Category: Cool Things

• Book review: “Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale” by Chuck Kinder

  Posted at 3:34 pm by Michael Janairo, on May 6, 2019

  Michael Janairo

  This review first appeared in the Albany Times Union (August 11, 2001)

  Hilarious, loving characters in ‘Honeymooners’

  Chuck Kinder’s first novel since “The Silver Ghost,” in 1978, “Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale” ($24; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 358 pages), is a hilarious, yet unflinching, eyes-against-the-windshield journey through years of booze, drugs, sex, friendships, lies and betrayals in the lives of a pair of promising young writers.

  The freewheeling 1970s that Kinder recreates, mostly in the San Francisco Bay area, belong within the literary tradition of the moveable feast Hemingway created out of Paris in the ’20s. Kinder’s writers, Ralph Crawford and Jim Stark, live “like bold outlaw authors on the lam from that gloomy tedium called ordinary life.” Kinder both celebrates and sends up their bravura and recklessness.

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  Posted in Cool Things | 0 Comments

• Publication: ‘Slalom’ in The Sunlight Press

  Posted at 11:17 am by Michael Janairo, on February 19, 2019

  

  My short story “Slalom” has just been published in The Sunlight Press, edited by Beth Burrell and Rudri Bhatt Patel. Check it out.

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  Posted in Cool Things, Writing | 0 Comments | Tagged Activision, Atari 2600, fiction, lit, short story, Skiing, video games

• Happy #518Day!

  Posted at 11:57 am by Michael Janairo, on May 18, 2018

  Check out some of the great social media posts from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram celebrating the arts and culture of the 518 area code (more to be added as the day progresses):

  Happy #518Day! What better way to celebrate the 518 than welcoming more than 2,000 people to the Capital Region for ReUnion this weekend? pic.twitter.com/d4EJF7git7

  — Union College (@UnionCollegeNY) May 18, 2018

  Happy #518Day, Capital Region! pic.twitter.com/E8M5rRFrAv

  — Andrew Gregory (@lunchboxbrain) May 18, 2018

  View this post on Instagram

  Get a #518Day @local518music playlist for present, past, and future #518Songfest on @977wext during The Local 518 Show Thu 5/17 11pm and on Sat 5/19 6pm. Songs by @sandymcknight22 Pop-Clique | @sydneyworthley | @moriahformica | @girlbluemusic | @_theseathesea | #HamiltonCraig PLUS an #AtticClassic from #Super400 #2009 album 'Sweet Fist'

  A post shared by Andy Gregory (@apgregory65) on May 15, 2018 at 8:49am PDT

  View this post on Instagram

  Proud to live in the #518. Happy #518day! . . . . . #iloveny #lettering #totebag #tote #upstateny

  A post shared by Ramble Design + Goods (@ramblegoods) on May 18, 2018 at 4:31am PDT

  Happy #518day across the globe. Take some time to enjoy (and dance like no one is watching) today in whatever language you like! 🎼 is universal.

  — MusicHavenStage (@MusicHavenStage) May 18, 2018

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  Posted in Cool Things | 0 Comments | Tagged #518day, arts, Capital Region, culture, music, visual art

• The art of an approaching storm

  Posted at 8:59 am by Michael Janairo, on February 13, 2018

  

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  Posted in Cool Things | 0 Comments | Tagged Radar map, Storm map, Weather map, weather.com

• Falcon Heavy booster rocket landings

  Posted at 8:45 am by Michael Janairo, on February 10, 2018

  I can’t get enough of this video. Symmetry. Simultaneity. Rocket ships. Very cool.

  Check it out.

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  Posted in Cool Things, Video | 0 Comments | Tagged Booster Rocket, Falcon Heavy, flight, Landings, Rockets, space, Space X

• #tbt What’s your blues name?

  Posted at 10:34 am by Michael Janairo, on February 8, 2018

  Just call me Bad Boy Jailhouse Washington, at least that’s my name according to a chart that’s floating around Facebook lately.

  Here it is:

  

  So what’s your blues name?

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  Posted in Cool Things, Music | 12 Comments | Tagged #tbt, blues name, internet, lol, memes, old memes

• My first Amazon order

  Posted at 10:05 am by Michael Janairo, on February 7, 2018

  
  It’s a thing. On the internet. People have been posting about their very first order on Amazon. Looks like I bought an audio book as a gift for my father eighteen years ago. Reminds me how much I enjoyed Ed McBain’s novels of the 87th Precinct. He wrote dozens of them. Though McBain—which was a pseudonym for Evan Hunter (which was a legal name change, as McBain/Hunter was born Salvatore Albert Lombino)— may also be just as well known for writing the novel Blackboard Jungle, which was made into the 1955 film.

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  Posted in Cool Things, Reading | 0 Comments | Tagged 2000, 87th Precinct, amazon, audio book, Ed McBain, Evan Hunter, first order, Police Procedural, Salvatore Albert Lombino, The Last Dance

• ‘Spiritual Puppy Cosplay Kills Cancer’

  Posted at 9:14 am by Michael Janairo, on February 5, 2018

  

  This is making the rounds on the Internet. Anyone know the source?

  ‘Spiritual Puppy Cosplay Kills Cancer’ is based on my workphone.

  For my landline and my cellphone I get these stories:

  • “Holistic Yoga Vibrators Is as Magical as it Sounds”
  • “Holistic Vegan Shaming Is the New Feminist Battle Against Trump”

  What did you get?

   

   

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  Posted in Cool Things | 3 Comments | Tagged articles, headlines, huffington post, journalism jokes, lol, phone number, Time Waster

• 2017 Year in Review in Podcasts

  Posted at 10:48 am by Michael Janairo, on December 28, 2017

  A new podcast for me this year, and for everyone, is Pod Save America, the podcast created by former speechwriters in President Obama’s administration. It acts as a tonic or a resistance in the Trump era. It seems to be a successful rallying cry so far for people who are disillusioned at the current government. It is one of the most popular podcasts now. They are even taking the show on the road. It is released twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, which is a little too much for me. I enjoy the Monday ones the best, probably because the hosts are Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, in addition to Jon Favreau, who I think do a better job than for the Thursday show when it is just Favreau and Dan Pfieffer. Favreau is usually in the role of setting things up, kind of the straight man, so it is stronger when there are two people playing off him instead of one (and Pfeiffer does have a hesitating way of speaking that isn’t great for audio). Also, as the show develops further, they have to find a way of better integrating the guest interviews with the introductory news punditry round-up: too often they steal the thunder from their guests, and so why listen to their guests?

  You can find the podcast here: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-america/

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  Posted in Cool Things | 0 Comments | Tagged Books, imaginary worlds, language, lexicon valley, News, pod save america, podcasts, political gabfest, politics

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