A girl drags her best friend on a daring climbing adventure to the top of a 2000-foot abandoned and weather-beaten TV tower. Of course, everything goes wrong; the film would be boring if it didn’t.

We kept postponing watching this movie for some reason, but now I’m glad we finally did. There are so few characters involved, and yet there’s so much character development. The acting was top-notch; you really felt for the girls—the anxiety, pain… even the jelly legs you get from vertigo at great heights. I felt uncomfortable in my seat throughout many scenes. I know it sounds weird coming from someone who used to go bungee jumping, but I have severe vertigo.

I’ve read on IMDb that the filmmakers had considered green screen or digital sets, but ultimately opted for the real thing. They decided to build the upper portion of the tower on top of a mountain so that the actors would genuinely appear to be thousands of feet in the air, even though in real life they were never more than 100 feet off the ground. I think this was an amazing idea, but as an actor, you must have no fear. Apparently, the two lead actresses did most of their own stunts. Respect!

During many scenes, I kept thinking that these girls are so irresponsible and badly prepared for such an adventure, but then I remembered my younger self—I was no better.

When I was 19, my mom had an accident and ended up in the hospital. At the moment of the accident, I was at school, so it was hardly my fault. Yet, I caught hell for it. I know, I grew up in a house of horrors. Instead of feeling victimized, I got super angry, wrote a “fuck you” letter to my mom, grabbed my two best friends, and hopped on a bus to Grenoble (France) to jump off a bridge. I had no luggage, barely any money; I even forgot my ID. In all my rage, I left all responsibility and, most of all, my crappy family behind.

Was that mature? Probably not, but I had the time of my life with some good friends—something they can’t take away from me. Besides, the jump and the huge climb back up went perfectly. I’ll always keep a good remembrance. Unlike those poor girls in the movie, I wouldn’t have climbed that rust bucket to begin with.

Personal adventures set aside, I loved this movie more than I thought I would. To end with a quote from the movie:

“Life is fleeting. Life is short, too short. So you gotta use every moment. You have to do something that makes you feel alive, and that shit would spread that message far and wide.” – Becky (Fall).

In 1993, I was ending my first year at university. Let me tell you, it didn’t go well. The first year of law had syllabi totaling thousands of pages, and I wasn’t used to studying such quantities. I failed the first wave of exams in June and spent most of my summer studying to give it another go in September (which also resulted in utter failure).

However, as I was waiting my turn for an exam in the hallway of the university, I met a dude who had the same family name as I do. He was super friendly and told me about a bar close to where I lived. The bar was more like a club where we could drink beer for almost nothing, and it was filled with very cool folks who were playing in bands. I brought my friends there, and we enjoyed it so much that we went twice a week for many years. It was the beginning of my grunge years, and I don’t think that it will ever end, since it’s still my music of choice nowadays.

The first of many band posters to be pinned on the walls of my bedroom was The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream. I loved the song Today and the poster was great. Also, I was drunk very often, so it may have helped me pick the one with the cutest colors…

Many years later, I met Soforah, who had a very similar music story. She also was into grunge music, she also was used to going to a pub with cheap beer and cool folks. We share a common love for pretty much all the same bands, and we regularly play them during our Friday evening beer times.

However, Soforah was much more into The Pumpkins than I was, and that’s how I discovered more songs of Billy Corgan’s band. She also told me that Billy has Belgian roots. Well, no surprise there; he seems like a cool guy.

A few months ago, in a TV show that I can’t remember, I heard “Mayonaise” and wanted to Shazam it, but Soforah already knew the song. I had the poster in my bedroom, and I’m still discovering songs from that album 30 years later. Life, sometimes…

As for why The Smashing Pumpkins misspelled “mayonnaise,” here is the reason: The band visited Japan in 1992 while touring Gish and noticed that the record company had mistranslated a lyric from Gish into a fan booklet as “mayonnaise seas.” The band thought this was funny and used “Mayonaise” [sic] as a temporary song title when recording Siamese Dream, but it eventually stuck. (Wikipedia).

That song is so dreamy…

It’s kind of strange that it took us so long to write something about Diablo 4, especially knowing that Hack’n Slash are our favourite games. This is actually the third version of my Diablo post. Since the first beta, we went through three stages:

1. The Beta: we didn’t enjoy it;
2. The release: we enjoyed the campaign but we ended up disappointed by the gameplay;
3. The first season: amazing!

During the beta, we were quite disappointed by the slower gameplay. We’re used to Diablo 3, Path of Exile and Grim Dawn, where we can destroy an entire map with very little downtime. In Diablo 4, the builder/spender builds are slower and the monster density is very different from what we’re used to. It was very frustrating at the start.

At launch, we actually enjoyed the campaign which is absolutely amazing! Blizzard’s seal of quality is everywhere: the gorgeous cinematics, the huge amount of details and the soundtrack. The scale of the world is also very impressive. Unfortunately, the gameplay of the Barbarian and the Sorceress made us very nervous and, once the campaign was complete, we found it hard to continue. We played very slowly because the weather was very warm and the PCs made it even warmer in the office. So we actually completed the campaign two weeks before the release of the first season.

The launch of the season changed everything. We started with a Necromancer with the sever build from Maxroll and, with the synergies of the malignant powers, the gameplay feels amazing. Since we had completed the campaign before the season, we could skip the story and I was afraid to run out of things to do, but I was wrong. Between the renown, the malignant dungeons, the whispers, uncovering the map, the altars of Lilith and so much more, we never ran out of things to do. We’ve been playing the entire weekend with sessions of 5-6 hours and not once have we felt like we were doing twice the same thing, all that thanks to the variety of activities.

The Team behind Diablo 4 wasn’t afraid to change things and it really pays off, they delivered a superb game and I can’t wait what they’ll come up with for the next seasons.

As I write this post, I’m watching the Exilecon 2023 and the gameplay videos of Path of Exile 2 look fantastic. What a time to be an ARPG fan!

I woke up this morning with a song in my head, but I couldn’t remember what it was, except that it sounded like an old Rolling Stones song, and it had the lyrics “Now that I’ve been there and back.”

I heard it first on TV; I can’t remember the show or the movie, but I found it back in my Shazam history, and I’m so glad I did because this song is awesome!

At some point, the lyrics go like this: “And yes, I am in pretty bad health – That don’t bother me.” Man, it gets me every time—goosebumps! I can tell you that this song is going to play 100 times over the week-end…

The art is also super fantastic, and I wish I could find the vinyl. I’ve posted it here, so you can admire it while listening to the song. Enjoy!

Some years are just perfect copies of each other, fast-forwarding you through time with a feeling that not much is happening. Then, some years are so different, you feel like you’ve just been spat out of a washing machine, and you can barely recognize the world around you. Well, 2023 feels like the latter. It’s not as if we’re powerless and the things that are happening are out of our control. I think that we both needed a change, and we created voluntary chaos around ourselves. Maybe we feel like this because this year marks our 20th wedding anniversary, or maybe we’ve spent too long sliding down the same quiet river… Maybe both. Time works in mysterious ways…

So, what’s changed? Well, not that much. However, it has only begun.

Living in Brussels

Nine years ago, we moved to Brussels to live closer to work. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to enjoy this town. We’ve really tried, but it didn’t happen. So, for several months, we’ve been searching for a house around Liège, my hometown. Despite our best efforts, we didn’t find the right place… The apartment we purchased when we moved here is gorgeous, which made it even harder to find a house – we don’t want a downgrade! Also, searching for a house made us realize how convenient living in Brussels really is. Mobility is fantastic, and there’s always a grocery store within walking distance. Not depending on a car is amazing, especially for our budget. This may sound like our brains trying to rationalize the fact that we’ll have to stay in Brussels, and perhaps it is, but having searched for a house made us realize that we’re actually pretty good.

Dragonflight

Our end-of-the-year 2022 holidays were kinda underwhelming. The launch of Dragonflight was a flop, and we didn’t find a way to replace it. So we started the year not knowing which gaming direction to take.

We’ve tried several times to get back hooked to WoW, but the direction they took with the game is horrible. It’s almost as if they took all we disliked in the game and packed it into an expansion.

I could talk for hours about all I dislike in retail WoW. Forbidden Reach feels so dead, Dragonflying being mandatory, world quests that don’t reset fast enough, the lack of quest hubs, crappy events like the community feast or the great hunts, the professions that I don’t even feel like leveling anymore… Each expansion always had a thing or two that we disliked; it’s hard to please everyone. However, this is pure garbage.

The problem is not only that we hate the expansion, we hate the general direction of WoW’s development. If this is indeed the third phase of WoW, then the game is dead to us.

We’ve been playing that game for 17 years, so it takes some effort to get out of our routines, get used to new games and change our habits. That alone kept us very busy, finding new games isn’t as simple as it sounds. Luckily, Diablo 4 got released, but that will be part of a dedicated post.

20th wedding anniversary

On the 7th of June, we were married for 20 years. Soforah is the best partner that I could ever dream to have. She’s always there when I need her, she brightens each of my days, and I only wish that I had met her sooner because it feels as if I only started to live from the day I met her. So, Hon’, if you read this: thank you for everything. I hope to be the man you deserve!

We’ve been back and forth between a few ideas for our celebrations: a short trip to the Belgian Ardennes, a trip to the US, two new huge PCs. We finally decided to do it all; we’ll be celebrating the whole year. So far, we already traveled to the Ardennes, and it was great. Rochehaut is very beautiful, even if a bit difficult to reach by public transportation.

We ate really well, and it was great to be together, far from everything for a few days.

We almost drowned in the Jacuzzi. Believe it or not, but it was our first time enjoying a bubble bath together… Jeez, that thing made us sleepy. However, we survived. Only to be drowned once more by the most overwhelming shower I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if we’re really good candidates for spas.

We’re planning our trip to New York, which will be followed by building the most badass PCs we’ve ever owned.

Voilà, this post was long, but it covers pretty much the last 6 months of our lives.

TLDR: We spent a lot of time searching for a house, but we’ll stay in Brussels. WoW sucks, and we’ll be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary for a full year.

Don’t expect an Oscar winning masterpiece when you watch “Renfield”, it’s a chaotic fun with buckets of blood and lots of violence kind of movie. Both Nicholas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield are superb with excellent acting and a dynamic master – servant relationship.

Cage is one of my favourite actors, despite his history of turning down non-leading roles in studio films, he signed on to play Dracula. It was a life-long dream of his to portray the legendary figure. He even had his teeth filed down in order to have a more natural-looking fit and better enunciation while wearing his Dracula prosthetics. The movie industry can be such a strange world.

When I read that “Renfield” is categorised as a comedy horror, I was afraid it would be another heavy movie with tedious jokes. I was wrong, the slapstick humour and over the top action stunts make this movie a joy to watch. It also seems like there’s a big come back to “gore” in movies lately, the ripping of body parts, dismemberment, tons and tons of blood… Definitely a must watch for fans of the genre, I love this stuff.

I’ve always been a sucker for aesthetics, Dracula’s lair for example was amazing. It was shot in the abandoned Charity Hospital in New Orleans. I don’t know how many blood bags have been used to create this scene, but I did read that to the left of his chair, there’s a pile of 75 semi-fresh bodies. There’s a room at the back with at least 150 fully decomposed bodies, and there’s a blood smear where Renfield had to drag them across the floor. A lot of work and creativity went into this, some people have such awesome jobs.

If you don’t go in with too many expectations, this movie is definitely a good choice for a fun popcorn evening.

Once more, the Book of the Dead has been opened and, once more, evil has taken possession of humans to bring chaos to this world. While the plot isn’t very different from the previous movies, the setting is. This time, except in the first scene, the cabin in the woods has been replaced by an old apartment from which people can’t escape.

The team in charge of the setting did an amazing job, the apartment where it all happens is amazing. Then, there’s Alyssa Sutherland, who delivers an absolutely stunning performance. The perfectly composed second wife of Ragnar in Vikings turns in one of the creepiest possessed woman I’ve ever seen! I’ll never see her with the same eyes again.

All the ingredients of a classic Evil Dead are there: relentless action, a fantastic casting, a ton of gore (6,500 liters of fake blood were used for the movie), an amazing soundtrack (the voice on the recording is none other than Bruce Campbell’s) and even a chainsaw.

Honestly, we didn’t expect it to be so good and, apparently, neither did the studio. The film was originally meant to release exclusively through HBOMax via direct-to-streaming, but it performed so strongly during test screenings that they decided to release it theatrically instead.

Definitely a top pick for a solid horror evening, even if you’re not a fan of the franchise.

I’m writing this post as I’m watching Wudijo‘s launch stream of Diablo 4 and it’s pretty hard to concentrate, so I asked ChatGPT to write “A 100 words positive review of Scream 6 without too many superlatives” and this is what it returned:

Scream 6 breathes new life into our beloved horror franchise, delivering an entertaining experience. The film masterfully blends the essence of the original movies with a fresh storyline that keeps you hooked from start to finish.

The performances are commendable, with the cast skillfully embodying their characters and adding depth to the narrative. The script is cleverly written, striking a balance between suspense and humor that keeps you engaged throughout.

The direction is top-notch, effectively building tension and delivering satisfying scares.

Scream 6 is a must-watch especially for a Saturday pop-corn & horror evening.

While it’s certainly less personal, it isn’t too far from what a human would write.

Did you know that…

Courtney Cox was the first cast member to sign up to return as Gale Weathers. She states that she did not hesitate to return because she loves playing Gale, and jokingly said that she’d even play her for free. She did her own stunts during Gale’s showdown with Ghostface and stated that it was her favorite scene because she got to really fight with Ghostface.

On the other hand, Neve Campbell refused to reprise her role as Sydney because she felt the offer that was presented to her did not equate to the value she brought to the franchise.

So, you can say what you want about Cox’s botoxed face, but she’s far more real than Campbell. Way to go, Courtney!

A workmate hated the movie so bad, he took the time to write a review on Teams so we’d stay away from it. At first, I was happy to have dodged a bullet… Then I remembered that this specific workmate doesn’t have the most reliable taste when it comes to movies. So, we went anyway to the theatre and, boy, am I happy we did!

It didn’t take us more than 5 minutes to be completely into the movie. The story is good with a few turns that make the movie great. The humour is well balanced so it never feels ridiculous but keeps the goofy spirit of the actual Dungeons & Dragons game. Finally, the cast was perfect and I couldn’t imagine a better Holga than Michelle Rodriguez or a better Forge than Hugh Grant.

Wizards of the Coast (which owns Dungeons and Dragons) made stat blocks for the main characters showing their abilities and attributes. All the spells used in the film, while largely unnamed, are all spells used in the Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper RPG. (source: IMDB)

We went with low expectations and we enjoyed it so much that I’m ready to watch it again, an instant classic.

Last week-end, following the huge trend, we both tried Hardcore Classic WoW. While we had fun in the starting zones, our nostalgia trip was brutally interrupted by death. I understand the excitement around Hardcore but I personally don’t enjoy to delete a character that I’ve been levelling for hours. I can’t imagine the feeling when your character dies after level 50, I would be devastated.

However, this little adventure made us realise how great vanilla WoW was and how bad retail has become when you play the game the way it was meant to be played. It was a game made by roleplayers for roleplayers while retail feels like a phone game ported on PC.

So, thank you Nostalrius for having made Blizzard consider creating Classic servers. And fuck you, J. Allen Brack, You were dead wrong!