Two great turns of phrase, among many:
– “screaming mass of flesh” describing Black Francis
– “psychotic Beatles” in reference to the band
Enjoy the intro on this cover:
The Skegss = The Shaggs + The Scruffs? Help me out…
Monorail!
Production-wise, the show hadn’t worked out how to achieve these bigger, more spectacular episodes. The writers loved them and the producers loved them. We all loved them. But there were people at the animation studio who were like, “We have to tell them to cut back. These are too complex.” Part of me is thinking, ‘We’re asking for a lot.’ But the artist, or even the kid, in me is thinking, ‘No, these are fucking awesome and we just have to figure out how to do them.’ I always leaned more that way, because I liked the ambitiousness of the episodes and where it took the show. From just a family comedy to these big, overwhelming animated pieces. They were like little movies.
– from An Oral History of ‘Marge Vs. The Monorail’, a great read. Season 4 is now regarded as peak Simpsons, but at the time there were already complaints that the show had lost its way.
My own town has toyed with the idea of a monorail as a solution to the mass transit problems that will only get worse.
The Virgin Hyperloop seems to have everone’s attention now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKvbSboQ5_g
But as I learned in a fantastic article here, we are basically re-inventing technology that already exists and not doing it well. Lemme transposplain to ya:
In a vacuum (a figurative one: an alternate universe in which the rest of the post-industrial world were not absolutely goddamn bursting with operating networks of authentic high-speed rail; where high-speed rail were not already such a well-developed form of transit that the TGV system, which routinely moves huge numbers of day-to-day commuters across large distances of France at speeds well more than twice that achieved by this sad two-person billion-dollar pod going from nowhere to nowhere across a tiny patch of worthless desert, were not both infinitely better and more sophisticated than any presently available commercial rail in the United States and fairly outmoded in comparison to newer [yet still not all that new!] systems in China and Japan and elsewhere) the Virgin Hyperloop could almost look like an impressive accomplishment.
IDLES
For what ails ya’
What He Said
Finished the second season of The Boys last night. It wasn’t nearly as great as the first, as this guy so helpfully explains. Here’s hoping the next outing recalibrates.
The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise
https://youtu.be/8bBDFGwOZA8
When I was a senior in high school, we would cut study hall some afternoons and sneak over to my friend’s house to watch DEVO videos on VHS.
This one is a classic.
Blame The Robot
The future of working from home: Japanese convenience store chain begins testing remote-controlled robot staff 😮🤖
“Model-T is remote controlled by a human equipped with a VR set using their ‘Augmented Workforce Platform.'”
Source: https://t.co/lHoXAYdsih pic.twitter.com/0FwYivRiT6
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) August 31, 2020
I’ll be more impressed when he can slap a mean stand-up bass.
Sakuran Zensen
The band’s name is Sakuran Zensen. Sakuran means ”crazy” (sort of) and Zensen means ”front of the line.” So Sakuran Zensen means ”front of the line of the crazies.” In an interview with a publicity company, the singer told them that they did not pick this name for any other reason than ”it sounded cool.”
Watch, Man
I missed this but it got like 850 Emmy nominations.
Higher in the queue for you, hood fetish series!
I’m In
What’s not to love?
High Score is a documentary series about the golden age of video games, when legends – from Pac-Man to Doom – were brought to life. Through ingenuity and sheer force of will, computer pioneers and visionary artists from around the globe spawned the iconic worlds of Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, MADDEN NFL, and beyond. Without rules or roadmaps, players and innovators alike pushed the limits of money to be made, rivals to be crushed, and hearts to be won. This is the story of the brains behind the pixels and how their unmatched innovation built a multi-billion dollar industry – almost by accident. High Score premieres on Netflix on August 19, 2020.
This Is Not As Funny As I Think It Is
In my humble-yet-accurate opinion, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a glitchy fiasco, and its gameplay can generously be described as clunky. I bought into the hype upon its release (How bad can it be with a 97 on Metacritic?) and was almost immediately disappointed. It’s beautiful and open-ended, yes, but I found it boring. And the AI sucks. Anyway, enjoy these deaths or don’t. You prolly won’t, you sumbitch.