Hmm. I don’t know. I haven’t liked Superman in a movie since the early 80s. What do you think? Does Superman even make sense as a contemporary superhero?
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The Muppets’ Carol of the Bells
The only Christmas music I want to hear this year is The Muppets doing Carol of the Bells. Beaker, Animal, and the Swedish Chef makes a great trio, don’t you think?
Tags: Christmas · holidays · music · The Muppets · video
The Missing van Gogh Masterpiece
I didn’t know that the whereabouts of one of Vincent van Gogh’s most important works, a 1890 painting called “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”, is unknown and that the painting had not been seen publicly since the 1990s. This investigation into the potential location of the paintin...
I’m an Apple News+ Article. Come and Get Me, Baby. “‘You can...
I’m an Apple News+ Article. Come and Get Me, Baby. “‘You can look, but don’t touch,’ I whisper from my protected paywall’s safe, loving embrace.”
Saving this for future reference: the 25 most popular recipes published by...
Saving this for future reference: the 25 most popular recipes published by NYT Cooking in 2024. Includes a link to the full top 50.
Thanks to a large donation, lift tickets will be free all season...
Thanks to a large donation, lift tickets will be free all season at Storrs Hill Ski Area in NH. “We hope this initiative brings neighbors together and inspires a love of skiing in a fun and accessible way.”
“Substack Is At It Again”
Marisa Kabas correctly asserts that Substack’s latest announcement reaffirms their status as a publication (and not a platform) and as a place that will publish disinformation and hate under the guise of “free speech”.
As we wrote in the Substackers Against Nazis letter, “t...
How to make your own Die Hard Christmas tree ornament of John...
How to make your own Die Hard Christmas tree ornament of John McClane crawling through the air duct.
I am almost positive that I have posted this before but I...
I am almost positive that I have posted this before but I don’t care: rotating sandwiches. (There seem to be a couple spinning clockwise but maybe that’s just an optical illusion?)
They Thought They Were Free
First published in 1955, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 (Bookshop) is a book by Milton Mayer for which he interviewed ten ordinary Germans about their experiences living in Nazi Germany. From the synopsis:
“These ten men were not men of distinction,” Mayer...
Jamelle Bouie: “Either democracy was on the ballot in November, or it...
Jamelle Bouie: “Either democracy was on the ballot in November, or it wasn’t, and if it was, it makes no political, ethical or strategic sense to act as if we live in normal times.” 100,000%!! This is driving me *nuts*. Dem pols: fight or piss off.
🔔 Laaaast call for The 2024 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide. If you...
🔔 Laaaast call for The 2024 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide. If you still have holiday shopping to do, it’s probably coming down to the last day or two for ordering in time for Dec 25 (Xmas and also the first night of Hanukkah).
36 Things That Stuck With Us in 2024, including Chappell Roan, Missy...
36 Things That Stuck With Us in 2024, including Chappell Roan, Missy Elliott, Kendrick Lamar, The Substance, Twisters in 4DX (🤔), and Nobody Wants This. (I think there’s maybe a better version of this list out there…)
A group of scientists warns against creating mirror cells. This sentence is...
A group of scientists warns against creating mirror cells. This sentence is somehow not sci-fi: “Drug developers might be able to create mirror antibiotics, but the treatments might not be ready to use until a mirror pandemic was out of control.”
What Are Your Personal Foundational Texts?
Writer Karen Attiah recently wrote about the pleasure of perusing other people’s personal libraries and then asked her followers what their “personal foundational texts” were…those books that people read over and over again during the course of their lives. Here was her an...
Then Comes The Body
Then Comes The Body is a great short documentary from Jacob Krupnick about a Nigerian man who taught himself how to dance ballet from watching YouTube tutorials, the ballet school he started in Lagos, and the students who are branching out into the rest of the world.
Ther...
It is easy to be cynical about the do-gooding motivations of a...
It is easy to be cynical about the do-gooding motivations of a $3 trillion company, but Apple’s commitment to accessibility is admirable. This music fan bought Airpods Pro and nearly cried after learning they were also hearing aids.
Yo-Yo Ma played the prelude to Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G...
Yo-Yo Ma played the prelude to Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G major at the reopening of the Notre Dame in Paris. I bet this sounded wonderful, with the sound reverberating around the cathedral.
Two More Tiny Desks
Speaking of speaking of Tiny Desk Concerts here are two recent good ones. (Eep, wait, they’re all really good. What if any performance by a very talented performer in an intimate setting is always going to be special?)
Waxahatchee was solo in her 2013 performance, but here she is with an excellent five piece band, including Jeff Tweedy’s son on drums.
And here’s Doechii with a NINE piece. Gosh, this is so good and so fun to watch.
This is also worth a watch about how the NPR engineers make the concerts sound so good.
Tags: Doechii · music · Tiny Desk Concerts · video · Waxahatchee
Apple has renewed Silo for two more seasons. The show will end...
Apple has renewed Silo for two more seasons. The show will end after season four, having told “the entire story contained within Hugh Howey’s books”.
Trailer for The White Lotus Season Three
A teaser trailer for the third season of The White Lotus is out and the release date has been revealed: February 16, 2025. Parker Posey? Walton Goggins? Yes, please. But I’ve got a love/hate relationship with this show (I couldn’t get through the first season but thought the second season was great), so I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.
Tags: HBO · The White Lotus · trailers · TV · video
Speaking of Tiny Desk Concerts, the most popular set of 2024 (18M...
Speaking of Tiny Desk Concerts, the most popular set of 2024 (18M views) is by “Argentine power duo” Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso. Their music is “heavily dependent on electronic sounds” but for Tiny Desk they went traditional and it sounds great.
Actual things my parents said while watching my son’s swimming lesson. “MOM:...
Actual things my parents said while watching my son’s swimming lesson. “MOM: He’s so beautiful. The teacher must be beside herself. DAD: She’s barely controlling herself. She’s trying not to cry. [HE IS CRYING A BIT]”
HPV vaccines have been linked to a steep drop in cervical cancer...
HPV vaccines have been linked to a steep drop in cervical cancer deaths in young women. “We observed a substantial reduction in mortality — a 62% drop in cervical cancer deaths over the last decade.”
Billie Eilish’s Tiny Desk Concert
During the pandemic, Billie Eilish did a Tiny Desk Concert at home amidst a very faithful recreation of the NPR office. Last week, Eilish played a proper set at the actual office. From the video’s description:
Saudade is a Portuguese word that can be roughly defined as a...
“Americans spend more years being unhealthy than people in any other country.”...
“Americans spend more years being unhealthy than people in any other country.” Among high income countries, the US has the highest rates of adults with multiple chronic conditions, shortest life expectancy at birth, highest rate of avoidable deaths, etc.
Isle of Tune: a web-based game where you build streetscapes that play...
Isle of Tune: a web-based game where you build streetscapes that play music when a car is driven on them — trees, house, and light poles all make different sounds. Big Star Guitar vibes.
From an old version of the Wikipedia page for Warren G and...
From an old version of the Wikipedia page for Warren G and Nate Dogg’s Regulate, an extremely dry synopsis of the song. “Warren, unaware that Nate is surreptitiously observing the scene unfold, is in disbelief that he is being robbed.”
Kottke Comments, Now With Faves
Hello, everyone. I just launched a few new features related to the comments here on kottke.org:
1. The ability to fave comments. This feature has been in test mode for the past few months, and I’m happy it’s finally getting a wider release. Only kottke.org members can fave ...
Once again, The 2024 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide. If you’re shopping online,...
Once again, The 2024 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide. If you’re shopping online, especially from smaller retailers, getting your order in this weekend is probably a good idea for delivery before Xmas or the first day of Hanukkah.