The Following Takes Place
Happy March 24th to you, or, as it’s known around here, happy anniversary of the day pitcher Randy Johnson absolutely vaporized a bird with a fastball. This Newsweek article from a few years back is a good summary of the events, as well as an interview with a series of ornithologists about the incident.
No that’s not some sort of graphical distortion, that’s the bird getting the “Mike Teavee in the Wonka Factory” treatment. While you may think it’s a weird thing to celebrate, The stadium for the Minnesota Vikings is a glass nightmare and is responsible for like hundreds of bird deaths every year just through its passive existence, so Randy nailing a one in so-many-millions shot of a non-endangered species is really pretty boss.
Watch this: pretty much anything by Jon Bois - A pseudo-copout for the second day in a row, but work with me here. Jon is a writer for SB Nation, and has been responsible for some of the more interesting things I’ve read or watched in recent years, including this five-part video series on the history of mixed martial arts, Fighting in the Age of Loneliness, a look at the sport of football in the distant future, 17776 and also What the heck is a catch in the NFL, anyway? An explainer, all of which get much stranger than the topic would lead you to believe. Pretty much anything he does is at least “great” but one in particular that was an intersection of my interests is I Wish Everyone Else Was Dead, an examination and contextualization of the popular TV series 24, and just how truly bonkers it was, which, I don’t think would be a surprise to anyone watching at the time, but like some things, just restating the events of the show as they happen continuously would make you think you were going nuts. Anyways most of his work also revolves around utilizing data and statistics in really odd and interesting ways, and it really is all worth browsing through.
The New York Times has a spread full of the eerie beauty of city scenes that are now nearly devoid of any people, with so many stunning shots that capture just how strange these times are.
This is a micro-story about truth in advertising and while I wouldn’t consider myself a snob, I do feel from the reviews that the expectation of a door handle is kind of baseline for a place of lodging, please do not attack me. It’s actually impressive to me that the hotel ever looked like the pictures in the promotions, and it wasn’t advertised as some post-apocalypse filming location.
Listen even Matthew admits this. Even in the Lillard canon, why not go with the Twin Peaks 3rd season to get your fix.
In other heartwarming celebrity news, if you had Britney Spears and Stevie Van Zandt of the E Street Band fame down for “Who’s Calling For Increased Social Welfare and Upheaval of Capitalism?” I sincerely have my doubts but I’ll trust that you wrote it down, actually maybe just give me a peek at the paper before you get your prize.
This look at the famous last shot of the film RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was compelling enough to get me on a series rewatch of Indiana Jones, which doesn’t sound so tough until you remember Crystal Skull, and who wants to do that really, it’ll be the first time since opening night that I’ve seen it and it may have aged well because anything in possible in that kind of conceptual way. Really though, three months to complete the matte painting for what is a relatively brief shot compared to the time invested, but then you stop to consider all the computing and man-hours that went into completing the shot of the Transformers with the testicles, and the environmental impact of that. All of a sudden, three months on a painting of a warehouse seems relatively quaint.
Robo-Bob Barker just salivating at the idea of spaying this thing.
To send you off on a stroll down memory lane, here’s a gallery of restaurant chains that are now nearly-defunct, reduced from their salad days down to their last few outposts. While it seems to focus on mostly Ohio locations, there may be a few in there that you recognize regardless of where you live. Remember Blimpies? For a more extensive look at some of them, check out the blog Broken Chains.
