Cells at Work! (TV)
Tonight on GeekNights, we review the anime TV series Cells at Work! (Hataraku Saibō) (はたらく細胞). We previously reviewed it before we saw it. We're back from the Harlem Valley Rail Ride, the Eisner Awards had a good year, NYCC and Anime Expo are teaming up for something we're definitely avoiding, and Worldcon's treatment of its guests has been a garbage fire.
The Odyssey
Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we talk about The Odyssey as translated by Emily Wilson. It's fantastic. Unlike some of the other books we've discussed, this may well be one of the most studied and analyzed stories in human history. Thus, we'll dispense with attempts at lit crit and simply discuss the story and translation directly.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds). We're having a lot of fun with it. In the news, Mario Tennis Aces has serious problems and also already required significant balance changes to avoid the modern equivalent of snaking, Jackbox Party Pack 5 is coming, the Overwatch League playoffs were on Disney XD with a surprisingly large audience, and the Trogdor game is beautiful but probably not worth playing.
See us live at PAX West, either in person or on Twitch! We reviewed all of the Summer Anime 2018 with another Judge Anime by its Cover!
Microservices
Tonight on GeekNights, we consider microservice architecture using Amazon product pages as an example. In the news, an EU copyright law that threatened the Internet as we know it was rejected (so far), and Valve leaked Steam game player counts in a novel way.
We can't be there this year, but if you're anywhere near Hartford Connecticut this coming weekend, you should definitely check out ConnectiCon! If you're near New York, you should hit up the Game Devs of Color Expo!
See our panel at PAX West 2018!
We will be live at PAX West 2018 presenting The 40 Tabletop Games you Must Play! Monday, September 3rd at 10:00am in the Hydra Theatre. This is a live streaming theatre, so those of you playing the home game will be able to see us on Twitch!
The 40 Tabletop Games you Must Play
These may not be the top 40 board games ever designed, nor are they the top 40 influential or otherwise important games. If you aspire to really understand tabletop, or if you have visions of designing your own games, these are the 40 games that, if you play them, will give you the widest possible perspective on what it means to make a good game (and what "good" even means). Join the GeekNights crew for an exploration of the boundaries of tabletop gaming. There are some gems in there.
Welcome to the fourth episode of GeekNights Judges Anime by its Cover!
We used to host this panel every year at Anime Boston, but now we are making it a quarterly video show. Armed with nothing more than the title, studio, a short description, and a small preview image, we will let you know which TV anime coming out next season are worth watching, and which ones should be avoided at all costs.
We honestly don't know much about these new anime and are judging them based on almost nothing, so be sure to post lots of hate comments! We want to hear all about everything we got wrong.
And when this season is over, be sure to come back and let us know how right or wrong we were about these shows. Our track record in the past has been really good, but we are sure to have more misses when we take more shots.
Special thanks to Anime Boston for letting us get this started in the first place. It's really a fantastic convention. Any anime fan in the Northeastern US should definitely attend.
And of course none of this would be even remotely possible without the excellent web site AniChart.net. They organize all this information so well every single season.
http://anichart.net/Summer-2018
See you in the the fall!
Book Club - The Odyssey
Many people read The Odyssey in high school, but rarely does it truly resonate. It's read for class, it's read for analysis, but often its nuance, humor, and drama are lost in translation. If you've never read it, or read it but don't remember much, there is a truly novel translation recently available from Emily Wilson. To quote the Amazon page:
"In this fresh, authoritative version―the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman―this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer’s sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer’s music.
Wilson’s Odyssey captures the beauty and enchantment of this ancient poem as well as the suspense and drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, from the cunning goddess Athena, whose interventions guide and protect the hero, to the awkward teenage son, Telemachus, who struggles to achieve adulthood and find his father; from the cautious, clever, and miserable Penelope, who somehow keeps clamoring suitors at bay during her husband’s long absence, to the “complicated” hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this translation as a more fully rounded human being than ever before."
