PicoBlog

Recommendation: A new film called “THE SPOILS: Selling the Future of American Basketball” has just come out and it is fantastic. The film follows the path of talented young basketball players from the AAU circuit to the NBA, exposing how money, power, and influence from agents, shoe brands, and college coaches have changed youth sports forever. You can … ncG1vNJzZmigpZmxrbHUqWWsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXy1tMRmq6utpJ16o7HHoqWdZaSdsm7DzZuYrGWjoMazu8KknK2hnpw%3D
It wasn’t too long ago that Coventry City found themselves staring down the barrel of a penalty shoot-out in May of 2023. After a grueling Championship campaign, Coventry had battled their way to an impressive fifth place finish, guaranteeing them a playoff position with aspirations of the Premier League on the other side. This was an incredible feat in its own right, as Mark Robins took to the helm as manager of Coventry City and steadily steered Coventry towards the upper echelons of League One and the Championship, a position that Coventry fans had been hoping for amongst years of mediocrity and uncertainty as they were relegated to League Two under previous boss Tony Mowbray.
Welcome! Glad you could join us. It’s a new weekend, and that means a new edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. Here’s what we’re doing this time: One — the chaotic tale of Destino, Disney’s surreal crossover with Dalí. Two — animation news from around the world. Three — a trove of classic Armenian animation. Four — the retro ad of the week. Five — the last word. Before we get into it — don’t forget to sign up, if you haven’t already!
Last summer I attended a reunion at my prep school, the occasion was the leaving of a much-loved master. I thought the appropriate thing to wear would be a tweed jacket in honour of prep school masters everywhere. But I found myself woefully over-dressed as pretty much all my contemporaries were wearing gilets. It was a similar story at the Fortnum & Mason awards, the Oscars of the British food and drink scene, I wore a suit but there were William Sitwell and others casually sporting gilets.
The reaction to the UFC 300 poster was swift and severe. Very few people liked the poster when they first set eyes on it. Me? I found the image of a gold flag waving in the breeze with UFC 300 written in white to represent the historic event perfectly. Let me explain. The posters the UFC uses to advertise its events are often lazy affairs. Like most pieces of the UFC production puzzle, the UFC has a formula it follows, one that it is comfortable with.
Over the years I’ve been dropped by several dentists. I receive a letter stating that the provider no longer takes the UFT Welfare Fund because it pays them too little. Last year I received such a letter from my current dentist, who I still see but at a cost of $90 instead of the $15 I paid when they took UFT. It seems like I’m not alone—many of my colleagues have also had their dentists stop accepting their insurance.
oh hey friends. Congratulations on making it past the darkest day of the year! There’s just something about waking up this morning knowing that there will be more light today than there was yesterday. Maybe you should celebrate today by making one of these : ncG1vNJzZmijop7AtbHNpZivmZyhsrp60q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnpJ2ybsHLraCmmaSaeqS72bJkrKCfrHqttdKt
Deu boro dis dium folks, I’ve been planning a treat to look forward to after my cancer treatments are done. And the plan, at the moment, is to rent a villa in Goa for a month. Goa is India’s smallest state, a coastal paradise, and its most popular tourist destination. It is also a physical manifestation of syncretism, with strong Portuguese and Catholic influences in everything from food to architecture. For this week’s newsletter, we have a guest post by Anjali Menezes-Kelling, a Goan-native who has spent years living in the UK and France, and is currently based in the Spanish Ballearic island of Mallorca.
As an author debuting in 2024 myself, Cait Corrain has unfortunately slithered onto my radar. Luckily[?] for somebody who jumped ship from Twitter years ago, the situation regarding them has percolated to the wider internet, making itself available for my hyper-critical consumption. For those unaware, Cait Corrain (she/they) was at one point a 2024 debut SFF author who created multiple Goodreads accounts to review-bomb (prolifically give 1-star ratings to) her fellow debut authors, most of whom were non-white with some under her own publishing imprint/in her debut group, as well as an already-published friend!