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The first part is me. I just think we’ve enabled belief systems to such an extent that there’s no shared reality and people demand non-facts are real. It’s weird times, folks.

 

 

But the second part is The Onion, as always, on point decades ago. I hate bumming people out, man. Everyone’s mental health is important, and I don’t go around wearing this t-shirt:

 

At least, not too often. So love to you, and if you like the band The Eagles, just skip to the Space Title, below. No need for me to ruin your mellow. But it’s just too funny a story. However, if you like Hall & Oates, call this number and all will be well: 719-266-2837

 

It’s just the story behind the following dialogue has so much history and impact from a movie and music perspective, and I love it so much. And if you like the Eagles, AGAIN, skip this and get past the embedded video of Townes Van Zandt’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers”:

“I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man!”

The quote obviously from the Coen Brothers “Big Lebowski”. I just edited out some mean spirited stuff, so I’ll let the T-Bone Burnett anecdote do the talking… but it’s really because I wanted to embed Townes Van Zandt. I’ve never embedded him.

Here’s Rolling Stone telling the story of the Big Lebowski soundtrack:

A tougher get was Townes Van Zandt’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers,” which plays over Lebowski‘s closing credits. “[Former Stones manager] Allen Klein owns the rights to it,” Burnett says. “He wanted $150,000.” Burnett begged Klein to just come down and watch an early cut of Lebowski. “It got to the part where the Dude says, ‘I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man!’ Klein stands up and says, ‘That’s it, you can have the song!’ That was beautiful.” For the record, Burnett agrees with the Dude (“[The Eagles] sort of single-handedly destroyed that whole scene that was brewing back then,” he says), but the line infuriated Glenn Frey. “I ran into [Frey] and he gave me some shit,” Jeff Bridges says. “I can’t remember what he said exactly, but my anus tightened a bit.”

 

I will leave it at this: “Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them.” – Quit Defending the Eagles, they’re simply terrible.  https://www.salon.com/2013/08/08/quit_defending_the_eagles_theyre_simply_terrible/

 

But, like Jeff Buckley with Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah”, there are certain moments someone’s cover of an original transcends the original version, and man… I do *NOT* hear the Stones when I read these lyrics, not ever:

 

But all that being said, I’m an idiot.

“Arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. It’ll just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut about like it’s won anyway.” – Anonymous

 

Also, I don’t do this much, but I did put a lot of work into a few posts this week. And it’s BUSY. But they’re also buried down below…  So enjoy:

This is a list of the best horror films for spooky season:

Weirdest Post Ever: There’s a world of people that enjoy and catalogue “Hold Music”

 

This is all the Norm and more, plus playlists:

Weirdest Post Ever: There’s a world of people that enjoy and catalogue “Hold Music”

 

SPACE TITLE (it’s a bit)

 

 

 

  • Interesting clarification from last week… it wasn’t just solar flares dropping rovers into safe mode, but that once every two years Earth and Mars end up with orbits that has the sun interrupting line of sight, so it’s a bit trickier to communicate! That Perseverance and Curiosity are just chugging along, alone on a dead planet… it’s emotional guys.

 

  • Man, I love these Rovers and the Orbiter. The latter caught Perseverance from space, chugging along. Little Rover That Could:

HiRISE Spots Perseverance in South Séítah https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/hirise-spots-perseverance-in-south-seitah

 

The white speck is NASA's Perseverance rover in the South Séítah area of Mars' Jezero Crater. The image was taken by the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera.

 

of course:

 

 

  • Follow Oleg!

 

Actually how the rovers take selfies is sorta cool and technical:

 

 

“A beautiful sequence of 53 images taken by the monitoring cameras on board the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission as the spacecraft made its first close flyby of its destination planet Mercury on 1 October 2021.”

 

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY

 

  • Some rare puppers, trapped by lava on the island of La Palma, have a drone come and deliver water and food. I mean… some people had the drone do that. The dogs didn’t press a button to have it happen, or anything. I am sure they were happy, and I’ll work on language.

 

  • A nuclear reactor turning on:
@rbmk1ooo?????? ???????? ????????. ?? ????? ???????? ????????-?????????. #?????????????? #???????? #????????? ???????????? ???? – Yaroslav

 

 

  • Archive.org for its 25th anniversary is parodying its Wayback Machine with a Wayforward Machine, and a warning about the future of the internet. Search any website here, and role play the frustration of cost, tracking, and truth. https://wayforward.archive.org/ia2046/

 

 

  • I know Russia’s psyops have informed the world that “if you want to defeat an enemy, you don’t go to war with them, but destroy them from within”. To do that, you need to recruit those who don’t necessarily use critical faculties to objectively deconstruct their reality, instead using their “guy” to believe whatever fits their selective perception, and confirmation bias. Guess who those people might be? Remember, mistakes of reason and flawed beliefs have little to do with actual intelligence. There are plenty of smart people that have fallen victim to bad reasoning. It’s more about using critical thought than smarts, and we simply don’t teach it in schools. You know how parents would freak out on administrators if their children started questioning them? Especially when religion deliberately spreads misinformation, at its core, without it being actively exploited. WELL… now it’s being actively exploited:

90% of the top Christian Facebook pages were run by Eastern European troll farms “Our platform has given the largest voice in the Christian American community to a handful of bad actors, who, based on their media production practices, have never been to church,” the leaked report admits. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/09/90-top-christian-facebook-pages-run-eastern-european-troll-farms/

I LOVE FOG HARPS

These things have been proposed all over the SF Bay. https://www.commercialinteriordesign.com/insight/fogharvesting-robots-proposed-san-francisco

‘Fog-harvesting robots’ proposed for San Francisco

This city project is awesome: https://www.future-cities-lab.net/hydramax

And this: https://www.archdaily.com/225876/hydramax-port-machines-future-cities-lab

 

Want to make your own fog harp to capture water??

Here you go! —-> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/catch-water-from-the-air/

 

  • Deep Fake Machine Learning AI:

NATURE YOU SO COOL

 

First time in history!

 

  • Hypno-Reindeer:

 

Norm Macdonald and COMEDY

 

“I’m pretty sure, I’m not a doctor — but I’m pretty sure if you die, the cancer dies at the same time. That’s not a loss. That’s a draw.

“Death is a funny thing. Not funny haha, like a Woody Allen movie, but funny strange, like a Woody Allen marriage” – Norm MacDonald

This is the clip, and all you need. It’s not totally funny… there’s laughs, jokes. Norm talks Straight Line and Richard Farnsworth… and that if he had any cancer “You don’t know if I do or don’t”, that he wouldn’t talk about it, and he thinks the bravest thing is to not alert people, worry people, or profit off people’s concerns. The most amazing of men, and I took a solid life lesson from this… about strength, and grace:

 

Here’s a post with so much Norm hilarity:

Weirdest Post Ever: There’s a world of people that enjoy and catalogue “Hold Music”

 

Here’s Norm Macdonald holding a weiner dog.

 

And Dave dedicated his special that was released this week to him:

 

Also, after Garry Shandling, Bob Einstein, and Norm… is Jerry’s “Comedians in Cars getting coffee” killing comics?

 

  • One Minute for unscripted hilarity on Johnny Carson. This was a legendary moment.

 

 

  • Sounds about right. The guy that used to encourage people to finish eating the horse penis on a game show is the absolute first stop on where to get your information. But a serious question is what happens to people? Joe wasn’t always like this.

Image

 

MOVIES AND TV

 

  • This Costa gent is going viral for uploading test footage of his role as Robin Williams, and this feels like a leaked Deadpool test footage scenario:

 

 

  • It’s been proven that Sean Connery’s character in “The Rock” (it’s 25 years old ugh) was James Bond. This is the thread, but the embedded video below it explains it. Everything works with the timelines, and both Bay and Connery have nodded to this theory in past comments.

 

 

 

  • Doug Kenney, who started National Lampoon magazine, and their radio, new improv groups, and eventually… most of the people involved ended up on a little show called SNL, and his two movies Animal House and Caddyshack. If comedy, SNL, National Lampoon, or any of that hits home, this movie “A Stupid and Futile Gesture” is a star studded cast of a star studded period of time.

Will Forte as Douglas Kenney
Martin Mull as modern Douglas
Jon Daly as Bill Murray
Nelson Franklin as P.J. O’Rourke
John Gemberling as John Belushi
Rick Glassman as Harold Ramis
Seth Green as Christopher Guest
Ed Helms as Tom Snyder
Joe Lo Truglio as Brad Zotti
Matt Lucas as Tony Hendra
Natasha Lyonne as Anne Beatts
Joel McHale as Chevy Chase
Jackie Tohn as Gilda Radner
David Krumholtz & Mitch Hurwitz as Time-Life Publishers
Michael Sherman as Ed Sullivan
Chris Redd as Skeptical Black Man
Armen Weitzman as Lorne Michaels
Lonny Ross as Ivan Reitman
Brian Huskey as John Landis
Erv Dahl as Rodney Dangerfield
Paul Scheer as Paul Shaffer
A photo of Paul Rudd, who has appeared in many of Wain’s projects, was used as Larry Kroger.

 

  • Want another great cast? 1998’s “Homegrown” about the weed business in California:

John Lithgow, Kelly Lynch (Roadhouse, Cocktail, etc), Billy Bob Thornton, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hank Azaria, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ryan Phillippe, Jon Bon Jovi, Judge Reinhold, Ted Danson, Steve Carell. Unreal casting for what I remember being a really well crafted little indie film directed by Jake and Maggie’s poppa: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119305/reference

 

  • Not only is Disney growing up… R-Rated Alien and Deadpool, handing out IP for films like Free Guy to poke fun, and now something I don’t think anyone saw coming… Daredevil Season 4 with the original cast from Netflix is rumored to be set up by the Hawkeye spinoff Echo, which will reunite some old Netflix show favorites to set up new series (might also include Jessica Jones & Luke Cage). But… Bernthal returning as The Punisher is just epic. This is simply unreal and unheard of.

 

  • If you haven’t seen “I Think You Should Leave” on Netflix, season 2 has been out since July 6th. You are missing a cultural phenomenon, the likes of Kids in the Hall and Monty Python. That being said, this interview with Crashmore’s Santa Claus, named “Biff Wiff” (and this finally shows it’s a stage name), is a fantastic look at the life of an actor, both during the pandemic, and as an actor that just grinds. I’d not really thought about the vulnerability an actor must feel when handing over *their* work to a director and editor, who can just obliterate their good work. And when it’s bad, you don’t forget the name Biff Wiff. In fact, even if he does a bad job, they still gotta give him the 2 Mil.

The Real Detective Crashmore: Get To Know Biff Wiff, The Profane Santa Claus From ‘I Think You Should Leave’ https://uproxx.com/tv/biff-wiff-i-think-you-should-leave-santa-claus-interview/

 

 

 

  • How Jack Nicholson “Secretly” [ed note: my emphasis, it ain’t no secret, it’s smart negotiations) Made $90 Million For Playing Joker In Batman Jack Nicholson set the standard for big screen Jokers in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, but he ended up earning way more than his standard salary. https://screenrant.com/jack-nicholson-joker-batman-contract-90-million-how/

 

 

VIDEO GAMES

 

 

 

MUSIC

 

 

  • The most expensive cassette tapes ever sold on Discogs will melt your face… regularly $300 – $800 from 100 down to 25th most valuable…. but then into the **thousands**.

https://blog.discogs.com/en/top-100-most-expensive-cassettes

 

 

  • Little Simz w/ the jam:

 

 

  • Tears for Fears Announce First New Album in 17 Years Listen to The Tipping Point’s title track ahead of the album’s release next year https://consequence.net/2021/10/tears-for-fears-the-tipping-point-single-stream/

 

 

  • Interstellar on a pipe organ = greatness. Speaking of, my spooky season post has a mention of Grace Cathedral hosting a Saturday 30th October 2021 Nosferatu where they use the pipe organ to accompany the film.

 

SPOOKY SEASON is well loved by the internet

 

Here’s Jamie Lee Curtis at the new Halloween red carpet, dressed as her Mom from Psycho.

Jamie Lee Curtis

 

 

I am just losing my mind on adding horror sounds to a costume. That is terrifying.

@pyromancircusMy Siren Head costume making the arounds in LA for Spooktober! ????#SirenHead #SirenHeadcostume #sirenheadcosplay #creepy #scary #trevorhenderson #cryptid #spookyseason #spooktober #longbeach #losangeles #monster #stiltwalking #cosplayersoftiktok #haunted #performer #stiltcostume @garyfaycreations? original sound – user3268739712945

 

 

Pinhead is sulking over in the corner. =( Poor Pinhead

 

 

  • Remember walking around a VHS store *way too young* to be seeing the VHS cover art from horror movies, both scaring you but drawing you in? I sure do. So here’s something I miss VERY much… VHS cover art from 1970s-1990s horror films:

The VHS Horror Movie Cover Art that enthralled and captivated you in your youth, from the late 70s to early 90s.

 

 

 

 

@lights.are.offwhat should we call these guys?? original sound – LIGHTS ARE OFF

 

  • BTW THE SQUID GAME MEMES lol. WATCH THE DEPRESSING SHOW EVEN IF A GUY MARC SAYS NO. What an argument against remakes… the most popular show in the history of Netflix, and maybe TV History, is the most violent and horrific thing. Don’t sleep on Squid Games folks, and if you don’t… I’ll stop saying don’t sleep.

 

Some movie recs for the month of SPOOKY October!

 

  • This took FOREVER. And then I screwed it up and had to scrape bad code, but I can’t NOT give you my list of favorite scary films that are all Lovecraft odes, or adjacent horror. It’s a list of Cosmic Horror / Body Horror rooted in Lovecraft, and that list is FANTASTIC and I would watch every single movie again. These aren’t specifically the most violent of horror, but the most brutal and gut punching. If you’ve seen Darabont’s “The Mist”, you’ll know what I am talking about. If you haven’t start there. The notion of Cosmic / Lovecraftian horror is that the protagonists encounter a reality bending unknowability that creates a madness of dread and confusion. It’s basically when your world starts to fall apart, literally.

Weirdest Post Ever: There’s a world of people that enjoy and catalogue “Hold Music”

 

  • If you like scary versions of 48 hours, a documentary called Cropsey is okay, but if you are truly into horror, skip it. They try to marry a Staten Island urban legend to a true-crime terrible man who very likely hurt children. It’s got a film school “we try too hard” vibe, and my wife and I were let down a bit as a LOT of the talk around it hypes it over the top as amazing. That being said, we’re real into horror, so it didn’t do what what we thought it was trying to achieve, FOR US. But it’s a highly acclaimed documentary that’s gotten high marks from most critics, and worth it if you like the “making a murderer” or “dateline” type stuff.

 

 

  • I think I would say to Jason Blum that I do not appreciate what he’s done to the horror world. I may be unfair in saying he’s the Uwe Boll of horror, in that studios know he can churn out low quality matinee horror fare and mint cash for the suits. I am also not that into James Wan, but he’s done some good work in horror. It’s fine. I mean, obviously who am I, while he has a few of the highest grossing horror film franchises of all time with Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring. Saw did reboot horror in some way, where he thankfully started marrying actual narrative to the left turn of grindcore torture porn that was happening at the time. I wonder what Eli Roth is up to? But James…  Thank you for that sir. And he looks so happy! =) Cute.

Director James Wan marries actress Ingrid Bisu, Entertainment News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

The marketing for this film has been bonkers, and there is zero chance you haven’t run across this poster.

Malignant (2021) - IMDb

It’s worth a rec, but for me *personally* it is somewhat overhyped (ie too much marketing and word of mouth for me, so I’ll be part of then LOL). BUT the hype is legit and quite real, for good reason. Wan’s new “Malignant” does deserve the hubub. Do not watch the trailer, however, I’ve got to assume it’s a rare experience that completely hides all the good stuff, though, because some of the third reel is as insane as I’ve really seen for twists. That being said, the first 30-35 minutes feel like an absolutely phoned in and pat throwaway of a horror film, and I’d be curious if you think James Wan deliberately winked at the audience with delivering what seemed to be trope after trope of bad horror in that period of time. THEN? Hold on to your seats. It’s on HBO MAX.

 

SOCIETY, CULTURE, MAD MAX TYPE EVENTS WITH NEON, AS ONE DOES

 

  • I am a nobody, and I love it. I am unknown, and it’s freedom. I didn’t always think this, but now I want to be anonymous forever, and never go viral. If you are curious about modern “fame”, beyond just being a rat in a cage… go look at your tik tok influencer or IG star, then crawl their social accounts for a few minutes, and then see where they’re posting on reddit, or substack, or wherever… and just realize fame is the myth of Sisyphus, but the boulder is the grind towards relevance. It’s no wonder people are increasingly insane to be noticed… it just breaks people. People seek things they think they want for happiness, and it delivers the opposite.

To Be Happy, Hide From the Spotlight: Even if you have no interest in being a pop star or the president, beware the siren song of prestige. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/10/fame-prestige-happiness-trap/620379/

 

  • Bill Maher isn’t a smart guy, and if you think that… look at yourself. However, I’m sharing a clip, because his writers finally gave him something that wasn’t ironically moronic. I’m hoping this sentiment wakes up some people in Trump’s camp… but holy crap we’re doomed if the midterms and 2024 go this way, which isn’t “crazy” to assume is the path.

 

 

  • But, there’s people doing good. Here’s a rescue group with puppies in a plane:
@cassventuresRescue flight! All puppies have been adopted ????? Good Day – Nappy Roots

 

  • However, required reading as a counterpoint. Also, I’m not sure they’re this smart, but who knows. Anyway… master the fear.

Opinion | Fear sells. It’s our job not to give in to it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/05/fear-sells-dark-times-america-needs-courage If you feel, as so many do today, that these are some of America’s worst days, if you fear for the future of this democratic republic, then your duty is to master the fear and refuse to be governed by it. If the voice on TV is trying to scare you, turn it off. If your social media leave you anxious, shut them down. Let the worst of times bring out the best of you, for a light shines brightest in the dark.

 

  • When the Wangs shot Smoke in 1995, they took outtakes and put them in a film “Blue in the Face“, both films are vital watches. Yes, that is for the movie section, but this is the wisdom of Lou Reed throughout that film, and it’s charming, relevant, and amazing. It’s always stuck with me:

 

 

  • Critical Race Theory, and the usage of the word “folks” has got to be lowkey trolling:

 

  • I’ve this idea of a social network called “Castaway” and it’s just for one single person to sit alone with all the cool stuff they own and not be bothered by anyone and totally left alone. My friend suggested it would likely be gin-centric. HE… is not wrong.

image.png

 

 

  • Measured, non clickbait sanity and reasonable takes that inspire a bit of optimism (that we’re not at least in the Trump news cycle)? You might have to sign up for Puck to read the whole article, but it’s a relatively new site I think, and it’s been great so far. This is a great read about the journalists and insiders loving the return to normalcy in talking legislation vs “election was stolen”…

Democrats, Republicans, and the Media Squabble in a Post-Trump Malaise As one congressman told me, “The blow-by-blow is intensely interesting to journalists and to members [of Congress], but our constituents couldn’t care less.” And yet, there is something so delightfully refreshing about it all. Could it last? https://puck.news/democrats-republicans-infrastructure-squabble/

 

 

  • Joel Rothman took. Enjoy:

Some shots my friend took of Renegade Burning Man.

 

 

HOLD MUSIC. YES, REALLY

 

  • I made a list of my favorite hold music, including a playlist of over 40 companies. Yeah, that’s where my life is at.

Weirdest Post Ever: There’s a world of people that enjoy and catalogue “Hold Music”

This Hold Music is bonkers: (858)-924-0180

But when you get that Hold Music *JAMMMMMmm* and don’t even want to be let off hold:

 

Lastly, this is the best hold music:

 

 

VEHICLES

 

  • I saw this at fleet week. It’s GIANT, and I thought it was the biggest submarine EVER… but it’s an all electric propulsion stealth Destroyer. So sophisticated it needs half the crew than normal, and saves operating costs while being outfitted with lasers, rail guns, and other advanced gun systems that make it a versatile ship that can accomplish far more types of missions… air combat, water combat, etc with less cost to taxpayers. Pretty cool.

 

Here’s a potato-camera shot from Friday:

 

 

  • Volume warning, but as TheDrive.com said, this is the correct reaction.

 

 

  • Speaking of the Renegade Burning Man, oooooh goodness some of the UniMog type vehicles blow my mind GIMME DAT

“Battlecars” from 2021 Renegade Burning Man, ranging from weird to Mad Max badass 

 

 

  • Irv and his 3.2 Million mile Volvo P1800S. He was a teacher in NYC that lived upstate and had a 125 mile commute. That’s about 130,000 gallons. $300K+ on gas. This is mind boggling to me.

A 1966 Volvo P1800S and its owner Irv Gordon (1940–2018) of East Patchogue, New York, have the Guinness world record for highest mileage. Gordon began driving the car in 1966, and in 1987 the car reached the one million mile mark. In 1998, it was registered as the vehicle with the highest certified mileage driven by the original owner in non-commercial service, by the Guinness Book of World Records, with a total of 1.69 million miles. On 2 April 2002, Gordon and his P1800S were guests on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, after reaching the two million mile mark.[18][19][20][21] In January 2011, Gordon and his Volvo were featured on PBS’s Nova ScienceNow and in November 2011 in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Magazine.[21][22] In June 2013, when the car had reached a little over 2,996,000 miles, Volvo Cars North America (VCNA) launched an unprecedented PR campaign valuing the performance and in September 2013 the car surpassed the 3 million mile mark in Alaska.[23] When Irv Gordon died, on 15 November 2018, the car had driven more than 3.2 million miles.[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_P1800#Mileage_record

 

 

 

  • Let’s plan a yacht rental for a birthday party, shall we? About $300K a week I suppose? Someday?

 

  • Planes yell retard at pilots. But there’s a reason. It’s really interesting, actually:

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: Newsletter