Reporting In: With Books, History, Biofuels,Weirdness, Ukriane Invades, Not Moving to Indiana and Muncie Pizza

It is Saturday.

I went to see Deadpool & Wolverine. I finished off my Kokomo project Thursday night. I meant to go yesterday, only to wake up with a sinus infection. I got out of bed around 3:30 and the room started spinning as soon as I stood up. I called into work and begged off working yesterday. I did make it to the group therapy - with my left eye feeling like it had a spike driven through it. Three ibuprofen did nothing to help until while I was shopping at Payless. After getting the groceries, I went home. Not sure if CC was coming over, I went ahead and fixed some pork butt in the slow cooker. The evening was spent working on the blog.

I was up early this morning - well, before 8 AM. More blogging, washing dishes, fixing lunch, a run down to the convenience store, and then out to see the movie around 12:30. Oh, I finished watching Hustle.

Now, I am finishing this post before walking over to do my laundry. I leave you with some things I have read the past few days.

 Biofuels: Feeding the Earth or Feeding the Engine?

Scholars Jörn P. W. Scharlemann and William F. Laurance paint a complex picture of the ecological impact of biofuels as an answer, writing that “not all biofuels are beneficial when their full environmental impacts are assessed, [and] some of the most important, such as those produced from corn, sugarcane, and soy, perform poorly in many contexts.” Referencing the findings of Rainer Zah, Mireille Faust, Jürgen Reinhard, and Daniel Birchmeier, who studied the lifecycle impacts of 26 biofuels, Scharlemann and Laurance write that nearly half (twelve of twenty-six) of biofuels assessed, including corn ethanol, have greater aggregate environmental costs than fossil fuels. These costs manifest in various forms, from the extensive use of nitrogen fertilizers, which emit nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas that depletes stratospheric ozone—to the vast swaths of farmland and native habitats converted into biofuel production sites 

The second act of Sam Neill: ‘The truth was, I didn’t know how long I had to live’

In praise of weird fiction, horror tales and stories that unsettle us Michael Dirda (WAPO)

Jamie Harrison's 7 of the Funniest Crime Novels Ever Written

Susanna Ashton's 7 Thrilling Tales That Upturn What We Know about Black History

MAGA Republicans adore the Russian military, Ukraine ambushes Russian convoy in Kursk as Kremlin declares emergency leaves me thinking they do not know their elbows from another spot on their anatomy.

Hanna Shelest, a senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that Ukraine had regained some of the initiative with the surprise attack and that it had “a psychological effect in that it has weakened the image of Vladimir Putin as a strongman president who protects his own people”.

The importance of history: The Gulf of Time by Lewis H. Lapham.

12 Reasons Why You Should Never Ever Consider Moving to Indiana. My cousin Paul Finholt used the "no ocen" excuse back in 1991. I am no longer so sure about our basketball mania.

50 Indiana Places Ranked as the Worst Public Schools in the State- Anderson is #43.

I agree with this: Who has the best pizza in Muncie? The results are in

Two reviews from Pitchfork because they were the only acts I recognized.

X's Smoke & Fiction

Doe and Cervenka are fascinated by the passage of time, accepting the present while being cognizant that the old days don’t seem as far away as they actually are. Those yesterdays are explicitly celebrated in “Big Black X,” a joyous recollection of the band leaving decaying Hollywood for a life on the road, a journey that takes them from “A big black X on a white marquee” to “A tiny little x on a white marquee.” There’s the desire to “get in trouble again,” as the pair sings on “Sweet Til the Bitter End,” with the realization that they’re in the process of—as they put it in another song—“Winding Up the Time.” But the prospect of the end doesn’t haunt the band. Rather, they seize the chance to create a righteous noise one last time, still getting a kick from turning country two-step into punk, or adding dusty, cinematic accents to hard-bitten urban tales like "The Way It Is.”

Listening to Smoke & Fiction in the same sitting as Los Angeles or Wild Gift, the lasting impression isn’t how they’ve changed over the years, but how much of their original spark they’ve sustained. No longer frenetic or hungry, X have nevertheless maintained their intrinsic interpersonal chemistry, drawing strength from the way their voices collide with a relentless backbeat and three simple chords. It’s a simple yet powerful pleasure that gives Smoke & Fiction its kick, along with a surprisingly emotional resonance.

 Jack White's No Name

The all killer, no filler ethos is a far cry from Fear of the Dawn, the absolutely gonzo solo record White released in 2022. Where that record invited listeners to marvel at its virtuosity and gawk at its sadistically counterintuitive creative choices, No Name leans into his most intuitive, meat-and-potato impulses. Opener “Old Scratch Blues” thrashes with the gravity of Led Zeppelin’s most titanic riffs, while “That’s How I’m Feeling” plays like a belated stab at one last great, aughts-style rock revival single. “Bombing Out” may be the most convincing two and half minutes of scuzzy hardcore you’ll hear from a 49-year-old this year. 

I am more of an X fan than a Jack White fan, but both are worth listening to. Hard to believe how old we all are now.

Oh yeah, the movie was a hoot.

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