Category: culture

The Omelette

Posted 2023/10/05

I just finished watching both seasons of The Bear (one of the best things I have watched this year; I will have more to write about it later.) Given the restaurant premise of the show, a lot of different dishes are prepared on screen, and most of them look incredibly delicious.

One of the dishes that caught my eye was the relatively simple French omelette prepared by Sydney in a later episode. The entire scene is beautifully shot and cathartic to watch (in a show that is anything but chill.) I tried my hand at her technique and recipe this morning:

A little overdone on this first try, but it was still easily the best omelette I have ever made. Possibly the best I have ever eaten. Wow.

Yes, it has crushed sour cream and onion chips sprinkled on top. Yes, those are absolutely vital to the yumminess of this dish. Incredible!

The Radical Theology of Mr. Rogers

Posted 2023/06/29

Via Rabbi Danny Ruttenberg:

Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister whose life’s work was, I believe, built almost entirely (if not entirely) around Leviticus 19:18: “Love your neighbor as yourself: I am God.” Hence… the neighborhood. In practice it that looked like this (all of these are his words): “To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way [they are], right here and now.” and “Everyone longs to be loved. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.”

“Love thy neighbor” is definitely no longer en vogue with modern Christianity in the United States. We need more Fred Rogers in the world.

The Only Good Platform

Posted 2022/04/25

In light of today’s Musk/Twitter news this is a good time to remind you that if you really care about your online identity, then you need to own it. You have no control or ownership of the content you generate for Facebook or Twitter — all of it can be gone in an instant. My Tweets will only ever exist on Twitter. This website though, is mine. I own the domain and I control the content. If necessary, I can move to another web server (even one in another country!) if necessary. I have absolute control and no one can stop me from publishing my trash opinions here.

Musk now has that kind of control over his Tweets, and the freedom to continue shitposting as much as he, or the SEC, wants. I think Musk’s bloviations about “free speech” are nonsense, but I don’t think he’s going to do anything to make the platform necessarily worse. Twitter banned Trump, a move which I supported, but it didn’t really make the platform less toxic. Political reporters still breathlessly re-post his insane and incoherent press releases to their own Twitter accounts, so it’s like he never left. Should Musk un-ban him in the name of “free speech”, it just maintains the status quo and was probably inevitable whether he purchased Twitter or not. Not that this deal was about Trump, but it is the biggest question in the content moderation/free speech debate.

On the business side, it will be much easier for Twitter to figure out how to actually (finally?) make money as a private company and that will be a good thing for their long-term survival. I do think Musk will discover that running Twitter is going to be a lot harder than he has envisioned. Content moderation is hard, even when you are resistant to doing it.

Here at thomasjpr.com, I will continue to do whatever the hell I want. It’s the only good platform.

Sometimes I watch stuff

Posted 2020/10/12

I think more than anything else this year, I’ve needed escapist entertainment. I avoid cable news at all costs, and I give a thumbs-down review to any shows which let the real world creep too much into storylines. This isn’t everything I have watched this year, but these are the (first run, not rewatches) shows that stood out. In no particular order:

  • The Boys: This Amazon show has been a revelation to me. Imagine if Fargo and Justice League had a baby, and then that baby’s first word was the c-word. Incredibly violent and gruesome, and with pitch-black humor. And, admittedly, it’s a little bit of a meta-commentary on current affairs (in violation of the rule I outlined in the introduction.) But still! It’s a damn near perfect antidote to the news. A
  • Fargo: As of this writing, we’re four episodes into the new season, but it’s great. Fargo is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I have every confidence that they will stick the landing. B+/Incomplete
  • Archer: Archer has emerged from his coma (which generated the storylines for the prior three seasons) and is back in the spy game. It’s a return to where the show started, and it’s been great. B+/Incomplete
  • Ted Lasso: An Apple TV+ comedy, and maybe my favorite show on the list. The initial trailer for this show did not do it any favors, so it’s best to jump right in without any preconceived notions about what this show is. It’s funny, and cheesy, and uplifting in ways that you didn’t know you needed. It’s a sports comedy with almost no sports in it. Ted Lasso is everything that I needed this year. A+
  • Away: Science fiction/family drama, this has been a pretty good show. B
  • Brockmire: This was the final season for one of my favorite comedies, and it did not disappoint. It was a weird departure from prior seasons (with a big time jump), but it was still very funny. B
  • Better Call Saul: BCS has been a nearly flawless show since the pilot episode, but this fifth season was incredible. Amazing storytelling. A+
  • Westworld: Since the first season, I’ve found it best to enjoy Westworld as a binge after all of the episodes are available. Even then, it can be a hard show to follow, with so many characters, plot-lines, and craziness to follow. I loved season 2, but my reaction at the end was “what the hell did I just watch?” Season 3 dialed back some of the crazy, and was a fun ride. B-
  • Hanna: I didn’t love the first season, but the sophomore effort was an improvement. B
  • Star Trek Picard: The episodes were up and down, but this was a welcome return to Star Trek, and to one of Trek’s best characters. B+
  • Altered Carbon: The first season of this show was violent spectacle, with a great cast and weird storytelling. Season 2 dialed down the spectacle (probably to save on production costs) but the story was better. Sadly Netflix decided there would be no third season, but the final episode doesn’t leave you hanging. B-
  • Mythic Quest: A new comedy from the creatives behind one of my other favorite comedies (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.) Similar to Ted Lasso, you should ignore the trailers and just watch this show. It’s very funny. B+
  • The Magicians: The final season of this series which has been described as “Harry Potter for grownups.” I rarely watch much fantasy, but this series has always been a favorite. Very funny, and a great cast. This final season was a little bit of a mess, but still enjoyable. B-
  • The Last Dance: This show debuted in the second month of the pandemic, and it was the first cultural event we’d had since February. Everyone was watching this. I’d been eagerly awaiting this since they announced it two years ago, and it did not disappoint. Without any actual live sports to watch, was the sports escapism that America desperately needed, and it helped us get through some dark days. A+

Etc: A few rewatches:

  • It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  • Justified (FX is heavily represented in my viewing, as usual…)
  • The Expanse (I rewatched the series twice this year, because it’s incredible. I will almost certainly watch it a third time before the 5th season debuts in December.)
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Inclusive Marketing

Posted 2020/10/01

via Evergreen Media:

As brand marketers, we have a responsibility to our customers to portray humanity fairly (if you are more interested in an unfair portrayal, you should go into political marketing.) We are chronicling the human experience by shining light on our beauty, our flaws, and our needs. The stories we tell should be truthful, and the truth is that humanity everywhere is diverse in ways beyond just skin tone.

Check out the rest of the thing I wrote over at my agency. It’s an important topic.

Professional Sports and Social Media

Posted 2019/01/16

As an avid fan of both the NFL and NBA I was noticing today the differences between their social media strategies. Both leagues are very active on Twitter — posting several times per hour with news and information about their respective leagues. This is not a complete survey and measurement of all of their content to date, so keep in mind the small sample size and my own biases. I was most struck by the differences in who and what they choose to highlight for their followers.

Here are the last four hours of Tweets from the NBA, starting with the most recent:

The content is very focused on the players, but not just their individual game highlights. We have:  

  • A human interest story about Anthony Davis
  • Pascal Siakam talking about his favorite restaurant in Toronto
  • The NBA clinic in London
  • A promo for the Knicks/Wizards game which highlights the shoes the players will be wearing

Now, contrast this content with the NFL: 

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

So the NFL highlights a lot of personnel announcements (it’s the offseason for most of the teams in the league, so I guess this is understandable.) But they also do very little to highlight the players as individuals. No human interest-type content. If a player is mentioned, it is about stats or game highlights. It reads like a Twitter version of ESPN’s NFL coverage, with aggressive commentators yelling very important takes at me about sportsball. 

They also posted this: 

But it’s just a photo of the Q&A, no actual video of the discussion. 

This video from two days ago about the Bears addressing gun violence in Chicago was interesting, though definitely not originally produced with social media sharing in mind: 

It’s pretty clear that we are not supposed to care about most individual NFL players. The on-field product is the product. We should be rooting for the laundry. Quarterbacks or start performers get named, but again it’s only about the on field play or matchup. 

Other things I noticed: 

  • NFL video content is very heavily produced, or ripped straight from a television broadcast (either the NFL Network or one of their broadcast partners). NBA content contains more video captured from mobile devices, because it was spontaneous or because it was being created specifically for sharing social media. 
  • The social media for each NFL team does do a bit more in highlighting individual players, and their fans and communities. My Seahawks do like to have a bit of fun: 

 

What are the takeaways? Given how little time and thought I put into this, I’m not sure. It’s does seem clear that the two leagues have very different ideas of how to promote their products. At the league level, the NBA is perfectly comfortable highlighting their players as individuals, and having us get invested in the various league storylines. Not just showing us packaged segments of highlights, but what players eat, how they dress, and what they care about outside of basketball.

The NFL is decidedly less interested in their individual players, at least from the league office (the teams generally manage their own social media, employing a mixed bag of strategies.) The NFL is about game highlights, strategy, and stats — with mic’d up players yelling while they deal out some pain to an opponent.