Month: May 2025

I’ve fallen behind again and I just started a book that’s going to take a week or so to get through, so some quick-ish book notes.

Charlesgate Confidential – Scott Von Doviak
A fun, pulpy novel that takes place over three different timelines in Boston, centered on an old building that has a complex (and haunted?) history. It begins with a mob heist and killing after World War II, jumps to a college student in 1986 who investigates the history of the building, and lands on a detective in 2014 who tries to tie a case he is working back to the weird cycle of past events. Like most novels of this type, multiple threads tie the three stories together.

The Book Censor’s Library – Bothayna Al-Essa
My first effort at a novel that made this year’s Tournament of Books. It takes places in a mystery country in a mystery time (the book was translated from Arabic, so my brain kept putting it in the Middle East, but an author’s note saying it could be placed anywhere) where the government has taken strong control of people’s lives. Books are heavily censored, and anything that will raise readers’ pulse rates – sex, religion, democracy – is removed from circulation.

One censor is introduced to classic works like Zorba The Greek and Alice In Wonderland by a superior and begins questioning why people aren’t allowed to read whatever they want. Soon he is sneaking books that were slated for destruction to a secret storage area where they are being hoarded for preservation.

There are obvious connections to books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and Al-Essa directly references those. While these stories can always serve as warnings about the unchecked power of government, no matter who is in charge, they seem extra significant now when books are being pulled off the shelves of public and school libraries because of complains by parents who fear exposing their kids to different perspectives will turn them into mindless, godless woke-bots.

A Place Of My Own – Michael Pollan
Sometimes I read weird books. In this case, a rather lengthy one about a writer building a shed for him to do his work in. But it’s more than that. Pollan gets deep into all kinds of theory and history of design, architecture, and human shelter in general. I can’t say it was all super engaging and there weren’t some sections about theory that I either skimmed or read with glazed eyes and did not retain much from.

That said, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of a workshop, “he-shed,” or similar spaces for some time. It’s not that I need a space to get away from it all. We have a big house and I spend a lot of the day/week in it alone. I can do pretty much whatever I want wherever I want. And when S is home at night, I often default to watching movies, shows, etc on my iPad sitting on one couch while she sits on the loveseat on her own screen rather than go watch stuff on the big screen downstairs. Not that we’re all lovey-dovey, but I just like being near her in the few hours she is home and awake.

But there is some primal desire I can’t beat down for a space of my own. I’m not into tools, mechanical projects, etc, so there’s no need to convert part of our garage into a workshop, or to carve out a section of our unfinished basement for “D’s projects.” I love the idea of what Pollan did, though, building a little structure that would be dedicated to writing, reading, etc. But 1) I don’t make any money from my writing and don’t really have prospects to at the moment, 2) we did build a big structure in the backyard five years ago, aka our pool house, 3) I have about 18 different places in the house where I can go and write, read, etc. and 4) we are in the process of subtracting kids from the house so we are gaining space rather than searching for areas to call our own. M’s room could become my writer’s nook.

Still, the concept appeals. And it was cool to follow Pollan making it happen with the assistance of a friendly architect and helpful carpenter who guided him through the process.

A crazy few hours Tuesday night.

Holy Shit, Pacers!!!

I knew the Pacers were in trouble when I saw, about an hour before game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals, that Cleveland would be missing three starters. THREE. How did I know they were in trouble? Because any time the Pacers faced a situation like this in the regular season, they laid a huge egg, either losing to a bad team or having to work like crazy in the fourth quarter to avoid an embarrassing L. In fact, there are multiple memes in the Pacers-verse about how the team plays like champions against good teams, and ass against bad/injury riddled teams. Just last month, as the regular season wound down, Indiana played the Cavs who were resting all their starters after locking up the top seed. Those replacement Cavs gave the Pacers starters everything they had for about ¾ of the game before the Pacers finally eeked out the win.

While the nation might have expected an easy Pacers win, I knew better.

So most of the game was no surprise. The shots that were falling in game one for Indiana kept bricking off. Cleveland played inspired, especially on the defensive end, and Donovan Mitchell was wearing his Superman cape. The Pacers trailed by 20 multiple times. By 14 going into the fourth quarter. As much as I wanted to expect a late-game rush like last month, the playoffs are a different animal and Cleveland was playing like their season was on the line while the Pacers just couldn’t find the right gears.

The margin was seven with under 50 seconds left. Five with 27 seconds left. Three with 12 seconds left. Two with 1.1 seconds left. And the Pacers won.

In that stretch Aaron Nesmith had a SICK follow dunk off a Pascal Siakam missed free throw.

Then he drew an offensive foul from Mitchell.[1] Tyrese Haliburton went to the line down three with 12 seconds left and swished the first. Then I’m pretty sure he missed the second on purpose, wiggled through traffic to grab the loose ball, and drained a step-back 3 to win the game.

There was screaming and yelling all over Indy, including in our living room, when the ball ripped through the net.

2–0 out of nowhere and who knows what the Cavs’ health, physical and mental, will be going forward. Mitchell took a beating, some of it self-imposed because of how he plays, and was hobbled late in the game.

I found this insane stat in ESPN’s story this morning:

Since 1997–98, playoff teams have won only three of 1,643 games when trailing by at least seven points in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime, according to ESPN research.

The Pacers have accounted for two of the wins in this postseason.

If the Pacers win this series, Haliburton’s 3 and Nesmith’s dunk will go down in franchise lore, shots that are shown in montages for decades.

At this point you have to at least consider the possibility that the Pacers are on some charmed run. And the Celtics seem a little banged up and blew their game one against New York. The NBA doesn’t usually have Cinderellas but maybe…

Of course now the Cavs will probably win games three and four in Indy and turn it into a best-of-three series.

High Speed Chase

I was about to wrap up things and head to bed Tuesday night when I heard loud car sounds. We live just off a very busy street and while it was after 11:00, we do get the occasional fool who takes advantage of the lighter traffic to rip down the road.

But this was different. There seemed to be a lot of engines racing. And then I noticed a lot of police sirens. I looked out our front door and saw five police cars fly by. We get emergency vehicles up-and-down that street all day but I’d never seen cops driving this fast. They were going so fast I heard their engines before the sirens.

Seconds later our power flickered, which seemed really weird. It flickered twice more in the next minute or so, and I thought I heard a transformer blowing somewhere.

Then two more cops flew by. And then two more.

C, the only other person awake, texted me saying “So many cops!”

And then more cops raced down the street, followed by a fire truck.

This continued for a while. In total, at least 20 police cars passed our house in about a 10 minute stretch.

I finally came to my senses and launched a police scanner app to try to get an idea for what was going on.

From what I could gather, a high-speed chase started at least two suburbs away, continued through Carmel, and then cut through our part of northern Indy. Three or four blocks from our house the car being chased crashed, taking out a power line in the process. We were lucky; about 300 people lost power for several hours but ours just blinked those three times.

Most excitingly, it seemed like driver of the car had fled the crash on foot and cops were setting up a perimeter to nab him. The Indy Metro Police network pulls in calls from all over the city, so it was very hard to follow as calls about a shooting on the east side, a fight in a parking lot downtown, and a couple welfare checks in other parts of the city slipped between the calls from the officers working the chase. I was able to hear cars checking in from various intersections in our area where they had posted up. There was a momentary thrill when one cop radioed in the intersection right outside our house, although I think the feed was delayed and he had already moved closer to the action. I could also hear cops from different cities involved in the chase coordinating their search. It sounded like they had the guy pinned down, or at least had an idea where he was and were using both a dog and drone to get a better view.

Eventually the calls dwindled and it was midnight and I had to get up early so I checked out. Naturally I can’t find a thing about it on any local TV station’s new page or on the paper’s site. I had to take L to PT and then school this morning. On my way back I drove through the neighborhood where the search was and couldn’t find any evidence of a wreck, damage to a power line, or remnants of police activity. Disappointing.

In our nearly seven years here we’ve now had a murder half a mile away that we could hear the shots from, a crazy person having a brief armed stand-off with cops a half mile the opposite way, a homeless person die while sleeping outside the grocery store around the corner, some idiot empty a clip on their handgun in the street two doors down, and now a high speed chase. I’m not sure if that’s going to be a selling point when it comes time for us to downsize but it makes for interesting evenings.

A bunch of good reads to share.

When I went to Washington D.C. with L’s class two years ago, one of the most impactful experiences was the several hours we spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was emotional, made me angry and proud to be an American at the same time, and should be a required stop on any DC visit. Naturally it is under fire because telling the truth about our past offends too many old, white people.

This nation’s history exists inside this museum. Attempting to strip the institution of the stories that tell the truth about who we have been is an attempt to perpetuate a lie about who we are.

What It Means To Tell The Truth About America

This is an amazing piece in general, attempting to both quantify the Vietnam War and then put those numbers into context. This passage really struck me, though. It very much sums up Trump’s America, where you never admit you made a mistake so you never take responsibility for how your actions impact others (emphasis in pull quote is mine).

The US has given $750 million for the cleanup effort, which seems like a large sum until you realize that the country spent $352 billion ($2.2 trillion after inflation) on the war effort. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ~suspended funding~ for bomb removal in Vietnam. Given the size of the issue, and how much progress has been made in five decades, it’s difficult to imagine a bomb-free Vietnam in the next 500 years — unless the current pace is significantly accelerated.

For Scale

This is a good companion piece.

How Photography From the Vietnam War Changed America

Sammy Hagar loves talking about himself and Van Halen. It’s always entertaining. Here he theorizes on why Eddie Van Halen stopped making new music late in his life.

So, that’s why he stopped writing, I think, because he just ran out. Shit, how much do you need? How much can you squeeze out of the dude? He gave his blood, brother.

SAMMY HAGAR TO ALEX VAN HALEN: ‘JUST LEAVE ME ALONE. I’LL LEAVE YOU ALONE’

Steven Hyden with his latest list. I feel like there are some stretches, but as a member of the CD generation, there are also a lot of entries here that pretty much everyone my age owned at some point. I loved this line, too.

There have been 15 (!) Aerosmith greatest hits albums in all, an incredible statistic considering there are (I’m being generous because I actually like Aerosmith) about 15 genuinely good Aerosmith tunes.

The Most ‘CD Album’ Albums Ever, Ranked

I watched the latest Fletch movie over the weekend, a movie I either did not know or had forgotten existed until I scrolled past it looking for something else. So I did some digging, and here are two of the better pieces I came across about the decades-long efforts to make the next entry in the series.

The Lost Roles of the Unproduced Fletch Reboot
Forget the steak sandwich, the 30-year journey to the Confess, Fletch trailer is over

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?!

He felt the most dramatic way to raise awareness of the issue was to allow himself to be bit, repeatedly…To date, he estimates he’s willingly been bit some 200 times by all manner of venomous snakes — black mambas, taipans, cobras, kraits and many others.

He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom

Interesting Bluesky thread about the production cycle, and costs, for Nikes, and how tariffs might affect them.

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social)

A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend.

Weather

There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly dropped from the 70s into the 40s. Sunday was dark and dreary and misty and generally ugly. It felt more like January in Portland, not Indianapolis the first weekend of May.

Fortunately spring will come drifting back over the next couple days. Our landscaping guys are due here this week to clean everything up and lay new mulch. And the pool guys will be here Friday to get it started up for the season. Spring is undefeated, folks.[1]
That crappy weather meant we didn’t do a whole hell of a lot over the weekend. So more notes about sports than anything else. With one exception…

Moving Back

Thursday S and I drove down to Cincinnati to move M out of her sorority house. It was kind of an interesting trip.

We knew we would be driving into rain, but had no idea we’d spend about 20 minutes driving through a series of near-severe storms with torrential rains. The second round was the worst. Visibility was basically down to zero on the interstate, which is always fun. Even with folks using their hazard lights we were basically crawling, hoping we didn’t hit someone or run off the road. Then I came up on some fool who refused to put their hazards on. We were still in the midst of the storm when a few other fools went blowing past us at normal speeds while the rest of us were maybe going 25 MPH.

We made it to campus safely and had to dodge graduation traffic to find a parking space. Then we had to hustle to get our cars full of M’s stuff before the storms rolled into Cincy. We were parked roughly a block from her house, down a rather large hill. So there was a lot of running up the hill, then walking back down it and its multiple sets of old, concrete steps with arms full of crap. If you know our oldest daughter, it won’t be a surprise that she was moving much slower than we wanted her too, then being overly dramatic about how hard she was working.

Thankfully we got the cars loaded and her checked out of her house just before the rain hit. We went to one of her favorite spots just off campus for her final UC lunch of the academic year. Luckily the storms were going around the city, so it was just a steady rain we waited out while eating. We made it back home in normal time and filled up our bonus room with everything we moved back for the next two weeks before she returns to Cincy for her summer internship. Luckily we won’t have to move everything back right away. She’s sub-leasing from a friend who left all her furniture, so will mostly take clothes for the summer. Now in August, when she moves into the apartment she’ll have the next two years, we will need to rent a truck to get all her furniture down. I’m sure that will be a real joy. And we get to move C to Bloomington at about the same time. Are there people you can pay to do this for you?

Anyway, good to have M home for a few weeks. Her grades aren’t official yet but she’s pretty sure she got straight A’s again this semester. She’s halfway done with college! Actually more because the fall semester of her senior year she will likely be doing a co-op and not taking any classes.

Pacers

DAMN, that’s how you start a series!

The Pacers went into Cleveland, built up a big first half lead, weathered a bunch of Cavaliers runs, and ended up winning by nine after making some huge plays on both ends late.

Now, Cleveland was without Darius Garland, who was a late scratch because of a lingering injury. The Pacers shot the lights out and the Cavs had one of their worst 3-point nights of the year.

But 1–0 and stealing home court advantage is all the matters.

Another game that showed what a great combination of talent this squad is. People who don’t see them every night have a hard time getting it. They’re not an NBA title contender. But they are a team that can steal any seven game series because they know who they are and never get rattled. Tyrese Haliburton was absolute ass on defense much of the night, then somehow forced two huge stops late. Always a wild ride with him.

Local TV broadcasts of games ends when the conferences semifinals begin, so I was forced to watch the TNT feed. Which was fine. Mega props to Greg Anthony for saying, when the Pacers challenged an offensive foul on Myles Turner late in the game, “I like the challenge but I don’t think they are going to win it.” I forgot what wild stuff he says sometimes since he was in announcer purgatory for a few years.

Also, a broader NBA observation, I LOVE how NBA series between evenly matched teams swing. I haven’t watched a ton of ball outside Pacers games, little bits and pieces of each series, but am still deep into The Ringer’s NBA pods, so I hear the breakdowns after each game. It is so fun how team A will win a game comfortably, the series seems under their control, and two nights later team B has made some huge adjustments and are right back in it. The Clippers really should have won their series against Denver. Detroit probably should have upset the Knicks. The Rockets-Warriors series was crazy. I think Pacers-Cavs is headed down that same path, with two of the best offenses in the league taking turns dropping 15–3 runs on each other for another 4–6 games. It’s a league where coaches can scheme around anything but it often comes down to which team gets the hottest from behind the 3-point arc.

Fever

It’s opening week for the WNBA. ESPN showed the Fever’s final exhibition game Sunday, a matchup with the Brazilian national team in Iowa City. You can’t take too much away from the game since this was far from Brazil’s full Olympic squad – one of their best players in yesterday’s lineup is an 18-year-old who will be a freshman at South Carolina this fall – but it was cool to see all the new Fever players. They’ve added a ton of size, but it is athletic, rangy, perimeter size rather than more post players to backup Aliyah Boston. DeWanna Bonner seems like the perfect Den Mom for a mostly very young team, and was a delightful in-game interview. Loathe as I am to give a Missouri alum credit, Sophie Cunningham adds a level of toughness and versatility that was missing last year. And she might have the most “don’t look at it when your wife and kids are around” Instagram account in the league. Not that I looked.

Caitlin Clark missed Friday’s exhibition game with a minor leg injury, and played limited minutes Sunday, but her range looked deeper than a year ago and the experienced players the Fever brought in already understand how to run to spots where she will get them the ball. Kelsey Mitchell will get a little overlooked because of the new talent, but she looked to still be the steady scoring threat who is an ideal partner for Clark. Lexie Hull’s 3-point shot still looks locked in after whatever mechanical adjustment she made in the middle of last season.

As an added bonus, second round draft pick Makayla Timpson might be an absolute steal. I’m not sure if she will be a huge contributor this season. But with so many of the league’s rosters in flux because of the CBA expiring after this season, having a player with her skills on her salary could be massive in the Fever building a team that contends for years to come.

Racing

I actually watched parts of two car races Sunday. That’s how annoying the weather was and how limited the TV offerings were in the afternoon. It is May, I guess.

I watched the back halves of both the Indy Car Grand Prix race in Alabama and then the F1 race in Miami. It was hilarious how, since both races were won by large margins, each broadcast focused on “races within the race” further back in the pack. The F1 broadcast was almost exclusively about the two Ferrari cars and the bickering involved in their team trying to figure out if they should pass each other or not. Such weird drama.

Hey, we actually watched multiple horse races Saturday, keeping the NBC coverage of the Kentucky Derby on for hours, so this might have been the most “watching cars/animals chase each other around a track” weekend of my life!

As I shared many words about earlier this week, my switch to Apple Music means I’m pulling more songs from the past up into my daily soundtrack. Which means these playlists are going to start including more classics. Which was my intention back when I started them however many years ago. There will still be plenty of new music if that’s why you come to these posts.

“Rock ’n’ Roll High School” – Ramones
We are a week and change from having just one high schooler left in the house.

“Somebody New” – Tunde Adebimpe
I said I was looking forward to his album, then didn’t get around to listening to it when it came out. And now this is the best of the singles released from it, each sounding a little different.

“Every” – Swanpalace
An interesting supergroup of sorts, built around two artists most of us have never heard of along with Jim Eno, a founding member and long-time drummer of Spoon. This has a terrific, late Seventies sound. To my ears it bumps right up next to Cheap Trick.

“There’s A Part I Can’t Get Back” – Sunflower Bean
A truly harrowing, yet beautiful, song about how grooming steals innocence from its victims.

“Outside” – Jawdropped
A hint of grunge in this jangle rock makes it stand out nicely.

“Cutting Room Floor” – Gordi
These last four songs all fit into some kind of musical Venn diagram I’m too lazy to clearly delineate. But Gordi sounds a lot like Christine McVie on this track, so it would pull in some Fleetwood Mac angle I guess.

“Month of May” – Arcade Fire
The most important month of the year in Indianapolis is here. Also, AF has new music out but I did not dig their lead single so I’ll stick with this more time-appropriate oldie.

“Dead Souls” – Joy Division
I know I just shared a JD song a couple weeks back, but I heard this one yesterday and had to slap it into the playlist.

“Rock the Bells” – LL Cool J
Talk about mission statements! Back in the days of vinyl/cassettes, sometimes the first track on side two was as important as the first on side one. This was Side Two, Track One on not only LL’s first album, but the first full length album ever released by Def Jam. Dropping Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince’s names seemed outrageously ambitious at the time. But James Todd Smith knew where he and the label were headed.

Not sure why a new video was released for this two months ago but I like it.

Movies, Shows, etc

Court of Gold
I mostly watched these on our flights too and from Florida. You know what you’re getting with shows like this. Highly edited game highlights. Interviews with the participants and analysts that are aimed at casual fans and thus not super insightful. But, man, the formula works. Last summer’s Olympic basketball tournament was electric and this captured that magic well.

A

September 5
A brisk, tense, and very well done dramatized look at how the ABC crew in Munich handled the day Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Olympics. One of those period piece movies that will make our kids shake their heads at how primitive technology was when their parents were kids.

A

The Last Stop In Yuma County
A quirky, creepy film about a bank robbery and subsequent hostage stand off going wildly wrong. The story is just a little thin, thus it felt like there are a lot of stretched out moments to get the movie to its 90 minute run time.

B

Dunkirk
Second time watching this? Still a magnificent combination of story, pacing, visuals, and soundtrack.

A

1917
Another second viewing of an excellent, modern war movie. All wars are hell, but World War I was a particularly nasty hell.

A

High Fidelity
A top five movie about music and loving music.

A

Almost Famous
While I’ve watched High Fidelity many times, I believe I had only seen Almost Famous once, when it first came out in the theaters. Yowsa. So many people hold it in such high esteem it’s crazy I had not re-watched it for 25 years. I forgot how brilliant so many scenes are. So many terrific performances. It hits a different, slightly less relatable side of being a music lover from High Fidelity, but no less impactful.

A

30 Rock, season one
After starting this in March I knocked out the second two-thirds of season one in April. As good as it was from the very beginning, it got even better as the season progressed. I’ve started season two, but just barely into it, making it a May entry.

A

Pearl Jam – 2003–06–22 Noblesville, IN
I’ve noted before how amazing modern, fan-shot concert videos are. Smartphones shoot incredible video. Modern editing software allows you to piece together videos from dozens of devices seamlessly and then sync it perfectly to the soundboard recording.

This is a less advanced effort, and it shows. The audio and video are slightly out of sync. And I think this was just someone with a big lens standing at the top of the lawn section at what is now called Ruoff Music Center, shooting the video screens rather than the stage. Which was still pretty incredible for the time. Thanks to the official bootleg audio it sounds awesome.

This show was five days after I moved to Indiana, and I did not try to attend because it had been kind of a busy week. Also stark is how Eddie had not yet become the showman he is today. He seems a little angry and drunk at this show.

A

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Bullitt | The Car Chase | Full Scene | Warner Classics
This might still be the greatest on-screen car chase ever. No CGI or camera trickery here.

Quick-witted Craig Ferguson
I don’t know that I ever watched Ferguson’s show live. But if you look around at all at YouTube, there are dozens of compilation pieces like this where he’s flirting with extremely attractive and well dressed female guests. Tough job.

From Takeoff To Landing: The Fascinating World Of Aviation | BBC Earth Science
This needed to be a longer show. In fact, maybe it was and these were bits taken from that show(s).

Utah Is on a Mission From the Basketball Gods | Home & Away
Weaponizing the Mormon Church to turn BYU into a basketball power is a wild and unexpected result of the NIL era. Good to know there’s a strong culture of hoops in Utah already.

Martin Scorsese Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films | GQ
Terrific.

Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from ‘Inglourious Basterds’ to ‘X-Men’
For some reason these Vanity Fair projects aren’t as interesting as the GQ ones. Which seems dumb since it’s the exact same concept.

We Answer YOUR Travel Questions | Best Shoes, Packing Tips & More!
Even though our next big trip is a year away, I’ve already started diving into the YT travel vid rabbit hole again.

20 Things You Didn’t Know About High Fidelity
Good stuff, but a Brit mispronouncing dozens of American English words drove me nuts.

Why Anyone Lives On The Falkland Islands (And Why You Can’t)
People live in weird places.

Travelling America With One Rule: Eat Only At Diners
Beau Miles bullshit.

A moment 29 years ago changed everything
Not the usual bullshit, but rather a Beau Miles origin story. Very well done.

How a Traded-In Apple iPhone Gets Refurbished
Relevant as April was new phone month for me.

Proper Honest Tech
Stephen Robles
Speaking of my new phone, I spent a lot of time watching videos about the latest generation of iPhones and how to harness their powers, the best cases, etc. These were two channels I kept going back to.

Seth and Paul Rudd Go Day Drinking
Hilarious.

Exploring California’s Highway 39 – Closed For Over 40 Years
This would be more interesting if there were abandoned businesses and homes along this stretch of road. Still some gorgeous views.

There Will Never Be Another Anthony Bourdain
No shit.

New Series | Tucci in Italy | National Geographic
Tucci’s show is very different than Bourdain’s, but his are no less compelling. Glad to see someone new is paying him to continue exploring Italy after CNN stupidly cancelled Searching For Italy.

why do some things just look so good?
Let some South African kid teach you about aesthetics.

The War On Drugs: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
I busted this out for the first time in a couple years. I maintain this might be the best sound ever in one of these pieces. Whoever mic-ed up that studio and produced the sound deserved an award.

Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012
Not sure whether I’ve seen this before or not. Five hours of flight activity compressed into 30 seconds.

Ice Cream Sandwiches | How It’s Made
Mmmmm, ice cream sandwich season is here!

I built a Tiny Office to be more Productive
On one hand, I think this is super cool and brilliant. On the other, it’s kind of insane. I also wish I had stumbled into some career where you could make a living just doing videos like this that allowed you to fill up a workspace with the latest tech, hundreds of cool notebooks, etc.

James Bond & The Omega Seamaster – The Untold Story
I’m a sucker for a Bond-Omega vid.

Shipwrecks Depth Comparison
I know I’ve seen some exercise like this before, but they are always cool to watch.

Why didn’t the US nuke Tokyo?
Great question.

Charley Steiner Outtakes Including Kerry Wood
I miss the days when Sportscenter had anchors with true gravitas instead of people either trying to become comedians or others who just want to spout non-stop nonsense in hopes of at least one take going viral for 24 hours.

How Apple INVENTED the Laptop as we know it
Fascinating progression.

Into the Wild – 7 Days in the Sahara Desert
Ah, to have the freedom to jump in a Land Rover and just drive all over the planet.

10 Things David Harbour Can’t Live Without
For some reason I expected cooler, more original stuff from him.

Bill Hader Does Van Halen
Something about Hader’s real voice makes his impressions even better, like it’s a surprise they came from him.

Inside This Entrepreneur & Former Pro Surfer’s Coastal New Jersey Home | Huckberry Homes
A little weird to be so intentional at how you decorate your home when you don’t see it as a long term residence.

One of the Most Beautiful Drives in America
Glad these guys have a new adventure to share.

Car Content

Nearly Two Months Wait To Get Rivian Service! Racing 60,000 Mile Warranty Expiration
Austin Rivian Space Has Free Charging, Rooftop Terrace, Trail Access & More!
Polestar 1: The Most Interesting Car in the World
The Lucid Gravity Is The Most Exciting EV Of 2025! Full Tour Of This Grand Touring Production Model
Three Years & 26,000 Miles in the Lucid Air Grand Touring | This Is What It’s Like to Live With
Lucid Air | The Final Drive

Photography

The Problem With Digital Cameras…
My Favorite Camera: Fujifilm X-T3
A day of Street Photography in Porto l Fujifilm X-T4 l Film Emulation
The Trip of a Lifetime: Two Weeks in Norway with my Dad
This camera is phenomenal.
Lofoten Islands 🇳🇴 with one lens
A Photographic Day in the Life with my OM System OM–3 + Nikon Coolpix P310
40mm is Everyone’s new Favorite Focal Length
Travel Photography in New York City // Fuji X-T5
Spring on the Oregon Coast – A Solo Roadtrip

Podcasts

The Zach Lowe Show
He’s back! After being fired last fall because ESPN chose to pay their loudmouths and didn’t value their best actual analysts, Lowe landed at The Ringer this month. In addition to his own show, he’s been on Bill Simmons’ a couple times as the NBA postseason began. Great to have him back. Shame on ESPN for not letting him keep his original pod name, The Lowe Post. He came up with it but somehow it’s their property, even though they didn’t want to employ him. Corporate America sucks.