Heavy Rotation
Dopamine Hits Playlist
I've got a music playlist system. There's a "working" playlist and a "focus" playlist and a "new" playlist and a "chill" playlist. But this is the backbone of the playlist system. It started as a short list of songs I could listen to as part avoiding anxiety if I got stuck in traffic. It has transformed into a 3D map of my soul. I share it with not a little trepidation and beg you for your charity. Hit shuffle and I'm positive you'll find some gems you've never heard of but will love along with some obligatory staples -B
Veedeeohs
Michael Winslow - Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Go ahead and find as many videos of Michael Winslow doing things that do not make any sense to me AT ALL with his voice and a microphone. - C
In the 1980's and 1990's there were a bunch of slapsticky type comedies of which the Police Academy series was my favorite. I watched the first 3 or 4 again during quarantine and they sort of maybe hold up? But Michael Winslow is still hysterical and extremely talented. -B
Food
Your Weird Pandemic Meals Are Probably Fine
I shared this on Twitter after Brian shared it with me in a text and now we're sharing it here, so obviously we want to make sure you read it. I love when someone takes a very loose concept or pattern that I've experienced myself and molds it into words so I don't have to. -C
Put me on the list of those who picked up the "Covid 19 lbs". I do like this idea of "big meal" and am trying to figure out how to incorporate it in a transition to a post pandemic healthier lifestyle. -B
Lucia makes strozzapreti pasta
Just to get this out of the way: NEXT LEVEL domain name.
OK, the thing I love most about this video is watching Lucia's mastery of this particular pasta. Watch the way she uses her hands, shaping the pasta like she's done tens of thousands of times. I love videos of people doing something they do so well that the mechanics are involuntary. - C
TravelMASity
The Rooftop Creatures Of Budapest
Several incredible sculptures whose purpose or intent is lost to time because someone forgot to tell someone else why they commissioned it..and a few commemorating the desire to be a myth and/or legend. - C
Budapest is one of my favorite cities I've had the pleasure to visit (I've been twice). The downtown with the river and the chain bridge and the castles and the statues and the rooftop creatures and the public baths.... man I miss traveling. -B
You Fancy, Huh
The Down Side to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks
I cannot fathom spending that much money on...anything...and being disappointed. I'll add this to the list of things not to buy with the millions of dollars I don't have. - C
Corvettes That Don't Get Driven, Sold, or Bought
OK great, Brian, now I feel like I can get a C5 pretty easily if I just pay attention. That is not something that my wife wants on my radar. You gone and done it now. - C
I had a boss who had a late model Stingray who let me drive it. It was like sitting in the cockpit of a rocket ship and it made me little kid happy. So you definitely should get one Calvin. Your wife wants you to be happy right? -B
Sports (Disc Golf)
Armored Combat Sports
Calvin started this newsletter without me. Calvin only likes basketball. This category is thusly named Sports (Basketball). I joined this newsletter later. I like almost every sport except basketball. Thusly we have people in medieval plate mail whacking each other with sticks in our basketball category. -B
Follytics
Private Schools Are Indefensible
I'm some sort of Christian anarcho-libertarian free market individual responsibility type dude. In general I want as little top down solutioneering as possible. To that end if people want to use their own resources to have ridiculously luxurious private schools my political principles have no issue with that. But this line in this fantastic article I mostly disagree with hit me like a sledgehammer and still has me thinking through the implications, because I'm pretty sure my savior would agree with it. -B
Shouldn’t the schools that serve poor children be the very best schools we have?
Further Reading
Cardboard and Steel, Part 1
We've all taken a wrapping paper cardboard tube and bonked someone else on the head with it. Which probably led to them picking up a cardboard tube and attempting to bonk you back. Follow this to the logical conclusion and we have the fantastic web comic Penny Arcade's "Cardboard Tube Samurai" series. He wanders the land dispensing justice, one cardboard bonk at a time. -B
All Geek To Me
The Making of Lemmings
Thanks to Caitlin for the link. This is the game that got me interested in computers and, more generally, how stuff works. I remember inserting a floppy disk and firing up MS-DOS Prompt to launch it, and that made me feel smart. And getting these little pixelated boogers to not fall to their deaths or accidentally explode in a crowd was a real achievement. I spent hours and hours playing this game, and hopefully one day I'll be able to play it again. - C
I've played a million hours of Lemmings and would happily play another million hours. -B
Rear View Mirror
The Secret of the Unicorn Tapestries
What a delightful story. The life of the security guard sounds fantastic: he works in a tower looking at art, then travels the world looking at more art, has a couple work BFFs and takes long walks with them to cogitate about religion and first century Alexandria. - C
Katie and I have made two museum visiting trips to NYC and somehow never visited the Met Cloisters. Sounds like a third trip is needed.... -B