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I don't remember if Waterson ever saw (Berekley Breathed's C&H homage) but I think he would have been pleased.

I seem to remember hearing that Watterson actually drew some of the Hobbes art for that sequence.

The article that's the subject of the post, however, seems like the journalistic version of all those Calvin peeing stickers: unauthorized selling out our fond memories with inauthentic crap that bears little resemblance to the original.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 6:26 PM on August 19, 2023

Now & Again, probably my favorite network TV series ever, was canceled by CBS's Leslie Moonves not because of ratings or reviews, but as collateral damage in a pissing contest with outside producers.

The show, which was fantastic, is about a character played by John Goodman who is struck by a train, only to have his brain salvaged by a US government program and placed into a genetically engineered, lab-created super-body (the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 9:08 AM on August 18, 2023

That seems like the right amount of "fame" for people. Just enough fame to get some foundational safety and not enough to prevent you from going to the grocery store or shoving a burger in your face.

(Also, yes, the song fits perfectly in that scene)
posted to MetaFilter by drewbage1847 at 11:50 AM on August 18, 2023

This song is solid. Thanks for sharing this!

Since I can't think about Ghostbusters without thinking of Neil Cicierega's "Bustin", I am sharing it here, despite the fact that I am pretty sure it has been posted on Metafilter before.
posted to MetaFilter by TheKaijuCommuter at 8:55 AM on August 18, 2023

I always liked that song. Stuck in my head since the 80's, despite only hearing it when watching the movie every 10 years or so.
posted to MetaFilter by exolstice at 8:36 AM on August 18, 2023

One of my favourite bits of trivia is to note that Johnny Cab's voice in the original Total Recall is Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram on ST:Voyager. The cabbie head was modeled on Picardo, too.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 12:12 PM on August 14, 2023

Let's review the choices... these are just my opinions, man:

Feeling Gravitys Pull - I am conflicted about this one, I think it would have rocked harder on Document with the better production (I mean it's little like Oddfellows right?) and it doesn't quite fit the overall theme of Fables, which is the only REM concept album

Orange Crush - Strong choice, all four band members are rocking to the max. And Peter's harmonics solo ftw.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by credulous at 11:50 PM on August 12, 2023

I think my list would change pretty much every day, and maybe depending on what time of the day you asked me, but "Fall on Me" is always going to be on it, yet it might not be #1 most of the time. Interesting (to me).

One person noted that "Hope" was a co-write with Leonard Cohen, but I don't think it was quite like that - the story I heard was that they did the song and then realized "oh shit, we just ripped off 'Suzanne'" so they gave... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LionIndex at 10:35 PM on August 12, 2023

Of all the GPT4 generation models, I've been the most amazed, (hair standing up on my arms, spooked) by Pi. The level of EQ and relatability was more than uncanny. https://pi.ai/talk?scr
posted to MetaFilter by Dag Maggot at 8:38 PM on August 7, 2023

Ironically, it may be the “Barbenheimer” event, made possible by Nolan and Greta Gerwig, that marks a cultural denouement for the genre. As writer Aaron Hammond put it on Elon Musk’s folly, “It’d be wild if Barbenheimer goes down in history as the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ that kills off the Superhero Era, which has been in its hair metal phase for a while now.” I’ve been mulling that over since the moment I read it.

I have no idea if this will end... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 4:10 PM on August 2, 2023

My story is the mirror image of all yours. When I was a kid, we lived in the country and TV reception was kind of shitty. The station that came in best was Channel 7, the local CBS affiliate. So now, decades later, my mother has a satellite dish and a TV that can pick up hundreds of channels. She never changes the channel. To this day she just watches whatever is on Channel 7.
posted to MetaFilter by Naberius at 5:34 PM on July 30, 2023

Now today, of course, you say, well, why don’t you encode the signal? We can’t encode the signal because we can’t use 100 vacuum tubes. It was a trap. And I came up with ultrasound because I knew that ultrasound in the air would not go through walls, so it was like ordinary speaking…

Think about all the stuff we do today that was once either done as an electro-mechanical thing or by a custom ASIC. Now we can just brute force stuff entirely in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 4:12 PM on July 30, 2023

(Appropriately enough, I also watched "Star Trek" first run episodes on this same TV. )
posted to MetaFilter by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:47 PM on July 30, 2023

The Spleen has vented his last... farewell, you Mystery Man.
posted to MetaFilter by FatherDagon at 11:11 AM on July 31, 2023

I'm a weirdo and a nerd. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Pee-Wee gave me permission for me to be a weirdo and a nerd, but -- I certainly saw in the character a fellow traveller, someone who lived his own way and felt no shame for being different. I imagine that that was even more important to people who were different in more substantial ways than me, a bookish loner.

Before the internets, it took a lot of doing to find your tribe of fellow... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Capt. Renault at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2023

To my knowledge George Brett is the only one involved in this incident to have inspired a number one pop song so I’d say he got the last laugh.
posted to MetaFilter by The Gooch at 5:31 PM on July 24, 2023

I grew up in New York and was a huge Yankees fan, and I was watching this game live (on WPIX, of course) when this happened. It was just unbelievable, and if you've never seen the video of the event, trust me, you've got to click the link in the FPP. Watch at about 2:40 when the umps make the call and the camera is right on Brett in the dugout. It's incredible.

I'm too lazy to chase this down, but iirc, one of the Yankee players -- maybe Graig Nettles or more likely Lou... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by martin q blank at 5:29 PM on July 24, 2023

Barbie Girl is well suited to be sung to dogs.

Important qualities for songs being sung to dogs:
(1) Simple and catchy, ideally at least a little annoying
(2) Easily transmutilated so the words are about the dogs in question

I'm a puppy girl in a puppy world (vallhund girl, [name of dog] girl also work well here)
Eating kibbles sometimes I go dribbles

"Shake Your Love" also... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:38 AM on July 21, 2023

Or if it was just way too sad.
posted to MetaFilter by Lorc at 9:14 AM on July 21, 2023

I used to get a short bout of OCD about 5 minutes before a migraine maybe half the time I’d get a migraine; the other times I mainly got extremely hungry to the point I’d have to drop what I was doing and eat several thousand calories: The OCD is characterized by intrusive and recurrent obsessive thoughts and repetitive behaviors that are engaged to relieve the anxiety caused by the obsessive thoughts. The OCD is classified under the group of anxiety disorders and its association with migraine... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jamjam at 4:03 PM on July 20, 2023

Don’t make me tap the sign.

(It’s the slide putatively from a 1979 IBM presentation:

A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER
MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION

)
posted to MetaFilter by zamboni at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2023

To me the most egregious part of that NYT piece was how it called out the spoon’s importance in The Matrix, and managed to reference a quote that wasn’t There is no spoon.
posted to MetaFilter by Mchelly at 6:50 AM on July 19, 2023

I loved developing in Flash, mostly "interactive" web sites and stuff like screensavers. People were even willing to pay decent coin for that sort of thing. I swear the web peaked in 2001 or so.
posted to MetaFilter by maxwelton at 1:03 PM on July 14, 2023

Twitter (which Zeus will destroy) lets non-logged-in users see individual tweets but not threads anymore, so thanks for including the text in the [more inside].
posted to MetaFilter by echo target at 12:51 PM on July 14, 2023

The "like a discus" is absolutely magnificent. Dude died being yeeted in the manner of a frisbee and we are still talking about it to this day. Immortal, fabulous
posted to MetaFilter by potrzebie at 12:16 PM on July 14, 2023

Great article. I think there is a tendency to “rose colored glasses” memories of life pre-Smartphones, with the idea that sitting idly with your own thoughts was ever this wonderful experience. Personally, I just remember a number of experiences I used to dread because I knew I would be bored out of my skull. Things like waiting in a doctor’s office, waiting to board a plane, taking a long car or train ride, doing a mindless household chore. Having a tool that keeps me engaged makes all of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Gooch at 10:19 AM on July 8, 2023

I usually had, like, a portable music-listening device, a book, a magazine, and a GameBoy, or at least one of these things, on hand at any given moment.

My generation’s penchant for malaise must be a direct result of being alone with ourselves so much, with so little reason.

Ian Bogost is 46.
posted to MetaFilter by box at 10:02 AM on July 8, 2023

So I hafta quote Mr. Nat here. Back on June 2nd he posted on facebook the following:

There’s a movie coming out on July 21. I’m really excited to see it, but I’m also a little trepidatious, because I’m not sure the subject matter will actually make a good movie. Even if it is good, I think the movie may only really appeal to a niche group.

The movie is about an important figure from the 20th century. Someone who changed their field an important... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nat at 1:30 PM on July 2, 2023

I learned a very important lesson when I took a bowling class in college. We were required to take one PE class, and since I already bowled, I thought it would be an easy A. My roommate and I took the class, and rolled between 180 and 220 all semester. We both received C's in the class. Two of the girls we knew in the course got A's. One night at the bar I asked her how she earned an A. She grinned and told me the secret of college grades.

"Both of you guys started... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Marky at 3:01 PM on July 1, 2023

@dianabutlerbass: So, we’ve had a global pandemic, the rise of fascism, and a Titanic disaster - why not throw in a Russian revolution to complete the early 20th century historical rerun?
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 6:05 AM on June 24, 2023

Rhaomi: Getting some very weird flashbacks to playing the 2001 strategy game Empire Earth as a kid, whose future scenarios involved (among other things) a brutal yet cunning Russian ultranationalist with a grudge against a westernizing Ukraine who uses his own private army to launch a coup from the south that captures Moscow in the summer of 2023.

This, and reading about a book whose scenario is roughly the Titan(ic) being sunk from hitting an iceberg,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Stoneshop at 10:48 PM on June 23, 2023

2021 - We have the second best army in the world
2022 - We have the second best army in Ukraine
2023 - We have the second best army in Russia

I recently watched a lecture by Ruth Ben-ghiat, she studies right-wing fascism. She remarked that part of structural fascism is making the government a refuge for criminals. Justice doesn't apply to the loyalists. It isn't breaking the law that gets you in trouble - that's fine, even expected - it's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adept256 at 2:14 AM on June 24, 2023

Since we're sharing tweets we enjoyed....

If Russia is serious about peace they need to make territorial concessions to Wagner to end the war now
posted to MetaFilter by Busy Old Fool at 3:30 AM on June 24, 2023

Garland is weirdly reminding me of this old British film called The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp. "Colonel Blimp" is actually the name of this stock character from UK political cartoons of the late 1930s; he's an older man, usually with a big walrus moustache, who's usually shooting his mouth off about the government and what it should be doing, but he's always speaking from an ill-informed and reactionary position. The film was an apologetic for the Colonel Blimp type,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 9:11 AM on June 19, 2023

I have always found Reddit impenetrable, I have an account and have posted a thing or two and I follow some niche-y accounts and some gigantic ones, but I can never get into it, it's like I'm sitting in the nosebleed section at a football game; I can tell there's something interesting happening but can't for the life of me see it clearly enough to be entertained.

That said, this is a very creative & often funny second chapter to this extraordinary strike action.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 2:55 AM on June 18, 2023

r/GPT4 Now only allows posts about Gulfport-Biloxi international airport (code: GPT), gate 4 (GPT4).
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:25 PM on June 17, 2023

I can’t believe i’m going to quote one of the worst Marvel movies, but it’s just too perfect:

Ant-Man, to Kang: “I don’t have to win. We both just have to lose!”
posted to MetaFilter by FallibleHuman at 9:52 PM on June 17, 2023

As an old, I remember drifting into Steely Dan back in the day. I was a hard rock/prog rock boy and like a lot of my peers were drawn in first by the guitar solos. I can recall a lot of dorm/frat conversations about the solos on SD albums from guys who normally were far more into Zep/Sabbath/Rush than anything remotely "smooth". But the guitar work, and there was a helluva lot of it, was a gateway drug. Then came the realization that the lyrics were just twisted masterpieces, sordid... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ber at 3:21 PM on June 17, 2023

I cried when I wrote this song; sue me if I play too long.
posted to MetaFilter by gimonca at 5:37 AM on June 17, 2023

I wholeheartedly love Steely Dan, and I'm so glad I got to see them perform while Walter was still alive. As a piano player, I'm more drawn to what Donald is doing, but still.

Depending on the audience, my yacht rock tribute band leans hard into the Dan catalogue on many a night. Last night at a wedding we only played Peg and Reelin' in the Years, but Black Friday, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, My Old School and Kid Charlemagne are frequently in the set.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by emelenjr at 4:35 AM on June 17, 2023

“Christ the amount of human effort wasted to sound like an SNL band warm up,”

It just couldn't be
And only a fool would say that
posted to MetaFilter by hangashore at 9:16 PM on June 16, 2023

This article, he should've sent it off in a letter to himself.
posted to MetaFilter by Greg_Ace at 8:15 PM on June 16, 2023

Yacht Rock

Particularly, Ep. 10 NEEERRRRDS

being a part of the zeitgeist during the actual time they were recording

Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago...
posted to MetaFilter by snuffleupagus at 8:00 PM on June 16, 2023

Wheel turnin’ round and round.
posted to MetaFilter by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:33 PM on June 16, 2023

It is so, so saddening and enraging how much public discourse is -- frankly -- wasted on discussing these endpoint symptoms of a fundamentally broken social and economic system. What social services can offered at libraries? Should public restrooms at parks be expanded or closed? How can we manage Hep A outbreaks in our cities? How can we beg or borrow funding to open a tiny fraction of the needed shelter beds? Publicly funded rehabs or safe injection sites? Should people be forced to accept... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Krawczak at 9:28 AM on June 16, 2023

This was on the wall in an office I had in 2014. I pity the person who had to deal with that.
posted to MetaFilter by tommasz at 6:27 AM on June 14, 2023

Hippybear, go check out Seeburg1000.com.

Seeburg was a jukebox company that got into the background music business in the 1960s. Unlike the ephemeral Muzak, Seeburg's music was delivered over vinyl records that were mailed back and forth... so some artifacts survived. The website above streams the music it can find, 24 hours a day. There is also a lot on YouTube (example)
posted to MetaFilter by JoeZydeco at 10:19 PM on June 13, 2023

I have a minor obsession with Muzak. Like the classic version of it. How they had channels for different moods, how they had a specific pause in the music that if you knew about signaled it was actual Muzak.

I'm going to go back even further to my days in my orthodontist's office and say I really wish there was a source for Muzak, AKA "easy listening" tunes. I have very specific memories of sitting in that office when I was a tween and hearing what were really... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 9:06 PM on June 13, 2023

This will never, never end. It will get worse.

We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

Ursula K. LeGuin, 2014

I totally get the despair, but we shouldn't. The dangers posed by AI are not an inevitable... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by biogeo at 11:59 AM on June 14, 2023

How horrible this is. It feels like being trapped in an unbreakable net that just gets drawn tighter - the world is so cruel, people make so much money from the cruelty, everyone above a certain percentile of power and wealth de facto supports the cruelty.

I live in a working class, multiracial neighborhood which has, for the US, quite a lot of Muslim people. There are a lot of Native people here too. Seeing that article full of pictures like the people I live with and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 7:52 AM on June 14, 2023