TV: what have you been watching?

it really dragged at the end

mariko started off a cute character but by the end i just found her so annoying

first few episodes were great and then just kind of dragged and was a lot of stuff i didn't really find any interest in nor care about

also do not like how they fetishsize things and dive into tropes about japan which in reality are a bunch of outliers which they present as the norm

japanese were not these group of zealots who would happily kill themselves over the slightest issue, it sometimes happened, but was not the norm by any means, and in times it did happen was often "you kill yourself now or we'll kill your entire family" kind of situation

ie japan was always very big on gunpowder weapons and bordering china, they were very early adopters of them

when the mongols attempted to invade japan a good 300 years prior to the events of shogun, they brought bombs, grenades, rockets and very early versions of muskets and cannons - we know this because we've recovered these things from the mongol shipwrecks

however something that did happen was that gunpowder weapons were rapidly improving during that time because Europe was in a constant state of war whereas asia was relatively stable

as a result of this, when the europeans arrived, they had significantly more advanced cannons and muskets than the locals - this did have a very big impact - but they soon adapted and began making cannon in that manner

is asia, they always built massively thick city walls with an earthen interior and brick outer layer and they were the size of city streets

as a result, these were wholly impervious to cannon fire, despite that many of those city walls were used defensively in WWII vs modern artillery, they still stood at the end of the war and survived WWII

you can blast at it all day, you'll destroy the exterior stone, blow up the towers and gates, but the earthen core will remain no matter how many times you shoot with cannon

the only reason why most Chinese cities no longer have walls is because they were torn down because of the traffic congestion they caused in the modern world

compare that to Europe which always had thinly built stone walls that were possible to be taken down with cannon

this led to a great divergence of gunpowder armament philosophies in the east vs west

in the east they focused on things for anti-personnel

such as rockets, grenades, bombs, & spread fire anti personnel devices

here is a 3 barrel cannon from the ming dynasty

here's another

they still have the design papers of many of the old cannons and they are always of the shotgun style variety

like a shotgun today, this meant limited range & terrible accuracy so their uses were limited

meanwhile, since in Europe gunpowder took on more of a siege role, designs began favoring accuracy, power, & distance

the result was that asian cannons stagnated, they filled their niche and thus remained the same, whereas over time, the europeans were able to innovate and develop their cannons so much that eventually, they even exceeded the anti-personnel capabilities of asian shotgun style cannons by simply firing grape shot or chained ammunition

those developments also spurred on to creating powerful muskets which could be used from a distance

shogun is incredibly lazy, what should be depicted as fighting forces with a diverse armanent which includes local cannons and muskets is shown as one of sword, spear, & bow

they also rapidly began copying the European innovations when they came into contact with the portugese

ie they occasionally reference an invasion of Korea in the show, that invasion force irl was 1/4 musketmen

so it really annoys me that it takes the last samurai route and pretends a country which fully embraced gunpowder weapons instead did not

what keeps me watching is the main character is really charismatic and has a really good presence, he also sounds exactly like jeremy irons and I've always loved the sound of that man's voice, also really like yabushige - he's one of the only people who acts genuine and looks out for his own best interests instead of "according to tradition i must kill myself right now"

but all those historical inaccuracies aside, this is what really gets me

Nothing better than LA Noir, count me in

he was absolutely incredible and just insanely talented magician if you enjoy card magic at all and want to have your mind blown check out dani daoritz (a great place to start is his appearance on fool us it's legendary and widely available on YouTube).

he's probably the greatest living card magician and just incredibly charismatic and a joy to watch.

if it gets you interested in card magic feel free to PM me for more recs.

ah **** it here it is hope you enjoy it as much as I do

Magic has been a passion of mine since I was around 6 years when old when I saw Copperfield live and got Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic for XMas. Wish I was actually good at it, but I'll still purchase/learn the occasional odd trick to entertain friends and family.

Dani is out of this world.

Off the top of my head, I think Eric Mead's Fool Us performance may be my favorite, but there's so many to choose from.

Dammit, I've got a big assignment in for tomorrow, and now I'm going to be caught up watching Fool Us clips all morning!

dani has some really awesome 12 part courses available at penguin magic and other places for about $90 for each complete course each video is about an hour long where he performs the trick then goes into great detail explaining how to do it and the philosophy behind and it other tangents such as crowd management etc and even tho I have no designs on ever becoming a magician I found it so interesting and he's such a charismatic person it's so much fun learning from him (his accent is a bit thick but I never had any issues understanding) and I've actually become quite proficient at some really awesome card tricks.

I ended up getting them all (and he has a new one currently being released one episode a month that im following) as it's just such a fascinating and enjoyable way to spend a few hours highly recommend to anyone who would like to learn how the methods are done even if you won't ever use them yourself still a very interesting and enjoyable thing to learn about.

oh also I'll restrain myself from posting anymore videos as not to derail the thread any further but markobi is a really amazing card mechanic much in the style of lennert green and he has an awesome fool us performance that's basically an edited version of the one that won him the grand prize for card magic at FISM (that video is also available on YouTube and highly recommend watching it as well it's phenomenal).

oh ya eric mead is fantastic as well great video!

I did the same and it's ...not good.

Markobi is the best card magician I've seen since Ricky Jay, he won the last world championship.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJX-z0O9TOE
[/YOUTUBE]
Or you can watch him Fool Penn and Teller, same act but you get to see him fool them up close and personal.

Markobi is the best I've seen since Ricky Jay, won the last magic World Championship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJX-z0O9...

He also did his act on Fool Us, if you want to see him fool Penn and Teller up close. His patter also was cracking everyone up. Must watch.

That Markobi guy is a bit too annoying for me. It's a good trick tho.

I'm sure it's subjective and im not knowledgeable enough to judge their sleight of hand skills and both dani daoritz and markobi are both at the absolute pinnacle (they're also very friendly fwiw and my fav part of markobi's fool us performance was when he gave that shout out to dani [dani's famous for saying I don't care its your life] love it when ppl I love also love each other) but dani and markobi usually do different types of card magic dani has created some of the most incredible any card at any number effects while markobi does much more of the lennert green style (fwiw dani n lennert are very close friends).

he def leans into that personality very hard what did you think of dani's personality?

another card mechanic who quite possibly could be the best strictly at sleight of hand and mechanics is jason ladanye no idea why he hasn't been invited on fool us but he has tons of videos on YouTube and his magic castle performance is incredible.

thing is most lay people with no real understanding of different moves have no idea whatsoever just how incredible the moves jason is doing and they still love his effects but I don't think he gets the credit he deserves as one of the greatest because so many of his moves are so advanced and well hidden the audience has no clue how difficult the effects actually are.

I bought one of his video lectures and far and away the moves you had to master for his effects were the most technically difficult I've seen in a long time.
shin lim is pretty close behind him in terms of technical skill and he's basically completely self taught which is mind blowing and of course lennert green and ricky jay just crazy good.

sorry for the derail I just love talking about magic it's really come a long way from the cheesy pick a card find a card tricks you saw as a kid some of these effects are absolutely mind blowing and even when you find out how they are done they just become even more impressive.

oh ya Michael Vincent is another absolute master and extremely technically advanced card mechanic with a ton of great videos available on YouTube.

He's definitely borderline lol, but I can tolerate him. They are both amazing magicians obv, but a full Markobi set might be a bit much for me.

lol you should watch some lennert green (some vids on YouTube) he'd probably really drive you up a wall while blowing your mind.

I actually felt like markobi's stage presence didn't come across as well on fool us as it did on FISM where he won the grand prize for card magic but his personality doesn't really bother me.

he also has quite a few very short vids on YT where he does some super insane effects with very little banter.

oh woody aragon is another really fun spanish card magician who's really fantastic.

there's this magician/mentalist schlomo who's become like the new david blaine in that he's the magician all the celebrities and professional athletes are inviting to perform for them and he's such a ****ing hack doing the most stupid simple mentalist tricks that require absolutely 0 skill or practice he just bought an app/trick and has to have an iPhone to perform it and it's just the most hack trick ever and it's HUGE AMAZING closer that all these celebs and athletes are somehow losing their minds over it's so insanely cringe and he's making tons of money it's really absurd.

oh ya he also does the most simple calculator trick that's been around as long as iOS calculator apps have been around and acts like it's his trick it's really embarrassing that someone can call themselves a professional magician not do a single trick that takes an oz of sleight of hand or is even an original effect they created and yet this dude is making bank.

you could literally train a 10yr old to do his entire act in a few hours.

you could offer this dude a million dollars if he could succeed on fool us and I doubt he would even try.

/end rant.

I've got a cool calculator trick, with a bit of banter to go along with it.

Type in the numbers from the story:
There was a lady who was 55, she wanted to be 37, she ate (8) nothing (0), nothing (0) she ate (8) and then she became... *turn calculator upside*

Any wealthy celebs or athletics are welcome to contact me.

better than any of his material

Dani is also a top amazing magician for sure! No slight to him that I like Markobi better.

Ok my last magic video (at least for a bit). I'm usually not the biggest fan of stage magic, much prefer the close up and card stuff. But something about his first illusion in this special really floors me. Also who doesn't love 80s cheese.

Starts at 4:30

markobi is deeply on the spectrum, perhaps that's what it is about his personality that people don't like

oh ya for sure they're both the best of the best so just totally up to personal preference who ppl prefer I love em both.

ya absolutely and I love his homage to the classic clowns/mimes of old.

We decided to give Fallout a try based on some recs in OOT.

My wife doesn't like gore. Welp!

The first episode got me so I finished it and have now seen three (when she isn't around). I REALLY like this one. Lots of fun.

I liked it, especially the mid-century modern furniture and the music.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

I once had sex with a young girl on mid-century furniture while listening to the Beatles! Top that!

Harry's Game was so good.