Author: Chad
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan. An excellent oral history of one of the greatest films ever made. One of the many tidbits: George Miller’s first choice to play Max was Heath Ledger, which I now can’t stop thinking about. The Northman. A…
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On a beach waiting to witness
A poem ⁂ On a beach waiting to witnessworks of fire thundering forth for the Fourth of July,sparklers burst against a cloudy sunset—the flames of liberty burning out fast. Darkness descendsand the main event announces itselfwith flash-bangs against the firmament:Declarations of incandescence,self-evident in their light, loudness, and pursuit of happy viewers. United they fall,a coterie…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Clippy is back in this fun WordArt generator. Build your own ocean town with Townscaper. Every morning I do Framed and Actorle. Props to The Ringer for all their Pixar Week content.
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. Perusing the pond during an unseasonably cold spring: Bubbles in the backyard: Loved the geometry and colors on this rainy tennis court: Potential album cover for our future father/son band: *heart eyes emoji*: Fun with focus:
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What does that cloud mean?
That was a question from my 3 year old during a recent walk as he was looking at the sky. We’d recently introduced him to the concept of seeing recognizable shapes in clouds, so I’m guessing that’s what he was getting at. But this phrasing was so much more deep, man. Previously in Accidentally Philosophical…
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At home in the Library of Congress
In a delightful convergence of two of my favorite things, Steven Johnson wrote about a research trip to the Library of Congress: Everything about my visit was an object lesson how a government agency can make a public resource available to its citizens in an efficient, useful, and even aesthetically-pleasing fashion. I am generally not…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Reading a 2000-year-old postcard. 3-D scans revealed gigantic Native American cave art in Alabama. Get Google search results in reverse-order to see the oldest webpages first. The White House has an official record collection thanks to Jimmy Carter. A breakdown of “the most insane comeback” in Classic Tetris history.
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My son’s media of the moment
A spinoff of an ongoing series Bluey. A not-small number of times after watching an episode I’ve thought, “Was that one of the greatest episodes of TV ever?” Hot take: the only TV shows a kid needs, really, are this and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood—the yin and yang of instructive, high-quality children’s entertainment. Picture books aplenty.…
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My home screen
The funny thing is this looks similar to the last time I shared my home screen, despite having gone through a few different iterations since then. But I landed back at the black wallpaper and (even more) minimalist layout for a few reasons: My recent job change allowed me to delete several apps I didn’t…
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Playground adventures anew
The playground at the park near my parents’ house is getting renovated, which means the place as I knew it from ages 11-18 will be no more. I’m glad for the memories I have from there, many of which are shared with my childhood best friend, Tim, who also lived a block away from the…
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This is the bookend
After nearly 7 years, today is my last day at my library job. It was my first full-time library position after a few part-time jobs out of library school, and for that alone I am immensely grateful. Whenever someone asks me how I like working at a library, I say I love it because every…
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On ‘The Science’ and dedication to reality
Alan Jacobs: There are many reasons why millions of America don’t trust The Science, including belligerence and ignorance, but if you ask me, I would say that the most important reason is illustrated by the stories above: Scientists are sometimes untrustworthy. If they want to rebuild our trust in them, then they should start with…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series Jackass Forever. A dirty, cringey, gut-bustingly funny cinematic soul-cleanse. Bound for my end-of-year top 10 just like the other Jackass movies. Everything Everywhere All At Once. I think I need to see this at least twice to fully appreciate it, not for any plot reasons but because it really lives up to…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series A digital clock assembled from Google Earth views that resemble numbers. NYPL has started digitizing its collection of early 1900s wax cylinder recordings. Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid. My new favorite movie-based Wordle spinoff: Moviedle.