Hakai magazine

I love watching the giant building-on-its-side cargo ships move in and out of the bay. Other than the occasional giant “MERSK” on the side, I have no idea what the markings on the ships mean. Now I do. Gorgeous pictures, too!

Podcast

While we’re talking about shipping on the Bay, let’s talk about those giant AT-AT looking shipping cranes (I don’t care what they say, there’s no way Lucas didn’t get inspired by the shipping cranes!!). This podcast is an 8-part series that covers the history, present, and future of container shipping. I promise you, it’s way more interesting than you might think. The link above takes you to all eight episodes on SoundCloud. This is a link to episode Notes. And this is a link to the iTunes podcast link

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

The season finale of the third season aired a couple weeks ago. You know what that means, right? BINGE TIME! Before the second season started, Fern and I asked each other, “Where can they go with this?” That’s become a thing now, because we asked the same thing Saturday. Wow. Between Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Good Place you have two of the smartest, funniest shows on television. If you’ve hesitated, take the plunge. It’s so worth it. 

YouTube

This 10-part series (they’re about 8-10 minutes each episode) chronicles the Branch family as they turn a derelict former auto repair shop in Palm Beach, Florida into their dream home. Really, it all functions like a long commercial for Lowe’s, the presenting sponsor. But I’m a sucker for home improvement shows and habitable warehouses, so they had me at the first episode. 

BoredPanda

Had a bad day? Need a pick-me-up? I got ya. Click on the above link. You’re welcome.

The emergency beacon of a fishing boat loaded with crab traps in the storm-tossed, icy Bering Sea goes off. Other ships in the immediate vicinity find little debris, no bodies. What happened? Stories like this absolutely fascinate me. This long read pushes the prose into the purple a few times, but ultimately it’s a riveting read about the inquiry into what might have happened to the Destination and its crew.

There’s certainly a little bit of “Well, in my day” to this article, but it’s funny and does touch on a larger point that kids not riding bikes is as much their parents’ fault as it is the kids. Look, I’m not a parent, but rather than disqualifying me from this conversation, I’d argue it gives me something of a objective perspective. When crime in this country is at an all-time low why are we so terrified about the bogeyman who is is – statistically speaking – a figment of our over-active imaginations?

To twist Martin Niemöller’s famous quote about the Holocaust, “First they came for the tanbark, and I did not speak out — because I hated tanbark. Then they came for the lawn darts, and I did not speak out — because I so wasn’t into family games by that point. Then they came for kids on bikes…” 

I don’t live in a place with capital-W “Winter,” though it does dip low enough around here for black ice to be a frightening possibility. This is seriously sweaty-palm inducing but so well-written that you won’t want to stop reading. 

Tremé

Facebook has been reminding me that three years ago this week was the last time I was in New Orleans. If any of you remember seeing those pictures back in 2005 and thinking, “Man, he’s mean putting all those pictures of food and having fun,” no worries — I think it’s mean now. *Ugh* I’m missing it terribly so I’ve started watching the wonderful David Simon (he of “The Wire”) HBO series, Tremé. It’s available on Amazon Prime currently (or, of course, HBO) — I don’t have a link I’m afraid. I’ll leave you with one last testimony to Tremé from a review for Paste Magazine: “[…]it managed to capture the place, and its peculiar position in the American imagination, with unmatched precision and unconditional love, attuned to the grief and joy of an epochal moment in the city’s history. If I ever leave, I will watch Tremé to remind me what it was like to live here at a time of profound transformation, and to feel anew the series’ clarion call: ‘Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?’ I’m not sure there’s higher praise for a work of art than that.”

Podcast

One of the podcasts I’ve been listening to the longest. It’s may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it scratches an itch for me, which is why it’s an immediate listen as soon as it drops on Wednesdays and Fridays. There’s a certain amount of this list that is drawn from the Friday show’s “What’s Making Us Happy This Week.” Check it out!

I had an enormous crush on Amelia Earhart growing up. In the mid-nineties, when the internet was still in its awkward infancy and I stumbled on Ric Gillespie’s rudimentary web page for TIGHAR and his obsession to prove that Earhart and her navigator crash landed on Nikumaroro atoll and died there waiting a rescue that never came. I remember being so captivated that even in those college-poor days I managed to donate something to help fund one of his organization’s expeditions to the tiny speck in the Pacific that has got to be one of the most remote places on earth. But I became disillusioned pretty quickly. I think it was the single-focus, Nikumaroro-or-bust attitude that wouldn’t allow any other possibilities which turned me off the quickest. And while there are so many Amelia Earhart conspiracies and supposed-explanations, Gillespie has been a tireless pitchman for his theory.

So when the headlines decrying the Earhart mystery solved, I had a feeling Gillespie’s TIGHAR would be involved. Outside does a nice job explaining why the Nikumaroro scenario doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. 

Tim Pratt

Over the weekend someone asked me what my favorite short story was. I froze up, couldn’t think of any! I finally dredged up Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” because it was the first short story that really rocked me back on my heels. But afterwards I thought about the question, and this is the story I came up with, “Impossible Dreams” by my literary crush, Tim Pratt. I’d heard and fell in love with this story before I knew who Tim Pratt was – that came about through his Marla Mason urban fantasy series of books. Then I found his short stories, discovered he wrote this, and it’s been all proverbial moony eyes from the back of the classroom.  There are so many things I love about this story, but the biggest thing that truly inspired me was his tone – and this is consistant through his other works – it’s very conversational, very easy to read and flows so effortlessly. He doesn’t intimidate with his prose, and in the process tells an engagingly charming story that shook the dust off the old Romantic in me.

Give it a read and see if it strikes you like it did me. Or, if you prefer listening to reading, the science fiction podcast, Escape Pod, read this back in 2007, and it’s still online. 

Molly Ringwald’s essay about her complicated relationship with John Hughes’ films is extremely thoughtful and nuanced. “How are we meant to feel about art that we both love and oppose?” she writes late in the piece, and that works as a perfect thesis. More than just her reflections, she also reached out to some of the other actors involved for their opinions.

FYI: The New Yorker has a paywall, but like any good dealer, the first three article reads are free.

Ugly Delicious

Chef David Chang is one of my culinary heroes largely because he doesn’t give an F about pretense. After opening his Momofuku restaurant in New York he’s had a pretty high profile as a celebrity chef. He also started the now-defunct Lucky Peach magazine, which I have almost every issue. So when I heard he had a new show… well, I’ll just cut to the chase: it’s as awesome as I could have hoped. I’ve only seen the first two episodes: “Pizza” and “Tacos”. Why didn’t I binge it all? I’m savoring them like a fine dessert.

I heard about this story on the NPR Politics  podcast from their “Can’t let it go” section, but it’s apparently gone viral. You have to read this story, but the takeaway is don’t cool pepperoni on an open window sill…