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…
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…
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…
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,…
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.…
I really should have posted this back in January when New Year’s Resolutions were top of mind… or perhaps when, here in the States, we sprung forward for Daylight Saving Time. However, whether or not our collection of Mason jars in the cupboard can successfully store daylight, having routines is a good idea… and certainly we’ve all heard about the importance of morning routines. In fact, go-getters who manage their extroversion without caffeine can be…
Okay, so the general election here in the States is many moons away, but anytime’s a good time to talk about the importance of voting, right? As some readers may recall, I’ve made several votes over the years regarding dealing with gerrymandering and the promise of ranked choice voting. The folks over at Vox have put together a video that explains how other countries tackle elections over and beyond the possibilities of ranked choice voting.…
In clearing out some old emails and other materials dating back to the height of the pandemic, when we were looking for so many distractions, I came across my sharing of this machine-learning curiosity, which is not only still functioning, it seems like it may be enhanced. So launch up your favorite browser and enjoy. Considering the recent departure of two folks who contributed much to world silliness, re-introducing this bit of silliness seems appropriate…
The beginning of the end of Star Trek: Discovery‘s five-year mission streams this Thursday, April 4th. Originally, this fifth season of Discovery was apparently not intended to be the final one, which has caused all kinds of rampant speculation online. However, Trek overall, is not only not going anywhere, the powers that be want to maintain what isn’t just a franchise, but a veritable Intellectual Property (IP) empire. In a longform cover story for Variety,…
With films and film history very much on the mind from my post earlier this week, I was delighted to stumble (pratfall?) across this list from Vulture about the 100 Fights that Shaped Action Cinema. The work of multiple writers (and presumed cinemaniacs), this list goes back to the earliest moving pictures to the present day (it came out earlier this month). I not only appreciate it for its exhaustive scope, I’m very thankful that…