It’s time for the best race of the Formula One World Championship season! I might be a little biased but the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve always proves to be one of the more interesting Grands Prix that we see each season. Either we get some great battles or something incredibly weird happens or there’s a highlight reel crash. The teams love the party atmosphere in Montreal and the fans love the racing action in Montreal. This race is a win-win for everyone involved.
Wednesday Link-Off: Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows
I think I’ve got a good mix of links today. We’ve got some stories about modern society and some about politics and some about FIFA. This has been a pretty interesting week so far and we’re really only two days into it. Granted, in my many years doing this blog, that usually means a dull back half of the week.
Anyway, it’s Wednesday which means that it’s time for the links. Since Community just wrapped up Season Six, here’s Gillian Jacobs.
Here in longform news that is obvious any time people go on the internet: “Badly educated men in rich countries have not adapted well to trade, technology or feminism.” (The Economist)
Hilary Clinton might be the most popular politician in America. She’s so popular that the media machine that hates the Clintons might be broken by popular support to the contrary. (Vox)
Breaking news: Your scoop doesn’t matter any more. (Gawker)
The Evolution of the PlayStation Controller
Don’t look now but we’re less than two weeks from E3. As per usual, there is going to be quite a bit of E3 coverage on the blog. Rough plans include rumour roundups, keynote summaries, trailer posts and breaking news.
For now, let’s get you warmed up for E3 with a little infographic. Sure, it’s not E3-related but it’s still video game-related. It’s a look at the history of the PlayStation’s various controllers over the years. Any infographic that name checks Ape Escape is alright by me.
Facebook Fails of the Week
Every so often, we look at the most spectacular fails that the internet has to offer. Well today, we look at the most spectacular fails that Facebook has to offer. This week, we have five of the best fails Facebook has to offer.
Sunday Link-Off: The Grab Bag
Sometimes, it’s really hard to come up with a theme with a linkdump post. I know I’ve said that a few times before but I’m struggling to come up with a title and intro for this post. So I’m just going to shut up and let links happen.
And with that out of the way, it’s time for the Sunday set of links. Since Jackie covered off San Andreas yesterday, today, let’s cover off Pitch Perfect with Elizabeth Banks.
The 2016 Presidential campaign hasn’t really started but Jeb Bush is already slinging mud and lies. This is going to get ugly people. (Washington Post)
RIM/BlackBerry was one of the many short-lived great Canadian tech success stories. This time, it wasn’t a tech bubble that killed a Canadian tech giant but leadership that killed RIM. (MacLean’s)
A man threatened to kill himself so his girlfriend called the police. He ended up getting killed. Is suicide by cop a problem with the suicidal person or the cops? (The Daily Beast)
Entertainment Link-Off: Natural Disaster
So after a lackluster Memorial Day weekend at the box office in North America, another big summer flick enters the competition this weekend. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in the latest disaster flick San Andreas. I’m sure it is good popcorn fun. From a critical point of view, it is certainly doing better than Cameron Crowe’s latest effort Aloha, which is now deemed his biggest trainwreck yet. Anyway, if you do end up seeing San Andreas, you can catch the red hot Alexandra Daddario in the flick as well.
After the jump, Tron 3 is dead, find out more on Independence Day 2, George R. R. Martin will not be writing for the Game of Thrones series again in season 6, Deadpool has wrapped filming but they still want Jackman, and check out an awesome 30 minute short called Kung Fury. Continue reading
Game of Thrones: The Gift Review
According to Rotten Tomatoes, last week’s episode of Game of Thrones was the lowest rated among critics in the show’s history. The final scene was that controversial, apparently. I guess people who watched all 46 episodes of the show are few and far between. Actually, that makes sense given viewership has grown with each season.
This week’s episode was a lot less controversial but did nothing less to move the plot forward. As the show moves toward this season’s conclusion, The Gift certainly gave us a sharp push towards a thrilling conclusion to stories in King’s Landing and Winterfell.
Game of Thrones – Episode Three Review: Words are Wind
One criticism that Telltale has faced since their renaissance with The Walking Dead is that their games have become quite formulaic. There’s a lot of talking, some needless quick-time events and a helix story structure that only diverges based on your choices for a short period before following the intended plot. But even with those complaints, Telltale is very good at telling their story.
The problem is that when you release games episodically, there’s an expectation for the climax inside the episode and to build the “season”-long story at the same time. The first two episodes of Telltale’s Game of Thrones have been serviceable as their own episodes but they haven’t rushed to build a story going forward. With Episode Three: The Sword in the Darkness, Game of Thrones properly drives us forward in the season-long narrative.
Wednesday Link-Off: Quick Hits
Tomorrow and Friday is review day this week. We’ll have a couple of Game of Thrones reviews. One will be the TV show review that’s on Fridays of Ice and Fire. Tomorrow, it’s a look at Episode Three of Telltale’s Game of Thrones game. Maybe it should have been Game of Thrones week here on the blog. Mind you, we’d probably get a lot of hits if we did daily GoT content during the season.
Anyway, it’s time for us to do Wednesday’s links. Continuing our photos from Cannes, here’s Irina Shayk.
The Baltimore riots weren’t really about one person dying in police custody. It was the result of an ongoing pattern of police violence that we’ve seen in the news time and time again. (Rolling Stone)
Bad news for America’s political right. Americans are starting to lean back to the left and are more open about identifying as liberals. While President Obama might have started this trend, he won’t be around to reap the benefits. (Washington Post)
Not helping matters for the GOP is that a former Republican Senator has some pretty damning things to say about the party’s legal challenge to Obamacare. (The New Republic)
Game of Thrones: The Musical
So if what we do on Fridays is what we call Fridays of Ice and Fire, then you could call Tuesday posts about Game of Thrones something like Tuesdays of Thrones.
Anyway, in an effort to boost sagging ratings, NBC borrowed the British charity fundraiser Red Nose Day to bring together some much needed star power to get people to watch the network. One of the skits for Red Nose Day was combining the forces of Coldplay and Game of Thrones to create Game of Thrones: The Musical.
Whether you like Coldplay or not, it’s a pretty good skit. A bunch of cast members show up and are pretty hard to recognize out of costume, including Mark Addy and Alfie Allen. It also has some random cameos including Addy (who is awesome in this), Charlotte Hope and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. And that doesn’t even mention narration by Liam Neeson. Sadly, no Team Dragonstone.
The Lowdown 