I loved this post from Niklas Göke.

How often do you sit in a quiet room, by yourself, before you take the next step? It could be any step: buying bread, heading to the office, opening your laptop to send an email, powering up your gaming console, reading a book, making dinner, taking a nap, calling a friend, writing a blog post, or submitting your vacation plans to your boss.

That step can begin one of two ways: from quiet or from noise. Nowadays, our default is to start from noise. There’s a TV playing in the background or a constant murmur of co-working small talk. We inject music, TED talks, and podcasts right into our ears. Open spaces have turned up the volume on office buzz. How often do we choose our own beginnings? When do we get to set the terms of the next stage without some stream of interference drilling into our consciousness? Whenever we pick quiet.

You can make quiet, you know? Find it. Go for a walk. Sit in an empty room. Close the door. Take off your headphones. Escape the chatter. It is remarkable what two minutes of quiet do for the brain, and how different a new beginning feels when you decide to make it from nothing rather than something — because that’s what you’re doing, you know? All day, you turn nothing into something, but if the intention isn’t clear, it’ll fall right back to ashes.

Protect your moments of setting intentions. Create the space to choose them deliberately. Take off from quiet, and you’ll find a much stronger wind beneath your wings.

I try to do this and fail all the time.

Gilbert Gottfried, whose amazingly grating voice so perfectly illustrated his abrasive brand of comedy, is dead at 67.

“In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children,” the Gottfried family said in a statement on his Twitter account. “Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor.”

He was a rare comedian who managed to make a career telling some of the most memorable dirty jokes while also having a prolific run in some of the biggest family-friendly films and TV shows.

John DeVore, writing at his site Humungus, explains the mind of the current Republican Party simply and without any pretension.

It is obvious that their plan to win back the House and Senate during the 2022 midterm elections is straight from their oldest playbook: preach prejudice, spread lies, and legitimize fears, no matter how irrational.

And here’s the crux of everything Republican today:

What is most galling about right-wingers, though, is how proud they are of their intolerance, as if it makes them special little snowflakes. They spit hatred at cis women and trans women and people of color and they do it with their noses in the air, all superior and haughty. They wear their bigotry like a gold star.

Their political strategies are morally offensive reruns from a past they should all be collectively ashamed of but they aren’t because winning is the sole goal, no matter the carnage. This retreat back to the old ways is a symptom of ideological rot — at the moment, conservatives believe in nothing but whatever gains them a short-term advantage on the TV, on social media, and at the ballot box.

And so they tell the faithful and those full of doubts that their fears are noble, righteous even. A white man in this country will sell out his neighbor if you nod approvingly as he explains one of his convoluted, paranoid conspiracy theories. “What’s that Mike? The Democrats are actually a secret Satanic sex cult? Sure!”

I’m so, so tired of this bullshit.

Warren Ellis wrote a new short story entitled WATCHTOWER, and it’s a fun read. Here’s how Ellis pitched it to potential readers:

I was in the mood to try some pop-sci Andy Weir style good time writing, a mood that was responding to the preponderance of Sad Astronaut stories in tv and film. It has a jumpcut sort of structure, because I also was thinking about the idea of the condensed novel, in JG Ballard’s conception, and connecting that with a certain style of film editing — Christopher Rouse with Paul Greengrass on THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, for example. It kind of took a turn during the writing, which I personally ascribe to watching two seasons of Ed Stafford’s FIRST MAN OUT.

Anyway. I wrote it. And 10,000 words is worse than a novella. I don’t think Kindle Singles are a thing any more, and it had no other utility other than having amused me to write it and get it out of my system.

I dunno how I’d describe it. Indiana Holmes And The Case Of Elon Musk’s Rendezvous With Rama? It’s a bit of fun, but it’s also about human damage, exploration and colonising. It probably makes no sense at all. If you decide to read it, I hope it at least amuses you.

It’s definitely Indiana Holmes And The Case Of Elon Musk’s Rendezvous With Rama.

Nicholas Bate on writing:

Incredibly, there are whole new alternate universes hidden deep in your brain. Unique to you.

Writing will access them.

He’s not wrong.

Rebecca Toh, writing on her site, explains where she’s at with self-improvement.

There is simply no imaginary day in the bright future ahead when we’d wake up in the morning transformed, an ideal version of ourselves.

There is only transforming in the here and the now.

She is absolutely right. I want to improve myself and become that idealized version, but I also like French fries and pizza. What do I want more? That’s the question.

Honestly, this is what everyone really wanted at the start.

Niklas Goke wrote something worthwhile about “newness” and “nowness.”

In Effortless, Greg McKeown muses that “the word now comes from a Latin phrase, novus homo, which means ‘a new man’ or ‘man newly ennobled.’” The etymology may differ, but the essence is true: Now is new. Actually, now can be new.

Sometimes, now is new without our doing. One second we have a job, the next we don’t. One moment the sun shines, the next it rains. More often than not, however, new is neutral because we choose it to be. We could wear a different mood, pick a new identity, or throw away or phone — but we don’t.

We don’t because we’re comfortable, afraid, doubtful, stuck, hurt, or stubborn, but it’s not uncertainty we’re stealing time from. The seconds we take when playing it safe come out of our own pockets. And tomorrow, the uncertainty will still be there.

“Each new moment is a chance to start over,” Greg says. “A chance to make a new choice.”

Make sure now is new.

I feel like I play it safe a great deal. Maybe I shouldn’t be so comfortable.

Damn it. I’m going to have to break down and get Paramount+ aren’t I?

In 2002, a 15-year-old Quebec boy named Ghyslain Raza filmed himself swinging a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s double-bladed light saber from The Phantom Menace. The private video leaked onto the internet and became perhaps the biggest viral video of the pre-Youtube era under the name “The Star Wars Kid.” Traumatized by the ensuing ridicule and bullying, Raza has spoken about the video only once before, and the man who initially helped popularize it, Andy Baio (MetaFilter’s own), has declined to be interviewed about it. They talk together for the first time about this formative moment in unwelcome internet fame in a new documentary Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows/Dans l’ombre du Star Wars Kid streaming free from the National Film Board of Canada.

H/T: Metafilter

Dave Pell, the managing editor of the Internet, has had enough:

A request from the managing editor to the internet I cover: Stop. Seriously, stop with the bothsidesing think-pieces about Will Smith’s slap. I’m sure Alopecia can be a traumatic condition, but this isn’t story about Alopecia. We’re not even sure Chris Rock knew about Jada’s condition, and even if he had, it’s still not an Alopecia story. It’s also not a race story. It’s not a toxic male story. There are not two sides to this story. Here’s the whole story: Will Smith snapped and slapped and the audience clapped. The guy starting whaling on someone in the middle of the Academy Awards. Jim Carrey summed it up: “I would have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video is going to be there forever. It’s going to be ubiquitous. That insult is going to last a very long time. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse. It really felt like: ‘Oh, this is really a clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.’” That’s it. Like the swelling on Chris Rock’s face, there’s only one side to this story. Jim Carrey got it right, and even though he’s famous for doing so, it’s the rest of the internet that’s talking out of its ass.

Now why would I bring this story up again, other than to whine about headlines that irritate news curators like me? Because this is an example of the same kind of asinine false equivalence that we’ve seen soil the media for the past several years. There were not two sides to Trump’s habitual lying. There are not two sides to the vaccine debate. There are not two sides to the potential upside of using disinfectant on the inside of your body. There are not two sides to the climate change debate. There are not two sides to the Jan 6 insurrection story. There are not two sides to the 2020 election results. Yesterday, Donald Trump requested that Vladimir Putin dig up and share dirt on Joe Biden’s family. At a time of war, that’s straight up treachery, the kind of anti-American garbage this criminal has been spewing for years. End of story.

Being unbiased does not mean giving lies the same weight as the truth. What you see and hear happening is what’s really happening, and it’s about time the media started reporting things that way, instead of making bad decisions like ABC ‘s hiring of Chris Christie or terrible ones like CBS News’ hiring of Mick Mulvaney as a paid contributor. Mick Mulvaney is what we call in the business, a stone cold liar. He once argued that Covid coverage was an attempt to bring down the president. And that’s just for starters. Why would this clown be hired by CBS News? So we can pretend that his bullshit side of the story is just as valid as the truth? Because maybe the Trumpian scumbags who did everything possible to destroy our country at home and abroad may have a perfectly valid reason for doing so? Because maybe Chris Rock’s face jumped in front of Will Smith’s hand?

Yeah. What he said.

Andre Curbelo has entered the transfer portal. I am not surprised, but I am a little sad. He had one of the best freshman seasons last year and one of the worst sophomore seasons this year. Perhaps, as everyone seems to say, a fresh start would do wonders for him and the Fighting Illini Men’s Basketball program.

Robert Rosenthal, writing at IlliniBoard, has a few thoughts. I’d like to share what I think is the most important part.

…Remember the player he helped up during the first exhibition game when his teammates left him hanging? Remember that one tweet from a TV reporter near the court (can’t remember which game) who reported that an official went to Curbelo (who was in street clothes) and asked him “do you understand your role (on the bench)?” This is all part of the Andre Curbelo experience. He observes a reporter typing without looking and interrupts and NCAA press conference to talk about it. He observes someone reaching out to block a free throw and takes his complaint directly to the officials.

Personally, I love it. He’s so incredibly unique. Put all the basketball aside — I very much enjoy people who see the world through a different lens. The way he sees the court is the way he sees the world.

Unfortunately, I think it was very difficult to see through that lens after everything that happened this season. Last year’s confidence in March became this year’s uneasiness. Whatever the lasting effects were — and remember, he was cleared from the concussion and played three games before it was determined that something wasn’t right and he was shut down for 55 days so it wasn’t “he got a concussion and sat for two months” — he was never really back to Belo. The mental and the physical never got back in sync.

I hope he gets back to being himself. Post-concussion, the only glimmer was the Purdue game, and I think that took a toll on him physically and mentally. I am sorry to see him go. I’m not sure the player we got at the end of his freshman year was ever returning. He was unique, but I’m not sure he has the right mindset to overcome his deficiencies, which was a red flag.

You can be a six-foot point guard in college if you are getting a ton of assists, running the offense, not making turnovers, and going 110% on the defensive end. Curbelo was a smart defensive player and could occasionally make passes others could not, but his numbers were not good this year, and he was obviously hurting all year.

I want Illinois basketball to get taller, more athletic, have a higher basketball IQ, and be less prone to mistakes.

Good luck, Dre. I hope you turn it around.

pic.twitter.com/Q1CoB8REUW

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) March 28, 2022

I still can’t quite believe it.

Here’s the Jomboy breakdown you didn’t think you needed but will give you all the necessary context for the slap heard ‘round the world at the 2022 Oscars.

Personally, I watched Will Smith smack Chris Rock live. He then went on to win the best actor award and deliver a rambling, semi-coherent speech about being a vessel for love. I don’t get it.

The fact that Will Smith wasn’t arrested for assault right after hitting Chris Rick on national television just shows you how different rich people are treated compared to the middle class and poor. I want people arrested and fired for assaulting people. I guess if you are rich and famous, you can get away with it. Where have I heard that before?

I am trying to imagine just how famous and privileged you must be to get out of your seat at the Academy Awards, slap someone, sit back down and heckle, and then win the Oscar. The answer is Will Smith famous.

He should have been escorted out of the room. If that meant he could not claim his Best Actor statue, all the better.

Was the joke tasteless? I thought it was pretty light. Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia.

She wasn’t going through cancer treatments. Still, I get the whole “defend your wife because she just gave Rock and then you the stink eye.” But also, overreact much?

It was a moment of toxic masculinity by an actor that disgraced not just himself but the event itself.

No one will remember it was the first time a streaming service (Apple TV+) won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for CODA. That in and of itself is mind-blowing and should be addressed by the industry. No one will remember Jane Campion’s win, Troy Kotsur’s, or anyone else’s win.

It will just be the Oscars where Will Smith smacked Chris Rock, and that’s sad.

Kat Bouza has the story for Rolling Stone:

Taylor Hawkins, the jovial, ferocious drummer for Foo Fighters for more than two decades, has died at the age of 50, according to a statement from the band.

“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” read the message, which was posted to social media. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever.” Foo Fighters are currently on tour in South America and were scheduled to perform at Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, Colombia, at the time of Hawkins’ death, a rep for the band told Rolling Stone. No cause of death was given.

It’s disappointing and sad. I’m sure drugs will be involved or some undiagnosed condition which the illegal substances he was using messed him up.

All anyone will remember is Dave Grohl was a drummer of a band who lost their singer, then he became the singer of a band who lost their drummer.

This documentary on the making of Japanese swords, narrated by George Takei, offers a fascinating look at the exhaustive process of forging samurai swords.

In the 1969 short documentary The Japanese Sword as the Soul of the Samurai, the US filmmaker Kenneth Wolfgang (1931-2011) is allowed rare access to the Tokyo workshop of a master samurai swordsmith to explore the craft and history behind the iconic Japanese weapon. Instantly recognisable for its elegant shape and sharp cutting edge, the samurai sword was long one of the most fearsome weapons in the world, as well as an object of great symbolic importance in premodern Japan. Here, its creation is documented in rich detail as a swordsmith and his apprentices hammer, fold and weld to create a near-perfect steel blade in a process that melds expert craftsmanship with Shinto religious ritual. Alongside the workshop footage, Wolfgang uses traditional Japanese woodblock paintings, dolls and the narration of the US actor George Takei (Lt Sulu in Star Trek) to take the audience through the sword’s history — from its mythological origins and into the 20th century, well past the samurai era. In doing so, Wolfgang demystifies the object for Western audiences while also conveying its deep significance to Japanese history and myth.

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (R), during today’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson:

I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities.

I’m sorry, but no shit. Having televised hearings like this always defeats the purpose of transparency and allows the jackasses to have a platform to strut their bullshit for soundbites and viral videos.

Rick Beato plays the demo he made with a country duo, Muddy Magnolia, that was lost to the sands of time, and it sounds like something you should’ve heard on the radio.

I enjoyed the Muddy Magnolia live version, but the demo is better.

Dan Sinker, writing for Esquire, wonders what is normal after two years of the pandemic.

Going back to normal is the wrong direction anyway. We need to move forward, to build new lives, better lives. Lives that address the inequalities laid bare in the pandemic, that pay people doing work we deemed “essential” two years ago wages that reflect it; lives that offer healthcare that doesn’t just address the current emergency but the fact that all of us live on a razor’s edge all the time; lives that give parents the support they desperately need; lives that lift up black and brown people who bore the brunt of the pandemic’s harshest outcomes; lives that feel like they’re worth living, for everyone. It’s possible. I have to believe it’s possible.

I love the idea of moving forward. We probably aren’t going back to the way it was in February 2020 ever again. It all changed when March Madness was canceled, and Tom Hanks got COVID. Maybe the turning point was when celebrities started dying like John Prine, Adam Schlesinger, Terrence McNally, Nick Cordero, and Herman Cain.

In any case, we must learn from our mistakes and go on. It’s the only way to do better. Everyone should learn from this experience, dismiss the old ways’ familiarity, and start thinking about the new.

New is the new normal.

From Derek Volner in the ESPN Press Room:

ESPN has signed acclaimed play-by-play commentator Joe Buck and leading football analyst Troy Aikman to multi-year deals, as the NFL’s longest current booth pairing and Pro Football Hall of Fame members will become the new voices of Monday Night Football. The iconic duo’s 2022 Monday Night Football debut will mark their 21st NFL season in the booth together, matching the legendary Pat Summerall and John Madden’s all-time record as on-air NFL partners. In their two decades together, Buck and Aikman have called six Super Bowls, surpassing all other pairings/booths except for Summerall and Madden. […]

Buck and Aikman are the best duo since Madden and Michaels. It’s a good lineup and should put the shine back on Monday Night Football.