053 – Double Featured

Posted on by Josh Bales

Caught a double feature of HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE and GHOST IN THE SHELL yesterday at my favorite cinema, the Plaza Theatre. As per tradition, we filled up a $5 box of candy each at Grandpa Joe’s, then settled in to watch the first film.

I don’t think I’d seen HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE before yesterday. Or if I had, it was over fifteen years ago and I was either drunk, blazed, or sleepy – or some mixture of the three – and consequently remembered nothing about it.

Cozied up in my seat, eating caramel creams and Junior Mints, I watched HMC with the sort of focus that is probably as close to rapt as a person with ADHD can hope to achieve. I loved everything about it. The only thing that could have possibly made it better is if it had been the version with the Japanese voice cast and English subtitles. The English-speaking cast did a wonderful job; it’s just a matter of personal preference. I found myself identifying with Howl in more ways than I would have expected, though none more so than in this one particular scene:

In between films, we strolled downtown Miamisburg and bought a parasol from a well-organized antique shop. Dropped it off at the car, then back to the Plaza to load up on popcorn and soft pretzels, ready for the next film.

GHOST IN THE SHELL, a film I do remember seeing before, was also delightful to see on the silver screen. The visuals and vibe were impeccable, and, as with HMC, this was the dubbed version. Unlike HMC, though, the English voice acting was so stilted that it didn’t sound much better than if the script had been fed into a Text-to-Speech program. It did make the film funnier, though.

Making the evening even better: The first film began at 16:00, with an hour in between. Which meant that we were in the car by 20:40 and home by 21:00. Perfect Saturday night.

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST, Modest Mouse
LAST WATCHED:

  • HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
  • GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995)

052 – Glug Glug Glug Glug!

Posted on by Josh Bales

The workweek was fine, but very busy, so by the time Friday evening rolled around, I was spent. M was feeling similarly, so we ordered personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut and watched SUPER MARIO BROS on the couch bed. I’ve seen SMB many times, and every time I watch it, I marvel at its strangeness.

Watching SUPER MARIO BROS. is like getting a glimpse inside someone else’s fever dream. Is it a good film? No. Is it a fun, surrealist work with a bonkers premise and plot? That’s a big honkin’ affirmative. I love that Nintendo was like, yes, please do whatever the fuck you want with these characters. Then, after the film came out and bombed, they wouldn’t let any of their other titles be made into movies for thirty years. The directors had the option to go big or go home, and they chose to go big and created a piece of art that, if it wasn’t good, was at least interesting.

The directors of this film, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, also created the fabulously weird cyberpunk world of MAX HEADROOM. I am somehow never able to retain this bit of film trivia. Each time after watching SUPER MARIO BROS., I’ll read up on the film’s production and relearn the MAX HEADROOM connection and find myself nodding, like, ah yes, that makes sense.

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: I LOVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
LAST WATCHED: SUPER MARIO BROS. (1993)

050 – Clear Skies

Posted on by Josh Bales
Photo by M

The last piece for the gallery wall arrived today. We were looking for something tall and skinny for the space, and then M remembered this photo she shot when we were in New Orleans last summer. It’s one of my favorite photos from the trip.

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: “A Groovy Kind of Love”, Phil “Call Me Genesis” Collins

048 – Fire Horsing Around

Posted on by Josh Bales
Getty Images

Welcome to the Year of the Fire Horse.

While it’s only been 12 years since the last Year of the Horse, 60 years have passed since the most recent Year of the Fire Horse.

In addition to cycling through 12 animals each year, the Chinese lunar calendar also rotates between the five traditional Chinese elements—earth, wood, fire, metal and water. While the animal rotates each year, the element only rotates every two years.

That is why 2024 was the year of the Wood Dragon, and 2025 was the Year of the Wood Snake. Now, 2026 will celebrate the Fire Horse, before 2027 marks the Year of the Fire Goat.

Work was good but nonstop, and I am weary of staring at screens, so this missive will be short. Going to make dinner and do other things that don’t involve a screen.

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
THINKING ABOUT: Starting a microblog where I just post what I had for dinner. It would be for my own benefit, as I can’t imagine anyone else really wanting to follow along with that.

047 – Swimming With Otters

Posted on by Josh Bales

Earlier today I remembered that I’d forgotten to post some more photos from when we went swimming with otters two weekends ago. So I’m going to remedy that now, because it was the best time.

For an hour, we swam and played with these three adorable, bonkers little Asian small-clawed otters in a heated pool. It was noisy (they emit this squeaky cry that makes you ready to die for them), the otters tried to steal from our pockets, they swam all over us and let us pet and hold them, and one time they maybe tried to burrow into someone’s swim shorts – and frankly it was fucking magical. M and I were grinning so much it’s a wonder our faces didn’t hurt afterwards. We will go back again.

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: SURFERS’ PAJAMA PARTY, The Centurians
THINKING ABOUT: Science Has Three Reasons Time Travel Is Impossible and All Three Are Lies (Kelly Oxford)

046 – OK ALIEN

Posted on by Josh Bales
The fluffy furred, Giorgio "Ancient Aliens guy" Tsoukalos looking cat saying "Awiens"
Via CHEEZburger

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: So I want to do a little bit of a lightning round here, because it’s not often I’ll get access to the president of the United States. So a couple questions here. Are aliens real?’

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in, what is it —

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: Area 51?

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: — Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States.

I did not wake up today expecting to hear Barack Obama casually confirm the existence of aliens before I’d had my tea. He dropped this little nugget on a podcast too. Major news being made or delivered on a podcast stopped being surprising to me a good while ago, but it still sometimes bemuses me.

Podcasts do seem to be the digital medium to which many journalists and modern-day “philosophers” gravitate. Journalism makes sense, especially given the gutting of newsrooms and radio news programs that’s been carried out over the past decade. As for the philosophers… well, put a microphone and broadcast platform in front of many a dude, and you will never get him to stop yapping about subjects. Whether he is actually qualified to speak on said subjects is irrelevant.

If Socrates were alive today, he would absolutely be a guest on Joe Rogan’s show.

‡

The gallery wall is nearly complete. We’re waiting for one more print to arrive, which should be here by end-of-week. Otherwise it’s a chill day of hanging out, with some writing and cooking tossed in. I’m making pickle brine chicken for dinner

READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL, Nine Inch Nails

045 – Be Mine, Galentine

Posted on by Josh Bales

I don’t do Valentine’s Day. My reasons are pretty typical of those who don’t care for the holiday: the artificiality, in ways that are unappealing to me; and also the corniness – but not corny in a fun way, in the way that Christmas is to me, which I find to be both corny and delightful. I don’t begrudge others for enjoying the holiday, because Lucifer knows life is far too short and grim for me to disdain anyone for scrabbling for any glimmer of pleasure and fun – it’s simply not for me.

Mercifully, M is also on the same page re: Valentine’s Day, so we aren’t doing anything for it. But because we were first bros, then best fiends for the first 13 years of our knowing each other, Galentine’s Day is a thing we’ve previously celebrated together.

The first time was two years ago, when I essentially invited myself to M’s house for that year’s Galentine’s shindig. Then last year, I hosted Galentine’s at the Hazel House. Through a comedy of errors – i.e., my own dumbassery — I got the days mixed up. I thought it was on Sunday, but that was incorrect. It was actually on Saturday, which I discovered that Saturday afternoon, when I was out to lunch and started getting texts that read, Hey I’m here, let me in!

(It ended up working out fine.)

Even though we are an item now, M and the usual coterie graciously did not boot me from the Galentine’s tradition. Last night I enjoyed a couple of literally smoky cocktails, ate some peculiar small bites, and got an adorable Galentine from D. It was very much like the Galentine’s Days of the past, with one notable difference: when it was over, I got to go home with my best fiend. Which made this Galentine’s my favorite one yet.

READING: I set aside THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson, a few weeks back to read the new Dresden Files, but have picked it back up
LISTENING: PINKERTON, Weezer

042 – Stop Eating My Sesame Cake

Posted on by Josh Bales
Photo by me, February 2026

I have a pet theory that each of us has a go-to comfort food that our body craves when we are ill. Our own personal manna, if you will, that makes being sick a bit more bearable. Mine is the mashed potatoes and gravy from Lee’s Famous Recipe. When I’m in the throes of a sock thing, my body begins to yearn for those instant potatoes, that spicy gravy. Like it did today.

Yesterday’s malaise continued into today. I woke up with some body aches and a gnarly fatigue. The kind where it takes a conscious effort to do things like standing up. Rather than trying to fight that extremely fun combo and feeling miserable all day, I instead took the day off work. I slept a couple of hours, watched BLACK PHONE 2, and finished CONGO. It might almost have been a fun, chill day had I not felt like ass for most of it. At least the mashed potatoes and gravy were a balm for the spirit.

I’m feeling much better this evening. Hopefully that will hold for tomorrow.

‡

I was put in the mood to reread CONGO for the umpteenth time after chatting with a comrade about how much we both liked it. It had been five years since the last time I’d read it, long enough for me to not remember many of the book’s particulars. CONGO is still a fun, fascinating read. Curiously, this time I noticed myself having a different reaction to certain elements of the book.

Crichton loved himself a good infodump. Every several pages, he would step away from the narrative for a page or two to explain to the reader some bit of technology, science, history, etc., that was relevant to whatever some character had just said or thought. In CONGO, because of the plot, he educates and speculates a lot on computing and telecommunications. What felt noticeably different to me this go-around was just how quaint that aspect now seems, 46 years on. It’s no fault of Crichton’s; time comes for all sf writers.

No doubt much of CONGO’s scientific and technological bona fides felt cutting edge back in the late 70s, when Crichton was working on it. Now, viewed through a portal of nearly half a century, it feels a bit like some novel strain of retrofuturism.

Although the first computer manufacturers in the 1940s had predicted that four computers would do the computing work of the entire world for the foreseeable future, experts anticipated that by 1990 there would actually be one billion computers — most of them linked by communications networks to other computers. Such networks didn’t exist, and might even be theoretically impossible. (A 1975 study by the Hanover Institute concluded there was insufficient metal in the earth’s crust to construct the necessary computer transmission lines.)

The man got a lot of it right, and just as much wrong. It’ll be fun to see what I take away from CONGO when I read it again in another five years.

LAST READ: CONGO, Michael Crichton
LAST WATCHED: BLACK PHONE 2

041 – Abounding Mystery

Posted on by Josh Bales
The inside of my cornea.

Haven’t been feeling amazing the last two days. Fatigue, some body aches, and a low-grade headache. I can’t tell if this is a prolonged infusion hangover, if I’m getting sick, or some mysterious third thing. Whatever the cause may be, fingers crossed I wake up tomorrow not feeling like dogshit.

039 – You Otter Know

Posted on by Josh Bales

Today I swam with the otters, feasted on Arby’s on the way home, and closed out the evening with a SINNERS rewatch. I think that’s the dictionary definition of “a perfect day.”

READING: CONGO, Michael Crichton
LAST WATCHED: SINNERS, natch