Eleven-year-old Paisley Gardner, of Des Moines, Iowa, isn’t your typical tween music fan. Her favorite singer isn’t Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or Harry Styles; it’s Michael McDonald, a founder member of the 1970s rock band the Doobie Brothers.

Correspondent Steve Hartman reports on how McDonald met his youngest fan. What a sweet story.

Stay for the end.

David Marchese, writing for New York Times Magazine, has a wonderful profile on Phoebe Waller-Bridge that’s worth reading.

This bit stood out to me –

Really early on, I would deliver a script to a producer, and they’d go, “This is a bit —” and I’d go: “I know! I hate it! This is what I really want to write!” And I’d have another script: the naughty-hand script. I’d be like, “I meant to do that.” And they’d be like, “This one’s really good!” It was like I had to get the one that I thought people wanted out of my system and then be like: “Suckers! Here’s a much better one!”

Sounds like a writer to me.

Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole Reynolds, and Divya Bhardwaj, writing for The Daily Northwestern, have written a story that is incredibly damning of Northwestern Football and I don’t see how head coach Pat Fitzgerald can stay employed.

The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.

If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.

“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the player said. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.”

The Daily obtained images of whiteboards labeled “Runsgiving” and “Shrek’s List,” containing a list of names indicating players that the player said needed to be “ran.”

The player said the tradition was especially common during training camp and around Thanksgiving and Christmas, which he said the team called “Runsgiving” and “Runsmas.”

“It’s done under this smoke and mirror of ‘oh, this is team bonding,’ but no, this is sexual abuse,” the player said.

According to the former player, team members allegedly identified players for “running” by clapping their hands above their heads around that player. The practice, the player said, was known within the team as “the Shrek clap.”

This program is done. Northwestern football is about to become irrelevant for a decade.

Watch Elly De La Cruz steal second base, third base, and home. Easily the most exciting two minutes I’ve seen in sports in a long time.

“He just stole Homeplate!”

Josh Rosenberg, writing for Esquire, has a cool profile on Jack Quaid. He’s definitely becoming the go-to guy for comic book stuff.

Lovely bit here –

My attitude has always been: If it scares you, do it. Because that’s probably where you should be. But there are weird subsets of everything in this world. It’s never discouraged me. Bring it on. The people who are going to be mean tend to hide behind the keyboard. I go to conventions and most people are just generally very happy, excited, and into nerdy things just like me. Even The Boys fans—for a show that’s just so messed up and harrowing, they’re some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met in my life.

Nicholas Bate –

1. 1%: be 1% better than you were this time last month.

2. 100%: move 100% every day.

3. 2%: invest 2% of your income in your personal development.

4. 80%: of your non-fiction book planned before you start.

5. 70%: say presentation skills are critical for their career.

6. 40%: of your novel planned before you start.

7. 90%: of success is politeness and persistenc

Meta has finally launched their Twitter rival, Threads. My quick thoughts:

• The killer feature is that signing in was exceptionally easy using my existing Instagram credentials, which were already on my phone because I have Instagram installed. I didn’t even need to re-enter my password. Same username, same avatar, and I opted in to following the exact same accounts on Threads that I follow on Instagram. This will generate a lot of people joining the platform.

• The website is view-only. You can’t log in, post, or reply. This is obviously by design for the initial launch. I assume they will offer a website version post-haste.

• The timeline is algorithmic. It basically is the For You tab from Twitter. It shows people you follow and far too much from people you don’t. This is obviously by design for the initial launch. I assume they will offer a Follow-Only tab in the near future.

• There are no hashtags. I don’t care one way or another, but I bet they get added

• Search is weak, but I bet they fix that soon too.

• One feature Threads has launched with are quote posts (or what are retweets in Twitter). This is good.

• You only get 500 characters per post, which feels about right for a micro-blogging service.

• No ads. This is obviously by design for the initial launch. I assume they will include in-line ads sooner rather than later.

• I do not care one iota about ActivityPub, but apparently it is forthcoming.

I signed up because it was stupid easy, but I have not really engaged with the platform much because I don’t like the For You tab on Twitter. I want a timeline comprised of my curated accounts, not this jumble of algorithmic nonsense.

Ultimately, I think it will work. It hasn’t quite yet turned Twitter into MySpace, but the longer Elon Musk is in control, the quicker it will fall apart. Celebrities, brands, governments, and media people miss the centralized, corporate, “social media of record” feel that Twitter gave them before it became Musk’s personal website. On Threads, they have it back. This is why it will work. All the other players from Mastodon to BlueSky are dead in the water.

Geoffrey Bunting, writing at The Daily Beast, has taken it upon himself to anoint the erstwhile captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, as the best Star Trek captain.

He makes dozens of great points. I still think everyone’s space daddy is Pedro Pascal.

Lionsgate has just dropped a new trailer for an interesting film, Corner Office, and I feel like it will be playing behind my eyeballs for a while. It’s weird. In all the good ways.

I’m not sure I want to know anything else about this flick and just go in cold.

Apple TV has posted a new trailer for the upcoming season of Foundation. It looks gorgeous. I just wish the writing was a little bit better.

Shawn Blanc –

When your attention goes to many things, no real progress is ever made. Not all opportunities are worth pursuing — especially if it means being pulled away from something that is currently working.

Kevin Drum –

I know this is obvious, but . . .

Everybody seems to have forgotten what Elon Musk’s real problem with Twitter is. The wellspring of everything that’s happened since last year was a single moment of stupidity in which he agreed to massively overpay for it. And it’s not like he doesn’t know this. He tried desperately to get out of the deal, and took over the company only after a court forced him to.

At that point he was stuck with a massively unprofitable business, so he laid off half the staff and then embarked on a series of hare-brained schemes to raise revenue. Some of these schemes have been dumber than others, and none of them have even remotely worked, but that’s because nothing will work. I’m unable to conceive of any plan that would raise enough money to make Twitter a break-even proposition, let alone profitable. And the only alternative is to pump endless billions of personal dollars into it, not exactly an appealing proposition.

So, sure, Musk is destroying Twitter. But who wouldn’t? I don’t think there’s a human being on earth who could fix Twitter. At best they could be a little less flaky about sending it down the drain, but that’s probably all.

The MSG Sphere, the World’s Largest LED screen, lit up for the first time in Las Vegas on the 4th of July 2023. This $2.3 Billion Entertainment Venue at the Venetian Resort officially opens on September 29, 2023, but the video of it lit up is insane.

It certainly looks like something that you can’t ignore.

Todd Spangler, writing for Variety, has the story about an article that appeared on io9. The byline “Gizmodo Bot” wrote one of the worst listicle articles about Star Wars I’ve ever read.

“As you may have seen today, an AI-generated article appeared on io9,” James Whitbrook, deputy editor at io9 and Gizmodo, tweeted about the situation. “I was informed approximately 10 minutes beforehand, and no one at io9 played a part in its editing or publication.”

Whitbrook said he sent a statement to G/O Media along with “a lengthy list of corrections.” In part, his statement said, “The article published on io9 today rejects the very standards this team holds itself to on a daily basis as critics and as reporters. It is shoddily written, it is riddled with basic errors; in closing the comments section off, it denies our readers, the lifeblood of this network, the chance to publicly hold us accountable, and to call this work exactly what it is: embarrassing, unpublishable, disrespectful of both the audience and the people who work here, and a blow to our authority and integrity.”

He continued, “It is shameful that this work has been put to our audience and to our peers in the industry as a window to G/O’s future, and it is shameful that we as a team have had to spend an egregious amount of time away from our actual work to make it clear to you the unacceptable errors made in publishing this piece.”

A rep for G/O Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was hot garbage.

Drew Magary, writing for SFGATE, eviscerates David Zaslav and the handling of an article in GQ magazine.

Personally, I liked how he ended the piece.

David Zaslav is an eel who sucks at his job. He’s destroying HBO. He’s destroyed what bare credibility the DC Universe had left with moviegoers. He’s forced GQ to willingly debase itself. He’s destroyed TCM. And while he couldn’t get Licht to destroy CNN, he’ll find some other pair of docksiders to finish the job. 

It’s a fact that, in an age of mass consolidation, no one person could possibly run all of a billion-dollar entertainment conglomerate effectively. But David Zaslav has distinguished himself not only by being unable to run ANY part of one but also by being such a brazen coward about that fact. I shouldn’t know who this man is. But here he is, and now he should deal, in full, with what he’s wrought. He’s a parasite: a terrible CEO, an enemy to artists, and a lousy, horrible graduation speaker to boot. I hope he’s strapped to a chair and forced to watch “The Flash” on repeat for the rest of his pathetic little existence. And no, I’m not deleting this.

I have no idea if The Flash is any good or not, but that does sound like torture.

Tim Denning, writing on Medium, made a long list of potentially life-changing thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. Here are a couple of my favorites:

It’s cheaper to hire a professional than it is to invest in an amateur and save money.

Stay out of debates on the internet. You’ll never win and sh*tposters will agitate you more with memes that have nothing to do with the issue.

Don’t argue with your significant other before you go to bed. It carries the anger into the next day.

If you’re not sure how to handle someone, choose to be kind. Most people are nice & mean well. They just don’t always know how to express it.

Habits are nice. But systems are what automate your success.

Read more books than you read articles online. (note: I do not do this, like at all)

Call your parents more than it feels is enough. They’ll be gone sooner than you realize.

Whenever you feel fear, lean into it. Fear is free energy you can use to break through your limitations and achieve audacious goals.

Don’t take stupid risks like getting in the car with a drunk person. It won’t be okay.

All of them are worth reading.

Nicholas Bate –

Get on with it. Less victim, more volunteer. There are some for whom life has not been fair: we need to support them in whatever way we can. But for many of us, life is simply messy. Planet Earth-consistently voted the Best Planet in the Known Universe-cannot be perfect. It’s far too complex a system: there will be glitches. The energy put into complaining, attempting ‘to fix’ those who disagree and the simply being unpleasant is energy which could be spent hiking, building extra shelves for those wonderful second-hand books you bought or helping those more elderly safely across the road.

Twitter is officially launching its “new” version of TweetDeck to everyone, according to a tweet from Twitter’s support account, which is a step that it had to take to help mitigate some of the issues TweetDeck has been experiencing lately.

The switch comes with a potentially-heartbreaking catch: TweetDeck is going to become a Verified-only feature in 30 days, the account says, meaning you’ll need to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription to be able to use it.

I absolutely refuse to pay for Twitter Blue, so, if this goes through… I’m out.

From Sky Elements Drone Shows YouTube Page –

This Fourth of July, history was made. Sky Elements Drone Shows achieved the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the largest aerial sentence formed by multirotor/drones. 1,002 drones armed with bright LED lights took flight and dazzled the crowd with a show paying tribute to the history of the United States.

The centerpiece show of Sky Elements’ Fourth of July weekend allowed the company to break its own record by producing 40 shows over the holiday weekend using more than 10,000 drones.

The 10-minute record drone show surpassed all expectations and dazzled the audience, becoming the largest drone light show ever flown in Texas. The aerial ballet of drones showcased intricate formations of critical moments in American history and brought a sense of wonder and awe to audiences of all ages.

Sky Elements previously broke the state’s largest drone show record by flying 1,001 drones over the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sky Elements is spearheading the transition from traditional fireworks to awe-inspiring drone shows. Sky Elements will be coast to coast across the nation from Miami Beach to Los Angeles.

Shows will be flown in 11 of the 50 states, with nearly nine shows in California alone over the weekend. With their unwavering commitment to innovation and creativity, they are revolutionizing how Americans ring in the Fourth of July.

Why does this matter? The Fourth of July has long been synonymous with dazzling fireworks brightening the night sky in a flurry of colors and sparks. Still, this year marks a transformative shift as drone shows are poised to take center stage across the nation more meaningfully than years prior. Sky Elements is undoubtedly leading this transformative movement by combining hours of animation, precise logistics, and cutting-edge technology.

Drone light shows are a feast for the senses and a greener and safer alternative to traditional fireworks. Using drones significantly reduces the environmental impact associated with fireworks, eliminating harmful smoke and chemical residue. Additionally, drone shows mitigate safety concerns by eliminating the risks associated with fireworks accidents, making them a preferred choice for communities across America.

I expect drone shows will be the future.

Nicholas Bate –

1. Write for quantity.

2. Then edit for quality.

3. Write to the stopwatch with zero distractions.

4. Accept no excuses: fingers to keyboard same time, same place; rain or shine.

5. Do the day-job brilliantly so you become invaluable and you can negotiate more time for writing.

6. Write for love of word, sentence and story. Not for fame.

7. When not writing nor doing the day job, read the classics.