Saturday, September 29, 2018
The Romance is Gone
New York Times Styles Magazine – "With Cultivation, Have Oysters Become Too Perfect?"
"Yet in its new popularity, the oyster has lost something of its threat, its divisiveness and, therefore, its romance. They are bizarre creatures, hiding inside their rocky homes, holding their door to the world closed with every ounce of their strength. And so they have also become a kind of initiation into the realm of adult pleasures: “For I was fifteen / and eating oysters / and the child was defeated. / The woman won,” the poet Anne Sexton wrote in 1972 of her first. Through increasing refinement, they’ve become less dangerous and more predictable, no longer that dare we once knew. As we’ve done with many things in nature, we have sacrificed their weirdness for our own ease and pleasure. What was complicated is now merely delicious — because we made it that way."
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Bangkok Airport by Duangrit Bunnag
Bloomberg – "It Won't Burn Down: Architect Defends Vision for Bangkok Airport"
"Bangkok’s main airport is planning to add a $1.3 billion terminal with extensive wooden cladding and a forested landscape, spurring concern about fire risk. Its designer says there’s no need to worry.
Tropical forests inspired the blueprint for the building and the aim is to give travelers a feeling of Thailand’s uniqueness, 52-year-old architect Duangrit Bunnag said in an interview. He rejected concerns from the Engineering Institute of Thailand that the structure could be a fire hazard.
“Airports tend to have similar features -- they’re white, cold and metallic,” Duangrit said. “I wanted a design that immediately gives travelers the feeling they’ve arrived in Thailand. It will be a metal structure covered with wood. Different treatments can be applied to the timber to ensure fire resistance.”"
Memobottle
Mashable – "17 gifts for people who don’t drink enough water"
"If you’re unlikely to take a water bottle with you because its very roundness doesn’t quite fit in your bag, you need a memobottle. Designed by Australian duo Jesse Leeworthy and Jonathan Byrt, these Melbourne-made bottles are based on paper sizes — A5, A6, and the tiny, tiny A7.
They fit perfectly in the back of a plane seat, inside the document compartment of your backpack or sit flat on your desk. You can wrap them in leather cases, or customise them with the different coloured lid packs. Plus, every memobottle sold supports not-for-profit water.org, providing one person with two months' access to clean water."
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Friday, September 14, 2018
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
November 16, 2018
Written & Directed by The Coen Brothers
Starring James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Kazan, Liam Neeson, Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Colin Kaepernick in 2018
New York Times – "Colin Kaepernick’s Collusion Case Against the N.F.L. Will Advance"
New York Times – "Colin Kaepernick Is Not Going Away"
Adweek – "Colin Kaepernick Gets the Call, Fronts Nike’s 30th Anniversary of ‘Just Do It’"
ESPN.com – "The NFL's 50 most fascinating people: Players, coaches, GMs to watch in 2018"
By Bill Barnwell
"50. Colin Kaepernick, QB, free agent
It's still impossible to talk about the most important people in and around the NFL without bringing up Kaepernick, whose protests against social injustice still reverberate and impact the league. The NFL has repeatedly bungled its attempts to establish some sort of policy surrounding the national anthem, an issue President Donald Trump has used to energize his base against the league.
The on-field story still hasn't changed. Kaepernick is overqualified for a job; there is no modern precedent for a healthy quarterback with Kaepernick's résumé failing to find work in the NFL. Every time a team has an opening during the season, it goes after and eventually acquires a quarterback worse than the guy who is freely available on the open market. The Packers and Texans tanked their seasons in 2017 with Brett Hundley and Tom Savage, passers who nobody could credibly say were likely to outplay the 30-year-old Kaepernick. Some team will make the same mistake in 2018.
There's no end in sight to the conflict between the players and the league. Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL. Eric Reid, the talented safety who knelt alongside Kaepernick during the 2016 season, also has filed his own collusion grievance. The grievance might prevent Kaepernick from finding work; the only team that expressed interest in him this offseason was the Seahawks, who reportedly declined to bring Kaepernick in for a visit after he refused to say whether he would kneel during the anthem if signed.
I've been covering the NFL for 10 years now, and in the course of that decade, I've met plenty of people for the first time and had that natural conversation about our lives and what we each do for a living. Before 2016, when I said I wrote about the NFL, it usually led to a conversation about a favorite team or player. Occasionally, it led to player safety. Since 2016, those same conversations have almost without fail led to the other person giving their opinion about Colin Kaepernick and how the NFL has handled his situation. Kaepernick and his decision to protest have become shorthand for political sides in these divided times. That's not going anyway anytime soon."
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Trevor Lawrence
247Sports – "Bovada updates Heisman Trophy odds for 2018"
"Off the board earlier this year, Clemson's true freshman signal caller is now tied for the second-most likely quarterback to win the award with several others. No one has seen a surge like Lawrence, who is expected to be the Tigers' No. 2 when the season starts behind Kelly Bryant. But as America's top-rated quarterback in the 2018 class according to the 247Sports Composite, there's going to be pressure on Clemson's staff to play him early this fall. And considering Bryant's noticeable limitations downfield against Alabama in last season's College Football Playoff, perhaps Lawrence gets an opportunity to shine in big games long before the semifinals if the same issues persist."
The Front Runner
Hollywood Elsewhere – "Telluride Triumphs for Chazelle, Reitman"
November 7, 2018
Written by Matt Bai, Jason Reitman, Jay Carson
Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air)
Starring Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J. K. Simmons
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