Archive for the ‘Trivia’ Category

Fixed mundanity

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

March Exercise V —day twenty-four— I was burnt toast after my 22-miler tonight, making me painfully conscious of my sedentary occupation. But it’s March, when my bicycle legs are rudely punished until I can take 30 miles in stride, with a couple of knobs thrown in for good measure.

Today’s sight bite— Was that the familiar green and brown bag? —c-l-i-c-k— In the ditch? There’s another one! —c-l-i-c-k— My package design for livestock feed appearing as a huge item of roadside litter reminds me that I have chosen to spend much of my life creating trivial ephemera.

Previously on M-Ex— Conservation of energy—more secrets are revealed through focused awareness. (3/24/06)

Tomorrow— Dinosaurs!

cropped package

Awesome?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Tonight was the most enjoyable hour of Chuck that has ever aired. Might have made it worth sitting through all those lousy ‘Buy More’ episodes. NBC probably wishes it still had Life and Journeyman on the shelf, now that the Leno-at-10 idea has collapsed.

Mad Men Madness

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

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Yes, we are hooked on Mad Men! I fail to see how anyone would not consider this the best drama on TV. If you are a creative professional, it is even more extraordinary. If you worked at an ad agency, it is so “on the mark” it is spooky. How can anyone write this well? How can anyone write this well and have it actually, successfully, brilliantly produced for television?

More! We must have more!

Tonight’s essential triviality

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

• Composer Earle Hagen just died of natural causes, a few days short of his 90th birthday. Hagen did orchestrations for Rodgers and Hammerstein and major Hollywood movies before he hit it big with television music. I guess my favorite is the theme he created for I-Spy. Better known for The Andy Griffith Show and That Girl, he will nonetheless be remembered in the annals of Clan Hayride Lore for writing that obscure crowd-pleaser, Rango.

• Now that I’m thinking about television theme songs, I finally realized why I like the intro for Firefly so much: Joss Whedon simply lifted the best musical attributes of Tennessee Stud. All artists steal from each other, right? A long-standing tradition.

• Hmmm . . . now I’m beginning to wonder if Brendan swiped the 8-note melody of A Grandy-bo Christmas Surprise for his new podcast series.

From San Antone to the Rio Grande,
On mountain peak or desert sand,
Every outlaw feared the hand of danger,
This Texas Ranger—
Rango, Rango, Ra-ang-go-o-oh!

Top this for meaningless trivia!

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Recurring themes and personalities in my dreams:

(in no particular order)

Horses
Former clients
Dana, my sweetie
Stolen valuables
Vintage plastic toys and playset figures
On stage, unprepared, with no idea of the play
Incomplete requirements from college studies
Gunplay and martial-arts combat
One of my best buddies: Mike, Bill, or David
Brothers James and Jeffrey, together
Aircraft, trains, vans, and bizarre vehicles
Bush 41 and 43, plus other ex-presidents
Beck, my Evanston employer
Dadbo and Mombo
Yorkshire terriers
Peter Graves

Oldenday Quiz

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

(match each number to a letter)

1) swing set
2) daddy-man
3) makko bird
4) stool chair
5) Father Mike
6) Uncle Art
7) Dr. Pfarrer
8) whitey rock
9) worm pits
10) Frank
11) Dodgie
12) Uncle Don
13) Hoc-Hoc Man
14) silver paint
15) Hugh
16) Uncle Joe
17) spring house
18) Uncle George
19) Roy Macy
20) Dante
21) Uncle Bobby
22) funny face
23) Paul
24) Orville
25) Barnamoe
26) gitzen
a) Grandma
b) Flint
c) wasps
d) MVRBA
e) Hazel
f) Green Plane
g) Arlene
h) machine
i) big horse
j) Billy
k) sicu
l) grapevine
m) Vaseline
n) boundary
o) haircuts
p) bookshelf
q) rhubarb
r) Gravely
s) X-15
t) Cecilia
u) blackboard
v) Chippers
w) trampoline
x) Fibber
y) Lucy
z) Greenbriar

(see comment for answers)

Cool movie developments

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

— Alan Arkin will play The Chief opposite Steve Carell’s Agent 86.
— The new Sidney Lumet picture with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke is reported to be outstanding.
— Brian Dennehy joins Pacino and De Niro in a crime drama by the writer of Inside Man.
— Karl Urban (Capt. Call in McMurtry’s upcoming Comanche Moon) is the new “Bones” in a big-screen Star Trek prequel by J.J. Abrams. Watch this guy.
— Looks like Clint Eastwood will direct Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. Role of a lifetime?
— Marty favorite Dan Bradley, masterful stunt coordinator for the Bourne sequels, is Spielberg’s second unit director for the new Indiana Jones installment. Great choice.
— A sci-fi thriller that teams James Cameron, James Horner, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Lang, and Wes Studi? So far so good. Due in 2009.

:: :: :: :: What is it good for? :: :: :: :

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Today is my 594th consecutive entry in this log.
Which means next Wednesday will be my 600th.
And that means “absolutely nothing!”
(HUH! Good God y’all!)

Meaningless factoids

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

‡  A copy of Flash Comics #1 sold at auction in Dallas for $273,125.

‡  To satisfy serious audiophiles, sound engineer Satoshi Imamura discovered how to mold advanced speaker cones by soaking birch wood in sake.

‡  Casey Stengel won ten pennants and seven world championships in 12 years when he managed the New York Yankees from 1949 through 1960.

‡  The miniature display of “The Greatest Show on Earth” at Sarasota’s Ringling Circus Museum contains 152 circus wagons, 700 animals, 1,500 performers and workers, and 7,000 folding chairs.

‡  In 1993, members of the American Medical Association had an average income of $170,000 per year.

‡  Competitive eater Sonya Thomas has eaten nearly ten pounds of Vienna sausage in ten minutes, just over eight pounds of baked beans in less than three minutes, and, most recently, 60 ham biscuits in eight minutes.

‡  Dairy cows should eat at least four percent of their body weight each day, which means that a 1,350-pound cow needs a minimum of 54 pounds of dry matter intake per day.

‡  In 2005, the Los Angeles Conservancy, along with seven other groups, sued the Los Angeles Unified School District to stop the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel, where R.F.K. was assassinated in the pantry off the Embassy Ballroom. The Kennedy family sided with the School District, which now owns the property. The daughter of a renowned black architect who worked on parts of the building sided with the Conservancy. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a brief to block their suit. In a separate court action to oppose the razing, the Committee to Preserve Assassination Sites joined with the lawyer of convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan.

‡  Meanwhile, entertainer Britney Spears does 300 sit-ups a day.

Sorry, no links (they’ll just rot and stink up the place). You’ll have to trust me on all this…