Walsh plays strategic board game 

Courtesy | Ian Walsh 

 

BOOK: “The Count of Monte Cristo” By Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet (1846)

 

It’s a classic revenge story where this guy comes back and takes revenge on the people who wronged him and destroyed his life. It evokes a lot of philosophical questions about revenge because the people who really hurt him are living their best life in French society. Don’t watch the movie though because they change the ending in a way that I think is unsatisfying. I read it once when I was younger, and it was an abridged version that I didn’t realize until I was 80% through, and then I was sad. So I read the full version, and I was flying home. And I did and I scored a really good book!

 

MOVIE: “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002)

 

I’ll probably just have to maybe date myself and say “The Lord of The Rings.” You kind of have to watch the whole thing, but my favorite is probably “The Two Towers.” It’s the practical effects that they did. They also did a lot of costumes, and it really makes the movie real. It’s such a faithful adaptation. The good people struggle against overwhelming evil, and they do it through unlikely means. “Return of the King” finally won all the awards. “The Lord of the Rings” is probably the best adaptation of a written work into a movie. 

SONG: “MANIAC” by Stray Kids (2022)

 

I’m married now, and so what I tend to listen to a lot with my wife is K-pop. K-pop is like a spectacle. If you’ve never seen K-pop, the music videos are very interesting. They’re colorful, and there’s all this dancing. If I had to pick one, it’s hard to do, but I would probably pick Stray Kids. Stray Kids is younger, and they’re pretty popular. The song hits pretty hard. We have dance parties now with my son where we will dance to K-pop with him, which mostly means hold him and kind of go up and down.