Month: March 2025

Friday Playlist

March 7, 2025 / DB

“Dollar Store” – Ben Kweller featuring Waxahatchee
Katie Crutchfield is starting to show up in as many songs by other people as Phoebe Bridgers. Thank goodness both of them are always great collaborators.

“Bethany” – Craig Finn
Speaking of collaborations, can we just send Finn and The War On Drugs out on tour together and make old guys like me super happy? A perfect melding of their sounds here.

“No Front Teeth” – Perfume Genius with Aldous Harding
Another collab, and another terrific song from PG’s upcoming album.

“Better Half of a Dollar” – Fime
Absolute ripper!

“Bubblegum Nothingness” – Jetstream Pony
Both the song title and band name seem like gibberish selected by flipping through the dictionary and attaching random words together. The members of this group have been in no fewer than eight other acts, so that mishmash of words makes sense.

“More Than Life” – The Horrors
The Horrors might be the ultimate, 21st century, post-punk band. Their first album of new music in eight years stays right in that groove.

“The Slim” – Sugar
Bob Mould’s new album is out today. Brother-in-music Sir David V sent me an article earlier this week in which Mould identified some of his favorite songs. However, he stuck to his solo work. I love a lot of that, but if I had to pick only one Mould-based album to listen to, it would be Sugar’s amazing 1992 disk Copper Blue. It might be as close to a perfect LP as you can make.

“Spaceman In Tulsa” – Counting Crows
I was in college in the 1990s, which meant I owned CC’s debut album August And Everything After. It was the law; you had to own it if you were a white college student. That album still holds up. I also really enjoyed their 1996 follow-up Discovering the Satellites. Like most, though, I lost track of them after. They are still around making new music. I’m not sure how good this song is, but I felt I owed it to my generation to share it.

Reader’s Notebook, 3/6/25

March 6, 2025 / DB

Beirut Station – Paul Vidich
I’ve read a couple of Vidich’s books and was luke warm on both, so had largely written his work off. His spy stories seemed reserved, dry, and emotionally complex in a way that I did not connect with. But I heard him on a podcast where his personality seemed the opposite of that, and read some good press for this book, so decided it was worth the shot.

I’m glad I didn’t give up on him.

The earlier books I read were both set during the early days of the Cold War, and I think that threat of nuclear apocalypse affected their tone. Here he sets his story in Beirut during the Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah in 2006. A joint US-Israeli group is working to assassinate a Hezbollah leader, but a young CIA agent calls off a near perfect shot at him when she sees that his young son is in the car with him. She is then tasked with finding a new way to target him, leveraging her relationship with his kids as their teacher. As a Lebanese-American she constantly feels unsure of where she belongs and who truly trusts her. She’s surrounded by representatives from various sides who have their own dueling interests. Soon she is in the midst of a battle between Hezbollah, Israel, and the US, never certain if any of them are interested in keeping her alive.

This book had some common elements to Vidich’s earlier ones. It was dark and complicated at times. The drama is carried more by internal strife and ruptured relationships than by raging gun battles. And we get deep inside his protagonist’s head. So perhaps it was just the more modern setting that helped me connect with it better. Maybe it was focusing on a modern woman that allowed him to add some heft to the story that was lacking in his severe, closed-off 1950s Cold War men.

Whatever it was, I really liked this book.

Saturday Night – Doug Hill & Jeff Weingrad
I’ve read James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales’ Live From New York oral history of Saturday Night Live that came out in 2015. Twice it was so good. There is also a new book about Lorne Michaels out that I am on the waitlist for.

But I had never read this book, originally published in 1985, about the early years of the show. I had heard about it often, but I believe it was out of print for several years. Fortunately my library not only had it, but had an ebook edition. I put it on hold the week of SNL50 and it came in this week.

This book is pretty exhaustive, most notably about the lead up to season one and then the first five seasons of the show, aka the first Michaels era. It does cover the disastrous 1980–81 season, then Dick Ebersol taking over and letting the considerable talents of Eddie Murphy carry it into the mid–80s. These next two eras get brushed over relatively quickly. And it ends with Michaels set to take over for the 1985–86 season.

There are tons of great stories in here. If you’re an SNL head you’ll know a lot of them, but as the original cast first took the air over 50 years ago, many of them have faded. Almost none of the stars or producers come out looking great. Everyone had their own ego and personality issues, which were often exacerbated by drug use. Really it was a reminder that TV stars are just like us, in that they have flaws and hangups and having fame and fortune doesn’t make those disappear. Especially in the pressure cooker of live television.

Also, this book answered some of my questions about the accuracy of the movie Saturday Night. There were clearly a lot of moments from throughout season one, and even beyond, that were rolled into that story about the show’s first night for effect.

Wednesday Links

March 5, 2025 / DB

Heavy on James Bond content today, as there was some major news regarding the series’ future along with two other tidbits that haven’t received nearly as much attention.

First, Amazon threw another billion dollars at Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to take over full control of the Bond series. Broccoli especially has not been thrilled with what she believes Amazon’s plans for the series are – she assumes they will milk it for content the way Disney has mined the Star Wars brand and dilute its quality and value – which has prevented any progress in either selecting Daniel Craig’s successor or even developing a script for the next 007 film.

James Bond’s long-serving producers give control to Amazon

I also think it’s strange that after initially making all the Bond films available on Prime Video following Amazon’s aquisition of MGM, almost all of them have disappeared. I’m not sure if that had something to do with this battle, but perhaps they begin to cycle through Prime again.

One internet author takes the obvious, hilarious swing at what an Amazon Bond script might look like.

Exclusive: Amazon’s new James Bond script

An Austrian developer is challenging the trademark of the James Bond name in Europe that could lead to businesses being able to slap it on just about any product.

James Bond in battle to keep hold of 007 super spy’s name

Finally, the UK and European copyrights on Ian Fleming’s original works are about to expire, which could lead to some very interesting possibilities.

Licence to kill: could a James Bond horror emerge when book copyrights expire?

Here’s an assessment of Jon Krakaeur’s battle with a YouTube troll I linked to a week or so back.

Also, as the internet demonstrates over and over again, we just love picking a villain, then doubling down on the choice until we’ve transformed them into an absurd caricature of wickedness. Whatever need this impulse serves, it’s never a desire to know the truth.

Climbing Mt. YouTube

Finally, a fun internet list. I’ve seen about 30% of these.

The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century

Jayhawk Talk: Checking Out

March 4, 2025 / DB

What a stupid, unserious team.

That was one of my biggest thoughts after KU lost to Texas Tech Saturday.

There’s no shame in losing to Tech; they are a hell of a team and now have wins at KU, at Houston, at K-State, and at BYU. They are very much like Iowa State in that they have a terrific coach who recruited players that fit his style of play and have the mentality he wanted, so they blend seamlessly. Hell, they reminded me of those classic Villanova teams in that they always play at their own pace and never seem rattled by the moment.

It was the final three minutes that pushed me over the edge, though. After trailing by 14, KU came all the way back to tie the game twice and eventually take a one-point lead. Naturally they gave up another open 3 – Tech had open looks all day from beyond the arc – immediately after that effectively won the game for the Red Raiders. On that three, DaJuan Harris and KJ Adams, both seniors with a combined nine years of college experience, stood there and watched as the shot was taken, one or both of them having made the wrong decision on a switch. The two best defenders on the team failed to cover a shooter in the closing minutes. 🤦‍♂️

It got worse from there. Zeke Mayo had three brutal turnovers. Once he failed to catch an easy pass that hit him in the hands, and watched helplessly as the ball careened out of bounds. Harris threw a pass to where he expected a player to be. Although that player, likely a wing who was supposed to come off a Hunter Dickinson screen, was not there, and Dickinson had already cut away. The pass sailed into the stands without being touched. And would you believe that Dickinson missed a couple shots right at the rim when it was a single possession game?

Yet somehow KU had a chance, but Bill Self did not use his last remaining time out in the closing minute to help a team that was clearly out of sorts settle down and set something up to extend the game. There was a part of me that genuinely thought Self had given up on this team when he didn’t call the time out. They had fucked everything up for 90 seconds, perhaps he believed stopping the clock and drawing up a play was a pointless exercise. It was bizarre.

Anyway, again a team filled with experienced players fell apart when they faced some adversity. Meanwhile Tech had a sophomore and freshman who made some of the biggest plays of the game.

This was probably the maddest I’ve been at a KU team in a long, long time. So mad that I saw no reason to stay up and watch them surely get blown out at Houston last night.

They did lose to the Cougars, but they kept it close all night, apparently playing some of their best defense of the year. However, they gave up about a million offensive rebounds to UH, Dickinson and Mayo combined for 13 turnovers and 11 missed shots, and neither Harris nor Rylan Griffen did much to impact the game on offense. All that would have made me toss and turn for hours had I watched.[1]

I’m done trying to diagnose the cause for this team’s issues. But something that had been subtly bugging me for weeks finally jumped out at me on Saturday.

With a couple exceptions, Self’s teams have never been great outside shooting squads. This year was supposed to address that, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

While the lazy analyst says that Self’s teams are focused on playing through a big man, in fact his best offenses have always been built around creating easy shots at the rim for everyone.

Take the 2020 team, which was ranked #1 in the country when Covid struck and the tournament was cancelled. That team had maybe one reliable shooter in Isaiah Moss, and he had struggled to acclimate all season after transferring in (sound familiar?). Ochai Agbaji was capable of shooting from outside, but not very reliable at that point. Devon Doston and Marcus Garrett were even more suspect.

But that team destroyed people because the entire offense was built around getting Udoka Azubuike dunks and lobs, and Dotson, Garrett, and Agbaji open lanes to drive.

Same for the 2012 team that lost in the national championship game. Its best shooter was a walk-on who came off the bench, with three upper classmen who could hit a 3 but you wouldn’t want to bet your mortgage on them making a shot to win a game. That offense was all about getting Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey the ball inside, with Tyshawn Taylor, Elijah Johnson, and Travis Releford attacking the lane from the perimeter.

Even the 2024 national championship team, despite starting three NBA players, was built more in attacking the rim from angles than beating teams from outside.

Saturday KU had stretches in the second half where they played some gorgeous basketball. Guys were cutting, the ball was zipping around the perimeter, dribble handoffs were exchanged. The weird thing was that it rarely produced those open drives. It was 25–30 seconds of beauty, and then someone who is not a good driver putting their head down and getting into trouble. Griffen tried hard to make something happen a few times, but he’s not explosive enough to get by the defense or beat bigger defenders at the rim. Harris misses two shots for every one he makes inside. Mayo turned it over too often. Adams played his ass off Saturday, one of the best games he’s ever had. But for all of his explosiveness, he’s a two-footed jumper who either needs a clear lane or a lob to finish. He can’t drive, jump off one foot, and still get to the rim.

The staple of the Bill Self offense, the open look at the rim, has disappeared. And I don’t really understand why. For years he was able to scheme around personnel deficiencies to ensure his guards always got layups and his bigs buried people in the low block. This team can’t do that for more than a couple of possessions.

Even if we somehow pull it together and beat Arizona this weekend, and/or win a couple games in Kansas City, that’s not enough to fix the many issues with this team. I’m just ready for this season to be over with. KU should join the SEC because right now I’m way more interested in spring football than how this dumpster fire is going to wrap up its season.

Coincidentally, as I continue to review blog posts that are 20 years old, Sunday I read my entry from March 1, 2005, in which I detailed how I had stopped watching college hoops for a week to try to settle down. Times change but people don’t. ↩

Weekend Notes

March 3, 2025 / DB

A kid-focused notes post to kick off this week. I’ll save the sad, angry, frustrated hoops thoughts for tomorrow.

Foot Girl

L continues her healing process after surgery. Actually, things are going great. She went back to school last Monday and other than leaving early one afternoon because her splint was causing her pain, survived the week. She tried the knee scooter one day, but it was also rubbing against the splint so she decided to crutch around instead. She stopped taking her potent pain meds early last week. I think she made it through the weekend without any Tylenol. So that side of things has gone well.

As for that splint pain, we think her swelling had basically disappeared, which was causing the splint to move and rub against her incision. Which is obviously pretty tender. That pain was getting worse than her surgical pain, so I took her in Friday to get it checked. I figured they would just put a new splint on. They indeed took the post-op splint off, giving us a good look at her foot. No irritation on the incision from the rubbing. Way less swelling and discoloration than I expected. I thought her foot would look like mine when I tore my ankle up and my entire leg was a horrific combination of purples, yellows, and greens for a couple weeks. She just had a tiny bit of yellow around the incision.

However, rather than re-splinting her, they went ahead and put a cast on. When the PA said that was the plan, L gave me an excited look thinking the entire process was going to be pushed forward. Sadly, that’s not the case. She’ll still go in next Monday to have this cast removed, the stitches taken out, and then get a new cast that will stay on for three more weeks. The important thing is with her pain under control and her foot looking pretty good, she seems to be healing as expected.

I had never seen a cast put on before. That is a fascinating process. And way simpler than I expected.

The new bummer is that L is very itchy under the cast. Every time she complains I remind her that at least she isn’t in a splint that is rubbing the incision.

Some friends picked her up Friday and they went out to dinner, then all came back to our house after. The girls decided they wanted ice cream so L drove them, her first time driving since surgery. I was a little nervous about that, but with five passengers at least she had support if she fell or needed help getting in-and-out. I’m not sure I ever clearly identified it, but the surgery was on her left foot so actual driving isn’t an issue.

Retreat Girl

C was on her senior retreat last week. Each senior class is divided into five different groups that go to a retreat center for three days over the course of the year. They leave after school Tuesday and return Friday evening. CHS students aren’t required to go, but are highly encouraged to attend. Afterward, there are always kids who say they really didn’t want to go but ended up enjoying it.

There is obviously a religious component. But it is as much about figuring out who you are and how you interact with others as you prepare to go off to college. The organizers try to mix up friend groups across the retreats, and then put people in small groups with people they don’t know very well. There are lots of long talks where people reveal things they have never talked about at school. I think it gets pretty intense and emotional. It definitely creates some bonds that, if not quite friendships, at least get kids interacting with classmates they had no previous relationships with.

This retreat also had way more boys, since football and soccer players can’t go in the fall. S C was one of 14 girls on this trip. One of those girls was an old buddy from St P’s that C hadn’t really had much of a relationship with in high school. Apparently they got along well, which is cool since that girl and her family are staying near us over spring break. It was cool to see all the Instagram posts from the kids once they got home.

Anyway, C seemed to have a great time. She’s been through some stuff the last four years, a lot of it I’ve never shared here and likely never will. She opened up about some of that to her small group, which I think is a good thing. When she was relating her health history, mostly about her weird-ass back that is missing parts, one of her small group members looked at her and said, “Damn! You’re an alien!” which made everyone laugh. She also really bonded with several of the teachers who were there as group leaders and guides. She tends to be very quiet at school, and I think it was an ego boost to have teachers tell her how much they enjoyed really getting to know her.

Of course one of the bonuses of retreat is that the kids come home grateful for what their parents have done for them. Our kids are usually pretty thankful and express that to us. It does make you think you did something right as a parent when they reiterate that rather than come home with a list of things we did wrong as we were raising them.

We had several long talks Friday and Saturday. I told her I was no where near mature enough to share with others as she did, nor as empathetic as she is when I was her age. To be fair, I also hadn’t been through as much as she has. And she’s been through A LOT less than some of the kids she spent the week with. She has multiple friends who have already had parents die, and there were at least three kids in the big group of 45 that have had a siblings die. Which is utterly tragic.

When I was a senior my parents had been divorced for eight years, but that didn’t really bother me. We went through a few years where my mom had almost no money and we came close to moving back in with her parents. But I didn’t realize that until years later. And my stepdad had just survived his first round of cancer, but I was an idiot and thought there was no chance he would die even when the first doctor he went to gave him six months to live. Throw social media nonsense in, and today’s kids have been through exponentially more than I ever went through as a high schooler.

Interviewing Girl

I mentioned last week that M was working hard on finding an internship for the summer but not having much luck. This past week she had four interviews, two of them second rounders.

Thursday she got her first offer. It’s with a home construction group in Cincinnati as a marketing intern. She called us as soon as she found out and was very excited. I believe they gave her seven days to make a decision.

Friday she had a second interview for a position in Dayton, which she isn’t crazy about but apparently she has impressed the people there. Then she had an interview with an ad agency here in Indy. She hasn’t told us if she would hold out for the Indy job if she thought she might get it. I’m also not sure if it pays, where the one in Cincy does. I guess she has a couple days to figure all that out.

So good news, although it might mean that she just spends a couple weeks here before she heads back to Cincy for most of the summer. And we have to find her a place to live for a couple months.

I also don’t believe that I’ve shared a change in her plans for this time next year. Originally she was going to spend the spring ’26 semester in Verona, Italy. Then she heard something like nine other girls in her sorority were going to do that same program. She really didn’t want to go to another country and have to spend time with that many girls from her house. After talking to the study abroad folks about her options, they recommended programs in Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. It’s not official yet as the paperwork is still working through the system, but she will most likely do the Lisbon program. Just one of her good friends will be going, too.

So our spring break in a year may well be a trip to see her. Which would be incredible. I’m already re-discovering the various YouTube travel advice channels I was obsessed with before our trip to Italy two years ago.

February Media

March 2, 2025 / DB

Movies, Shows, etc

Groundhog Day
Every year I think, “Hey, I should watch this again!” when February 2 rolls around. Then it either isn’t available on a free service, or I missed when it would air on cable. This year I finally did it! Probably the first time I’ve seen it all the way through since the mid–90s. I forgot how dark it gets for a long stretch. The final quarter feels very 90s, but, hey, that was the time.

A-

Beastie Boys (ASPCA Benefit Live Show) @ The Hiro Ballroom Oct. 4, 2006
AMAZING performance brought to my attention by Brother in Music E$.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
Powerful film about the bond people form during combat. And a reminder how fucked up everything about our war in Afghanistan was after the initial satisfaction of driving the Taliban from power.

B+

Spy Ops
This Netflix series about various intelligence service operations fell oddly flat with me. I’m not sure exactly what was missing, but something felt off about the entire thing.

B-

GoldenEye
I was browsing the DVDs at the library and found this. It’s been a few years since I’ve watched it. Once again it confirms that the Daniel Craig era kind of ruined most of the old Bond films.

Saturday Night
I watched this the night before the SNL 50 anniversary show. I really enjoyed its look at the 90 minutes before the first SNL broadcast in 1975. I haven’t read up on how much of it was accurate, but it was an enjoyable look inside how close they cut it with pretty much everything that first night.

A-

SNL 50
I wrote about this here.

Ferrari
I remember hearing, when this was first released, how it wasn’t what you expected it to be. That was certainly true. I understood exactly what Michael Mann was going for in this film. I’m not sure I understand his reasoning behind that, though. I was never sure that Adam Driver was speaking with an Italian accent, either. It seemed to drift into some kind of strange Italian-Eastern European mishmash. Penelope Cruz was terrific, though.

North By Northwest
Somehow I had never seen this, considered one of the greatest spy movies ever, even if it isn’t standard spy movie fare. It has that snappy dialogue common of its era, and also some scenes that stretch out far longer than they would if written and filmed today. Have I ever watched a Cary Grant film before? I’m not sure. He was fantastic, never taking himself too seriously. Eva Saint Marie? Yowsa! Although I did the math and she and Grant were nearly 20 years apart in age when they made this movie, which is a little cringey, if typical of Hollywood. An absolutely wild ending was the only thing that made this film feel super dated.

B+

Meru
This has been on my list for years and I honestly thought I had watched it, just not noted it. But when I started it to confirm, it was indeed new to me. The usual harrowing mountain climbing movie, complete with multiple brushes with death and a truly remarkable final ascent.

A-

No Reservations
I ran across a blurb how the old Anthony Bourdain shows were the perfect anecdote to both the state of the world, and state of TV these days. It noted how No Reservations was available on Prime Video. So I knocked out the first three episodes of season one over a couple nights, with the plan to slowly work through the series as I had time over the coming months. When I went to watch episode four, they had mostly disappeared from Prime. Which was weird, as this was in the middle of the month, not at the beginning or end, when shows usually drop off. Alas, it will show up again at some point and I’ll work through it then. Even with AB not fully locked into the persona nor the show into its eventual format, it was indeed a wonderful reminder of how great this was.

Homeland
Over the years several friends asked if I watched this show, as it seemed right up my alley. My answer was always no because we never had Showtime during the show’s initial run, and I wasn’t sure what platform it was on in more recent years. I was also daunted by there being eight seasons or whatever. But I recently saw it was on Hulu, and read that, really, only the first two seasons are essential, so I jumped in.

Terrific show. There is a little clunkiness in the middle episodes, but generally it started hot and stayed there. And the final three episodes are nuts, in the best possible way. I’ll definitely be watching season two and then go from there.

Pearl Jam – Chicago – Wrigley Field Night 2 – 2024/08/31
I watched night one last month, made sense to watch night 2 this month.

Pearl Jam – Self Pollution Radio 01/08/1995 – Full Broadcast
I skimmed through this, listening only to the PJ songs. What a time.

A-

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

WarGames (1983): 20 Things You Never Knew!
Probably the least interesting and informative of these I’ve watched, but there are still some good nuggets in it.

Will Ferrell Breaking People on SNL for 5 Minutes Straight
Shouldn’t the Jimmy Fallon ones not count, since he broke in every sketch he was ever in?

Matt Damon Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters
George Clooney Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters
Samuel L. Jackson Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters
I can’t get enough of these. I also just wait for YouTube to spit them out at me rather than seek new ones. That makes it kind of fun to see who pops up and when they hit my feed.

Matt Damon & Casey Affleck Curse Like True Bostonians
Not as much cussing as the title promised.

U.S. Deploys Socially Awkward Men Along Border To Deter Migrants | Onion News Network
Genius!

Inside Daniel Craig’s Iconic James Bond Watch Collection
“Things I Would Steal” for $400, Ken.

Watch Shopping With Marc From Long Island Watch: Building The Best Collection
Restoration of an Omega Flightmaster – Crazy Transformation
Restoration of a Rusty Omega Seamaster Professional watch – Severe Water Damage
Yeah, so I added a new watch to my collection this month, thus tweaked my algorithm with a bunch of watch vids. These restoration ones are oddly soothing and fascinating.

Why the South China Sea is a time bomb
Just one of many reasons…

F*ck your wallet, go travel.
Good advice. I wish I would have taken it in my 20s.

100 Days of Solo Travel in 3 Minutes
Again, to be young, unencumbered, and motivated…

How This New York Times Bestselling Author Perfected His Daily Morning Routine
I may start following this plan to see if it elevates my blog readership.

Driving the World’s Longest Road: Our Epic Journey Begins
Alaska to the Yukon: The Most Breathtaking Views on Top of the World Highway
I tried this series but after two episodes I just wasn’t into it that much.

We Landed in the SECRET World of Bhutan
Then you have this video about one of the most isolated countries in the world and the host could not be cheesier, which kind of ruined it for me.

I used 1950s technology for a week
Fun concept but this guy is 35% too goofy for my tastes.

Indianapolis, Indiana | John McGivern’s Main Streets
A look at my favorite part of Indy, Mass Ave.

I drove my lifted porsche 1500km through New Zealand
More travel than car related, and it’s not an EV, so this goes into this section.

Fighter Jet Low Level in Norway 4K
Film this for IMAX and name your price, I will pay it.

THE LAST CRUISE IRAQ – F14 VIDEO
One of the odder, while also delightfully dated, jet videos I’ve come across.

Top 30 90s Rock Songs You Forgot Were Awesome
Top 30 Cheesiest One Hit Wonders of the 1990s
There are a few interesting/odd choices in these, but still probably several songs that you haven’t heard in years and will send you to the streamer of your choice to revisit in full.

We Put DIRT Host Josh Rosen in the Huckberry Hot Seat | Ask Huckberry
The next DIRT location is revealed here, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Why There’s a Straight Line Through Scotland
Why are so many countries called Guinea?
Why the Dutch always say what they mean
Fun with maps!

Pro Designer Turns an Abandoned NYC Loft into His Dream Apartment | Architectural Digest
This is gorgeous and all, but tell me what the budget was.

Building an official “Stealth” Apple IIgs
Geek powers being used for good.

Miracle on Ice Highlights
Never a bad time to re-watch this, which is now 45 years old!

Car Content

I Spent 10 Days In China Testing Electric Cars! Here’s What Happened
Onvo L60 Is The First Serious Tesla Model Y Competitor I’ve Driven
First Chinese EV Road Trip! Quick NIO Drive From Hefei To Hongzhou
Ultra Luxury NIO ET9 First Look & Full Tour! The Next Chapter Of Chinese EV Engineering
Shanghai To Beijing EV Road Trip! Fast Charging & Battery Swapping Through China In The NIO ET7
The Out of Spec crew traveled to China to see what the EV landscape is like there. In short, it’s pretty amazing. Thanks to a variety of reasons, the US pissed away its clear lead in the battery race over the past few years. And thanks to a different variety of reasons, Chinese car manufacturers have leapt ahead of pretty much every US manufacturer other than Tesla. Now they are making amazing cars that are cheaper than anything built in the US and pushing the battery side of the equation forward faster than we are. Naturally tarriffs, rather than innovation and government support, are the answer. 🤦‍♂️

Rivian Gen 2 Refresh – It’s the Little Things
OK, I like their trajectory. We just need to get the R2 manufacturing lines cranking, iron out the first gen issues, and have them available and affordable in the spring of 2027.

Tesla’s Monitor Everything—Including You
The future of all autos, sadly.

Photography

Sony vs Leica vs Hasselblad Photos
Corky Lee’s quest for “photographic justice”
Roots & Ranches
My weird love for the Fujifilm XT3 (not buying the Fuji XT5, for now)
What’s the BEST focal length? 28mm? 35mm? 50mm?
50mm Prime Lens ONLY Challenge: What I Discovered

Podcasts

The Rest Is Classified
Former BBC security reporter Gordon Corera and former CIA agent and current author of terrific spy books David McCloskey dive into famous stories from the history of espionage. Like its sister pod, The Rest Is History, it is equal parts informative and entertaining. There isn’t a specific website for the show, but you can easily find it on the platform of your choice.