nixon

Ok… oddly I am coming to the defense of my small hometown.

Robles means Oak (Tree) in Spanish. The full name of Paso Robles is El Paso De Robles which means the The Paso of the Oaks.

Pasta Robles would be blending two languages together and would mean Oak Tree Pasta.

I think the name would make more people, from various cultures and language backgrounds, upset than just naming a pasta restaurant Oak Tree Pasta.

Also, there are already enough pasta restaurants in Paso, a quirky name like Pasta Robles wouldn’t fair well against their established competition.

BUT if a Vietnamese or Indian restaurant were to open with a fun Paso Robles themed name then I think it would do well regardless of the name. The redneck fortress looking Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ was the only place to get semi-legit BBQ in Paso for a long time despite the name and venue. I guess they have recently rebranded to Bubba’s Smokehouse & Spirits but the redneck fortress aesthetic is still on full display.

An older German hippie/IT master gave me this advice when we were in language school together in Japan almost 30 years ago.

“Water, rest, sex, ginger and garlic… not in any specific order but get as much of these as you can when you have a cold.”

Henrick, if you are reading this, thank you for the advice, it has served me well in life. If nothing else it helps improve my mood. I hope you and Lorna are doing well.

My Mom would make me drink Cranberry or CranApple juice when I felt a cold coming on to help prepare my body for the coming battle for survival. Really anything with antioxidants and vitamins would do but I have found Cranberry/CranApple juice helps with the onset of a sore throat too.

In the same vein a more modern solution I use than the Cranberry/CranApple juice is to put Emergen-C/Airbourn in some warm water with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and honey.

Also, don’t fight the fever if it isn't extreme, that is your body’s defenses at work, dampening that through meds seems to prolong the cold. I try not to use any medication except for nasal spray, throat lozenges or sleep aids if I can, otherwise I just let the cold run its course.

YMMV

It’s a stretch but Mark Duplass’ character, Phil, is a scientist and researcher for a company that did imaging research before creating/discovering the doorway into the Backrooms. I’d like to think that at one point of his career he was an x-ray tech of some sort.

So kinda, sorta, maybe a movie about a x-ray tech as I know nothing but the bare minimum about what x-ray techs do so I’d like to believe they explore weird parallel dimensional limbo spaces.

Backrooms

Not that you would have known this but I didn’t see the Minion’s movie this past weekend specifically because the local Drive-In has had it listed as coming soon for a couple weeks. They change what is showing once a week (every Friday) and the only indication what might be showing next week is their Coming Soon section.

It is old school, the place is falling apart to some degree and the same people have been running it for as long as I can remember but it is a good non-corporate experience. It looks it was built in the 50s and except for fresh coat of paint from time to time it hasn’t changed much since. They only have one screen that does double features each night so it is kinda hit and miss if you want to see a specific movie.

Anyway, I just found it funny that they would have gotten some ticket sales from me specifically if it was at the outdoor option this past holiday weekend which is what you said was specifically why they didn’t get as much sales. Objectively what you said is true except for the edge case I represent.

Maybe this weekend though!

As an aside, I wish there were more outdoor movie experiences. I’d love to have some sort of outdoor park/movie screen options instead of all these big megaplex cinemas. I saw the Obsession/Backroom double feature at the drive-in a few weeks ago and it was a lot of fun being able to openly talk about it without bothering other viewers.

What if it is a drive-in theater?

It is actually recommended that you don’t leave it on there as it leaves more surface area in the container for contamination or bacteria to grow.

“Oh, Mary!” on Broadway in NYC a couple weekends ago.

Safety doesn’t only come from solidarity and numbers, danger comes in many forms and through many means.

Kyle Gass’ comment threatened the safety and security of everyone involved with their international tour, employee, fan and etc at a time of heightened political tension.

Cancelling the tour was to the benefit of others and should not be seen as Jack Black agreeing with Donald Trump or disagreeing with what Kyle Gass said, it was the responsible thing to do.

The two things can be true.

Are you honestly saying that Tenacious D cancelling their tour endangered everyone?

Tours involve a lot of people, ensuring the safety of all of those people is one of the responsibilities of the performers and other decision makers. That is hard to do against a rabid fan base of Trump supporters that Kyle Gass/Tenacious D pissed off.

If Kyle Gass’ comments only affected him or Jack Black then I am sure they would have just ignored the backlash or made a simple apology. His comment didn’t just affect the two of them but everyone who worked on the tour, including the venue employees, promoters and anyone else in their proximity. Putting the livelihood and safety of the people you are responsible for is an entirely different situation than just acquiescing or giving into the MAGA crowd. It is about being responsible with the platform you have and protecting those who may be hurt by how you use that platform.

It sucks it went down the way it did as they clearly aren’t Trump supports but taking responsibility to protect others they care about was an empathetic and responsible thing to do for the thousands of people they put at risk during their international tour as any future concert could have become a target.

Jack Black is not a dumb guy and every thing I have seen or heard of him beforehand gave me the impression that he is a caring and warmhearted person. I can easily see a person like that would make a choice to take the reputational and financial hit to protect his fans safety and wellbeing.

It wasn’t about whether Kyle Gass was right or the fans didn’t agree with it. Kyle Gass and Jack Black didn’t want to gamble the safety of their fans by stepping into a huge ongoing and developing international political quagmire.

I heard Tony Gilroy requested to shorten it down to 2 seasons from 5.

Originally he envisioned each season was one year Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY). So season 1 was 5BBY to season 5 being 1BBY leading up to the events of Rogue One.

After completing season 1 he realized he didn’t want to spend the next decade or more doing this show as it took so long per season.

So he altered the deal, so to speak, and shortened each season down to four 3 episode arcs that make up the twelve episodes of season 2.

I read that in an interview before season 2 aired, seemed legit reasoning to me. Would have loved to seen the full 5 seasons but man, I get it, there are probably other projects he’d like to work on over the next decade.

Interested as well.

I need to move some D&D games to another platform.