And so began the not insignificant time sink binge re-watch of the entire six seasons of Lost.

Arguably where the era of prestige TV began. Arguably one of the best TV shows of all time. It's been hovering around my own personal top three since it ended in 2010. Mind blowing to spend six years on the once a week release of a story that captured the internet of the era. So many fan theories on message forums and it was just so fun to trade ideas and have people point out easter eggs in scenes.

Look, here's a still capture of that Shark with the Dharma logo on it – what does it all mean wtfomgbbq!!!

So how did it hold up on a binge watch? Let's just say Lost has cemented itself as my favorite TV show of all time hands down. I did wonder how it would feel knowing the plot twists in advance. And it was ok. I must say though I do envy anyone watching this for the first time. You're going "wait, did Kate know Jack before the Island? I'm so confused." followed by the record needle scratch of Jack going "we have to go back" (mind explodes).

What I realized this time around was that even though they didn't (couldn't) answer every possible fan question, they still did a pretty damned good job. But the real thing that stood out on a binge was that Mystery Island wasn't even important at the end of the day. What really mattered were the characters, their stories, their interaction. This show has some of the best well written characters of any show I've watched and I just love them all. Locke, Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Desmond, Ben.

You know you've watched something special when you've got that sinking feeling of no more episodes. I can't recommend this enough. If you're one of the few people left on the planet who hasn't watched it, go do that immediately.

With Elon buying Twitter and offering a masterclass of clusterfuck management, predictions of its demise were abound. Some people I follow abandoned ship and fled to Mastodon. Some hedged their bets and started posting on both services.

I like Mastodon and its decentralized nature is very cool technology. I created an account back in 2017 presumably the last time there was a Twitter kerfuffle. And I posted a couple things there during this latest one. Very quickly it became apparent that keeping track of both services was going to be tricky. On my best days I find it hard to keep up with just Twitter.

So a bit of a fork in the road has occurred. A social media service lives and dies by where the people you follow are. And for right now, that's still Twitter. So for the time being my focus will be there. But at least Mastodon is a thing that we could get into the Twitter lifeboat and sail to if the need arises.

To that end I'm at @kevinspencer@mastodon.cloud.

I mean, these should have probably been tweets.

How can you be from England and not drink Tea? I was asked. And it's true – I'm on team Coffee 100%. But a funny thing happened, I actually had a cup of tea today and it was pretty great.

I've been running 4 miles about 3 or 4 times a week pretty consistently. But thanks to the great Phoenix desert summer, it's been indoors on a treadmill. It's the time of year where I can start doing that outside again.

I've been listening to a lot of Korine this week. Synthwave goodness.

If you go looking in this fair City of ours, there's a lot of fantastic street art.

We live across the street from a mountain. That I've not hiked in the 4 years we've been here. What the hell?

I haven't read any books since the great reading re-awakening of Dec 2021, Jan 2022. What the hell?

In about a month I will be 49 years old. Turning 50 next year. What the hell?

After 147 continuous months of Summer, it's finally nice enough in the mornings to open the windows again. I have missed the fresh air blowing around the house. There's just something about that brewing coffee smell with the sounds of birds singing.

What happened was, I read an article about Reeder and remembered how much I loved it. You may recall a couple years ago I decided to go solo with Tiny Tiny RSS. And it was mostly fine, just not great.

So I changed things up today. I'm back to using Reeder full time, with iCloud sync, and it really is great.

Except for one thing. Where is everybody?

It's only when you import your ancient OPML file from the olden times that you realize just how many great bloggers there were. And how few still remain. Man, I really miss blogging. I hope independent publishing comes back in fashion some day.

I guess I'm just old.

What happened was, I learned Sam Neill owns a winery. And not just that, a purveyor of Pinot Noir, my favorite tipple.

The vines at actor Sam Neill's original, organically farmed vineyard in Gibbston Valley are now over 25 years old, and the resulting wines are better than ever. The color of raspberry juice, this vintage is, to put it bluntly, sexy as hell.

I do like wines that are sexy as hell.

I've not been able to find it sold locally but they ship worldwide. I priced out a single bottle; $225 to ship to the USA from New Zealand 😳

The adventure continues then. Look for anywhere in the US that imports it. Or the real answer, take a holiday to New Zealand and pick up a couple bottles in person.

What happened was, inspired by the recent watching of Prey, we were talking about Predator movies at work. And so begins the team watch of all of them in order. I'm this far in:

Predator
Predator 2
Alien vs Predator
Aliens vs Predator Requiem

Thus far they have gotten progressively less good as they go. But still all entertaining nonetheless.

Three left to go, one I've not seen before (Predators), the likely worst one of them all (The Predator), and then ending on a high note with Prey.

Kevin, what is your favorite beer these days, you didn't ask.

I'll tell you, it's Abnormal's Boss Pour.

Do you feel like a boss?! You will when you crack open our flagship San Diego IPA, Boss Pour. A soft bitterness from the Nugget and Cascade hops make this is a classic IPA. The addition of the aromatic Mosaic and Citra hops lend grapefruit and tropical citrus notes. The Simcoe hop adds a piney touch finished with American 2-row and English specialty base malts.

What happened was, a cricket got into a vent pipe on our roof. And is now stuck somewhere in the ceiling of the bathroom around the extractor fan. Which is about as fun as it sounds. So loud for one so smorl Mr Cricket.

Options: (a) move (b) take apart extractor fan housing and try to rescue the bugger (c) wait it out because how long could he last?

We're on day three.

UPDATE: well, bless him, he lasted another two days. That sound we hear is NO MORE CRICKET. Glorious.

The other week I mentioned a series of three catch up posts of TV watched of late that I've loved, liked, and … not liked so much.

This is the third in that series. The ones I wasn't quite as enamored with. Disappointed even? You may have liked some of these, and I don't mean to yuck all over your yum, they just weren't all that satisfying.

Also, here be possible spoilers. So, SPOILER ALERT.

• Invasion. The trailer for this alien invasion survival story on Apple TV+ looked fantastic. Sam Neill is in it! And he was in it for exactly the first episode. And we never return back to any of the characters/setting and it's never mentioned again. Ok, interesting choice, but maybe the rest of the season bears fruit? It does not. Meandering plot, unlikable characters, lackluster dialogue, huge budget that was spent where exactly? For a show that promised much, it didn't deliver. I don't think I'll be watching season two.

• The Book Of Boba Fett. I mean, they can't all be "the best star wars tv show ever" can they? And this proves that rule. What a confusing season this was. In Star Wars fandom, Boba Fett is quite the cult figure. Over the years we've heard rumors of a standalone movie but nothing ever happened. His surprise re-introduction to the Star Wars Universe in The Mandalorian was pretty great. So when they announced he was getting his own show I thought we had another winner on our hands. But… the way his character was written, crime boss who needs to protect "his people". But there wasn't a lot of crime, or bossing, or any real explanation of his motives or why they're his people. And nothing really happens. And then the show morphed into a couple episodes of The Mandalorian season three because reasons. And at least those were good. Quite why "here, let us remind you of a vastly better show" seemed like a good idea to the showrunners I've no idea.

• Star Trek Discovery. I really liked the first two seasons. Modern Star Trek, with a large budget, Jason Isaacs! Then Anson Mount and Ethan Peck. Great stuff. Then season three happened and there was just something about it that wasn't working for me. And then in the end, well, the "big bad" and explanation for everything was a bit of a let down let's be honest. Maybe season four will be better? I got maybe 2 episodes in before deciding this really wasn't my cup of tea.

(Speaking of Anson Mount and Ethan Peck, what is my cup of tea is Star Trek Strange New Worlds which was utterly fantastic – more on that in another post)

• Star Trek Picard. So in season one they got the band back together. Sort of. And of course there was lots of nostalgia here. Patrick Stewart I could watch for days on end, in fact just let him read the phone book (kids, ask your parents what that is). Jeri Ryan also great, because well, Jeri Ryan. Was super excited about season two. And it started with promise, Q, the Borg Queen, Brent Spiner. But somewhere in the middle it meandered and never quite got back on track. Next year's season three I see they really are getting the full band back together, so of course I'll watch it.

• Fear The Walking Dead. A show with lots of promise at the beginning. The Walking Dead but let's see more of the actual collapse of society at the start of the apocalypse. And it delivered. In fact it delivered for three seasons. Season three perhaps up there with the best Walking Dead content. Then they threw the baby out with the bathwater. And what has happened for the next four seasons is quite the roller-coaster ride of quality. I stuck with it because lots of time invested in The Walking Dead universe – and I want to see how it all ends. Season seven of this show has proven to be the breaking point though, I couldn't even get through it. Terrible writing, what appears to be a huge drop in budget, terrible effects and poor sets. What a shame.

Other posts in this series:

Part one: Media I've Loved July 2022 Edition
Part two: Media I've Liked July 2022 Edition