{"id":12114,"date":"2017-08-15T19:11:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114"},"modified":"2017-08-15T20:06:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T00:06:35","slug":"july-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114","title":{"rendered":"July 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_1542-e1502838582725-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_1542-e1502838582725-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_1542-e1502838582725-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s taken me longer than usual to get this post written, partly because I was in Finland for a week at the start of August. (More on that in my August post.) Anyway, I did the usual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114#books\">books<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114#stories\">stories<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114#movies\">movies<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114#music\">music<\/a> thing in July.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"books\">The books<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I finished three books in July:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture<\/i> by Glen Weldon<\/li>\n<li><i>Certain Dark Things<\/i> by Silvia Moreno-Garcia<\/li>\n<li><i>Starflight<\/i> by Melissa Landers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I really liked the first two books and really did <i>not<\/i> like the third one. I spent a few hours talking about <i>why<\/i> I didn&#8217;t like it at my monthly book club, but for here, let&#8217;s just say that I definitely won&#8217;t be reading the sequel.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"stories\">The stories<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not entirely sure how many I read. I only have record of 25, but I&#8217;m pretty sure I didn&#8217;t skip <i>that<\/i> many days. I did skip some days, though, never on purpose, and I hope to get better about that as the year continues. Anyway, of the 25, these were my favorites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Dipso and the Crow&#8221; by Rich Larson\t(Mythic Delirium)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;An Unearned Death&#8221;\tby Marissa Lingen (F&#038;SF)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Texts from the Ghost War&#8221; by Alex Yuschik (Escape Pod)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I Built This City for You&#8221; by Cassandra Khaw (Uncanny)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;When Dooryards First in the Lilac Bloomed&#8221;\tby B. Morris Allen (Lackington&#8217;s)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;That Game We Played During the War&#8221; by Carrie Vaughn (Escape Pod, orig. Tor.com)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Joy of Baking&#8221; by Holly Lyn Walrath (Luna Station Quarterly)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Daddy&#8217;s Girl&#8221; by Jennifer R. Donohue (Syntax &#038; Salt)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Flowers for the Moon&#8221; by Clio Yun-Su Davis\t(Luna Station Quarterly)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Bridgegroom&#8221; by Bo Balder (Clarkesworld)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"movies\">The movies<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I watched 15 of &#8217;em in July.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Belko Experiment:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Belko Experiment was kind of unpleasant.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/881317948572520448\">July 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Heartburn:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Heartburn was kind of pleasant.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/881349413792305152\">July 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Okja:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;That&#39;ll do, super-pig.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Okja is a weird (and I&#39;m not sure entirely successful) movie, but Bong Joon-Ho is a talented filmmaker.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/881697007169155072\">July 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Johnny Handsome:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I liked Johnny Handsome, mostly thanks to its strong cast. Like 99% sure I&#39;d seen it before.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/883862919401832449\">July 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>The LEGO Batman Movie:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Lego Batman Movie was very cute. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wO4yO5kYUp\">pic.twitter.com\/wO4yO5kYUp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/883892963222278144\">July 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Spider-Man: Homecoming:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I enjoyed Spider-Man: Homecoming a whole lot.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/884174031909523456\">July 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Baby Driver:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I am a little surprised by how often I was a little bit bored by Baby Driver.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/886709620349292544\">July 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>The Lost City of Z:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Lost City of Z is a little slow and quiet, which doesn&#39;t always work in its favor, but I liked it.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/886794550177615874\">July 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Kong: Skull Island:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I stand by my earlier statement. Kong: Skull Island is a movie and it exists. Other than that? \u00c2\u00af\\_(\u00e3\u0192\u201e)_\/\u00c2\u00af<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/888935241741725696\">July 23, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Certain Women:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Certain Women wasn&#39;t totally satisfying as a movie, but it has some lovely touches and performances.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/888965529259692032\">July 23, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Dunkirk:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dunkirk was really very good. I&#39;m not sure I would go so far as to say I enjoyed it, but it was really very good.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/889260033246146560\">July 23, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>The Spirit:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The best part of Frank Miller&#39;s The Spirit? The twenty or so minutes I fell asleep in my chair during it.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/891136558904082432\">July 29, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Dreamscape:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I dunno. Dreamscape was a movie.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/891472151915704321\">July 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Free Fire:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free Fire isn&#39;t great, but it is pretty good for what is literally nothing but people shooting at one another for an hour and a half.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/891502687971418112\">July 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<li>Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I didn&#39;t really like Valerian, but I didn&#39;t hate the parts of it that weren&#39;t boring.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealfred\/status\/891764206781050883\">July 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"music\">The music<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I discovered quite a bit more of it in July than in recent months. A lot of listening through my backlog of <i>All Songs Considered<\/i> podcasts, among other things.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PL62qRURJS1HAWZwiF-ZU03aXEpbQS7LOb\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s taken me longer than usual to get this post written, partly because I was in Finland for a week at the start of August. (More on that in my August post.) Anyway, I did the usual books, stories, movies, and music thing in July. The books I finished three books in July: The Caped &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12114\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,241,14,15,28,222],"class_list":["post-12114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-monthly-music-mix","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-personal","tag-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12114"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12128,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions\/12128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}