Recently updated blogs

Rez Ball (2024) • View trailerFour stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity, teen drug/alcohol use, occasional profanity and crude referencesAvailable via: NetflixBy Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.13.24This continues to be a terrific year for inspirational sports sagas, and director Sydney Freeland’s heartfelt drama is another winner. Coaches Heather and Benny (Jessica Matten and Ernest Tsosie III, far right) watch thegame action, along with …

Garden centres and DIY stores used to be relatively straightforward affairs with demarcation between the rough-edged trade-only propositions and the softer consumer-focused retailers. They also operated predominantly from physical stores and maybe had a paper-based catalogue on the side but it was the same product assortment. Over the years things have become increasingly blurred between these two camps and almost all the players in the market have converged to target …

With programs that also include the New York premiere of MIKE by Dana Michel, concert performances by Kite and Charles Curtis, talks with Constantina Zavitsanos, Raven Chacon, and SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY, and the start of the year-long Ephemeral Organ series—which explores choreography and bodily motion as technologies for transmitting memory, history, and Black lived experience—the 16th fall season continues EMPAC’s commitment to artists who are making challenging new work, and …

I stumbled across Sydenham Garden (Wynell Road SE23) last month for the first time, a community well being space with various mental health, dementia and other projects .The day I went it was participating in the Sydenham Artists Trail, including displaying some of the banners made at the garden for their participation in the 2024 Pride parade.I liked this banner mapping Lewisham Urban Oasis green spaces:

Stonestruck by Helen Cresswell, 1995. It’s WWII and Jessica knows that she will be evacuated from London soon, along with other children from her school. She doesn’t want to leave London and her mother, even though the bombings have gotten increasingly worse and frightening. Her father has already gone away to the front, and she has no idea if he will ever return. Then, one night, the unthinkable happens: their …

Four books that give an insiders look into how Apple designs its products.

India, 1930. Sarojini Naidu is marching towards a British-controlled saltwork; behind her is a long column of protestors all dressed in white. The great campaigner for India’s Independence, Gandhi, is now in jail. In his place, he’s chosen Naidu to lead this movement against the hard and fearsome British Empire. Naidu and her marchers want change, and they want to achieve it peacefully. India’s fate, they believe, depends on a …

As mentioned previously, this year I switched to hosting eardogger.com in what's either a highly unconventional environment or an unusually conventional environment, depending on your perspective. This has mostly gone completely fine! However, I did have one incident several weeks ago, and it was a funny one. I was out reading webcomics on my phone, and got creepy 500 errors on Eardogger; when I got home, the logs showed a …

This was originally posted to the PauseTalk website. PauseTalk Vol. 92 took place on Thursday, October 10 at Bananafish New HQ, and we had another great mix of participants which made for a fun couple of hours of discussion, from the ups and downs of working on projects for western brands in China, to the art scene in Shanghai (and China in general), with other fun diversions in between – …

The full Apple Music description of GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR’s new album, NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD, reads “The Montreal collective continues to say so much without saying a word.” This in its own strange way, is projection. The title is a direct reference to the 2023-2024 Gaza genocide. It is a clear statement on what is happening in the world and the circumstances of the …

Some notes from three days of teaching a small cohort of leaders in the art of participatory leadership. —- When we teach the four fold practice of the art of hosting (also the art of participatory leadership) I’ve taken to doing it in a World Cafe. We use Cafe to essentially recreate the conditions that created the insights of the four fold practice 25 or so years ago. We invite …

They followed John Henry through the barroom, past a crowded bar and towards the sounds of loud crashing music.Mr. Whitman took Milford's arm again and spoke into his ear."Hey, Mel, you got another five in that poke of yours?""What?" said Milford."Let me have a five-spot, will you? All's I got is twenties on me.""If you have twenties why do you need a five?""Come on, just let me have a fiver, …

School is back in session, sports are in full swing, we’re tossed and turned by the weekly routine. This past month has been a season of fixing and repair and I’m thankful everything went well and we’re (hopefully) through the hard parts. Fixing electrical problems Ramping up to Spooky Month, the lights in our house were acting up. We’ve always had the occasional power problem; lights dimming, oven clocks resetting, …

What will affect the earth’s temperature the most in the next 10 years?Aerosols“Aerosols” is a fancy name for “tiny particles in the air”. Aerosols are the most potent climate lever in the world, because they act near instantly.Some aerosols warm the planet, for example, soot (‘black carbon’). Some aerosols cool the planet, for example, sulfur dioxide.CO2 and methane have to accumulate for decades to cause the warming impact shown above. …

Peter Bagge is on my shortlist of my favorite cartoonists, and Hate is perhaps my favorite comics series of all time. Since ending the series in 1998, he's periodically returned to these characters in roughly real time, as the series leads Buddy and Lisa had a kid. Bagge has said that Buddy Bradley is a version of him, approximately ten years in the past, so it's been interesting to see …