Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

20120720

It's literally all good this week.

5. Rock climbing:  so easy, a 22-month-old girl in a diaper could do it.

2. Judy's Cream of Wheat, featuring 18-year-old Liza.  Spot-on impressions and nicely animated from the old Judy Garland show.  Most amusing if you're old enough to know who these people are (and what Cream of Wheat is).  Was somewhat lost on the younger set at our house but I loved it.  Thanks again Mr. T for this one.
3. Kishi Bashi.  Heard this guy on NPR and it blew my mind.  Don't know how to describe it so you'll just have to listen.



4. 100 IDs:  Brilliance abides in the clever execution of a simple idea.  Really nice design work.  Click the link then scroll down to see the images & explanation:  http://silvioteixeira.com/index.php?/ongoing/100-ids/


5. Another brilliantly simple item:  This video called Symmetry, which won the 2012 Vimeo Grand Prize.  Using no words and a split screen, it packs a surprising punch.  http://vimeo.com/22564317



20120715

Judy Garland getting happy.

forget your trousers, come on, get happy...
Was just thinking it would be excellent to have the gams to pull off this look.  Not at work or anything.  Just saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw

Oh, and the voice, the astonishing voice...


20120711

this week's good/bad thing ratio: 13:6.


13 good things:
1.      Upgrading from contract status to a legit, full-time gig as a program consultant for Kellogg Executive Education.  The get-a-job dance appears to have worked again, thank goodness.

2.       Discovering the wondrous Bookman’s Alley bookstore in Evanston.
3.       The 1844 Bureau of Indian Affairs “ American Red Man” book on sale therein.

4.       Taking a paid lunch for the first time in years.

5.       An abbondanza of good lunch places in Evanston, including Pret and the over-the-top Edzo's Burger Shop (27/30 Zagat rating).  Parenthetically, next time you're tempted to say plethora, stop and say abbondanza instead.  It's saucy.

6.       Homemade strawberry shortcake for dinner.  I do it once a summer,  and today was the day.  Yum.

7.      Discovering the NeilMed Nasal Rinse (cousin of the neti pot) is indispensable for flushing Sour Cream 'n' Onion Pringles out of one's nose.

8.      Watching Cabaret, loaned to me by my friend Tigh, Mr. “Video Junction.”  He is my TV dealer, responsible for my Mad Men addiction.

9.   Attending a raucously fun block party of some friends of ours and surprising myself by downing an entire bottle of prosecco.

10.   Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote me back today.  I think she might be my new girlfriend.

11.   Lounging on our new patio furniture on our new patio.  I napped so long a bird almost pooped on my cheek.

12. The weather turning human again!

13. A chocolate soda.  And then another one a few days later.

Funny how many of the good things have to do with food and drink...

6 bad things:
1.       Laughing with a mouth full of Sour Cream ‘n’ Onion Pringles and inhaling them into my sinuses.  That seasoning stings something awful.

2.       Learning that Bookman’s Alley will close sometime in August.  Wah!

3.       Andy Griffith died.

4.       Ernest Borgnine died.

5.      The inescapability of Joel Grey's creepy Cabaret face.  He haunts me night and day.

6.       Daring to drink my out-of-date skim milk at work.  There will come a day of reckoning, and soon.

20120706

Star Trek Tik Tok: unholy mashup of the good kind

Star Trek Tik Tok

I wanted so much not to like this, and am no fan of Ke$ha.  But someone with way too much time on their hands actually did a fine job.  The creator found many of the most visually goofy bits from Star Trek, and it's nicely synched to the song.

Happy Friday, all!

20120703

RIP Andy Griffith, a true face in the crowd.

He's one crazy, loud, megalomaniac mofo.
If you think you know Andy Griffith from his TV persona, get a load of A Face in the Crowd, the 1957 Elia Kazan film that made him a star.  Playing Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, Griffith is riveting and scary, paired with an excellent Patricia Neal.  The film is as subtle as a sledgehammer - Kazan isn't known for his light touch - but this is an important film worth seeing, if only to dispel the notion that Griffith's aw-shucks TV sheriff represented his full acting range.

RIP Andy.  Opie and the rest of us will miss you.
[Thanks to "Mr. T" for letting me know he died.]

20120323

20120323: 19 hand-carved nubbins of unanticipated excellence

Random awesomeness, as a phrase, grows tiresome. Both words are overused.  Henceforth I shall try to seek out new constructions.

For example, this week's batch of unanticipated excellence, just out of the dehydrator.  Homegrown content scarce this time around, what with settling into the new job - BUT, a family-sized, finger-lickin' bucket of everything amusing I've come across recently, whether new or (mostly) not, plus a few minor annoyances at the end.  The scary part is that this list, long as it is, represents only a fraction of the junk I noticed since last time, and wanted to blog about, but didn't have time.  oh well.
Just for extra pretty, in rainbow.

1.  The way Germans have a different (harsh) word for everything.


2.  Ellen and Michelle Obama have a pushup smackdown:


...but wait, there's more...

20120309

Aldi, part 2 of 3: the bad...

Happy Friday!  Today's post follows my recent chronicling of the good to be found at Aldi, with a mercifully much shorter sampling of the bad below.

In fairness, a huge swath of fair-to-middling foods are omitted because they are perfectly fine, but not worth special mention.  All the dry cereals, for example, or the 100% whole wheat "L'oven Fresh" bread (which gets extra points because it sounds like McLovin from Superbad.) [caution, funny-but-sweary link]

Anyhow, here are some of the more dubious-looking items unearthed on a recent trip.

Previous ALDI goodness/badness/ugliness found here.

When Aldi's food stylists can render the Macaroni & Beef no more appetizing than this, just remain calm and look across the aisle at the nice cheerful pineapple chunks.
The hummus makes both the good and bad lists, because although it's cheap, it's basically mashed chickpeas.  Unobjectionable on its own, but come on!  Tahini, please?

"A pork and soy protein product."  Check out the exploding Oink-ometer!  Mainly it provides an excuse to say this.* 
I bear canned potatoes no ill will, but I fail to grasp their point.  Looking at them makes me feel desperately sad and poor.  I mean, a potato costs about a nickel.   Heaven help you if you can't afford a damn potato.

* 1) Years ago, Sean and I lived below the two nice young Jewish heirs to the great Moo & Oink fortune.  We gave them a bunch of our furniture when we moved out, and they gave us a Moo & Oink clock.  Fair exchange, I think.
2) Sean was featured on the back page of the Chicago Tribune wearing a Moo & Oink T-shirt, for a story on the birth of our oldest son, which I should tell sometime.
3) Moo & Oink's classic commercials during Soul Train vie for first place with the equally jaw-dropping Scottie Pippen Mr. Submarine ad (yes, he really does dunk a sub) as a high/low point of Chicago commercial history.

20120307

90 seconds of fun: dollar shave club launch video

I love this fresh and funny ad.  Thank you, Mashable, for bringing it to the world's attention.  Easily the most enjoyable 90 seconds you'll spend today - it will make you want to join the Dollar Shave Club even if you don't shave.