Friday Links 5/11

Happy Friday and Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
Do you have any plans?
In a few hours we (my parents and I) will be going up to Belfast, Maine to spend the weekend with my Aunt Susan and Bill, whose mother owns an alpaca farm.  There will be alpaca shearing, vegan food, and tactful discussions about Infinity War without mentioning to movie fan Bill (it’s so nice to be around other movie fans) that I never plan to see it.

I’ve been reading a lot, falling behind on the films I have checked out from the library, gardening for hours a day, and enjoying the springly weather. I also cooked some interesting pancakes yesterday so that  have foods when I return next week. I will report back.

What’s happening on the worldwide web?

• Speaking of movie people, this film looks like it could be amazing. Also really excited for The Seagull, an adaptation of one of the few Chekhov pieces I’e actually read.
• A beautiful essay that I’m at a loss as to how to describe.
• The Duchess of Northumberland sounds like a fun lady- she created the garden at Alnwick Castle, possible the deadliest garden in the world.
• How does Deadpool always win the promotion game? This is genius.
• One of the greatest things about being back in America is the access to SNL’s youtube uploads. I know the main story (DESERVEDLY) is the release of This is America by Donald Glover- but let’s not forget about the Barbie skit.
• #MeToo and Junot Diaz: Cycles of victimization and victimizing, sexual harassment, celebrity and race.
• When two celebrity ladies (internet fashion personae?) give birth in close succession and get together to share their experiences with the early days of motherhood.
• I love this Public Place Meditation Guide– it’s very closely related to some wisdom my mother shared with me years ago: practice seeing the divinity in everyone around you.
• A mathematical model may explain how two brains agree on the experiential profile of smells.
• Possibly the most charming interview I’ve ever seen. I think I may have just fallen in love with all three of these men.
• Have you liked any pages created by Russian bots?Ask Facebook.
• A complex algorithm predicts the likelihood of final season Game of Thrones deaths. Bye, Daenerys.
• An amazing photograph. I love whales.

Playlist: Rocking Out (A Little)

The life of a superstar is all fast cars, drugs and rock and roll, right?
Well, if I were a superstar and could take my pick, it would probably be something more like fast horses, sparkling water… and still rock and roll.

Because rock and roll is pretty great, and probably my preferred genre at the moment. It makes you feel free and like getting up and dancing or just doing anything you feel. Which is a pretty appropriate soundtrack for the curtains closing on summer.

Speaking of rock and roll, the 40th anniversary of Elvis’s death was yesterday, so I was thinking about doing a playlist post for Elvis- but there is one fairly insurmountable stumbling block.

I only listen to Can’t Help Falling in Love. Very short playlist.

Saturday Links July 22

It’s a Saturday edition of the regular Friday links post, which you could look at as a very exciting new development or just sad evidence of my disorganization.
Truthfully, it’s neither: I’m visiting Lily this weekend and we were very wrapped up in seeing each other again (it’s been two whole months, which is a lot when you’ve just been living with someone for four years!) and the rediscovery of the film, A Bug’s Life.

A Bug’s Life was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, but watching it as an adult (for the first time!) has had a lot of unanticipated results. 1) I can’t help but recognize how far computer animation has come. It’s much more detailed now. 2)A Bug’s Life is basically a mashup of Aesop’s Fable (The Ant and the Grasshopper) and the classic film The Seven Samurai. Who knew? (Not three year old me).