Gofre's Cultural Experiment blog and progress thread!

How much culture can you fit in one year? A TSR experiment returns

Get Involved!

I remember seeing the original version of this experiment when I first signed up to TSR (what feels like eons ago :moon:

) so when I saw it had been revived for 2015 I figured I'd give it a go! My main focus is going to be on movies, both at the cinema and at home, but I plan on cramming in as many TV shows, games and books as I can too! This is all while trying to fit in improving my photography and taking a photo a day!

This is where I'll be recording my progress, probably with a weekly update. Wish me luck :ahee:

Primary Objectives
*See at least 52 different movies at the cinema. Stretch goal: See 100 movies. Current progress; 4/100
*Complete the IMDB Top 100 films. Current progress; 5/100

Secondary Objectives
*Reread A Song of Ice and Fire 0/5
*Read more books than last year 0/???
*Play through as many games as possible 0/???
*Watch as many critically acclaimed TV series as possible 3/???
*Take a decent photograph per day 10/365

My Progress!

Films seen at the Cinema (8/100)

100 IMDB Top progress (3/100)

TV Series watched (4/???)

Games Completed 0/???

Books Read (0/???)

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

username612415

Scheduled for the week ahead;
*Cinema: Birdman, The Theory of Everything
*IMDB: Godfather Part One, Godfather Part Two
*TV: Dexter Season 3, maybe marathon something else on Netflix
*Games: Try and complete Assassin's Creed Black Flag

Reply 2

SirMasterKey

I quite enjoyed Exodus although it is one of those films where I probably won't watch it again.

We have the Godfather pt 1 here so I should watch it at some point sems as I haven't seen it yet.

Reply 3

Puddles the Monkey

Ooh, you put numbers in you blog category... this is a good idea :colone:

I'm liking the photos aspect :yy:

Do you have a Flickr account? :h:

Reply 4

SirMasterKey

Also how addictive are the SOIAF books. Seriously, I always read several more chapters than planned as I get hooked. Although my face reading the Red Wedding followed by Arya's chapter ending

Spoiler

My face went from :eek:

Reply 5

username612415

Original post by SirMasterKey

I quite enjoyed Exodus although it is one of those films where I probably won't watch it again.

We have the Godfather pt 1 here so I should watch it at some point sems as I haven't seen it yet.

It was ok, but to me it felt like it could have done with being half an hour shorter or half an hour longer. It felt like it was juggling between an action film, epic and biopic and didn't do a particularly great job at any of them.

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

Ooh, you put numbers in you blog category... this is a good idea :colone:

I'm liking the photos aspect :yy:

Do you have a Flickr account? :h:

Yeah I figured I'd leave a basic score for each film I watched :smile:

I've currently just set up a tmblr but will probs upload to my flickr too :h:

I'm about two weeks behind on editing and uploading though so I'm catching up on that over the next couple of days :ahee:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ajh365

Original post by SirMasterKey

Also how addictive are the SOIAF books. Seriously, I always read several more chapters than planned as I get hooked. Although my face reading the Red Wedding followed by Arya's chapter ending

Spoiler

My face went from :eek:

They are awesome :teeth:

Reply 6

username612415

Cinema plans sorta got derailed by a wrok night out putting me out of commission on Sunday when it came to hardcore film watching, so I instead had to settle for being dragged to a less involving watch of Taken 3 :ahee:

Not too bad as far as cheesy action flicks go but I'd starting forgetting about it before I'd even gotten home.

I did make my way through the top three of the IMDB topp 100 though, all excellent films! Admittedly the Godfather series aren't entirely to my tastes but they're still undeniably superb films.

Scheduled for the week ahead;
*Cinema: Whichever films from January I need to catch before they finish showing!
*TV: Begin watching Fortitude, finish House season 8

Reply 7

username612415

Got myself in the swing of two films per week now, fingers crossed I'll be able to catch ATOE and Foxcatcher this week before they finish! I also got the wrong week for Fortitude, so looking forward to that starting :teeth:

As for this week, I watched;

Cinema: American Sniper (7/10), Birdman (8/10)
IMDB Top 100: The Dark Knight (9/10), Pulp Fiction (9/10)
TV: House Season 8, Dexter Season 4

Reply 8

Puddles the Monkey

Ooh, I'm going to see Birdman tonight! :woo:

What did you think of it?

Reply 9

username612415

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

Ooh, I'm going to see Birdman tonight! :woo:

What did you think of it?

It was great, definitely in my top five films of last year :yep:

Reply 10

SirMasterKey

Are you going to be seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service or Ex Machina?

Think I will go and see those. :yep:

Reply 11

username612415

Original post by SirMasterKey

Are you going to be seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service or Ex Machina?

Think I will go and see those. :yep:

I'll be seeing both :smile:

I was meant to go to an advance screening of Kingsman on Monday but my friend I was going with was ill! Think I may wait for CHAPPiE to be released and see it and Ex Machina back to back for an AI-themed day :ahee:

Reply 12

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by SirMasterKey

Are you going to be seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service or Ex Machina?

Think I will go and see those. :yep:

I hope Ex Machina will not be disappointing. It'd be good to have a decent A.I film. :woo:

Especially because Transcendence was so awful... :grumble:

Reply 13

username612415

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

I hope Ex Machina will not be disappointing. It'd be good to have a decent A.I film. :woo:

Especially because Transcendence was so awful... :grumble:

Transcendence had the potential to be a cool sci fi film, with an interesting premise and strong cast, but that just got lost in all the silliness and plot holes :unimpressed:

Reply 14

Puddles the Monkey

*plot abysses

Dreadful, truly. I don't know how nobody stopped it.

Reply 15

username612415

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

*plot abysses

Dreadful, truly. I don't know how nobody stopped it.

The director's been Christopher Nolan's cinematographer for most of his recent films and has done incredibly well at that, so maybe when he turned his hand to directing the studio assumed he would know what he was doing. Turns out he should stick to cinematography!

Reply 16

username612415

Update time, and it's a bit of a minor one!

Films seen;
*A most violent year (6/10)
*Kingsman: The Secret Service (6/10)

IMDB and TV have taken a knock this week, I haven't really watched anything noteworthy. I did start re-reading A Game of Thrones though, and also took a trip to the theatre to see Spamalot, which was excellent :smile:

I'm seeing A Theory of Everything and the Imitation Game tomorrow, then Selma next weekend.

Reply 17

username612415

Update time!

I never managed to see The Imitation Game, and sadly Ex Machina seems to have dropped off my local Cineworld's schedule after only a couple of weeks :erm:

I did manage to make a couple of trips though. We're also losing Sky this month so rather than working through the IMDB top 250 I've been working through the movies saved on out Sky+ box before we get disconnected- although one movie was in the top 250 so it sorta counts :ahee:

Cinema
*The Theory of Everything- 8/10
*Jupiter Ascending- 4/10.

Other movies
*Se7en- 8/10
*The Guard- 7/10
*Tucker and Dale vs Evil- 7/10

Reply 18

Baby Milo

It's a shame that you missed The Imitation Game as it's an excellent film. I really enjoyed The Theory of Everything too. I think I'll give Jupiter Ascending a miss based on your rating.

:lol:

Reply 19

username612415

Ooh Interstellar is being reshown on Monday, not gonna pass up a chance to see that on the big screen again :teeth:

also planning on seeing Blackhat and Whiplash over the weekend.

Original post by Baby Milo

It's a shame that you missed The Imitation Game as it's an excellent film. I really enjoyed The Theory of Everything too. I think I'll give Jupiter Ascending a miss based on your rating.

:lol:

I'm hoping they'll show it again as part of the "BAFTA tour" Cineworld are doing!

If you want to go to the cinema and there's nothing else to watch I'd still consider watching JA, your opinion may differ from mine! The film is gorgeous aesthetically and the action and effects are extremely well done, it's just that the actual content of the film is a letdown. A good visual feast for a couple of hours, but that's about it :yep: