Uncategorized
Wonderful drugs distract us from basic self-care.
Screens from conversation.
Instant food from deep nutrition.
Share-holder demands from long-term strategy.
Gyms from simply being a mover.
The cheap immersive download from reading.
Air-con from deserts, mountains and shores.
Rip Torn, RIP
Ross O. Lincoln, writing for The Wrap, has a glowing obiturary for the late, great Rip Torn.
Known for his gravely drawl and sinister-looking smile, Torn excelled at playing shady, amoral characters and outright villains, as in his depiction of the evil wizard Maax in the fantasy film “The Beastmaster.” But he could also project no-nonsense authority, as he did playing the celestial attorney Bob Diamond in Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life,” or Zed in the first two “Men in Black” films. And in one of his most celebrated later roles, he combined those attributes in 2004’s “DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story,” as sleazy dodgeball legend Patches O’Houlihan, who delivers one of the film’s funniest lines: “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.”
But it was the 1992-1998 HBO comedy “The Larry Sanders Show” for which Torn will be perhaps best remembered. For playing Artie, the doggedly loyal attack dog of a producer who runs the eponymous show and manages the fragile ego of its star, Torn was widely acclaimed. He received six Emmy nominations, winning once in 1996, and over the show’s run was also nominated for two American Comedy awards (winning one), an American Television Award, and four Cable Ace awards (winning one), among many other accolades.
Definitely one of the great character actors of all time. I had completely forgotten he was in The Beastmaster.
I bet Rip smelled the Glenlivet on God’s breath [HT: Austin Kleon].
Distractions to Manage
Nicholas Bate lists the distractions we all need to manage –
The Jeffrey Epstein Case Is Like Nothing I’ve Seen Before
Ken White, writing in The Atlantic, outlines the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and they are horrifying. What Epstein’s legal team managed to get when faced with extensive, detailed allegations was not remotely normal.
Epstein’s team secured the deal of the millennium, one utterly unlike anything else I’ve seen in 25 years of practicing federal criminal law. Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state charges, register as a sex offender, and spend 13 months in county jail, during which time he was allowed to spend 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, out of the jail on “work release.” In exchange, the Southern District of Florida abandoned its criminal investigation of Epstein’s conduct, agreed not to prosecute him federally, and—incredibly—agreed not to prosecute anyone else who helped him procure underage girls for sex. This is not normal; it is astounding.
This time though it looks like Epstein is not getting off so easily.
The feds, as is their habit, raided Epstein’s New York home while he was being arrested. In their motion asking the court to detain Epstein without bail, the government claimed that it had seized hundreds of photos of nude women or girls, some of whom appeared underage, kept on CDs thoughtfully labeled with things like “Girl pics nude.” The clonking sound you heard was 10,000 criminal-defense attorneys banging their heads on their desks. Such materials are not just potentially devastating evidence in Epstein’s prosecution. If Epstein had pornographic images of minors, he can expect the feds to add child-pornography charges to the indictment—and those charges are much easier to prove, without the challenges of a 15-year-old case.
Great wealth insulates people from consequences, but not always, absolutely, or forever. And even the richest people in America lack the implacable, mindless power of the criminal-justice system. Now that Epstein’s past plea deal is public and radioactively controversial, he’s unlikely to get another one. Epstein will have the best criminal defense money can buy, again. But this time, that will probably not be enough to save him.
What a monster. I’m curious to know what deal Epstein might try to cut to save himself and throw others under the bus. I don’t really care who the pedophiles are, I’d just like them all to rot in jail.
Remembering Chris Gaines
Tarpley Hitt, writing for The Daily Beast, has a fun story taking you back to the crazy days of 1999 when the best-selling solo artist of all time tried to, I think, take a page from David Bowie and turn into someone completely different.
It didn’t work.
…twenty years out, the project seems anything but pretentious. It’s a snapshot that lays bare the painstaking lengths celebrities go to craft public personas, and the messy, sublimely idiotic insides of industry marketing. In some ways, it is a fitting project for our millennium: a systemic critique born entirely in the system, packed with fauxstalgia so absurd it verges on farce-but one no one quite gets.
I actually own the CD somewhere with the rest of my CDs. I remember actually liking “Unsigned Letter.”
Hack
Brent Simmons has a simple calendar hack.
My calendar hack is that I add two alerts for each thing. One ten minutes before, so I have plenty of time to prepare — and another five minutes before, because I will have forgotten about the previous alert.
This is me.
“I Did Not Die. I Did Not Go to Heaven.”
Ruth Graham, writing in Slate, has the definitive story on the bullshit of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. Of course it wasn’t true, but so many rubes want it to be true they dropped hard earned cash to feel better about themselves.
The cover of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven calls the book “a true story.” But the boy himself now says it was not true at all. Four years ago, Alex sent a letter to a conservative Christian blog dramatically renouncing the book. “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven,” he wrote. “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. … People have profited from lies, and continue to.” Alex’s retraction also became a sensation, with reporters unable to resist the sudden, hilarious perfection of his last name: Malarkey.
The way everything just tore the family apart is heartbreaking.
The Music of 1985 Was a Perfect Mixtape
Elizabeth Nelson, writing in The Ringer, takes us on a musical journey of that faraway time of 1985. Inspired by season three of Stranger Things, she reminds us all how incredible that year was for music.
I was in high school, and all these songs and artists take me back there. Personally, I was surprised by the ages of Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Tina Turner, as well as the young upstarts of Madonna and George Michael. I did not remember that “We Are The World” was created in 1985.
She ends her piece with a note about the differences between the stars of then and today.
Nostalgia is a potent cocktail and potentially dangerous in large doses. Like all businesses, the music industry is cyclical and susceptible to convulsive market forces and unforeseen technological shifts, developments that help to explain its vast contractions in recent years. Maybe, as Howard Jones put it in 1985, no one is to blame. But maybe there is some utility to looking back at the mid-’80s musical big tent as well. The paradox of the streaming era is that for all of its ostensible limitless access, it seems to create far fewer memorable and bankable stars. This is not a reflection on the current pool of talent, but it may be a referendum on how that talent is presented. If nothing else, the industry’s imperial phase is a reminder that big sellers need not emerge from careful market testing and microtargeted playlists. They gave us the full gamut-homegrown and exotic, ancient and modern, frothy and fretful-and we loved the unkempt lot if it. It was a wild world, but we are the world after all.
Role Models
Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, makes the point that the political activism of the USWNT means their win was all the sweeter.
They spoke up, they stood their ground, they taunted, they danced, they sipped tea, they were joyously defiant from the very beginning. And that’s why they’ll go down in history in a way that even previous Women’s World Cup champions won’t. Previous generations have found activism, or even simply stating your viewpoint on matters of the world, a detriment: Something that got in the way of the game, of winning, of earning, of thriving. But this team and Rapinoe are legends now — and, even better, are role models now in a way that athletes actually should be role models, an investment that will only bear more fruit in the decades to come – because they demanded to be heard on the issues they cared about and then went out and kicked everybody’s ass to boot. They will be more beloved, and richer, and more successful, having spoken out than if they hadn’t. Activism was bold, but more than that, it was smart. This was so much more fun because of it.
Default Mode
Michael Wade asks a good question
What is your default mode?
Is it positive or negative? Does it tend to blame others or does it foster personal accountability? Is it quick to anger or is it less volatile? Is it universal and consistent or do you easily make exceptions for yourself or your allies? Is it feelings-based or thought-based? Does it promote self-discipline or self-indulgence?
The nature of your default mode is one of the most important influences in life and yet many people do not examine their mode.
My advice is to know it well.
This is good advice I definitely need to take.
Broken Things
Daniel Nesbit is here for the broken things.
I am here for the broken things.
The daily struggle to just make ends meet. The harsh unfairness of dumb chance. Cracked dreams. Unbearable cruelty.
I am here for the broken things because in them I see the hope of a world repaired.
An unshakable foundation of well-being for all. Triumph over the privilege of circumstance. The unimaginable fruits of dreamwalking. The joy of a true neighborhood.
Things are broken. That hurts. It should. But even brokenness can, in a way, break.
Frank Chimero and Good Trouble
Writing in Creative Boom, Katy Cowan has a fantastic interview with creator Frank Chimero. I love this concept.
Good trouble is questioning and re-imagining the status quo, and having your actions stand in contrast to the norm. Maybe it’s society’s status quo. Maybe it’s your own — all fair game. There’s usually a fair amount of cleverness in it. Civil disobedience for social causes is good trouble — consider the criticism offered by the peaceful protests of MLK, Gandhi, and their supporters.
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world”, and all that. But that’s a big form of good trouble, and I just have my little life, so I’m particularly interested in the small version — how the smallest thought can get under your skin and make you re-evaluate, you know? It’s the mischievousness of changing how you think by finding a new lens.
This last bit of advice is just perfect.
…slow down, find a quiet place, and create time for solitude so you can hear yourself. It’s so noisy out there. And find the good ones around you — the patient, compassionate, and interested — then elevate the conversation as often as you can. The things that nourish you are also the things that will nourish your work, give it purpose, depth, and soul. It’s hard to say what those things may be, but life has taught me over and over that, you don’t need to know if you are willing to ask.
The Truth About Phenibut
Isabelle Kohn, in MEL magazine, has an in-depth story on the latest wonder drug, Phenibut. I admit, I had no idea about this drug, but the story is intriguing. I know I wish there was some sort of “Limitless” drug that could help everyone achieve greatness.
It almost makes me want to try it. Almost.
Stuff, stuff and more stuff
Nicholas Bate with just a 100 words for us.
Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Pings and mails and requests.
One walk along a deserted beach at dawn puts everything in perspective. Of course, it’s not really empty. It’s just full of the things that heal rather than the things of TotallyTotallyGlobal Inc which debilitate.
That which heals: a fellow walker, sun-rise of course. Fresh, fresh air. Sand, rocks and water. Time standing still. Freedom returns. Ozone from waves rather than radiation from screens. Perspective and horizon. Not a number in sight. Nobody suggesting: connect! Being rather than doing. Just a dog which understands joy doesn’t need much at all.
Wanderers
Chuck Wendig has a new novel out titled Wanderers. I’m four chapters in and hooked beyond much of anything I’ve ever read in the last few years. I’ve never read Wendig before, and his similes and descriptions are interesting, fun, and original.
Here’s the big blurb -
A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. In the tradition of The Stand and Station Eleven comes a gripping saga that weaves an epic tapestry of humanity into an astonishing tale of survival.
Wendig, on his own site, has all the answers to several questions you might have (where to buy, how to get a signed copy, etc). io9 has Chapter 3 if you want a preview.
It’s a big book with a big story. I highly recommend it.
So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend
Sue Bird, writing in The Player’s Tribune, has one of the most delightful and jubilant stories all about how Donald Trump, the real honest-to-god President of the (literal) United States hates her girlfriend who happens to be Megan Rapinoe.
Bird is a three-time WNBA champion. Rapinoe is a professional soccer player currently leading the U. S. Soccer team in their quest for the Women’s World Cup. Trump is an orange colored confidence man with fascist tendencies. I know who I got.
Remembering Action Park
Every summer we end up getting a rewrite of the “Action Park was American’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park” story. This time it’s Jack McCallum, writing in Sports Illustrated, slinging the text. It’s a great story and I look forward to the movie.
For Shame
Heather Timmons, writing in Quartz, has a harrowing account of a dozen lawmakers visiting the detention centers in Texas.
CBP officers were “contentious and uncooperative,” said Joe Kennedy, the Democrat from Massachusetts. “They tried to restrict what we saw, take our phones, block photos and video.” Some people had been in their cells for 50 days or more, and were sleep-deprived and filthy, the lawmakers reported. Women they encountered were sobbing after being separated from their children.
It is inhumane.
A Presidential Prediction
At this point on July 1, the Democrat nominee for President will be Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, or Bernie Sanders. Warren, Sanders, and Biden will not be anyone’s choice as VP, and, of course, Biden would never be asked.
If it’s Biden, he’d do well to convince Harris to be his running mate (good luck) but will likely be stuck with Klobuchar. I don’t think Warren would take it. Biden probably needs a woman running mate to balance out his ticket.
If it’s Harris, she’d do well to convince either Buttigieg or O’Rourke to be her running mate. Not sure who edges the other out. It can’t be Booker because it doesn’t balance the ticket well, but if the other two say no, then he’s the guy.
If it’s Warren, she’d do well to convince either Harris or Booker to be her running mate. I’m not sure two women running is the best ticket, but it certainly might be.
If it’s Sanders, he’d do well to convince Harris to be his running mate. I really, really don’t want it to be Sanders.
Personally, I would prefer the nominee to be Kamala Harris, with Pete Buttigieg as her running mate.
Imagine it:
Black vs White
Woman vs Man
Square Shooter vs Liar
Prosecutor vs Criminal
Plus, the undercard is a homophobe going up against a Christian, veteran, Rhodes Scholar, who also happens to be in a committed, gay marriage.
That would be interesting.
Self-Discipline
Michael Wade has some good advice -
We need self-discipline far more than motivation.
Restrict your exposure to life’s never-ending distractions.
Jony Ive is Leaving Apple
So apparently Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer for many, many years is leaving the company.
The only person’s take on this development I care to read is, of course, John Gruber.
I’ve never been an “Apple is doomed without Steve Jobs” person. But part of what made Apple the Apple we know in the post-1997 era is that when Jobs was at the helm, all design decisions were going through someone with great taste. Not perfect taste, but great taste. But the other part of what made Jobs such a great leader is that he could recognize bad decisions, sooner rather than later, and get them fixed.
I think Tim Cook is a great CEO and Jeff Williams is a great COO. But who’s in charge of product design now?
This is interesting to me. Just who leads the “Apple experience?”
I don’t worry that Apple is in trouble because Jony Ive is leaving; I worry that Apple is in trouble because he’s not being replaced.