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joesodium.bsky.social
Joe Sodium
@joesodium.bsky.social
190 followers 150 following 2.8K posts
ghost of a robot cake
he's/himselfs
sometimes literal coyote
resplendent with sesquipedalian happenstance
connoisseur of context
ADHDadisaster
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Reposted by Joe Sodium
harrywallop.co.uk
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
I saw this exact lunchbox at an antique store and have regretting not buying it for the past 20 years
discontinuedfoods.bsky.social Discontinued Foods! @discontinuedfoods.bsky.social · 5d
Day #168: The Exciting World of the Metric System (1976)
A white metal lunchbox that reads "The Exciting World of Metric!" surrounded by images of: A motorcyclist and 2 race cars A power plant 3 Olympic runners and a shot put athlete A downhill skiier Pharmacy accoutrements A white metal lunchbox with a red handle that reads "The Exciting World of Metrics: A Decimal Measuring System" It is surrounded by images of: A snail An inchworm A thermometer An old timey circus strongman holding triangular weights An ice cream sundae and milkshake
December 1, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
bfletcherwatson.bsky.social
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
joesodium.bsky.social
I have all of Brian Wilson’s SMiLE stuck in my head

help
November 29, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
culturecrave.co
"Fuck AI. It’s something that’s making everything worse in every single way — I don’t get it ... what the fuck are we doing?"

— Rian Johnson

(via THR)
November 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
nedraggett.bsky.social
Hell with it, I'm just going to post the whole thing here via screencap and alt text. It's Kaleb Horton, man, his writing always deserves the second read, especially since it could have just easily been lost forever like so much else. Read it, share it.
A look at forgotten Hollywood landmarks By Kaleb Horton Let's say you come in from down south, and you're looking for an unsung movie landmark. So you fly in to LAX, rent a car, blow right past Hollywood, leave Los Angeles county heading north, go over the Grapevine, gape at the monumental hills and, wow, there really is a Smokey Bear Road, then you turn off the air conditioner when the sign tells you. Once you come down the grade too fast and see the world's loneliest Denny's, you're well on your way to what you're looking for – the middle of nowhere. You're going to Kern County to find the spot where Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the crop duster sequence from "North by Northwest." It takes place in Indiana, of course, but the Indiana road sign and the imported corn field can't deceive this Bakersfield native. The parched and desolate heat of the scene feels too much like Kern County. The scene people know off-hand — Cary Grant running from an airplane — isn't why "North by Northwest" is a classic. The film's greatness, as was often the case for Hitchcock, lies in its build-up, its suspense, its mood. The plane moment is almost anticlimax. It is those five minutes before Grant's desperate escape that constitute a mathematically perfect suspense scene. So expert is Hitchcock's hand that he creates suspense, a slow burning dread, with no camera tricks and no music in broad daylight. Grant's character is a prototypical James Bond. His perfect suit, fast wit, high-alcohol tolerance and effortless charisma have got him out of every predicament so far. In the city, among people, he has powers. Take him away from people, put him nowhere, and he's just like us — totally helpless. He has no powers: His suit is no good out here; his million-dollar tailoring and perfect haircut is just vanity now. No amount of pretending can provide escape. Here, is the one place where he can die, and he gets by on the grace of God. All he can do is wait for what's coming. So when you seek the lost landmark of this scene, you're looking for an idea as much as a place. You're on Highway 99 now, going 30 miles north of Bakersfield, looking for an unassuming patch of dirt that carries spiritual weight. The scene was filmed neart Garces Highway to the west of Delano. You'll think there's a handy exit for it. There's not. You'll probably get lost in Delano, counting on a connection. You're at once a million miles from Hollywood and a hundred miles away. It's lonely. The horizon sprawls forever like there's nothing past it. There are broken down trucks on the side of the road, plumes of smoke from faraway fires. You'll find Garces eventually. You'll pass a bar called Rosy's Place, abandoned houses, an oil field, a prison, a cemetery, a sign that says "we clean headstones," and a whole lot of gold-on-brown punctuated by an occasional trailer or car going faster than you. You're looking for where Garces meets Corcoran Road. That's where this "North by Northwest" scene was filmed. You'll get a vague idea where it is but you'll never be exactly sure, since there's little impetus for clear signage 10 miles from a prison. Maybe Corcoran Road is unlabeled. Besides, that Indiana sign and the prop cornfield haven't been there in 56 years. If you're anything like me, you'll lose the light and call it a day, unsatisfied with the route you took. You return to I-5 northbound. From the 5, you'll meet Route 46, and go through a place called Lost Hills, then back in to the location from Corcoran Road instead. That's how Hitchcock probably did it. More intuitive. Still in the middle of nowhere, but on your way to Corcoran Road, you're right next to another Hollywood landmark: Blackwells Corner, James Dean's last stop. It's a glorified Texaco, and gas is 50 cents a gallon more than it should be. They sell Jelly Bellys and '50s kitsch artifacts — plates with Marilyn Monroe's face on them, and so forth. They really figured out how to cash in on death. You don't want to stop here. But I stopped. I asked the kid at the Blackwells Corner counter how to get to Corcoran Road. He gave me a look that said "there's no reason to go there," and then wearily told me where to go anyway. I was about 8 miles from the destination. Going there is a meditative experience. You're not just going to the middle of nowhere. You're going to the perfect nowhere. Going alone, in the hypnotic heat of the Central Calfiornia Valley, you might even forget what year it is. There is no reason to believe the road would be so well preserved for half a century, intimately tied to the career of an actor born in Bristol 111 years ago, but it has been. There's an abandoned house. A barn with a cross on it. But almost nothing has changed in 56 years. At some point new lines were added on the road. There's overgrowth where there didn't used to be overgrowth. A couple discarded Budweiser cans from who knows when, but mostly it's identical. This is the same sleepy loneliness that Alfred Hitchcock used to make great art in 1959. And that may sound dull, but tranquility is the point. You stand on that dirt and there's no distraction from what's in your soul. It's an inner destination, not an outer one. I told my grandma about it when I got back to Bakersfield. She told me her Uncle Harold thought it was the prettiest road in America. And she showed me a picture of a Corcoran grade school class posing in the dirt with Grant and Hitchcock. It's just a field trip picture. The kids are fidgeting, many with arms folded, some shielding their eyes from the sun, all with obedient smiles. They'd all be in their sixties now, but they'd remember where this road is. It emphasized the ugliness of James Dean's last stop becoming a place to sell T-shirts. It's about what we preserve, and what we don't, and what we remember, and what we don't. It's easy to find shrines to morbidity and hard to find meaningful places. For those, you have to go looking.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
joesodium.bsky.social
Describe your cat's personality in one picture
November 29, 2025 at 2:25 PM
joesodium.bsky.social
WAKE UP DEAD MAN is real good, we all liked it at least as much as the other two (my younger daughter thought it might be her favorite of the three)
#wakeupdeadman

I also appreciate what can only be an homage to MOBY-DICK in it
November 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
Trying not to point out which characters were animated by Milt Kahl because I can tell
November 28, 2025 at 2:15 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
Those penguins in MARY POPPINS are fuckin incredible
November 28, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
elfreckles.bsky.social
old silly strip repost :3

#furryart #comics
January 25, 2024 at 1:56 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
Me, going for a walk around my in-laws’ neighborhood:

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”

“Hi. You are currently being recorded.”
November 27, 2025 at 11:24 PM
joesodium.bsky.social
This movie was on TV all the time when I was a kid, I think I remember approximately all of it
comingupontcm.bsky.social Coming Up On TCM @comingupontcm.bsky.social · 4d
#ComingUpOnTCM

THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR (1961) Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn
Dir.: Robert Stevenson 9:45 AM PT

An eccentric college professor invents a gravity-defying formula for flying rubber.

1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G

#TCM #TCMParty
November 27, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
wittywebhandle.bsky.social
Microsoft Logo w/ the Four Humors written on individual blocks of the window. Orange is Sanguine Green is Melancholic Blue is Phlegmatic Yellow is Choleric
November 26, 2025 at 8:15 PM
joesodium.bsky.social
I had a dream that I was attending a performance of Saint-Saëns’s Symphony #3, “The Organ Symphony,” but the organist felt the piece was beneath him and used a pre-recorded organ part

These are my dreams
November 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
threadotweets.bsky.social
lauren @NotABigJerk For everyone visiting their parents this week: LG tvs call it TrueMotion Roku/TCL calls it Action Smoothing Samsung calls it Auto Motion Plus Sony calls it MotionFlow Panasonic calls it Intelligent Frame Creation Amazon Fire TVs call it Motion Processing 12/25/22
March 1, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
pftompkins.bsky.social
The last of the original Garbage Pail Kids has died in custody
November 27, 2025 at 3:02 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
The whole family including grandparents got tickets to see WAKE UP DEAD MAN on Friday

My younger daughter is trembling with excitement, the KNIVES OUT movies are (she says) her favorite movies
#wakeupdeadman
November 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
In no particular order, my MST3K top ten (subject to change):

-The Pumaman
-Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders
-Riding With Death
-The Amazing Colossal Man
-The Day Time Ended
-Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
-Teenagers From Outer Space
-Hobgoblins
-Jack Frost
danacorn.bsky.social uosdɯᴉS ɐuɐꓷ 🦄 @danacorn.bsky.social · 5d
Okay, here’s my MST3K top ten.

#1 Space Mutiny
#2 Puma Man
#3 Riding With Death
#4 Werewolf
#5 Hobgoblins
#6 Leech Woman
#7 I Accuse My Parents
#8 Prince of Space
#9 Master Ninja
#10 Diabolik
stevehorton.mst3k.fan Steve Horton is writing a graphic novel @stevehorton.mst3k.fan · 5d
Since it's nearly Turkey Day it's time for a new Top Ten MST3K post. Which are your favorites?

#1 Riding with Death
#2 Giant Spider Invasion
#3 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
#4 Space Mutiny
#5 Werewolf
#6 Catalina Caper
#7 Final Sacrifice
#8 Pod People
#9 Avalanche
#10 Mitchell
November 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
causeimdanjones.bsky.social
I just learned the Bugs Bunny No meme doesn't even come from him saying no. It's a frame rotated 90 degrees from him taking a drink from a bottle. I needed to share this.
November 25, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
kelly-knox.com
narrator: 50 years ago...

me: [nods] in 1945

narrator: in 1975...

me: what
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 AM
joesodium.bsky.social
“You’ll be visited by three spirits.”

The three spirits:
Chico, Groucho, Harpo
November 25, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
nocontexttrek1.bsky.social
Star Trek The Next Generation scene. All in uniform, Geordi and Troi are standing behind Data, who is standing in front of a full length mirror inspecting himself. We seem to be in personal ship quarters. Troi and Geordi looks to be holding back giggles and general amusements. Data has a full dark beard, and is stroking it contemplatively. Closed caption reads, "When I stroke the beard thusly"
November 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
grandiloquentwords.bsky.social
Quanked [kwangkt]
(adj.)
- Overpowered by fatigue.
- Exhausted or reduced in strength, as by labor or exertion; fatigued; sleepy.

Origin uncertain

Used in a sentence:
“After sprunting all weekend, then frooncing to get to work on time, I’m well quanked.”
Grandiloquent Word of the Day logo - Sepia-toned graphic with a baroque Victorian typeface and an illustration of an unconscious man being carried by a woman and another man.
November 24, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Joe Sodium
mobydickatsea.bsky.social
God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee
November 24, 2025 at 9:47 AM