Lots of fights in the midfield and back this weekend. And that performance from Oliver Bearman! For me, it was more entertaining than the season opener.

We get a little bit of a break before we head to Melbourne in two weeks, March 21-23.

Not gonna lie, I'll be missing these Thursday-Saturday formats. Well, for us Americans, Australia is still Th-Sa because of timezones.

Second movie in the Best Picture Losers month is Life is Beautiful from 1997 directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. It won for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Leading Actor and Best Original Dramatic Score.

IMDb
Letterboxd
Wikipedia

Besides any thoughts on this movie, have you seen the other nominees that year and do you think this deserved the win instead?

The other nominees:

• Shakespeare in Love (winner)
• Elizabeth
• Saving Private Ryan
• The Thin Red Line

The rest of the schedule is:

• 18th: High Noon
• 25th: Saving Private Ryan

Just for a better example of what I'm talking about, Brett Favre by Slow Pulp is an intro song to their ep that has instrumentals playing over commentators from a football game. I'm curious if there are other songs out there that are similar.

This is Album of the Week #24 ~ This week's album is Rush - A Farewell to Kings

Year of Release: 1977
Genre(s): Progressive Rock
Country: United States
Length: 37 minutes
RYM | Listen!

Excerpt from PopMatters:

A Farewell to Kings is an important album in the trajectory of Rush’s career. Having just released the ambitious 2112 a year earlier, the trio didn’t settle with their power guitar-bass-drum hard rock formula, but decided to get even more experimental. Peart started playing with new types of percussion: tubular bells, orchestral bells, temple blocks, etc. At the same time, Lee delved into the Mini Moog and the signature bass pedal synthesizer, while Alex Lifeson experimented with different guitars and effects, most notably the wide, encompassing chorus effects that would fill out Rush’s sound for many albums to come. In many ways, the sound and instrumental experimentation on Kings set the tone and expectations for everything that would come after it.

Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?

--

Album of the week is currently chosen randomly (via random.org) from the top 5000 albums from a custom all-time RYM chart, with a 4/5 popularity weighting. The chart is recalculated weekly.

Missed last week? It can be found here.

Any feedback on the format is welcome ~~

Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.

It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...

Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!

Born in the wrong family
It left me a gaping void
Stole from me my charity
Burdened me with worry

Born in the wrong district
It showed me the savagery
Darkness that lurks within men
To untrust the ones of normalcy

Born in the wrong city
Filled my soul with mundanity
The unbearable banale
Empty of all wonder and beauty

Born in the wrong culture
Learned to hide my reality
Lest I be killed or maimed
In the rein of traditionality

Born in the wrong country
Flayed from me my future
Gutted sense of commonality
It branded on me misery

Born in the wrong system
Chained me to slavery
Feeding some malevolence
Corrupted my destiny

Born in the wrong time
Hurled into moment of history
Trapped within rotting remnants
Couldn't do away with the elderly

Hereby I declare to all
I reject my humanity
For no matter the causality
But only in a handul few
I see nothing worthy

I've noticed that Tildes generally has a way more levelheaded and even friendly caliber of responses compared to many other social media sites that I've seen. I'm genuinely curious as to why this is. I regularly see the same article posted here that I also saw on say Lemmy, but over there the comments tend to be more hostile and explosive. Meanwhile, disagreements on Tildes rarely get THAT heated (at least as far as I have seen), even on posts involving very intense and personal subjects like politics or war. Even the disagreements and arguments I see on Tildes tend to be more respectful and level-headed, so much so that it's jarring to me to see the comments on some other site where someone's response to a user they disagree with is just straight name-calling.

Is it the invite-only nature of it? The lack of downvotes? The moderation? Confirmation bias? The demographics of the people here? Pure luck? Something else entirely?

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant Israel-Hamas war content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

Please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

As a non-native English speaker, I use Grammarly's free tier daily. It is invaluable to help me catch common mistakes, as well as to get a better understanding of the language through the explanations it provides. I will need to write even more English in the next few months, so it seemed like a good idea to get the Premium subscription. Unfortunately, Grammarly's pricing ($144 for the year) is prohibitive when converted to Brazilian Reais. And even if I am capable of making that payment now, I would rather avoid becoming dependent on something that is so expensive for me. So, what are some affordable alternatives to Grammarly's Premium subscription?

Just to be clear, I am aware that it is not ideal to rely too much on that kind of tool. Rest assured that my domain of English is enough that I am entirely capable of taking the suggestions as extra help and not as a crutch.

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

All previous Save Point topics

If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.