Author: Mege

Six Damn Fine Degrees #259: The Twilight Zone

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

I moved twice in the last few years, and somehow, my complete Twilight Zone BluRay collection got lost. I suspect, quite fittingly, that it may still exist somewhere at my new place, but in another dimension. I locked myself in the basement for half a day and tried to find it, but still nothing. I miss it more than I expected. Somehow, I am still in mourning, if you can believe that.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #197: The Umbrella Academy

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Warning: There be spoilers.

I haven’t read the comics, but have every intention to do so, but I don’t know why I haven’t praised the many great aspects of The Umbrella Academy (2019-2024). I have insomnia these days (or nights, rather), and so it takes something stronger to keep me watching attentively during the small hours. That bunch of ever-bickering unrelated siblings is a treat with comedy, drama, weirdness, psychological depth and the fear of the end of the world (more than once, hehe).

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #189: Stranger Things

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Spoiler warning: I will discuss plot points and revelations from all of Stranger Things‘ seasons, so be warned, or the mind flayer will get you.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #184: Hidden Gems

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

I’ve got nothing against a good blockbuster – some time ago, I sang the praises of Mad Max: Fury Road, and so I am itching to go see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. And I have seen almost everything there is to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Basel exhibition, thanks to my favorite daughter. But there are some unsung gems out there that only I and three or four others know about. I think I’ve written about Lake Mungo more than once, so that one is no longer an obscure indie film since it crops up on many 12 horror gems you’ve never seen before! lists.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #181: Reduce it to its bones

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The story goes that Bruce Springsteen recorded his darkest album Nebraska (1982) in his bedroom, most of it in one day. There are absolutely no adornments, no frills, just his voice and his guitar, sometimes a short bit from his harmonica, not much more. He intended those recordings as demo versions, but they just wouldn’t fly when he played them together with his E-Street Band. So the demo version it was for the album for almost all of the songs. Because the Boss is strumming away on his guitar, the effect is one of being there listening, as if it was a live album in a more unusual sense of the word. The same is true for the Cowboy Junkies’ debut album The Trinity Sessions (1988), which was recorded live in Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity, and the band gathered around the only microphone. Like with Springsteen’s album, there is an immediateness that would be hard to replicate in any studio.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #178: Tell me in your own words

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Synchronization is a tricky little bugger, isn’t it? First off, there is always something that gets lost in translation; many fine points of the original language always go out the window. Take any film in an unknown language: do you opt for the subtitles, or do you press the button that puts foreign words in the mouths of the cast? I mostly go for subtitles, because even if I don’t understand Toshiro Mifune’s precise words, I want to hear his drawls, his mutterings and his shouts. I want to be there when he finally tips over the edge and goes berserk, even if that does not involve much dialogue – either grunts and shouts, or total silence. Him unsheathing his sword is just not enough.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #173: Go build me a world to my liking

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

To me, The Lord of the Rings is unreadable. Not because the writing is bad; it’s not. And not because I am not into fantasy; while it’s not my favourite genre, I don’t run for the hills if someone suggests a good fantasy novel to me. I have not yet read a bad China Miéville novel, if that is anything to go on. I am also not afraid of super-long novels, either – behold, I am the guy who read Infinite Jest and loved it. It’s just that investing myself in a heavy brick of a novel, there is a point where the text has to convince me that it’s worth wading through it for the next couple of days or weeks.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #167: We likes quizzes

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

There is something intensely likeable about movie quizzes. If you know the answer, you feel really quite smug: Yes, I’ve seen the movie, and I know a whole lot about that film – it was even produced by someone you wouldn’t expect. You get that warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach because you’ve scored a point, while a lot of the others didn’t, you can tell from their puzzled faces, and you are inching just a tiny bit closer to the top spot. And on the other hand, if you don’t know the answer, you go into instant detective mode: I should know the answer, now how can I deduce that from the other movie that very same director has made just before this one? Hmmm… You rack your brain about a name, and then, with your last ounce of with and memory, you may just come up with the right answer. Most of the time, anyway.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #162: The Wonders of Wonka

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Yes, I am of the firm opinion that Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie, but enough about that. In Paul King’s Wonka (2023), there is often snow on the cobblestones of the old town renowned for its chocolate. It could be Paris or Charles Dickens’ London, while the shopping arcades reminded me of Milan, but it matters little where the story is set: it’s an olden-time dream world where it’s possible to manufacture magical chocolate if you are ready to go and milk a giraffe at the local zoo.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #157: Horses, of courses

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

I don’t cringe. There is nothing that makes me Fremdschämen. I have BoJack Horseman for that. He is the disgraced hero (or anti-hero) of his own story, a too rich, but mostly jobless actor in Hollywoo (yes, the d is missing for a reason). His behavior is a disgrace, he is a bumbling idiot, a bad friend and a hapless womanizer. His ex is a pink cat. Yes, you will see them having sex in the pilot. A horse and a cat. If you don’t cringe while watching that series, you never will. It’s a test.

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