Posts

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Shower Thoughts

There’s most likely a dimension where Freddie Mercury never died and went on to make even more amazing Queen hits that we’ll never get to hear.

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Counterpart

Counterpart is a show I stumbled upon last year and immediately fell in love with. Set primarily in Berlin, this modern day (sci-fi?) spy thriller tells the story of what happens when a door opens between parallel dimensions and it’s existence is kept secret from everyone except for a very select group. For every person on one side, there exists a doppelgänger on the other.

It’s not one of those shows you can have on as background noise while you’re doing something else or whiling away your evening online. It demands your full attention or you’ll soon be lost.

Last year, coming in from the beginning it was relatively easy to follow along. Determining which side of the doorway you were on was a simple matter. The wife of the main character was hospitalized in a coma after being struck by a car on our side, but perfectly healthy and active in the other. The two Berlins were similar, although some very funky architecture existed on the other side that was easily recognizable even for someone who knew nothing about the city. The other side had tech we lack, but for some reason never developed cell phones.

It’s been a while since Season One ended, so my memory is a little hazy on the espionage aspect and interwoven storylines, but that being said, I’m two episodes in this year and I’m totally lost. The wife who was hospitalized is now back home and the main character and his double both find themselves trapped on the wrong side the portal after a terror attack shut down diplomatic relations between the two worlds and closed the crossing.

European architecture has become so outré lately that city skylines alone no longer tell me which side the story is happening on.

I hope at some point the writers explain the who what when why how of the crossing. There’s nothing special-effects heavy about it; it resembles an underground brick-walled corridor. You go in one end on our side and emerge on the other in their world.

I was drawn into Counterpoint because of its more than passing passing similarity to Fringe, a favorite series from years gone by.

At this point I’m so frustrated I’m thinking I need to go back and binge Season One this weekend just to get reoriented…

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Wrap Your Mind Around That

The infinite world theory says infinite worlds with infinitely different realities exist. In order for this to be true, this theory must be true in every reality. However, since any reality can exist, there’s at least one reality where it isn’t true, therefore no other universe exists except it.

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I suppose…

I suppose that when David Karp sold tumblr he was obligated to sign an “in perpetuity“ non-compete agreement that would prevent him—even if he wanted to in light of recent events—from ever launching another tumblr-like site…

Pity. I wonder how he feels about what the Asshats at Verizon are doing to his creation.

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Blast From the Past

One of the guys I follow on Instagram (yes, it’s still a thing, but who knows how much longer it’s going to be around) collects photos of fast food joints—especially Jack in the Box—from back in the day. While his collection is not limited to Phoenix, he grew up here the same time I did, and has a lot of shots from that time period and so seeing them brings back a lot of memories.

Cave Creek & 7th Street. That particular JIB is now a Title Loan place.


Look at those prices!

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70s Aesthetic





My Dad knew Ms. Eichen. When he brought this book home in the early 70s I remember pouring over the pages in rapt attention. This was the future, damn it! My future! This was the aesthetic I entered my architectural career with.

It’s funny how styles change. What at first seems beautiful and fresh and new looks so antiquated only a few decades later. The photos above are from the 70s, but even the big trends of the 90s (glass block, neon, Zolotone paint) now look hopelessly dated. That’s why I have to laugh when I watch the current crop of home improvement shows where kitchens are all white (or grey, or, most recently blue) shaker cabinets with stainless steel appliances, granite or quartz countertops and tiled backsplashes. Hardwood floors are a requirement throughout a house, and don’t even think about designing anything other than an open concept living area.

This too shall pass. By the time 2060 rolls around, all these “modern” accoutrements are going to look as dated as the photographs above. People will walk into these homes and say, “Granite!? That’s so twenty-teens! It’s gotta go!” In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the photos above are the look in 2060 since everything old is new again.

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Finally Back To Work

You may have noticed my relative silence this week. That’s due to the fact I finally returned to work Monday. After being unemployed for the past six months, I’m not used to being back on my feet eight hours a day and I come home completely exhausted.

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Telling It Like It Is

Twitler meltdown in 5…4…3…

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Tumblr Update

Tumblr was never big on my radar, other than for grabbing menz for posting on Voenix Rising. (And um…for other, more personal reasons.) It was difficult enough coming up new, at least mildly interesting content for this blog without having to also maintain a fully functioning Tumblr as well. Still, I liked the platform and occasionally posted (or reposted) material there that never appeared on VoenixRising, something that has become abundantly clear as I scroll through the “Media” folder of my recently downloaded Tumblr (and is something I hope to rectify going forward).

As I mentioned when the whole Tumblr debacle started, I already have more than enough unpublished material amassed to keep you porn-dog Voenix Rising readers happy for years, but Tumblr’s announcement that it was deleting all NSFW material from its site really pissed me off; not so much because it would make finding new material more difficult, but because it was a direct shot across the bow to freedom of expression.

But where was everyone moving to? A lot of people seem to be opting for Twitter, a venue that I was absolutely shocked to discover allowed porn at all—and one I fear will be the next target of online censorship (although as Ben pointed out, as long as the Orange Menace’s tiny fingers are clicking away, Twitter is unlikely to do anything to limit his audience, even if porn-dogs aren’t exactly his target audience). I already have a Twitter presence as you well know, and if a lot of my favorite Tumblrs end up posting there I may actually be able to stomach more than two minutes a day on the site, but let’s face it: the Twitter experience overall just isn’t the same as Tumblr.

Others are moving to Mastodon. I checked it out, and it looks interesting. I created an account there and we’ll see how it goes. I haven’t posted much of anything yet, but if you want to bookmark me, click here. (I’ll also be adding a link to the account on the “Social” widget at the right.)

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Surprising

With only a couple exceptions, these are not what I consider to be my best photos posted to Instagram over the past year. Only 5 of them were actually taken in 2018; three are many years old, and one isn’t even my own work. But what do I know?