Just Pretend it’s a Tinyletter, Vol 3.
This JPIAT is a few days late (but absolutely zero dollars short) because I’ve been doing a bunch of interesting things lately, not least slipping about 30m down a muddy escarpment and busting a couple of ribs. Fortunately, they’re on the other side of the ribcage from the ribs I separated by dropping a kayak on myself from my car’s roofrack a month or so back. So I have that going for me, which is nice.
Pod-people
Peter McGraw is the author of the Humor Code, director of the Humor Research Lab at University of Colorado Boulder, and has the misfortune of being even taller than I am. One of the perks of being Peter is that he travels the world talking to funny people in a quest to find a grand unifying theory of comedy. As he’s already postulated Benign Violation Theory, at this point I think he’s just taking the piss.
During a recent trip to Australia, Peter was kind enough to include me as a guest on his podcast I’m Not Joking , and he sent me this image with which to promote it. He was polite enough not to mention that I look like a trainee mall-santa under extreme housing stress when he took the photo of me, but you’ll notice that he looks like the least threatening person in the world in his, so I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
While we’re on podcasts, Robyn Kanner and Mike Monteiro have pushed their second episode of Earn Yr Death, a podcast about making sure you’re on the correct side of the ledger when you take your last breath. Come for the cranky inspiration, stay for Robyn’s delightful vocal fry.
The folks at Mule Design have just launched the humbly-titled Voice Of Design, with episode 1 taking on the fundamental idea of the role of the designer.
And can we hope for another season of Behind The Belt, ABC radio’s pro-wrestling podcast? I sure as hell hope so.
Talking pictures
As well as taking a lot of pictures recently, Rob Ruminski was kind enough to sit for a portrait and let me throw some silly questions at him for largely my own amusement. I think it turned out well, but I will be working harder on the lighting and the curly questions in future instalments.
Most of the photographs I take are either taken with a 50mm lens or a smaller-format equivalent. If you’ve ever wondered how the 50mm prime became the standard lens against which all other are measured (apart from that it closely mimics human field of vision), Allain Daigle’s How the 50mm Lens Became ‘Normal’ does precisely what it says on the tin. Hint: standardisation of film stock helped.
And
There was a Royal Wedding. Bad Lip Reading nailed it. Nothing will ever top DJO’s Happy in Paraguay, but this is delightful.
I am either wasted on Twitter or this joke is just too great and nobody knew how to respond.
Since mainlining Westworld I just imagine all other TV shows happen in another area of the theme park.
My working title for this theory is WestphallWorld.
— Ross “The Professor” Floate (@RossFloate) May 24, 2018
Father John Misty’s upcoming record teaser is driving me crazy waiting for the full release. If there’s a song to rival this one, I’ll be stunned, but let’s wait and see.
I asked my pal Rob (from up above there) if he liked the new Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks album ‘Sparkle Hard’ and he made a great quip about how he gets annoyed at all the silences during songs where Malkmus stops playing to reach around to pat himself on the back. So of course there’s a 10 minute film to launch the damned record (a record which I personally love).
Stay freaked out
I love tech more than almost anyone I know, but data collection is getting scarier by the day and we seem to be becoming increasingly blasé. I wouldn’t have a Google Home or and Amazon Alexa in my house because those things are always listening and those companies are amoral. Duplex is probably illegal, if it even exists at all. It even turns out our devices are listening to things we can’t even hear. Even Siri. So put on your face masks in the house, kids.
If you don’t trust the government not to sell your health data (and you shouldn’t) you’re only going to have a three month window to opt out, ending October 15.
And Finally
Maybe we shouldn’t get rid of the Monarchy after all?
Originally published at rossfloate.com on May 24, 2018.
