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The Friday Five | May 15, 2020

This is a collection of things that I’ve been enjoying, doing, or thinking about through the week. Since it’s been a little while since my last gratitude post, I thought this would be an opportune time to share some things that I am thankful for right now.

Please note that some obvious things (family, food, shelter, etc.) aren’t going to be on the list below. It’s not that I’m not grateful for them, it’s that there wouldn’t be room for anything else if that’s all I focused on. So let’s just take those as a given, okay?

FATAL FLAWS. This might seem like an odd one to start off with and probably deserves its own post at some point. Before the pandemic, we’d been in the process of discussing how our business needed to change and/or adapt for the near and far futures. Along the way, we identified some flaws in our business model along with one potentially fatal flaw (to scalability and expansion that is). Now, as we’re hurtling towards week nine of lockdown, it turns out that the fatal flaw has been our saving grace. Just a reminder to approach things from multiple angles.
TOM ROBBINS. Being caught shorthanded with fresh books to read was an example of a problem I’ve been trying to look at from a different angle. The positive being that I dove back into the work of Tom Robbins over the last couple weeks and was reminded how much I love his writing. It’s also been a flashback since I remember clearly the time in my life when each one was read and in some cases, the location. That’s not to say fresh books aren’t on the way, but it’s been a fun spin down Memory Lane.
BLATANT FOOLISHNESS. Another positive of not having many places to go is that I’ve been able to spend every Sunday night recording a fresh episode of the Free Range Idiocy podcast with my friend Tim. We have no aspirations of fame and fortune (which is good being one out of a billion podcasts in the universe), but it’s an excellent opportunity to spend a couple hours laughing our way into the new week.
NEW MUSIC. Throughout my life, I’ve spent a lot of time looking backwards with music instead of looking at what’s coming next. From my elementary school years spent listening to The Beach Boys up until now when I’m more likely to be pulling an old Verve jazz record out of my collection instead of prowling the new release section of iTunes or Spotify. However, the last couple weeks have given me some good excuses to look at the present and even the future, so here’s a couple of recommendations… The new Lettuce album Resonate is absolutely outstanding … Ditto with new Fiona Apple album Fetch the Bolt Cutters (but you probably already knew that one) … And here’s one to look forward to – Maceo Parker has a new album coming out in June, but hit us all up with a new version of his song “Cross The Track” as an appetizer.
PASSION PROJECTS. I suppose the podcast would count in this category, but here I’m specifically talking about the poetry project I’ve been working on. Same as with the podcast, I have no illusions about this book taking the world by storm, becoming a bestseller, or catapulting me to a level of recognition that results in me being taught in a class some day … but … it is fun and it is something to do. Sometimes, that’s enough.

If you’ve enjoyed any of this, I’m glad. Feel like sticking around for a bit? Check out some of my more recent posts below.

Expectations

Remember how I said yesterday that I didn’t want to post anything? Ah, those fond, fond, sepia-toned memories…

So yeah, today.

Today? I really don’t feel like writing anything.

So instead of venting my spleen on the interwebs for all the universe to see (which is foolish and lame and doesn’t accomplish anything positive), let’s talk about what I’m doing now that Maine is on a stay at home order and the governor has cancelled April, shall we?

Rando With Mando!

Perhaps this counts as cheating, but since I make the rules around here… I’ll allow it.

Check out the newest episode of Free Range Idiocy where Tim and I recap our favorite moments, characters, and episodes from season one of The Madalorian.

My New Social Media Policy

Well shucks, that sounds awfully corporate and official for some guy working out of his house, but it’s actually the best title I could come up with. The beginning of this year has been interesting and I’ve begun to think of my life as more of being CEO of Todd, Inc. rather than just doing a bunch of stuff. After all, I have control over pretty much everything that I’ve chosen to do – time to start acting like it.

So one of the biggest moves this year is something I’ve spent a few posts talking about: social media and how to deal with it. After 21 days away and then an experimental week back without any real changes, I’ve come to a terribly unscientific conclusion.

I stink at this.

So, it’s time to start making some changes.

A poet must not avert his eyes

During my initial foray into the world of professional wrestling, my father took me to see the Big Boss Man take on Hulk Hogan. This was back when Hulkamania was running wild, Boss Man was the evil Cobb County prison guard, and the Portland Civic Center was still called the Portland Civic Center.

Looking back through the haze of nostalgia, it was a very big deal to me at the time. I had posters of Bret “The Hitman” Hart, the painted face tag team Demolition, and a couple others hanging on my bedroom walls. I watched wrestling shows on TV and thrilled to the banter between Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura at ringside. Seeing these giants of sports entertainment in person was amazing.

In reality, it was your average late-80’s WWF house show. Hercules defeated Bad News Brown, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine defeated Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, King Haku defeated Jim Powers, The Bushwackers beat the Rougeau Brothers, WWF Women’s Champion Rockin’ Robin defeated Sensational Sherri, the Red Rooster took down the Brooklyn Brawler, and Paul Roma beat “Iron” Mike Sharpe.

That main event that sparkled so brightly in my memory? Hulk won over Boss Man via a count out. Not exactly a finish to write home about.

Which all leads me to say… Werner Herzog is an interesting guy. Along with being a renegade auteur filmmaker, he also enjoys some Wrestlemania as well. I’m guessing that he’s referring to WWF/WWE, but you can never quite tell with a guy like Herzog.

The idea of professional wrestling as this spectacle that a lot of highbrow artists would look down upon but which actually can be superior to some more “enlightened” forms of entertainment is something I can agree with. It’s an amazing form that combines acting, spectacle, drama, and superior athletic ability. Sure, it’s gaudy and gauche and insane. But it’s also a good laugh, fun to watch, and occasionally transcendent in its athletic achievement.

Wrestling faded from my interest by the time high school rolled around, but made a surprise resurgence for me in college. This was at the height of WWF’s “Attitude Era” with stars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the Undertaker, the Rock, Triple H, and many more. I was back in, then just as suddenly a few years later, I was back out.

Third time is the charm I suppose, because now I have new podcast out where Tim and I recap last month’s WWE Survivor Series. It was the second wrestling show I’d watched in about 20 years. And you know what? It was a lot of fun. Bright lights, explosions, acting (both good and bad), over-the-top characters (both good and bad), and athleticism that I sometimes couldn’t believe.

In other words, not a bad way to spend a Sunday night.

You Gotta Love A Nice Deep Geek

For a little something that started out as a good excuse for a conversation every couple weeks, this thing here is starting to get some legs! After spending the better part of the first three episodes of Free Range Idiocy finding some way to turn the conversation towards Battlestar Galactica, we’ve decided to go full-on deep geek and talk about our favorite episodes from each season. This past #TGIFRIday, we posted the first episode: a 3-hour marathon discussion of our personal top five lists from the first season of BSG.

Yes indeed, folks… After cursing podcasts that ran for 3 hours, we’ve managed to record two podcasts of that length in a month. As The Good Doctor’s friend Bob Braudis once said, “Life is a gradual release from ignorance.”

Originally, we’d planned to do an episode focusing on each season. After wading through this one, we’ve altered things a bit and will be proceeding with half seasons (as they were originally aired) and cutting down our lists to 3 episodes each. I mean, we’ll still wind up around 2 hours, but it’s an improvement of a sort. Right?

If this is at all interesting to you, then feel free to download and subscribe on Podbean or iTunes. You can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Enjoy!

Time Suck, Thy Name Is Facebook

I’m not sure exactly when I joined Facebook. I just tried to check and wound up spending 10 minutes checking on a bunch of other stuff.

This is what my life has become.

At some point in the last 10 years or so, I joined Facebook and immediately got into the “who can get more friends” contest with my wife. It was fun to make contact with people I’d hadn’t seen in person since high school graduation, find some college friends, and generally putter around the site. But at some point, things took a turn.