YouTube Tuesday: The ultimate test of cerebral fitness

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother...

Vital Vinyl

I watched the first few minutes of the pilot for HBO's new series Vinyl last night... then stayed up to watch the rest of it.

It's been an while since HBO has had a series I could get into — a sad fact that has almost let me to cancel my subscription. Well they must have been using their NSA contacts to track my internal monologue and learned what a sucker I am for pretty much any historical period costume drama (srsly, you should also check out The Last Kingdom when you get a chance).

I was hooked on Vinyl from the first few minutes. What a great idea for a show. It manages to reach a terrific balance of great music, pop culture, nostalgia for a dead industry (at least, dead as we knew it) and of course dreamy Bobby Cannavale.

I've liked Cannevale in pretty much everything he's ever been in, especially that movie where he and Tyrion Lannister were super into trains. So it's awesome to see him getting a solid leading role. In the pilot, he had some great scenes showing some real emotional range.

I appreciate how they give so much love to the soundtrack. The music really is one of the main stars of this show, much like with Tremé, and not just background soundtrack. We also get a chance to see Ray Romano in another serious (though supporting, in this case) role and a cameo and (spoiler) terrific death scene from Andrew "Dice" Clay.

So, bottom line: I think I'm hooked. This should keep me interested until the new season of Game of Thrones starts.

Is there anybody out there?

Somewhere in a lonely hotel room
there's a guy starting to realize
that eternal fate has turned it's back on him.

It's 3 A.M

 

October… And kingdoms rise

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

tagged: Royals, baseball, sports, Eric Hosmer, October, Kansas City

High five, bro

Take today as a chance to high-five your friends and loved ones (and first officers).

tagged: pop culture, high five, Star Trek, gif, Spock, Kirk

Swede emotion

A quick nod of "well done, lads" to this act of peaceful resistance by a plane full of Swedes...

A man facing deportation from Sweden has been granted a temporary reprieve after fellow passengers aboard his flight to Iran prevented it from taking off by refusing to fasten their seat belts.

A Kurd fearing persecution in his home country of Iran, Ghader Ghalamere fled the country years ago and now has two young children with his wife Fatemeh, a Swedish resident.

As a result he qualifies for a residence permit himself – yet because of a quirk in immigration laws he is required to apply for it from outside Sweden.

On Thursday, Mr Ghalamere was put on a flight at Östersund bound for Stockholm – and ultimately Iran itself – accompanied by his friends and family in protest.

Gathering in the departure lounge, they spoke to other passengers preparing to board the flight and explained the situation.

Clearly moved, once on board the plane the other passengers refused to fasten their seat belts – a protest that prevented the pilots from being able to begin take off.

tagged: Iran, Europe, Sweden, protest, amnesty

Crimea river

No doubt Ukraine, or as I call it "The Ukraine" has seen some setbacks recently.

The economy is struggling, more so than the many struggling economies world wide. Government opportunism and political corruption run rampant. Paul McCartney is no longer knocked out by Ukraine girls.

Then of course there was the loss of all of that prime Black Sea beach front property with the "citizens" of the Crimean peninsula "voted" to "secede" from Ukraine and officially become part of "Russia."

It's almost enough to make a guy go orange with revolutionary rage, or at least make a guy want to move to Johnson County.

But there's one group in Ukraine that's prepared to strike back.

As Ukraine battles to stave off dark forces of its own, the Star Wars villain Darth Vader announced at the weekend he was running for president in a bid to restore glory to the downtrodden nation. 

The Sith lord, or at least an unnamed costumed protester often seen on Kiev's Independence Square flanked by his loyal stormtroopers during the winter protests, has been chosen as the official candidate of the Ukrainian Internet party (UIP) which has become known for its theatrical public stunts.

"After winning intra-party primaries by a landslide, comrade Vader will be our party's candidate," said the UIP leader, Dmitry Golubov, who spent time in prison after being convicted of using the internet to run a credit card fraud scheme.

tagged: Russia, Europe, Ukraine, Crimea, EU, Darth Vader, Star Wars

YouTube Tuesday: Chimpnology

It might be a snow day for most of you, but I can't let a few little flecks of frozen water slow me down. I'm posting this quick video of all the work I've done already today.
I even had time to party a bit!
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, dance, music, video, chimp, humor

Winter for humanity

Hey all (tap, tap, tap). Hello? Is this thing on?

Welp, just poking my head up from a long hiatus to highlight an interesting opinion piece I just read:

The biggest problem climate change poses isn't how the Department of Defense should plan for resource wars, or how we should put up sea walls to protect Alphabet City, or when we should evacuate Hoboken. It won’t be addressed by buying a Prius, signing a treaty, or turning off the air-conditioning.

The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.

The choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life we can’t sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the present offers without attachment or fear.

If we want to learn to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die.

You know, just a little light and inspirational reading as we had into the long, dark winter months. I wouldn't want anyone to get all depressed or anything, especially my all-time favorite American Prepper, El Borak.

Anyway, I'll catch you crazy scamps in the Silicocene.

tagged: geology, climate change, mortality, global warming

A Salute to A-hole Driver in Prairie Village

3AM presents Real Men of Genius
Real Men of Genius!

Today we salute you... Mr. Douchey Entitled Prairie Village Teen Driver.
My daddy bought me bitchin' Honda!

You own Mission Road in your own mind, and you’re not afraid to prove it by texting your friends a selfie from the driver's seat every five minutes.
Yellow light means floor the accelerator…

You know nothing make you manlier than drag racing a cyclist. And when you swerve into the bike lane, you cockily yell "You're welcome!"
Eat my dust, stoopid cyclist!

And while your over-worked pops has to pay your speeding tickets and your higher insurance rates, being pulled over by the Prairie Village police every time you hit the road is something those Lancer chicks really dig.
They love the bad boy!

So wave the green flag and put the pedal to the metal, oh swoop-haired future ambulance occupant. Because even though you’ll never make it to Victory Lane, that over sized spoiler on your 1990s Honda looks really boss!

Mr. Douchey Entitled Prairie Village Teen Driver!

tagged: Kansas, Prairie Village, driving, teens, humor, salute