PicoBlog

Late one night, and down a deep dark YouTube rabbit hole, I stumbled on an old performance by the then-young Dwight Yoakam. Drawn in by the ease with which he wore his ten-gallon hat, mesmerized by his bedazzled thunderbird-embroidered jacket, and entranced by the concho-emblazoned skin-tight Levi’s 517s over cowboy boots, I spent a good couple of minutes absorbing his interpretation of Western style before realizing that it was because he was a white boy from Kentucky playing a much-beloved and melancholy Norteño-style music that had sealed the deal for me.

Hello, and welcome back to BURN THE TAPE, the ScorchStack’s super special bonus hockey movie review column. The inaugural BURN THE TAPE was Ramina’s review of an awful romcom with Wayne Gretzky’s son. It wasn’t called BURN THE TAPE then because we thought of the name this week. Sorry to Ramz, but you should read her review anyways even if it isn’t an official BURN THE TAPE. This week’s movie is 1986’s Youngblood:

The biggest annual stoner holiday is upon us and April 20, 2024 is a palindrome year. Must be a lucky year, make a wish! I’m wishing for federal legalization or at least the passage of a Safer Banking Act to ease us into the future.  Prohibition isn’t over: Despite being legal in 40 states, c*nn*bis is still categorized as a Schedule 1 dr*g in the eyes in the federal government. This causes absurd and challenging issues, especially when it comes to money and banking, of which the federal government has oversight.

Our lives are built on chaos. And this is the only reliable constant. That’s what absurdism is about. Life doesn’t have an objective meaning. This philosophy is unique because instead of looking for an answer, absurdism declares that you can’t make sense of any of this, and that’s okay. Instead of feeling lost, it invites us to create our own meaning. When I first heard about absurdism, I thought it’s gonna be a pessimistic idea and didn’t want to write about something this negative.

Chances are, your Jewish friends are not okay right now. I know I’m not.  I’m hurting, I’m angry, and I’m fearful for the future. This is a new phase of terror, and in many ways, the worst is yet to come. I’m afraid for my friends, my family, and my community. I feel this way not despite my liberal political views, but because of them.  I’m an anti-occupation, two-state solution progressive, opposed to the current government’s gutting of Israeli democratic institutions and to its jingoistic, violent, and discriminatory statements and actions against Palestinians.

Translation is hard, and it can be even harder in the world of sports where jargon becomes commonplace and truisms become repeated gospel. Focusing on Latin American soccer coverage in English for more than a decade, I’ve gotten used to some cliches that I know will be a pain to put in an article. Sometimes, it’s not worth the trouble. Others, you can work in a way to help the reader understand where the player or coach is going with the thought.

The videos are just plain cool. There are bison and cows, occasionally a 9-year-old yellow lab; there are adorable grandchildren bouncing on trampolines or drumming on boxes of products for a 5-day fast; there’s a daughter whipping up healthy shakes in the kitchen for her kids to sample; and there’s the tall, baseball cap-wearing host strolling along woodsy paths recording himself on a GoPro camera (sometimes on a skateboard!) responding to critics who suggest that the family’s vegan lifestyle is making his children and grandchildren too pale and thin.

Well first off, happy new year! I have to say, I missed this and I’m happy to be back to write for you, my dear reader. I had a long, reflective, and wholesome three-week break from work and from writing. Having your feet land on different ground such as Belgium, France, and Switzerland does something weird and triggers the mind to think differently. My family and I took a train voyage to Brussels where we spent two nights and had the best beer I’ve ever had.

Growing up, the Lantern Festival (or Yuan Xiao Jie 元宵节 in Chinese), is one of my favourite traditional celebrations. Taking place on the fifteenth day of the Lunar year, it commemorates the first full moon of the year, marking the beginning of a new spring. It is difficult to pin down the origin of the festival; it developed over time with influences from traditional Chinese beliefs, with influences from Buddhism and Taoism, steered by political motivations by emperors throughout history.