#there is a podcast version of moby-dick

[theinstagrahame]

One of the best things about Crowdfunding is, stuff arrives even when you're cutting way back on spending. A *ton* of stuff arrived in the last month and a bit. Got a bunch of really neat projects in, and it's time to get hype about it!

Why these games rule, under the cut

The Revenant Society: Banana Chan is one of those names that immediately catches my attention when she's on a project. Actually, looking at the list again, the team for this game was stacked, it was a real All-Star Cast. But like, even without the powerhouse designers on the case, this just gets all the things I want in a game: Time loops, murder mysteries, trapped on the Underground. A PbtA game where you solve your own murder is, y'know, a pitch that'll attract my attention.

Hellwhalers: I saw this game coming up through design phases in the Plus One Exp Discord, and it sounded incredible. Using tokens and an old ship betting game, you're part of a whaling crew chasing Moby Dick into actual hell. Maybe Ahab wasn't crazy after all, and maybe we won't survive.

Xenolanguage: I might own everything Thorny Games makes now, because they make games about language. Folks who may not know me might not know that I *love* linquistics. Honestly, if I could repeat college, I'd put more of my time into Linguistics. But due to the linear nature of time, I'll settle for playing games about decoding alien language in a first contact situation. Sorta like that movie Contact. Which, I loved.

Mothership and Desert Moons of Karth: I read through the original version of Mothership a couple of years ago, and it's one I wanted to get more into. When I saw that there was a chance to pick up the full 1e boxset on KS, I jumped. I've also seen tons of people talk about Karth as a really awesome sandbox module for the system, so when I had a little cash on DTRPG from selling books, it was an easy pickup.

Inscrutable Cities: Possum Creek Games told me to back this, so I did (this is a joke, but I do love PCG a whole lot). In reality, I saw Inscrutable Cities on Itch a while ago, and the pitch grabbed me. I love reading solo journaling games (I still haven't found a way I like to play them, if I'm completely honest, but they're really neat reads). Walking through an impossible city is something I'd love to do, so, I have the book for it now.

Reap: Spencer Cambell makes bangers, and bangers only. I'm not *not* on a mission to collect all of his work, but Necromancers? Solo tactical board games, built on Rune? Sure. I'm in.

Luna: Spencer Campbell makes bangers, and bangers only. I also picked up another of his books this month. The Nova universe? Moon cultists trying to destroy the sun? Sure, I'm in.

3 Moonlight on Roseville Beach zines: I played Moonlight on Roseville Beach on my now-defunct podcast, and it's a game that I honestly think about a lot. The dice system was complicated, but in a really neat way that gave the players a ton of really interesting decisions with every roll. What part of my action succeeds? What kinds of complications am I opening myself to?

Anyway, R. Rook put together some characters, mysteries, and monsters for the game, and I really wanted to explore more.

Hiria, In the Margins, A Visit to San Sibilia: I mentioned earlier that I like the notion of exploring weird cities, right? Well, here's two games about that, and a cool bookmark RPG for reading. I listened to San Sibilia played in an episode of Friends at the Table, and it really captured my attention. The questions were fascinating, and they let the players flesh out a city we'd only heard of, but not seen prior to that game. It was a cool coda on a really fantastic and weird season, Sangfielle.

Grandmothership: The title alone had me, but Armanda Haller is a creator I keep an eye on, because she makes really rad stuff. This caught my attention because solving mysteries in a weird, Mothership-esque sci-fi setting, as nosy grandmothers, really just, gets me. I want to do that. I want to live that.

Holdfast Station: I've been watching Stonetop develop through its email updates. It's another PbtA game, but with a robust city-building and city development core loop that, is 100% my jam. (Low-key, one of my favorite games is Dragon Quest Builders 2.) This game takes that concept to space, which is 1000% my jam, in fact.

Spectres of Brocken: Aaron Lim is a designer I got into early on in my foray into games, and I do love Mech Anime. I am eager to see his take on Mech Anime, and I am really intrigued by the way this game handles playsets and worldbuilding as part of the game itself. Really can't wait to dive into this.

Lay on Hands: This is another of those games I've heard about, but never actually checked out. I know Alfred Valley better by reputation than by direct experience, but this is one of those games I hear people constantly telling people to check out. So, I'm gonna!

Penumbra City: Maybe 5 years ago, I read a novella by Margaret Killjoy about anarchists living in an abandoned city, and beset by assholes within their community, and supernatural horrors from without. The world kinda stuck with me, so when I saw she was working on an RPG not in the same world), I was curious to see what that would look like. I haven't cracked Penumbra City open yet, but I'm jazzed to do so.

These two fell off the pile for the big photo, so I forgot:

Deathmatch Island: I enjoyed the Hunger Games and Battle Royale movies a pretty moderate amount, but what really caught my attention here was the promise that players could also break the Reality TV Parody. The use of the Paragon system also caught my attention. After hearing one AP of Agon, I really wanted to see how that would translate into this, and it didn't take me too long reading it to go "Oh, okay, this rules."

Our God is Dead: What if you were a paladin or priest of a faith, and you found out your god was dead? What if you also had like, a bunch of people who really needed that god not to be dead, like this weekend? This sounds hilarious, and I am going to insert it into conversation often to see if people want to play it. Apologies to people who know me.

Eagle eyed viewers may have noticed a second Mothership box. What's that about?

It's a storage box for all my Mothership Zines so far... Except the two that are just slightly too big!

And, some fun comics/graphic novels:

Good Boy Paws: A friend of mine in comics put this together, and it looked extremely cute. A sweet tale of a good boi.

Wine Ghost Goes to Hell: Picked this up because the creator had contributed to Bugsnax, which is a game I enjoyed, and the concept seemed fun. Will have to check it out and report back!

[sshbpodcast]

Tough as a Tardigrade: Space-dwelling lifeforms in Star Trek

By Ames

Star Trek spends a lot of episodes going where no one has gone before (except where someone definitely already has), and that includes just floating around in the vastness of space itself. But time and again, we find creatures who can survive even out here in the void, who don’t need a ship, a suit, gravity, oxygen, air pressure, or really any resources at all. And also who can survive cosmic radiation and all the other death traps even the Enterprise has trouble dealing with.

These are some resilient critters, so this week A Star to Steer Her By is shining a spotlight on the extremophiles of the cosmos! From lowly amoebas to much bigger amoebas, space-dwelling lifeforms come in all shapes, sizes, and tangibilities. Prepare to spacewalk with us as you read on below or listen to our chatter on this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 1:29:44) as we befriend these noble creatures and run away from the scary ones.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Spore flowers – “This Side of Paradise”

You almost miss this reference in an early episode of The Original Series, but it’s stated that the spores of the motivation-draining flowers traveled through space until they settled on paradise planet. Make them a mint julep for their tenacity!

Dikironium cloud creature – “Obsession”

Kirk’s white whale… er, cloud in “Obsession” definitely travels about through space on its own, even getting into the Enterprise itself through some duct or other. You may want to keep your hemoglobin to yourself if you come across this sucker.

Space amoeba – “The Immunity Syndrome”

We almost lose Spock to this massive version of a lowly single-celled organism, which drains the energy from the ship. Unlike the Moby Dick cloud above, this one seems to have a taste for Vulcans! Must be that tasty green blood.

Beta XII-A entity – “Day of the Dove”

The angry little pinwheel we meet on Beta XII-A also likes to flap around in space to follow the crew back to the Enterprise and piss everyone off. No really, all it wants to do is piss everyone off and feed off their hate. These things should get into politics.

Zetarians – “The Lights of Zetar”

Another flashy flashy light that follows people around through space, these colorful beings are just looking for a place to live… and that happens to be inside crewmen of the Enterprise. If they’d succeeded, they probably would have gone on our character possession list!

Matter-energy cloud – “One of Our Planets Is Missing”

I remember really liking this episode from The Animated Series, which is a rarity, because of the big sentient cloud that Spock gets to mindmeld reminding me of A Star to Steer Her By’s first fanfic day! And happily, both live on today!

Q – “Encounter at Farpoint” et al

When we first meet Q in the TNG premiere, he’s just a chain link fence in space. Shortly afterwards, we see him chase the ship as some kind of translucent ball. Basically, the Q are so powerful, they can exist wherever, whenever, and as whatever they want.

Space Jellyfish – “Encounter at Farpoint”

One of my personal favorites because of just how alien these things are. Kicking off The Next Generation with a pair of space jellyfish at the center of a mysterious test got things off to a great start. The rest of season one on the other hand…

Beta Renner cloud – “Lonely Among Us”

This highly forgettable episode did at least feature some interesting creatures who bring Picard’s essence with them to live in space and do whatever it is they like to do. It doesn’t last long, but it did happen.

Crystalline Entity – “Datalore” and “Silicon Avatar”

There are few creatures as spangly and stunning as the crystalline entity. Like all the pretty ones, it just happens to also like mass murder quite a bit, and also hanging out with psychopaths like Lore. Who can blame it though?

The Child – “The Child”

When Troi gets knocked up in the season two premiere of TNG, it’s by none other than some kind of space-dwelling light being. Little Ian Andrew just wants to learn more about the human race, from the inside out.

Nagilum – “Where Silence Has Lease”

In literally the next episode, yet another space-dwelling weirdo also wants to learn more about the human race, though this one is less innocent in how he goes about it. Let’s count how many different ways people can die. You know, for science!

Subatomic bacteria – “A Matter of Honor”

Our Benzite friend Mendon spots some subatomic bacteria on the hull of the Klingon vessel Pagh and doesn’t report it until another batch is found on the Enterprise. Who knows how many other infestations of this space-dwelling scum he hasn’t reported!?

Calamarain – “Deja Q”

Many of the lifeforms in space whom we meet are just incorporeal, and that includes the Calamarain who hold a grudge against Q for some infractions over the years. They nearly get their revenge in the brief time Q is human too.

Gomtuu – “Tin Man”

Megafauna in space is less common, but we do see some good ones. Like Gomtuu, a perfectly sentient creature living out the rest of his days with his Betazoid inhabitant. Sadly, it does seem that he may be the last of his kind.

Two-dimensional beings – “The Loss”

When Troi loses her empathic powers, she’s unable to sense the two-dimensional beings that the ship comes across. They’re a fairly interesting alien race, since you can’t even perceive the dimension they live in whether you’ve got a functioning empath or not!

Junior – “Galaxy’s Child”

Picard wasn’t the only one devastated to see the Enterprise accidentally kill a space-dwelling mega-ravioli since it was a very cool critter to meet. Luckily, her child, dubbed “Junior,” survives, just a little bit al dente.

Quantum singularity lifeforms – “Timescape”

The aliens we meet on the Romulan ship are so hardcore that they raise their young inside a singularity. And like a typical outlandish Romulan scheme, Romulan ships are so convoluted they’re powered by an artificial singularity. Talk about a Black Hole Son! (Rimshot.)

Wormhole aliens and pah-wraiths – Deep Space Nine

We move on to the space hoppers in Deep Space Nine, starting with the series-wide plotline of the prophets who live in the wormhole and the pah-wraiths who live in the firecaves. But when they’re summoned, they basically go where they want.

Vash’s artifact – “Q-Less”

Quark and Vash try to sell what turns out to be the egg of a creature from the Delta Quadrant. When it hatches, it’s incredibly beautiful, but I gotta admit I don’t know what I’d do either if a million bars of gold-pressed latinum were on the line.

Rumpelstiltskin, et al – “If Wishes Were Horses”

Boy did we (as usual, mostly I) not like this episode, and most of that has to do with how contradictory these aliens are. Like some of the previous instances of aliens learning how humans work, their agenda is convoluted at best and confounding at worst.

Changelings – “Chimera” et al

Since Changelings can form themselves as whatever they want, that includes beings and objects you can find in space. We specifically see Laas swimming through the void as some kind of space whale, but certainly other Changelings must do it too.

Nucleogenic cloud being – “The Cloud”

Let’s now visit some of our outside pets of the Delta Quadrant. Early in Voyager, we meet the titular Cloud being that the ship accidentally ends up inside, and learn that, if there’s a cute animal in danger, Janeway must save it!

Komar – “Cathexis”

Another incorporeal alien we also brought up in our character possessions discussion, the Komar also can live outside the ship in space somewhere. These parasites usually reside in a nebula until a tasty-looking snack like Tuvok happens along.

Space sperms – “Elogium”

While Kes is having a sexual awakening in this rather uncomfortable episode, the Voyager herself is trying her best not to have one with these space sperms that are in the middle of a mating frenzy. What’s a nice ship like you doing in a quadrant like this?

Matrix species – “Coda”

We don’t get a good look at this actual alien species other than in the guise of Janeway’s dad, but it is insinuated that their matrix dimension they are trying to lure her into is in some kind of ethereal space. Captain, don’t walk into the light!

Species 8472 – “Scorpion” and “Prey”

Species 8472 is truly alien in many ways, including all the places they’re able to live. Normally natives of fluidic space, they can also survive in the vacuum of space, as we see when they get onto the Voyager in “Prey.”

Bioplasmic organism – “Bliss”

Like Captain Kirk’s cloud in “Obsession,” the big space pitcher plant proves to be a white whale to our new friend Qatai. This thing is huge and actually impressive to see since its CGI holds up pretty well! That is, when you can see it for what it is of course.

Bevvox – “Think Tank”

A similar (though smaller?) example of a bioplasmic organism is Bevvox, who we can only assume is some kind of space brainbox. He floated around in space for millennia before having the bright idea to form the Think Tank of the episode of the same name.

Species GS84 – “Context Is for Kings”

We now jump straight into Discovery, and season 1 had a whole bunch of space-dwelling lifeforms to appreciate. In an almost throwaway scene, these little light leeches start draining the energy of the shuttle and get the pilot killed before the Discovery picks everyone else up.

Ripper – “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry” et al

The standout star of season 1 of Discovery, of course, is Ripper and I’ll not be hearing any arguments otherwise. This massive tardigrade, first thought to be a menace, turns out to be a great pilot before being freed from the slavery of the ship and straight into space to thrive.

Gormagander – “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

Unless you’re Jonah, you don’t typically travel via whale. Harcourt Mudd, however, travels in style inside an endangered Gormagander. The space cetacean is a beautiful creature, though it does make me wonder why whales have come up so much in this blogpost?

Ephraim – “Ephraim and Dot”

We see another tardigrade in one of the Short Treks, though this one is neither massive like Ripper nor microscopic like tardigrades we may find on Earth (or on the moon!). What Ephraim is is adorable and colorful, much like her entire animated episode!

Larval space creature – Lower Decks opening credits

Another animated lifeform we see out in space comes in Lower Decks. We’ve agreed that the opening title sequence of Star Trek’s comedy cartoon show has some of the best jokes of the whole series, and the big space bug sucking on the nacelle is one of them! Ha!

Verugament – “Grounded”

In the most recent season of Lower Decks, there’s a swarm of another space-dwelling organism, the verugament. And because it’s a silly jokey show, as soon as they come in contact with the Cerritos, it triggers a mating response and things get... squishy.

Murf – Prodigy

Last but certainly not least, we have everyone’s favorite mellanoid slime worm from Prodigy! Murf can survive pretty much anything! Little seems to be known about his species except that they will swoop in and save the day whenever called upon.

—

Come back inside before you get eaten by a space monster! As always, keep following this space for more great Trek topics, jetpack along with our watch through of Voyager on SoundCloud or your favorite podcasting application, tap the glass on our Facebook and Twitter pages, and save the space whales!

[bluestockingbaby]

tagged by @theboarsbride

Last Song: I think it was Just A Little Loving by Carmen Macrae

Last Show/Currently Watching: The Good Wife! I start lots of good shows that I have trouble sticking to anyway, but The Good Wife is such a good procedural! I just watched the first season in a couple of weeks.

Currently reading: Well, Frankenstein Weekly just started, and I’m still keeping up with my other tumblr book clubs (Moby Dick and Les Mis). I did just impulse-order three Brian Doerries books (Theatre of War and 2 New Versions of Greek Tragedies) because a project this semester gave me an excuse and I found cheap used copies online.

Current Obsession: My brain tends to latch onto random media as a default distraction for at least a few months at a time (the quality of the media doesn’t really matter but it’s usually at least a little bit dumb and over the top). Right now it’s The Riddler (you know, the Batman villain) and I’ve consumed a lot of Batman media over the last couple of months. I just enjoy when The Riddler is dapper, unhinged, and a bit pathetic. Rogues! The Podcast is really good, and I’m quite picky about podcasts. I’ve reread a lot of the stand-alone Batman Comics stories, but I’ve also just started the main line of Batman comics, Detective Comics, starting from #568 and honestly they’re not bad so far. Batman and Jason Todd’s dynamic is really sweet (he’s just a babyyyyy) and I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of the aspects of Batman’s premise that get oversimplified or overly criticized for the genre addressed within the story itself, even all the way back in the 80’s!

tagging @marley-manson @changelinq @mierinxeronaile @mariacallous @xserpx @mad-prophet-of-the-airwaves @complextoasts @laurabeatrix @curly-cottage-girl and anyone who wants to do this!

[mercutio-escalator]

Hi Froggie (assuming that that's still a name you use), I have been listening to a horror podcast and now I can't sleep. Got anything strangely delightful for me to look up information about? You seem like the type that would.

i do still use froggie, and hm....

sausages used to be marketed as bags of mystery meat

a gender bent version of moby dick called moby vulva exists

chuck tingle. not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need.

if you would like a pet fact, my dog lucy is so spoiled that she won't sleep if her monogrammed blanket isn't facing the right way (initial in the bottom left corner of her bed)

this is lucy. she also happens to be a very good swimmer and a model

[intothevortex]

Hey, die Lesungen von Alice und Moby sind nur auf YouTube verfügbar oder? Nicht in deinem podcast channel oder hab ich Tomaten auf den Augen? 🤔😁

Hallo! Nein, das ist schon korrekt, was du sagst. Die Lesungen von “Alice”, “Moby Dick” und auch die vergangene vom “Wizard Of Oz” und auch die Edgar Allan Poe Lesungen sind nur auf YouTube als Video verfügbar. Mit dem “elektronischen Auge der Kamera” vor mir habe ich mehr den Eindruck wirklich jemandem Vorzulesen, als wenn “nur” ein Mikrofon vor mir wäre. Das ist zumindest eine der (vielen) Ideen hinter dem Projekt. Ich arbeite allerdings grade einer eigene Übersetzung vom “Wizard” ins Deutsche und da ist dann der Plan auf jeden Fall auch eine “Audio only” Version zu machen. Vielleicht auch ausschließlich eine “Audio only” Version. Das weiß ich noch nicht, was genau passieren wird. Die Übersetzung wird aber sicher noch ein bisschen dauern. 

[fourteenacross]

end of 2019

I've done this survey every year since like, 2006 and then missed it last year because I was on a social media break. Whoops! My shitty memory makes it fairly important as a way to track the passage of time, so I'm back on the horse this year.

What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before? I'm sure there's some specific thing, but nothing's coming to me immediately. Oh, I guess I started cross stitching? Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I'm not sure what my resolutions were for last year because I did not write them anywhere because I did not do this meme /o\ Next year: + Set up some kind of writing schedule + Finish my mg novel + Survive moving + Get a new job + Go on more dates

eta: Outside of these sort of concrete, 2do-list type goals, I set some more nebulous personal goals on Twitter: - See my local friends outside of the BFC more often - Do weird, dumb shit - Be nicer to myself - Fix my meds - Bake something fancy(Okay, that last one is kind of 2do-listy.) Did anyone close to you give birth? YES!! @caphairdadbeard had a baby and he's perfect and I love him and it kills me that he's so far away and I only get to see him a few times a year, even more so than it usually kills me having Sarah so far away. Did anyone close to you die? My former roommate's father. I did a lot of family stuff with her over the decade that we lived together and spent a lot of time with her parents and he was super loved and admired by his community. A real shitty loss all around. What countries did you visit? Just the US, but I visited Seattle and Mississippi for the first time! What would you like to have in 2020 that you lacked in 2019? ~*~Financial security~*~ What dates from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I'm so terrible with actual dates. May 9 was Max's birthday, so there's that? We did a lovely, successful live show on April 18. OH we went to Rent Live and had our wild weekend in LA on January 26. We watched a lot of wild movie musicals at Grace and Jesse's in July. I saw Blair Witch in the woods. I went down to the city to see Octet and Hadestown. Lisa moved in with me. Moby-Dick happened. Now I'm just listing events and not dates, but there you go. What was your biggest achievement of the year? God, do I even have one? I'm not dead, so that's probably something. Oh, I guess we had a really good WBS month where we were interviewed by Forbes.com, had one of our crossovers with IDEOTV, guest edited TBD, and had our live show. That was a really satisfying few weeks. What was your biggest failure? I'm haunted by this work thing I fucked up, even though everyone has told me it wasn't a big deal. I really crash and burned out for NaNo because SAD hit me way harder and faster this year than it has in the past. Did you suffer illness or injury? Lots of brain stuff, as per usual. A couple minor colds. My FAMILY on the other hand.... What was the best thing you bought? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Tickets to Octet, maybe. It was probably my favorite show of the year. The new chair/loveseat is also very good. Whose behavior merited celebration? Some of my friends. A lot of excellent activists. Sarah's baby (he's very good). Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Like, the whole government? Where did most of your money go? Grown-up type stuff (rent, utilities, groceries), cons, and travel. What did you get really, really, really excited about? LA, Octet, Max, DragonCon, Moby-Dick. Galentine's! What song will always remind you of 2019? Probably music from Octet? I don't like.....listen to the radio. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Probably about the same? Maybe more stressed out by family stuff going on and money stuff. b) thinner or fatter? Same. Also, I hate this question. 2020 Kaitlyn, delete it plz. c) richer or poorer? About to be poorer. What do you wish you’d done more of? Writing. Sleeping. Going on dates. Hanging out with people. What do you wish you’d done less of? Being depressed. Being stressed. Did you fall in love in 2019? Nope. What was your favorite TV program? If we're talking "currently airing" and not "things I bingewatch that are very old," probably The Good Place--OH I almost forgot Good Omens was this year!!! Also that! And I started watching Schitt's Creek and watched all of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh, and I started watching some videos on the Bon Appetit YouTube channel, mostly Gourmet Makes and Making Perfect and Reverse Engineering. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Mostly just like...........people I don't actually know who are terrible humans. What was the best book you read? Coming soon to a podcast feed near you! What was your greatest musical discovery? Probably Octet? I don't think I listened to a lot of new music this year. OH WAIT, The Highwomen!!! What a good album!!! (Also in doing the theatre section I just remembered Six was this year too!) What did you want and get? Mostly material things--clothes, cons, travel, seeing people, tickets to things, etc. Impeachment. Got that. That was nice. What did you want and not get? Financial security. A new job. Emotional stability. A relationship. More sleep. What was your favorite film of this year? Captain Marvel, although Us, Charlie's Angels, and The Wind were very good too. What was your favorite theatrical event of the year? Probably Octet! The broadway version of Hadestown was kind of disappointing compared to the 2016 NYTW version and Moby-Dick is great fun, but still pretty rough in places. Octet is just.....very good.  Oh, or SIX, that was great too! Octet or Six. Oh, and, jesus, this year was a hundred years long, I totally forgot we saw Denee as Eliza this year!! She was very good!! And I got to see Daniel Breaker as Burr again and I fucking love him. What was your favorite podcast of the year? The Empty Bowl, a meditative podcast about cereal. It is so good for zoning out and being calm. TAZ has been killing it with the one-shots and the Amnesty arc, too, and this was the first year I listened to MBMBaM weekly and also I mainlined all of Sawbones after listening to half of it, then not listening to any for six months, then deciding to start from the beginning again. Unwell is a really good show that I recommend, and Mabel. The Magnus Archives killed it with season four, which was tailored to my exact narrative tastes. MFM and Criminal are perpetual faves. American Hysteria was super interesting to go through and Bear Brook and In the Dark both obviously had fucking fantastic years. Oh, and Who the Hell is Hamish? that was fun too. And I’ll stop now.

I.....listen to a lot of podcasts. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 34! On the day, I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends. That weekend, I bought a bunch of children's Captain Marvel birthday supplies and we played Jackbox games and ate cake! What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Any sort of fix to our current political mess. And/or financial stability. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019? The "Whimsical" section on eShakti. What kept you sane? Friends! Podcasts! Anti-depressants! Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Brie Larson and Starr Busby are the first that spring to mind. What political issue stirred you the most? It’s hard to pick just one when the whole country is on fire. Who did you miss? Pretty much everyone when they are not right next to me. Sarah Bay, a lot, but I feel weird singling one person out. [This is exactly what I wrote for the last four years, but I’m keeping it because it’s still true.] Who was the best new person you met? Did I meet new people this year? I know I internet-met a couple people, but I'm not sure if I in-person made any new friends? We hung out with this girl Jenn at con a bunch, she was pretty cool! edit: oh my god MAX I met MAX this year because he did not exist last year!!! Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019: Do not invite folks to sit on a panel unless you know they'll stick to the goddamn topic agreed on in advance. Quote a song that sums up your year: And no one grew into anything new / we just became the worse of what we were

(I think this is the third year in a row that Dave Malloy has been my lyric of the year.)

Anyway, that’s 2019 for me. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it go. The last half, in particular, was super rough. Hell, the last week was super rough--guess how many members of my family have been in the hospital in December! If you guessed “six” you would be correct!! (Everyone is more or less fine.) 

But, hey, it also brought me my tiny nephew and two Dave Malloy musicals, so it wasn’t all bad! 

I hope 2020 treats you all well, friends!

[shih-coulda-had-it]

quarantine q&a

@iwritesometimes tagged me for a life update! This is doubling as an apology for not uploading/updating a fic this March; things… have been taking a while to settle.

Tagging @rockcandyshrike, @vaenire, and @thisauthorisscreaming! 

Are you staying home from work/school?

Staying home from school! My college had the bright idea of giving us an extra week of spring break, and then delaying the news about evicting us from on-campus housing. Fortunately, I live in-state, so it was only a couple hours of driving, to and back.

If you’re staying home, who’s there with you?

My family! (But no pets. ; v;)

Are you a homebody?

Spiritually. I cooked for myself a lot more at college, but since moving back here, there’s just… no motivation? I’m an expert in cooking single portions. Also, cleaning just takes the life out of me. The one routine I’ve kept is washing the dishes, and I hold out on those till night-time so I can go to sleep somewhat tired.

An event that you were looking forward to that got cancelled?

My school was sponsoring a trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival! We were gonna hang out from last Thursday to this Monday; I was really looking forward to just, y’know, wandering a small town in the early hours of morning… freezing cold air… empty children’s playground… burbling creek…

What movies have you watched recently? What shows are you watching?

No shows, because I don’t have the attention span for them. (Give it a bit, I might just hop back into some cartoons I’ve been meaning to binge.)

I am getting back into Campaign Podcast’s Star Wars campaign! It is taking me forever to get out of Mandalore. I may never get out of Mandalore. Send help.

Movies I’ve watched since the shelter-in-place order – Bad Boys and Bad Boys II; Persuasion (1995 version), Doom: Annihilation, Moonstruck

What music are you listening to?

Currently, any and all of @everydaylouie tunes! I can also recommend @toastyglow’s Work Music II playlist on Youtube for reliable bops. Otherwise, I keep trying Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist… that’s a hit or miss.

What are you reading?

I’m trying to read Moby-Dick for real this time (I’ve faked reading it for class). On my ‘To-Finish��� is The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera (Fantasy Asian wlws) and The Book of Salt by Monique Truong (Vietnamese mlm who was a cook for these two eccentric, famous wlws).

What are you doing for self-care?

Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Putting on outside clothes even though I’m staying indoors 99% of the day. Playing piano. Drinking more white tea than I have in my entire life. I haven’t been feeling any motivation recently, but maybe I just need to change my work area.

I’m giving myself til the end of today to stop feeling sorry for myself. I wanna write. I wanna draw. Might kick off April with another month of uploading content, like I did with December. I have three projects now...

Finishing the hanahaki fic

Uploading the amateur-webp*rn-stars-because-we-need-money fic

Figuring out what to write for April

Fingers crossed. Stay safe, wash your hands!

[mifhortunach]

thinking about that media white whale tweet again, and realised that the one I forgot is the version of the phantom podcast where they REALLY fckn commit to the bit of it being the only strwrs movie; or the dream alternative of that where they get the time/resources/whatever to do a more civilised(pod)-esque version where I get to hear them go on about fckn, the weird politics of the senate or RoTJ for like 4hrs without having to be rushed out of bad studios 

next best White Whale is Tobe Hooper’s version of the thing where it was space Moby dick 

[goodguidanceptc]

Louisville IM Race Report October 14, 2018

Welcome coaches, training buddies, close friends and masochists/insomniacs. As with prior race reports, be warned that this post contains STRONG LANGUAGE. Here goes:

Abstract:

Read the Athlete Guide. Always. Miserable cold and wet conditions. Water temp warmer than air temp, wetsuit legal. Absurd Swim (shortened due to aggressive current); T1 was all about gear choices; Adequate Bike under demanding conditions; T2 was also all about gear choices; Tough Run. Two key takeaways: 1) Read the Athlete Guide; 2) I haven't quite properly calibrated in-race fueling.

Total race time result = 10:18*

* Under grossly dis-humane weather conditions and my own flubs, that is a good result...with which I am completely unsatisfied. A no-surprise, well-managed bike and a somewhat uneven run (matched stand-alone marathon result). Feel free to stop reading now.

Pre-Race (aka: “the Dumbening”)

I cannot emphasize strongly enough: no matter how many races you’ve done, how confident you may be in knowing the procedures, the timing, the places, etc... read and re-read the Athlete Guide.

So although I cannot provide details, just know that I--through my own dumbness--was told to acquire my timing chip in T1 after an official manually noted my swim start time, while standing on the dock to jump into the Ohio River. Clearly communicated in multiple places: check-in closes at 5pm Friday. 

Brief rewind: woke up, standard pre-race breakfast, uneventful gear check and load bottles onto bike, walked over to Swim in. Shoulda found an IM staffer then, but didn’t think. Just didn't think it through; too cold and pre-race- process oriented. Got a little tunnel vision to get to the front of the self-seeded “1-1:10″ swim line. 

Announcer: The current is so strong, some of the pros were struggling to get up river. Swim shortened to .9 mile, in other words an Olympic distance. Race delayed. 

Some squats to stay warm, chat up some folks in line, never once thought to go  get my chip before passing though that big black arch.

Swim (:18 min or 1:18/100 pace)

I swear to you by all the barge traffic and catfish whiskers in the Ohio River, there is no way I was in that river for 18 minutes. More on this in T1. Feet first into the river, sight that first buoy and...

Ever look through a kaleidoscope? Or imagine a Disney version of puke from a flying whale?  The view from my goggles was: 

[Kayaks + swim caps + buoys]

X

(river current exceeding posted speed limits) 

= 

flying Disney whale puke (as I imagine it rendered)

Just utter chaos. I aimed for the big wall, hit the metal steps and out. To quote one of my training partners, “My hair barely got wet.”

T1 (9:20)

Up the steps and skipped the peelers. Rationale: stay as warm as possible as long as possible. Jogged to changing tent, quickly passed the clumping “under 1 hour” swimmers, grabbed a chair near the exit.

Decision time on what to wear and how much skin to cover for the bike. I went with 100% coverage. Socks, thermal legs, long sleeves, gloves, balaclava. Plastic bag under the jersey and five of those little hand warmers hunters use (squeeze and shake for 6+ hours warming) in my back jersey pockets.

Out to bike rack, unhook and... it’s find-my-chip time. Found an IM staffer who radioed multiple people before finally sending me past the Bike Out arch to where the chip folks were.

I.  Stood. There.  Forrr -- evv -- errr. 

Trying to alleviate my own frustration and anxiety, I literally put my head in my hands and made Hulk sounds.

Now, even in my adrenalized and hyper-performance-oriented state, I remember that I brought this shit on myself. So any expectation of special treatment, expedited problem-solving or what I call the lack of a “hop to!” by IM staffers simply cannot be criticized.  This crapola? All.  On.  Me.

Furthermore, I'm grateful. (Check prior race reports, if you must. OR just trust me when I say that...) I thank all the volunteers and cops and EMTs and Traffic Management and general staff within earshot. No matter what speed I’m biking or running. Seriously. I’m all about appreciation.

All that said, Swim and T1 times are clearly inaccurate. Although IM staff noted the time of day I jumped into the water, another IM staffer wrote my time on a clipboard when they activated my chip and yet another other IM staff told me they’d estimate my T1 time. But I didn’t know precisely where to go in T1. So I lingered.

[So again: read the Athlete Guide.]

And if you are ever in that situation--which I guaran-frikkin-tee you I will NEVER be--I recommend you DO NOT stop to ask questions. Continue until you happen upon the chip folks. Worst case: you miss them and back track... the biking equivalent of going back to get dropped nutrition.

Bike (5:43)

While I definitely did not feel myself relax heading down River Road, I did feel a certain familiar comfort. I’d ridden this course a few times so even in the cold, wet wind, I was pretty confident I could manage the bike.

In the spirit of gratitude, whether passing or getting passed, I try to say something positive (looking good, go git some, stay strong).

Even on a hilly course, I ended up pacing with a few others. I try to be sensitive to any ‘gamesmanship’ (I’m not trying to get in your head competitively) but I'm definitely chatty. And the cold and wet just invited comment, even if only to distract from the misery.

Stick out and first loop was uneventful other than the number of people shivering on the sides of the route. Second loop had more than a few cars on course that seemed patient and considerate (relatively, IMO) but still required careful negotiations.

A FEW FIRSTS FOR ME

BLINDING ANGER. I admit I might have been “kicking the cat” but I’ve never experienced this on course.

On the back side of the loop, in the narrow stretch of blacktop through the small neighborhood just after the long descent out of La Grange, there’s short, steep descent with a well-marked/painted “BUMP” before a short, steep uphill. I’m a technically strong and confident cyclist so getting through here on the first loop was a piece of cake. Second time though, there was a hefty pack of windbreakers weaving(!) across the entire width of the road. Despite shouting “on your left” repeatedly and loudly, I had to brake. On an uphill. Dropped my chain. Nearly fell. Unclipped.  All in the tiny 8ish yards of that short ascent. 

What did I do? Stood there trying to get my chain back on and swearing profusely that dickhead bucket-listers with fucking no fucking business fucking leaving their fucking strip-mall periodontist practices should fucking learn to handle their goddamn bikes.

As I passed them on the descent towards the hay-bale bullseye, I gently advised them about blocking, race etiquette and having some goddamn self-awareness. In my defense, I averaged very nearly 20mph that day. And when I accidentally felt somebody too close as they passed, I always apologized. In retrospect, I’m sorry I was that guy right then. 

PROFOUND SOLITUDE Stay with me as I get a little bing-bongy here... At the split to repeat the loop or return on the stick, most folks (the fat part of the bell curve) go left for their second loop.  I was returning on the stick. 

Suddenly I was not saying or hearing “on your left” or listening for the difference between aero wheels or a passing car. 

I was alone. Like the guy in that Robert Frost poem. Miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep. And the mental chatter started. Cold. Grey. Wet. Stupid. Wasteful. What ego on you, chump. Clips from Moby Dick, Chapter 96. Burning ship, drove on to some vengeful deed. Gloom. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. ee cummings A Leaf Falls. 

[Stop wasting your time with this race report. Go read some actual writers.]

Even my mantras had abandoned me. I may have started singing or rapping something from my training playlist to shut down the negative chatter. And that’s about when I realized how well I was managing this bike leg. I think that’s called a paradox.

DON’T BLOW IT NOW Somewhere along one of the last ascents, I realized that I’d dressed properly! Coach Robbie’s advice for plastic grocery bag was spot on. Sure the toes and fingers were cold, but functional. Ears and neck felt okay and core temp was a non-issue. I wondered if I’d taken enough calories (thought: probably) but come on! I’d handled some real shitball conditions pretty well. 

T2 (8:49)

Pulled off everything soaking wet except kit shorts. Replaced with dry thermal long-sleeve top, dry hat, dry gloves. Run belt, bottle, dry socks, shoes. Go.

While neither T1 or T2 were very fast, I really didn’t linger in the warmth. I remember thinking, “Take two deep breaths, make this decision and move it.” In other words, time was spent actually changing clothes.

BTW, Transition volunteers? True Guardian Bros. Can’t thank em enough.

Run (3:58 aka: avg 9:03/mi)

Two MAJOR joyous moments within the first mile:

1) As we’d pre-planned, my unbelievably awesome wife told me I was 18 minutes behind a podium slot. She told me later that I barked, “FUCK!” Regardless, I steal a kiss every race.  Better than a GU and just as sweet. [Yes she reads these. Wink!] 

2) Coincidentally, she was standing a few feet from Coach Robbie (C26), who I recognized but accidentally called Mike (his podcast co-host who I knew was on course). I think I shook his hand? Or maybe just shouted a happy shout?

So those two intercepts helped make the first 25% of the run all good.  I kept turning down the pace because, as Coach Robbie has said, “your legs are lying to you.”

Then all that good ju-ju abandoned me like buoys on the Ohio River on the backside of the first loop.

I’d dropped my Infinit before finishing the entire first 24oz bottle. Why not stop and get it? I got no good rational answer. Ditched hat and gloves and actually rolled up my sleeves. My legs and shoes were soaked. (Walk-peeing wasn’t doing me any favors.) 

I felt better once I had another bottle from my Special Needs bag, but by then I’d already burned my biscuits (another C26 gem) so I was well below my planned and expected 8:40/mile pace.

I may have even cried a little. Apologies to extremely helpful volunteer who graciously ignored a grown-ass man losing his shit. I KNOW i was talking to myself, “It’s all in your head. Move it.” and other more terrible words.

The last 25% in-bound was an exercise in utter stubbornness. Coke Gatorade Coke Gatorade Coke Gatorade and tons of verbal self-flagellation to keep going. I sincerely believe I passed two guys in my AG out of pure self-loathing.

The Fourth Street Live finish lived up to the hype. There’s photographic evidence that I actually smiled as I crossed and nearly collapsed (again, super kudos to the volunteers). I was wheeled straight to medical, shivering and borderline shock-ey. Broth, blankets, checked vitals (core temp too low). As planned, Susan brought me multiple layers of dry clothes. Changed. Got my mental shit together after finding out I’d finished 16th. Gold star to Al V., the med tent massage therapist. Another Guardian Bro.  Limped home.

OVERALL RACE GRADE: PASS

As with prior races, IM-LOU yielded incremental improvements in all racing phases. As I said at the top, this was a good result, with which I am completely unsatisfied.

Am I one of the guys at the pointy end of the bell curve? Clearly yes. 

Did I KQ? Unequivocal NO. Not even close.

There is clearly opportunity for additional incremental improvements to all five aspects of my racing:

Swim pace was an anomaly. 3x/wk in the lap pool could be improved by 2x/wk in endless pool.

Bike power was lost due to shitass Garmin tech. But from what I remember, I was mostly high Z2 with relatively few power spikes given the course and conditions. I definitely managed the bike with patience and smarts.

Run suffered due to fueling strategy that is just not... quite...perfected. And again, deplorable conditions.

Fuel strategy. I over corrected from IM-AZ (early run GI problems). Calories, liquids (no solids) and delivery method feels right. Timing around T2 needs tweaking.

Transitions were what they were. MY dumbassery in T1 was offset by my smart gear decisions.

See you in New Zealand in March, 2019!

WITH GRATITUDE FOR...

I’m very grateful to my lovely wife Susan and my wonderful kids, Peter and Veronica for their support. Susan, you are my salvation.

I’m grateful to have the expert professionals Coach Klebacha and Coach Sharone and the entire Well-Fit staff and athletes who generously share their wisdom.

I’m grateful to my inspiring and impressive training partners, including but not limited to the TriFam, the Well-Fit Elite Team (too many bad-asses to list but special GOLD STARS to LIZ and LAURA) and other triathlete rockstars like Nic, Dana, Andrew, John, James, Tony, and all the Pauls and Mikes.

I’m very grateful to anybody willing to excuse my terrible smell, deplorable language and barbaric sounds during training.

Maximum gratitude to Well-Fit, FFC, UIC, Whitney Young, Get-A-Grip, Live Grit, Fleet Feet, the Lakeshore path, Louisville Landsharks.

I’m grateful for Crushing Iron (C26), Matt Fitzgerald, Joe Friel, Training Peaks, Scott brand bikes, Apple, Ironman.

Thank you to all the on-course maniacs cheering and making signs and wearing all sorts of crazy outfits to show love and support. For strangers exercising.

Special thanks and appreciation to Bernie Mc for the most amazing on course support. Extra special Top Marks to Bernie!

I’m grateful that I’m able to race triathlons. Thanks for reading.

[yggdrasilbohdi]

Family History Can Be a Whale of a Tale—Just Ask Genealogist David Allen Lambert

When renowned genealogist David Allen Lambert was a child, his grandmother gave him a gift that kept on giving—tales about his ancestors. These stories set a course for his life that combined his passion, hobby, and livelihood all in one.

Stories about his great-grandfather, who had been a whaler, hooked him in particular. In elementary school, David had read a child’s version of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. He comments, “I was intrigued with the idea that someone in my family had been like someone in a book.”

Family Stories Are What Make Family History Fun

David felt like a genealogist-in-the-making as soon as he was introduced to his family tree. “I started young to try to find where my family came from,” he says.

While finding the names and vital data about an ancestor is rewarding, it’s the details surrounding that individual that keep genealogists digging. Those details add something to the one-dimensional name. “Everyone has a story, and genealogy is like a 1,000-piece puzzle that you keep adding to bit by bit. [Those stories] are what keep our ancestors in our lives,” David continues.

One of David’s own family lines has been linked back to King Cerdic of Wessex, who reigned from 519 to 534 AD. He is considered by historians to be one of the most effective of England’s early rulers.

And note that it was genealogical researchers, for instance, who found that Prince Harry of England and his wife, Meghan Markle, are distant cousins. Their common ancestors are Sir Philip Wentworth, who died in 1464, and his wife, Mary Clifford. “We’re all cousins sooner or later,” notes David.

David’s Love of Genealogy Expanded to Helping Others

David was 11 years old when he began seriously looking into his own family genealogy. His passion for finding the bits and pieces of his family history led to a steady progression and then a dedication to help others do the same. David joined the Stoughton Historical Society, a local history and genealogy organization, and he was named assistant curator and vice president just 4 years later at age 15.

David’s current position is chief genealogist for American Ancestors by New England Historical Genealogical Society (NEHGS). Founded in 1845, New England Historical Genealogical Society is the oldest genealogical organization in the country. It is also regarded as a premier source of genealogical services.

David joined the prestigious nonprofit organization in 1993. He describes one of his early jobs of filling requests to borrow books from their genealogy collections as Amazon.com for genealogists. He adds, “The former circulating library gave me a strong understanding of our collections.”

One of his proud moments in a lifetime of notable contributions came when a small genealogical library in Brockton, Massachusetts, was named in his honor.

In addition to these accomplishments, David is an internationally recognized speaker and writer on the topics of genealogy and history.

Sharing Data and Technology Make Family Research Easier  

David says he has enjoyed congenial relationships with like-minded people in the FamilySearch community. Collaboration in finding data and sharing it with the ever-growing number of people seeking family history keeps him returning to Utah frequently. The strong connections between the NEHGS and the FamilySearch community include shared databases that bring billions of items of information within reach of even novice researchers.

The advent of DNA testing to establish a person’s genealogical past has also been a boon to those researching their own histories. DNA is one of many notable advancements and events that have contributed to David’s enthusiasm for family history. “It’s a never-ending story with you in the middle,” he adds.

Advice on How to Get Started Yourself 

When asked what advice David can offer those wanting to start learning about their family history, he suggests the following:

Start now.

Identify items with family relevance, particularly photos.

Identify someone to protect and cherish genealogical items so they are not “thrown out with the trash” upon your passing.

Interview yourself. You are an important part of your genealogy. 

If you do as David suggests, you will soon marvel at your own great family heritage.

David Allen Lambert Biography 

David Allen Lambert has been on the staff of NEHGS since 1993 and is the organization’s chief genealogist. David is an internationally recognized speaker on the topics of genealogy and history. His genealogical expertise includes New England and Atlantic Canadian records of the 17th through 21st centuries; military records; DNA research; and Native American and African American genealogical research in New England. He has also published A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries (NEHGS, 2018) and other titles.

David has published many articles in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, the New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Rhode Island Roots, the Mayflower Descendant, and American Ancestors magazine.

David is an elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston and a life member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati.

He is the state historian of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution; state registrar for the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution; state registrar for the Massachusetts chapter of the General Society of the War of 1812. David is also the tribal genealogist for the Massachusett-Ponkapoag Indians of Massachusetts.

He is co-host for Extreme Genes: America’s Family History Radio Show. He is also co-host of the podcast Virtual Historians, which deals with history, technology, and virtual reality.

[deepstheeskimo]

Righting the oil tanker

Ever get into a hollow? That weird place where it doesn’t actually hurt any more, you aren’t desperately sad or manic, you’re not a danger to yourself and others but it’s just bleak. Deeps in the doldrums, going nowhere fast and screwing my nut trying to get some drive back.

I hate being there. Frustration sneaking in, unable to block out the noise all around, can’t suppress the self-doubt and can’t form any new motivation or get any satisfaction even when achieving things. This time it’s been podcasts, articles and Twitter rabbit holes I’ve hidden away in, producing self-flagellation as well as hatred, disappointment and doubt in others spouting shit online.

Anyway, while distracted and trying and failing to sort all of that dreck out, you forget to do your daily Five Nights at Freddy’s style checks. The routines slip, mindfulness falls by the wayside, talking stops and work/life balance becomes a distant memory. Shit, I think, better check outside the window… but it’s too late – the black dog’s broken its chain in the garden. Pounding its way up the path, through the open window and charging its way upstairs like Napoleon ordered in Animal Farm.

I’ve seen this coming from a way off. I see my mental state like a slow-moving oil tanker on a drift across the ocean. I’ve learnt the cycle. Over a period of four months, it’s become very predictable. Nobody asked, but here it is in a shorthandish way:

-Starting at in the doldrums, my mood is that of a shipwrecked sailor, balancing on driftwood. In this first few weeks I’m working hard – super focused and probably not very nice to be around. In my own little canoe cobbled together with whatever I managed to wrestle off Kensuke in his Kingdom, we’re off the island. -Stage Two starts with a dip – we hit rock bottom. The captain is looking like something out of Trawlerman, stinkin’ of prawns and in a right mess. He’s lost his 25 grand fishing net on the seabed somewhere in the North Sea. Sleep deprived, sad, angry – but determined as fuck and just avoiding a keel hauling mutiny… -He hands the relay baton to Cap’n Ahab for a quick chase of Moby Dick. He’s even more determined, obsessive you’d say. Letting perfect get in the way of good progress, I search for The White Whale. Doesn’t last long but all that whale oil is a pretty damn good fuel. Creativity booms, work flies by, workouts are easy and all of my output shifts up a gear. -My mood improves quite quickly. The Kraken awakes. Jack Sparrow takes the bridge and I focus on easy wins and setting new goals – still hardly happy though and dead tired. I don’t dream about a squid-faced nemesis but I’m focusing on equally weird and potentially CGI-ed stuff. Self esteem in the bin but h*ck my ego’s through the roof. That’s the story of someone with bipolar I guess. -Next stage is more slow growth for a short period, but a good chance to look back and review. Probably at my most presentable, in terms of being a ‘normal’ person. Reading a lot and with powers of recall improved to a level of the Commons under John Bercow*. -Next up we’re back to a nobody captaining the ship, but Christ do they have a work ethic. No ‘furlough’ government holiday here, we’re on a container ship making its way over from Australia to the UK, bringing thousands of families’ lives along for a ride. What a responsibility and that’s the headspace I build myself into. In this stage I’m probably best described as a manic depressive. Super high production, feeling brilliant, skating on ice. -Last stage now and we’ve ended up on a silly big cruise ship. Bountiful. In great shape, mentally physically and emotionally. The Captain’s turned out all smart and is charming the punters. Down the buffet they have hot and cold running Caramacs and granola. PG Tips Monkeh is serving grenadine at the bar and a bunch of bees are angrily stinging the cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine for public entertainment. Just like on a cruise ship though, it’s just teeth n tits; all fur coats and no knickers. I’m able to find plenty to say but I’m not as creative as I am in the stage before. In the back of my mind I know that the smallest movement in direction can take days to show properly. So I’m already on borrowed time. Doldrums on the radar. Gonna take ages to spin this around.

One hell of a weird thing to be able to describe your various mental states through metaphor, but it’s positive that I can now see this as a cycle as opposed to an inevitable downward linear slide that always ended up in the same dark spaces.

The cycle may keep repeating but I’m slowly learning to impact areas of it. I’m not just an actor playing a School Nativity version of myself in the thrice annual production of Mr.Eeps Goes to That Scary Place. That’s such a huge relief.

I don’t HAVE to end up on a cliff. I don’t HAVE to withdraw from my support networks or abuse myself and others. I CAN just reassess and gear up ready to enter my next phase. One thing’s for certain, never again will I ask a therapist why I can’t ‘just be normal’.

*jeezo, if you get that joke you probably wear Houses of Parliament socks. I know I do.

[bigyack-com]

Barnes & Noble Reverses Course on Redesigned Book Covers

Barnes & Noble said Wednesday that it would cancel its plans to promote classic novels featuring covers with people of color, after criticism from writers and others in publishing that it was a misguided attempt at diversifying its shelves.For the project, called Diverse Editions and intended “to raise awareness and discussion during Black History Month,” the bookseller worked with Penguin Random House and used artificial intelligence to look through 100 books — including “The Secret Garden,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moby-Dick” — that it said made no reference to the race of their characters. Artists then created limited-edition covers for 12, reimagining the characters as people of color.Each book received five different covers depicting ethnically diverse characters. The covers for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” for instance, included one featuring an Asian Dorothy with a pink dress, as well as black and Native American versions of the character. Barnes & Noble planned to promote the redesigned books at one of its biggest stores, on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, and at a panel session on diversity Wednesday evening.But the project quickly encountered criticism from writers who questioned why these books were promoted instead of ones written by or featuring African-Americans. The writer Rod T. Faulkner called the project “literary blackface” in a Medium essay. On Twitter, Angie Thomas, the author of the young-adult novel “The Hate U Give,” wrote that the company should instead: “Promote books by authors of color. Just a thought.”“We acknowledge the voices who have expressed concerns about the Diverse Editions project at our Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue store and have decided to suspend the initiative,” Barnes & Noble said in a statement. “The covers are not a substitute for black voices or writers of color, whose work and voices deserve to be heard.”Penguin Random House didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Barnes & Noble canceled Wednesday’s panel session.MK Asante, an author who was scheduled to participate in the panel, said he was critical of the project. “What I was going to do is talk about the history of black voices in literature,” he said, “the importance of black voices in literature, the importance of not changing the cover, but changing the content, changing the way that we think about a classic. What is a classic? Classic to whom?”The backlash to Barnes & Noble’s initiative was the latest challenge the publishing and literary worlds have faced over how they approach race and diversity. The novel “American Dirt,” which came out last month, has been criticized as inaccurately depicting Mexican culture and immigrants and benefiting from an industry that doesn’t recognize Latinx writers.Late last year, the Romance Writers of America, a trade organization, was roiled by disputes over how it handled a racism complaint by one of its members and for what many romance writers considered the longstanding marginalization of writers of color within the genre.Earlier this week, several Latinx writers — including Roberto Lovato, Myriam Gurba and David Bowles — met with executives at Flatiron Books, the publisher of “American Dirt,” and its parent company, Macmillan. Flatiron subsequently said it would “substantially increase Latinx representation across Macmillan, including authors, titles, staff and our overall literary ecosystem.”Barnes & Noble, in its statement, said its stores nationally would “continue to highlight a wide selection of books to celebrate black history and great literature from writers of color.”Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast. Read the full article

[shaneplays]

The always interesting Doug TenNapel joins to talk: Bigfoot Bill 2 Finger of Poseidon. Earthworm Jim. Guns. Tolkien vs Star Wars. Tolkien vs Sanderson. Moby Dick. A great steak vs a really good steak vs burgers. People with opposing beliefs can still love and work with each other. Note: This podcast version has more content than the radio broadcast version.

[mastcomm]

Barnes & Noble Reverses Course on Redesigned Book Covers

Barnes & Noble said Wednesday that it would cancel its plans to promote classic novels featuring covers with people of color, after criticism from writers and others in publishing that it was a misguided attempt at diversifying its shelves.

For the project, called Diverse Editions and intended “to raise awareness and discussion during Black History Month,” the bookseller worked with Penguin Random House and used artificial intelligence to look through 100 books — including “The Secret Garden,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moby-Dick” — that it said made no reference to the race of their characters. Artists then created limited-edition covers for 12, reimagining the characters as people of color.

Each book received five different covers depicting ethnically diverse characters. The covers for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” for instance, included one featuring an Asian Dorothy with a pink dress, as well as black and Native American versions of the character. Barnes & Noble planned to promote the redesigned books at one of its biggest stores, on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, and at a panel session on diversity Wednesday evening.

But the project quickly encountered criticism from writers who questioned why these books were promoted instead of ones written by or featuring African-Americans. The writer Rod T. Faulkner called the project “literary blackface” in a Medium essay. On Twitter, Angie Thomas, the author of the young-adult novel “The Hate U Give,” wrote that the company should instead: “Promote books by authors of color. Just a thought.”

“We acknowledge the voices who have expressed concerns about the Diverse Editions project at our Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue store and have decided to suspend the initiative,” Barnes & Noble said in a statement. “The covers are not a substitute for black voices or writers of color, whose work and voices deserve to be heard.”

Penguin Random House didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Barnes & Noble canceled Wednesday’s panel session.

MK Asante, an author who was scheduled to participate in the panel, said he was critical of the project. “What I was going to do is talk about the history of black voices in literature,” he said, “the importance of black voices in literature, the importance of not changing the cover, but changing the content, changing the way that we think about a classic. What is a classic? Classic to whom?”

The backlash to Barnes & Noble’s initiative was the latest challenge the publishing and literary worlds have faced over how they approach race and diversity. The novel “American Dirt,” which came out last month, has been criticized as inaccurately depicting Mexican culture and immigrants and benefiting from an industry that doesn’t recognize Latinx writers.

Late last year, the Romance Writers of America, a trade organization, was roiled by disputes over how it handled a racism complaint by one of its members and for what many romance writers considered the longstanding marginalization of writers of color within the genre.

Earlier this week, several Latinx writers — including Roberto Lovato, Myriam Gurba and David Bowles — met with executives at Flatiron Books, the publisher of “American Dirt,” and its parent company, Macmillan. Flatiron subsequently said it would “substantially increase Latinx representation across Macmillan, including authors, titles, staff and our overall literary ecosystem.”

Barnes & Noble, in its statement, said its stores nationally would “continue to highlight a wide selection of books to celebrate black history and great literature from writers of color.”

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[thesnhuup]

Pop Picks — August 30, 2019

August 30, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

I usually go to music here, but the New York Times new 1619 podcast is just terrific, as is the whole project, which observes the sale of the first enslaved human beings on our shores 400 years ago. The first episode, “The Fight for a True Democracy” is a remarkable overview (in a mere 44 minutes) of the centrality of racism and slavery in the American story over those 400 years. It should be mandatory listening in every high school in the country. I’m eager for the next episodes. Side note: I am addicted to The Daily podcast, which gives more color and detail to the NY Times stories I read in print (yes, print), and reminds me of how smart and thoughtful are those journalists who give us real news. We need them now more than ever.

What I’m reading: 

Colson Whitehead has done it again. The Nickel Boys, his new novel, is a worthy successor to his masterpiece The Underground Railroad, and because it is closer to our time, based on the real-life horrors of a Florida reform school, and written a time of resurgent White Supremacy, it hits even harder and with more urgency than its predecessor. Maybe because we can read Underground Railroad with a sense of “that was history,” but one can’t read Nickel Boys without the lurking feeling that such horrors persist today and the monsters that perpetrate such horrors walk among us. They often hold press conferences.

What I’m watching:

Queer Eye, the Netflix remake of the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy some ten years later, is wondrously entertaining, but it also feels adroitly aligned with our dysfunctional times. Episode three has a conversation with Karamo Brown, one of the fab five, and a Georgia small town cop (and Trump supporter) that feels unscripted and unexpected and reminds us of how little actual conversation seems to be taking place in our divided country. Oh, for more car rides such as the one they take in that moment, when a chasm is bridged, if only for a few minutes. Set in the South, it is often a refreshing and affirming response to what it means to be male at a time of toxic masculinity and the overdue catharsis and pain of the #MeToo movement. Did I mention? It’s really fun.

Archive 

July 1, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

The National remains my favorite band and probably 50% of my listening time is a National album or playlist. Their new album I Am Easy To Find feels like a turning point record for the band, going from the moody, outsider introspection and doubt of lead singer Matt Berninger to something that feels more adult, sophisticated, and wiser. I might have titled it Women Help The Band Grow Up. Matt is no longer the center of The National’s universe and he frequently cedes the mic to the many women who accompany and often lead on the long, their longest, album. They include Gail Ann Dorsey (who sang with Bowie for a long time), who is amazing, and a number of the songs were written by Carin Besser, Berninger’s wife. I especially love the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the arrangements, and the sheer complexity and coherence of the work. It still amazes me when I meet someone who does not know The National. My heart breaks for them just a little.

What I’m reading: 

Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad through the lens of a captive Trojan queen, Briseis. As a reviewer in The Atlantic writes, it answers the question “What does war mean to women?” We know the answer and it has always been true, whether it is the casual and assumed rape of captive women in this ancient war story or the use of rape in modern day Congo, Syria, or any other conflict zone. Yet literature almost never gives voice to the women – almost always minor characters at best — and their unspeakable suffering. Barker does it here for Briseis, for Hector’s wife Andromache, and for the other women who understand that the death of their men is tragedy, but what they then endure is worse. Think of it ancient literature having its own #MeToo moment. The NY Times’ Geraldine Brooks did not much like the novel. I did. Very much.

What I’m watching: 

The BBC-HBO limited series Years and Years is breathtaking, scary, and absolutely familiar. It’s as if Black Mirrorand Children of Men had a baby and it precisely captures the zeitgeist, the current sense that the world is spinning out of control and things are coming at us too fast. It is a near future (Trump has been re-elected and Brexit has occurred finally)…not dystopia exactly, but damn close. The closing scene of last week’s first episode (there are 6 episodes and it’s on every Monday) shows nuclear war breaking out between China and the U.S. Yikes! The scope of this show is wide and there is a big, baggy feel to it – but I love the ambition even if I’m not looking forward to the nightmares.

May 19, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

I usually go to music here, but I was really moved by this podcast of a Davis Brooks talk at the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/david-brooks-quest-moral-life.  While I have long found myself distant from his political stance, he has come through a dark night of the soul and emerged with a wonderful clarity about calling, community, and not happiness (that most superficial of goals), but fulfillment and meaning, found in community and human kinship of many kinds. I immediately sent it to my kids.

What I’m reading: 

Susan Orlean’s wonderful The Library Book, a love song to libraries told through the story of the LA Central Library.  It brought back cherished memories of my many hours in beloved libraries — as a kid in the Waltham Public Library, a high schooler in the Farber Library at Brandeis (Lil Farber years later became a mentor of mine), and the cathedral-like Bapst Library at BC when I was a graduate student. Yes, I was a nerd. This is a love song to books certainly, but a reminder that libraries are so, so much more.  It is a reminder that libraries are less about a place or being a repository of information and, like America at its best, an idea and ideal. By the way, oh to write like her.

What I’m watching: 

What else? Game of Thrones, like any sensible human being. This last season is disappointing in many ways and the drop off in the writing post George R.R. Martin is as clear as was the drop off in the post-Sorkin West Wing. I would be willing to bet that if Martin has been writing the last season, Sansa and Tyrion would have committed suicide in the crypt. That said, we fans are deeply invested and even the flaws are giving us so much to discuss and debate. In that sense, the real gift of this last season is the enjoyment between episodes, like the old pre-streaming days when we all arrived at work after the latest episode of the Sopranos to discuss what we had all seen the night before. I will say this, the last two episodes — full of battle and gore – have been visually stunning. Whether the torches of the Dothraki being extinguished in the distance or Arya riding through rubble and flame on a white horse, rarely has the series ascended to such visual grandeur.

March 28, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

There is a lovely piece played in a scene from A Place Called Home that I tracked down. It’s Erik Satie’s 3 Gymnopédies: Gymnopédie No. 1, played by the wonderful pianist Klára Körmendi. Satie composed this piece in 1888 and it was considered avant-garde and anti-Romantic. It’s minimalism and bit of dissonance sound fresh and contemporary to my ears and while not a huge Classical music fan, I’ve fallen in love with the Körmendi playlist on Spotify. When you need an alternative to hours of Cardi B.

What I’m reading: 

Just finished Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel Washington Black. Starting on a slave plantation in Barbados, it is a picaresque novel that has elements of Jules Verne, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. Yes, it strains credulity and there are moments of “huh?”, but I loved it (disclosure: I was in the minority among my fellow book club members) and the first third is a searing depiction of slavery. It’s audacious, sprawling (from Barbados to the Arctic to London to Africa), and the writing, especially about nature, luminous. 

What I’m watching: 

A soap opera. Yes, I’d like to pretend it’s something else, but we are 31 episodes into the Australian drama A Place Called Home and we are so, so addicted. Like “It’s  AM, but can’t we watch just one more episode?” addicted. Despite all the secrets, cliff hangers, intrigue, and “did that just happen?” moments, the core ingredients of any good soap opera, APCH has superb acting, real heft in terms of subject matter (including homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexual assault, and class), touches of our beloved Downton Abbey, and great cars. Beware. If you start, you won’t stop.

February 11, 2019

What I’m listening to:

Raphael Saadiq has been around for quite a while, as a musician, writer, and producer. He’s new to me and I love his old school R&B sound. Like Leon Bridges, he brings a contemporary freshness to the genre, sounding like a young Stevie Wonder (listen to “You’re The One That I Like”). Rock and Roll may be largely dead, but R&B persists – maybe because the former was derivative of the latter and never as good (and I say that as a Rock and Roll fan). I’m embarrassed to only have discovered Saadiq so late in his career, but it’s a delight to have done so.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Home, part of her trilogy that includes the Pulitzer Prize winning first novel, Gilead, and the book after Home, Lila. Robinson is often described as a Christian writer, but not in a conventional sense. In this case, she gives us a modern version of the prodigal son and tells the story of what comes after he is welcomed back home. It’s not pretty. Robinson is a self-described Calvinist, thus character begets fate in Robinson’s world view and redemption is at best a question. There is something of Faulkner in her work (I am much taken with his famous “The past is never past” quote after a week in the deep South), her style is masterful, and like Faulkner, she builds with these three novels a whole universe in the small town of Gilead. Start with Gilead to better enjoy Home.

What I’m watching:

Sex Education was the most fun series we’ve seen in ages and we binged watched it on Netflix. A British homage to John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink, it feels like a mash up of American and British high schools. Focusing on the relationship of Maeve, the smart bad girl, and Otis, the virginal and awkward son of a sex therapist (played with brilliance by Gillian Anderson), it is laugh aloud funny and also evolves into more substance and depth (the abortion episode is genius). The sex scenes are somehow raunchy and charming and inoffensive at the same time and while ostensibly about teenagers (it feels like it is explaining contemporary teens to adults in many ways), the adults are compelling in their good and bad ways. It has been renewed for a second season, which is a gift.

January 3, 2019

What I’m listening to:

My listening choices usually refer to music, but this time I’m going with Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast on genius and the song Hallelujah. It tells the story of Leonard Cohen’s much-covered song Hallelujah and uses it as a lens on kinds of genius and creativity. Along the way, he brings in Picasso and Cézanne, Elvis Costello, and more. Gladwell is a good storyteller and if you love pop music, as I do, and Hallelujah, as I do (and you should), you’ll enjoy this podcast. We tend to celebrate the genius who seems inspired in the moment, creating new work like lightning strikes, but this podcast has me appreciating incremental creativity in a new way. It’s compelling and fun at the same time.

What I’m reading:

Just read Clay Christensen’s new book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. This was an advance copy, so soon available. Clay is an old friend and a huge influence on how we have grown SNHU and our approach to innovation. This book is so compelling, because we know attempts at development have so often been a failure and it is often puzzling to understand why some countries with desperate poverty and huge challenges somehow come to thrive (think S. Korea, Singapore, 19th C. America), while others languish. Clay offers a fresh way of thinking about development through the lens of his research on innovation and it is compelling. I bet this book gets a lot of attention, as most of his work does. I also suspect that many in the development community will hate it, as it calls into question the approach and enormous investments we have made in an attempt to lift countries out of poverty. A provocative read and, as always, Clay is a good storyteller.

What I’m watching:

Just watched Leave No Trace and should have guessed that it was directed by Debra Granik. She did Winter’s Bone, the extraordinary movie that launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career. Similarly, this movie features an amazing young actor, Thomasin McKenzie, and visits lives lived on the margins. In this case, a veteran suffering PTSD, and his 13-year-old daughter. The movie is patient, is visually lush, and justly earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (I have a rule to never watch anything under 82%). Everything in this film is under control and beautifully understated (aside from the visuals) – confident acting, confident directing, and so humane. I love the lack of flashbacks, the lack of sensationalism – the movie trusts the viewer, rare in this age of bombast. A lovely film.

December 4, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spending a week in New Zealand, we had endless laughs listening to the Kiwi band, Flight of the Conchords. Lots of comedic bands are funny, but the music is only okay or worse. These guys are funny – hysterical really – and the music is great. They have an uncanny ability to parody almost any style. In both New Zealand and Australia, we found a wry sense of humor that was just delightful and no better captured than with this duo. You don’t have to be in New Zealand to enjoy them.

What I’m reading:

I don’t often reread. For two reasons: A) I have so many books on my “still to be read” pile that it seems daunting to also rereadbooks I loved before, and B) it’s because I loved them once that I’m a little afraid to read them again. That said, I was recently asked to list my favorite book of all time and I answered Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. But I don’t really know if that’s still true (and it’s an impossible question anyway – favorite book? On what day? In what mood?), so I’m rereading it and it feels like being with an old friend. It has one of my very favorite scenes ever: the card game between Levin and Kitty that leads to the proposal and his joyous walking the streets all night.

What I’m watching:

Blindspotting is billed as a buddy-comedy. Wow does that undersell it and the drama is often gripping. I loved Daveed Diggs in Hamilton, didn’t like his character in Black-ish, and think he is transcendent in this film he co-wrote with Rafael Casal, his co-star.  The film is a love song to Oakland in many ways, but also a gut-wrenching indictment of police brutality, systemic racism and bias, and gentrification. The film has the freshness and raw visceral impact of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. A great soundtrack, genre mixing, and energy make it one of my favorite movies of 2018.

October 15, 2018 

What I’m listening to:

We had the opportunity to see our favorite band, The National, live in Dallas two weeks ago. Just after watching Mistaken for Strangers, the documentary sort of about the band. So we’ve spent a lot of time going back into their earlier work, listening to songs we don’t know well, and reaffirming that their musicality, smarts, and sound are both original and astoundingly good. They did not disappoint in concert and it is a good thing their tour ended, as we might just spend all of our time and money following them around. Matt Berninger is a genius and his lead vocals kill me (and because they are in my range, I can actually sing along!). Their arrangements are profoundly good and go right to whatever brain/heart wiring that pulls one in and doesn’t let them go.

What I’m reading:

Who is Richard Powers and why have I only discovered him now, with his 12th book? Overstory is profoundly good, a book that is essential and powerful and makes me look at my everyday world in new ways. In short, a dizzying example of how powerful can be narrative in the hands of a master storyteller. I hesitate to say it’s the best environmental novel I’ve ever read (it is), because that would put this book in a category. It is surely about the natural world, but it is as much about we humans. It’s monumental and elegiac and wondrous at all once. Cancel your day’s schedule and read it now. Then plant a tree. A lot of them.

What I’m watching:

Bo Burnham wrote and directed Eighth Grade and Elsie Fisher is nothing less than amazing as its star (what’s with these new child actors; see Florida Project). It’s funny and painful and touching. It’s also the single best film treatment that I have seen of what it means to grow up in a social media shaped world. It’s a reminder that growing up is hard. Maybe harder now in a world of relentless, layered digital pressure to curate perfect lives that are far removed from the natural messy worlds and selves we actually inhabit. It’s a well-deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and I wonder who dinged it for the missing 2%.

September 7, 2018

What I’m listening to:

With a cover pointing back to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 Licensed to Ill, Eminem’s quietly released Kamikaze is not my usual taste, but I’ve always admired him for his “all out there” willingness to be personal, to call people out, and his sheer genius with language. I thought Daveed Diggs could rap fast, but Eminem is supersonic at moments, and still finds room for melody. Love that he includes Joyner Lucas, whose “I’m Not Racist” gets added to the growing list of simply amazing music videos commenting on race in America. There are endless reasons why I am the least likely Eminem fan, but when no one is around to make fun of me, I’ll put it on again.

What I’m reading:

Lesley Blume’s Everyone Behaves Badly, which is the story behind Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his time in 1920s Paris (oh, what a time – see Midnight in Paris if you haven’t already). Of course, Blume disabuses my romantic ideas of that time and place and everyone is sort of (or profoundly so) a jerk, especially…no spoiler here…Hemingway. That said, it is a compelling read and coming off the Henry James inspired prose of Mrs. Osmond, it made me appreciate more how groundbreaking was Hemingway’s modern prose style. Like his contemporary Picasso, he reinvented the art and it can be easy to forget, these decades later, how profound was the change and its impact. And it has bullfights.

What I’m watching:

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider is just exceptional. It’s filmed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which provides a stunning landscape, and it feels like a classic western reinvented for our times. The main characters are played by the real-life people who inspired this narrative (but feels like a documentary) film. Brady Jandreau, playing himself really, owns the screen. It’s about manhood, honor codes, loss, and resilience – rendered in sensitive, nuanced, and heartfelt ways. It feels like it could be about large swaths of America today. Really powerful.

August 16, 2018

What I’m listening to:

In my Spotify Daily Mix was Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, one of the world’s greatest love songs. Go online and read the story of how the song was discovered and recorded. There are competing accounts, but Sledge said he improvised it after a bad breakup. It has that kind of aching spontaneity. It is another hit from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the GREAT music hotbeds, along with Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis. Our February Board meeting is in Alabama and I may finally have to do the pilgrimage road trip to Muscle Shoals and then Memphis, dropping in for Sunday services at the church where Rev. Al Green still preaches and sings. If the music is all like this, I will be saved.

What I’m reading:

John Banville’s Mrs. Osmond, his homage to literary idol Henry James and an imagined sequel to James’ 1881 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady. Go online and read the first paragraph of Chapter 25. He is…profoundly good. Makes me want to never write again, since anything I attempt will feel like some other, lowly activity in comparison to his mastery of language, image, syntax. This is slow reading, every sentence to be savored.

What I’m watching:

I’ve always respected Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but we just watched the documentary RGB. It is over-the-top great and she is now one of my heroes. A superwoman in many ways and the documentary is really well done. There are lots of scenes of her speaking to crowds and the way young women, especially law students, look at her is touching.  And you can’t help but fall in love with her now late husband Marty. See this movie and be reminded of how important is the Law.

July 23, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spotify’s Summer Acoustic playlist has been on repeat quite a lot. What a fun way to listen to artists new to me, including The Paper Kites, Hollow Coves, and Fleet Foxes, as well as old favorites like Leon Bridges and Jose Gonzalez. Pretty chill when dialing back to a summer pace, dining on the screen porch or reading a book.

What I’m reading:

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson tells of the racial injustice (and the war on the poor our judicial system perpetuates as well) that he discovered as a young graduate from Harvard Law School and his fight to address it. It is in turn heartbreaking, enraging, and inspiring. It is also about mercy and empathy and justice that reads like a novel. Brilliant.

What I’m watching:

Fauda. We watched season one of this Israeli thriller. It was much discussed in Israel because while it focuses on an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist, it was willing to reveal the complexity, richness, and emotions of Palestinian lives. And the occasional brutality of the Israelis. Pretty controversial stuff in Israel. Lior Raz plays Doron, the main character, and is compelling and tough and often hard to like. He’s a mess. As is the world in which he has to operate. We really liked it, and also felt guilty because while it may have been brave in its treatment of Palestinians within the Israeli context, it falls back into some tired tropes and ultimately falls short on this front.

June 11, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Like everyone else, I’m listening to Pusha T drop the mic on Drake. Okay, not really, but do I get some points for even knowing that? We all walk around with songs that immediately bring us back to a time or a place. Songs are time machines. We are coming up on Father’s Day. My own dad passed away on Father’s Day back in 1994 and I remembering dutifully getting through the wake and funeral and being strong throughout. Then, sitting alone in our kitchen, Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence came on and I lost it. When you lose a parent for the first time (most of us have two after all) we lose our innocence and in that passage, we suddenly feel adult in a new way (no matter how old we are), a longing for our own childhood, and a need to forgive and be forgiven. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand. As Wordsworth reminds us in In Memoriam, there are seasons to our grief and, all these years later, this song no longer hits me in the gut, but does transport me back with loving memories of my father. I’ll play it Father’s Day.

What I’m reading:

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. I am not a reader of fantasy or sci-fi, though I understand they can be powerful vehicles for addressing the very real challenges of the world in which we actually live. I’m not sure I know of a more vivid and gripping illustration of that fact than N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award winning novel The Fifth Season, first in her Broken Earth trilogy. It is astounding. It is the fantasy parallel to The Underground Railroad, my favorite recent read, a depiction of subjugation, power, casual violence, and a broken world in which our hero(s) struggle, suffer mightily, and still, somehow, give us hope. It is a tour de force book. How can someone be this good a writer? The first 30 pages pained me (always with this genre, one must learn a new, constructed world, and all of its operating physics and systems of order), and then I could not put it down. I panicked as I neared the end, not wanting to finish the book, and quickly ordered the Obelisk Gate, the second novel in the trilogy, and I can tell you now that I’ll be spending some goodly portion of my weekend in Jemisin’s other world.

What I’m watching:

The NBA Finals and perhaps the best basketball player of this generation. I’ve come to deeply respect LeBron James as a person, a force for social good, and now as an extraordinary player at the peak of his powers. His superhuman play during the NBA playoffs now ranks with the all-time greats, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, MJ, Kobe, and the demi-god that was Bill Russell. That his Cavs lost in a 4-game sweep is no surprise. It was a mediocre team being carried on the wide shoulders of James (and matched against one of the greatest teams ever, the Warriors, and the Harry Potter of basketball, Steph Curry) and, in some strange way, his greatness is amplified by the contrast with the rest of his team. It was a great run.

May 24, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I’ve always liked Alicia Keys and admired her social activism, but I am hooked on her last album Here. This feels like an album finally commensurate with her anger, activism, hope, and grit. More R&B and Hip Hop than is typical for her, I think this album moves into an echelon inhabited by a Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Beyonce’s Formation. Social activism and outrage rarely make great novels, but they often fuel great popular music. Here is a terrific example.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad may be close to a flawless novel. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer, it chronicles the lives of two runaway slaves, Cora and Caeser, as they try to escape the hell of plantation life in Georgia.  It is an often searing novel and Cora is one of the great heroes of American literature. I would make this mandatory reading in every high school in America, especially in light of the absurd revisionist narratives of “happy and well cared for” slaves. This is a genuinely great novel, one of the best I’ve read, the magical realism and conflating of time periods lifts it to another realm of social commentary, relevance, and a blazing indictment of America’s Original Sin, for which we remain unabsolved.

What I’m watching:

I thought I knew about The Pentagon Papers, but The Post, a real-life political thriller from Steven Spielberg taught me a lot, features some of our greatest actors, and is so timely given the assault on our democratic institutions and with a presidency out of control. It is a reminder that a free and fearless press is a powerful part of our democracy, always among the first targets of despots everywhere. The story revolves around the legendary Post owner and D.C. doyenne, Katharine Graham. I had the opportunity to see her son, Don Graham, right after he saw the film, and he raved about Meryl Streep’s portrayal of his mother. Liked it a lot more than I expected.

April 27, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I mentioned John Prine in a recent post and then on the heels of that mention, he has released a new album, The Tree of Forgiveness, his first new album in ten years. Prine is beloved by other singer songwriters and often praised by the inscrutable God that is Bob Dylan.  Indeed, Prine was frequently said to be the “next Bob Dylan” in the early part of his career, though he instead carved out his own respectable career and voice, if never with the dizzying success of Dylan. The new album reflects a man in his 70s, a cancer survivor, who reflects on life and its end, but with the good humor and empathy that are hallmarks of Prine’s music. “When I Get To Heaven” is a rollicking, fun vision of what comes next and a pure delight. A charming, warm, and often terrific album.

What I’m reading:

I recently read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, on many people’s Top Ten lists for last year and for good reason. It is sprawling, multi-generational, and based in the world of Japanese occupied Korea and then in the Korean immigrant’s world of Oaska, so our key characters become “tweeners,” accepted in neither world. It’s often unspeakably sad, and yet there is resiliency and love. There is also intimacy, despite the time and geographic span of the novel. It’s breathtakingly good and like all good novels, transporting.

What I’m watching:

I adore Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth, and while I’m not sure his Shape of Water is better, it is a worthy follow up to the earlier masterpiece (and more of a commercial success). Lots of critics dislike the film, but I’m okay with a simple retelling of a Beauty and the Beast love story, as predictable as it might be. The acting is terrific, it is visually stunning, and there are layers of pain as well as social and political commentary (the setting is the US during the Cold War) and, no real spoiler here, the real monsters are humans, the military officer who sees over the captured aquatic creature. It is hauntingly beautiful and its depiction of hatred to those who are different or “other” is painfully resonant with the time in which we live. Put this on your “must see” list.

March 18, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Sitting on a plane for hours (and many more to go; geez, Australia is far away) is a great opportunity to listen to new music and to revisit old favorites. This time, it is Lucy Dacus and her album Historians, the new sophomore release from a 22-year old indie artist that writes with relatable, real-life lyrics. Just on a second listen and while she insists this isn’t a break up record (as we know, 50% of all great songs are break up songs), it is full of loss and pain. Worth the listen so far. For the way back machine, it’s John Prine and In Spite of Ourselves (that title track is one of the great love songs of all time), a collection of duets with some of his “favorite girl singers” as he once described them. I have a crush on Iris Dement (for a really righteously angry song try her Wasteland of the Free), but there is also EmmyLou Harris, the incomparable Dolores Keane, and Lucinda Williams. Very different albums, both wonderful.

What I’m reading:

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Christopher Steele presents little that is new, but she pulls it together in a terrific and coherent whole that is illuminating and troubling at the same time. Not only for what is happening, but for the complicity of the far right in trying to discredit that which should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Bob Mueller may be the most important defender of the democracy at this time. A must read.

What I’m watching:

Homeland is killing it this season and is prescient, hauntingly so. Russian election interference, a Bannon-style hate radio demagogue, alienated and gun toting militia types, and a president out of control. It’s fabulous, even if it feels awfully close to the evening news. 

March 8, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We have a family challenge to compile our Top 100 songs. It is painful. Only 100? No more than three songs by one artist? Wait, why is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on my list? Should it just be The Clash from whom she samples? Can I admit to guilty pleasure songs? Hey, it’s my list and I can put anything I want on it. So I’m listening to the list while I work and the song playing right now is Tom Petty’s “The Wild One, Forever,” a B-side single that was never a hit and that remains my favorite Petty song. Also, “Evangeline” by Los Lobos. It evokes a night many years ago, with friends at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA, when everyone danced well past 1AM in a hot, sweaty, packed club and the band was a revelation. Maybe the best music night of our lives and a reminder that one’s 100 Favorite Songs list is as much about what you were doing and where you were in your life when those songs were playing as it is about the music. It’s not a list. It’s a soundtrack for this journey.

What I’m reading:

Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy was in the NY Times top ten books of 2017 list and it is easy to see why. Lockwood brings remarkable and often surprising imagery, metaphor, and language to her prose memoir and it actually threw me off at first. It then all became clear when someone told me she is a poet. The book is laugh aloud funny, which masks (or makes safer anyway) some pretty dark territory. Anyone who grew up Catholic, whether lapsed or not, will resonate with her story. She can’t resist a bawdy anecdote and her family provides some of the most memorable characters possible, especially her father, her sister, and her mother, who I came to adore. Best thing I’ve read in ages.

What I’m watching:

The Florida Project, a profoundly good movie on so many levels. Start with the central character, six-year old (at the time of the filming) Brooklynn Prince, who owns – I mean really owns – the screen. This is pure acting genius and at that age? Astounding. Almost as astounding is Bria Vinaite, who plays her mother. She was discovered on Instagram and had never acted before this role, which she did with just three weeks of acting lessons. She is utterly convincing and the tension between the child’s absolute wonder and joy in the world with her mother’s struggle to provide, to be a mother, is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. Willem Dafoe rightly received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role. This is a terrific movie.

February 12, 2018

What I’m listening to:

So, I have a lot of friends of age (I know you’re thinking 40s, but I just turned 60) who are frozen in whatever era of music they enjoyed in college or maybe even in their thirties. There are lots of times when I reach back into the catalog, since music is one of those really powerful and transporting senses that can take you through time (smell is the other one, though often underappreciated for that power). Hell, I just bought a turntable and now spending time in vintage vinyl shops. But I’m trying to take a lesson from Pat, who revels in new music and can as easily talk about North African rap music and the latest National album as Meet the Beatles, her first ever album. So, I’ve been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy winning Damn. While it may not be the first thing I’ll reach for on a winter night in Maine, by the fire, I was taken with it. It’s layered, political, and weirdly sensitive and misogynist at the same time, and it feels fresh and authentic and smart at the same time, with music that often pulled me from what I was doing. In short, everything music should do. I’m not a bit cooler for listening to Damn, but when I followed it with Steely Dan, I felt like I was listening to Lawrence Welk. A good sign, I think.

What I’m reading:

I am reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. I’m not usually a reader of biographies, but I’ve always been taken with Leonardo. Isaacson does not disappoint (does he ever?), and his subject is at once more human and accessible and more awe-inspiring in Isaacson’s capable hands. Gay, left-handed, vegetarian, incapable of finishing things, a wonderful conversationalist, kind, and perhaps the most relentlessly curious human being who has ever lived. Like his biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, Isaacson’s project here is to show that genius lives at the intersection of science and art, of rationality and creativity. Highly recommend it.

What I’m watching:

We watched the This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode, the one where Jack finally buys the farm. I really want to hate this show. It is melodramatic and manipulative, with characters that mostly never change or grow, and it hooks me every damn time we watch it. The episode last Sunday was a tear jerker, a double whammy intended to render into a blubbering, tissue-crumbling pathetic mess anyone who has lost a parent or who is a parent. Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones, the surprising Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia are hard not to love and last season’s episode that had only Brown and Cephas going to Memphis was the show at its best (they are by far the two best actors). Last week was the show at its best worst. In other words, I want to hate it, but I love it. If you haven’t seen it, don’t binge watch it. You’ll need therapy and insulin.

January 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Drive-By Truckers. Chris Stapleton has me on an unusual (for me) country theme and I discovered these guys to my great delight. They’ve been around, with some 11 albums, but the newest one is fascinating. It’s a deep dive into Southern alienation and the white working-class world often associated with our current president. I admire the willingness to lay bare, in kick ass rock songs, the complexities and pain at work among people we too quickly place into overly simple categories. These guys are brave, bold, and thoughtful as hell, while producing songs I didn’t expect to like, but that I keep playing. And they are coming to NH.

What I’m reading:

A textual analog to Drive-By Truckers by Chris Stapleton in many ways is Tony Horowitz’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning Confederates in the Attic. Ostensibly about the Civil War and the South’s ongoing attachment to it, it is prescient and speaks eloquently to the times in which we live (where every southern state but Virginia voted for President Trump). Often hilarious, it too surfaces complexities and nuance that escape a more recent, and widely acclaimed, book like Hillbilly Elegy. As a Civil War fan, it was also astonishing in many instances, especially when it blows apart long-held “truths” about the war, such as the degree to which Sherman burned down the south (he did not). Like D-B Truckers, Horowitz loves the South and the people he encounters, even as he grapples with its myths of victimhood and exceptionalism (and racism, which may be no more than the racism in the north, but of a different kind). Everyone should read this book and I’m embarrassed I’m so late to it.

What I’m watching:

David Letterman has a new Netflix show called “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and we watched the first episode, in which Letterman interviewed Barack Obama. It was extraordinary (if you don’t have Netflix, get it just to watch this show); not only because we were reminded of Obama’s smarts, grace, and humanity (and humor), but because we saw a side of Letterman we didn’t know existed. His personal reflections on Selma were raw and powerful, almost painful. He will do five more episodes with “extraordinary individuals” and if they are anything like the first, this might be the very best work of his career and one of the best things on television.

December 22, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished Sunjeev Sahota’s Year of the Runaways, a painful inside look at the plight of illegal Indian immigrant workers in Britain. It was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize and its transporting, often to a dark and painful universe, and it is impossible not to think about the American version of this story and the terrible way we treat the undocumented in our own country, especially now.

What I’m watching:

Season II of The Crown is even better than Season I. Elizabeth’s character is becoming more three-dimensional, the modern world is catching up with tradition-bound Britain, and Cold War politics offer more context and tension than we saw in Season I. Claire Foy, in her last season, is just terrific – one arched eye brow can send a message.

What I’m listening to:

A lot of Christmas music, but needing a break from the schmaltz, I’ve discovered Over the Rhine and their Christmas album, Snow Angels. God, these guys are good.

November 14, 2017

What I’m watching:

Guiltily, I watch the Patriots play every weekend, often building my schedule and plans around seeing the game. Why the guilt? I don’t know how morally defensible is football anymore, as we now know the severe damage it does to the players. We can’t pretend it’s all okay anymore. Is this our version of late decadent Rome, watching mostly young Black men take a terrible toll on each other for our mere entertainment?

What I’m reading:

Recently finished J.G. Ballard’s 2000 novel Super-Cannes, a powerful depiction of a corporate-tech ex-pat community taken over by a kind of psychopathology, in which all social norms and responsibilities are surrendered to residents of the new world community. Kept thinking about Silicon Valley when reading it. Pretty dark, dystopian view of the modern world and centered around a mass killing, troublingly prescient.

What I’m listening to:

Was never really a Lorde fan, only knowing her catchy (and smarter than you might first guess) pop hit “Royals” from her debut album. But her new album, Melodrama, is terrific and it doesn’t feel quite right to call this “pop.” There is something way more substantial going on with Lorde and I can see why many critics put this album at the top of their Best in 2017 list. Count me in as a huge fan.

November 3, 2017

What I’m reading: Just finished Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, her breathtakingly good second novel. How is someone so young so wise? Her writing is near perfection and I read the book in two days, setting my alarm for 4:30AM so I could finish it before work.

What I’m watching: We just binge watched season two of Stranger Things and it was worth it just to watch Millie Bobbie Brown, the transcendent young actor who plays Eleven. The series is a delightful mash up of every great eighties horror genre you can imagine and while pretty dark, an absolute joy to watch.

What I’m listening to: I’m not a lover of country music (to say the least), but I love Chris Stapleton. His “The Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” is heartbreakingly good and reminds me of the old school country that played in my house as a kid. He has a new album and I can’t wait, but his From A Room: Volume 1 is on repeat for now.

September 26, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a while to accept its cadence and sheer weirdness, but loved it in the end. A painful meditation on loss and grief, and a genuinely beautiful exploration of the intersection of life and death, the difficulty of letting go of what was, good and bad, and what never came to be.

What I’m watching:

HBO’s The Deuce. Times Square and the beginning of the porn industry in the 1970s, the setting made me wonder if this was really something I’d want to see. But David Simon is the writer and I’d read a menu if he wrote it. It does not disappoint so far and there is nothing prurient about it.

What I’m listening to:

The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast. I love this band. The opening piano notes of the first song, “Nobody Else Will Be There,” seize me & I’m reminded that no one else in music today matches their arrangement & musicianship. I’m adding “Born to Beg,” “Slow Show,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Runaway” to my list of favorite love songs.

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[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Apollo, E3 2019 & The Division

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Nerds Amalgamated Go! We are here once again with your irregular dose of fun, news, entertainment and educational synopsis that we like to call a show. We hope everyone is surviving the rigours and tortures of university, college, school, work, life, or whatever else it is you do. This week we have another exciting show for you all filled with space, games, and some viewing material to look forward to. We hope you enjoy and let us know what you think, we do listen.

            First up it is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo missions and Buck has brought us links to a number of different stories regarding them. Also, some of the myriad events that are happening around the world involved in the celebration for everyone to enjoy.  We also talk about the movies inspired by events and documentaries about the rock stars who ride the bullet into space. What is your favourite Apollo story, movie, mission, or general piece of trivia? Drop us a line or post in the comments on the facebook page.

            Next up we look at this year’s less than stellar E3. The major highlight moments were the Keanu Reeves appearance at the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Where he showed once again that indelible charm that makes everyone love him when people yelled out from the crowd. Why can’t he be the President of America? He would be a darn tooting sight better than almost everyone they have had for a long time. We also take a moment to acknowledge the fabulous Ikumi Nakamura, the director of Ghostwire Tokyo who just had fun. We also take a moment to glance at Devolver Studios and the madcap mayhem that is the ongoing saga of their E3 show. It is still so much more fun then must be legal. The biggest failure was the announcement that Bethesda is making Fallout 76 a battle royale (yayyyy, another one…yawn) in an attempt to save the game from becoming a complete failure (too late).

            This week the DJ has the story of Netflix planning a new series based on Tom Clancy’s The Division. The discussion runs through the idea, worrying at the potential failure of yet another game to cinema/television cross over. Further the potential overload of too many post-apocalyptic shows (no, not with zombies either, we discussed that). We do know two of the cast members Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal, so it starts with two beautiful people surviving… or do they?

            This week’s games are:

            Buck is playing Assassins Creed 2 (Not Unity).

            Professor is still playing Cataclysm: Dark days ahead (Listen in for how he dies this week).

            DJ is once again playing Apex Legends

            We have the usual list of shout outs, remembrances, birthdays and special events. Hidden somewhere in the show is Buck telling us about a delightful Pug that doesn’t like being licked in return. Listen out for that, we have the link provided, it is funny. Other than that, we just wish to say thank you once again for listening and supporting us. We do appreciate it. Please remember to take care of yourselves and look out for each other, and drink lots of water to stay hydrated. Peace out.

EPISODE NOTES:

Apollo 50th Anniversary

                - http://www.astronomy.com/bonus/apollo_home

                - https://www.nasa.gov/specials/apollo50th/events.html

E3 2019 - https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jun/10/e3-2019-biggest-news-xbox-bethesda-ubisoft-nintendo-square-enix

The Division now on Netflix - https://variety.com/2019/film/news/jessica-chastain-jake-gyllenhaal-the-division-movie-netflix-1203238700/

Games Currently playing

Buck

– Assassin Creed 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/Assassins_Creed_2_Deluxe_Edition/

Professor

– Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - https://cataclysmdda.org/

DJ

– Apex Legends - https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/apex-legends-ps4/

Other topics discussed

[un]featured Articles (That’s Not Canon Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/ufapodcast

Margaret Hamilton (Software engineer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(software_engineer)

The Dish (2000 Australian movie)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dish

Past Apollo programs

- Apollo 8 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8

- Apollo 13 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13

List of Apollo missions

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_missions#Crewed_Apollo_missions

Funny Flat Earth and Anti Vax Shirt

- Picture - https://image.spreadshirtmedia.com/image-server/v1/mp/products/T812A1MPA3140PT17X10Y30D1021097368FS5253/views/1,width=550,height=550,appearanceId=1,backgroundColor=F2F2F2,modelId=1237,crop=list,version=1557984561,modelImageVersion=1554797138/anti-vax-flat-earth-mens-premium-t-shirt.jpg

- Purchase Link - https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop/design/anti+vax+flat+earth+mens+premium+t-shirt-D5c662501f937645575149bc8

Mars One

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_One

How long does it take to go to Mars from Earth?

- https://www.universetoday.com/14841/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-to-mars/

Falltout 76 battle royale: Nuclear Winter

- https://www.gamesradar.com/au/fallout-76-battle-royale-mode-nuclear-winter/

Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2

- https://www.gamespot.com/articles/legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-2-revealed-for-/1100-6467700/

Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077

- https://www.gameinformer.com/e3-2019/2019/06/11/keanu-reeves-is-more-than-a-cameo-in-cyberpunk-2077

Battle Royale game from Devolver Studios: Fall Guys

- https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/12/fall-guys-is-a-kinder-gentler-battle-royale/

Devolver Bootleg

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/1066260/Devolver_Bootleg/

Ikumi Nakamura captures internet hearts

- https://www.cnet.com/news/e3-2019-ghostwire-tokyo-director-ikumi-nakamura-captures-the-internets-heart/

Netflix games announced on E3

- https://www.techradar.com/au/news/netflix-teases-new-games-at-e3-2019-including-a-location-based-stranger-things-mobile-rpg

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics

-  https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/11/dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-tactics-announced-e3-2019

Collection and Trials of Mana now available on the Switch

- https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2019/06/12/collection-of-mana-is-now-available-on-the-switch-and-trials-of-mana-is-released-next-year/#4b9cd85b4876

Revolution (TV Series)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series)

Prince of Persia : The Sand of Time (2010 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia:_The_Sands_of_Time_(film)

Prince of Persia (game franchise)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia

Movies Jake Gyllenhaal acted

- City Slickers (1991 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Slickers

- Zodiac (2007 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_(film)

- Nightcrawler (2014 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightcrawler_(film)

Movies Jessica Chastin acted

- Lawless (2012 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawless_(film)

Pug doesn’t like being licked

- https://www.reddit.com/r/Whatthefuckgetitoffme/comments/77pqrb/pug_doesnt_like_to_taste_its_own_medicine/

Michael Jordan (American former professional basketball player)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan

Wayne Gardner (Australian former professional Grand Prix motorcycle and touring car racer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gardner

Lady Godiva, Countess of Mercia

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Godiva

Shoutouts

8 Jun 2019 - Ashleigh Barty Wins the French Open - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/sports/french-open-ashleigh-barty-marketa-vondrousova.html

11 Jun 1955 - The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France on 11 June 1955. A major crash caused large fragments of debris to fly into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Bouillin (who raced under the name Pierre Levegh) and injuring nearly 180 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, and it prompted Mercedes-Benz to retire from motor racing until 1989.

11 Jun 1963 - Buddhist monk Quang Duc publicly burns himself to death in a plea for President Ngo Dinh Diem to show “charity and compassion” to all religions. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/buddhist-immolates-himself-in-protest

Remembrances

11 Jun 1979 - John Wayne, nicknamed 'Duke', was an American actor, filmmaker and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. He was among the top box office draws for three decades. He starred in 142 motion pictures altogether. According to one biographer, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns, and in them he played cowboys, cavalrymen, and unconquerable loners extracted from the Republic's central creation myth." He appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era and made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979. He died of stomach cancer at 72 in Los Angeles, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne

11 Jun 1999 - DeForest Kelley, known to colleagues as "De", was an American actor, screenwriter, poet and singer known for his roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek (1966–1991). He died of stomach cancer at 79 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeForest_Kelley

12 Jun 2003 - Gregory Peck, was an American actor. He was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five Academy Award for Best Actor nominations, and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 drama film To Kill a Mockingbird. Peck also received Oscar nominations for his roles in The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentleman's Agreement, and Twelve O'Clock High. Other notable films in which he appeared include Moby Dick (1956, and its 1998 mini-series), The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear (1962, and its 1991 remake), How the West Was Won, The Omen (1976), and The Boys from Brazil. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, ranking him at No. 12. He died in his sleep at home from bronchopneumonia at 87 in Los Angeles, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Peck

13 Jun 1871 - Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, was a French magician. He is widely considered the father of the modern style of conjuring such as second sight, the ethereal suspension, the marvelous orange tree, robert-houdin's portfolio, the light and heavy chest. His reputation was so great that he was requested during the 1850s by the French government to help put down a tribal rebellion in Algeria using his skills. This is surely a feat that not many magicians can boast about. He died of pneumonia at 65 in Saint-Gervais-la-Forêt  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Eug%C3%A8ne_Robert-Houdin

Famous Birthdays

11 Jun 1910 - Jacques Cousteau, French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. Cousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953. Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11. He was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cousteau

11 Jun 1933 - Gene Wilder, American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, singer-songwriter and author. Wilder began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Wilder is known for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and for his four films with Richard Pryor:Silver Streak, Stir Crazy,See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Another You. Wilder directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wilder

11 Jun 1959 - Hugh Laurie, English actor, director, singer, musician, comedian and author. Laurie first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with his friend and comedy partner Stephen Fry. The duo acted together in a number of projects during the 1980s and 1990s, including the sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the P. G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster. Laurie's other roles during the period include the period comedy series Blackadder (in which Fry also appeared) and the films Sense and Sensibility, 101 Dalmatians, The Borrowers and Stuart Little. Laurie portrayed the title character in the U.S. medical drama series House on Fox, for which he won two Golden Globe Awards. He was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the most watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama, earning £250,000 ($409,000) per episode of House. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours, both for services to drama. He was born in Blackbird Leys, Oxfordshire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie

11 Jun 1969 - Peter Dinklage, American actor and producer. Dinklage studied acting at Bennington College, starring in a number of amateur stage productions. His film debut was in Living in Oblivion (1995) and his breakthrough came with the comedy-drama The Station Agent (2003). He has since appeared in movies like Elf (2003), Underdog (2007), Death at a Funeral (2007),The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Pixels (2015), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), which earned him his first Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2018, he appeared as Eitri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Infinity War among other movies. Dinklage received universal acclaim for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series Game of Thrones, for which he won three Primetime Emmys from seven nominations. He also received a Golden Globe for the role in 2011. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dinklage

Events of Interest

11 Jun 1959 - Postmaster General bans D H Lawrence's book, Lady Chatterley's Lover (overruled by US Court of Appeals in Mar 1960) - https://www.onthisday.com/history/events/june/11

11 Jun 1976 - Australian band AC/DC begin their 1st headline tour of Britain - https://www.onthisday.com/date/1976/june/11

11 Jun 1982 - "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore, is released in the United States. It opened at number one with a gross of $11 million, and stayed at the top of the box office for six weeks; it then fluctuated between the first and second positions until October, before returning to the top spot for the final time in December during a brief Holiday Season re-release of the film. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial#Release_and_sales 

12 Jun 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/anne-frank-receives-a-diary

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss