The Rest is History, the Movies are not
Peter and Eden catch up after the UK trip — The Rest Is History Festival at Hampton Court Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hadestown, and why walking London at night feels safer than any US city. Then the pop culture blitz: Peter power-watched Fast 8–10 and Tron: Ares on the plane (he has Opinions). Eden brings new music (Rebecca Black, Blackpink with Chris Martin), K-pop supergroup collabs, two weird indie games, and a defense of the new Masters of the Universe movie.
Show Notes
- Rest is History Festival: Peter attended the inaugural festival at Hampton Court Palace with historians Mary Beard, Tracy Borman, and medieval combat demonstrations.
- London at night feels safer: Walking a mile from the theater district at 10:30 PM felt natural — dramatically different from any major US city Peter's experienced.
- America's shallow history: Westminster Abbey (Darwin, Handel, coronation chair used for a millennium) drove home how new the US is. Eden clarifies: referring to the dominant white culture, not the land itself.
- Renaissance babies are terrifying: Painters used adult proportions shrunk down instead of babies' actual big-head, short-limb proportions.
- Hadestown and La Bohème: Peter saw Hadestown ("good gut punch of a tragedy") and La Bohème at the Royal Opera House — the Mimi performer had the most stunning voice he's ever heard in person.
- Warning — Rituals of Shame: First album in 20 years from the British doom band. Classic mournful doom metal.
- Junius — Sotera: Boston post-metal band's first album in 9 years. "Depeche Mode if they wanted to be a post-metal band." Link
- Prince of Failure: Daniel Tompkins (TesseracT) and Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner) collab via Kscope. Didn't stick past the first listen.
- Eden's K-pop: Blackpink's "Go" (co-written by Chris Martin, "way better than anything Coldplay ever did"), Meovv's "Hit Em," and a three-group collab (Illit, Le Sserafim, Katseye) on "Iconic by Mistake."
- How Do We Relationship?: Eden's favorite romance manga is getting a live-action series — filming this fall, cast announced.
- Fast & Furious 8–10 (plane ranking): F8 best of the three, F9 saved by Roman and Tej going to space in a Pontiac Fiero, Fast X just bad. Shared gripes: too many resurrections, the secret brother, Jason Momoa's inconsistent villain, zero stakes.
- Tron: Ares: Peter hated it — Jared Leto is a charisma void, Nine Inch Nails soundtrack forgettable, visuals nowhere near Tron: Legacy's light cycle sequence. Eden agrees.
- Masters of the Universe: Eden defends it — understood the assignment, leaned into the corny sincerity. Jared Leto's Skeletor is "the campy gay bitch we all know he is." Link
- Supergirl bombs: Eden confirms the needle drop of a lo-fi "The Middle" cover in the climax burned through every ounce of goodwill.
- Peter's reading: Finished The Color of Magic, reading Willie, Willie, Harry and Stee and Rest is History books.