'Tis the season ... to watch some christmas episodes!

We all know many Christmas movies, both classic and new, and love to watch them to feel the special magic of this holiday. But many series also decide to feature special episodes focusing on Christmas. Here's a bunch of them I'd like to recommend to you:

1. Orange is the New Black S01E13 "Can't Fix Crazy"

This refreshingly original serie, produced by Netflix, starts by telling a story of one Piper Chapman and keeps broadening it's perspectives to show a wide panorama of inmates from various backgrounds. This particular episodes has them trying to organise a nativity play, but between the personal and racial animosities and the prison staff's indifference and incompetence, it surely won't be easy. Rest assured that it's a rather comical take on the life in jail, so it won't spoil your Christmas joy.

2. Hey Arnold! S01E20 "Arnold's Christmas"

Many Christmas episodes are really touching and tell some heartbreaking stories: that's exactly the case of this story of the (American) football-headed boy we all earned to love in our childhood. After drawing Mr. Hyunh in the boarding house's Secret Santa lottery, Arnold decides to reunite him with his daughter (who had to stay back in Vietnam). It's no easy task: the Scroodge-like city archivists, Mr. Bailey, forces the protagonist to run his Christmas errands in exchange for information.

3. Futurama S02E04 "Xmas Story"

This animated science-fiction serie has been mocking many absurds and weaknesses of our society, and our consumerism-crazy vision of Christmas soon turned out to be a good material for criticism. It's Fry's first Xmas (as the holiday is called in the XXXI century) after being hibernated for a 1000 years, and it differs from what he used to know: palm trees are decorated in place of the now-extincted pine trees, to begin with. On top of all, Fry must hurry with his present shopping, as a murderous Santa Claus robot is terrorizing the city after sundown, his "naughty-or-nice" standards having been set way to high for anybody to survive it. Without spoiling it too much, let's just say that's one of the episodes in which the protagonists kindness overcomes all difficulties.

4. Mad Men S04E02 "Christmas Comes but Once a Year"

From the series which got literally everybody's attention and a huge critical acclaim despite all it's action consisted in drinking vodka, smoking lots of cigarettes and leaving the office angrily comes probably the most cynical episode in this list. Showing the first Christmas party at the newly opened advertising agency facing serious financial troubles and Don Draper's more and more frantic personal life, this episode is dangerously close to reality and far from the idealized vision of Christmas we'd like to be real.

5. Doctor Who "The Snowmen" (2012 Christmas special)

Each and every Christmas episode of Doctor Who is brilliant and crazy at once, being incredibly imaginative while also keeping the Cristmas spirit. This one's probably my favourite because of it's dickensian inspirations (hey, what else could it have been, it's set in XIX-century London. The Doctor, devastated by a personal loss which I shouldn't really disclose, decides to retire in that place and period. But he always seems to get in harm's way: this time it's huge killer snowmen and the malevolent doctor Symeon he'll have to save himself, and the world, from.

Battlefront is out, and it's great, but...

In one of my previous notes, the one about Star Wars, I've mentioned a new game related to this franchise which was going to be released. I've already had enough some time to test it, so I'd like to share my impressions.

First of all, the audiovisual aspects are stunning: you might have a hard time believing it's not a movie. The sounds of all the vehicles, blasters and explosions are really immersive!

Moreover, it feels like a genuine Star Wars experience, letting you relieve some of the scenes of the original trilogy, either as a mere rebel / imperial stormtrooper, or as one of the heroes or villains, such as Han Solo or Darth Vader.

Unfortunately, there are some things I did not like. The game seems to lack in content: it only has a few maps for each game mode, which might get repetitive after a while. It also falls noticeably short when it comes to weapons and gear selection in comparison to its competitors, namely Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Destiny. It's a part of a marketing strategy, as four expansions are to be released in 2016 for a hefty total price of 50$: it's not an unusual way to make business in this line of entertainment, but it doesn't really make you the most liked games developer. Many people also complain that it's not complex enough to keep you interested for a longer period of time.

All in all, it's a game you can fall in love with, but will probably get you bored of you decide to spend more time with it without investing more of your hard earned money.

Lots to watch today, so get started!

These days, most of music videos are really, really bad: trivial and overly sexualized, they only serve to prolong the agony of music televisions, relics of a bygone era. Even if you put them on willingly on Youtube, you probably only care about the music anyway. But there's this one guy who still them esthetically pleasing, smart and entertaining. Also, it really seems like he has so much fun making them!

This one's probably my favourite: William's a guardian angel, acompanying a young girl who either can't see him or does not pay any attention to him. He's getting hurt to protect her time and time again as she's walking and texting. Finally, he gets so enraged punching pidgeons that he catches on fire! Tha video's absurd, and so is part of the lyrics ("Father tricked the system by moving bricks to Brixton and learning how to fix them" is just a lovely alliteration). Also, it has Kaya Scodelario starring in it. Need I say more?

Let's go back in time to early 2000's, when Robbie Williams decided it would be great to play a race driver in the '60 who would be called Bob Williams (yeah, the man's little to no shame). Mixing racing scenes and newspaper frontpages and a really haunting chorus (come on, imagine what it must have been like to hear "This new century is bringing me down" in 2001).

The last one is an amazing result of a reunion between Robbie and his former Take That pal, Gary Barlow. From the very beginning you can see the inspiration with Brokeback Mountain: two tough guys wearing denim? Check. Allusive gazes and homosexual tension? Check. Even the bar were they perform their final vocal duo has a confederate flag, so without doubt they wanted you to think about southern USA, a place not so friendly towards two men in love with each other.

Postapocalypse now

In my last post, I've talked about Star Wars, a Sci-Fi franchise set in the distant past (suprised? Thay actually say in the beginning of each episode, that it takes place "a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...", making reference to the traditional introduction to tales). This time, I'll stick to science fiction, to talk about it's subgenre that's quite different: The postapocalypse (or, to abbreviate, the post-apo).

Post apocalyptic movies, games and books show a world destroyed by some kind of horrible disaster: usually atomic war, as these works of culture tend to be fruits of cold-war paranoia.One of them is the movie that jump-started Mel Gibson's career, Mad Max, telling a story of a cop who's trying to bring justice to a mob of homicidal bikers in a world where all the order is long forgotten:

While it might not seem too deep, it was really ahead of it's times and is probably the best known post-apocalyptic movie. Fun fact: the American distributor decided that Mel Gibson needs to be dubbed for the Americans to understand him.

While Post-Apo might originate from the cold-war era fear of nuclear holocaust, it does not end with the fall of the Soviet Union. One of the better known representatives of this genre from the later period is Water World, which shows our planet flooded entirely after the melting of the icecaps. It does a better job than Mad Max in showing a panorama of a broken society, and is surely more esthetically pleasing.

Obviously, cinema is not the only branch of entertainment making good use this esthetic. The most famous depction of a destroyed civilization in a video game is, without doubt, Fallout, which won the hearts of fans and critics alike. It has the player having to make many tough, moral choices, which are usually far from obvious, and creates a world full of interesting, well-developed characters. It is also inspired deeply in the 50s and 60s  design, so the nuclear wasteland is full of jukeboxes, characteristic cars and Mad Men - era ads.

The Force Awakens

Nearly everybody is getting excited for the new episode of Star Wars, and I surely am one of them! It's due in a month and a half, but I already have my ticket reserved for the midnight premiere. There are great expectations to be met by the new installment directed by J.J. Abrams - the guy who, a few years ago, gave you an opportunity to actually see Star Trek, a space opera that had so many episodes it was impossible to find your way around it.

There have been two trailers released, the first one (the one I'm linking here) being more of a teaser perhaps, but I find it much, much better than the other one. It has all there should be in a Star Wars movie: the iconic music, a droid (BB-8, the little white and orange guy you see rolling through the sands, is not a CGI creation, but a real thing that you can actually buy, if you're nerdy enough), a mysterious, lightsaber-wielding antagonist and space ships. 

It also seems that J.J. Abrams is creating images that are much more refined than what we've seen in episodes I through III. Just think of how picturesque that snow-covered forest, or the X-wings' flight over the lake is!

Luckily, this very long month and a half waiting time will be sweetened by a new Star Wars game, Battlefront, released on November 19th.

Looking for the information you did not even know existed?

It's been quite some time since I've been amazed by a book. To be honest, in the last few years most of the books I've read were for my studies. But there's a little spark of amusement in my literary life now, and it's like nothing I've read before.

The book catches your eye with a rich, unusual purple of it's cover. The title might not be entirely clear at the beginning, but the meaning and origin of the word "quintessential" are explained to us at the introductory part. To make things clear, it means (quoting the Oxford Dictionary) "Representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class", while miscellany is a publication that contains various texts and information.

The goal of this book is informing you details of various aspects of life you would not think have any remote importance for you - because, to be honest, they mostly don't. There's little more to it then sheer intelectual/absurd pleasure in reading about how military operation's codenames are created, fictional Eton graduates and April Fool's newspaper hoaxes in the XIX century. It might sound boring, and I can't deny I skip some of them (quotations from some obscure historical characters, mostly), but it's really fun to read or just browse.

I've also found out that Mister Schott has actually published a few more parts of this serie before. It's obvious that I'd be more than glad to somehow find and get them!

Why commuting on bike is the best way to do it

We all live in a constant movement, needing to go to several places each day: to school, to work, to do the shopping, visit our friends ... In effect, we might spend a considerable part of our life commuting. It's wise to actually think about the way how we do it a little, and choose the most beneficial method.

I, for one, am a great fan of commuting on bike. I wasn't able to do it, until recently, as I used to live in the suburbs, and the amount of time it would take to get to university would be absurd. After moving to the centre and finding a job, I decided to give it a try. And I fell in love with it.

First and foremost, it's efficient. It's obviously faster than walking, and although you might be outrun by a tram or a bus, you do not depend on the time tables. In contrast to driving a car, it doesn't get you stuck in traffic. Nor morbidly obese by the age of 40, for that matter.

That's the second advantage of using two wheels instead of four: you can use the time you would otherwise waste to excercise. In my case, it's not much, as I only commute about 2,5 kilometres to my job, and even less to my university, but it still trumps my previous favorite activity, which was evading sports at all costs.

Sure, there are some negatives, such as scarce bike-friendly infrastructure in Poznań. You're forced to either obey the law and use the car lane, which can be pretty scary and dangerous, or (that's what I do) stay on the pavement, risking some bitter remarks on the better days and a possibility of being fined on the worse. Also, while my enthusiasm still lasts in spite of the rain and the temperatures dropping below 10 degrees, I am not entirely sure if I'll be able to ride my bike throughout the entire winter. Some preaparation and gearing up will be requires, but I really hope I'll manage that.