Baby Yoda and ‘The Dark Crystal’ Prove We Still Need Puppetry in the Age of CGI: “Frankly, I don’t always want my entertainment to look effortless. Instead, I want to stand in awe of these feats of creation: painstakingly crafted miniature worlds, marionettes that fire arrows, extraterrestrial tots that beg you to scoop them up and kiss them on the forehead. I want to shout, ‘How the hell did they do that?!’”
Links
Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.
No Comparison: Remembering “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” on its 40th Anniversary: “For those of us who get it, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a spectacular swing for the fences. And for those of you who don’t get it, it’s your frakkin’ loss.” 🖖
Cyberdyne Systems | Speculative Identities: A deep dive into the Terminator universe’s Cyberdyne Systems from a graphic design/branding/iconography point of view.
N Carolina couple call 911 on vacuum thought to be intruder: A cute story told in a clever way. It’s really a shame its byline is just the AP, and the actual author isn’t getting their due credit.
Denny’s Grand Slamdance
Teenager Turns Denny’s Into the Best Punk Club Ever, For One Night Only
The band started playing and pandomonium followed. Dozens of kids who couldn’t get in pushed through the emergency exits and joined a frenzied circle pit. Someone pulled down one of the restaurant’s light fixtures, another person threw a laptop in the mosh pit and, after being warned that the cops had been called, Del Valle agreed to shut the show down at the manager’s insistence — after one last song.
This whole thing is absolutely wonderful.
The end of formal nights on cruises: This past summer, when Mom took Prairie and me on an Alaskan cruise, the formal dinners were part of what we were looking forward to, and while we did enjoy them, we were a little disappointed to see that so few people were really living up to the “formal” designation.
Clubbing: ‘I can’t bear the idea that there is an age at which you should stop’: I’m 46, and while I don’t get out as often as in my 20s (can’t do 3-4 nights out a week anymore), I have no intention of stopping. It’s too much a part of who I am and what I need. “Typically, clubbing loses its appeal in our early 30s; 31 is the age at which most give up, according to a 2017 survey. But for those who do keep dancing, it can be much more than just a night out. What starts as an act of teenage transgression becomes radical in middle age.”
Apple’s Best Show Is an Alt-History Cold War Epic About Moon Missions With Women: I’m really looking forward to finding the time to dive into For All Mankind.
An Alarmingly Deep Dive Into the Science of Baby Yoda: “But whether the Yoda is Baby Yoda’s true daddy isn’t what fascinates us every time we tune into The Mandalorian. What keeps us coming back for more is trying to figure out what in the actual hell Baby Yoda is supposed to be. […] We have more questions than The Mandalorian will likely ever get around to answering. But sometimes it’s the mysteries, the dots that don’t quite connect no matter how many biologists you ask, that make the Star Wars universe so enduringly fascinating.”
US Finally Giving Boot to Official Foot Measurement: “The change started in 1959, when the federal government mandated that everyone use the international foot but allowed surveyors to keep to the old U.S. survey foot for a while. That temporary reprieve has lasted 60 years, but it will finally end in 2022.”