Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
I can’t imagine how these damn commies would offend anyone, but then I have a soft spot for irreverent bastards. You can watch the documentary Smothered and learn how they got canceled.
Also, the tune vaguely reminds me of “Wild One” by Those Darlins. I’m sure I posted this many moons ago on Ye Olde Blogge. I’m going to re-indulge this great performance by Nikki Darlin et al.
A Murder at the End of the World was superb.
Fargo is excellent.
I’m one episode into True Detective: Night Country. It seems can’t miss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnPl4PuNb5U
I hope you learned something.
Here’s a Scopitone of Brook Benton lip-syncing Mother Nature, Father Time while bikini girls apparently dance to something else.
If you’re unfamiliar with Scopitones, they were music video jukeboxes typically placed in lounges and similar adult-oriented locations. It seems that most Scopitones, like the later music-video format, were more about the girls than the songs. (I remember child-oriented ones, but their format and machines had a different name). The videos often had the hubba-hubba vibe of 50’s-60’s softcore men’s magazines (like here and here). Although Procol Harum did one, most rock acts snubbed Scopitones. I imagine they’d started looking dated, like something their dads watched for cheap thrills, down there with carnival peep-shows. One novelty was a live Billy Lee Riley one, unusual in that it’s not lip-synced.
For you film nerds: I can’t verify this, but I know I read somewhere that French (who invented them) Scopitones used Pathecolor, a very early film tinting process that used stenciling. Wikipedia claims that the last use of Pathecolor was the 1954 Mexican surrealist classic, Robinson Crusoe, but it’s often stated that it was used in that august cinematic masterpiece, Dr. Goldfoot & The Bikini Machine.
There’s an excellent HBO (excuse me, MAX) documentary called Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street that you bastards absolutely must check out. It’s a miracle the show ever happened, and the story is fascinating.
And the outtakes are hilarious.
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This may have been obvious to you fine bastards, but it was kind of a new perspective for me. See you on the monorail.
My parents wouldn’t let me stay up to watch Starsky & Hutch, but I still get a thrill when I see an old Gran Torino.
David Soul—beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother—died yesterday after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family. He shared many extraordinary gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend. His smile, laughter and…
— David Soul (@DavidRSoul) January 5, 2024
How platforms decay, as explained by Cory Doctorow to NPR. Finally a name for what we may not consciously recognize but deep down know is going on.
… I think Facebook’s a good example. Facebook went through the whole lifecycle of platform decay. They started off by offering a really good deal to their end users. They said, “Hey, leave MySpace, come to Facebook. It’s just like MySpace, except we only show you the things that you asked to see, and we’ll never spy on you.”
And then once those users were locked in — because once you’re in a place with all of your friends, it’s really hard to leave — they started to take away some of that good stuff they gave them, and they handed it to advertisers and publishers.
To the advertisers, they said, “We were lying when we said we weren’t going to spy on these guys. We’re totally spying on them. Here’s all the data you need to target them for ads that we’re not going to charge you much money for.”
And to the publishers, they said, “We are also lying when we said we’d only show them the stuff they asked to see.”
And then once the publishers and the advertisers were locked in, well, they took away those surpluses. The ads got more expensive. Publishers had to put more and more of their content — not just to get recommended, but even to be shown to the people who subscribed them. And that’s the final stage, the stage where there’s just only the residual value left on the platform that the platform owner thinks will keep the users and the business customers they bring in stuck to the platform. And that’s when we’re at the beginning of the end.
Further reading.
Every injury sustained in Homes Alone 1 and 2, explained by a trauma surgeon. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!
Not sure how a doc about some of my favorite proto-punks got past me. This goes straight to the top of my list if it’s available anywhere.