A Brief Review of Places to Buy Books and Food in Pittsburgh

This is a very on-brand post.  

 

USED BOOK STORES

***

Rickert & Beagle, Dormont

Pour one out for R&B. A good store, gone too soon. Still sad about it. Got the Dictionary of Imaginary Places here for $14.

Fungus Books & Records, Edgewood-Wilkinsburg

While conveniently located near both a bakery and a tea/coffee shop (I recommend both of these), the selection is scant, the shelves are unsorted, and the space is very cramped. There's an entire empty room at the back of the shop. The shelf of $5 paperbacks (decent collection of old sci-fi pulps) is stacked two rows deep so you have to remove books from the shelf to see what's behind them. I hope that the store's able to grow into its stride, but right now it's pretty rough around the edges.

Amazing Books & Records, Squirrel Hill & Downtown

My favorite. Excellent selection, great location (in Squirrel Hill, specifically: they recently moved to the Forbes strip proper, practically next-door to Games Unlimited and across from Everyday Noodles and the Bagel Factory. Downtown location is fine quality-wise, but really only to be visited if you have something else bringing you downtown.)

City Books, Allegheny-West

Visited only once, several years ago now. Selection was less "used" and more "archaic", could not find so much as a mass market sci-fi shelf. Maybe there's been some good stock turnover since then, but my short time there did not engender any desire to return.

Caliban Book Store, Oakland

Still can't get over how the prior owner was caught stealing rare books from Carnegie Main. Good store, though it is very crowded inside and thus a bit overwhelming. Right next to Phantom of the Attic Oakland.

Shadyside Books, Shadyside

The one time I visited this location I was informed that they do not (or did not, at the time) accept trade-ins. Selection felt like it was as if a bunch of retiring college professors had just cleaned out their offices all at once, but after their colleagues and favored students had all had their pick of the good stuff. Vibes were off the entire time. Did see a copy of Again Dangerous Visions when I was there, but did not buy it. Turnover might have improved things.

Half-Price Books (Ross Township)

The parking lot on this one is an absolute nightmare. If you want to visit you will have to be heading northward on McKnight Road, which I would not wish upon my worst enemies. Even if there wasn't a concrete lane divider, making a left turn out of that lot would be suicidal. McKnight Road is a blight and should be torn up and replaced with a high-speed train line.

Half-Price Books (Monroeville)

Probably your best option for a chain bookstore in the area. Big store, very good selection, have gone home with a lot of winners. I regret to this day that I did not pick up the WEG Star Wars rpg the day I happened to find it here. I've seen century-old National Geographics in there (and surprisingly numerous copies of of 40k Kill Team). Solid all around if you are on that side of the city.

RESTAURANTS

***

Everyday Noodles, Squirrel Hill

The good shit. Sometimes you want Americanized Chinese food, I get it, episodic cravings for General Tso's are part of my life. but when you want the good shit, you go here.

Bagel Factory, Squirrel Hill 

No matter how bad the day is, it will be improved by an egg & cheese everything bagel. That's just how life works. Don't make the rules. 

Ramen Bar, Squirrel Hill 

I got really unlucky and got sick the last time I went, which is a fucking tragedy, as it is very tasty and I've not had any other bad experiences. Go get ye a bowl and a flight of gyoza (gotta have gyoza!)

Blue Monkey Tea, Squirrel Hill

Not a restaurant, but you're in Squirrel Hill already you gotta go pick up some tea. Monk's Blend and Russian Caravan are my big favorites, but the decaf peach is not to be disregarded. Lots of imported candy and snacks as well.

Madeline Bakery & Bistro, Edgewood-Wilkinsburg

Go. Go now.

 

Biddle's Escape, Edgewood-Wilkinsburg

Hardly 45 seconds by foot down the street from Madeline. You already got a pastry, grab a coffee or a tea while you're out. Get a GOAT oatmeal (chocolate chunks and banana slices). They have food trucks on Wednesday nights.

Nikki's Thai Kitchen, Downtown

NTK is a glimmer of light among the dirty grey nastiness and enormous, empty buildings of downtown. Just a couple blocks from the convention center. Wonderful place.

Cilantro & Ajo, South Side Flats (+ food truck)

Venezuelan street food. If you want something fried golden brown that makes your stomach happy, can't go wrong here. They've got this green house sauce, you get it with everything, it is fucking delicious. 

Mr. Bulgogi, food truck 

Korean food. Get ye some marinated beef and kimchi. Extremely good, clean plate club every time.

Mercurio's, Shadyside

The good shit, pizza edition. Char bubbles on the crust, just the right size for a full meal for yourself. Get yourself a glass of wine and gelato mwah!

 

Angkor, Greentree 

Supremely unassuming entry in an ugly little strip mall, but tasty as hell and the time I went in person, despite there being only 1 guy on floor staff, the man kept the rice and drinks topped off for everyone.

Big Rigs Barbecue, Monroeville

Thinkin' bout thos beans.

 

Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie

Been a while since I've visited, but it's well worth dropping by. Very good mead, they had comedy and food truck nights before the pandemic and those are likely well back in swing.

OTHER

***

Phantom of the Attic, Oakland/Greentree/Monroeville

Now, fun fact, the three Phantoms of the Attic are all independent (apparently, when the original stores were sold off part of the contract was that the name had to stay regardless of the new owner) There's one in Greentree, one in Oakland, and one in Monroeville. Never been to the Monroeville one but I know that's mostly comics, the Greentree one is both games and comics but was overall just kinda eh. Oakland is the biggest and best (technically two stores across the street from each other, one for games, one for books). Great selection of mainstream, indie, and used game books, lots of boardgames, do a 20% off everything in the store sale Black Friday weekend, and pre-pandemic they did in-store DCC games (great crowd, lots of fun)

Games Unlimited, Squirrel Hill

Recently moved into a new location and positively thriving.Excellent indie selection, you can easily find books by folks you know in the scene (last time I went I nabbed Charlie's Into the Wyrd and Wild). Will soon open up the upstairs for folks to rent tables for public games and I cannot wait. 

 

The Secret Manga Shop, Bellevue

A bit out of the way, small, and still getting its sea legs, but very solid selection of manga plus some extra things (local teas, imported stationary supplies, even proper hanafuda sets!) Nice little place.

 

Carnegie Museums & Library, Oakland

No such thing as a good billionaire, but sometimes you can build some real good stuff with their money. Always worth a visit.

Son of the Podcast Post

My abnormal consumption rate of podcasts has only grown in the year and a third since the last version of this post. This shall be a review of everything I can remember.

My interest in any given podcast tends to wax and wane according to a great number of odd and obscured factors. This list is not exhaustive, it's just exhaustive of the ones I can both remember and generate an opinion about. I will attempt to organize them according to how much I would recommend them.

I am not even going to try to organize them. The only order is in my own memory.

Oh God I Listen To So Many

No Such Thing as a Fish - Four Brits share wacky facts. Great for a laugh, surprisingly educational.

Futility Closet - It's like the Dollop, but wholesome and uplifting. Husband-and-wife duo provide historical oddities and lateral-thinking puzzles.

Overdue - Talking about books! A whole lot of books. Books you haven't read but have probably heard of. Good hosts, good energy, talkin' bout books.

Literature and History - Hey would you like to explore the Western literary canon in chronological order? Would you like it in the format of an easy-going but very, very in-depth lecture series? (How in-depth? Beowulf isn't scheduled until episode 104) I've gotten a new appreciation for classical myth through the series, and familiarized myself with works I'd either never studied or never heard of. Love it.

Old Gods of Appalachia - Contains 1) old gods 2) the Appalachians 3) sassy Scotts-Irish witches. It might as well have been made to pander directly to me. Fantastic atmospheric writing.

The Legendarium - Fantasy book podcast. Had a series where one host read through LotR for the first time which was fun, but it ends up being rather tame by my going. Not in-depth or out-there enough to keep my interest. EDIT LONG AFTER THE FACT: These guys did an episode where they interviewed the guy behind Sad Puppies and I got no time for that.

Good Friends of Jackson Elias - Talking shop about Call of Cthulhu. Pretty low-key and relaxing. Fills time.

Expounded Universe - Would you like to know precisely how terrible some of the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels are? This has you covered. Absolute goof-fest. (Turns out you can fix 90% of the EU by just writing Leia as if she's an experienced and competent diplomat but, spoilers, no one does.)

How We Roll - Huge Call of Cthulhu campaign stringing together a bunch of noteworthy scenarios. Only got to the second scenario due to poor audio quality and a general "eh 's whatever' quality to the whole thing.

The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe -  It was 1950 so yes, Archie's attitudes towards women and his means of talking about them are not particularly forward thinking and in one case are directed towards the corpse du jour. That aside, this is a wonderful series with great character dynamics and acting. Having now read one of the books, I can say it nails it.

Film Reroll -The best use GURPS has yet seen. Famous movies go off the rails, hilarity ensues. Alien and Adventure Time are great places to check out.

Pretending to Be People - A Delta Green actual play, featuring three bumbling cops from the middle-of-fucking-nowhere, Missouri. My favorite long-form actual play by a gigantic margin.  It's legitimately horrifying in a lot of places and goofy bullshit right where it needs to be. Double extra supreme bonus points for running a mythos game and never once using a proper name. Not once. Not even once. Infinite unbelievable extreme bonus points for running a Delta Green game where ROT13 gur cynlref ner nyy ba gur znetvaf bs gur npghny QT bcrengvba tbvat ba va gur onpxtebhaq.

Magnus Archives - My opinion on this series is well-established. Season 5 starts in April you have time to catch up what are you doing go listen to it.

The Foreign Beggars / Dirt Boy Blues - DCC (and then Cyber Sprawl Classics) AP. Two players, good chemistry, good effects and editing.

Romance of the 3 Kingdoms - An approachable abridged retelling of the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. Rot3k is still super-complex, but the main site has a load of supplementary material to go along with it.

Ologies - Obscure (and sometimes not too obscure) fields of study, straight from the people doing the studying. Great if you want to learn a whole lot about this one very specific field you never considered anyone making a profession out of.

Revisionist History - Take something normally overlooked: golf clubs and property taxes. Jesuit problem solving. The speed of LSAT testing. Poke it and prod it until it opens up like a puzzle box. Thoughtful, thorough, and insightful.

Heaven's Gate - An empathetic documentary of the cult from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

Bad Books for Bad People - Sometimes it's so bad it's good, sometimes it's so bad it's bad, sometimes it's just grotty and weird and dark and bad in that slang way that means it's good. Your being a bad person is non-negotiable. Embrace that shit.

The FPlus - Terrible things read with enthusiasm.

Castle Superbeast - My listening has peetered out over time (these are very long podcasts with very, very long digressions, and after a while the arguments they can find themselves in get really tiresome), but I still dip in from time to time for video game fun times with a pair of very idiosyncratic fellows.

Not Another D&D Podcast - A fun 5e AP. Silly. Lasted much longer than the other 5e APs I tried listening to, which do not appear here because I have forgotten even their names.

The Green Box Podcast - Some guys from r/NightAtTheOpera talk shop about Delta Green.  Mellonbread is abrasive but the others are laid back.

The Dollop - Two comedians discuss stories from American (and sometimes Australian or Icelandic) history. Always absurd, hilarious, often terrible. I had to stop listening a while back, as new episodes were just too depressing to continue with - you could really feel the psychic toll the Trump era has had on the hosts, Dave in particular.

Sequelisers - Fixing the bad sequels to good movies. I have to admit I like the first three seasons with their 2v2 competitive format more than the no-teams fourth season - more variety in prompts, more good jokes and more creative proposals.

Role Playing Public Radio - Longrunning AP podcast. Mostly one shots and occasional campaigns. Their Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu stuff is usually top notch, Eclipse Phase is generally solid. Some are hit or miss, but you'll figure out if it's a bust early on. I super-recommend "The Dreamer Below" and "Somewhere Lane"


The White Vault - Multinational team goes to check in on a research station on Ny-Alesund experiencing technical difficulties. The various threads haven't yet pulled together, and it can sometimes really stretch the found footage aspect of things, but it's overall enjoyable.

The Hyacinth Disaster - An off-the-books asteroid mining mission goes horribly, horribly wrong. Probably my favorite of the sci-fi on this list - it's contained, it's got chutzpah, it is probably the hardest science of the sci-fi lot.

Blogs on Tape - Nick Whelan of Papers and Pencils + guest voices read good OSR blogposts.

Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur - Actual rocket scientists talks about science and futurism. Has been a massive influence in a lot of my Mothership stuff (all those O'Neill cylinders!)

Tides - Exploring biologist is stranded on a planet with incredible tides and bizarre life. Good stuff.

Mission to Zyxx - Goofy sci-fi improv. Delivers on that premise. Does not add additional premises.

Limetown - Creepy modern horror by way of NPR. The second season isn't as good as the first and I wonder if they got too big for their britches with that TV show, but the first season is sterling stuff.

S-Town - The story of a clock repairman in a shitty little town in the south.  I actually thought this was fictional for over half of the runtime - it was so idiosyncratic that it just had to be fiction, or so claimed my mind.

Knifepoint Horror - The one horror anthology that is actually an anthology, as I don't think there's an actual throughline on any of these episodes. This is probably part of why i recall enjoying them, but can't remember the contents.

Sayer - Menacing, smooth-voiced AI runs rampant in a decaying R&D arcology tower on Earth's second moon. i stopped listening because the audio mixing was really weird - this 'cast was very quiet compared to everything else, or was it the other way around? Either way, it is pretty fun.

Apocrypals - So how much do you know about Biblical apocrypha? Not enough. Get you some fire-breathing Mary and Solomon meeting the butt-stuff dragon and Thecla the lightning-mage. Contains all the dunking on Paul you want and need in your life.

Nightmare Magazine Podcast - I am a huge coward so "Dan stopped listening midway through the episode because spooky" is not particularly shocking, but consider the number of horror podcasts on this list that I listen to and am just fine with. This is the good shit.

LeVar Burton Reads - It's Reading Rainbow for adults. As one might expect, Burton pulls from an wonderful and diverse pool of authors and features some great sci-fi and fantasy picks.

The Signal - A good hook (alien transmission that drives people mad! It's leaking!) that goes nowhere fast and devolves into nothing at the end.

99% Invisible - Another oddity podcast. Not as funny as Fish or as charming as Closet, but good stuff all the same.

Gastropod - Food science! Food history! Food fun! Learn what a pawpaw is!

The Allusionist -  Words are weird, come on and learn how weird they are.

nosleep - It's stories from r/nosleep. It'll work if you are desperate and need to brute-force pass some time, but every single other horror podcast I list here will be better. 

Alzabo Soup - Devoted entirely to the works of Gene Wolfe. Absolutely indispensable as a reading aid if you are tackling the Book of the New Sun.

VAST Horizon - Five hours of a woman sobbing, with intermittent untranslated Chinese. Suffers from flashbacks more interesting than the survival scenario at hand, really handwavy science, and a main character who has the audacity to throw a pity-party despite being a war criminal.

--

Stay tuned for the inevitable Son of the Son of the Podcast Post, releasing 20XX.

An Account of Inherited Books

You can learn a lot about someone by their bookshelf. These were once my dad's, and now they have passed to me.

• The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
• The Annotated Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
• The Annotated Alice, Lewis Carrol
• Histories, Heroditus
• Beowulf, Norton Critical Edition
• The Aenead of Vergil, trans. Rolfe Humphries
• Private Life in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Roger Virgoe
• Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor
• Civilization of the Middle Ages,  Norman Cantor
• Castle, David Macauley
• In Praise of Folly, Erasmus
• The Black Death, Philip Ziegler
• The Travels, Marco Polo
• Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture, ed. Jack Zipes
• Leonardo Da Vinci: the Complete Paintings, Pietro Marani 
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
• Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, trans. Robert van Gulik
• Judge Dee at Work, Robert van Gulik
• The Emperor's Pearl, Robert van Gulik
• The Chinese Gold Murders, Robert van Gulik
• The Chinese Bell Murders, Robert van Gulik 
• The Lacquer Screen, Robert van Gulik
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
• Second copy of Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
• Mulliner Nights, P.G. Wodehouse
• The Feudal Spirit, P.G. Wodehouse
• Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, P.G. Wodehouse
• Cocktail Time, P.G. Wodehouse
• Luck of the Bodkins, P.G. Wodehouse
• The Man Upstairs, P.G. Wodehouse
• Very Good, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
• The League of Frightened Men, Rex Stout
• A second copy of The League of Frightened Men
• Please Pass the Guilt, Rex Stout
• Plot it Yourself, Rex Stout
• Representing Reality: Readings in Non-Fiction, John Warnock
• Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, Sr. Wendy Beckett
• Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers
• Hush Money, Robert Parker
• Jack, Knave, and Fool, Bruce Alexander
• Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie
• Noble Radiance, Donna Leon
• Acqua Alta, Donna Leon
• The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
• Valediction, Robert Parker
• The Lies of Fair Ladies, Jonathan Grant
• Armadillos and Old Lace, Kinky Friedman
• Murder at the ABA, Isaac Asimov
• Fletch Reflected, Gregory Mcdonald
• The Road to Rhuine, Simon Troy
• The World of Giotto, Sarel Eimerl
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
• Style (3rd Ed.), Joseph Williams
• The Well-Tempered Sentence, Karen Elizabeth Gordon
• The Transitive Vampire, Karen Elizabeth Gordon
• Citizen Sherman, Michael Fellman
• Atlas of the Civil War, Time-Life
• The Pythons, the Pythons
• Monty Python's Flying Circus DVD box set
• 2 daily calendars compatible with 2020 and 2026.
• Several books of crossword puzzles, partially completed in pen.
• A wooden mask, laughing. 
• Desk sign: "English Department: Sentences diagrammed, infinitives split, participles dangled, while you wait."
• A finger painting I made in preschool. 

Now if I can't make an adventure or ten out of this list I might as well just quit this whole RPG thing. To avoid this grievous disappointment, here is the skeleton of a campaign come up with on the fly. Given the nature of most of the books on this list, this would probably be best suited for BRP or GURPS.

Session 1: Judge Dee and his lieutenants are confronted with the case of the "Laughing Mask Murders". Judge Dee, unsettled by the events, sends the wooden mask into the care of the Imperial Censors in the capital.

Session 2: Beowulf and his Geats come to the aid of Hrothgar, kill the monster Grendel and his mother. Great and wonderful treasures are found: among them, a golden mask with a terrible visage. All are taken back to Götaland.

Session 3: A short comedic interlude wherein Marco Polo and companions assist the Khan's men to solve a mystery. They are given the Laughing Mask as a reward, and it is taken back to Italy.

Session 4: The Plague has reached northern Italy. A monastery, spared of the sickness thus far, is struck with a string of mysterious deaths. All the while, the Laughing Mask sits in the main alcove of the library.

Session 5: Da Vinci's anatomical lessons get out of hand as the dead seem to leap up from the table. One of the corpses gets its hold on the Laughing Mask (Leonardo had acquired it some time before) and goes on a rampage.

Session 6: A band of Union soldiers separated from Sherman's main force find themselves lost in the Georgia backwoods, stalked by a monstrous being in a weeping stone mask.

Session 7: Sherlock Holmes is brought in to solve the theft of the Terrible Mask from the British Museum. While doing so he meets an old American soldier who shares the story of the Weeping Mask. The soldier steals the Terrible Mask and smuggles it over to America, for reasons unknown.

Session 8: Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves have a rather silly little adventure of no greater consequence.

Phase 9: Chaos is unleashed as the three masks are joined during Game 4 of the 1966 World Series. Yes, this is a JoJo reference.


Not half bad for off the top of my head. Had to finish it off with baseball, the old man was a gigantic Orioles fan and he'd at least be entertained by all the musical gags in JoJo.

Star Wars Clearinghouse

Doing some notebook clearinghouse and metal tidying, so here's a summary of the Skywalker Saga Dodecology.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Obi-Wan finds Anakin working on a spice freighter in the Outer Rim (alongside Uncle Owen, it ought be noted). Takes the boy under his wing, hoping that his potential in the Force might save the crumbling and corrupt Order. The first battlefronts of what would become the Clone Wars are opening up, interrupting their journey to Coruscant.

Episode II: The Clone Wars

Vignettes from the Wars, spanning several years. Anakin completes his training under Obi-Wan, starts a secret relationship with senator Padme Amidala, and is assigned an apprentice (Ahsoka). Campaigns on Geonosis, Nelvaan, and in interplanetary space are featured.

Episode III: The Dark Times

The wars have dragged on for over a decade at this point. Padme is pregnant with twins. Ahsoka knows about this and has essentially been adopted into the family at this point. Anakin becomes more and more vocally critical of the Council, the Republic, and the war effort. The Council, fearful of Anakin's legendary popularity with the public, attempts to blackmail him: this drives him toward Palpatine, who capitalizes on Anakin's desire to renew the Order and see the end the war. Anakin kills most of the Jedi council during Order 66 (no child murder), duels Obi-Wan to a standstill. Anakin is rebuilt as Darth Vader, Obi-Wan flees with Padme and Ahsoka. Complications during childbirth due to lack of appropriate medical care lead to Padme's death a few days later. Leia is put under the protection of Bail Organa, to be watched over by Ahsoka; Luke is sent to Owen and Beru on Tatooine, to be watched over by Obi-Wan.

Episode IV: A New Hope

Timeskip. Plot progresses as normal. Primary deviance is that Ahsoka is present (in disguise) as Leia's bodyguard. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka fight Darth Vader aboard the Death Star - both die. Everything else remains more or less the same, barring the psychological strain of Luke being responsible for the deaths of millions. Republic established as being both the Republic government-in-exile and the remnants of the CIS.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Plot progresses as normal, save Luke's guilt over the events in the previous movie fueling his abandonment of Yoda's teachings. The revelation of Vader as Luke's father is a surprise to the audience more because of the moment of humanity for Vader.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Plot progresses as normal. Luke wrestles with his despair; his forgiveness of his father is also forgiveness of himself. Luke vanishes from the public eye at the end, to collect as many remnants of the Jedi as he can and work towards rebuilding both the order and the galaxy.

Episode VII: Rogue Squadron

Timeskip. The Alliance pushes towards the core. Leia is the only one of the core three to appear. Rogue Squadron manages to open a path at Borleas with the help of smuggling kingpin Talon Karrde, allowing the main fleet to reach Coruscant. Mother-fucking space battles.

Episode VIII: The Hand of Thrawn

Leia is very pregnant with twins. Luke emerges from his travels a changed man. He lays out plans for building a new Jedi Academy and the gathering of new recruits. Thrawn shows up, wrecks everyone's shit. Luke and Han meet up with Karrde to see about using his intelligence network to hold off Thrawn. Luke gets googly-eyes for Mara Jade, she thinks he's pretty swell, they start a little wink-wink nudge-nudge, it's all good. Space battle against Thrawn above Myrkr, Thrawn held off in a last-minute victory.

Episode IX: Heir to the Empire

Leia travels to Honoghr and convinces the Nohgri to switch sides. Luke and Mara fight the mad Jedi C'baoth on Wayland. Final battle with Thrawn. Jaina and Jacen Solo are born in the middle of said space battle. Han dies. Thrawn is killed by one of his bodyguards, Captain Pellaeon assumes control of the Imperial fleet and retreats to the border of the Unknown Regions in the Galactic north. Luke and Mara move to Yavin 4 in preparation for renewing the Jedi Academy.

Episode X: The Force Awakens

Significant timeskip. Luke, satisfied with his work, has handed off the Academy and has retired to a remote hermitage with Mara Jade. Rey, a jedi-in-training, is introduced as the new main character. Kyle Katarn, Corran Horn, Dorsk 81, Kirana Ti, etc are featured (at least in passing) as instructors.

Everything then goes all to shit as the Academy is sacked by an Imperial Remnant strike force, led by one Kylo Ren and the Knights of Revan. Rey barely manages to escape the assault, taking refuge on a rustbucket ship alongside Finn (Imperial defector), Poe (hotshot Republic pilot) and Rose (mechanic). They learn that the strike was one of several, all aimed at crippling a galaxy that had grown complacent. A man known only as Snoke has declared himself emperor and returned the Remnant to strength in the Unknown Regions. Rey and co. zip-zap around trying to find Luke's hermitage and avoiding Kylo and the Imperial Remnant (It's Avatar in space at this point, we're doing Avatar in space.)

Episode XI: The Last Jedi

Cannot be fixed.

For real, I have bashed my head against this wall for ten months now and I have to finally admit that i don't think it's possible. So much of TLJ is possible only by ignoring factors that lead into it, and in this setup I've written there are even MORE factors to deal with than went into the actual movie.

So the buck stops here. Substitute Avatar Season 2 for filler. Rey learns both the light and dark from Luke and Mara. There is a wound in the Force. The division of light and dark was never supposed to exist, and now the two sides devour each other in an eternal cycle.  Luke and Mara get an amazing final fight duet against Kylo Ren (who is Jacen Solo). The torch is passed for the final time to Rey. Last shot to bring balance.

Episode XII: Balance of the Whills

Rey goes to Korriban, site of the original wound in the Force, defeats Snoke (who might be channeling some Nihilus), and ends the cycle of imbalance. Form hereon there are no Jedi nor Sith, there is only the Force in balance.

Other notes 

• Liam Neeson plays Talon Karrde.
• The final trilogy might work better as a TV series. I am sticking to Avatar in Space.
•  I wanted to keep changes relatively in line with the current of the existing movies (hence why TLJ was a "give up" moment - fixing requires replaced in that case)
• Fitting Mara in the Rey trilogy was one of the more difficult things to manage. In old versions of this she was heading the search for Luke in disguise, Ben Skywalker had been killed by Kylo at the academy massacre (which of course eliminated the plot because Mara just insta-gibs Kylo on sight in that case.) and overall she just sunk the story.
• Consider this ghost exorcised. We're done here.

The Podcast Post

I listen to a lot of podcasts. A LOT of podcasts. So, taking a page out of Connor W's book, here's a selection of what I've been listening to. Podcasts with an extra recommendation will be marked with a [GOLD STAR].

Several of these show up on Connor's list too (that's where I was introduced to them in the first place), and they're well worth mentioning again.

Podcasts

 

The Dollop

David Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Two comedians discuss obscure and absurd American (and sometimes Icelandic or Australian) history. Lots of interesting and gameable things here, and a certain amount of zen that comes with the acceptance of the perpetual insanity of the world. [GOLD STAR]

Sequelisers

Jack Chambers, Stuart Ashen, Alec Plowman, Matthew Stogdon, Tim Maytom

Four British men propose re-writes of bad sequels to good movies. Played as two teams competing against each other for the completely arbitrary favor of the judge. The end results are always interesting, with plenty of left field curveballs to go along with the more true-to-the-original pitches.

Blogs on Tape

Nick Whelan

Fun, interesting, and useful blogposts from the OSR / DIY RPG community for your listening pleasure.

Bad Books for Bad People 

Tenebrous Kate and Jack Guignol

Do you like people talking about horror-gothic-weird-sex-stuff books, and occasional other books? Good, they do that. It's fun.

The Magnus Archives

Rusty Quill

A god-damn excellent horror serial series. Spooky stories, intricate metaplot, excellent acting, a mythos ripe for exploration, and a plan to see through things to the end at episode 200. Top marks, an absolute must-listen. This will not be the last time I talk about them. [MANY GOLD STARS]

Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

Isaac Arthur

An actual rocket scientist talks about big picture concepts in space exploration, colonization, the Fermi Paradox, and more. Absolutely worth a listen if you're in the mood for some more optimistic ideas of future technology, or really feel like some mind-bending huge scale. It takes a little bit to get used to Isaac's speech impediment at first, but you get used to it soon. [GOLD STAR]

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber, Nicola Twiley

Fun food history and science. Always puts you in a good mood, if a hungry one.

TFS Bento: Anime FMK

Kirran Somerlade, Scott Frerichs, and Ben Creighton

Three guys watch a bunch of anime that no one has time for, and sort out the chaff from the good stuff. Actually works decently well as entertainment with no context at all for the shows in question, but I might be an outlier on that.

Heaven's Gate

Glenn Washington

A detailed and empathetic look at the Heaven's Gate cult, from inception to end. A fantastic documentary. Don't take the lack of words here as lack of content, it is fantastic [TWO GOLD STARS]

Mission to Zyxx 

Audioboom

Improv sci-fi comedy, right in the Star Wars / Star Trek / Hitchhikers'. Great for a laugh. Season 2 is underway! [GOLD STAR]

LeVar Burton Reads 

LeVar Burton

The man himself reads his favorite short stories. Loads of great sci-fi and fantasy here. Further explanation unnecessary. Start with "The Second Bakery Attack" if you want a blind jump-in point [GOLD STAR]

The Diecast

Shamus Young and Paul Spooner

A laid back show about games and programming. Lots of letter-bag segments, occasional themed episodes. Easy listening, good if you like programmer dads being chill.

Actual Plays

The Foreign Beggars

Tabletop Twats

An excellently edited and acted two-man DCC adventure. Hilarious and great listening, irregular uploads but lots of care given to presentation. [GOLD STAR]

Role Playing Public Radio

Ross Payton et al.

High-quality APs of a variety of games. Lots of Eclipse Phase, Base Raiders, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Red Markets, and one-offs. The recent Zweihander episode and "Somewhere Lane" are some of the best APs I've ever listened to.

Film Reroll 

Paulo Quiros and many other people

Famous movies are played through using GURPS. Shenanigans ensue as scripts are thrown right out the window and movie logic is overturned.

Orpheus Protocol

Rob, Staci, Dan, Jhan 

Long-running AP of the game by the same name. Lots of weird magical-horrific conspiracy stuff going on (this appears to be a theme in my picks). The GM knows what he's doing when it comes to slow burns, unsettling imagery, and cranking up the nightmare fuel

Not Actually Podcasts

Down the Rabbit Hole

Fredrick Knudsen 

A look into bizarre and forgotten corners of the internet and unsettling stories that have slipped through the cracks of memory. Deep well of gameable material.

Game Maker's Toolkit

Mark Brown

In-depth, but approachable, discussions on specific mechanics in video games and how they work. [GOLD STAR]

Like I said: A LOT of podcasts...