Author: Chad
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In praise of Disney’s pop punk phase
I almost couldn’t believe this when I saw it: Disney put out an album of pop punk covers of Disney songs called A Whole New Sound, which includes: I would just like to shoutout whichever 40-year-old at Disney got the greenlight for this. As Boomers retire and we Millennials take over positions of power, I…
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18 years
Ye Olde Blog turns 18 years old today. Forgive me, but as a writer of a certain age I cannot help but think of the “18 years, 18 years” line from Kanye’s “Gold Digger”—a song that debuted just a year before this blog. Unlike in the song, though, there’s no question of provenance here. From…
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The YouTube curios of COVID quarantine
I’m not sure how it started, but I got sucked into a YouTube wormhole of the videos I watched in that early-COVID quarantine phase, like: The first two especially were appointment viewing each week, because you never knew what celebrities would pop in. Then there were the virtual choirs: As with mask-wearing, I felt a…
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True centrism
Kai Brach, in his Dense Discovery newsletter, responding to an essay about the political “center”: True centrism shouldn’t simply find two opposing positions and place itself in the middle of them. Instead, it should anchor itself in core principles of human decency, compassion, moral integrity, etc. This version of centrism isn’t about always falling neatly…
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In favor of the opposition of Saturn
My wife sent me something about the opposition of Saturn last Saturday night, which meant it’d be more visible than usual. While at the library that day I saw they had a monocular telescope for checkout to use with smartphones, so I decided to check it out in case I had the opportunity to try…
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‘Back to the Future The Musical’ does it with style
I had the pleasure of seeing Back to the Future The Musical at the Cadillac Palace Theater in Chicago with my friend Kevin as an early birthday present from my wife. Back to the Future is the movie that long ago turned me into a cinephile, so it was a thrill to see this fun…
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A BoyDad reads ‘BoyMom’
I recently read BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity by Ruth Whippman, a journalist and mom of three boys who wrestles with her own fears, frustrations, and biases as an avowed feminist raising boys in a world with conflicting views of modern masculinity. As the father of two young boys myself, I…
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Recent Views, Michigan edition
More photography here. Scenes from some time in Michigan with extended family… Gas station architecture: Boatin’: Cousins dancing to the sunset (also a perfect album cover for their future band): Happened to catch the sunset reflected near the five year old: Early morning dune summit: In between teaching the five year old how to play…
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Insects inspected
We’ve encountered more interesting bugs while out and about since doing this last September, so I figured I’d turn this into yet another of my recurring features with its own tag. Here’s a midge: And a (much smaller in real life) ground crab spider: And a yellow woolly bear moth: And an alder spittlebug: And…
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4 Lessons on Creativity from Roger in ‘101 Dalmatians’
Originally published at Cinema Sugar. Roger Radcliffe is ultimately a supporting player in this story of dogs trying to avoid being skinned for their fur (you know, a Disney movie for kids). But as the hero of his own story, he’s an excellent example of an artist at work. Here’s what we can learn from…
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Embrace the lightning of surrender
Don’t love once and question your heart Embrace the lightning of surrender I had fun with this Fridge Poetry page (works best on desktop) where you can play with the provided words and even add your own. I assembled the above phrase using words that were already lying there, and I like how it turned…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson. Another brilliant narrative nonfiction saga from Steven Johnson that weaves multiple historical threads together to tell the riveting story of how dynamite, fingerprinting, anarchism, information science and other seemingly disparate forces all conspired…
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Don’t have a reading goal
If you want to enjoy reading, don’t have a reading goal. If you want to read more books by female authors or explore a new genre or something like that, go for it. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Once you say “I want to read X number of books this year,” whatever that…
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Tools of the moment
An ongoing series Not YouTube watch history. When you turn off the watch history for your YouTube account (manage it here), your homepage becomes gloriously blank rather than cluttered with garbage served up by their algorithm. Not WorkFlowy. One day I decided I was tired of splitting my personal and professional note-taking, task management, and…
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Six thoughts on ‘Titanic’
Cinema Sugar asked on Threads: “What movie do you refuse to watch?” It provoked some interesting responses, the most common by far being Titanic and Barbie. I get the Barbie backlash since it’s new and somewhat (weirdly) politically charged. Titanic, though, is nearly 30 years old and one of the most awarded and highest-grossing movies of…
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How ‘In the Heights’ explains the COVID era
Scheduled to be released in theaters June 2020, the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights was in the first wave of movies that were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It got pushed back a full year to June 2021, when as part of a slate of Warner Bros. movies it controversially debuted…
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Recent Views
More photography here. Shadow play: The tunnel into Brookfield Zoo: Garbage Day is appointment viewing: Barking up the front yard tree: Puddle hunting:
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Rules for Biking
I recently went on a bike ride to the library with my 5 year old. It was the first time he was on his own (training-wheeled) bike instead of riding along in the trailer and it was really fun. He was so jazzed up about it, which caused him to start monologuing his thoughts throughout…