Smiley's Tropical Escape

Nostalgia on Tap

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:11:13 +0900

The best thing about YouTube? I think it has to be the fact that I can call up Nostalgia with a quick search. Any music video, any t.v. show, damn near any song, any movie...just one quick search and there it is. Like this video, Ana Ng, by They Might Be Giants, which is the first time I had heard the band.

I can remember sitting on the sofa in my living room talking on the phone to a girl I liked. (This is way back in the day kids. No cellies, not even pagers. Not yet.) She told me to turn on Mtv and I did. The video was just starting and we sat there on the phone, not speaking, just connected via wires and the sounds of mutual breathing. Existing, each in our own houses, each in our own spaces, yet still connected so we could watch videos together.

Somedays, I miss that. And when I do, well, here you go:

TMBG - Ana Ng

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Galacticast

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:28:57 +0900

Galacticast

http://www.galacticast.com/

Galacticast is a fun video podcast that spoofs the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres. The videos continue to increase in sophistication and production quality. Highly worth watching.

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The Sandlot

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:34:42 +0900

The Sandlot

Back in college my roommates and I performed the most exacting sort of scientific experiment to determine the greatest guys' movie of all time. We sat down in a closed room with several young men and women and watched a selection of several films. Among them, Top Gun, Unforgiven, Tombstone, and the Sandlot.

Reactions were varied, of course, but when we compiled our data we learned one thing: Men love this movie, women think it's cute. Men think this movie represents everything that was best about childhood, friendship, overcoming adversity, the triumph of imagination, and baseball. Women think it's about a bunch of boys playing baseball.

Conclusion? The Sandlot is the greatest guys' movie of all time.

And it's finally on DVD.

My sister, who understands me, even if she doesn't always get me, sent me a copy for my birthday. My wife, who gets me, even if she doesn't always understand me, sat down with me last night to watch the movie.

She thought it was cute; it was a nice movie about little boys and baseball. I laughed until I couldn't breathe, and then I laughed some more, thinking about the movie, and about where I grew up and about my friends, back then and now, and the things we bond over and the idiot things we do in the name of adventure.

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