May 14th
Today is Mothers Day. I try not to talk about my family too much on this blog, but I would like to say thank you for everything and I love you to my own mom. And I hope everyone who has or has had a good mom is enjoying today and everyone else is enjoying today regardless.
Mother's day is observed on the second Sunday of each year. First celebrated in 1907, the holiday was created by Anna Jarvis to honor both her own late mother and mothers everywhere. Jarvis became wary of the holiday in her lifetime because of how commercialized the observance became. That being said, I'm always one to recommend a personal gift over an expensive one, but you definitely know your own mother's tastes better than I do.
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May 15th
Today is the theatrical anniversary of one of DreamWorks best films. Kung Fu Panda is a film that while it's name sounds like that of a 90's TMNT ersatz, the film is actually about a panda actually practicing kung fu. Like you can tell whoever was working on it actually did their research instead of using the name of a martial art as a buzzword. Everything is pretty solid, and the film is still getting sequels.
My fun fact for this one is that the film was involved with a bizarre plagiarism case. An animator, Jayme Gordon, made a claim that DreamWorks stole his idea for the movie. While the cartoonist had a pitch for a movie starring a panda, it was complete apples and oranges, but he edited his sketches after learning about Kung Fu panda in an attempt to scam DreamWorks studio. And on top of this, it turns out some of his supposed early concept art was art he plagiarized from a Lion King coloring book. You can not make this stuff up. The hoaxer ended up charged with fraud and owed DreamWorks more money then I'll probably ever have in my lifetime.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I love these movies. I’ve been told that they’re beloved in China, as well– always good when your efforts are seen as cultural appreciation rather than appropriation.]
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May 16th
Today is the anniversary of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and I come to this article with an agenda. I'm going to be honest, I've seen this movie a couple times, I think it's kinda boring. I don't even think that's a hot take or anything. My understanding of Star Wars is that the first films were extremely well made and revered, but then the prequels did not live up to expectations, but people enjoyed the prequels more now after a number of good tv shows gave everything a bit more context and a sequel trilogy was really poorly done.
My agenda is that the best way to take in the larger star wars canon is Lego Star Wars. Like mostly the video games. Lego Star Wars basically acts as a sort of odd abridgement of the films, but with some jokes. Star Wars is the "turn off your brain it's time for space wizards" Sci-Fi franchise, might as well make it sillier. Plus that new Lego Star Wars game introduced me to my new favorite star wars character: Mr Bones. He's a violent, constantly screaming droid who is actually a good guy and he seems to be bad at staying dead. Exactly what I want from star wars.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Some may be tempted to tell Tom that Star Wars is not sci-fi, but is in fact Space Fantasy, which is completely different. In response to that, I’d like to say…sure? I mean, I guess? It’s definitely more about Space Magic than science. The prequel trilogy tried to science it up with midichlorians or whatever, but it didn’t really take.]
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May 17th
Today is a grab bag article day, take it away Cal:
It's Cal, and I kinda just want to take a little time to publicly reflect on some stuff. It might get a little heavy. I kinda thought about where I was this time last year. I was pretty alone. Rarely in an empty house but ambient to anyone else there, staying quietly in my room. I stayed sustained but I fell in a rut. Not really making relationships but darting through online spaces, lurking and watching friendships form and fizzle without ever getting too invested.
Now I have a new home, and I feel like I'm at least around the house here. I have a loving partner who's over a few times a week, often cooking dinner. We had Miz over the other week, we hadn't even really met before but he was very polite and we've been talking since. For probably the first time in my life I'm making friends, keeping them, and finding more friends still. I feel like I spent years in virtual solitude, and now I am here surrounded by people who are happy to have me. I'm not scared of rejection like I used to be. I spent too long alone and now my only wish is to never be alone again, and out of everything I want, it feels the most achievable.
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May 18th
Today is National Museum Day, and I'd have to recommend just checking what museums are in your area. While there's no museums in my hometown, I'm close enough to Atlanta I can bum off of theirs. Aside from the Museum of Puppetry Arts, that I have talked about before, the big city has a lot of odd museums if I am inclined to try to persuade a friend to take me. So let's get Into some weird museums to check out in Atlanta.
There's the Delta flight museum where they have a giant building with airplanes in it. The Trap Music Museum is self explanatory and not too unusual in itself, but the odd part for that one is that it's a music museum with an escape room. And then it's a little bit out of the city, but the first Waffle House is in Decatur, and that's been converted to a museum.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: And that Waffle House museum is, in itself, around a block away from a second Waffle House. That’s just how things work in the Atlanta area.]
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May 19th
Today is National Devil's Food Cake Day. Aside from being a "chocoholic" as my mom calls it, I'm interested in this topic because it's kinda strange to label a mundane dessert demonic. The short answer is that Angel Food Cake already existed. Somebody, probably an advertiser, looked at the light and fluffy white cake that was Angel food, and the dense richness of an extra chocolate cake, and said "yeah if that white cake is angel food this chocolate cake is devil's food" and it stuck.
One thing about devil's food cake, is that despite its reputation for being paired with a light frosting unlike the chocolate on chocolate typical for devil's food, red velvet is considered a variation of Devil's food cake. At one point these cakes were mostly just a color and ingredient or two away from each other, but over time people tried different things with both recipes and They became distinct cakes. That being said, I would love to try red velvet with devil's food icing.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Devil’s Food Cake was invented to be the Shadow the Hedgehog to Angel Food’s Sonic. There, I’ve said it.]
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May 20th
Today is a grab bag day, and Ariel has some more weather facts:
Ariel here backatcha with the question, Do April showers bring May flowers?
They do! As you may or may not have known, seasonal changes depend on the axial tilt of Earth in coordination with its orbit. As Earth makes its way back closer to the Sun around April to May, temperatures start warming up to usher in spring. We say goodbye to cold winter snowfall once it’s warm enough to bring life-giving rain instead.
With increased rain activity starting up during April, many temperate regions really do start to see more flowers by the start of May!