Seth Harris

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Everspark Part Nine

Quick Fate Check: Were there any disturbances during the night?
Answer: 1, definitely not

Quick Fate Check: Is there an encounter on the next stretch of the journey?Answer: 7, no

Reaching Korrin’s Army – 3/5
Spark Check: 4, still open

Not much happens as Cypress and his group traverse the dense forest. He doesn’t mention seeing Druvahn, the Rootfather. He wonders if Demis knew already, due to their connection to the trees and nature. The Bloomwalker doesn’t say if they did or not.

PopCult Podcast – The Seed of the Sacred Fig/The Room Next Door

This week we look at an Iranian film that depicts life for one family during the recent hijab protests in The Seed of the Sacred Fig. That’s followed by our review of Pedro Almodovar’s English language debut The Room Next Door.

Movie Review – The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)
Written and directed by Byambasuren Davaa

I was surprised that I’d never seen a film made in Mongolia. Despite seeing so many Asian films over the years, this country has passed me by. The Cave of the Yellow Dog seemed like a choice for a couple reasons – it was rated quite highly on Letterboxd and focuses on nomadic life, a long-held cultural tradition in Mongolian. Byambasuren Davaa greatly loves this aspect of her people’s history and has made it the focus of several films, including this one. Her movies often involve amateur actors who play versions of themselves. Her films are generally called “children’s films” and blend documentary with fiction.

Movie Review – This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection

This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (2019)
Written and directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Just last week, I saw a clip from a Fox News program where they were discussing recent cuts to USAID programs. At one point, Jesse Watters mispronounced Lesotho’s name and immediately commented that no one knew where it was. It was met with sophomoric chuckles from his cronies. Ironically, I watched this film just a few days ago. Lesotho was one of a handful of African nations I could locate on the map. That’s because it’s geographically unique in that it sits inside the country of South Africa.

Comic Book Review – Massiveverse Part One

Radiant Black Volume One (2021)
Reprints Radiant Black #1-6
Written by Kyle Higgins
Art by Marcelo Costa

Radiant Black Volume Two (2022)
Reprints Radiant Black #7-12
Written by Kyle Higgins
Art by Marcelo Costa

Weekly Links – 7 March 2025

A new month and some more links to share with you all.

Techdirt is not known as an overtly political tech news site. That has changed since Elon Musk came into the US government with Trump’s new administration. This post talks about how part of their job now is to chronicle the collapse of the United States as techbros are a major part of dismantling things.

Movie Review – I Am Not a Witch

I Am Not a Witch (2017)
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni

As an American, and especially a homeschooled one raised by evangelical parents, my general knowledge of African geography is abysmal. Let’s not even see what a blank space it is regarding African history. This often makes me sad because I know many facts about European and American history. Africa is where humanity emerged from, so we should know more about this incredible, diverse continent.

Movie Review – The Message (1976)

The Message (1976)
Written by H.A.L. Craig (English Version)
Directed by Moustapha Akkad

The Biblical Epic, while a film genre that has fallen off in recent decades, is quite well known as part of the Hollywood industry starting in the early 20th century. Cecil B. DeMille directed two versions of The Ten Commandments, one silent film (1923) and the more famous Charlton Heston version (1956). Ben-Hur received multiple versions as well as adaptations of the stories of Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, and more. A film titled The Bible, directed by John Huston, even covered the first 22 chapters of Genesis. That’s not even getting into the multitude of movies based on the life of Jesus.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Everspark Part Eight

Read the previous chapter here.

(For our journey to meet up with Korrin’s army, I will create a Spark that represents the journey. It uses a Spark like a countdown clock; with each ray, it will be a stretch of the journey. I will roll for each leg on the Yes/No oracle, asking, “Is there a significant encounter on this stretch?” If the answer is “Yes,” I will roll on a random encounters chart and create a NACHOS for that.

I will also roll on this simple terrain table to determine what the land is like generally around me:

Movie Review – For Sama

For Sama (2019)
Directed by Waad Al-Kataeb and Edward Watts

Our film series for March is 13 Countries, 13. On the website Letterboxd, if you pay for an annual subscription, you unlock a stats page that tracks your films watched. One feature I started looking at was the world map highlighting the countries from which you’ve seen movies. I decided to go through all the countries I hadn’t seen a film from and select a feature to watch at some point. While I won’t be watching them all in one go, I decided to pull some of them for this series.