Welcome to the Real Brian Show! This week we're in a scratch your own niche sort of mood, so this shorter-than-usual episode is chock full of recommendations and reviews about the things Brian has discovered.
In This Episode
- Coffee cupping
- Expounding on the new show format.
- Music: BrunuhVille, Future of Forestry
- TV: Stranger Things, Speechless, Powerless
- Movies: Hidden Figures, Split
Scratch Your Own Niche
We always want people to scratch our niche, don't we? We want them to give us what we want. Sometimes, here at the Real Brian Show, we just want to let our freak flags fly and tell you whatever we want. And so that's a lot of what this episode is! If you've been listening to Brian, or if you're here for the first time, this episode is literally outlined with some of his most favorite things.
Give use your music, tv show, and movie recommendations in the blog post comments!
Music
I knew I recognized the name BrunuhVille when Brian brought it up. As a programmer, by trade, sometimes it's difficult to write code while I'm listening to music that has words in it. So I spend a little time making playlists that have videos with an hour or two of "epic music". BrunuhVille has a couple such videos (which are really just music and a background image). Do a search for them or listen to this!
It has been years since I've listened to Future of Forestry. I got into them after college and then, as things go, they just faded from my playlist. I first heard the EP Travel III and fell in love with Bold and Underlined and Did You Lose Yourself?. This group is a melodic, ambient rock group from SoCal. They feature compelling, thoughtful lyrics and clever artistry. Check out Hold My Hand
TV
I would be remiss not to comment on Stranger Things. I watched this series this summer and was drawn in by its similar feel to my favorite show, Fringe. I was born in the late 80s, so I don't remember these styles or bed sheets the way Brian might, but I've heard from a lot of people that it takes great pains to be accurate.
Briefly, the premise of this show centers around the disappearance of 12-year Will Byers in Hawkins, Indiana. Throughout the series, three independent investigations are going on: Will's three friends, Will's mother, and the town sheriff. A mysterious young girl with bizarre abilities meets Will's friends and joins them in their search for him, all the while lending some clues as to why not just Will, but another woman, has disappeared. As the story unfolds, all three parties find their investigations leading to a common center.
This show has everything you want out of a suspenseful, sci-fi thriller. It's got a monster, it's got scary little children, it's got the crazy mother (Winona Ryder), and it even has some light-hearted moments from the well-cast child actors. Brian says he's three episodes in and it hasn't totally drawn him in yet, and I'd probably say that is fine. If the concept interests you and you're intrigued by the general premise, I'd encourage you to keep going because every week another layer of the mystery is peeled back and the science fiction goes deeper. Just like Fringe did, really, which is why I loved that show.