iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 15/10/2024

Tokyo: ends up, it’s pretty big!

Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 08/09/2024

@mapcrow.bsky.social Also, I’ll assume you’ve seen this from back in the day, but no Bombadil discussion on this site is complete without it.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

Just for fun, gonna post a little threaded review of a new-ish comic publication I was really happy with, The Collected Buzzelli Vol 1, The Labyrinth, by Floating World Comics (1/🧵)

Cover of The Collected Buzzelli Volume 1

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

Saw a showing of Spirited Away at a local theater today. One thing I noticed near the start was this eye sign as they first enter the bathhouse area - I wonder if it was directly inspired by a similar frame in Nejishiki or if it’s just coincidence (or shared Buddhist source imagery)

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 30/01/2024

I really loved this review, and I think its core thesis - that this is the basically best VR can ever be, and that that throws into stark relief how limited VR is - is really smart. www.theverge.com/24054862/app...

theverge.com

Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not

The Apple Vision Pro is supposed to be the start of a new spatial computing revolution. After several days of testing, it’s clear that it’s the best headset ever made — which is the problem.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 08/01/2024

My dumb football rule hill that I will die on is that if a defender gets an interception on a fourth down, if they give themselves up they should take over at the line of scrimmage.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Day 20: A Christmas episode of a show called Pickle and Peanut. I’m not totally sure if I like a kid’s show being that level of strangeness or if my gut is correct in finding it off putting.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

Day 18: “Kosher Christmas”, from a show called Pepper Ann, which felt like a very declawed Daria aimed at a marginally younger audience.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Day 17: a Where’s Waldo direct to VHS Christmas special. I know it’s a way to be cheap and have less animation, but I did kind of enjoy just having minute long freezes on shots so you can find Waldo/solve a puzzle.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 17/12/2023

Day 16: Dave Foley’s The True Spirit of Christmas Specials was not a lost classic like I hoped it would be, but it was pretty fun (and extraordinarily of the early aughts)

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 17/12/2023

Day 15 was a British kids show and was so completely fine and nondescript I forgot to post about it entirely.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

Day 14: “Jingle Bell Rap”, a special that wanted to be a backdoor pilot. I can’t tell if it ever aired or was straight to video, but it’s about a band of four cartoon dogs. Along with the titular track, there’s also a weirdly melancholic “Christmas in Our Hometown” song.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

Day 13: Prep & Landing, which apparently was enough of a hit to inspire sequels. I will say, though I loved Arthur Christmas, that movie clearly saw this special.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 13/12/2023

Day 12: “A Gert Lush Christmas”, which was completely fine with a couple of great lines and an appearance by Greg Davies.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 12/12/2023

Day 11: hit some burn out and changed the rules to “random special that I have even the slightest interest in watching”. Did “The Snowman and the Snowdog” tonight. Sweet & sappy & nostalgic, but pleasantly animated and overall cute.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 11/12/2023

There’s an interesting essay to be written - and maybe has been! I’m a dummy, I wouldn’t know - about how Godzilla Minus One and The Boy and the Heron are both (opposing) testaments to the passing of the Japanese generation born and raised during WWII

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 10/12/2023

Day 9: it was a long day so I cheated and just watched a Teen Titans Go Christmas episode and then forgot to bother posting about it. Also the new Batman Christmas cartoon is a full-ass 97 minutes long? Huh.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 08/12/2023

Day 8: Santa’s Magic Toy Bag. A puppet special about an elf that keeps screwing up. Pretty nondescript except that Santa has ALF’s voice.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

Day 7: Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls, 1983. See, this is why I do this. 23 minutes of a cartoon to advertise what is barely a toy, where a group of sticky alien octopuses follow around a spoiled kid to learn what Christmas is, complete with voice acting legends and written by Mark Evanier.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

Day 6. The Robot Chicken Christmas Special. The nicest thing I can say is that at least it was only 11 minutes. A show so deeply unfunny that I was pleasantly surprised to see a joke at about the 10 minute mark.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Day 5: Christmas in Cartoontown. I am beginning to think this bad idea of mine was, in fact, bad.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

Being pushed to my limit here in Day 4 with Highway to Heaven’s “Merry Christmas from Grandpa”. A reminder that TV used to really stink, though I begrudgingly respect a holiday special going post-apocalyptic. So many dying children.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 04/12/2023

Day 3: “On Christmas Eve”, a wordless 1992 BBC animated special about a fairy making sure a little girl gets her presents. A pretty blah, seemingly cheap affair. There’s something really unpleasant about a lot of 90s BBC music, a kind of cheap digital feel that’s off putting to me.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 03/12/2023

Day 2: Kenan & Kel’s “Merry Christmas, Kenan”. I liked that the toy store was stocked with unpopular action figures from the last summer - clearly had bought Congo and Waterworld toys on clearance to serve as props.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

First up: Edith Ann’s Christmas, a 1996 animated special based around a Lily Tomlin sketch character. This was an aggressively maudlin and depressing way to start things off, with a focus on a runaway sister and a comatose child. Oof. It also just oozed of the 90s.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

I have an infrequent tradition of watching a randomly selected Christmas special per day in December (using the random special button on christmas-specials.fandom.com/wiki/Special... ). I’ll try to post little minireviews on here.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

I have finished Blood Meridian. What a book. I’m exhausted. Gonna be comic books after this for a bit.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

On vacation in Atlanta. Our AirBnB is on top of another AirBnB and they listen to their TV way too loud. So of course I had to spend the last 10 minutes figuring out what they’re watching. Suits. The answer is Suits.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

I know I’m 40 years late to this party, but…Blood Meridian is pretty amazing? It’s also a relief to be liking a Smart Book, as I’ve not exactly challenged myself in a long time.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Finally closed one of my Eternal Tabs by watching Angel’s Egg.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

Happily excited for this because I love stupid shit that has no reason to exist but does. I mean that 100% sincerely.

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Jon Bergdoll @jonbergdoll.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

I’ve been reading a book of Robert Benchley humor pieces, and it’s great when there are bits of 98 year old comedy that are so silly and absurdist that I can hear them in Conan O’Brien’s voice

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