In the following you find some pretty random reviews of some pretty random things. Enjoy.

Legend:

• ⭐️ … Emphasis to express how much i liked it.
• 🎭 … Conditional recommendation (“if you are in this type of thing…”)

Moving Pictures

‘#’

• 8 Mile. This is a much better movie than commonly thought. I admit that it is not great cinema. The movie is also not the junk that some pretend it is.
• 12 Monkeys. This is a super cool science fiction movie. It has a great premise and it executes perfectly. Also, the movie is surreal and strange in a good way.
• 21 Jumps Street. I did not enjoy this, despite generally liking Jonah Hill.
• 500 Days of Summer. This is a wonderful rom com.

A

• About Schmidt. Better than I expected.
• A Haunting in Venice. For me the weakest of the new Poirot trilogy. That said, I do like the link of Venice to the horror/suspense theme, since before the city was branded as the city of love it always had a dark undertone and was associated with dark magic, intrigues and scary deaths.
• The Amazing Maurice. I love the book so the movie has a bit of a disadvantage. Still a nice story, confidently told. Would have loved if it had a bit higher production values (especially in terms of lighting).
• American History X. This is a great movie about the propagation of violence over time. It is also a very interesting depiction of neo-nazis in America. And, it is also a study of how the external world related to internal ones.
• Amores Perros. This is the first movie by Iñárritu that I saw and also his debut (if you don’t count the shorts and the tv production). Anyways, the movie is a very interesting movie that weaves three stories about (kind of) unlikeable characters together. I can highly recommend it.
• Amsterdam. I do not understand this movie.
• Anna. Very similar to Atomic Blonde, but not so fresh. Still good.
• A Rainy Day in New York. Surprisingly good movie for people who like Woody Allen movies. I do not like the setting too much.
• Arcane (series; S1). You can think about League of Legends what you want, but this is a very good animation series. It’s great on many levels: Art, story, and ideas. If I would critique something it is that I wish that they would go a bit further at some points even if that would have made the series more controversial.
• Arcane (series; S2). Overall it feels as if someone wanted to push ideas for multiple seasons into a single one. The art of this season is even better than the one of S1; the presentation is also more slick (albeit I have to say that, as cool as it is, the music-video story telling annoyed my after some point). Everything else, however is less good than the first season.
• Argylle. Because of its premise and its ties in to Kingsman and whatnot I really wanted to like this spy comedy. Alas, I did not. In the end the movie was just too superficial and goofy (in a bad way) for me.
• Army of Thieves. Beautiful visuals, mediocre movie, annoying franchise tie-ins and extremely bad ending.
• Arrow. Meh.
• 🎭 A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix Series). This is a visual stunning series with a magical plot, but no magic in it. Maybe not for everyone but I’ve been blown away.
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I love the aesthetics, but the plot and the pacing not so much. Needs to be watched with patience.
• Asteroid City. For me this is great movie about creativity, invention, and movie making. It is not as good as The French Dispatch — which is similar in many ways and I love — or as inspiring as Paterson — which is a very different movie about creativity that I love. So, not the best of its kind, but still very worthwhile.
• Atomic Blonde. A good movie if one is in the mood for action. I like the style, the fights and the setting.
• Ava. Yeah, I don’t know. The movie is not necessary bad, but its not good either. I guess the best part are fight-choreographies.
• Avengers: Endgame . Please just stop.

B

• Bable. Good movie. Difficult to think now that blockbusters at a time had this quality.
• Baby Driver. Just fun. Essentially, Baby Driver is a great, great car-chase movie. The heist aspect is also nice, but you want to watch this movie because of the chase scenes.
• ⭐️ Back to the Future I to III. Classic. Very enjoyable movie.
• Bad Boys. One the movies that made Will Smith the star that he is today. Fun candy, but not very nutritional.
• Black Bag. Very good agent thriller. The style reminds me a bit of John Le Carré. I personally would have wished for a „less cleaner“ story-line, but that might be personal taste.
• BlacKkKlansman. The movie tells the story of a black undercover agent who investigates the KKK in the 70s. It has its lengths and even felt boring at some points. But overall it is packed full with ideas and commentary about the current state of the US. Spike Lee knows what he is doing.
• Black Widow. I cannot precisely point out why, but the after watching the movie it felt as if I just wasted my time. Not the best feeling.
• Beach Bum. Nothing for me. Felt annoying from minute one on, so that I eventually needed to stop watching.
• The Bear, S1. One of the finest tv series I have ever seen. If you are not put of by the cooking/restaurant theme a must watch. Truly incredible.
• The Bear, S2. A master piece. I would say that the overall plot is constructed worse than then the one for S1, but some of individual episodes are even better. Definitely a highlight.
• The Bear, S3. I have mixed feelings about this season. It is still better than most series and the first episode is a master piece. However, the season also did not manage to enchant me like the previous ones did. I guess it is impossible to keep the magic up forever.
• The Bear, S4. I guess at this point, the series has become an okaish series about letting go and moving on. It has some strong episodes, but misses the strong ark that S1 had or the subtleties and story telling of S2. Not bad, not good.
• The Beekeeper. I like the idea, but the movie is just nothing for me.
• Between Two Ferns: The Movie. I did like the old series on youtube. I do not like the flick.
• Being John Malkovich. A self referential movie that has a self referential plot. Quite interesting.
• ⭐️ Blue Eye Samurai (series). If Kill Bill would be nudged up a bit and also become an animation series in ancient Japan you would probably get something like this. I cannot emphasize enough how good this animation is. The story is great, the art is great, the action is great, the choreography is great, the homages are great. I have some problems with some small parts here an there, but they do not matter. This is just very enjoyable.
• ⭐️ Big Fish. <3 <3 <3 One of my favorite movies <3 <3 <3
• 🎭 The Big Lebowski. And imensly good way to waste ones time. Probably the best slacker movie and one of the finest of them all.
• Bill & Ted Face the Music. It is what it is. And that is fine. If you like Bill & Ted (like me) you will like this movie, if you don’t like em or don’t know em its nothing for you.
• Birds of Prey. An average superhero movie. Actually, I would say slightly below average. Barbie is a great Harley Quinn, but that does not save the movie.
• Black Swan. Incredibly movie about ballet, which is, of course, good because it is not about ballet. Not for every day.
• Blue Jasmine. This would be a great movie if the ending would be a little bit better. The way it is, however, it is just a good one.
• 🎭 The Boys S1. AMAZING.
• The Boys S2. Still good. it manages to be more structured than the first season, while being much more all over the place at the same time.
• The Boys S3. They go way to deep in this one. Better than season 2, but not as novel as season 1.
• The Boys S4. Surprisingly bad. And, with that I mean that the season is VERY BAD. So far this season is definitely the lowest point of the series.
• The Breakfast Club. Its probably because I have seen this movie when I was very young, but I just love it.
• Bullet Train. Funny assassin movie with lots and lots of action. Popcorn flick. Entertaining tarantinoesque spectacle. Quite funny and over the top. Maybe a bit too involved at times. Would recommend.
• Burn After Reading. Just great entertainment.
• The Butterfly Effect. Surprisingly good popcorn movie. A lot of things do not work for me, but somehow it still holds together.

C

• Café Society. This movie is also a mixed bag for me. I enjoy the premise, the style and the humor, but I did not enjoy it that much. Maybe its to rushed?
• Catch Me If You Can. Interesting movie with some pacing problems.
• Challengers. This is a good movie. I do not care about tennis at all, but that does not matter. The female lead has kind of a bad chemistry with the two male leads, but the movie is constructed in such a way that it makes it even better.
• Charlie’s Angels. Big waste of time.
• China Town. I saw this movie by coincidence, without knowing anything about it before hand. And boy, that was a cool experience — such a good movie.
• The Climb. I loved the start, did not like the main movie, and found the end ok. Overall: Interesting movie.
• Cloak & Dagger. At its best the series is mediocre, at its worst it is bad.
• Cobra Kai. I watched S1, S2 and parts of S3. Given the premise (a next-gen Karate Kid story with the aged actors of the original movies), I thought this series could become a guilty pleasure of mine — but it did not. The nostalgia factor is great and the music selection, but overall the story-telling was just too boring for me too stick with the series.
• Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Good movie about a show host who is also a C.I.A. agent. Kind off a slow burner. Dreamy, at times surrealistic, always stylish. Needs commitment.
• Crank. An ok action movie. It has an interesting ideas and some funny ideas, but overall the pacing (and the characters) are a bit to annoying.
• Cross. I am not a big fan of this kind of crime thrillers. I think within the genre this series is ok. It is just not my thing.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. One of the best Kung Fu movies ever made.
• The Cuphead Show. Would only recommend if you like the Cuphead artstyle and/or the game.

D

• 🎭 Danger 5 (S1). Easily one of the best TV shows out there.
• The Darjeeling Limited. Is a Wes Anderson Movie so its great. That said, I think it is among the ones I like the least.
• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. This is an incredible unique and wonderful series. Please watch if you are not taken aback by the style and like fantasy.
• The Dark Knight. Very good movie. Maybe a bit overrated? Liked it a lot at first, but wouldn’t watch it anymore (which is not a particularly good sign).
• Dark Web: Cicada 3301. Almost complete trash. I just watched it because I was curious about how they realized the hacker-theme after watching Who am I.
• Dead Man. A good movie. Just not my pair of shoes.
• Deadpool 1 & 2. Parts of the movies are funny, but overall it is not my kind of humor.
• Deadpool & Wolverine. I do not understand why everyone likes this movie so much. The movie is ok. It feels a like AHDS is described. At the end I was exhausted. The movie is way too long and has too many bad comedy elements. Yet, it still better than most Marvel movies these days.
• Death on the Nile. A mediocre movie with amazing cinematography.
• Death Race. Mad Max for people who “unironically” like “The Fast and the Furios XYZ”.
• Departed. Overly dramatic staging of the struggles between an undercover cop and mole. I think the movie is not for everyone and it is also not for all times. But, it is fun to watch and never boring. I would recommend Departed to everyone who likes stories about agent, crime and/or undercover operations
• Desperado. Very good gunslinger movie with, amongst others, a young Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Its fun.
• Donnie Darko. This movie proof how a picture can be great not despite but *because a director is not able to communicate properly.
• Down Cemetery Road. Okaish female detective story. The series is entertaining and has some nice twists, but it often looses me. Maybe it is my fault for expecting too much.
• Dune: Part I. Visually interesting movie, but in the end I felt to detached from all characters to care and was even slightly bored.
• Dune: Part II. This is a much better movie than part I. The visuals are still breathtaking, but now characters, pacing and story also became great. I also liked how a lot of the future visions that go beyond the story where weaved into. The movie has its problems, but its still great. Outside of the fandom, however, its a must see for science fiction fans.
• Dr. Strange. An ok movie. However, it could be so much better if the plot would just be more intriguing.
• Dr. Strange 2. Boring.
• Drive-Away Dolls. A Cohen without its brother. I understand why the Drive-Away Dolls got such mixed reviews. The humor is quite at times quite blunt and a lot of scenes are overacted. Even I recognized that. But, apart from that the experience feels like a light hearted movie from the brothers with all elements that I like about their movies, less of the darkness, and some to loud scenes.
• Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. This movie is surprisingly funny and light-hearted. It follows the formula from Guardians of the Galaxy in that a untrustworthy, „useless“ leader assembles a band of misfits and saves the day. Cool.

E

• El Mariachi. Great predecessor of Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
• The Expendables 1, 2 & 3. Meh.
• Everything Everywhere All at Once. Good, weird, and unconventional movie. Maybe not as good as everyone says, but definitely as weird and unconventional.

F

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The visuals and settings are great. Everything else is forgettable, bland and boring.
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. I know that a lot of people enjoyed this movie. I am not one of them.
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Silly movie with very bad story telling which does not understand its strengths and weaknesses.
• ⭐️ Fantastic Mr. Fox. One of the best Wes Anderson Movies and in many ways the spiritual predecessor of Isle of Dogs. Would recommend.
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I always wanted to like FaL movie, but I never did. It is jus too loose for me.
• ⭐️ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This movies shows coolest rich kids in the world skip high school and manages to depicts them as likeable funny characters! Some things in the movie feel a bit old now, but that makes everything even funnier. In summary, this is movie a super funny, ever-green, feel good movie.
• 🎭 Fight Club. A good movie. If you have not seen it, watch it. Do not wait. It will get spoiled for you.
• Finest Kind. Very good movie about families and intergenerational conflict. Also stars fishing and drugs.
• The First Slam Dunk. This is a good animation movie, but I do NOT like the aesthetic (as opposed to the way the comics are drawn).
• Flight of the Conchords. Two guys from New Zealand stranded in New York. Comedy gold.
• Following An early work of Christopher Nolan, which I liked very when I saw it — ages ago. And I actually, still think its very good.
• ⭐️ The French Dispatch. This movie is basically a love letter to the New Yorkers and its quirky style and people. But, everything is French and has a Wes Anderson touch. I love it.
• From Dusk till Dawn. A uncut gem. I do enjoy the first part much more than the second. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the movie as a whole.

G

• The Game. This is a very good thriller with a nice plot twist. Also, Michael Douglas is excellent.
• Game of Thrones. Amazing start, terrible end. As a matter of fact, I could not watch the last episodes.
• Gangs of New York. I did enjoy the movie, but it did not leave a lasting impression.
• 🎭 The Gentlemen. I guess this is Guy Ritchie at its best. Pretty much everything I like about his movies, without much of the bad.
• The Gentlemen (series). A not so great mini-series that goes through all the Guy Ritchie trademarks. It starts light, funny, and interesting, but gets worse and worse. I was especially disappointed by the ending. The journey there was ok, however. Overall, I would say it is a okaish, but uninspired.
• The Girl Next Door. I have to give it to the movie. It is funnier than I thought, given its premise: A comedy about teeny falls in love with a (former) pornstar. That said, the is still not a particularly great.
• Glass Onion. The very entertaining successor off the very entertaining Knives Out and as good as it. Glass Onion goes into a very different direction: A intriguing mixture of satire, social commentary crime-comedy and character play. commentary. Benoit Blanc fades a bit into the background. But, the movie is as ingenious the first one.
• ⭐️ The Godfather i, ii & iii Top. Aged very well. First is best.
• Good Will Hunting. A relatable story about the difficulties of a genius in a normal world. Its good, but not my type of movie.
• ⭐️ The Grand Budapest Hotel. A gem. And probably, my favorite Wes Anderson movie. The whole movie is polished to the max. The story is touching, intense and comical. The colors are great. The depiction of West Europe is perfect. I love it.
• Gran Torino. I am not a big fan of Clint Eastwood (both as a director and as an actor), but I somehow surprisingly like the movie.
• Gravity Falls. One of the best cartoon series I know of.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. I liked the first one, found the second one boring and love the third one. This is a really great end to the series (and for me the last superhero movie I will watch in a long time).

H

• Hackers. This is a very fun movie from a very different time. Back then, everyone I knew complained about the overly comical depiction of hackers. But honestly: Who really cares? Nothing about this movie is realistic anyways and its fun and spreads a nice message.
• Hero. This is one of the movies that made me fall in love with cinema. It is Chinese Kungfu movie, and also has some problematic political undertones. So, I think its not for everyone. However, if one is not too put off be these things one gets rewarded with extremely pleasing visuals.
• Hitman’s Bodyguard. A funny action movie, which is at time annoying and a bit too long.
• Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Basically an over-the-top sequel to “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”: Little continuity, more crazy jokes and less interesting plot. Good if you like this kind of movie.
• The Hobbit 1 to 3. A cynical copy of the LOD formula without the heart and the story. I did like universe beforehand, but by the time the third Hobbit movie came I had no love for the franchise anymore. Sad.
• 🎭 Horace and Pete. This one was much more than I expected. Must watch.
• House. I think I would not watch this series anymore and it definitely has to many seasons. That said, back in the days I loved this take on the Sherlock Homes formula- Therefore, I still have a warm place for it in my heart.
• House Of Ninjas (series). Combining a family sitcom with edgy, over the top ninja action sounded like a fun premise to me. However, the whole series is super frustrating, because it is superficial and inconsequent in an annoying way.

I

• I am Legend. This movie was better than I expected: Not great, but good mind candy.
• The Illusionist. Nice movie. Good eye and brain candy.
• Inception. This movie gets a tumps up. I loved this movie when I first watched it, but over (and rewatching it more often) I became a bit skeptical. I don’t think it is as smart as everyone claims it is. Yet, Inception is clever, well made, and the acting is splendid
• Inglorious Basterds. Funny alternative history take on World War 2. Cool movie and the performance of Christopher Walz really stands out.
• Into the Wild. The feeling that this movie conveys is amazing. The adventure and melancholy vibe is palpable from minute one.
• Invincible S.1-3. I guess this is as good as a superhero series gets in 2025. The many tropes and subversion limit the enjoyment that I personally get out of it, but I can see how they could make the series even better for many comic-fans.
• Ip Man. I was told that this movie provides a window into the contemporaneous Chinese culture/thinking. I am not so sure about that. Either way, I think this is a good Kung fu movie. Probably not for everyone.
• Isle of Dogs. Love the movie. It seems to be made with so much love. It is eye-catching, unique, creative and beautiful. The dogs are great too!
• The Italian Job. Okaish heist movie, but actually a goodish car-chase movie in disguise. I would say it is a quite enjoyable watch, but not a must.
• Italian Spiderman. The perhaps best non-animated Spiderman movie so far.

J

• James Bond: No time to die. I this this is a not particularly good movie of a not particularly good franchise. I did like the opening in Italy and some shots are beautiful. However, all in all it feels like a movie that should have been one hour long got a runtime of almost tree!
• John Wick 1-4. Enjoyable mindless action. From the first to thirds the movies get slightly worse, but the 4th manages to be a class of its own (different, but as good as “numero uno”). All of them are visual spectacles with little thought for story. The first is story-wise the best (what ever that means), and the last is the most visual stunning/best choreographed.
• Jungle Cruise. Like “Pirates of the Caribbean” this movie about a Disney theme park ride, but it fails to capture the magic of the setting.
• Juno. Quirky, little, funny, nice. It’s a good movie to watch. Not a great one though.

K

• Kate. Another woman-assassin movie. I think the movie is better than it’s scores/reviews suggest. If you like this kind of movie, hard action and/or the Japanese setting I would recommend it.
• Kick-Ass. One of the better superhero movies.
• Kill Bill 1. This is is just a very enjoyable movie if one likes action and good choreography. It also has a very iconic visual language.
• Kill Bill 2. The second movie breaks with everything from the first one. The visual language change, the pacing is different and the (few) existing action scenes play out completely different. And yet, the movie is still very entertaining.
• The Killer (John Woo, 2024). Nice little action movie by a legendary director. I think the movie could have been better in many ways, but it is an enjoyable watch if you do not expect too much.
• The Killer (David Fincher). I thought that I lost interest in David Finchers work, but I was wrong. This was interesting.
• King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. No. Please no! Nooooo!
• The King’s Man. The movie has some beautiful pictures, but overall it felt like a waste of time.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service. A completely over the top action movie. If you can stomach this kind of movie — which I do — than its actually great.
• Knives Out. Genius crime movie. Overstylized, but in a very good way.

L

• The Legend of Drunken Master. I think this is one of the last kong fu movies (I know that strictly speaking that is not the right genre, but I do not care) of Jackie Chan. And boy, is it a good movie. I think it is one of the best Jackie Chan movies — maybe even the best.
• Léon: The Professional. Sometimes I think that the movies in the 90s where so good. Léon is a great example why I often return to this thought.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Wes Anderson at its best. This is just a great, great movie.
• Life of Pi. The actual movie is great, but it has a bad aftertaste for me since (a) it is one of “those movies” where they manage to not pay the CFG people by using dirty tricks and (b) there is a whole animal mistreatment controversy surrounding it. For me it just a bit to cynical that a positive, life-affirming movie like this got such things going on behind the scenes…
• Little Miss Sunshine. This is a enjoyable little road movie with the right amount of jokes, development, and societal criticism. Just a good movie.
• The Lives of Others. This is a great movie about a dark time in the history of East Germany. It is somewhat sombre, but also fundamentally life affirming. The is one caveat: I watched it in German and and I am not sure if the movie works in English. Probably.
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This movie is a light take on the London underworld and small time crooks, with creative story telling. It’s great, but for me largely superseded by Snatch.
• Logan Lucky. This is one of the best heist movies out there. It has it all: Funny, witty, thoughtful, super satisfying conclusion.
• Looper. This is a nice action movie. It could have been much better if they would have invested a bit more time in the story, but well… It i what it is.
• Lord of the Rings 1 to 3. The prototypical fantasy movies. If you like the universe then these movies are fascinating — else do not watch since they are long. I happen to like it.
• Lucy. Eye candy.
• Lupin I & II (series). Interesting take on Arsène Lupin. Very French. The series plays in the modern days and a fan of Lupin (played by Omar Sy) uses the strategies of the master thief to reach his own goals. It a good watch, but thought that the 2 seasons where a bit too long. I was therefore quite surprised to see that a third one will come out in 2024.
• Lupin III (series). I have mixed feelings about this season. It starts very dynamic and fresh, but then becomes stale. Each minor point is executed very well, but the overall plot is disappointing. The twists within the series are too clear, but the end is too enigmatic. Still nice to see, but I prefer the first season.

M

• Mad Max: Fury Road. A visual spectacle and actually a surprisingly cool premise. One of the best “car-movies” I have seen.
• Magic in the Moonlight. I do not like the movie too much. I like all the actors and the ideas are nice — but I feel like the premise is not my pair of shoes.
• ⭐️ Magnolia. A set of intricately interwoven stories. Hard to watch, and yet one of my favorite movies. So, i recommend to watch it, but not too often. There are some truly incredible performances to be seen.
• Man in Black. I liked it as a child, I don’t do so anymore.
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. A good agent movie with the actor from these awful new-age Superman movies. For my personal taste the movie a bit too much of a caricature and a bit too dynamic. But probably that is just me.
• Marmalade. Predictable heist movie with some nice ideas. Not the best, not the worst.
• The Mask. Crazy 90s Jim Carrey comedy. I guess today it is mostly worth seeing for Carrey’s insane performance and the practical effects.
• The Matrix. The defining action movie of the 90s. It is difficult to now see how influential this movie was. Albeit it did not age that well (partly because of the follow up movies, I think), Matrix is still great for what it was.
• The Menu. A comedy, horror thriller about fine dining? Yes, and a very good one at that. Super enjoyable if you can stomach the violence. Recommendation.
• The Men who stare at Goat. The trailer is better than the movie. The latter is rather mediocre.
• mid90s. Jonah Hill is certainly more empathic than I thought. The movie presents an interesting „slice of life“ that depicts the Los Angeles skate scene in the 90s. I wish it had a clearer — or perhaps more traditional — story ark. That said, the overall feeling that the movie conveys is spot on! What is shown here, definitely feels like the 90s that I knew.
• ⭐️ Midnight in Paris. Great, great, great movie. Easy going, witty, funny, thoughtful but not too ensnared. Lovely setting.
• Million Dollar Baby. This is as good as a Clint Eastwood movie gets. I like the sharp turn at some point and explores some surprisingly dark aspects of life. Not a movie for everyone and for all time, but watchable.
• The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Waste of time. Starts strong, but falls off very fast very badly.
• Minority Report. This is a cool action/sci-fi movie. It explores what societies would do with very good prediction machines — which, I think, is still interesting to think about today.
• Mission Impossible. This is a very good action movie. It is super well structured, looks gorgeous, and there is always the right amount of tension there. Alas, it gave brid a whole series of not-so-good follow ups.
• Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. I cannot believe that I am writing this, but this is actually a good action movie. I the almost 3 hours run time I never felt bored. As strange as it sounds, but I am now looking forward to see the next part.
• Money Heist 1 to infinity. Interesting premise, but I did not enjoy the execution too much. I enjoyed the first season the most, but even that one was too long. Little did I know that it gets worse and worse as the seasons go on. I could almost not stomach the third season. Why does this thing not end?
• Moon Knight. The series has a good start, but often gets lost details and boring settings. Overall mediocre.
• Morbius. Mediocre movie: The setting is interesting, the Marvel tie-ins do not work for me, the ending is lame.
• Mortal Kombat, 2021. The only thing I managed to like about this movie is the trailer.
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith. A waste of time.
• Murder on the Orient Express. A good movie with amazing cinematography.

N

• Naked Gun. I like the premise, but I do not like the humor of the series.
• Natural Born Killers. Albeit the script is by Quentin Tarantino this movie has too much Oliver Stone in it for me.
• Nacho Libre. A meditative movie about the importance of doing what you love, even if your not good at it. The movie is very quirky and special so I think its not for everyone. The humor is ok, but the overall somethings off. All in all I really enjoyed it.
• The Nice Guys. This is a great movie that a lot of time draws its comedic elements from reality. Which is great. Also the 70s feeling are just great.
• No Country for Old Men. This is a great movie. The violence is probably not for everyone — and probably the pacing too.
• No Time to Die. Movie is ok, I am mostly happy that this iteration of James Bond is over.
• Now You See Me. Making movies about magic/magicians is a great idea. I did not particularly like this one though.
• Now You See Me 2. Like the first one, but worse.

O

• O Brother, Where are Thou?. Interesting journey through Southern USA: The songs are great, the pictures are stunning, the ideas are funny.
• Ocean’s 11. A funny heist movie with an ensemble of stars. The movie is modeled after another movie that is also called Ocean’s 11. I have, however, not seen the latter one. As for the new one, it is light hearted, never serious and and well paced — also: it would not have needed any of the sequels.
• The Old Guard. This movie is definitely not for me. I do not hate it, but I definitely do not like it.
• Once Upon a Time in America. A masterpiece. Even with todays watching habits, this remains a great movie. Maybe a bit too long and to slow for today’s audience/viewing-customs. But, for me, it will always be a classic.
• Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. This one is probably more interesting for people from USA (or LA specifically), who are more familiar with the whole backstory. But, even if you are like me — and do not know anything about it — it is still good movie and a lot of fun.
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Worthy successor o desperado. Salma Hayek plays a more important role and everything is a even more over the top. Overall I think the movie is a bit worse than its predecessors. I am happy that no other one came out. It is a nice ending for the series.
• Ong-Bak. This is perhaps the quintessential muaythai movie. However, while I appreciate the physical prowess of Tony Jaa, I must admit that the story is too tin and the action to monotone for me to enjoy is. movie also is be
• On the Road. I did not understand this movie and I did not like the vibe.
• Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre. I don’t know. I guess I can best describe it as average. I did not like it that much, but also did not not like it that much.
• The Other Guys. No.
• Our Flag means Death (S1 & S2). Ok. This series starts very interesting, but burns out during the second half of the first season. That said, albeit there sadly also exists a whole second season, it never gets too bad.

P

• Palm Springs. Okaish romance comedy with some nice ideas around the time loop concept. I liked it.
• 🎭 Paterson. A slow burner. Did not enjoy it much in cinema, but it became one of my favorite movies after watching it multiple times.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This is one of those movies that reminds me that I will never be able to understand American culture. Apart from that, it is a wonderful high school movie about growing older in a more than imperfect world.
• The Phoenician Scheme. I would say it is a mediocre movie. In general, it have mixed feelings about it: On the one hand, the movie is has a lot of the style and ideas that I love in Wes Anderson movies; on the other hand, I have a bit of a problem with watching movies about people that I do not like. I am also not sure about the way the story telling of the move. Sometimes it feels weirdly off.
• Poker Face S1. I have my problems with movies from Rian Johnson, but he clearly knows how to make stories about crime, riddles, and investigation. Poker Face a very cool detective series.
• Poker Face S2. Season two is even more episodical than season one. Each episode is fun though, and, I guess, I never really cared for the overarching story that much. Good stuff, but not amazing.
• Porco Rosso. A gorgeous (Ghibli) animation about a anthropomorphic pig pilot. I guess this movie is „children movie „that is not really a children movie. The story does not really matter. The art is amazing. A pleasure to watch.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. OK. First and best pirates (actually the only good one).
• The Protégé . Mediocre assassin movie mind candy. Nothing particularly memorably though.
• The Princess and the Frog. This is just a very good Disney movie. It aged very well, better than most and still looks beautiful.
• Pulp Fiction. This is a great movie. Not my favorite Tarantino, but still very watchable.
• The Pursuit of Happiness. I think I must not understand this movie since a lot of people like it, but I do not.
• Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. A life reaffirming animation movie for children that looks amazing — and goes a complete different direction than a Pixar movie. Here you have it.

R

• The Raid: Redemption. Interesting Indonesian martial arts movie. Not for everyone, but good action.
• Rat Race. Average comedy with star ensemble.
• Red Dragon. This is probably the worst movie out of the ”Hannibal Trilogy” and yet it is still a very good thriller. My main problem with the movie is probably that Ed Nortons character is not vulnerable enough.
• Red Notice. A bad heist movie with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. I like the genre, but the movie not so.
• Reservoir Dogs. Almost more a play than a movie. Watch it if you like this sort of thing. I love it.
• Rifkin’s Festival. A Woody Allen movie that plays is San Sebastian and does not want to be more or less than that.
• The Ring. This movie is probably nice to watch good if one likes horror. However, its nothing for me.
• Road House. Starts interesting, but is actually very boring.
• Road to Perdition. A good gangster movie, but not my favorite.
• The Rock. Action classic. Pretty much defined what I expect from an action movie.
• RRR. I went into this movie expected a completely over-the-top Bollywood movie. I got an even more over-the-top movie than I expected. The movie has all the Bollywood elements in there that I do not like but in doses that I still find bearable. I also think it is too long and I wished that the action would be toned down by… A LOT. But, of course one does not get that with these kind of productions. Overall, I have to say that the movie is really funny and I can recommend it.

S

• 🎭 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This is a wonderful, life-affirming movie. Very, very enjoyable. The message reminds me of sun and steel — but without the mysticism and the problematic elements.
• 🎭 The Secret of Kells. This is a wonderful animation movie. It is worth watching it just for the art style alone.
• See How They Run. Well made, mellow movie with some ok jokes and an ok plot. I really wanted to like it more.
• Seven. This is a very good crime/suspension movie. It is also one of these amazing movies of the 90s that only rarely come out these days and made David Fincher a household name.
• Seven Pounds. Kind-off a feel-good movie with Will Smith, but I do not like the premise and the message.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yet another Marvel movie: Funny at times, some very impressive visuals and a view good ideas; and also, a shallow story, shallow characters and some very dump moments.
• The Shadows Edge. I am surprised that this movie kept me entertained, since I find the story boring, its structure bad, and some of the acting questionable. The movie is almost exclusively carried by individual scenes — but some of them are a delight to watch.
• The Shape of Water. A dark, quirky romance between a human and a monster. A very good movie, even if I found some aspects (like the dancing scenes) too on the nose.
• Sherlock. Very good TV series, that probably should not have had 3 seasons. I especially season 1.
• Sherlock Homes. Funny, light-hearted, and action-driven take on Sherlock Holmes. I think the movie kind of stands on the shoulders of the Robert Downey’s successful comeback with Iron Man. As a consequence, the movie is perhaps a bit overrated, but still a nice watch.
• Shōgun. Truly impressive series from start to end.
• Shutter Island. Shutter Island is a kind of mystery/horror thriller, which actually is not my kind of genre. I still have to say that it is a great movie that grabbed my from start to finish.
• Sin City. Beautiful eye candy.
• Slow Horses. This is one of the best series I watched and Gary Oldman is a genius. My current season ranking is 2 > 1 > 5 > 4 > 3.
• Smiley’s People (series). Fantastic mini series of John le Carré’s famous spy story. Maybe a bit slow by todays standards, but still a great watch. I think the series is almost stronger than Tinker, Tayler, Soldier, Spy, since it has more suspense and a nicer conclusion. But, both are nice.
• 🎭 Snatch. Franky F Four Fingers!
• ⭐️ Song of the Sea. From what I have seen so far this is my favorite movie by Tom Moore. Everything about the movie is just wonderful. Again, I would recommend it for the art alone, but the story is also heartfelt and moving. Just a very touching experience.
• 🎭 Spider Man: Across the spider verse. One of the best animated movies I know. Definitely must watch if animation and/or the “spider man” theme is not off putting.
• Spy Game. Very good spy movie.
• Starship Troopers. Classic. Probably one of the most action driven anti-war movies out there. It’s good.
• Succession. One of the best series I ever watched. Season 3 is probably the weakest, but is still better than almost all other TV dramas/comedies.
• 🎭 Superbad. One of my favorite comedies. It is perfect for what it is. Michael Cera is Michael Cera. Jonnah Hill is Jonnah Hill. And, Bill Hader steals the show.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Albeit the movie has all elements that I should like I did not enjoy this one.
• Superman Returns. A big waste of time.
• Swiss Army Man. Quite good if you can sustain the weirdness. In some sense a parody of many indie movie conventions, but a bit too over the top at times.

T

• Taxi. One of the action comedies that Luc Besson championed to build up the French action cinema (I thin?). The movie is funny and light hearted. Good candy to waste your time with.
• Taxi 2. I have nothing to add to this one. It is the same as Taxi. I wonder if this and all the other sequels where necessary, but I will not complain.
• Ted. I do not understand people who like this kind of movie/humor.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Funny little animation movie with amazing art and great animations.
• Thor. Nah.
• 🎭 There Will Be Blood. This is an extremely good movie. In my eyes, the movie is is ultimately about how our society profits from (and maybe even needs) very bad people that push their agenda to get successful. But, it also touches upon happiness, religion, progress, and love.
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (series). Maybe a bit slow for todays standards, but still great series about cold war espionage.
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This is a very slick cold war thriller. For me it does not reach the peaks of the BBC miniseries or the books, but I still would recommend it to all spy movie fans.
• To Rome With Love. Very enjoyable movie, but for me somehow overshadowed by Midnight in Paris.
• Trainspotting. I really, really enjoy trainspotting. The topic, the style, the englishness: all great.
• The Transporter. Great action movie which — in my eyes — cemented the prototype of a Jason Statham role.
• Triangle of Sadness. Very enjoyable movie. I heard that many did not like it because it supposedly is an overly cynical take on rich people, but I did like it.
• True Blood. I do not know. I was fascinated at first because the world of the series resembled Vampires: The Masquerade so much. However, the series did not have much substance and got less interesting form episode to episode.
• True Romance. Fun movie. Easy to watch but nothing amazing.
• The Truman Show. Movies like these are the reason why I loved Jim Carey back in the day. I am very happy that I saw the movie when I saw it, since I do not know how I would perceive it today.
• Tulsa King, S1. The first season is interesting, the second season rather boring. As a whole the series is never great, but, I guess, it is nice to see Stalone is still kicking
• Tulsa King, S2. I thought I would enjoy getting back into the Tulsa world, but I found it boring. One season would have been enough.

U

• Unbreakable. I mainly added this here so I have a movie with U 😅. That said, I think Unbreakable is a vey ok movie. I like the premise and the execution is also fine. A good waste of time so to speak.
• Uncharted. This one is more bad than good. It is not a total disaster, but I could definitely count more negatives than positives. That said, I do not know the games, so maybe I am missing something.
• Underworld. Style over substance. Some of it works, most does not.

V

• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Okaish science fiction movie. Would not recommend, but also not discourage watching it.
• The Vault. Mediocre heist movie with nice pictures.
• V for Vendetta. Matrix without the computers and political instead of transcendental philosophy. One of Natalie Portman’s best roles. I can recommend the movie.
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona. This is an interesting movie. about love and different forms of affection. I would not say that its great, but its definitely worth seeing.

W

• Wake Up Dead Man. A murder mystery, which is largely not about the murder and the mystery. Interesting take. Not as good as Knives Out, but better than Glass Onion.
• Watchmen. Maybe the only Zack Snyder movie I find enjoyable.
• Watchmen (Series). I did like the premise, but it just does not do it for me. I think I would have enjoyed the series much more if it would not be part of the Watchmen universe.
• War Dogs. This is an interesting movie about weapon smuggling. Not more, not less.
• Wednesday S1. Mediocre story, but: intriguing setting, good acting, interesting aesthetics.
• Wednesday S2. Meh. I view it as a guilty pleasure now and I am happy that Tim Burton still pushes out stuff.
• Whatever Works. The movie works for me. One of the better Woody Allen movies. I am not sure about Larry David. It seems that he is not as funny as he normally is. But ok; good movie.
• When Marnie Was There. One of my favorite Ghibli movies. At points maybe a bit too frumpy.
• Who am I. This is a German movie about hackers and its actually good. Fast pasted, nice idea, and well made. I do however think that I will not watch it a second time. So there is that.
• Whites (series). A British comedy series about a self-absorbed cook that lost his way. It is a times witty and funny, and at other times nasty (it goes to places that hurt). You never really get to like the characters, but they also are never really hated, so in the end I did not get overly involved. In style it is a bit like „The Office“, but less cynical; in topic it is similar to „The Bear“, however less detail oriented and grandios. A plus: Whites just had a single season with 6 episode, which is exactly the amount of time that one wants to spend with these characters.
• The Wolf of Wall Street. I appreciate what the movie does (or tries do do?), I see why people like it, and I even concede that it is almost objectively a good movie. However, I do not like it.
• Wolfwalkers. The movie is great. It has some pacing problems and the style is almost a bit to loose at some point. But, I still love the art-style. Its so great and unique and expressive and beautiful. I therefore think that Wolfwalkers is a must see for everyone who likes animation in some way or another.
• ⭐️ The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. This is indeed wonderful. This short is Wes Anderson at its best. It tells the story of a not-so-likable gambler who becomes a better human trough a variety of connected stories. The movie feels a bit like Grand Budapest Hotel, but more dynamic and colorful. The story is comes from Roald Dahl. I think, this gives it an additional charm in similar way that the Stefan Zweig homage gave to Grand Budapest Hotel.
• Wonder Women 1984. Oh god, no. Please stop this already.
• 🎭 The Worlds End. I like all the Edgar Wright movies, nit this is the one I enjoyed the most (or baby driver?). It is a great comedy with an absurd stories and some slick cinematography; best enjoyed with some friends, a beer and without knowledge of what to expect.
• A Working Man. Does what „The Beekeeper“ does, but worse. Much worse. Also: Too long.
• Wrath of Man. One of the worse Guy Richie/Jason Statham Movies. The basic setting and ideas did not convince me.
• The Wrestler. Never was a movie about a fucked-up wrestler that gripping — I also never seen another movie about wrestlers. Still great.

Z

• Zombieland. A ok little zombie movie.

Comics and stuff

I do not associate with the culture around comics, but I did read a lot of comics (especially when I was younger).

• 🎭 Corto Maltese: Una ballata del mare salato. This one is amazing. As such, I am not a big fan of the drawing style, but it does capture the feeling of the open sea so well! Just great.
• ⭐️ Doxiadis & Papadimitriou (2009): Logicomix. This comic is simply amazing. It basically tells the story of Russel and Whiteheads quest to write the ipia Mathematica — but also describes how it became clear that you cannot proof the completeness of it. I think the role and genius of Whitehead is a bit undersold. I do however really like the portrayal of Wittgenstein.
• 🎭 Taniguchi (2019): The Walking Man. This is an amazing comic, or series of comics I guess. Very inspirational.
• 🎭 Taniguchi (2019): Gourmet. Another amazing book by the master.
• Naruto (1999-2014): I liked the series at first, but then the slow pace killed me (even before it reached Shippuden).
• Dragon Ball. When I was a kid I saw the animation and I only read the comic years later. Given todays standards it does seem to be a bit aimless at first, but I think that is understandable since Dragon Ball had to establish the standards for Shonen in the first place. I do like the adventurous, funny, and silly atmosphere that the first iteration had. It’s sad that it god lost in the follow-up series.

Books

Sometimes I read.

• Stanley and Lehman (2015): Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned. I love the premise that live should and actually does not revolve around objectives. The writing is good and there are also some nice ideas in the book, but I did have the feeling that the book is too long — my feeling is that a paper/short-essay would have better fit.
• Strevens (2020): The knowledge Machine. Good book, but bloated. The premise that science Half of the book is truly great, the other half is just rambling.
• Italo Calvino (1972): Invisible cities. Fascinating book. I did not know about combinatory literature before. Now I do and I like it.
• Vanden Brocuke and Baesens (2021): Managing Model Risk. I like the premise of the book and it touches on many important topics. The downside is that each topic is only explained very superficially. A bit more depth (and maybe less topic) would have been great.
• Otsuka (2022): Thinking About Statistics. This is a very cool, short book that talks about the philosophies behind different statistical schools of thought (ranging from frequentist/bayesian statistics to machine learning). Given that it only has roughly 200 pages it can, of course, not cover everything. And hence, the book always stays on a rather general level. However, Otsuka has a very clear way of writing. Every concept he touches upon is super well explained and introduces in a creating manner. Hence, reading the book feels very satisfying and entertaining (well, as diverting as this kind of book can be).
• Joliffe & Stephensons (edt; 2011): Forecast Verification. One of these book where every chapter comes from different authors. As a consequence the style varies a lot. Some of the chapters I found very well written, others where just arduous. Sometimes it perhaps feels like the book misses a bit of mathematical depth. However, in general it is very informative and most concepts are explained sufficiently for me to pull something out or use the book as reference when I need it.
• Spiegelhalter (2024): The Art of Uncertainty. I very much liked The Art of Statistics by Spiegelhalter (hint: there is also a very short review below somewhere). And, on top of that I do tend to like books about the conceptualizations of probability (hint: as can probably (hihi) be induced from some of my reviews). However, I did not like this book. That is not to say that the Art of Uncertainty is not a valuable read. As a matter of fact, I think it can be useful to use the examples, games and illustrations form the book to teach about uncertainty/probability since everything is broken down and explained very well. It just felt a bit too superficial and boring for me.
• Hirsch (2024): The Book of Bill. Is there a name for texts/books that mask themselves are artifacts? There is ergodic literature, I guess. But, that seems a bit too broad for the artifact sort of thing. Anyways. The Book of Bill is such a text and it is wild. There are a lot of creative ideas in it and they push the art and graphic designs in wild directions. Sometimes this works better and sometimes this works worse. At times it does indeed feel like a TV show. Also, there are codes in the book! And then, there is this mysterious website…
• Pawitan and Lee (2024): Philosophies, Puzzles and Paradoxes: A Statistician’s Search for Truth. This is a very interesting book about probability and how it relates to statistics (at least I read it like that). I sometimes had the feeling that the authors explain some things too intensively and other things not enough. But, I guess that is unavoidable with a book that touches on so many topics.
• Fearnley-Whittingstall (2005): The Big Bento Box Of Unuseless Japanese Inventions. A delightfully weird book about a delightfully weird topic. The unuseless inventions are just great. Truly inspiring. The layout is special. I am often not sure if (modern) Japanese layouts are intentionally weird or if there are a cultural reasons. For this book I am also not 100% sure, but it does add to the my enjoyment.
• Bridgman (1960): The Logic of Modern Physics. A very interesting book about operationalism in a hard science like physics. It is a bit hard to read — partially because of the subject, and partially because the language is already outdated. Still worth it for those interesting in logical concept that underpin science.
• Harris (2022): The Bitmap Brothers: Universe. This is a beautiful and fun book. I think it especially hits if you grow up with some of the games (as I did). The illustrations are great and the images are well chosen. I personally would have wished for more Z content, but ok that might just be me. That said, in the end the book is, of course, purely brain candy and there is not much to learn or take away from it — even if I have to say that I found reading about the actual history of the company interesting enough.
• Rubin (2023): The Creative Act. Its a book about being creative. I was surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. To be honest I am also irritated that the book is such a best-seller, since it is kind-off “out there” — bordering esoteric at some points. I am not sure how much people generally can draw out of it. But ok. A cool thing that I’d like to mention either way is that the book really renders itself to be over multiple session and a prolonged amount of time — always just one or two thoughts. That is at least how I did. So that is cool.
• Frisch (2019): Magic is dead. I have mixed feelings. The book is very well written (I wish I could write only half as good) and I like the autobiographical non-fiction aspect. However, the book was written in 2019 and it already appears to be out-of-date. On top of that best part of this book are the ones about Frisch’s mother and not the parts about magic or its history. I particularly found the naive admiration of entrepreneurs in the magic industry annoying. So yeah, mixed feelings…
• Moris (2009): Catwatching. Another cat book. It is interesting how little we know about these furry things that live together with us. A lot of the things we assume seem to be projections and intuitions.
• Hammack (2023): The Thing We Make. This is a great little book that tries to pinpoint the definition of engineering.
• Lenhard (2019): Calculated Surprises. There where too many errors in the explanation of Neural Networks so I stoped reading.
• Morini (2014): Il rischio. Italian booklet about risk from a philosophical standpoint. Very interesting.
• Kosko (1994): Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Interesting to see how Kosko saw the role of fuzzy logic during its prime time (maybe a bit later already?).
• Kosko (2006): Noise. This is a very cool book with a quite unique perspective of noise. Easy to read and yet very deep, albeit some aspects are maybe a bit outdated.
• Contino (2018): Brand by Hand. Beautiful book. The text-part is so so, but the artworks and the overall design is great.
• Snicket (2021): Poison for Breakfast. Great little meditation about writing.
• Briggs (1990): Turbulent Mirror. One of these 80s-90s book when everyone thought chaos theory is the greatest thing ever. The book is better than I expected. Very enjoyable. I very much liked the mirror metaphor.
• Abraham & Shaw (2016): Dynamics. Great, great book about visualizing dynamical systems. Has many intuitions and (almost) none of the math. Great
• MDHR (2020): The Art of Cuphead. If you like the stile this book is perfect. One of the richest art–books I know.
• Bradshaw (2017): The Trainable Cat. Very informative book about cats (and how to train them). Geared towards cat owners, but I others also would find it interesting.
• Narayanamurti & Tsao (2021): The Genesis of Technoscientific Revolutions - Rethinking the Nature and Nurture of Research. The book is better than its title. It starts strong but got boring for me quite quickly. The info about Xerox was great, but overall I had the feeling that it was more a series of blog posts than a fully developed book.
• Bertoloni (2019): Mechanism. A very interesting book, by an extremely knowledgable author. Even tough I am not particularly interested in medicine (and its history) I still found the exposition compelling.
• Abelson (1995): Statistics As Principled Argument. I wanted to like this book, but I could not. While I agree with the basic idea (i.e, that scientist statistics should use statistics as tools to strengthen their arguments), I disagree with many — if not most — of the provides rationales and examples. It is also written in a way that is much to self righteous.
• ⭐️ Atkins (2020): Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking. A joy to read. Has less content about Wes Anderson than I would have thought. It does however manage to build that into an advantage.
• Bakan (2005): The Corporation. A pathological look at corporations. This is a good read.
• Bishop (2011): Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Good for looking things up and getting a first notion of particular topics. Nice plots.
• Bitmap Books (2019): The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games. A beautiful book. An easy read. A joyful dive into nostalgia. Not very meaty.
• Bogle (2017): The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. Had it recommended by a colleague. Not my pair of shoes.
• Burtynsky (2013): Water. I have mixed feelings about this one. I think there could be more pictures in there. The accompanying texts could be more refined. Perhaps even poetic. They are not. However, the pictures are breathtaking. The overall concept is great. And, the book is as inspiring as I would have hoped.
• Cartwright (2020) Nature, the Artful Modeler. Very interesting. Assumes some familiarity with the work of Cartwright.
• Childers (2013) Philosophy and Probability. Very good book.
• Chimero (?) The Shape of Design. meh.
• Cleave (2014): Royal London Sketchbook. I would recommend the is book only for a small niche audience, that are interested in the technique. Which is: Photos post-processed to appear like some form of painting.
• 🎭 Contino (2018): Brand by Hand: Blisters, Calluses, and Clients: A Life in Design. Beatiful design book. Quite unique illustrations. Some of the topics could need more exposures.
• Diaconis (2017) Ten Great Ideas about Chance. I like it. Jumps a round a little bit too much and probably assumes to much pre-knowledge on for specific parts. Goes quite deep about some topics.
• Edney (2019) Cartography: The Ideal and Its History. Definitely written with cartographers as readers in mind. Nevertheless interesting.
• Efron & Hastie (2016): Computer Age Statistical Inference. Very technical, very interesting. Surprisingly good read.
• ⭐️ Ende (1994) Zettelkasten. Wow!
• Ende (1982): Die Schattennähmaschiene. Eine illustrierte Gedichtssammlung von Michael Ende (Unendliche Geschiche). Sehr lieb gemacht. Die Illustrationen fand ich ein wenig zu plakativ.
• ⭐️ Ende (1979): Die unendliche Geschichte. <3 <3 <3
• Foer (2011) Moonwalking with Einstein. One of my favorite non-fiction books.
• 🎭 Fortrey (2005): The Earth: An Intimate History. A must read for any earth-scientist. Care if you are not a native speaker since the language is surprisingly sophisticated (very gentle too).
• Franklin (2001): The Science of Conjecture. Scholarly tome about conjectures, evidence based decision making and probabilistic reasoning before the calculus of probability was invented. Hard to read, but very rich.
• Franklin (2009): What Science Knows: And How it Knows it. Franklin is super smart, but this book is much to opinionated and on the nose for me. Overall it felt like a letdown after reading the “The Science of Conjecture”.
• Gladwell (2008) Outliers. Did not age particularly well. I enjoyed it back in the day tough.
• 🎭 Goodfellow, Bengio, & Courvile (2016) Deep Learning. Good book. A bit theoretical, but not too much. Perhaps a bit difficult for the novice. Good to look things up.
• Jean Jullien (2022): Jean Jullien. TK
• Jean Jullien (2016): Modern Life. A bit on the short side. Yet most pictures are small, self contained parables about modern life. The not-so good illustrations are still imaginative and drawn in a pleasant way.
• ⭐️ Le Carré (2019) Federball. <3
• Klein (2002) No Logo. A book that became bigger than itself. Actually OK.
• MacKay (2003): Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms. Well written and interesting, but a bit to chaotic for my taste. Also I am not particularly interested in many topics.
• Miyazaki (2005): The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle. A beautiful art-book for a beautiful movie. Text is used only sparingly, but when it is insightful. The quality of the pictures is great. I love the story boards.
• Moore, Gibbons & Higgins (1987) Watchmen. I don’t like the style, but the story is breathtaking.
• Murphy (2012) Machine Learning. Very good to look things up, but not made for reading it cover to cover. Also, over 1k pages! WTF.
• Page (2018) The Model Thinker. Very enjoyable.
• 🎭 Polan (2018): A Place of My Own. A very good book if you are interested in architecture and building (as a hobby I guess). Poetic, complex, well-paced. And, exactly the right length for such a book.
• Priest (2017): Logic: A Very Short Introduction. Very nice book. I think the different chapters are best enjoyed with some pause between each one (even or maybe even because that will necessitate some backtracking trough the short booklet).
• Proctor & Schiebinger (ed, 2008) Proctor, R: Agnotology. More interesting than I expected, less than I hoped.
• Otto (2019) Wütendes Wetter. Auf der Suche nach den Schuldigen für Hitzewellen, Hochwasser und Stürme. German. Interesting popular science book about the genesis climate attribution studies. Maybe a tidbit too long for the info that is provided.
• Samir (2016): Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction. I liked it very much so. Very short, but well argued. Not sure how much prior knowledge is useful to enjoy the book.
• Singer (2020?) Shape Up. Probably good if your into this kind of thing. I am not.
• Spiegelhalter (2019): The Art of Statistics. Well written. Explains a lot.
• Stigler (1990) The History of Statistics. Great read. Very interesting.
• 🎭 Taleb (2007): Fooled by Randomness. A gem.
• 🎭 Taleb (2016): The Bed of Procustes. My favorite book by Taleb and a great influence on my thinking.
• Tufte (2006) Beautiful Evidence. Very good. Inspiring.
• Vehlmann & Bodart (2005) Green Manor II Very witty. Fun and easy read.
• White et al. (1993) Complexity and Chaos. Not sure what to think about this thing. Definitely not my pair of shoes.
• Ekeland & Étienne (2021): Der Zufall (Die Comic-Bibliothek des Wissens). Tolle Illustrationen, aber ohne Vorwissen ist der Inhalt zu spartanisch rübergebracht. Manche der Bilder und Beispiele sind gut, aber insgesamt ist alles zu wenig ausgeführt.
• 🎭 Cartwright (2022): A Philosopher Looks at Science. This is a great book. I think it is a good overview of Nancy Cartwrights ideas, albeit maybe not the best book to start. Still, it is very clearly written — not complicated at all — and in that sense much easier to read than some of her other books. I also like the illustrations.
• Cartwright et al. (2023): The Tangle of Science. Its a good book (albeit the print quality is quite bad). For me it is, however, largely superseded by Cartwrights A Philosopher Looks at Science

Fragrances

• Obvious: UNE PISTACHE. I thought I would love pistachio. I don’t! The almond/marzipan smell is too strong for me.
• Obvious: UNE FLEUR D’ORANGER. Another one that I thought I would enjoy more. I do like it (as opposed to the obvious pistachio perfume); however, not as much as I would have thought.
• Obvious: UNE VANILLE. So far, this my favorite obvious perfume. It is also one of the best vanilla perfumes I know. Super powdery. Maybe a bit one dimensional, but that can be something good.
• Obvious: SCOVILLE. This one is better than I imagined. It really captures the red chili pepper smell, while also having very nice base notes. Its not my style, but I do like it.
• Obvious: UN OUD. Very nice smell. A bit strong, and perhaps not for everyday.
• Obvious: UN PATCHOULI. NOt for me.
• Maison Mataha: Escapade Gourmande. Excellent vanilla perfume. The top notes are a bit to strong for me, but I love everything else. More gooey than powdery.
• Maison Mataha: Brownie Pop. No.
• Maison Mataha: Evasion Bonbon. This is a funny smell. Not for me, but not bad.
• Maison Mataha: Printemps Blanc. To sweet at the start, but awesome after some time.
• Byredo: Bal D’Afrique. This is an amazing fragrance.
• Byredo: Mojave Ghost. Quite good.
• Byredo: Mojave Ghost. I wanted to like this more than I actually do. As of now, it still is my second favorite Byredo perfume, but I do have the feeling that it could have been better.
• Byredo: Tree house candle. The smell is awesome, but not everyone will like it.
• Giardini di Toscana: Bianco Latte. I like the smell, but nothing for me. My wive approves.
• Giardini di Toscana: Bianco Oro. Great smell. Very different from Bianco Latte.
• Giardini di Toscana: Borabora. Good, but not for me.
• Giardini di Toscana: Celeste. I don’t like it.
• Giardini di Toscana: Christos. My favorite perfume from this house. Smells like going into a beautiful dome. Not sure if I would wear it every day (not everyone will like it/I can see it being annoying in a work environment), but wow.
• Giardini di Toscana: Shabby Chic. Not for me.

Toys

• Hanayama Cast Trinity. Difficult, but doable. For me this is right at the limit where these kind puzzles still make fun (a bit more difficult, like the Quartet, and it would become aggregating).
• Hanayama Cast Laby. I do not know what a laby is, but the puzzle is nice. It contains two steps I did not expect and is designed in a very cool way.
• Hanayama Cast Galaxy. I liked this one. It is similar to the Cast Coil, but much less involved (+ there is something else you need to solve it). This puzzle might even be great if you enjoy the kind of solution.
• Hanayama Cast Coil. This one is easier than one would think at first. It looks very nice and I can see appreciate its deliberate design. However, I do not particularly enjoy this kind of puzzle.
• ⭐️ Hanayama Cast Key II. Probably my favorite Hanyama puzzle. It is easy enough so you don’t get a headache. But, it also requires enough attention and observation skills to keep you on your toes. It is designed in stages, each one has a new trick to discover. It is a pure delight.
• Hanayama Cast L’Oeuf. Very beautiful puzzle with an extremely satisfying solution. Probably a bit easier than the difficulty would suggest.
• Hanayama Cast Box. More difficult than you think, but very nice solution. Enjoyed it a lot.
• Hanayama Cast Harmony. Beautiful puzzle with a nice trick. Very enjoyable.
• Hanayama Cast Coaster. This is a great puzzle that I do really use as a coiffure.
• Hanayama Cast Star. The puzzle looks better in reality than on the pictures. Feels quite nice. Took me quite long to figure out how it works.
• Hanayama Cast Nutcase. Actually simpler than the level would suggest. Very nice solution.
• Hanayama Cast News. I only was able to solve this one out of pure luck while playing around with it. Took me then still some time to understand its mechanism. Very good puzzle, but quite advanced.
• Hanayama Cast Quartet. Perhaps the puzzle that took me the longest so far. I am told that it has multiple solutions. The one i found is enough for me. The solution is quite satisfying. But tricky! Happy to not do it again!
• Hanayama Cast Heart. Easier than I imagined. But, the handling feels to finicky. Also the solution is not as satisfying as other (good) Hanayama puzzles.

Youtubes

• Ralph Ammer. I just love the way this guy does things. Everything is just very thoughtful, well prepared, and personal. I especially like the way he writes.
• Super Eyepatch Wolf. I am neither into horror nor into Wrestling, still the channel is full of interesting reviews, recommendation, and thoughts about popular media.
• Adam Something. Very opinionated videos about city planning and transportation. I particularly like the way he deconstructs the grandeur of Musk & Co.
• Italian Innovators. Very interesting historical lectures about Italian design and innovations. Maybe a bit too biased at points.
• Engineerguy. Makes you fall in love with engineering (again).
• 🎭 3Blue1Brown. For me the best channel about (popular) math.
• 3x3Custom - Tamar. Interesting channel about woodworking.
• AI Coffee Break with Letitia. Perhaps my favorite channel for updates regarding trends in ML.
• 🎭 Archipel. Very stylistic documentaries about Japanese artists/creatives. Would recommend if you dig the aesthetics (I do).
• 🎭 ARTGER. Coolest way to learn about Mongolian food and culture.
• Cinemassacre. Game reviews and some movie stuff. The “angry video game nerd” was great back in the day. The whole channel is not what it one was. That is ok. That is time. The reviews you can find there are very personal and opinionated. Sometimes still funny. I would not probably not recommend the channel, but its definitely something to watch on a rainy day.
• 🎭 Du Salzane. Very interesting automata.
• Henry AI Labs. Meh. Ok overviews over Machine Learning topics and papers. I do not appreciate the shorter — 2-5 minutes — videos. The longer ones — 15-30 minutes — are quite nice however.
• History of Hydrology Interviews. Oldtimers talk about hydrology. Some of the interviews are interesting and some boring–but all of them are lengthy.
• 🎭 HistoryofID • Matthew Bird. Lectures about the history of industrial design. All of them are very well presented and super informative.
• IARAI Research. Channels with interesting (high level) lectures about AI. Good source for everyone who is already a bit deeper into the subject and wants to get a broad overview.
• James Hoffmann. Pretty much everything I ever wanted to know about coffee and much, much more. Each video is very well made, and each topic is presented in a light and enjoyable way.
• 🎭 kazuaki harada. I don’t understand japanese, but the automata and contraptions are amazing.
• Laura Kampf. Builds something new every week and restores a house. Very interesting stuff if you like the style (I do).
• 🎭 Lutèce Créations automatons. The best channel on classical automata that I know.
• Marques Brownlee. I do not particularly like it. Extremely well produced Youtube channel reviewing gadgets and other tech related products. For me it often feels too smooth. Sometimes too uncritical. In general goodish.
• 🎭 Matthewmatosis. Probably the best game-reviewer on Youtube. Thoughtful, in-depth, long, and critical. Also the channel which gave me the idea to frame this note as micro reviews.
• OskarPuzzle. A puzzle maker on youtube discusses his puzzles and process. Very fascinating.
• 🎭 Peaceful Cuisine. Slow and beautiful Japanese cooking at home. Very relaxing.
• 🎭 RedLetterMedia. Easily the best reviewers of all things (modern) cinema. Also, very, very funny.
• 🎭 Rose Anvil. The best channel I found to learn about shoes and leather. Also cool if you want to see a lot of shoes cut in half.
• Sabine Hossenfelder. Best science news channel I know.
• ⭐️ ScienceOnline. For a long time this was my favorite science channel on youtube. Sadly the creator died. May he rest in peace.
• 🎭 Sinnett Sticks. Some wood carving/stick making inspiration. I think one has to be in the right mood to enjoy it.
• Suff Made Here. Funny DIY engineering projects. Inspirational, but not particularly educational.
• Teoh Yi Chie. Thoughtful reviews of art-related stuff. Artbooks, papers, pens, digital drawing tools, etc.). Can recommend.
• Terry Barentsen. Amazing biking videos from crazy people.
• 🎭 The Art and Making of. Best reviewer of “the art of xyz books” and “making of xyz books” that I know of. Very opinionated and very thorough.
• ⭐️ Uri Tuchman. Amazing artist and builder, also very funny videos.
• 🎭 Yannic Kilcher. Best presenter of Machine Learning papers. Opinionated and smart. Must watch, there is a lot to learn here. x

Tasting

• Pizza Mari (2022): One of the best Pizzas in Vienna.
  • Salsiccia/al finocchietto: Salsiccia with fennel is a great idea
  • Patate: Never had patatoes on a pizza before. It is excellent.
• Miznan (2023): I guess this is as close to Telaviv-style street food as you can get in Vienna.
  • Calamari Pita: Very refreshing exactly because it does not have too many calamari in it (mostly vegetables). Love it.
  • Roasted cauliflower: With a pinch of salt. Perfect.
  • Freekeh: I think I did not have tried this sort of cereal before. They serve it with wild herbs and yogurt. So good.
  • Eggplant Lines: Served on tahini. It is very good, but a bit too smokey for my taste.
  • Malabi: Soaked in some citrus/orange sauce. First time I tried it and I like it a lot.
• Schöne Perle (2023): Spartanly decorated Viennese food. That is, Austrian dishes without the frills and the historical clichés.
• Tabor Turm has an excellent menu.
• Azuma was very good. The pigeon was phenomenal.
• Station 183 has the best burgers I know in Linz.