Lexicon. Also Galaxy Quest. An expression of exasperation. Kids today say FML, but that’s not a cute reference to a (today) 24 year old movie, so it’s clearly inferior.
“This episode was badly written!”
Reply
“Does the rolling help?”
Lexicon. From Galaxy Quest. Sometimes re-worked to, “Does the {x} help?” where x is something odd.
Clippedy cloppedy
TIL: When an ambassador presents their diplomatic credentials to Japan, they take a horse-drawn carriage to the Imperial Palace. Fiji did that today, in the first horsey ride since it was suspended by reaction to the pandemic.
“Push the button, Max!”
From Blake Edwards’ other great movie, The Great Race. Lexicon, obvs.
Reflecting in the dark
This is a nighttime photograph, by Nancy Matoba, of the soon-to-open Little Tokyo subway station in LA. It’s of the above-ground plaza used by the station at 1st & Alameda, the approximate location of where the Atomic Cafe was, and shows the very large mural commemorating it on a stainless steel building that has a staircase and an elevator. (Compare the mural to the elevator doors for size.) The image of the Cafe at night used for the top two-thirds of the mural was made by me; the bottom third is explanatory text. You won’t even need to go underground to the rest of the station to see it. I’m proud to join the landscape of LA, and humbled to pay tribute to the place and the Matoba family this way.
(All praise and thanks to Nancy’s daughter, Zen Sekizawa, for finding my photo online in the first place, and her tireless efforts seeing this project through with Metro. Zen first mentioned this idea to me in March, 2018, showing how the wheels of government grind slowly, and exceedingly fine.)
And the original image, from my photo portfolio site:
Kitty Roca
Lexicon. A two-word portmanteau, referring to the candy Almond Roca, and to how our dogs will root around in our cats’ litter boxes, looking for cat turds to eat.
How to not make money in the movies
The title says it all: “How Zyzzyx Road only grossed $30.00.”
TL;DR —
Zyzzyx ran for seven days at Dallas’ Highland Park Village Theater, with a single screening each day at noon. When it closed, exactly six people had gone to see it, for a total gross of, yes, $30.
I was talking to a friend who works intricately in entertainment, and they say this wouldn’t be regarded as “released” today (unlike its 2006 run) as one now needs a minimum of 10 theaters. Possibly because of this film. So it’s unlikely ever to be… well, “surpassed” seems the wrong word. “Displaced”? — from this curious record.
Verbing weirds language
Lexicon, but usually misquoted as, “Verbing weirds nouns.” Close reading shows Watterson tosses in adjectives as well.
The N&N Practice Gymnasium
Pomona College, my alma mater, has finally gotten around to acknowledging the acumen and skill of Nancy Breitenstein, the coach of the women’s basketball team while I was a student there. They’ve named the N&N Practice Gymnasium after her and her assistant coach, Nellie Morrison.
Here’s a piece I wrote about Breitenstein and her record while I was there, especially compared to the men’s coach, Gregg Popovich.
Vermeer
As part of the big exhibition being put on by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, there’s this narration of the paintings, presented by Stephen Fry.