Being the Ricardos: This is an Aaron Sorkin biopic about Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman), Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), and the other cast and crew of the iconic show I Love Lucy. The film is a… Read More

Logic Wiz is an app to play 16 variations of Sudoku (probably more, by now). It was recently developed by Avner and Udi, co-founders of the company Logic Wiz, for Android and iPhone. Most va… Read More

Spider-Man: No Way Home: I find it impossible to review this without spoilers, so here be spoilers ...Tom Holland is back as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, and we pick up moments after the la… Read More

Dune (2021) - As an aside, I saw this in a 4X movie theater, and I can tell you that 4X movie theaters are not worth the extra cost. Every once in a while my seat vibrated, slightly distract… Read More

Gloomhaven designers follow in the footsteps of other RPG companies in working to remove racial and colonial assumptions from their upcoming edition of Frosthaven.Workers at Paizo follow the… Read More

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street - This fantastic documentary outshines the mediocre documentaries I have watched lately. Children Television Workshop's Sesame Street, incorporating… Read More

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Marvel with a Chinese mythology spin. Simu Li plays Shaun/Shang-Chi, a trained warrior and son of the 4000 year old, more highly trained, more w… Read More

Not everyone shares my objection to Holocaust used as a subject in fictional films, but the concept of a Holocaust game draws near universal confusion and condemnation. This is simple enou… Read More

Not everyone shares my objection to Holocaust used as a subject in fictional films, but the concept of a Holocaust game draws near universal confusion and condemnation. This is simple enough… Read More

My Salinger Year - This is a fine little literate comedy about a woman Joanna (Margaret Qualley) who, in 1995, takes a job at a literary agency run by Margaret (Sigourney Weaver). The agen… Read More

Hustlers - Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu star as high payed exotic dancers on Wall Street who drug and steal from the executives that visit their clubs, justifying their actions by assum… Read More

Chef - The cast of Iron Man come together for this father-son road trip movie about a talented chef (Jon Favreau) whose boss (Dustin Hoffman) forces him to keep churning out crowd-pleasing… Read More

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Based on a true story, this is a biopic about Mr. Rogers, starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys as Lloyd, the skeptical Esquire journalis… Read More

 Israeli jets pound Gaza as rocket fire resumes and Palestinians hit streets to protestWhy? Why not "Hamas continues to launch hundreds of missiles at Israeli cities, targeting civilian… Read More

 This is the headline from CNN: Israel launches airstrikes after rockets fired from Gaza in day of escalation(Unless they have since changed it)I thought it was a simple aberration in l… Read More

Hi. I thought it would be nice to catch up people who don't see my Facebook photos on my trip to South Africa. Our trip was from Capetown to Port Elizabeth along the Garden Route, and some g… Read More

Secret Lair: Black is Magic is a new limited special card reprint collection, designed by black artists and released during black history month. Proceeds will go to Black Girls Code.This is… Read More

Ad Astra  - A contemplative sci-fi story starring Brad Pitt. A space station worker is continuously tested mentally by his superiors to see if he remains fit for his job, much in the wa… Read More

- 17 contributors left the board game news and blog site Everything Board Games. Read their statement here. Essentially, the EBG owner Lake Leafty, not only failed to say anything in support… Read More

Following up on last month's post about diversity in gaming, here are some additional items from the last few weeks:- Wizard of the Coast: First, they have responded to the issue regarding i… Read More

Podcast To the Best of Our Knowledge reposts last year's episode about board games, propaganda (Juden Raus, The Grizzled), crushing competition (Chess), and fake history (Mahjong).Listen her… Read More

I support everything that black people and allies are saying right now and have been saying for centuries (except for the few who say things that are anti-Israel or antisemitic). Change is a… Read More

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Star Wars IX): A somewhat messy, but entertaining movie, that does its best to wrap up the trilogy of movies that started in The Force Awakens (Star War… Read More

Dave Ross wrote to tell me about his print and play game Euronimoes, which is in its third and final edition (hasn't required any updates in 4 years).Print and play games are great for time… Read More

We have been playing Codenames remotely with family and friends at https://www.horsepaste.com/ . The spymasters view the board with the relevant words highlighted, which is actually eas… Read More

If you are lucky (?) enough to be stuck at home with other people, and they are willing, then board games are a good way to connect, if the rest of the time everyone is on their own electron… Read More

The following is a guest post.    There are many games online, ranging from good to bad and therefore fun and not fun. But there are games that stand above the rest. Games tha… Read More

CNN reports on the winners of this year's Turner Prize, an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. All of the finalists asked to be given the prize jointly, as a group, and so all… Read More

There are four movies called A Star is Born, all roughly following the same plot (here be spoilers):An aging, alcoholic, male entertainer is just beginning to exceed the tolerance people all… Read More

This guide includes games for young and old, for every gender, generation, temperament, and culture. Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas… Read More

Dark Phoenix: I liked this movie more than the masses did, apparently. Not that I thought it was a great movie, but it was better than the mess that was Apocalypse.I think the biggest hate d… Read More

Probably the best thing about Endgame is that it's the (almost) last of the first generation of MCU movies (we still have a Spiderman movie, maybe a Black Widow movie, and I'm sure a whole '… Read More

Hey guys. News about the game formerly known as It's Alive.After the first prototypes, two editions of It's Alive from Reiver Games, and two versions of Hanukkah themed versions called Candl… Read More

Captain Marvel - It's not the toxic male mob intent on trashing this movie because it features strong women characters (some of color, no less) that gets me. It's the well-meaning but cluele… Read More

A year ago my manager at work started a game hour on Thursdays for our small group of 5. Between the 2 of us we brought is new games every week for several months that could be played for 5… Read More

Too long without a post.Hopefully this  won't be the last post on the blog. I am still in draft three of a book, and don't seem to be getting much writing done or even seeing many movie… Read More

This guide includes games for young and old, for every sex, generation, temperament, and culture. Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas, Ha… Read More

A Star is Born (2018) - Bradley Cooper directs, writes, and stars in this third (at least) remake of the 1937 story. He is joined by the captivating and talented Lady Gaga. I assume you know… Read More

Crazy Rich Asians: This was surprisingly good, considering the trailers. Not great, but good. it's about an American Chinese economics professor who goes to meet her boyfriend's Chinese fami… Read More

My Memory of Us is a game developed by Juggler Games and soon to be published by IMGN.PRO, both of them Polish companies.The game is set in a fantasy version of WWII, where two kids who… Read More

Mission Impossible: Fallout - A very good, but not great, entry in this franchise.MI's plots are generally unimportant: a bunch of people want to kill a bunch of people, MI agents are the on… Read More

Avengers: Infinity War: Whoopee, another Marvel movie comes to save humanity from other more important things that they could be doing.Thanos is some Big Guy who is collecting the "infinity… Read More

Sorry guys; five disappointing movies ...Ready Player One: From Steven Spielberg, this is a shallow, uninteresting movie is about a guy who plays in a virtual world looking for three Easter… Read More

Anna Karenina, Leo TolstoyMovie: One of those movies that uses it's actors like juggling balls rather then for their talents and performances. Filled with a self-indulgent hyper-kinetic fren… Read More

Black Panther: So far, the only Marvel movies that I think are actually really good movies are X-Men 1, Iron Man 1, and the first two Tobey MacGuire Spider-Mans. I also enjoy the first The A… Read More

Lady Bird: Greta Gerwig's first outing as a director is a smashing success. I have complicated feelings about Greta, in that I admire her intentions in writing and playing in quirky comedies… Read More

Battle of the Sexes: It feels like forever since I've seen a movie with real, engaging three-dimensional characters, instead of the one or zero dimensional characters you get in Disney and M… Read More

Tabletop gaming has always had its share of women-hate and male toxicity.Sexes were historically separated from playing together for thousands of years in order to avoid licentiousness… Read More

Thor: Ragnarok: This movie has received heaps of praise, and much of it is for the very things that I hated most about it. And I basically hated this movie.First off, the plot (spoilers, as… Read More

This guide includes games for young and old, for every sex, generation, temperament, and culture.Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas, Han… Read More

I think I forgot to mention this: you can get my game Candle Quest, the one and only good Hanukkah game, from The Game Crafter, a publish on demand game site. Thanks to Nadine for some… Read More

Dunkirk - This is a fantastic Christopher Nolan movie, but not one I want to see multiple times. Okay, maybe one more time, but that's it.The story is a slice of the evacuation at Dunkirk, t… Read More

Bulls and Bears is a financial board game from 1988. The first version of the game sold over 10,000 copies. I have talked with the designer on a few occasions and I may be helping… Read More

I just returned from my second trip to Scotland (see my posts from my previous trip ten years ago here, here, here, here, and here). This time I went with my kids and my friends Nadine, Bill… Read More

Spider-man: Homecoming: Another in the long list of passable and entertaining but ultimately unimportant Marvel movies. Tobey Maguire set the standard for the Spider-man role in 2002 and 200… Read More

Yay. And less than a year after the first draft.Third draft means a) getting it edited, b) adding sources for and backing up all of my wild claims, c) adding any important arguments or infor… Read More

Wonder Woman:  Gal Gadot stars as Wonder Woman (aka Diana aka Diana Prince) in the first good DCEU movie. Unlike the last DCEU movies that were filled with grim, grit, and sadness, this… Read More

In 2006 I lamented that there were no board games about menstruation. In 2010, I reported on two very limited games by public health services on the topic.Now two designers, Daniela Gilsanz… Read More

Via MEMRI: The board of the "Reaching Jerusalem" game (image: Facebook.com/MaAmriti, April 4, 2017)According to MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), Hamas has published a board game… Read More

I listed one of Italfama's chess sets sold by Made in Firenze among my top ten most expensive board games post, which is now ten years old (and woefully out of date).Good lord, have I been b… Read More

Amazon has a more extensive than usual list of deals on games today Read More

Michelle Spelman, writing for Mary Couzin's Chitag magazine, profiles Ora and Theo Coster, the couple behind the successful Israeli game company Theora Design (Guess Who, Zingo, Elefun, othe… Read More

Ghost in the Shell (2017): The graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim was 100 times better than the movie Scott Pilgrim, but I still thought that the movie Scott Pilgrim was the best movie I saw… Read More

The NY Times reports on Uber and gamification. Some of it is white-hat, encouraging drivers to meet goals and informing them of better opportunities. Unfortunately, much of it is black-hat… Read More

It's low level, but a fun watch Read More

Arrival: Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner star in this wonderful, smart, thoughtful sci-fi contact movie written by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang. Instead of the missiles, b… Read More

I went on a shopping/trading spree recently, selling or trading away dozens of games and getting slightly less back. Recent acquisitions include:Age of Industry: A dry game of money manageme… Read More

Passengers: I am astounded that this Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt disaster was (supposedly) a "great script that needs to be made" for several years, and no one in all that time was abl… Read More

There is a clock face lying on my table, upon which I have placed cheese on all of the numbers, one through twelve. I have trained a mouse to start by eating all of the cheese from whichever… Read More

Lot of good movies in this post, for once... Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: This movie acts as the first part of a two part movie, where the original Star Wars (4) is now positioned as the se… Read More

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: This is a pleasant movie, the first of an alleged five part series in the same world that contains, and by the same author that wrote, the Harry Pott… Read More

This guide includes games for young and old, for every sex, generation, temperament, and culture.Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas, Han… Read More

I watched a series of eight movies about an evil wizard named Voldemort and the characters who line up to either fight or support him in his quest to rule the world. The series takes place i… Read More

See all of my movie reviews.Sully: This is a short movie, coming in at only an hour and a half. There's not much to it. It's a short review of the take off and crash landing into the Hudson… Read More

I am just going to go ahead and say that the first draft of the book is done. Essentially. The only "real" section that I haven't written is the forward.Unfortunately, now comes the work of… Read More

O golden robed Moses, divinity-defier, is that you levitating in a wavering nimbus under an absent moon?Where do your open soled sandals of glory fly tonight?Come black-bearded shepherd, pas… Read More

I'm going on another little communication blackout vacation - this week I will be at the Dead Sea working on my book: no phone, no internet while I'm working. Unlike last time, I will open t… Read More

See all of my movie reviews. Star Trek Beyond is the third in the Star Trek alternate universe reboot, and the thirteenth overall. (6.5 of The Original Series, 3.5 of The Next Generation, an… Read More

See all of my movie reviews.Jason Bourne: I liked the original Bourne trilogy, even though I'm not a fan of Matt Damon. It certainly beats the Bond reboot movies, and it is close to the MI m… Read More

My mother, and many other elderly or non-power users, would have a much easier time browsing the internet if the web-sites on her desktop defaulted to the way they appear when you browse the… Read More

See my complete list of movie reviews on my movie review page.  X-Men: Apocalypse: This movie had a lot going for it until it made a monstrous stumble about midway. It nearly recovered… Read More

I am down to 12 sections left unwritten out of about 300 in my book on games. Every time I sit down to write a section, I end up writing 3: the one I was going to write and 2 more that I for… Read More

When the movie ended, I mulled over how to react. It took a lot of mulling. I could not instantly say "This was great!" I certainly couldn't say "This was bad!" Is it good? Is it great? Is… Read More

Captain America: Civil War: Another Marvel MCU movie. Yippee.Iron Man (1) is the only MCU movie that I think stands as an actual good movie. The Toby MacGuire Spiderman movies were also good… Read More

Has anyone ever heard: "If this is an emergency, press 1 to go to call waiting. Otherwise, leave a message at the beep"? Read More

Zootopia: A funny and interesting addition to the Disney canon. I think I enjoyed it more because I literally knew nothing about the movie before seeing it, other than its name, promotional… Read More

Speaking of cloud computing (see my previous, sponsored post), I will be celebrating my birthday on Sunday by attending an all-day UX conference at UX Salon in Tel Aviv, including evening co… Read More

The following is a sponsored post:Cloud based virtual desktops combine two powerful trends in technology – virtualization and Cloud computing. Virtualization or Virtual Desktop Infras… Read More

DivergentI tried, I really did. I couldn't finish it. I got about halfway through. This movie is Boring. I didn't read the book; I suspect that those who have read the book (if the book is b… Read More

The tabletop game industry includes companies as diverse as museums, box manufacturers, and advertising agencies, as well as major publishers and retailers. If your company makes or sells (o… Read More

Outside of moral considerations[1], a game can't be good or bad. Only a "game experience" can be good or bad. I would be among the first to say that different games are likely to be better o… Read More

American Hustle: Loosely based on the real story of trying to catch crooked politicians and mafia people taking bribes in New Jersey in the late 1970s. A couple of crooks are the main c… Read More

Spotlight: This is a nicely done, tight movie about the Boston Globe investigation that brought to national consciousness the abuse of children by Catholic priests and the systemic attempt b… Read More

Here is my presentation at Megacomm February 2016, slide by slide, with my accompanying talk and some notes. I don't write down what I say on the slides, nor do I have a script, so the text… Read More

My diet during the first half of the month was insanely good: lots of dark green leafies, mixed complete proteins and whole grains, low fats, little processed food or sweets. Being a vegan m… Read More

Here's the surprise: it's easy to be vegan if a) you already don't eat milk or fish, b) you know how to cook and/or you get your lunches from work, and c) you are generally not subject to st… Read More

I've decided to be vegan for the month of February. "Why?" you ask. That was clever of you to ask me just as I was writing this blog post. Good timing!Well, I'll tell you:I hate domesticated… Read More

TV But first, more about Supergirl - In my initial review, I said that the dialog was horrible, the action sequences senseless, and the premise that having a girl superhero movie be more abo… Read More

I spent the weekend at my brother's; one of his boys had a bar-mitzvah. We got to play a few games:High Society: First play for me and everyone else. This is a quick auction game from Knizia… Read More

In a word: development.George Lucas had the vision and ability to unfold scenes that were slices of an epic story, not just connected pieces of one story.In IV, consider the first scenes wit… Read More