Sunday Church Bells, Oskar Schindler, the Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man, etc.
In which punk is whatever we make it to be.
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🔔 Bells on Sunday, a collection of church bells from around the UK, courtesy of the BBC.
⚕️A woman who lived until 117 had cells that appeared to keep her young and was “found to have microbiota of an infant.”
🪷 The ancient Greeks that converted to Buddhism.
✡️ “By bribery, by bluff, by corrupting officials,” how Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jewish people during WWII.
📺 Ted Lasso is coming back for a fourth season and admittedly I am a bit weary. What I am ready for, though, is a new season of Black Mirror.
🎬 A Starship Troopers reboot is in the works… would you like to know more?
There’s also a third Benoit Blanc whodonit, set for release this year. Whoever decided to dub those “Knives Out Mysteries” though, should probably be let go.
Also, looks like we’re about to crank it back up to eleven.
📵 If you worked in or frequented movie theaters in the early ‘00s, maybe you remember the Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man. One of my favorites: “Mauled by a tiger?”
🔉 If Darth Vader’s chest control panel was a tape deck, to which he could blast his own menacing theme as he deemed fit.
📍 A Google map of real New York jukeboxes. Putting money in a jukebox last March in a San Fran dive bar gave me a sense of joy that has yet to vacate.
👟 The 25 shoes and bags that transformed fashion. “A group of experts consider the accessories from the past 100 years that changed how we carry our things — and ourselves.”
💿 Unreleased live material spanning from 1969 to 1994 comprise an upcoming sixty CD (yes, CD) box set from The Grateful Dead. “An abridged version, The Music Never Stopped, compiles at least one song from each venue across three CDs or six LPs. That’s out via Rhino on May 30.” I have no idea how they keep finding more unreleased music.
🎧 An album I love every week, in no particular order, figuring by year’s end I’ll have what would constitute my top 50.
(9/50) Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime: Punk’s White Album—its title a sly jab at mainstream notions of rebellion—this is a full-throttle rejection of anything that isn’t good times with good friends. Watt’s melodic bass doesn’t just anchor the rhythm; it propels the songs with urgent, restless energy, effortlessly shifting between funk grooves, jazzy runs and raw aggression. Locked in with Hurley’s drumming, he creates the perfect foundation for the late, great D. Boon’s rambles and howls and dancing guitarlines. Stickers of Boon later read, “Punk is whatever we made it to be.” Words to live by.
🧊 It’s almost spring and I can feel the ice melting…
✌️ Keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
