Category: Entertainment

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Wednesday/ YouTube is 20 📺

The video is short — just 19 seconds — and not particularly compelling. A viewer would be forgiven for clicking away before it ends.

The grainy footage, uploaded on April 23, 2005, of a man standing in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo — “All right, so here we are in front of the elephants” — does not look like the sort of thing that would touch off a video revolution.

And yet, two decades after that inauspicious start, YouTube is now a cornerstone of the media ecosystem. It’s where people go for music videos and four-hour-long hotel reviews. It is a platform for rising stars and conspiracy theorists. It’s a repository for vintage commercials and 10 hours of ambient noise. It has disrupted traditional television and given rise to a world of video creators who make content catering to every imaginable niche interest.

-Amanda Holpuch writing for the New York Times

Text by the New York Times and video still image from YouTube.
Says the narrator, Jawed: “The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks. And that’s cool”.
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Saturday/ underwatermelon 🍉

Uh-oh.
I started playing one of the games that Neflix offers: Underwatermelon.
I like it. (It reminds me a little bit of Tetris from wayy-back when I first started working).
I hope I don’t get too addicted to it .. but what if I do?

A random sequence of little fruit (strawberry, plum, lemon, apple or orange) appears below, and you can move it from left to right before you let go. Two of the same fruit combine and make the bigger fruit, up to a watermelon (see the sequence on the left in the C-shaped line). The space will fill up if you don’t let the fruit combine, and if any fruit floats below the red line, it is GAME OVER.
The levels of the game are indicated by Gate numbers. This is Gate 4 and I still have to earn 35 points (by combining fruit), before the gate will open up, and the fruit float up to a new gate. The nice thing about going to a new gate (a new level), is that the biggest fruit floats to the top quickly, collide and combine into one bigger fruit, and leave a little more space to work withe in the new gate.
I did get a watermelon .. the watermelon is big and takes up a lot of space, but still less than two pineapples or four melons. I read online if you do get two watermelons, and you can make them collide, they will cancel each other out and disappear, leaving you with a lot of new space to work with.
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Sunday/ my cleanest dirty shirt 👕

R.I.P. Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024).

 

Well, I woke up Sunday mornin’
With no way to hold my head it didn’t hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad
So I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt
And I shaved my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day

I’d smoked my brain the night before
On cigarettes and songs that I’d been picking
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Cussin’ at a can that he was kicking
Then I crossed the empty street
Caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken
And it took me back to something that I’d lost
Somehow, somewhere along the way

Refrain
On the Sunday morning sidewalk
Wishin’, Lord, that I were stoned
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
And there’s nothing short of dying
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleeping city sidewalk
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down

In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs that they were singing
Then I headed back for home
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing
And it echoed through the canyons
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday

Refrain
On the Sunday mornin’ sidewalk
Wishin’, Lord, that I were stoned
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
And there’s nothing short of dying
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleeping city sidewalk
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down

– Lyrics from “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” (1970)

“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” was written by Kris Kristofferson, and first recorded in 1969 by Ray Stevens before becoming a No. 1 hit on the Billboard US Country chart for Johnny Cash.
Kristofferson himself recorded and released the song on his album ”Kristofferson” in 1970.

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Saturday night/ the cold open 🌃

The fiftieth season of the American sketch comedy late night television program Saturday Night Live premiered tonight.

‘Vice President’ Kamala Harris (portrayed by Maya Rudolph) and ‘Second Gentleman’ Doug Emhoff (portrayed by Andy Samberg) doing a skit during the cold open* tonight.
Nothing about the future is certain, but let me be optimistic.
The American people will confirm in 38 days that the real VP Harris will become President Harris, and that her husband Doug Emhoff will become the first First Gentleman on Jan 20, 2025. 
*Cold open: jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown.
[Screen shot from Saturday Night Live on NBC broadcast television].
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Sunday/ au revoir until ’28 👋

I confess that I fast-forwarded through some (okay, most) of a recording of the three hours of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Games.

I liked the Golden Voyager and  the mummies— and was that a spry 62-year old Tom Cruise ‘sky diving’ into the arena to receive the Olympic flag, and take it to  Los Angeles on a motorbike? (Yes, it was).

Arthur Cadre as Golden Voyager performs at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games at the Stade de France in Paris.
[Photo by Sven Hoppe/​Deutsche Presse Agentur]
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Friday/ the boat party on the Seine 🥳

Well, I watched some of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony this morning as it happened.
The Eiffel Tower must have been spectacular to see during the light show.

As for other parts of the ceremony, I suspect it was a challenge for the choreographers to pull all the pieces together to make for compelling TV viewing.
The rain certainly did not make it easier, least of all to the camera crews that needed to keep the rain drops from their lenses and from getting into their expensive equipment.

The Eiffel Tower emitted beams of light during the climax of the opening ceremony. [Photo by Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times]

‘At Trocadéro, opposite the Eiffel Tower, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, Mr. Macron awaited the athletes before a crowd that donned ponchos and huddled under umbrellas in the unrelenting rain. He told the French newspaper Le Parisien this week that he had felt some “vertigo” as the Olympics, a decade in the making, were set to begin’.
– Roger Cohen reporting from Paris for the NYT

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Tuesday/ the rain is gone

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day

From the song  I Can See Clearly Now (1972) by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash.

The rain is gone, and there is a number of sunny days ahead in the forecast.
I believe an inch or so of rain was recorded in the city since Sunday.

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Sunday/ the long shadow of the bomb ✴️

Artwork by Musubu Hagi.
It is featured with the guest essay called ‘Oppenheimer,’ My Uncle and the Secrets America Still Doesn’t Like to Tell’, by Ariel Kaminer in the New York Times.

The film honored at the Oscars told a very specific story, but countless other lives trace back to that day, too.
In one way or another, no one emerged untouched.
We are all living downwind of that first momentous blast.
– Ariel Kaminer referring to the opening scene in this year’s Best Movie Oscar winner ‘Oppenheimer’, in a guest essay in the New York Times print edition that is due out Monday.

Her uncle had worked for the US Army and became an atomic veteran many years after 1946— veterans developing radiogenic health issues that may have been precipitated by their exposure to ionizing radiation while participating in a nuclear weapon test detonation, or a post-test event.

Of course: in the year before 1946 there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Saturday/ art walk in Georgetown 🎨

The amigos went out for beers and fried chicken at Maro Polo saloon in Georgetown tonight.

After that, we checked out the goings-on at the Equinox Studios and the Georgetown Atelier art school nearby.
It was the once-a-month open day for the public.

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Friday/ got the frame 🖼

This puzzle is a holdover from the pandemic.
The entire dining room table is full of puzzle pieces, and at this point it’s hard to believe they are all going to be squeezed in tightly into the frame!

The 1,000-piece puzzle 91130 is by Buffalo Games & Puzzles. The artwork was done by Kim Norlien, titled ‘Mountain Paradise’.
Update Sat. 9.00 am: Here’s an update! The house, the mountain and the boat are much easier to build than the water and the foliage! I suspect some of the last pieces to fall in place will be the shadows on the bottom left corner.
Update Mon. 5.00 pm: All done! The tree at the top right was hard to complete, for some reason, as were the waters of the lake. The last piece that went in was one of the brown ones depicting the rocks at the bottom of the lake. 
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Saturday/ Seattle Center ✨

Here is a smattering of pictures that I took at Seattle Center: from the Space Needle, from inside the Chihuly Garden and Glass and from inside the Museum of Pop Culture.

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Sunday/ Barbie is a hit 👛

‘Barbie’ defied her critics and enjoyed great success at North American movie theaters this weekend, raking in $155 million in ticket sales.

The ‘Barbie’ billboard (featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken) at the West Exit of Shinjuku station in Tokyo. Barbie fans in Japan will have to wait until Aug. 11 for the movie to open there. 
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Tuesday/ Jupiter’s auroras

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s a time to change, hey
Since the return of her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey
Hey, hey-yeah

[Chorus]
But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?
And tell me, did you fall from a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were
Looking for yourself out there?

-Lyrics from ‘Drops of Jupiter'(2001) by Train

I am trying out the new James Webb telescope of Jupiter and its auroras as wallpaper for my phone.

Webb NIRCam composite image of Jupiter from two filters – F212N (orange) and F335M (cyan).
[Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt].
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Monday/ the slap that was seen around the world

I did not watch the Oscars, and so I missed the storm in the teacup.
Clips of it was all over Twitter, of course.
I don’t think Will Smith is looking good, and I don’t know if his apology of today will help his damaged image.
He was obnoxious as he sat in his seat after the slap, yelling f-words at Chris Rock.

From South African cartoonist Brandan Reynolds, in Tuesday morning’s edition of the Business Day newspaper.
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Saturday/ keep guessing

 

 

I solved today’s Wordle on the very last of the six tries I had.

I would have had it in three tries if I were luckier with my guesses .. or four, or five.

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Caturday

Here is a young Marlon Brando (31) with his cat, from a write-up in Look magazine from May 17, 1955.
‘I live in my cat’s house’, said Brando at the time.

Brando was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, and won the Award twice: for Best Actor in ‘On the Waterfront (1954)’ and for Best Actor in ‘The Godfather (1972)’.
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Thursday/ the puzzle that’s a puzzle

I found a puzzle (wonder what had happened), and R2-D2 depicted on a card, on my walk today.
I was too far from my house to pick either up/ clean it up*, and besides that: I only have one hand. 🙂

*If it’s on my block, especially on the sidewalk or street at the front of the house, it doesn’t matter what it is; I feel compelled to clean it up. Broken beer bottle, dead crow, dog poop, empty cannabis packets.

Was there a tug-of-war between two people, with the puzzle in the middle, and the box was torn open? Who knows.
R2-D2 (say Artoo Deetoo) is a fictional robot character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in eleven of the twelve theatrical Star Wars films to date.
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Thursday/ what’s today’s WORDLE?

A new word game called WORDLE* is all the buzz on Twitter.
It’s online and free, with a new word you have to guess every day, so I had to check it out.

*Launched publicly in October last year, the game was created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Wales living in New York, for his partner, Palak Shah, who loves puzzles. At first, the game was played by family, before it was rolled out globally, Wardle told the New York Times.

The rules are simple.
You have 6 tries to guess the mystery 5-letter word.
After every guess, a green letter says the letter & its position is correct.
Yellow means the letter is in the word, but in the wrong place.
Grey means the letter is not in the word. The little keyboard at the bottom is updated after every word.
See my approach? I put frequently used letters in the first two words, and that thins out the possibilities dramatically, from the third guess onwards.
On Tuesday, Julia Fine, a 33-year-old novelist in Chicago, went with what she knows: QUERY, as in the letters aspiring authors send while seeking a literary agent. She got five green boxes on the first try, a Wordle hole-in-one. Astounded, she posted her victory on Twitter, reasoning: “What can I do with this other than share?” – from the Washington Post
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Tuesday/ a song called Mississippi

Pussycat was a Dutch country and pop group led by the three Kowalczyk sisters: Toni, Betty and Marianne. They had a monster hit in South Africa with their song Mississippi.

The year was 1977. I was in high school, with no inkling that the year 1995 would find me living on the banks of the Mississippi (in St Louis, Missouri).

I had long scoured secondhand CD stores for music from the group ⁠—with no success. So it was time for the nuclear option: order one from overseas on Discogs.com.

The cover of the CD that arrived on my doorstep, from a seller in Germany. Nooo, I thought, this will not do as the artwork for the album in my Apple Music collection. That Art Deco font does not work for me.  And how did MISSISSIPPI with one P make it onto the cover?
This album cover is much better, and I uploaded this one. Very 70’s with the lettering, their hair, their clothes and even the furniture.