Heavy Rotation
"Ophelia" - Levon Helm and The Band - YouTube
The energy and joy in this live performance of a classic just makes me happy. -B
Business Time
Stairway to an OSHA Citation
Stairway to Not Safety - Vertigo Warning!
You've got to watch this first video which will give you the heebie jeebies if you are anything like me. And then to palate cleanse read the article and watch the second video on how these things are supposed to be done... -B
One time my friend Kerry posted a picture on the ‘gram of her precariously balancing on a chair to reach the upper corner of a whiteboard, and one of her friends shipped her a stepladder with a note that basically just said “OSHA!!!” or something. And this summarizes my awareness and experience of that organization. - C
You Fancy, Huh
At Bailey's Beach, The Ruling Class Keeps Its Guard Up
This older article is semi-relevant due to a recent political controversy I won't deign to touch on in this space. But the existence of private beach clubs was not something I had ever really pondered, despite growing up spending 1-2 weeks a year at the "Sanibel Island Beach Club", which is a completely different thing from this bougie relic on the east coast. -B
This £400k abandoned Welsh fort is the ultimate fixer upper
What would you do with it? Besides tell people you owned it and constantly show them pictures of it on your phone? -B
The answer is escape rooms. I would get escape room building geniuses all up in there and turn that fort into the ultimate escape room destination and host tournaments. -C
Sports (Disc Golf)
World's Best Disc Golf Courses 2021: #1-#100
Number 20 is a private course north of Memphis, along the Mississippi River, called Bud Hill, named after a long deceased favorite hunting dog but also a fortuitous wink at some of the danker corners of disc golf culture. I first played Bud Hill in 2004 and last played it 10 days ago. Bud Hill is the passion project of a gentleman named Danny who is one of the sweetest, most generous people I've ever met. Danny, a retired landscaping crew manager, has sculpted some of the hilliest land near Memphis into a place disc golfers from all over the country come to experience the closest thing Disc Golf has to Augusta, but open and welcoming to all. Weekends and holidays routinely host pot luck grill outs and "$5 flip up" rounds. Any tournament in Memphis that has Bud Hill as tournament central is going to be excellent. And any trip to Bud Hill that includes running into Danny, mowing on his tractor, putzing around in a side by side, or just sitting on the porch with his ubiquitous green glass bottled Heineken in his hand is made all the more precious- a brush with whatever disc golf sainthood looks like. If you disc golf you need to find yourself at Bud Hill as soon as possible. -B
I love technology (and science)
Brickit's AI Camera Scans Your LEGO to Suggest Things You Can Build
Whoa... -B
It's not surprising to me that this isn't an official LEGO app at the moment because it feels sort of antithetical to the imagination part of playing with LEGOs. That being said, there's an incredible AR app that they put out when iPhones got that new chip (or however that works) that lets you place virtual sets alongside the ones you have. That's genius marketing. They also have a way to make certain sets "live" by placing the set in the frame and then the characters start moving and waving at you. When I played with that app a couple years ago it melted my brain. -C
The Day the Good Internet Died
Pull to refresh, pull to refresh, pull to refresh, pull to refresh... desperately digging for just one more hit of that sweet dopamine... What has happened to us? And how do we make it stop? -B
Step 1: remove all endless scroll apps from your telephone. -C
Is there an app that can do that for me? -B
_______ is not real life
Your Pretty Face is Going to Sell
I hate You Tube Face and won't click any video that features a thumbnail with that zoomed in, exaggerated emotional caricature. Am I getting old? -B
I also despise this so-called YTF. I will join you, ye olde man Brian, in the land of Cranky Internet Olds. -C
Further Reading
The Tyger by William Blake
A quick poetry read that doesn't even require a You Tube Face thumbnail to make you click and snap back to a simpler, more sophisticated time of culture and beauty. -B
33 realizations in 33 years
Brian (not the Brian that helps me write this newsletter, another Brian, Brians everywhere!) and I used to work together and I still keep up with his writing and attempt to keep up with where he's currently living. I am also 33 but I did not reflect at all upon that fact as of yet. -C