Good evening, Kibitzers!
It’s finally gotten warm-ish/sunny enough here that some tiny leaves are appearing, daffodils and some flowering shrubs are blooming, and I can see the big row of maple trees across the street behind the house reddening up as they prepare to bust out and spray pollen every-freakin’-where. I have sadly closed my bedroom window for the season in preparation.
I hope it’s not my posting that causes tornado and giant hail outbreaks in the plains states on Tuesdays, but I think it’s just the season. I watched the forecast, and I think Zen Trainer is in the clear until tomorrow, and this doesn’t seem to be getting as far south as Houston. Everyone else who attends here regularly has, I think, different weather-related problems than unexpected trips to Oz. May everyone be safe!
This was a week for big work projects, so I couldn’t give this diary much forethought. Luckily, I constantly bookmark a new supply of random-assortment content for just such an occasion.
Comedian Joe Flaherty passed away on April 1, once more demonstrating that April Fool’s pranks are never funny. He’s perhaps best known for his work on the brilliant Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV. He created many characters there, but among the most sympathetic of them is Count Floyd, the hapless host of a kids’ program of nominally scary movies, except the movies the fictional station can afford are never very scary. In this episode, his effort to present the week’s selection, “Blood Sucking Monkeys from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania,” goes even worse than usual. [3:49]
The Minute Food kitchen-science channel examines what’s up with people’s vastly different experiences tasting cilantro. This inquiry ultimately involves sniffing bugs. [9:25]
The Kiffness has a new song, in cooperation with the talkative kitty Cala. [3:09]
In this very short clip, Neil deGrasse Tyson describes a hair-raising experience he once had while viewing the Leonid meteor shower from the Brooklyn Bridge. [0:55]
Second in a brace of short videos, this clip is a very nicely-done time lapse that compresses one year looking out at what I assume is a wooded back yard into 40 seconds. [0:45]
Since it’s asparagus season, maybe you’d like this quick asparagus stir fry from The Woks of Life — I think the most valuable part of this, though, is the discussion of preparing and cutting asparagus. Printed recipe here. See also: Chicken-Asparagus Stir Fry. [8:54]
The music student who curates this channel calls this clip from an Oscar Peterson performance "one of the most insane shreds of all time," and he’s not wrong. He’s provided a transcription. [1:22]
Many years ago, I bought this series of R. Crumb drawings, A Short History of America, as a postcard-sized accordion-folded set of just b&w ink drawings, no color. Not original drawings, obviously, just a printed postcard set that, as I recall, was lurking on a clearance rack all alone. (You’ll know how long ago that was when you see the “present day” panel.) It’s been a while since I’ve known where that was, so I was delighted to see it here as a slideshow, with color and a Joni Mitchell soundtrack. Well, maybe “delighted” isn’t the right word, but I was glad to see it was still around. [2:50]
I bet that no one here will be surprised to learn how much fashion models are exploited by the industry they work in (and the people who run it). It’s good to hear that Model Alliance, founded by former model Sara Ziff, is starting to attack these issues, but there’s a long way to go. (I had to chuckle when I saw Ziff’s academic credentials at that link. They need to stick with signing powerless underage immigrants if they want to keep getting away with this shit. Even that is no guarantee. 🎻) [9:25]
When I saw that the young Korean a cappella group MayTree was going to sing “movie intros” in this video, I assumed that meant intros to individual movies. But no, they are singing the intros that production companies like 20th Century Fox or Universal add at the start of all their movies. These don’t so much have lyrics, so it’s an interesting project. [1:51]
At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, senior aquarist René Carbajal introduces us to his friend Chica, a giant Pacific octopus. [4:30]
This is just a slideshow of photographs of celebrities, of assorted vintages, but some of them are interesting, for example, Andy Warhol shopping the Campbell’s soup shelves at the Second Ave. Gristede’s. They’re captioned, although the captions aren’t very high-contrast and sometimes you need to pause the video to read them. Do not, for instance, blow past the shot with Ronald Reagan in it like I almost did, until you see who is with him. [5:38]
For our big musical finish, the Tedeschi Trucks Band is joined by additional Allman Bros Band spawn Duane Betts for Blue Sky, in March 2024 at the Warner Theatre, Washington DC. [9:04]
Finally, it’s good to see Roy Zimmerman back with another of his very clever and literate political songs (lyrics on the YT page). This one is called Grifters Of Putin and is about, you know, the GOP. If you like this, I will leave you a link for the live-on-YouTube concert he is giving this Sunday, April 21, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. The concert video will also be up for a couple of weeks after the show so you can watch later. [2:37]
Last-minute addition this morning: Rocky Mountain Mike has leveraged the Beatles song I’m Only Sleeping to provide his comment on the first day of tfg’s current trial. [0:44]