On this week’s episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guests are Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg who talk about writing the hit teen comedy Superbad, named one of WGA’s “101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (*so far).”
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On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is legendary punk rock singer Patti Smith. Her interview with host Peter Sagal is sort of devil-may-care snarky in a charming way.
This the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:30 mark.
The show writes that “We don’t want to send the message that criticizing us on Twitter is a ticket to the podcast...but that’s what climate reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis did, and now here she is. Kendra had some issues with our climate episode on Apple TV+, so Jon invited her on for a conversation. And just like our planet, things heated up—insofar as you can call a thoughtful exchange of ideas ‘heated up.’ Jon is also joined by writers Rob Christensen and Tocarra Mallard to talk about Twitter trolls, beard maintenance, and the importance of a steady government job.”
This is a reasonably fun medley of the "History of Disney Songs" performed by Jimmy Fallon and Kristen Bell. It covers a lot of ground -- not quite the history they suggest, as most of the songs are from the more recent films, though at least they do have a bunch of the more-classic songs. Not shockingly, Kristen Bell is wonderful, as is her wont, though Jimmy Fallon does a very good job, as well. It's a bit surprising that they give him her song from Frozen ("Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"), but they have fun with that. Overall it's enjoyable, except for the maniacally-screaming cheers whenever there’s a new song. It was time to finally upgrade from my old mobile phone, never a fun process – all the more so since the final decision included changing networks -- but less painful than it was years ago. But still an annoyance because I tend to use my phone less than the norm. (And far-less than heavy phone users.) Though for all that, I got a good “flagship” phone, the Pixel 6, that’s far-above my fairly-limited needs, but it was such a remarkable deal from T-Mobile that it would have idiotic to pass it up. The phone only cost just $99. The only “downside” was that you have to commit to sticking with them for two years, and that’s no problem at all. And besides, my oft-mentioned tech whiz guru Ed Bott has the Pixel 6 and recommended it. As I said, I it would have been idiotic to pass up.
This is about another matter related to getting the new phone, not a review, but it's still worth mentioning a few things about it first before getting to have the subject at hand fits into it all. I checked with people in my building and friends who have T-Mobile service, and everyone was very happy with their service. It subsequently turns out that I can’t get 5G from my apartment, though I can just a few blocks away – apparently there must be building that block the towers, though that could change if new towers are added. However this is pretty much a non-issue. People tend to be connected to Wi-Fi when in their apartment, not the 5G network – and besides, if I’m going to be streaming in my home, it’ll almost always been on my computer, not my phone. The new phone gets 5G perfectly when I’m out and about, and that’s where it counts. (What’s always intrigued me about Pixels is that they’re made by Google – and Google makes the Android operating system. So, Pixels not only have certain features that Google makes exclusive to the Pixel, but they're always modified with the latest updates as soon as they're available. That’s not generally the case with other phones, since updates are only offered when a network wants to make them available. And except for the highest-end phones, it’s often not worth the effort to do so on a regular basis, and so they don’t.) But as I said, this is about another matter. A minor issue, but I figured out an interesting way to resolve it, in case anyone else is having the same problem, one which I suspect is not terribly uncommon. I’ve grown to like fingerprint sensors, and the one on my old Motorola phone worked pretty well. The reviews of the Pixel 6 were all laudatory, but one of the few consistent negatives from reviews and user comments was that the finger sensory didn’t work great. And I found that to be the case. The fingerprint sensor is very inconsistent, I programmed four of my fingerprints and find it’s only working at first tap for any of them about 20% of the time, and even after multiple attempts, only about 65%. And after enough failed-tries, I get bumped to the keypad to use my PIN. Not a huge problems, but a disappointment. Especially for what’s otherwise such a good, flagship phone. In fairness, I’m sure that part of the issue is because (with all hand-washing everyone does these days) my fingertips are pretty dry -- when I wet them and then dry them off, the sensor seems to work better. Though my dry fingertips are the same condition as when I had the Motorola, and it did a better job with the sensor. Not a major deal, as I said, that’s why God created PINs, though a shame. Then, I had what I thought might be a brainstorm. I decided to redo my fingerprints for the sensor. But – rather than clean my hands and moisten the fingertips first so that they’d be clear of grime and make the best-possible print…I came up with a counter-intuitive theory – I decided to keep my fingertips dry and less than ideal when I re-programmed fingerprints, so that that would be what the sensor would initially register and then subsequently hopefully recognize each time when my fingers were their normally-dry selves. And…so far it’s working wonderfully! I re-did all four fingerprints and, bizarrely, my counter-productive idea to program my fingerprint sensor without cleaning my fingers first but using them dried out…has worked semi-impeccably! It isn’t 100%, but so far works about 85% first time. Which is excellent. And it’s worked on a second or third try another 10% of the time. So, only very, very rarely have I been bumped to the PIN keypad. O joy! So, if you find you’re having issues with the fingerprint sensor of your phone, it might be worth considering re-programming your fingerprints when they’re at their driest, but everyday-normal worst. I finally got around to watching the Disney film, Encanto. I don’t subscribe to Disney+, but have been keeping a list of things they have that I’d like to see, and so signed up for the month to sort of binge all of that. I’ll cancel at the end of the month and then start keeping another list. Anyway, one of those things to watch was Encanto. Well-done, not great (for my taste), but it built well and was enjoyable overall. And it has quite a good score by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The point of this, though, is not the movie itself, but that I thought the song “Dos Oruguitas” was wonderful and highly-deserving of its Oscar nomination for Best Song. All the more interesting is that the song is in Spanish, one of the rare songs in a foreign language to get nominated in Oscar history. They do sing it in English, though, over the end credits, but it's the Spanish version that was nominated. (Oddly, “Dos Oruguitas” wasn’t the most popular song from the film. That was “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” that hit #1 on the Billboard chart, the first-ever for Miranda. It’s an effective song in the film, and I can see why people liked the group-sung number, it’s got some very catchy moments in it. But “Dos Oruiguitas” is a gem.) I don't know if there are a lot of people like me here who haven't seen the movie and therefore didn't know the song, so I figured I'd post it. To give some perspective, the song comes at a very emotional moment in the film, when the family appears to be losing its magic that held the village together. It’s the only song not performed by a character, but sung over a montage by popular Columbian artist Sebastián Yatra. The montage is a flash-back of sorts, largely recapping how the family got to this point, focusing on the patriarch, who sacrificed his life to protect the others, and the matriarch. “Oruiguitas” means caterpillar, and the song is about sometimes having to separate so that you can grow into who you’re meant to be, before reuniting and perhaps finding the magic again. (Towards the end, the young girl you see with short, curly hair and big glasses is actually the main character blended in from present day, who is being told the tale by her grandmother.) The number is very lovely in English…but even though I don’t speak a Spanish, I think I prefer that version more. It’s haunting, heart-breaking, tender and rich. But to hear more specifically the lyrics of what the song is about, here it is -- And as a bonus, here’s the end-credit version in English. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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