I recently put together an account of the family’s trip over to Lafayette and Breaux Bridge for work, which you can check out right here.
As part of the blog post, I put together a couple of videos. I’m happy with how they turned out, so I’ve embedded them here.
Up there at the top of the post you’ll see 5 good reasons to make the trip yourself.
Clicking through to the rest of this post will give you my magnum opus on Popeye’s chicken.
Hey, we all have our own higher calling in life.
It recently occurred to me that there are an awful lot of similarities between the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe extravaganza Avengers: Infinity War and the animated classic, Transformers: The Movie.
(No, not the Michael Bay dreck.)
While this might seem an insult to compare a gazillion dollar enterprise to a kids cartoon with an 80s sensibility, I don’t mean any particular offense. Moreover, I’ve come to believe that Transformers might well have done it better when you really start to look it.
Which, okay, you can read as an insult if you want to — but I still hold the deepest respect for the folks who spent countless hours building the Marvel monstrosity that is Thanos’ quest. I think it’s important to state that upfront.
This is really more about speaking up about the quality of the original animated Transformers, which if we’re being completely honest, wasn’t all that great of a television series … it was the movie that elevated the proceedings considerably. And all due credit on this realization to the fine folks (MovieBob!) who produced this video of awesome-sauce.
I mean, this is a really deep dive on why the movie has merit, and I get it if you don’t want to go there. To sum up the video, there are tons of reasons to come to the conclusion that yes, the movie is really that good.
That all having been stated, why do I make the Avengers comparison?
Well, it’s a cultural touchstone and is present on people’s minds right now. That’s definitely a part of it. But more relevantly, they really do have a lot of the same characteristics.
Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look.
Continue reading Why Transformers: The Movie is better than Avengers: Infinity War
I don’t want to labor under too much stress trying to link my latest two work videos together with one another. The point is that they’re both out there, not so much that they have anything in common with one another.
I’m leading with Drag Queen Story Time because I’m particularly proud of it. It’s an interesting story, told in the form of an engaging interview, and I’m happy with how it turned out.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people involved in making “Solo.”
It was a thankless task. I mean, not literally, but let’s quickly break this down:
Some work-related stuff here for the foodies out there: First off, check out this video on one of the best sandwiches in existence, the Cochon de Lait po-boy, popularized at Jazz Fest.
More after the jump…
I grew up a Cincinnati Bengals fan, ergo, Draft Day is like a holiday. Longtime Saints fans can relate to this, I’m sure.
For the longest time, I would sit there, writing down the players’ names & info as they came off the board, so that I would have a hard copy of each NFL first round and learn the basics on who these players were (though who am I kidding, I was already a big enough fan to know these guys already).
I’m not sure what the point of this was, or is, other than to say that yes, I’ve followed this almost compulsively for a very long time.
With all that said, I thought I’d continue my draft tradition of writing down some thoughts prior to the big event. Obviously, please take this with a grain of salt as I have massive blind spots. For a great example of this, see my opinion, or lack thereof, on Lattimore last year (I didn’t like him because I thought he was a massive injury risk).
So, yeah.
But here we go anyway. Here’s one guy’s clearly flawed opinion.
I got pulled into one of those fun Facebook things recently, wherein you’re supposed to share something about yourself and encourage others to do the same.
So a chain letter, basically.
The upshot is this one was actually fun, as it was all about sharing “10 all time favorite albums that made an impact on you and are still in your rotation.”
Me being me, I chose to channel Rob Gorden from “High Fidelity” and do it autobiographical style, selecting and then listing musical albums that essentially told the story of my life.
Below, I’ve recreated that list for posterity … for anyone that wants to go on a musical journey with me through my life.
These are 10 albums that have a great deal of meaning to me. I hope you enjoy.
Did you know that there have been EIGHTEEN movies released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past decade?
18. Do you know how many Star Wars movies there are? 10, give or take (depends on if you count that Ewok stuff from the ’80s). And that’s over 40 years.
18.
If you haven’t been trying to keep up, you’re probably already painfully aware that it was a ridiculous number like that. If you’ve been gobbling them all up like a sleeve of girl scout cookies, however, you might have lost track of the madness.
Never fear, however! If you haven’t been keeping up and don’t want to sit through 40 hours of movies (check out this absurd marathon, which I’m pretty sure would kill a normal person), but you still have an interest in checking out one of the newer movies — perhaps the cultural phenomenon that is “Black Panther” or the mega-hyped “Avengers: Infinity War” coming out in a month or so — I am here to help. As a handy reference point, I’ll attempt to break down the major characters/plotlines in as simple a fashion as possible.
Feel free to bookmark and return to this as you need a refresher.
There is a scene in the original “Star Wars” (1977) that is often cited as being most representative of the themes contained therein. It is of the protagonist Luke Skywalker staring off into the binary sunset as John Williams’ epic score swells. Thanks to the fantastical sci-fi imagery on display (two suns, not just one!), and of course Williams’ wizardry, the audience is meant to take a breath (or perhaps lose it) in a moment of pure poetry. Thematically, this is where the renamed movie earns its new subtitle, “A New Hope,” for we are now all in on joining Luke on his hero’s journey from this point forward. It is deeply relatable, this hope, wonder and ambition of youth. And truly, the golden boy will end up saving us all (multiple times, in fact).
But this is never the first scene I come to when I recall the movie. Likewise, I don’t immediately go to the film’s most awe-inspiring sequence, the Star Destroyer rumbling overhead to open the movie and blowing out our eardrums while simultaneously making us question: “How big is this thing, anyway?”*
* Appropriately, this question can be applied to the size of the ship as well as the overall spectacle contained within the movie itself.
I don’t generally go straight to my earliest Star Wars memory either, that of the shoot-out on the Tantive IV or the droids’ subsequent journey through the desert (these images are burned into my subconscious forever). What about the phenomenal closing space battle winding over and around the Death Star? Or Jedi mentor Obi Wan’s heroic self-sacrifice? Or our first glimpses of the outlandish Cantina and all of the bizarre creatures inhabiting it? Nope, nope and nope.
Ah, Kansas State football. Coming off a disappointing 2015 season full of injuries and disaster (when your wide receiver is taking snaps at quarterback, it’s a disaster), the program rallied around the athleticism and game management of quarterback Jesse Ertz to rebound to 9 wins in 2016. Naturally, Ertz went down to injury in 2017* to take away all of that positive momentum. Playing a pair of young kids at quarterback transformed consistent performance into wild highs (such as crazy comebacks against ISU/Texas Tech and a win in Stillwater against a Top 15 OSU) and wild lows (KU and TCU … though in fairness the lowest of lows came with Ertz still in the lineup vs. Vanderbilt). The end result was a somewhat disappointing 8 wins.
* Hmm, maybe all these quarterback injuries indicate a need for a re-evaluation of an offensive game plan that regularly calls for your quarterback to carry the ball 20 times a game.
In the offseason, Kansas State has suffered massive player and coaching defections, creating even more instability.
So what now?
Continue reading The optimistic vs. pessimistic take on 2018 Kansas State football
