Pop songs are sad songs
My key pop music memories primarily imprinted themselves on my trembling consciousness at after-show theater parties when I was an undergrad in the early 1980′s. The hot items were Michael Jackson...
View ArticleThe Old Adventures of Superman
Apart from Stevereads and the Ihnatko Alamanac have to say on the matter, I have paid no attention to the DC Comics reboot of its entire line of superhero comics. So when I see references to it in the...
View ArticleMoffat, Davies, and the New Who
Ross Ruediger had a rather sour take on season 6 of Doctor Who. He had problems with Matt Smith‘s puppydog energy and showrunner Steven Moffat‘s “celebration of the clever” in dialogue and plotting the...
View Article“Asylum of the Daleks”
Oh dear, my carefully crafted image as a man of the book and too clever by half will now fall to the ground when I talk about “Doctor Who” fanboyishness. Ah well — let the egg roll, as they say. I...
View ArticleHow I rate songs in iTunes
I never fiddled with iTunes before I bought my iPod 5G in 2010 as my birthday present to myself. I found — and still find — iTunes to be both useful and maddening. Kirk McElhearn’s Take Control of...
View ArticleHaving fun with Wikipedia
Wikipedia has become such a daily part of my online life (like email — remember life before email? Anyone?), that it’s both startling and a little thrilling to find outré articles or even stray...
View ArticlePanhandlers
On my old blog, I devoted a long post to thinking about moral and ethical responses to panhandling. One economist suggested only giving money to those who are not asking for money; a playwright...
View ArticleRemembering Harvey Pekar on his birthday
Hat tip to Southern Folklife Collection’s Facebook feed Related posts: Snarky Facebook e-cards On unfriending or unfollowing people Birthday horoscope for Sept. 24 The day I got no research done...
View ArticleRestored Radios exhibit
Durham is growing its own crop of local businesses — not just local artists and boutique eateries, but also a love of handmade crafts and the pleasure of both making and admiring objects that, as...
View ArticleThe Rise and Fall of Mr. Zip
Informative and fun little article on the US Postal Service’s push to get Americans to add a 5-digit ZIP code to their envelopes and post cards. The effort started in 1963 and it took almost 20 years...
View ArticleTonight, for whatever reason, a little Laurel & Hardy was indicated…
Because, some nights, I just need an earworm that will put a smile on my face…. …and then I need to follow it up with another earworm and a little softshoe. Related posts: Snarky Facebook e-cards...
View ArticleDurham Comics Project
The Durham County Library has some great librarians interested in graphic novels and cartooning. Here’s a link to the Durham Comics Project site, with an absolutely charming little strip drawn by a...
View ArticleDOOMSDAY IS … Friday (for 2014)
Which means that Friday falls on: the last day of February (this is the key fact if you remember nothing else. Doomsday is always the last day in February for every year.) 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, and...
View ArticleA word fraught with meaning
The Night is Fraught With Peril (Photo credit: Thomas Hawk) I like embroidering my plainspoken, earthy, everyday, quotidian speech with particularly Victorianesque embellishments and verbally diabolic...
View ArticleDomestic Comedy
Exchange between me and Liz as we drove past Ravenscroft school. ME. That’s where Matthew did his play. LIZ. Yeah, that musical about Noah’s ark. He was Ham. ME. (Pause. ) (Seriously.) He was doing his...
View ArticleThe Conet Project
Closeup of Dorchester antenna (featured on Conet Project CD cover) I must have heard about the shortwave numbers stations years ago on this Lost and Found Sound recording for NPR’s All Things...
View ArticleGeneric Corporate Promo Video
Everything You Hate About Advertising in One Fake Video That’s Almost Too Real | Adweek. Satire could be defined as “that which seeks to improve.” Or, as Dick Cavett reported George S. Kaufman saying,...
View ArticleGoodbyes: Irish and Serbian
This is something I used to do more in my 20s but never knew there was a name for: the “Irish goodbye,” said of someone who leaves a party without saying their farewells to the host, the other guests,...
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