J.P. Hill, writing at Viva El Birdos, has a decent breakdown of how he thinks the St. Louis Cardinals should handle the upcoming off-season.

Entering 2025, the Cardinals should not bother merely tweaking or retooling their roster as they have done in recent seasons. It’s not working. They also don’t need to start tanking or hold a firesale and gut their roster. That’s an unnecessarily extreme course of action.

The Cardinals should rebuild. They should commit to making some significant and painful changes to their roster both to clear salary and roster space and to better position the MLB team and the farm system for the future. Yes, the approach that I am suggesting will almost certainly impact their ability to contend in 2025. But doing this now will help prepare their roster for a return to contention in 2026 or, more likely, 2027.

I like a lot of what he has here.

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This made me laugh so hard.

Over 40 years ago today, KISS had a special on MTV where they appeared for the first time without makeup. I did not see it live.

However, I did leave my high school at lunch (there was an open campus back then) to go to the local record store a few days later, buy the album Lick It Up, and see the photo on the cover. I’m sure that was the first time I’d seen the band sans makeup.

The video for the song “Lick it Up” received decent play on MTV, and I remember seeing it several times during normal viewing.

It’s strange now to think about how that event was such a pivotal part of my high school years.

Austin Kleon –

Your word of the week is “verbify.”

Nicholas Bate –

1. Your career. What are you doing this week to make it sustainable, enjoyable, and still viable 2 years from now?

2. Your wellness. How much are you simply moving? What's the quality of your nutrition? Sleeping sufficient? Taking some time out?

3. Your finances. A focus on quality of life? Or an addiction to stuff?

4. Your relationships. Quality vs. quantity?

5. Your fun. Not deferred. Combined with 1. Maximised because of 2. Not driven by 3. Supported by 4.

6. Your contribution. Giving back to stay grounded.

7. Set your direction before someone else does.

“To all the guys out there, here’s my life hack. Surround yourself with smart women and listen to them and you’ll do just fine.” — Tim Walz

He’s absolutely correct.

World Liberty Financial is the name the Trump family has given to an obvious cryptocurrency scam. Trump himself doesn’t have any idea how it works. Questions have arisen about what Trump is even doing with his new crypto company.

Whatever you do, don’t invest any real money into this “endeavor” and learn more about cryptocurrency and the scams associated with it. Seriously, you will lose all your money.

As they say in that world, NGMI.

Drone Awards 2024 – in pictures.

Writing at Defector, David Roth has a brilliant takedown of all the lies Trump and Vance are espousing all campaign season. The whole article is great, but I particularly liked how he describes Trump.

Donald Trump is one of the most thoroughly known quantities in American life; the country has been stuck in here with him for nearly a decade now. Everyone knows that there is nothing he would not say, simply because he believes that he can say whatever he wants; everyone knows that once he starts saying something, he will never stop saying it, and will in fact say it louder and make it bigger, because to do anything else would be not merely admitting error but, given how over-leveraged his whole being is on the issue of his own invincibility, something like death. Seeding the belief that undocumented immigrants will vote against him in the coming presidential election is very much something Trump would say, whether as an early excuse for losing, or as a sop to various longstanding reactionary fantasies, or as advance justification for some subsequent attempts to bring those fantasies to life. But also like most things he says, it is a sound he makes because he noticed that people responded to it. He is a boring, stupid man, a bigot and a liar, and so will only ever do the boring, stupid things he does for the most boring, stupid reasons.

Perfection.

The only thing I learned after not watching the Emmy’s last night is that I should watch Shōgun.

Forty years ago today, Miami Vice premiered on NBC. Born out of writer-producer Anthony Yerkovich growing awareness of the practice of asset forfeiture (and not a memo by Brandon Tartikoff that said “MTV cops”), and originally imagined as a movie, the five-season, 114-episode show would revolutionize television, with People magazine saying it was the “first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented.”

The show focuses on undercover Miami Dade Police Department detective James “Sonny” Crockett (played by Don Johnson) and his partner Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas). Edward James Olmos plays Marty Castillo, Saundra Santiago as Gina Calabrese, Olivia Brown as Trudy Joplin, Michael Talbot as Stan Switek, and John Diehl as Larry Zito. Elvis played Elvis (and so did Presley). Crockett and Tubbs lived life undercover, pretending to be wealthy drug runners, and looked the part. Tee-shirts under expensive European suits. Pastel colors. Shoes without socks. A calculator watch (just once). Ferrari Testarossa and Daytona. Living on one boat, and racing a bunch more. The look-and-feel was set by costume designers including Jodie Tillen, who shopped extensively in Europe to find the approximately 75 sets of clothing needed for each episode. In addition to the main cast, the show provided an opportunity for musicians and performers to try out their acting skills, and gave numerous future stars their first or one of their early acting credits, including Jimmy Smits in his (um, short-lived) acting debut. Ben Stiller (“I know what you’re thinking: Why do I need a glow-in-the-dark cross. I got a cross, right? Nighttime, pal. God can’t see in the dark."). Bruce Willis four months before the premier of Moonlighting. Steve Buscemi. Julia Roberts in her second acting role and five months before she became famous in Mystic Pizza. Chris Cooper. Dennis Farina who had recently quit the Chicago Police Department after serving 18 years to try out acting. Twenty-year old Kyra Sedgwick alongside Phil Collins. Another 20-year-old, Benicio Del Torro. Annette Bening, in one of her first non-stage roles. Liam Neeson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Richards, Stanley Tucci, and Helena Bonham Carter. Founding member of The Eagles Glenn Frey, who also provided music to the series. Lawrence Larry Fishburne, John Turturro, The Fat Boys, and Ed O’Neill three years before he became Al Bundy. Bill Paxton, Wesley Snipes, Oliver Platt, Michael Madsen, magicians Penn and Teller (though not together), John Leguizamo, Ving Rhames, Frank Zappa, John Michael Higgins, James Brown and Chris Rock (together, in perhaps the worst episode of the series, Missing Hours), and countless others. In an age of stale made-for-TV music, Miami Vice’s production team broke from the norm and spent considerably to buy music rights from contemporary artists. Across the series, 369 songs were played, including: Andy Taylor - When the Rain Comes Down Autograph - Turn Up the Radio Chaka Khan - Own the Night Don Henley - Dirty Laundry Don Johnson - Heartbeat Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is George Thorogood and The Destroyers - Bad to the Bone Gladys Knight & the Pips - Send It to Me Glenn Frey - You Belong to the City Glenn Frey - Smuggler’s Blues Grandmaster Melle Mel - Vice Jackson Browne - Lives in the Balance James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good) Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Devil with a Blue Dress On / Good Golly Miss Molly Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot Patti LaBelle and Bill Champlin - The Last Unbroken Heart Phil Collins - I Don’t Care Anymore Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight Phil Collins - Take Me Home Roxy Music - Lover Sheena Easton - Follow my Rainbow Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life Steve Jones - Mercy Stray Cats - Looking for Someone to Love The Damned - In Dulce Decorum The Hooters - Satellite The Pointer Sisters - I’m So Excited Tina Turner - Better Be Good to Me Yello - Call It Love Yello - Moon on Ice Miami Vice premiered “at a time when Miami and Miami Beach looked more like Scarface” than a vibrant city. When the show launched in 1984, the city was the murder capital of the United States, Time Magazine had recently called the area “Paradise Lost”, and the average age of someone living in South Beach was so high the area was known as “God’s waiting room." The concept of painting Miami’s historical art deco buildings in pastel colors had emerged in the late 1970s, the idea of Leonard Horowitz and Barbara Capitman, founders of the Miami Design Preservation League. When Miami Vice’s producers made the fateful decision to film all around the city, they put the show’s production budget - a then virtually unheard of $2M per episode - to work supporting the city’s transformation, repainting and refurbishing buildings so as to be able to use them as backgrounds and sets. As the New York Times wrote in 1989, “That the show was shot in rock-video style, offering a rapid-fire series of vivid images, made the settings not just backdrops for the scenes, but key to them. It was as if the city itself were a character in the show.” City preservationists seized on the popularity of the show to help pass laws protecting the historic art deco buildings featured throughout the series from future demolition. According to Miami historian Paul George, “it took a show like that to … really appreciate the uniqueness and the unusual glamor of this place." Miami’s then-mayor Alex Daoud agreed, saying at the time that those pastel buildings had become “one of the greatest assets we have.” Miami Vice would ultimately garner 20 Emmy nominations (and four wins), seven Golden Globe Award nominations (and 2 wins), two Grammy awards, two People’s Choice Awards, and further nominations for the Directors Guild of America Awards and Edgar Awards. The show wrapped up its five-year run in June 1989, but Jan Hammer’s theme song - which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 - lives on.

HT: Metafilter

Tito Jackson, along with brothers Michael, Jermaine, Jackie, and Marlon, was a founding member of the iconic family group the Jackson 5. He died Sunday at age 70. His sons Taj, Taryll, and TJ remembered him on Instagram.

Donald Trump told his supporters how he felt about Kamala Harris' most famous booster on his stupid Twitter clone. He wrote, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” which might be the stupidest thing a presidential candidate can say in 2024.

Although, to be fair, “They’re eating the dogs!” is up there.

This story by Elizabeth Laura Nelson in the Modern Love section of The New York Times wrecked me.

Read it via RemovePaywall and prepare to cry.

Also, call your best guy/girl friend. They might just need to hear your voice.

James Clear:

Exploration is how you discover what works.

Persistence is how you make the most of what already works.

What does your situation require? More exploration or more persistence?

Nicholas Bate –

Choose:

1. Love
2. Effectiveness
3. Reading
4. Wellness
5. Creativity
6. Music
7. Mountains & Coast

and things can only get better.

Obviously, we need a good debate recap right about now. And who better to moderate it than Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

Joe really comitts to this bit and the song is kind of catchy.

Signing her post as “Childless Cat Lady,” music megastar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I was impressed with her eloquent and clear writing. In the post, she explained how she’d been alarmed by seeing an AI video of herself saying something she didn’t say. Do celebrity endorsements matter? MAGA thinks so since they are freaking out. Also, Elon Musk is just freaking weird.

Kamala Harris beat the shit out of Donald Trump in their first (and likely last) debate.

She destroyed him.

She broke him.

She killed it.

She shattered his glass ego.

It was the strong performance that Democrats had hoped to see. Every time, Trump took the bait and looked like a “raving loon.”

Even Fox News wasn’t feeling their man’s performance—“Make no mistake” about his “bad night,” said one presenter. It looks like the beginning of the end.

The Washington Post says this is the fifth biggest victory out of 25 debate polls dating back to 1984. Also, shares of his company are now tumbling following the awful performance.

It really was a terrible, no-good performance. Of course, when he “loses,” the blame is on everyone but himself. When he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, it’s unfair, rigged, somebody cheated, and everything he did was perfect. This act is tiresome.

I totally agree with John Scalzi about Trump.

Donald Trump was at the best any of us will ever see him again. This was the one place and time where he was meant to be prepared, coherent and presidential, where he was not surrounded by handlers, coddlers and sycophants. This was meant to be the one place and time where he was meant to keep his id and his ego in check, put voters and Americans first, and make a case for a second shot at the presidency. This was the one place and time where his worst and most self-indulgent impulses were supposed to be reined in. This was Trump on his best and most decent behavior, or at the very least, the best and most behavior he is capable of. We see how that went.

It’s unlikely Trump will do another debate, because Trump doesn’t like being a loser, and he lost this debate even more comprehensively than he lost the 2020 election. From here he’ll retreat into the safe little world of right-wing media, where even his most unhinged pronouncements are met with respectful nodding and agreement. He’ll double down on his hate and his ranting and his inability to censor even the most embarrassing of thoughts. And if, after all of that, he’s still rewarded with a second term, then all his resentment and seething inadequacy will find a focus on anyone and everyone who ever made him feel a fool, and this time, he won’t bother having anyone around him who will tell him no.

Last night is the best Trump will ever be from here on out. At his very best, then, he is a loser, a fraud, a racist, a criminal and an embarrassment. He has no plan other than to avoid prison. He has nothing to him but anger and cowardliness and revenge. It’s impossible at this point that anyone doesn’t know this. No one who is voting for him at this point can pretend they are voting for anything other than that. No one who is somehow still “undecided” at this point can be under the delusion that he will somehow improve.

I’m a huge fan of Tycho and his electronic ambient instrumental style. The artist uploaded his annual Burning Man Sunrise Set 2024 to Soundcloud. If you don’t have Spotify, you can check out more of his music on his Soundcloud page.

Right now, I’m jamming to his brand-new album, Infinite Health.