Tag: links (Page 3 of 23)

We had a pretty boring weekend and I’m saving the Jayhawk Talk for tomorrow, so a good day so share the latest stack of links I’ve accumulated.

Simply the best accounting of what Tech Karen has done to Twitter.

Extremely Hardcore

It’s pretty amazing how many of the people who came out of Toronto’s Second City are still culturally relevant. This is a terrific history of how they came together and built the group. Real OG’s stayed up super late to watch SCTV in the ‘80s.

Funny People

I love so much that the whole King of Kong thing just keeps going.

Donkey Kong cheating case rocked by photos of illicit joystick modification

St P’s moved their school play to Butler’s auditorium this year. Because of that, they had to sell tickets through Ticketmaster. Thus a $13 ticket turned into a $24 ticket. For a freaking middle school play. Ticketmaster is a perfect example of how lobbying hurts the consumer.

This piece dive’s into Ticketmaster’s history of manipulating both the market and legislation to protect their monopoly. There’s a big focus on Pearl Jam’s battle with the company in the mid–90s.

It’s funny how that conflict has been painted, even by PJ loyalists, as a futile and silly effort, a modern example of tilting at windmills. As this piece lays out, much of that view is thanks to Ticketmaster’s controlling of the narrative.

Ticket Master’s Dark History

This is one of the most creative and clever examples of sports journalism I’ve come across in a long time.

Choose Your Own Adventure: 2023 Indianapolis Pacers Trade Deadline

Could the astronauts on the doomed space shuttle Columbia have been rescued before they had to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere with a hopelessly compromised vehicle? It was unlikely, but NASA explored the possibilities while investigating the explosion of Columbia, which occurred 20 years ago last week.

The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia

Over the holidays I worked hard to get my Instapaper queue cleaned out, especially a whole swath of very long reads that had been sitting there for months and months. Of them, this might be my favorite, an accounting Susie Goodall’s attempt to sail around the world by herself. There are all kinds of harrowing details of her effort, but what stuck with me most was how the media framed her journey.

Those about Goodall took a different tone, shaped in part by Goodall’s fame as the only woman and in part by the fact that the race had released only the portion of the call in which Goodall sounded shaken and distraught. The media never heard Goodall say that she was prepared to save herself…Just like that, it seemed like race organizers were trying to shift the narrative around her journey from lone heroine to feckless damsel in distress.

Alone at the edge of the world

It’s always fun when you visit someplace and learn about its history and, shortly after, that exact thing pops up in the news.

Here are details of a study that may explain why Roman concrete was/is so much more durable than our modern stuff. Our tour guide in Rome shared what had been the prevailing view – until this study came out – that it was the volcanic ash the Romans mixed into their concrete that made it last millennia.

Previously disregarded as merely evidence of sloppy mixing practices, or poor-quality raw materials, the new study suggests that these tiny lime clasts gave the concrete a previously unrecognized self-healing capability.

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable?

This is pretty geeky – I admit I couldn’t follow some of it – but it is a cool breakdown of how limited the hardware of the Atari 2600 system was, and how amazing it was that the games that were made for it were as good as they were.

Atari 2600 Hardware Design: Making Something out of (Almost) Nothing

Side note: I read both this, and a story about the change in the rules licensing for Dungeons & Dragons, on a Sunday morning when I was listening to an American Top 40 from January 1983. Which was just about perfect, as I got D&D for Christmas 1982 and likely spent a lot of that break playing on friends’ Ataris. I wouldn’t get my own until the next Christmas.

YES!!!!!

De La Soul’s Whole Catalog Is Coming To Streaming Services In March

A few links to get your holiday weekend going.

What? Some element of our annual Christmas celebrations is completely made up? Unbelievable!

So, what does it mean? “Nothing,” says Holton. “It’s basically gibberish.”

FWIW we saw Mele Kalikimaka displayed quite often in storefronts, etc last year when we visited Hawaii. Of course, they were probably just catering to us White Folks.

Is ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ Really the Thing to Say on a Bright Hawaiian Christmas Day?

’Tis the season for articles about our favorite Christmas movies.[1] I read them all because of course I do.

I liked this one, except for the author’s conclusion. I think it applies to Jean Shepherd’s original essays that A Christmas Story was based on. But the movie very much softened those rough, cynical edges away. The final ten minutes of the movie are filled with joy and reinforce the myth of the perfect Christmas morning.

Most other Christmas movies reserve at least a little warmth for the holiday — some treacly message about the warm glow of family, the joy of community, and all that hokum. But not A Christmas Story, which barely masks its contempt for the season and all its compounding agonies with its warm Norman Rockwell glow.

Why We’re So Obsessed With A Christmas Story 39 Years Later

One of the very interesting consequences of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling is that is has brought a conversation about how the burden of using birth control almost always falls upon women into the mainstream. Along with that, vasectomies are becoming more common. Here’s a story about a midwest physician who is doing his part to help men get snipped.

“It makes more sense to take the bullets out of a gun, than try to put a bulletproof vest on somebody…”

How Dobbs Triggered a ‘Vasectomy Revolution’

Holiday season stress got you down? Spend a little time with this, eliminating your enemies, and you may feel better.

Asteroid Launcher

Long overdue.

Too $hort Gets His Own Street In Oakland

Crazy how there have been two big articles in recent months about the Zodiac Killer.

After the Zodiac Killer’s ‘340’ Cipher Stumped the FBI, Three Amateurs Made a Breakthrough
Has The Zodiac Killer Mystery Been Solved (Again)?

With the death of Grant Wahl, we lost a voice who would have carefully balanced the majesty of the World Cup Final with all the disappointing business, political, and human rights aspects that surrounded this tournament. Brian Phillips did a pretty good job finding that middle point in his match summary.

It’s a story that feels lifted from a children’s book, a story unblemished by the disappointments and compromises and hypocrisies inescapable in adult life. This is, in a way, the essence of sport’s appeal to us. It lets us escape, for a few hours at a time, into a better world.

We Are All Witnesses

A music-heavy list of interesting pieces this time.

Since the Milli Vanilli scandal came in the prime of my music listening years, it will always resonate. While reading this piece, it struck me that a lot of younger people have no idea what it was about, just that it is a cultural punchline.

In this review, the author makes some great points about how what was scandalous 30 years ago can be the norm today.

If I were in a particularly cynical mood, I might claim that Milli Vanilli anticipated the future of the music industry better than any other new act from that era…True, they put more faith in technology than authenticity, but couldn’t you say the same for the algorithm-crazed music business of the current moment? By the same token, they knew how to act the part of celebrities, with the right attitudes and moves, while relying on a team of helpers to fill in the gaps—much like most superstars do today. Most important of all, they had more skills as influencers than vocalists, but that too shows how much they were ahead of their time.

How the Record Industry Ruthlessly Punished Milli Vanilli for Anticipating the Future of Music

At first I just scrolled through this list of Bill Wyman’s rankings of the current Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame members. As I read a few passages here and there, I noticed he was throwing a lot of shade. So I spent a few hours while watching football working through the entire piece. It’s amazing. Here are a few of my favorites. There are plenty more.

On the Clash…

…the Clash brought a high intelligence, a rigid but for the most part warmhearted politics, and songs songs songs (to be specific: as many great songs as the Rolling Stones) in a tumultuous, too-short career. They wanted to tear down everything that came before and build a better world, and destroyed themselves trying.

He had thoughts on Milli Vanilli,

Shouldn’t the award have then gone to whoever did sing on the record? Weren’t they still the Best New Artist?

On Van Halen…

But the idea of Hagar — who came in after the Van Halen brothers had had enough of Roth — having anything to do with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame outside of sweeping the parking lot is comical in an entirely different way.

Steve Miller…

Steve Miller songs, a friend of mine says, “literally sound like he’s making the lyrics up as he goes along.”

Depeche Mode…

The nomination feels like the product of an organization that doesn’t quite understand the music it thinks it’s honoring.

On one of my all-time favorite acts…

All you can do is throw up your hands.

I totally agree with him on RHCP…

Few things in rock irritate me more than how these critically unacclaimed frat-boy funksters with a palpable zombcontempt for women cleaned up their image and started sucking up to the rock Establishment.

He applies this criticism to several acts…

Another band with two-and-a-half decent songs and many decades of pointless recording and touring.

And on Chicago…

So appropriate the band was inducted by Rob Thomas.

All 240 Artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ranked From Best to Worst

Ooooh, this looks cool for us children of the ‘80s.

Atari 50 is an incredible playable tour through video game history

John McLendon’s name has long been included in the list of what makes Kansas Basketball, in its broadest definition, so special. However, I, like I think most KU fans, knew little of his story. I knew he was a groundbreaking African American coach, but I didn’t know the details of how he ended up at KU, his experience there while a student, and how he went about tearing down barriers once he became a coach. This is a wonderful piece about a man whose influence far outweighs his name recognition.

The elder McLendon instructed his young Black son … in the 1930s … in segregated Kansas… to just walk into Naismith’s office, introduce himself and tell the father of basketball that he would be McLendon’s mentor. Surprisingly, Naismith agreed to do it.

John McLendon is a historical connection between Duke and Kansas

Always a fun list to read.

52 things I learned in 2022

Chris Molanphy on the Billboard Holiday music chart, and how difficult it is for new holiday songs to crack the playlists of radio stations and streaming services.

What the Holiday 100 Reveals About Our Love of Christmas Music It’s Mariah’s world (obviously) — but Ariana and Kelly are settling into it

I watch plenty of holiday movies and shows each year, but I do not dip into the original, romantic flicks that pollute the airwaves in December. Doesn’t stop me from making fun of them.

Jodi Walker decided to watch one of these new movies – there are 99 this year! – each day for the next month, and post a quick review on The Ringer. They won’t get me to watch any of these movies, but I will read her hilarious breakdowns every day.

The 25 Days of Bingemas

The article Colts fans, and probably most NFL fans, have been waiting on.

Andrew Luck finally reveals why he walked away from the NFL

A few links have stacked up, and I have a few posts lined up for the coming week, so might as well share them on a Sunday. Most of these are music-related, which seems ideal for a weekend.

Tennessee’s win over Alabama was spectacular.[1] The images of the orange-clad Volunteer fans taking over the field after the winning field goal sailed through the uprights will be one of the lasting images of this college football season. Alex Kirshner on why games like this are so great.

Validation in college football doesn’t reallycome from winning national titles. It can’t, or fans of 115 or so teams would have nothing to care about year after year. Instead, it comes from two things: beating the team you hate the most, and having the time of your life with your friends.

Tennessee Over Alabama Is Why God Invented College Football

A good piece about the anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book album.

MACY GRAY (musician, released her own remake of “Talking Book” in 2012): The album is like “Goodfellas.” Every time you watch it, you see something different, you know? There’s all these little details, and you’ll hear it once and you listen to it again, or you’ll hear it in different speakers and something will pop out that you didn’t hear in your car.

Stevie Wonder’s ‘Talking Book’ at 50

Holy shit! The Verge’s Nilay Patel sets Elon Musk straight following his purchase of Twitter.

What I mean is that you are now the King of Twitter, and people think that you, personally, are responsible for everything that happens on Twitter now. It also turns out that absolute monarchs usually get murdered when shit goes sideways.

Welcome to Hell, Elon

Revolver has been my favorite Beatles album since I really started listening to their music with fresh ears about 20 years ago. A new box set features remastered tracks along with demos, outtakes, and other audio mementos from the album’s recording. Here is the LA Times’ look at the updated release.

“…Bowie famously would change genres for each album. The Beatles seemed to do it within an album.”

The Beatles at their ‘peak’: A new box set sheds light on the making of ‘Revolver’

And this piece gets a little more into the technology behind the remixes, and some of the questions that arise because of it.

How Peter Jackson Broke Up the Beatles And used AI to make Revolver better than ever.

I’ve spent bits of this year reading a book that is heavy on music theory. I’m (finally) getting close to finishing it, so I’ll share more about it in an upcoming Reader’s Notebook post.

This article reminded me of that book, although taken to the next level. One commenter nailed how I felt after finished it: “I didn’t understand most of it, but I really liked reading it.”

For all the cultural baggage it carries, “Africa” is a truly innovative, masterfully crafted piece of music (which is saying something given that it’s not even the best song on the album!). Yet we so often see the song reduced to droll memes, or dismissed simply as a superficially dramatic (albeit catchy) pop tune. As famous as the song has become, it seems most people really don’t appreciate the brilliance of its musical architecture. But make no mistake: It is brilliant.

A Composer Breaks Down The Music Theory Behind Toto’s “Africa”

I love that there are still a few mysteries like this, relics from the Cold War era when technology wasn’t as advanced and it was much harder to identify strange signals in the ether.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the last three-and-a-half decades, it’s been broadcasting a dull, monotonous tone. Every few seconds it’s joined by a second sound, like some ghostly ship sounding its foghorn. Then the drone continues .

The ghostly radio station that no one claims to run

I’ve been focused on my book this week, so not a lot percolating in the ol’ noggin’ worthy of writing about. Thus, some links for your enjoyment.

Become 007 With Pelorus’ Bond-Worthy Travel Experience
I wonder if the girls will be upset when I tell them that their college accounts have been drained so that I can do this instead.

A breakdown of every James Bond actor’s favourite car
“Favourite.” LOL. I guess it is from British GQ so it’s all good.

I love reading Hanif Abdurraqib because his writing is filled with so many unexpected connections. Here he surprises me again, with an appreciation of Loretta Lynn following her death.

She sung the lonely songs better the older she got, which some people might consider sad but I consider necessary. Enough decades of life suggests that one might begin to take an inventory of her aches and regrets, the absences that have been planted through the years and have grown only wider as the clock winds down.

The Singer I Loved Knew the Truth About No-Good Men and the No-Good World

22 Goals
Even if you don’t give a damn about soccer or the World Cup, Brian Phillips’ 22 Goals series is AMAZING. I haven’t read all of them – yet – but the ones I have read are some of the best and most entertaining sports writing I’ve read this year. I highly recommend the Diego Maradona, Dennis Bergcamp, and Marco Tardelli entries. I’m guessing the others are all just as good and I will recommend them once I get through them.

Finally, Rube Goldberg machine videos are always fun to watch. I like this one because it is, in a way, mocking them while also celebrating them. I do subtract some points for some clear edits, but I guess since this is a bit of a parody we shouldn’t worry about that too much.

@josephmachines

This machine passes your wine across a table! Continuing on from my “Pass the Salt” and “Pass the Pepper” series. #chainreaction

♬ original sound – Joseph’s Machines

This machine passes your wine across a table!

I suddenly have a bunch of links to share. Not all of them are fully cooked, but I’ll go ahead and serve up what has been simmering for awhile.

As I get older I realize how hard it is to do big lists like those in the next two links. I’m way overdue for updating my Favorite Songs of All Time list but it seems like a much more daunting task than it did two years ago. I just keep listening to more-and-more music and it’s hard to keep track of all the new stuff and give the old stuff its proper credit. I can’t imagine putting together a truly large list like either of these.

The 100 Best TV Episodes of the Century
I don’t watch a ton of TV so some of this is lost on me, but it was still fun to scroll through. I would argue for a few episodes to either be higher, or replaced by others in their series.

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
This one is more up my alley. I think it is interesting how these lists have changed in my life. Probably even 20 years ago you would see very little hip hop. Maybe a Public Enemy album and/or The Chronic. But nothing like the representation the genre has now. It’s tough to argue with the number one choice, mostly because it is in my Top Five list.

A highly scientific survey confirms what we all knew.

Candid Coaches: Which arenas boast the best home-court environments in college basketball?

“We played there, kept it a game, were in the game and then it turned at halftime and the crowd took over more than Kansas did. They had a significant impact on the outcome of that game and I was like, ‘Holy s—, this is all f—— up.’ We rolled up to the gym and we get there an hour and a half early and it’s cold, freezing, snow on the ground. And they’re all out there, a mile-long line to get into the arena. And we’re like, ‘Oh, f—.’”

Since I’m obligated to share any news about the Voyager probes, there has been an update on one of them.

NASA fixed the glitch that caused Voyager 1 to send back jumbled data

A good profile of Michael Mann, who has made some amazing movies and TV over his career. My hold request for his Heat 2 just came in, so I’m looking forward to getting to it next week.

Mann’s artistic signature is to establish a core of painstaking realism, then create around it a heightened visual and emotional atmosphere that can edge, at times, into a kind of hallucinatory, macho camp.

Michael Mann’s Damaged Men

I think the whole retro shoe thing is cool, but other than helping L to buy a couple pairs, I’ve never jumped into that game. These are tempting me, though.

The Nike Mac Attack Is Finally Coming Back

If there is a given in sports it is that the powers that control each sport will always pick the method of maximizing revenue that creates the least amount of joy for the fans. With the college football playoff set to be revamped – again – Kevin Clark offers a terrific plan for what the new system should look like. Meaning it will look nothing like this.

It is not just about the cathedrals of the game hosting playoff matchups; it’s about a smaller team—a 2017 UCF, a 2006 Boise State, a 2010 TCU—making a regular-season run from outside the Power 5 and hosting a massive program in their own stadium. It would combine the stakes of the Champions League with the charm of the FA Cup. Who doesn’t want that? As luck would have it, there are only a small handful of people who don’t, and they all happen to run the bowls and the College Football Playoff.

The Expanded College Football Playoff Can Be Great—If It Follows These Five Steps

Last week’s Pitchfork retro review was right up my alley. It inspired me to listen to another old album – in this case one that isn’t super great – and possibly put some thoughts together about it.

Guy: Guy Album Review | Pitchfork

Finally, one of the strangest things I’ve run across recently.

Eazy-E seaside memorial bench in Newhaven unveiled

A few things for you to read.

The already messed-up world of professional golf got even crazier last week when Patrick Reed filed a bizarre lawsuit against the Golf Channel and GC personality Brandel Chamblee. Attorney (and golfer) Will Bardwell had this terrific, and hilarious, breakdown of the case’s merits.

Patrick Reed’s Libel Case Is A House Built On Sand

This is straight-up weird. Thank goodness this bug didn’t crash planes or send nuclear power plants into meltdowns.

Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers

From The Ringer’s Cringe Comedy Week, this piece about one of the most notorious episodes of The Office. I’m one of those people who struggles to watch this episode because it is so close to the edge. But if I’m in the right mood it makes me laugh a lot.

“If there’s any malice in Michael Scott, I think that story doesn’t work…”

Dashed Dreams, Empty Promises, and Laptop Batteries

I read plenty of Better Call Saul reactions and wrap-ups last week. I think Ben Lindbergh’s was the best of the bunch.

No Show Earned Its Ending More Than ‘Better Call Saul’

This interview with Rhea Seehorn was great, too.

Kim Wexler’s Curtain Call Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn reflects on six seasons spent getting inside ‘an extremely inscrutable character.’

Finally, it’s never too early to Christmas shop, and I bet there’s a Gen Xer on your list that would enjoy these.

Beastie Boys ReAction Figures

M and I are off to visit Purdue so it seems like a great day to share some more interesting reads.

I don’t know a thing about cricket, and I’m guessing most of you don’t, either. That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the ridiculousness of this story.

“I have never seen a scam like this. These guys just cleared a patch of land deep inside a village and began playing a match and beaming it on YouTube to make money through gambling. Even the local villagers were not aware of this. We know very little about the Russians who were putting bets on this game,” Mr Rathod said.

India: How a fake ‘IPL’ cricket league ran for Russian punters

I enjoyed this Q&A with Jack White. This quote stuck out to me:

I’ve often felt sorry for people who have hit songs that they’re forced to play in that exact same way for their entire lives or entire careers. There’s definitely some goodness in there. But I always feel from the sidelines like, Oh, that’s too bad. You can’t play around with that or people get their hearts broken because you’re messing with a good thing.

I find that’s true with certain artists: I would riot if Neil Finn, say, completely changed “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” But for artists like White, who I expect experimentation from, if he totally ripped one of his classics apart and put it back together in a new way, I would be cool with it.

Jack White on the Most Stubborn and Prophetic Music of His Career

I think it is safe to say that Journey occupies a very different space in the music world than Jack White does. Journey is the epitome of corporate rock where White has built his entire career on challenging the norms of the music business.

Journey was my favorite band in the early 1980s. I still hung onto some love for their music until the summer of 1992, when Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc totally rocked my world and had me turning my back on much of the music I grew up on. I never really fell back in love with Journey, although I have grown to appreciate their rockers again.

With that background, I find this piece a little cruel or, as my girls would say, extra. But it’s still a fun read.

They’re probably not the most earnest rock band of all time — there are plenty of contenders for that title — but their combination of sincerity and emphaticness was emblematic of a rock era ruled by dudes with no chill. No wonder the music video for “Separate Ways” is so spectacularly, awkwardly awful.

Journey Mastered the Art of Uncool with “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”

Gary Smith is on the short list for greatest magazine writers ever. I read his work for years without finally registering his byline. Once I knew who he was, I was certain whatever piece I was about to read would be amazing.

This profile looks at his career and what he’s done since leaving Sports Illustrated. This passage is as good an explanation as any for why SI and other sports media that our generation grew up on no longer matter.

As the magazine industry shrunk and the athlete’s pulpit grew, the calculus inverted. The magazine needs the athlete now, not the other way around. “So, the shadows get shut down and the person controls the whole thing. It’s a step of trust no longer necessary for celebrities to take. So why take it?”

No Typo: Gary Smith Teaches Mindfulness to Elementary School Kids These Days

A few links I’ve come across in the past few days that are worth sharing.

First, the New York Times wrote about one of M’s classmates. That’s right, THE NEW YORK TIMES! I never guessed Booker would rise as high in the national rankings as he has (#2 in one list, #4 in another) when I stood next to him at freshman orientation nearly three years ago.

This piece is less about Booker the player than about the path he and his family have chosen. A course that includes playing for a summer team with no shoe company affiliation and remaining at Cathedral for four years rather than transferring to a prep school. It took awhile, but with his explosion over the past four months, their choices seem to be paying off.

A Prized Recruit Shows the Shoe Circuit Is Not the Only Path

(Pro tip: if you have a public library card, I bet you can get access to the NYT for free. Check your library’s website. That’s how I read NYT articles I’m interested in.)

From The Guardian, an interesting piece about tracking what we listen to, watch, and read. I’ll admit I often get paralyzed looking at my lists of things I want to consume, and some pressure to make sure my monthly Media posts are filled with interesting entries.

Despite the positives of this – that we are motivated to make space for things we enjoy – it doesn’t exactly feel in the spirit of great art to be gamifying it in this way. And the flip side of those gratifying “Watched” lists is their ominous (and guilt-inducing) “To watch” opposite numbers. What ought to be an enticing smörgåsbord of future entertainment begins to look like an impossible mountain to climb.

‘It’s dopamine’: why we love to track our watching and reading habits

I read a John Darnielle novel awhile back. I’ve never been a huge Mountain Goats fan, although I like some of their songs. But I knew Darnielle was an “interesting” guy.

This piece confirms that.

“If you, every day, choose to be a little petty; if you, every day, deny somebody a little help that you could give at no real cost to yourself, you are going to become a much worse person than the guy who murdered somebody one time. By the time you’re 50, you’re going to be an unpleasant person to be around.”

The Mountain Goats Are Choosing a More Radical World

(Tuesday morning someone I follow mentioned that the Goats’ new songs are bangers. I checked them out and I must agree. Take a listen for yourself here.