Category: I Can Has Civics

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Tyranol


Everyone’s wrong about something sometimes. That said, I’m glad I don’t need Tyranol.

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Just Think of Our *Cough* Reputation

Lest anyone lament that we’re losing our perch as the – I don’t know, Vienna of the South – Nashville city leaders are suddenly concerned about the bachelorette parties and pedal wagons.

I’ll let you know when our understated dignity is restore—

Dammit.

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First American Honda Restoration

The Honda N600, serial number 1000001. This is the first of 50 Hondas initially sent to the US in 1967 to see if they’d sell.

SPOILERS: They did.

This year marks our 60th anniversary in America. To commemorate this milestone, we’re looking back at the restoration of our very first car imported to the U.S. Watch Tim Mings bring Serial One back to mint condition before it went on to live in the American Honda Museum forever.

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And There’s A Podcast

Two episodes in to HBO’s new miniseries and I’m hooked. Thanks for the recommendation, Droog!

The attention to detail is amazing, all the way down to the slightly fucked up font used in the credits. There’s a great interview with writer/producer Craig Mazin on Vice regarding his motivation to get it right.

Chernobyl accomplishes this, in part, by adhering as closely as it can to historical fact. Every major character save one—a nuclear physicist played by Emily Watson—has a real-life counterpart, from the scientist in charge of cleanup efforts (Valery Legasov, played by Jared Harris), to the wife of a firefighter at the scene of the explosion (Lyudmilla Ignatenko, played by Jessie Buckley). The clothing Chernobyl’s characters wear, the cars they drive, the cigarettes they smoke, the glassware they drink from, the wallpaper in their homes—all of it is staggeringly accurate, a product of more than two and a half years of research.

So anyway, podcast. It provides additional information for each episode in the five-part series, so watch an episode and then give the podcast a listen.

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New Morning Edition Theme Blows

The outgoing 40-year old theme is like a comfortable pair of old shoes. It’s reassuring. This new theme is … not.

From an article in The Atlantic …

The old theme—known for its inquisitive guitar and jazz piano—went off the air last week after 40 years of service. It was replaced on Monday with a new one that churns through dozens of ideas in 58 seconds: There’s a trip-hop remix of the old melody, a synthesized set of chimes conveying either urgency or the imminent arrival of an elevator, and a clatter of percussion that sounds “global” without evoking any one country in particular.

“For me, it was so reminiscent of childhood, of car rides to school,” [classical composer Timo] Andres told me later of the old theme. “Even though, objectively, it sounds like an artifact from a universe where Steely Dan was co-opted into writing state-propaganda music.”

The new theme, meanwhile, was summarized more pithily by [jazz singer Theo] Bleckmann. “Yeah, it sucks,” he said.

What say you bastards?