Movies, Shows, etc
2024 Summer Olympics
Already much discussed in this space.
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The Americans, season 3
The re-watch continues. Season three was a tight, excellent set of episodes: I believe every show fell between 43 and 48 minutes. Even in 2015, that was rare in the prestige TV realm. The last four episodes, especially, were crackling with intensity as the Jennings’ secret started to spill out.
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Homicide: Life On The Street, selected episodes
One of the all-time great TV dramas finally arrived on a streaming platform last month. I watched a fair amount of Homicide, at least the early years, back in the day. I read the book it was based on. And, of course, I obsessed over its spiritual and thematic successor, The Wire.
TV critic Alan Sepinwall put together a list of 10 episodes he thought best summarized the show. I don’t really have time to go knock out the whole series so instead ripped through his list. Some very dated production, dialogue, and fashion, but the core stories still stand up. The late Andre Braugher was such a force. As jarring as it was to see him play comedy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it was equally jarring to go back and watch his intense portrayal of Frank Pembleton.
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Tourist Sauce, Return to Australia
The NLU crew went back to the location of their first travel series, nearly seven years later, with a bigger budget and crew, and a lot more knowledge of what they were doing. As usual, the result was great.
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Pearl Jam 2024/05/30 Seattle
Prep for seeing them in person.
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Ocean’s Eleven
Pretty much a perfect movie.
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US Open, week one
An annual marker that summer is ending and fall has arrived.
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Shorts, YouTubes, etc
Two Weeks of Exploring Southern Thailand
Beautiful part of the world + interesting film stock + great photographer = amazing images.
Buying The Cheapest Cameras In Japan
OMG!!! You don’t have to know a thing about cameras, or be interested in photography, to find this piece totally hilarious.
Every Olympic 100m Final (1912–2016)
This is pretty cool. It would be even cooler if it noted who won each race. Also, these are only men’s races, so it’s not really every 100m final.
29,000 Feet Up Mount Everest with DJI Mavic 3 Pro
Gorgeous.
I Visited Mount Everest Base Camp
An interesting undertaking: this kid doesn’t try to climb the entire mountain, but rather just get to base camp. Which is way harder than I would have expected, and even this is probably beyond the abilities of 95% of people.
Brad Leone Tries to Eat His Weight in Tacos on a California Roadtrip
I can think of way worse ways to spend your time than driving around cool places and eating tacos for every meal.
Mascots Savage Moments Against Little Kids
This might be the greatest video ever made. Each time I see it, I laugh my ass off. Also fun is finding the full-game videos from these events. The Colts’ Blue is a beast in those games.
Arrested Development moments I think about a lot
Arrested Development moments I think about a lot #2
It might be time to give AD another re-watch.
Redeeming 10,000 bottles and cans because of Seinfeld (Part 2)
It took a year to get there, but finally an end to this chapter of Beau Miles Bullshit.
Apple Computers 1995 Promotional Video “The Martinettis Bring Home A Computer”
Holy mackerel! Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?
Car Content
I Drive The Fantastic Polestar 3 For The First Time!
I was super intrigued by the Polestar 2 when I was car shopping, specifically used ones, which have plummeted in value. Someone not too far from us owns one, and I keep wanting to catch them at Target or wherever so I can ask questions. However, the closest current service center is in Columbus, OH, I have concerns about the long-term health of the line, and then the difficulty in calculating how much damage the previous owner did to the battery. It looks like the company is continuing to do great things. Now the trick is coming out with one in the $45K range so I can test drive one in three years when I get back into the car shopping game. Another trick will be not going out of business before more affordable models can hit production.
What should an electric car sound like?
I had no idea so much effort had been invested in this space.
The Southern California EV Charging Problem!
Who knew SoCal would be more Chicago than Bay Area when it came to charging your EV?