By:
On:
In: On Music, On People
Tagged: ,

The other day, someone posed an interesting question over on the Threads platform: Dear white people, It’s Black History Month. Who made you see us? Who was your first Black celebrity crush? It didn’t take me long to figure out my answer, because it was Donna Summer. What follows is the post I wrote when Donna Summer died. I remember that day very well, and when I learned she was gone, I had to go outside and…well, here’s the post. Donna Summer was my Whitney Houston. I never realized that, until earlier today, when I went outside toward the endDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On People
Tagged:

I do not remember a time in my life when I was unaware of the existence of one Richard Wayne Van Dyke. The man has just always existed, you know? Likewise, I couldn’t begin to tell you what the first thing is that I ever saw him in. It may well have been this:  But it also might have been this: The most recent thing I’ve seen him in is this: I can’t say that I’ve been a huge fan of Dick Van Dyke, but neither have I ever been a detractor in any way, and maybe I haven’t been aDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On Nature, On People
Tagged:

Fifty years ago today, one of the most notorious maritime disasters in American history happened when the Edmund Fitzgerald, a mighty freighter of the Great Lakes, foundered and sank near the eastern end of Lake Superior. The story is well known, of course: the huge ship with the long and distinguished career, famous for being one of the biggest ships on the Great Lakes, and the way it sailed into one of the most ferocious storms in memory, finding itself in a more and more harrowing position, and striving against time to reach the relative safety of Whitefish Bay, andDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On People
Tagged:

Way back in Season Three of MasterChef, there was a competing cook who quickly became one of my favorite people ever on any food-related show. Her name is Mairym Carlo, but she goes by “Monti”, to which Joe Bastianich reacted with quite a bit of skepticism when she introduced herself to him on the show. He quickly came around on her, though, and she lasted deep into the competition. She didn’t win (honestly, nobody was going to beat Christine Ha that year, Christine was the ’91 Redskins of MasterChef contestants), but she lasted and since then she has gone on to quite aDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On People
Tagged:

I don’t remember when the YouTube algorithm started serving these up to me, but over the last year I’ve started seeing “Survival” videos, in which an intrepid creator will purposely venture out into a difficult situation to see if they can survive. They’ll have titles like “30 below in a snowstorm with NO SLEEPING BAG and NO TENT!!!”…but when you watch a few, a lot of them turn out to be surprisingly watchable as relaxing nature videos. And you learn a few things along the way. Here’s one of my favorites, by a channel called “Outdoor Boys”, which is apparentlyDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On History, On Movies, On People
Tagged: , ,

A few days after Richard Nixon died (on this date, 1994), I was out riding around with my father as he did some errands. We stopped at the post office in the town where we lived, and Dad noticed that the flag was at half-staff. He asked why, and I said something like, “Well, a former President died–“ At that my father sputtered and said, “The flag’s down for Nixon? That piece of shit?!” Dad hated Richard Nixon. Hated him. Mom did too. Dad hated Nixon so much that he was angry at Gerald Ford for the rest of his politically-aware life (“Nixon shouldDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On Movies, On People
Tagged: ,

Roger Ebert died ten years ago today. I’m more of a mind to honor the anniversary of someone’s entering the world rather than their leaving it, but Ebert was such a force in the back of my mind almost all the time I knew of him, constantly shaping not just my love of movies but also my way of thinking about movies and relating to movies. And it’s not just movies: it’s the way he related to art. Here is what I wrote on the day he died: — I was trying to figure out something to write on theDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On People
Tagged: , ,

Roger has alerted me that today is Jeff Goldblum’s 70th birthday! Huzzah!!! I’ve been a fan of Mr. Goldblum’s for quite a few years, but looking at his filmography, he’s been on my radar even longer than I’ve been aware that he’s been on my radar. I first encountered him in the movie Thank God It’s Friday, the camp disco classic (and yes, I stand by those words, Thank God It’s Friday is glorious disco camp and it’s a rollicking blast to watch even now and I do not apologize for that opinion for one damned second). Goldblum worked slowly and steadily upDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On People
Tagged:

It doesn’t matter if you were the worst father in Galactic history! You can still redeem all of that by throwing the evil Emperor down a reactor shaft before he can kill your son and destroy the Rebellion. Maybe you grew up estranged, but if the last thing your son said to you before walking out was to cast aspersions on your personal sports hero, a mysterious cosmic force might mess with his head in order to allow you to reconcile. (First it will make him do weird stuff like build a baseball diamond in the middle of a cornfield.)Down the rabbit hole….