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Showing posts with label awesome duuuuuuude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awesome duuuuuuude. Show all posts
We have entered a new age of air flight, folks. When this kind of thing gets to be more widely installed, a lot of people are going to be having second thoughts about going up in an aircraft. Especially in smaller planes that may not have a co-pilot in the cockpit if Lord forbid something goes wrong with the primary pilot.
Just when I think that we're getting too technologized, something like this comes along and demonstrates to me that there really are legitimate places for more involvement by computers. I wouldn't call myself a Luddite, but I have been adopting more of how Dad saw computers. Well, color me deeply impressed now.
No matter how many times I've seen this, I always take time to watch it again every Christmas season. A few years ago I bought the Blu-ray containing A Charlie Brown Christmas along with the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials.
I can barely remember it, but when I was two or three years old CBS had scheduled the Christmas special for broadcast. But a football game went over long and completely pre-empted A Charlie Brown Christmas. I was furious! Mom said I was really crying about not getting to see Charlie Brown. It bothered Mom too. Enough so that she called CBS affiliate WFMY in neighboring Greensboro to complain about it. I don't know what she said to them but they gave her the home phone number of the station's general manager! Mom let him have it, telling him it was wrong to advertise Charlie Brown and then yank it away from all the children because of a football game. The way Mom put it, I get the feeling that she wasn't the only irate parent calling the station that night. And parents across America were probably calling their own local CBS affiliates too. In the end the network rescheduled A Charlie Brown Christmas to an airdate ideal for viewers of all ages and the kiddies got to see it after all.
I treasure knowing that. For all that happened between my mother and I (something I explore at length in my book Keeping the Tryst), there are anecdotes scattered here and there which prove that Mom wasn't the bad person I went so long believing that she was. A parent doesn't do something like that if there wasn't love for his or her child. I very much appreciate that.
Well, happy anniversary Charlie Brown. Someone said during your special's production that they'll be watching this for a hundred years. You're well on your way to reaching that goal. I hope to be around to see it when it comes :-)
This is something that a LOT of us have waited almost thirty years for! It was reported a few days ago that the original cut of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is coming back to theaters in February 2027! This is going to be the first Star Wars movie as it existed before the "Special Editions" came out in 1997. From an age when the special effects of the saga were done without benefit of computer-generated imagery. This is the movie that shattered the bar for what practical effects could do and it set the platinum standard for every blockbuster since. And now in time for the film's fiftieth anniversary we're going to behold it again in its original glory.
(I'm going to assume that "original 1977 Star Wars" actually means the print that was released prior to the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back. That version was the 1977 cut but with the "Episode IV: A New Hope" added to the opening crawl. That is how it was most widely known as in the years after its original release. That's my assumption anyway. It's still going to be the material circa 1977.)
It's a real wonder that it is coming out though! Ever since 1997 the official line from Lucasfilm is that the footage that was cleaned up and restored prior to getting enhanced effects for the Special Editions, had been irreparably damaged during that process. George Lucas insisted that A New Hope as had first come out in theaters no longer existed. He further stated that the Special Editions were in his mind the definitive Star Wars trilogy and that there was no real need or perhaps even desire for the original cuts.
Disney many have done a few things wrong since taking over the franchise in 2012, but this is not one off those. Because many of us have been wanting the classic A New Hope - the version that won awards out the wazoo and was one of the very first movies inducted into the National Film Registry - to be made available to us. The A New Hope cut that many if not most of us still remember from between 1977 and 1996 is, I prefer to believe anyway, a priceless historical artifact of its time. It deserves to be forever honored and esteemed. And the people who have come after deserve to see it for themselves: a cut of the first Star Wars movie that really does have Han shooting first.
I don't know how they did it but apparently there was a pristine print of that first version of Episode IV out there and now it's been restored and being made ready for its golden anniversary. I hope this does a zillion dollars at the box office. Maybe then Disney and Lucasfilm will not only release the original versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also, but make them on sale for home release. I would certainly love to have the first trilogy as originally enjoyed in my personal library.
Think I'm going to wear my lucky Star Wars cap, that I've had since being at Elon, when I go see this in the theater.
Behold the brand new $60,000 bronze statue of electric fuzz in stainless steel:
Click to enlarge. Photo credit: Lee DeVito
Detroit Metro Times has more here about the RoboCop statue. Maybe they should invite Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller for the official dedication? I'd buy that for a dollar!
For the past ten months the number-one question that has been asked of this blogger has been: "Do you know when the Short Sugar's barbecue sauce is going to be for sale?"
It was back in January that Short Sugar's Barbecue in Reidsville, North Carolina closed after almost eighty years of business. It was news that shocked a lot of people. I know. For weeks it was THE item that spun the most traffic to this blog. Folks as far away as Ireland, Australia and Brazil were coming to this site. But that was nothing compared to the reactions that I saw on Facebook, among the people who for most if not all their lives had Short Sugar's in the town they grew up in. It was an institution, not just of Reidsville but of the entire state of North Carolina.
I could go on all night about that. It's been talked about by people more eloquent than I. But a few days after the closing was announced, Short Sugar's owner David Wilson told us that the restaurant's classic barbecue sauce would be going on sale sooner than later. I know the notion of selling it on Amazon had come up, and that venue might still come about. That's all I knew about it though. And at least once or twice a week since then there's been e-mail coming in asking if I had heard anything about Short Sugar's sauce hitting the market. And all I could do was throw my hands up in the air and tell everyone "beats me."
But let there be rejoicing! A few hours ago Wilson broke the news on Facebook that Short Sugar's Barbecue Sauce is now on sale!
You can find it at Richard's Meats & Things on Scales Street in Reidsville. Which is practically straight across the street from where Short Sugar's was located. Richard's is a great store that has a lot of good stuff, I can't praise their Delicious Seasoning nearly enough. I have no idea if they ship. If they don't they had perhaps better start thinking about setting up logistics for that, because I have a feeling that there is going to be a honking huge demand for this sauce. A great friend back in Reidsville has already offered to send me a few bottles and I am soooooo eager to have that succulent sauce drenching my chopped barbecue before too long.
Okay well, there ya go. Short Sugar's Barbecue Sauce is now being sold by the bottle. It's what you all wanted. When there's a demand for a product, eventually someone will fill it. It will make the public very happy and it makes the producer rich. And that's what America's all about, by gum!
So go get your bottle of Short Sugar's! Or perish in flames. It's your choice. But not really.
UPDATE November 17th 2025: I asked the fine staff at Richard's Meats & Things about shipping. Here is what Hannah told me...
Hi Chris!
Yes, we have gotten a lot of requests for this. Unfortunately, we don't ship at this time, so it is something I have to look into and figure out how to do! With the holiday season, I am unsure if I will be able to do this before the New Year (though I'd like to). Hopefully in January we can get a system up and running.
Best,
Hannah
Thanks Hannah! Well, if you guys get something figured out I'll not only order a few bottles of Short Sugars's sauce but also some of your seasoning. I feel like a bad expatriate of Reidsville for not having some handy already.
This is already the most beautiful thing I've seen all week. A Dodge Charger kitted out to look like the famous General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard goes roaring down the street in Somerset, Kentucky and jumps a ramp and goes soaring through the town's water fountain.
Behold the stunt!
Okay, yeah the car got banged up a bit (the driver didn't get a scratch apparently, thank the Lord) but that'll buff right out. Throw on some Bondo and a good sanding and it'll be good as new!
Notice how this car is all-out faithful to the General Lee of the show. Including the Confederate flat on the roof. That's a really good touch, completely in the spirit of the TV series.
I'm impressed by ChatGPT. But I've also got a healthy respect for Atari Chess, a cartridge for the classic Atari 2600 Video Computer System from 1977. I got Atari Chess when I was nine years old in third grade. I'd just learned how to play chess and already wanted to get better by having a computer opponent to practice with. Atari Chess beat me EVERY time. Then again I've only won a single time at chess but that's beside the point...
Anyhoo, a Citrix engineer set ChatGPT against the Atari 2600 in a game of chess. And the Atari from almost fifty years ago clobbered the modern AI.
A few weeks ago a good friend, the lovely and effervescent Kate Mary, posted something on her Facebook page. It's a piece of art that she commissioned to have made and I could barely take my eyes off of it. Here is Batman shredding on guitar as he and his colleagues rock it out. You're going to want to click and enlargen this pic in order to absorb all the details:
This was created by Andrew Griffith. Kate was right: he is enormously talented. Here is some more of his craftsmansship.
I like this one especially: Orson Welles in his final role (Unicron from Transformers: The Movie).
And speaking of Transformers, here is Grimlock being ridden by Boba Fett:
This blog has been SLAMMED with visitors since three days ago coming to read about Short Sugar's Bar-B-Q in Reidsville, North Carolina shutting down after more than 75 years in business. The counter has been ringing up visits from all fifty states, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Germany, even some people in Brazil. There were few corners of the globe that hadn't heard of Short Sugar's, it seems. Judging by the comments and e-mails that have come in there have been a lot of folks who are regretting that they will now never have an opportunity to eat at a place that once was judged to have the best barbecue in America. Short Sugar's was the kind of place that they just don't make anymore and it's not just a loss to a small town, but to our culture as a whole.
Well, it's been a very depressing past 72 hours but there is a little bit of light to break through the gloom. Short Sugar's as a location may be gone, but its signature barbecue sauce will live on! And it may be coming to your front door before too awful long.
Here's what Short Sugar's owner David Wilson posted on Facebook earlier today:
"We will continue producing the sauce. I think we will start on Amazon and in local stores... I’m going to change our social media presence to focus on the sauce."
I hope David and the rest of the Wilson family are bracing themselves. Because for years a lot of us have been wanting Short Sugar's sauce to be widely distributed. Until now bottles of it have only been really available for sale at the restaurant. It has been highly demanded for a very long time. Bringing this sauce to the larger marketplace is going to be a veritable goldmine. It is going to take the world by storm! There is no sauce like Short Sugar's, is something unique all its own. It's not something you slather onto meat, it's more like you saturate your pork or chicken or whatever with it. This is the perfect thing to accentuate chopped barbecue especially. I've also had a bit of success using it on ribs. So maybe this will be like the second coming of Short Sugar's. It has been more than a place to eat, it has been an enduring idea: a spot for the mind as much as for the taste buds. And now it seems that it will endure. Not just that but also thrive! Short Sugar's sauce is poised to take the greater world by surprise and in my mind there is not a product that more deserves a position in the global market.
I shall be keeping my eyes open about this with great interest!
A blue 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 van, untouched by flames, sits alone amid the ash of Los Angeles:
Volkswagen needs to purchase this from owner Preston Martin (who lived in the van for a year while in college) and put it on display in its museum. That is one hardy testament to resilience. Or else a fluke of nature, much like how a tornado will sometimes mow down everything in its path except for one solitary farm house which miraculously escapes unscathed.
Is this a trend? If it is then I hope it's a growing one!
In the past few months I've found a number of young ladies - these are girls under twelve - who are not only gun enthusiasts but are also very adept with firearms. In every way pertaining to guns, from responsible gun handling to describing various ammo, each of these girls possesses more knowledge and expertise with firearms than most adults.
Here are a couple of examples. And as you can tell, these ladies also command extremely authoritative and articulate voices. No doubt a result of the confidence that they have gained from their gun ownership and use.
This first young woman, I discovered on Facebook from the ads for her father's VERY clever invention StopBox (note: I do not own a StopBox, but I do think it's pretty cool). Meet Emma Ervin, from the state of Washington. Current age: ten. Emma has been owning and using guns for most of her life. When she was seven she saved her allowance up to buy her first rifle. She has since gone on to be a much admired and respected competitive shooter. Emma is well versed in pistols (she currently packs a Glock as her gun of choice), rifles, carbines... pretty much anything short of a bazooka. Emma has a page devoted to her life and shooting career at the official StopBox site and her dad maintains an Instagram page with more videos of Emma in action.
Wait, did we say videos? Here is one of Emma, circa 7-8, explaining the four rules of handling guns safely:
Thank you for being you Emma!
This next young woman, I discovered her this week. Autumn Fry hails from Florida. She is presently eleven and a half. In another five or six years she may be dating. If that happens the guy taking her out had better come to her door with his hat in his hands, his hands in plain sight, and a TOTALLY cheerful disposition. Autumn is in her happy place with guns. She understands and appreciates their designs and mechanics more than most grown-ups. If you want a true education in firearms, you will find few instructors with as much expertise and pep as Autumn. She has a website called Autumn's Armory along with an Instagram page. And then there is the Autumn's Armory YouTube channel which as of this date has more than a quarter million subscribers. For a taste of what you're in for, here is Autumn's latest video, in which she demonstrates her love for a 44 Magnum:
Autumn, when the zombie apocalypse happens, I want to be wherever you and your family are.
And to the families of Emma and Autumn and every other young girl being taught to use firearms respectfully and responsibly: this blogger salutes you. You aren't only showing your little ladies how to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property. You are raising them up to have confidence and consideration. These girls are going to go far in life, and their parents have every right to be supremely proud of them.
This is... THE greatest thing that I have seen in a very long time. These kids are... wow. They are amazing! They were able to pull off what a lot of us thirty and forty years ago were only able to dream of doing. I know my best friend Chad and I used to plan out our own Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. How when we grew up we would be the next Lucas and Spielberg. I like to think a little of that carried over to when we were making our films fifteen or so years ago. Still a bit of childhood magic left.
But these kids, the young men and women of Oliver Springs Elementary School in Van Buren, Arkansas were not content to wait that long. No, they went all out and they did it now. It took them two years of fundraising and planning and then filming, but they succeeded in their mission: they made a professional-grade Indiana Jones fan film that stands as mighty as any movie ever conceived.
Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Aztecs finds the globe-trotting archaeologist in the swamps of Arkansas circa 1958. On the trail of the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto, Indy runs afoul of rogue Russian agents who are looking for Montezuma's gold. It seems that there is some mystical quality associated with the treasure: just the sort of thing that Dr. Jones has expertise in.
It runs half an hour but you are going to want more. These young people have accomplished a film that is incredibly well-shot, smartly composed, exceptionally scored, and astoundingly acted. These kids are performing their hearts out. They get the world of Indiana Jones, maybe better than many adults. And as if a cherry on top, they even got Karen Allen - Marion Ravenwood herself - to make a cameo appearance!
But, you are no doubt wanting to watch this for yourself. I don't blame you! There have been precious few Indiana Jones fan film efforts. In fact the only one that comes readily to mind is the delightful Raiders of the Lost Ark adaptation that was made by Mississippi youngsters in the Eighties. Well, Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Aztecs possesses no less soul, and has all the benefits of modern technology and cinematography.
A few nights ago I was propped up in bed, just randomly looking up things with my iPad. And I came upon something truly, truly special. It is for me anyway...
It's on the website for the Order of the Arrow lodge of the Boy Scout council that I was in. This photo dates to 1954. The man on the right, in the light uniform shirt, is Allan "Doc" Lewis. He was a lifelong educator and advocate for Scouting. In the photo he and the other man (C. Lin Adams) are wearing their Order of the Arrow sashes, which indicate that they were Vigil rank. The OA was especially near and dear to Doc's heart, as it symbolized true brotherhood and service.
I know these things about Doc, and much more, because he was the grandfather that I never got to have. I suspect a lot of young men felt the same way about him.
I first wrote about Doc fifteen years ago, on the occasion of what would have been his one hundredth birthday. Doc was born in January 1908, so he would have been about 46 in this picture. That was thirty-one years before he and I met for the first time. I was eleven and a half and a newly minted real Boy Scout.
I'll never understand why Doc took a shine to me as he did. How it came to be that he brought me under his wing. I think we definitely had a "master and apprentice" relationship going on. Doc would often tell me stories of his interesting younger years (he once took Katherine Hepburn out to dinner, he used to hang out with George Burns and Gracie Allen, and he served on a committee with Norman Rockwell). Doc was a well traveled man too and I think I inherited some wanderlust from him. That year-long meandering across America that my dog and I did a few years back? I was definitely channeling pure Doc for that one. He often shared his witty sense of humor, and his belief in chivalry toward the opposite sex.
There isn't much to say that hasn't been already. Doc Lewis really did fill a role in not just my life but the lives of many others. He was very dear to me. He still is. And that's the earliest photo I've come across of him. Seeing that, it's like I can still hear his voice speaking across the decades.
Well, it was just a neat find and I had to blog about it. Doing what I can to keep his spirit alive and well in our hearts. Thanks for reading this :-)
Apparently, there are still good things about America. And these Polish people know it. So much so that a bunch of them have been live-action role-playing (LARP) as Americans. Specifically, Americans in small-town Ohio. And what has come of it is completely bonkers!
Vice has the story of the Polish LARPers, who were inspired in part by shows like Stranger Things and The X-Files (and also by Breaking Bad, if some of the photos are to be believed). And at least two pages on Facebook (here and also here) are filled with more pictures. Seems that these folks wanted to imitate the Fourth of July. They certainly do not lack in their research. These are just... wow. It's like that Star Trek episode where the crew finds the planet that's copying 1920s-era gangster Chicago. The cop with the donut (pictured here) is cracking me up hard.
We should do this here. Sort of have a cultural exchange. LARP our friends in Poland for a day. Who's with me? :-)
Okay, this has apparently been up for a decade or so already but only now am I learning that Internet Archive has a collection of EVERY issue of Starlog: that tome of science-fiction goodness that many of us savored every month. Originally devoted to keeping the embers of Star Trek burning in those years between the original series and the movies, Starlog soon expanded to cover anything and everything pertaining to sci-fi and fantasy, be it in film or on television or in literature or whatever. In the decades before the advent of the Internet, it was magazines like Starlog that kept our appetites whetted for whatever was coming new out of the genre. I dare say that it broadened a lot of minds, to things that they otherwise might not have considered. I for one might never have read a Philip Jose Farmer novel, were it not for an amazing two-part interview that Starlog did with him in 1990. That's in this collection. So too is the night in 1977 that George Lucas went to a convention and replied "he's Luke Skywalker's father" when asked what was the deal about that Darth Vader guy. There was a lot of thoughtful material, some really inspirational stuff and more than a little humor to be found in the pages of Starlog and it makes me feel good knowing that it's out there to be discovered by new generations of geeks. Mash your mouse down here to find it again, for the first time.
Behold the wild celebration outside the United States Supreme Court a few hours ago, as pro-life activists uncorked the champagne and raised a toast to the overturning of Roe v Wade:
This gentleman is Scott Stewart. He is the Solicitor General for the state of Mississippi. He is the attorney who argued before the Supreme Court that Roe should be overturned in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health:
Well done, counselor!
This is Nancy Pelosi. She claims to be a good Catholic but she's not really. Why? Because she believes unborn children can be killed in the womb. Here you see her weeping bitter tears after the Dobbs decision was handed down:
I'm not going to bother posting a picture of President Biden. He's not a real president anyway.
This is the man who sent three justices to the high court, who voted to get rid of Roe:
And see this guy? This man here? That's Clarence Thomas. Today is the biggest day he's had on the court since he came onto it more than thirty years ago:
This is your victory as much as anybody's, Justice Thomas. Enjoy :-)
EDIT 5:28 pm EST: a good friend found this on Facebook and it was too good not to share...
Disclaimer: Adam Smith is a friend of mine. He's not paying to advertise his product on The Knight Shift and I didn't ask for any compensation whatsoever either. I'm only sharing this because... well, because it's kewl! And sharing cool stuff is just how I roll on this blog.
Inspired by the hit Disney+ series Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Adam has forged the "New Beskar Steel" iPhone Case and Cover. Imitating the much-coveted metal sought by the tribe and just about everybody else, the New Beskar Steel case looks like a real ingot of Mandalorian alloy. And it will probably do just as well in protecting your iPhone from anything shy of an E-Web blaster cannon. Complete with rich lustrous sheen and stamp indicating its previous imperialish possessor. Admittedly it won't make for much of a full-metal pauldron but if you need a real pauldron anyway, you've got bigger problems.
The case is available for every model from the iPhone 4S on up through the latest iPhone 11. Click here to visit the product page. I have spoken.
Last month marked the fortieth anniversary of one of my most favorite films: Ridley Scott's Alien. It's one of the most perfect science-fiction and/or horror movies in the history of anything. It's one that often there is some detail that I missed during all the dozens of previous viewings. Like, it was a mistake for Dallas to let the Nostromo lift off from LV-426 without its systems fully working on the lower decks: they could have detected the creature that much faster and without any further loss of life! Patience is a virtue, kiddies.
A few months ago in March, Alien may have been given its greatest tribute ever. A group of students and their instructors at North Bergen High School in New Jersey premiered their production of Alien The Play.
And these young men and women... yowza!! They pulled off the impossible. And with a dire minimum of materials to make the costumes and sets out of apparently. They made an on-stage theatrical adaptation of Alien. Including the Space Jockey, the chestburster, and the xenomorph itself.
Photos of the performances went viral across Twitter and Instagram and that Facebook thingy. Tongues were wagging. Very quickly word of it reached Ridley Scott himself, who forwarded along a few thousand bucks for the kids to run an encore performance. That happened a few weeks ago... and who showed up but "Ellen Ripley" herself, Sigourney Weaver.
As I've come to understand it, there's a video in the works using footage spliced from four cameras that captured the magic. But if you wish, you can watch Alien The Play right now. Click on the link below and behold the spectacle of this very faithful (and at times creatively funny) work of high school drama department horror:
It takes something TRULY impressive to make me subscribe to a YouTube channel. But there's a dude calling himself kiwami japan out of... ummm, Japan I guess, who has earned the ultra-rare golden buzzer. As the son of an accomplished knife maker I have been totally jaw-dropped by kiwami's work. Because he is demonstrating that real and extremely sharp and perfectly usable blades can be made from practically anything.
So far kiwami has made knives from an Amazon cardboard box (seen in photo), from chocolate candy, from epoxy, from rice, from ice (bet you'll never watch Game of Thrones the same again), from Jello, and now in his latest video kiwami japan has made a deadly blade out of men's underwear. kiwami japan is working with so many unorthodox mediums that your mind will barely stop reeling and your mouth might never stop watering. With a minimum of tools (many might already be in your own kitchen or garage) you can follow his tutorials and make your own blades. The one that is currently interesting me most toward attempting is the carbon fiber knife. It seems the more practical, long-lasting and durable of the series so far. Well, that and also because I suck at cooking anything in the kitchen. It's also the one that I most easily envision Dad taking a stab at (pun horribly intended) in his knife shop. And kiwami japan's YouTube channel is one I've no doubt Dad would be checking out every day... and he hated computers entirely.
Since I mentioned Dad and his own handiwork, I'm obliged to post some of what he made in his time on this earth. Incidentally, he learned the art of making Damascus steel from Bill Moran himself. He was the one who back in the Seventies rediscovered how to forge Damascus for the first time in several centuries. Anyhoo...
Yup, Dad even made knives out of horseshoes and railroad spikes. How many he made, I've no idea. He would make knives for friends just for the heck of it without telling them, just to see the look on their faces when he gave it to them. All of those you see in the pics above were for sale or commissioned works. If you see "R KNIGHT" or "ROBERT KNIGHT" stamped on one, it's likely a knife he made. I've got one in my possession...
...and no, you can't buy it. Not for all the money in the world.
