Happy Juneteenth!
From The Roots and Black-ish.
Category: Various and Sundry
Various and Sundry
Dulles Airport… in Burke?!?
Here’s a bit of alternate history I learned just last week: before the current site for what is now Dulles Airport, planners were looking to put a new Washington-area airport in Burke, Virginia. Granted, if the Burke residents hadn’t mounted a resistance, we likely would have gotten a new airport in the area before John Foster Dulles was deemed an appropriate man to lend his name to an international aerodrome… and certainly before Carol Burnett…
Various and Sundry
R.I.P., NASA astronaut Bill Anders
Astronaut, ambassador, and businessman William Anders has died at the age of 90. He lived a full life that’s interesting to learn about on its own, but the reason I’m taking a moment is because he took the iconic photo “Earthrise.” That’s the photo you see above and longer-term readers of this blog may remember as the header image for the whole site from 2015 until just last year. When I transitioned to the new…
Various and Sundry
Contemplating Internet Umbrage
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Internet for the past few weeks. No, not in the “What has the Internet ever done for us?” kind of way. More in the “Do I like the current cut of the Internet’s jib?” kind of way. I mean, the whole AI obsession has not abated since I mused about it last year. So this video struck me when I came across it earlier this week. This led…
Various and Sundry
When You Can’t Stage Your Play in a Meat Freezer…
While not necessarily my favorite aspect of stagecraft at the moment of assignment, some of my fondest memories of being a stage technician involve props. There is often an inherent playfulness and ingenuity in a prop solution that is amplified by the fact that actors get to handle them… and that joy is seen on stage. The fact that prop solutions often require ingenuity may explain my apprehension (at the assignment) and subsequent elation (assuming…
Various and Sundry
The Origin of the Leatherman “Pocket Survival Tool”
Father’s Day is coming up next month and some kids are probably debating what tools to get their dad, but I’m thinking of some of the tools he gave me …in part because a spirited discussion about what constitutes the best multi-tool or if any multi-tool can be good has erupted on a techie forum I frequent. We all got a pocket knife around age nine or ten, similar to a pocket knife my dad…
Various and Sundry
There’s a Name for That: Linguistics Edition
Though linguistics was one of my favorite parts of my anthro coursework, there was plenty I didn’t learn. I suppose that’s always the case: if someone invoked the “but you have a PhD!” to my anthro advisor, she would humbly say she knew a lot about a little (Narrator: she, in fact, knew and knows A LOT, much of it useful). Anyway, this article by Ellen Gutoskey for Mental Floss goes over 15 linguistic terms…
Producing Various and Sundry
Sometimes, Experts Like the Inaccuracy…
I’ve been thinking of Monday’s post about Roger Corman and how B movies are chock full of tropes. Tropes for days! This reminded me of another Corman story where the movie poster was created before the film: it provided the inspiration for what the film would be. I forget the specifics. It might have been a giant dinosaur rampaging downtown a la Godzilla or even Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. A delightful creature feature trope to…
Various and Sundry
The Saga of the Washington Metro’s Silver Line
Being a naturalized citizen of the Washington area, I have followed the saga of the Silver Line for, well, decades. The fact that it exists and runs all the way to Dulles Airport is a fact that still doesn’t quite seem real. This video gives a relatively quick explanation of all the twists and turns it took to get there. Now if you’re a DC-area denizen like me, you might wonder about a local perspective,…
Producing Various and Sundry
Freakonomics asks, “What makes a good boss?”
I came across Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s “Eleven Laws of Showrunning” in the context of the entertainment industry not having the best management training for showrunners, the creative captains who steer a narrative show through all aspects of pre-production, production, and post-production. One of the notions raised in yesterday’s post was the fact that, well, a lot of people in a lot of industries are promoted to a management position… and the results are less than ideal.…