When Mark Wahlberg isn’t producing episodes of everyone’s favorite show they love to hate, Entourage, he acts in movies. Sometimes he gets a role that suits his risidual Bostonian duncy meathead disposition perfectly. Like in The Departed, or his portrayal of an existentially crippled fireman in I [heart] Huckabees. The latter of which was brilliant, I think.
Anyhow, Marky Mark and Christian Bale are teaming up for a new one called The Fighter. It’s based on the true story of boxer Mickey Ward. It could be decent, I guess. And if nothing else, it looks like Christian Bale has once again upped the anti in his physical transfiguration abilities. This time into a late 40s, sinewy, washed out, chewed up and spit out South Boston boxing coach.
Lately I’ve been reading Paul Greenberg’s galvanizing book Four Fish, which tells the story of 4 overfished fish: The sea bass, cod, some wild salmons, and blue fin tuna.
I don’t feel like writing a book review here because I’m not very good at writing them and no one would read it anyway. Instead, I’d like to quickly talk about a subject that’s covered in great depth in Four Fish, the blue fin tuna.
The Atlantic population of blue fin tuna has declined by nearly 90 percent since the 1970
I vaguely remember my grandparents telling me that the week I was born in Boston in 1980 there also happened to be a near world-record blue fin tuna that had been caught that week and was on display down at the wharf, or whatever it’s called. Perhaps that’s where my interest in the fish comes from. Anyhow, they’re an amazing animal. There are so many unbelievable factoids associated with the fish that you can’t not find it fascinating
Atlantic blue fins can live up to 30 years (but overfishing makes this rare)
They can reach a maximum length of 14 ft.
They raise the temperature of their blood at will
Their bodies remain still while their tails fluctuate at incredibly rapid speeds
They dive to depths of 3,000 ft and can swim hundreds of thousands of miles in a lifespan
They’re an amazing fish that we probably won’t have around much longer if we keep eating them. Tuna, unlike other fish that have localized habitats, roam vast swaths of the ocean. Because of this, it makes it very hard to pass laws that would regulate the fishery. When it comes to commercial fishing of the high seas, only complete moratoriums seem to work. Like the one passed in the 80s that outlawed commercial whaling.
The Japanese are huge recalcitrants when it comes to abiding by sensible fishery law. They continue to practice whaling and are, by an order of magnitude, the largest consumers of blue fin tuna.
At this point, the only thing we can do to protect blue fin tuna is to elect not to eat it. Don’t get sushi that’s made using blue fin, don’t buy the tuna steaks, and don’t order it at a restaurant.
There’s really not much point to this post other than to repost a relevant link that can help boost the VinylWineShop.com search ranking. If you didn’t see it on Facebook already, Not For Tourists, the guide designed to help city goers venture off the beaten path, wrote a little bit about us. Craig Nelson is the author and I think he did a fine job.
I grew up around bowling lanes culture. My great grandfather built a few of them–one of them is still run by our family today–and I had the priveledge of working the auto-fryer there my Junior year of high school.
The highest I ever bowled in a single game is a 265, but I never came close to breaking 600 in 3 games.
It’s not by chance that The Big Lebowski, a film steeped in bowling inuendo, is one of the most culturally rich films of my time.
Here are a few bowling snippets that capture the greatness of this moderately slovenly, highly enjoyable pasttime.
The MTA has been defiling New Yorkers of their hard-earned money for years. Not all of them, but a lot of the people who work for the MTA, are lazy, apathetic, amoral slobs who deserve to be fired.
Sign this electronic petition to stop the impending obscene fare hikes! Don’t let them punish us, the paying riders, for their incompetence and avarice.
My perspicatious ear has spotted another separated-at-birth song combo. This time it’s the new track Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) off Arcade Fire’s new record, Suburbs and Blondie’s uber classic, Heart of Glass. The similarity breaks down in the chorus, but the verse structures are very similar, in a good way. It’s a killer song, and prooves that deep down, everyone loves them some disco.
And, for what it’s worth, I once saw the drummer from Blondie give the light man at a show the worse public profanity whipping I’ve ever seen. Let’s just say he had a real flair for creative use of the word sucker.
Teton Gravity consistently puts out some of the best ski movies every year. They’ve arguably got the roster with the biggest names and they go to some very cool, gnarly locations to shoot. Granted, last year’s Re:Session, in addition to trying to use a ridiculous metaphor/analogy for the financial meltdown of ‘08-’09, was not their best effort to date.
TGR’s new one, Light the Wick, looks promising. Check out the trailer below. If it doesn’t give you ski fever, you’re not a skier.
I’ve got my fair share of gripes for Dov Charney, the captain of perversion, and his brainchild, American Apparel. But you’ve got to give them a little credit for producing something so outlandish. Behold. It’s the douche Moo-Moo.
Weather.com and Accuweather.com recently got face and functionality lifts bringing them up to speed with the rigors of realish-time communication and every other way the internet has changed in the past 5 years.
Self description: I’m good at identifying similarities in structure and melody between songs.
My latest discovery is Marshall Tucker Band’s Can’t You See and Velvet Underground’s Oh, Sweet Nuthin (which will also totally make you realize the Dead were influenced by VU).
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