or ‘Dark Millennium’. A GOOD, FUN, well thought out MMO. Is that too much to ask? I guess so…
What games are YOU looking forward to? Hit us up on our socials and let us know!
– PCR
[BLOG] Hatton Provides Some Internet Treats!
Tagged 2022, BlogI was talking with a friend of mine the other day, and as we were talking about some of the cool things on the internet we’ve found, I realized that there may just be some folks out there that aren’t aware of the trove of weird crap that’s out there. Now, I understand, those of us of a certain internet vintage are aware – but as we’ve all sort of fallen into the world of social media or Discord, it’s easy to forget that there is an entire universe of just cool crap out on the internet – out there and collected for our use!
So I thought I’d give you a few places you may have never visited, or possibly forgot existed. Enjoy!
OLD TIMEY RADIO – Let me start with this one, because it is legitimately one of my favorite things on the internet. Back pre-television, radio programs and dramas were the talk of the town. Gunsmoke, Dimension X, General Hospital, the Outer Limits, Sherlock Holmes.. and legitimately hundreds more. Collected and curated, of course some are lost to the history of time, but I spent months just enjoying some of the precursors to modern entertainment – doubly fantastic because of how inappropriate the ads are! Seriously, a must-check-out.
WORDLE CLONES – Yes.. we all got addicted to Wordle and because of it, we made some dude a millionaire. Go us. Did you know there are like a gazillion games like this now? Some are amazing. Some are impossible. Some are stupid. I’ve tried more of them than I care to admit.
WORLD CAMS – Sometimes, you just want to watch another part of the world. Specifically, sometimes I want to have a live-stream of cats on my screen. Before there was Twitch, before there was MFC, you could just sit and relax and watch the zoo from your desk… and you still can, and it is wonderful.
GEOCITIES – Did you know you can download all of Geocities? Like.. the whole thing. The place where people built their own website on their own street to talk about how much they loved that one character from HollyOaks, and it is a Torrent file that is shockingly small at 600 or so Gigs. (A lot of that is because people hotlinked images instead of saving them, so there are ALOT of dead links) — but if you don’t want to have a piece of old internet real estate, you can go visit people that have put the archive of, I repeat, THE WHOLE GEOCITIES.
And lastly…
There are some parts of the internet, the old backwoods of the internet, that are still there. Zombo.com is still live, and welcome to it. He-Man is still singing 4-Non-Blondes. JODI, one of the strangest websites I’ve ever spent a significant amount of time on – is still live, I still have no idea what it is. NotPron, a game that is, in fact, not pron – is a puzzle game that still gets updates!
Where do you still go visit online? Any cool secrets you’ve found? Let us know in all the usual places.
[BLOG] The Rise and Fall (again) of G4
Tagged Blog, TVIt feels like I was watching this scene only yesterday
On November 16th, 2021, G4TV was officially relaunched as both a cable channel and a twitch channel.. and I couldn’t have been happier.
Less than 12 months later, the returned G4 is no more.
The fall of the old G4 felt more ‘out with a whimper’…. non-stop airings of Ninja Warrior and Cops, the shows themselves feeling fewer and further between.. but THIS, this version felt different, and yet.. familiar. Back were shows like X-Play and AOTS.. new shows like Invitation to Party, Ask Donna and Name Your Price joined the ranks, yet still had that ‘old school G4’ feel about their pedigree. New hosts joined the ranks of returning hosts Kevin Pereira and Adam Sessler, the latter of the two being more ‘occasional host’, but having them on board always felt to me that it was giving the relaunch a legitimacy; a passing of the torch until the newer hosts found their comfortable footing.
And find their footing they did. Watching AOTS and Vibe Check felt like putting on a forgotten but favorite sweater you had nearly forgotten about… all comfort and familiar while feeling new. Invitation to Party was just brilliant. B. Dave Walters brought his A game and, as the consummate DM that he is, brought the A+ game out of the players. Ask Donna showed Will Neff at his best. God of Work was a labor of love from Jirard and that passion showed in the sketches.
It wasn’t without rough spots though. Some shows didn’t stick around… Boosted, which focused more on the eSports side of things, left the ‘show’ and became a YouTube exclusive.
And then there was “The Frosk Incident”.
Indiana Black, better known as Froskurinn or Frosk, did a segment on X-Play (which, you can watch here..) where she talked about sexism in gaming… and things went off the rails.
Let me be perfectly clear.
Everything she said is 100% correct.
Everything.
Gaming and the gaming industry has a sexism and misogyny problem that, unfortunately, is not going away. Can it be minimized? Shunned into the darkness? Yes, but only if WE minimize it and shun it when we see it.
That being said, the trolls came out of the woodwork. Online harassment and sexist comments blew up on not only Frosk’s, but G4’s socials by those ‘offended’ by her comments.
It was called a “rant”. A “meltdown”. “Maybe, in 2022, we be a bit nicer, a bit more self reflective, and we enjoy the fact that people are working hard to make free content for you. If you don’t like it, don’t watch” was how she ended the segment.. but all mouthbreathers heard was “IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T WATCH!” and that became their rallying cry.
Was Frosk the reason for G4’s demise? Not at all. Inept management at Comcast not knowing what to do with their talent was the reason for G4’s second demise.. but not if you frequent the internet. a never-ending number of YouTube videos, blogs, TikToks, articles and the like blame Frosk for G4’s collapse without at all realizing that by blaming her, they’re behaving in exactly the same sexist and misogynistic way she called out in her segment. It’s unfortunate and wrong, yet not unexpected. “Fandoms” have become louder and louder in their entitled toxicity against things they don’t like, and this was no exception.
What destroyed G4 was Comcast. If any proof was needed, consider that more than half of the hosts/writers/producers and creators found out about G4 being cancelled from articles about the cancellation being tweeted out. How shitty does a company have to be to have employees find out via Tweet they no longer have a job? And not even BY Tweet.. but reading an article.
Will I miss G4? 100 percent. I loved the content they created. Hell, we even got mentioned on Vibe Check (no.. really! The story of how and why is for another day…).
My sincere hope is that the amazing people from G4, on both sides of the camera, reconnect in some way in the near future.. be it Twitch, YouTube.. whatever. The cast and crew are far too talented to NOT be working with each other.
G4 may be gone again, but it will not be forgotten.
– PCR
[BLOG] Hatton Discusses Predictive Algorithms
Tagged 2022, BlogDoes that say ‘Predictive Algorithms’?
Yes it does. You see, when you are an old internet hand like myself, you’ve seen a few generations of how material is fed to you. Traditionally, forums, bulletin board systems, usenet, even LiveJournal would feed you data in a very organized fashion… by date and time. You stopped reading at 6pm last night, so now you can go look and read everything up until that point… and then you’re done. Do that once or twice a day and you have a source of balanced internet…
Then someone had the great idea that if you show people things out of order – they don’t know when to stop reading…. and it worked. Hell, if you throw in the occasional thing they have already seen, you can get them to stay even longer because that means you can feed them more advertising. Then, someone thought, what if we shorten the amount of content so they can absorb EVEN MORE! So now long form posts turned into Tweets. Youtube videos turned into Vines. Vines turned into Tiktoks. I, personally, find no joy in them, but if someone shows me something very funny.. I can even get caught in scrolling through 10 or 20 before I realize I am not enjoying it.
The sad thing is, you can’t put this genie back in the bottle. Video sites predict which videos you want to see, and knows the right time to show you a video you saw already and liked so you watch it again. News sites show you the information that you interact with, using the old Howard Stern truism ‘The people that like him listen an hour, the people that hate him listen for two’ — so it feeds you opposition to enhance your engagement.
What’s your point, Hatton?
Would you believe it’s simply that this is a perfect place to bitch about how the modern internet is built on giant companies feeding you unending redundant oppositional information in an attempt to keep you angrily watching advertisements and it makes me nostalgic for days where I could just see what’s happened since 6pm last night? And that this whole thing was spawned off the fact that Youtube won’t allow me to NOT watch ‘Shorts’ which are just another variety of staccato 30 second lipsync videos and it’s driving me nuts?
That’s my point. I’m old and grumpy and miss the old wild west internet…. and if you do too, please sign our guest book below and join the Something Podcast Webring brought to you by Angelfire.