Monthly Archives: April 2014

2013 Road Trip Photos #35: Outtakes, Part 2/3: More Massachusetts

April 6, 2014 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: Part One of a trilogy of outtake selections from this year’s family vacation photos, those that didn’t make final cut for the original 33-part narrative. Some were omitted for specific reasons; some were due to space, pacing, and attention span considerations; some, I have no idea why.

Part Two, then: Massachusetts randomness, photos held back from Day 3 to Day 6 for reasons.

Beginning with our last stop in Massachusetts on Day 6: the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield. In the original entry I opted for a comprehensive head-to-toe shot of Seuss himself and the Cat in the Hat, but I also like how this pleasantly level portrait incorporates the greenery around the museums.

Dr. Seuss, Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss National Sculpture Garden, Springfield, Massachusetts

This way for Massachusetts food, water, and things!

My (More Than) Top 10 Favorite David Letterman Memories

April 4, 2014 By in TV/DVD Tags: , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments
Ed Sullivan Theater, Manhattan, New York

Taken on our 2011 road trip to Manhattan. Alas, we couldn’t attend a taping because my son was under 18, a common restriction for most TV-show tapings regardless of on-air content. But we were there!

News broke today that longtime late-night host David Letterman would be retiring from regular TV work after thirty-odd years in the biz. The following piece is provided here in observance of Indiana internet laws that require any Hoosier-born citizens to speak their peace whenever a hometown boy makes national headlines in a good way, even if we’re not among their close followers anymore.

I haven’t watched The Late Show with David Letterman in years, but his influence in my life dates back over two decades to my college years, when the original Late Night with David Letterman was the perfect nightcap for me in my night-owl rhythms. I followed him for a while when he jumped the rails and ditched NBC for CBS, but lost track him during a dark time in my life when I lost track of all TV. It wasn’t him, it was me.

We may not have our nightly appointments together anymore, but my mental scrapbook of those days remains shelved in the warmer, fuzzier section of my mind’s library.

This way for LETTERMANIA!

“Revolution” 4/2/2014 (spoilers): Give My Regards to Manchuria

April 3, 2014 By in TV/DVD Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
JD Pardo, Mat Vairo, Revolution, NBC

This week: Charlie is forced to choose between Jason or Connor for the Willoughby Senior Prom!

“Nothing will prepare you when one of your favorites pays with their life!”

We were warned. We were promised death in tonight’s new Revolution episode, “Austin City Limits”, and sure enough, there would be blood. The showrunners have offed major characters before, but they believe it’s time for another sacrifice to be made to the Nielsen gods so that their creation might be granted a stay of execution until at least the season finale. Best-case scenario: the sacrifice works and ratings uptick enough to convince NBC not to move the show to a Saturday night death slot for its next four episodes.

And tonight we bid farewell to this one guy…

2013 Road Trip Photos #34: Outtakes, Part 1/3: More Freedom Trail

April 1, 2014 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

At last it comes to this: the long-running photo series — chronicling our 2013 family road trip to Boston, Cleveland, and other towns along the way — concludes with one more trilogy.

I design our annual travelogues with two rules in mind: (1) each entry should comprise a story, or at least a chapter in a story, not merely a clutch of random pictures drawn from a hat; and (2) for the sake of readers with more limited devices, no entry should be bogged down with megs upon megs upon megs of photos. Sticking to my personal composition targets means a lot of photos don’t make the final lineup. I’m not convinced anyone unrelated to us would want to see all several hundred photos we took this year, but a few more shouldn’t hurt. Besides, I have selfish reasons: a 36-part saga sounds like a much nicer, rounder number than leaving it as a 33-part saga, which would invite curses and fatal feng shui errors in the site decor.

Our first batch of outtakes (plus commentary! as always! like it or not!) is entirely from our walk along Boston’s Freedom Trail and the adjacent areas, as seen in the Day Two entries from our handy, official 2013 Road Trip checklist. Up first: alternate shot of the Benjamin Franklin statue and the building behind it. I went with a head-on shot for the original entry to focus on ol’ Ben himself and make it easier to disregard the building whose name I didn’t write down. Also, it seems wrong to see Ben looking so moody.

moody Benjamin Franklin statue

This way for more deleted photos!

Top 10 April 1st Headlines to Skip for Your Own Good

April 1, 2014 By in Meta, Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments
Grumpy Cat Hates Being Your Punchline

The unwilling special guest from our April Fools 2013 entry is still not amused.

Yes, Americans, it’s that time of year again. April Fools Day is back and still not abolished. That special day you’ll spend trusting no one, suspecting every good deed, indulging every paranoia, checking every inanimate object twice for spring-loaded traps, fasting to avoid surprise hot sauce or rat poison, narrowing your eyes at every internet headline and wondering which spawn of The Onion will be the one to catch you off-guard, damage your calm, and embarrass you in front of cute people. We here at MCC tried to warn you last year, and yet here you are again, trying to live through April Fools like a stubborn mule. I just don’t get you.

But would you at least take some precautions? You’ll feel much better about your day if you quash someone else’s pranks, dodge a few attempted pratfalls, and skip over your favorite news site’s fake headlines. With your sanity in check and your anxieties unprovoked, you’ll be cackling and preening while those annoying little rascals starve without the site traffic. Someone ought to teach them a lesson, so I’m dumping all the burden on you.

This way for your not-reading scorecard!