I'm not quite finished with the concerts of the nineties yet, though from here on out I'll be jumping around chronologically, as I remember the shows. And here is one I can't believe I almost forgot: Indigo Girls, Toledo, 1995 Two things I remember about this show, maybe three. (1) I went with Tim, my… Continue reading Long Live Rock: The Indigo Girls
Author: Mark Sample
What happens on Facebook when we die?
Anybody who follows Facebook has probably heard about the user who found it impossible to delete his account; even after he deactivated his profile, it showed up in searches and various Facebook news feeds. If you can't get out of Facebook when you're alive, what happens when you die? What happens to your Facebook profile… Continue reading What happens on Facebook when we die?
Let Us Now Praise the Tater Tot
photo credit: JaseMan I've always suspected that Tater Tots were the ultimate comfort food. Something about them calls us back to childhood, back to the deep fried goodness of elementary school cafeterias. Even full grown adults are susceptible, drawn to the warm potatoesque mush inside and the crunchy, flaky shell outside. Some salt and some… Continue reading Let Us Now Praise the Tater Tot
Long Live Rock in the New Millennia: Mojave 3
A long time back I began a series of posts about the different live concerts I've seen since the eighties. A student of mine who happens to be a Glen Phillips fan dug up an old post about a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert in the early nineties. It got me thinking that I never… Continue reading Long Live Rock in the New Millennia: Mojave 3
The Death of a Legend: Charlton Heston
Anyone who knows is me is expecting a flurry of posts about the sad news of Charlton Heston's death. For a while, back in the late nineties, I was single-handedly trying to forge the field of Heston Studies. My work focused on Heston's informal sci-fi trilogy from the late sixties and early seventies: Planet of… Continue reading The Death of a Legend: Charlton Heston
Remembrances of March Madnesses Past
With my hometown team in the Sweet Sixteen, I thought I'd dig through the archives of a long-defunct, long-offline version of Sample Reality and repost the only thing I've ever written about the NCAA. It begins with this Nike advertisement from 2000, a fantastic little commercial produced by Wieden & Kennedy (Portland, Oregon), which illustrates… Continue reading Remembrances of March Madnesses Past
Pope John Paul II in Action
Tradermaester-maestertrader Adam remembers young Karol Wojtyla (henceforth known as "the pope boy") running through the streets of Poland in Marvel's comic book adaptation of his life. I'm happy to bolster Adam's memory with these EXCLUSIVE!!! images of the pope boy playing soccer in his hometown of Wadowice (larger image). For my part, the image from… Continue reading Pope John Paul II in Action
A glut of Popes on eBay
Inspired by the strange coincidences between Adam's and my first forays into comic books as children, I've dug up this gem from my attic: Marvel Comic's "The Life of Pope John Paul II" (full size image). Published in 1982, this graphic biography (as opposed to a graphic novel) tells the "entire story" of Pope John… Continue reading A glut of Popes on eBay
A Mouse on a Treadmill or a Rat in a Maze?
I'm torn between which metaphor best describes my life: either I'm a mouse on a treadmill, running in place, getting nowhere, or I'm a rat in a maze, going blindly down random paths in order to get that cheese, which, face it, isn't much of a prize. Consider this: I work a high-prestige, low-paying job… Continue reading A Mouse on a Treadmill or a Rat in a Maze?
My musty old comic books
Adam and I have been friends for over thirty years -- he's one of the few people I regularly keep in touch with from my childhood. And lately Adam's been mining our childhood for memories of our individual and collective comic book "habit," writing some wonderful reflections upon comic books and what they've meant to… Continue reading My musty old comic books
My carbon footprint has got to be ridiculous
In a recent conversation between Thom Yorke and David Byrne in Wired, Yorke describes how Radiohead conducted a study to assess its carbon footprint, in the hopes of then being able to reduce it. But their biggest impact upon the environment turned out to be something out of their control: all their fans driving to… Continue reading My carbon footprint has got to be ridiculous
My life on Random Play
So my ancient 30gb MP3 player broke, and the only buttons that work now are the volume controls and the "Random Play" button. I'm going to milk this brick-like, nearly bricked player for all it's worth, and so I'm now cycling through the 8,000 songs in the random play, and I'm hearing things I haven't… Continue reading My life on Random Play
Fantastic writing in reviews of milk on amazon
Via Dennis Jerz via Boing Boing, word of hundreds of fake reviews for a real product on Amazon, a gallon of Tuscan whole milk. Jerz imagines quite rightly that the novelty of ordering milk from an online bookstore is the impetus for these entertaining reviews, which range in style from poetic to surreal. Many of… Continue reading Fantastic writing in reviews of milk on amazon
Dennis Kucinich and Tucker Carlson
Dennis Kucinich is always dismissed as being "out there," a modern day Jerry Brown, but in this interview with Tucker Carlson about the impeachment of Dick Cheney, Kucinich is undeniably rational and level-headed. In the face of Carlson's manic thuggish questioning, Kucinich is unflappable. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bELc-kjLR_E]
Making Wikipedia a Class Assignment
Slashdot has a post today about a professor who requires students to edit Wikipedia for a class assignment. Come on, Slashdot, this is old, old news! My colleague Mills Kelly has had many Wikipedia assignment in the past several years, while over a year ago I had my 21st Century Literature Class do extensive edits… Continue reading Making Wikipedia a Class Assignment