PicoBlog

Think of a ubiquitous song, an eternal song. The kind of song you might hear in a bar in Shinjuku or a wedding in Topanga Canyon, and nearly everyone knows the words—and not a few have begun belting them out. Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.” At the highest reaches of this list of songs with total global recognition, with its compressed, simplistic drums and instantly identifiable synth flute, is “The Sign” by Ace of Base.

This newsletter contains a brief discussion of depictions of rape and sexual violence in film. In this issue: A Visit from the Incubus (2001, 26 minutes, Criterion Collection) What she wants is really thrilling Period movies are set in two times: the time they depict and the time they were made. Anachronisms in costume, make-up, and hair are transparently obvious when you watch older movies; even Ralphie Cifaretto notices it while watching Spartacus: “Look at Kirk Douglas’s fuckin’ hair.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) inaugural season is coming to a close. While the league is currently on a three-week pause due to the Women’s World Championship starting up, once they come back,the postseason will be front and center. With that in mind, it’s time to start thinking of names for these teams.  Many questioned why the teams played their first season without nicknames, but according to the Athletic’s Hailey Salvian, who talked with the league’s senior vice president of business operations, Amy Scheer, before the league started, something like a team name and logo takes time, more than they had.

Every guitar store should have a sign along the lines of “Everyone welcome, come in, sit down and play.” Trying out a guitar you don’t own shouldn’t be a reserved activity for people who shred like Steve Vai. In fact, since most people can’t shred like Steve Vai, we should expect to hear wildly different sounds of music inside a store. I remember checking out a music store before I even played guitar.

Parent of a 1st grader and a toddler. 1st grader’s school is private and goes PK4-8th grade, but has a high number of Louisiana tuition voucher students (low-income kids who would otherwise be enrolled in a failing public school). Has uniforms and 6 optional “color days” per year: 2 Saints colors (wear black and/or gold or a Saints jersey), 1 Halloween colors (black, orange, lime green, purple), 1 Christmas colors (red, green, and white), 1 Mardi Gras colors (purple, green, and gold), and 1 either Valentine’s (red, pink, purple and white) OR St Patrick’s colors (green and white), whichever one falls further on the calendar from Mardi Gras that year.

Quick updates: Welcome back to India Inside Out. This week I write about India’s New Parliament building, inaugurated last week in an elaborate ceremony by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and append a few more links on the subject. But before moving on to the main piece, I have a short request. I have been trying to figure out how best to structure editions of this newsletter, which for the moment is a labour of love.

This year’s Bachelor was six feet, five inches tall. More wall than man, Missouri-born Clayton Echard barely fit through a standard-sized door. I can see why his staggering height made him a good football player, earning him a brief spot on the Seahawks roster; the NFL prefers their players rectangle-shaped. But it also apparently made him hot, almost by default. That’s not something I fully understood until I became part of The Bachelor fandom eight years ago.

When the Danny Masterson trial began, both sides issued witness lists that we publicized on October 13. The list for the prosecution included 13 members of law enforcement, 22 civilians, and 1 expert. Of those, the prosecution actually called 4 members of law enforcement, 9 civilians, and 1 expert during the trial. Among the witnesses not called by the prosecution was a former Scientologist by the name of Damian Perkins.

When I was in high school, I wrote this fan fiction crossover between the manga One Piece and the Teen Titans animated series. I bring this up only because of one fight scene I wrote early in the story, where the Titans were taking on a group of Marines. It was a brutal battle, wherein Terra buried a soldier alive and Starfire incinerated another with an energy blast. When I went back and reread this chapter a year or two later, as I finished the story, I was shocked and appalled by what I had written.