Friday’s child, never climbed no mountain
NANCY SINATRA, VIA LEE HAZELWOOD
Friday’s child, she ain’t even gonna try, oh
Friday’s child, whom they’ll forget to bury
Friday’s child, am I
Welcome to this week’s phantasmagorical tnocs.com Friday Wrap-Up!
Good to see you all here at The Weekend Files! It was a fun week hanging with everyone! The vibe around here was positively Henning-esque, as our awesome writers defied the laws of physics, and continued to conjure up terrific articles – seemingly right out of thin air – for all of us to enjoy.
It really was amazing. In fact, I was so spellbound by all of the verbal wizardry, it inspired me to seek out a recognized, authoritative and professionally written tutorial, and get to practicing some card tricks, a little slight of hand, and your basic prestidigitation. And because I want to properly emulate all of my favorite magical heroes, I have enlisted the requisite adorable and attractive assistant to stand by my side.
I do like that one.”
OK. So we’re not exactly the next Rudd Weatherwax and friend. We’ll just have to keep rehearsing. In the meantime, in lieu of a rabbit, we’ll pull the news of the week out of a hat:
• The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that including today, we published four days this week, instead of two. As this guy might say, “Holy proliferation!”
Because I don’t want to be an underachiever, I’ve thought about it… and I’m going to try for a full five day week of new content, Monday through Friday, with one or two new articles each day.
I think that this schedule feels more relevant, consistent, and it might be the way to go. Your thoughts about this increased activity are very important and most welcome. A good or a bad idea? Please chime in.
• I’d mentioned that we’re going to have a fun new contest with a streaming concert ticket for prize. I jumped the gun a bit, and it’s delayed while we work out the details with our partner site. But, I promise that it’s still in the works. Watch this space over the next week for the scoop.
• I’ve said it every week since we launched, but the comment sections are really hopping, and activity was up, yet again. Can I get a, “woo-hoo?” While you can chat away to your heart’s content within any article on the site, “The Weekend Files” comment section below serves a general “hangout” for any topic that’s on your minds, all weekend long.
And now, as we do every Friday: here’s a recap of the cool stuff that you may have missed this week…
This Past Week’s New Articles
Contributing Author Chuck Small had us all feeling as warm as toast and hot cocoa with his latest, an article about TV family dramas. I was surprised that I remembered as many of these as I did. Like all of his writing, it’s relaxing, informative, and always a fun read. And, a fun Casey-style chart fact: his article had the greatest number of comments to date in the history of the site. Now, that’s what we call interaction! Well done, and we appreciate you, Chuck.
Oh, and by the way, ABC called late last night. They said to check your Venmo account.
By way of # 1961 Broadway, 10023, Contributing Author Phylum Of Alexandria shared his eclectic viewpoint on the merits of a timeless genre of music. It’s so cool that a journey from rock to punk, to industrial, et al, would wind up in the classical realm. But when one is as intelligent and eloquent as our friend is, I guess such an open and accepting mind is to be expected. Good on you, PoA. And we’ll be waiting patiently for you to fess up, and ID yourself.
And, yours truly couldn’t sleep Tuesday night, and wrote up a thing.
Site Stuff:
- Clarifying last week’s question about optimum article length: It has nothing to do with the content itself – but for technical reasons, if we could limit articles to 2000 words, it would be helpful. And remember, a 300 word bit can be just as interesting as a longer piece.
Go with your mood: Long form. Short form. Listicle. Jokes. Polls. Whatevah. It’s all fun, and it’s all welcome. Write it up and send it over! - The “heart upvote” code is a work in process -it’s harder than I thought to do. Anyway, I’ll be replacing or upgrading it soon. In the meantime, please show the love and click for our awesome Contributing Authors.
- How’m I doin? Is the site loading and responding fast enough? Any major fails? Looking good on desktop, tablet, and mobile? Please let me know what you like, hate or would like to see for your best viewing experience. Feedback is appreciated and respected.
- Want to see your byline Up Front? So do we! Please write for us! Old comment section veterans and newcomers are all welcome to join in the reverie.
We want to hear what’s on your mind. If you have an idea or just want to chat about stuff, PM me anytime at submissions@tnocs.com .
• Any suggestions for channels? Content? Cool features? General mayhem?
I want this to be your place. Tell me how to make it better.
Thank you so much for your support and kind comments about the site. I’m impossibly lucky to be able to hang with all of you. Have a great weekend, please be careful, take good care of yourselves and each other…
.. and good on you all.
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First time commenting on the roundup, but I really love that Daniel Craig SNL banner. It always amuses me when memes transcend like that!
As to the question for a five-day schedule, I’m in favor of that. I think it’ll give some of us with more hectic schedules more chances to comment on articles/posts, should we wish. I’ve also been thinking about contributing something one of these times. No pressure on myself, of course, I’d just really love to do a Wayne’s World retrospective lol.
Still doing the interviewing thing, including today’s follow-up from earlier in the week (I think? What is time anymore? It feels like the initial phone interview happened last week). I think it went really really well, so I’m hoping I’ll finally get something better on lock! I’m supposed to hear back sometime next week. The manager seemed to positively take to me and my answers.
And, while I’m the first comment here, I want to take a moment to share this gofundme page with you all. I’ve mentioned my trans musician friend on the other site before, at least a couple times. Well, this fall, he’s finally going to get top surgery in Miami! He’s made it public on all his social media, and I thought I’d do my part to help him out. You all seem like a kind, thoughtful bunch, so whatever you can give would mean a lot.
https://gofund.me/dc77de44
Best of luck with the job and for your friend, and I’d love to see your WW retrospective. After a couple weeks vacation, I go back to work on Monday, so I’ll need all the amusement I can get!
Funny … I saw your “WW” reference and immediately thought Wonder Woman, not Wayne’s World. With George Perez’s recent death, Princess Di (not the one we’re talking about today on the mothership) has been on my mind.
Always intriguing clicking on mt’s links – sprinkling a bit of magic into my morning reading. Starting with Doug Henning, once again its been an education, all new to me. Damn fine 1970s moustache and hair combo.
In the spirit of sharing here’s Britain’s top TV magician; Paul Daniels. He was massive here through the 80s, if not in stature. Had a catchphrase, ‘You’ll like it. Not a lot but you’ll like it.’ Now there we have the difference between US / UK entertainment. Not exactly raising expectations with that one 😁
https://richeep.tripod.com/people_pauldanniels.html
Focus of attention here this weekend is the end of the football (soccer) season. Its looking bad for Leeds United. I may have lived in Leeds for 25 years now but I’ve never liked their team – there’s a lot of history there, too much to explain but in the 70s they earned the name Dirty Leeds for their style of play and its been hard to shake off. It may make no sense in the grand scheme of things but that’s sporting rivalries for you, I wouldnt normally revel in others misfortune but I’ll make an exception here.
For now though, I’m off to do some baking. Enjoy the weekend folks!
I’m astounded that anyone is actually clicking the links!
Ok, JJ, in gratitude, while you wait for the dough to rise, this is for you:
https://youtu.be/GmCIPuS92FM
The links are like an extra layer of entertainment, i click on some with no idea of what to expect. Unfortunately I’ve got the dreaded blocked in your country on copyright grounds for the video.
How dare they! How’s this one working?
https://youtu.be/mYF4U_5MMg4
That one does the job. Funny just to see Paul and Penn stood next to each other, he’s literally half the man that Penn is.
Your bonus links are half the fun, mt!!! It’s like a weird “Choose Your Own Adventure” book journey…. “where will this link take me?!”
Aww, thank you, dutch! I appreciate that you come along for the ride with the links!
JJ,
Congrats on the late Leeds victory! Exciting weekend all around for the Premier League, though I’d prefer a little excitement for my Toffees in the previous weeks.
The team is horribly run, yet I still cheer them on.
Ah, you may have misread my allegiances. A Leeds victory was not what I was hoping for. And then my own team compounded things by dispatching Burnley. Can’t deny it was an exciting 90 minutes though at both ends of the table. I’ve been there with a horribly run team, though it was much easier when Newcastle had Mike Ashley in charge, a horrible man and a terrible owner. Now we have all the money in the world but a whole world of moral ambiguity to go with it. Though ambiguity is understating the issues.
Was talking with a fellow Newcastle fan last week and we agreed that should the previously unthinkable happen and we actually win something thanks to our wealthy but human rights bothering benefactors we’d probably cry with joy first then hate ourselves and cry all over again.
Well done on your own survival, we’ll be seeing you again next season…
Confession time: I’m a reaction video addict. It makes me happy seeing other folks hear a classic song for the first time. Granted, there’s a lot of reactions out there that aren’t genuine, but I’ve got a handful of favorites who seem to be the real thing. I mention this as a prelude to my rabbit hole journey this evening, which started with a reaction to Duran Duran’s “Rio”…which reminded me of what an awesome bassline John Taylor laid down, which led me to the isolated bass-and-drum track for that song, and several cover versions. That in turn made me think of Tony Thompson’s drum work on Madonna’s “Material Girl” (particularly the different fills leading into each chorus), so I watched several folks do covers of that as well. Scrolling through my YouTube recommendations after that, I came across this video that needed to be shared (the subject of “Barbie Girl” came up recently on the mothership, so it’s rather timely). Good night, and Godspeed.
https://youtu.be/JV3FgaJD-wM
What in the world? That was amazing!
I’m not going to be able to sleep until I see Virgindog’s comment on this one.
I’m addicted to reaction videos, too. It’s a shame Jamel and others have so much trouble with copyright strikes. Anyway, I just watched someone reacting to the movie “Airplane!” and their reaction was nearly as funny as the movie.
Charles Berthoud is amazing, but what I like best about his videos is he never comes across as arrogant. A lot of the solo bass performance videos have a look-at-me quality that’s distracting, unnecessary, and kind of offensive. Charles, on the other hand, has a sense of humor about himself. Still, I’d like to see more of him just playing with a band. Playing well in a group setting is impresses me more than a solo video.
That was awesome, and who knew such a trifle could inspire something so magnificent!
Hi everybody!
Mt, to answer your question about the increasing activity, it is a good idea for the readers… not so good for the man in charge of this site. I hope you’re not going crazy.
I might be. I’ll try to think of it as an upgrade.