Not a Newsletter 001: Don’t become some background noise

November 4, 2018December 18, 2018 / Ian Casselberry / 2 Comments

freddie_reading

Here we go again with a “I haven’t written anything for a while” post. But with the calendar turning to November, it seems like a good time to turn up the output here and provide some proof of (writing) life.

(I said the same thing to myself going into October, of course. Probably at the beginning of September too.)

I don’t get to write as much as I used to (though I almost took care of that with a job I was offered — but had to turn down — this past week), so I’d really like to take care of that with the blog and website that I put the effort in to set up. That includes the Amusement Park Podcast, where I intend to put most stuff on genre and geek subjects. I feel like writing holds me accountable somehow.

(Recently, I’ve written movie reviews for A Star is Born, Halloween and The Old Man and the Gun. Bohemian Rhapsody is soon to follow. I want to do a lot more of them now that we’re in movie awards season.)

And I want to do these Not a Newsletter posts regularly. Newsletters are kind of the new blogs these days (actually, podcasts probably are) and if I thought I could assemble a decent subscriber base, I might do one. (Did I sound really old right there?)

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Not a Newsletter: 04/15/18

April 15, 2018July 9, 2018 / Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Last Sunday was WrestleMania, which served to remind me that my revived interest in pro wrestling has fizzled out. It’s probably part of a general malaise during which I haven’t been watching much on TV other than news (and punditry), but yeah, this foray back to a childhood love lasted about nine months.

However, HBO’s Andre the Giant documentary brought back plenty of memories of my wrestling fandom, and how fascinating it was not just to follow WWF, but the other wrestling companies and territories throughout the country like the NWA, AWA, Mid-South and so forth. I remember spending Saturday mornings at the old Community Newscenter in Ann Arbor poring through wrestling magazines and spending my paperboy paycheck on too many of them.

The film also reminded me how special it was to be in the Pontiac Silverdome for WrestleMania III, which I wrote about last year on the event’s 30th anniversary. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant was definitely the event of the day (though not the match I was most excited about), and as the documentary explains, gave WWF a huge cultural push. To hear how much pain Andre was in during that match and how the ending hadn’t been determined until the two performers were in the ring was surprising and sobering.

All right, here’s what we have to show for the past week. Not a lot of writing out of me, unfortunately. Just that kind of week.

The week’s reading

** Brian Michael Bendis’s DC Comics debut hits comic book shops this coming week with Action Comics #1000. I’m not sure if it was in an article or on his old Jinxworld message board, but I recall Bendis once saying Superman was a character he couldn’t get his head around. Or a character that didn’t work in modern times. Something like that. But he’ll be writing the Man of Steel’s adventures after helping to define the Marvel Universe for nearly the past 20 years. And I’ll be buying. [New York Times]

** The “new” Comiskey Park — now Guaranteed Rate Field — was the first of the new ballparks throughout Major League Baseball. But it could have been so much better, as Dayn Perry explains in this outstanding feature. (And you’ll learn something about ballpark architecture too.) [CBS Sports]

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Not a Newsletter: 04/08/18

April 8, 2018July 9, 2018 / Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

krasinski_reading

Well, hello! After a shaky last couple of weeks, we’re trying to get Not a Newsletter back on track here at Casselbloggy HQ. I’d like to remain as computer-free as possible on my day off, so am getting this out early for the Sunday breakfast crowd.

This story about the mastodon skeleton at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History being moved as part of the museum’s relocation put me in a wistful mood. Growing up in Ann Arbor, the museum was one of my favorite places to go.

Like a lot of kids, I was really into dinosaurs and a place with skeletons from all kinds of those prehistoric creatures seemed like one of the coolest places on Earth. A Tyrannosaurus Rex skull. A pterodactyl skeleton. And so much more. They were just a bus ride away, which meant multiple visits throughout the year — especially during the summer.

mastodons_UM

I’m not sure when I stopped going to the museum. Probably at an age where I felt like I’d outgrown it. I bet I haven’t been back in at least 20 years. I couldn’t have gone back once?

Now that I live someplace else, I’ve often thought about how lucky I was and didn’t even realize it. I could go to that museum — and others on the U-M campus — any time I wanted to. I didn’t do this nearly enough, especially as I got older. Taking the little nieces there (one of whom likes dinosaurs) would be fun. Maybe someday.

OK, here’s what we have to show for the past week.

This Week’s Reading

** Dusty Baker shouldn’t have been fired as Washington Nationals manager after last season. But he’s apparently enjoying the time off, especially when watching his son play. J.T. Snow rescuing little Darren Baker, then a San Francisco Giants bat boy, from getting run over at home plate in the 2002 World Series was a touching moment. [Washington Post]

** I was vaguely aware of how much diapers cost before my sister had children. Now, as an uncle, I’m keenly aware — especially when taking my mother to Target or Walmart to buy diapers and help my sister out. (I don’t think that’s appreciated enough.) This feature underlines just how fortunate we are, and why diapers cost what they do. [Tampa Bay Times]

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