Star Wars at the Library of Congress

Here's the video (with closed captioning available!) of the panel discussion I did in September on the politics of Star Wars at the Library of Congress. Definitely a career peak.

Greatest headline ever?

The New Yorker spotted this one a while back in one of its local rivals; I’ve just taken a while to post it. But I think we can all agree that this is timeless. And now that I think about it, the first sentence is even better than the headline: “A former meerkat expert at London Zoo has been ordered to pay compensation to a monkey handler she attacked with a wine glass in a love spat over a llama-keeper.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

“It’s time to remake the Star Wars Holiday Special.”

McSweeney's has a hilarious historical review of the NYT's tweeting habits dating well into the 19th Century. It's not that the NYT and its reporters and editors have failed to realize and thus call out that the Republican party has become a pack of radicalized hyenas lacking any coherent moral or political world view, it's that both-sides have always done it that way.

Chewbaquaman

I'm not really sure what to say about this.

Cyberpunk

An important reflection:

Julie Fucking Montecristo

Drew Magary is on fire today, literally (in the figurative sense of the word employed by my tween), taking white people to task for the terrible fucking names they choose for their children. Also, I may have just had a large iced coffee from a nearby coffee shop, so could easily turn this post into a 3000 word stream-of-conscious spew, so I had better put a period right here.

Star Wars narrated by Ron Howard

Make your own Star Trek II scene in West Papua

BBC Journalist has Earwax Cleaned Out by Hungry Jungle Grub

RP1 trivia

Good meeting last night. This might conceivably bear on the whole gatekeeping discussion, but mostly I just think it's a great, cool design: The Ready Player One logo is also a maze.

(Incidentally, I learned this in a random two-minute dive into Twitter, from this post. So there's that.)

Name of the Year Bracket

Holy crap, these are funny. And apparently all real. Dr. Narwhals Mating seems like the odds-on favorite, but I really like Gandalf Hernandez too.

Speaking of which, I haven't watched A good look at how the Hobbit movies got so bad yet, but it looks worth digging into.

Honest Trailers - Every Wes Anderson Movie (I mean, Film)

This hits close to the bone.

John Oliver on Blockchain, Bitcoin, etc.

Just in Case

A Magic Item Generator just in case you run out of ideas while playing D&D or some such. For example, this could be a very useful magic item:

Jittering Shuriken of the Gorilla

This lightly-vibrating set of 10 throwing stars grants the user exceptional strength whenever a star hits a target. It can convert up to one gallon of water into espresso, once per day.

FREE COFFEE!!!!

You are SO old.

The final episode of The Wire aired ten years ago, today. Here's a nice retrospective from The Guardian that even those of us who have only seen two episodes can appreciate.

Demonic cookware is funny

FAQ: Your New Cursed Instant Pot

Ok, I admit it, I am worried.

The new "Solo" trailer is making me nervous, mainly because I'm not buying the new guy as Han Solo.  It is getting away from authentic Han Solo, like for example in this wonderful video.  On a similar note, this is one of the strangest things I have ever seen.  Enjoy.