NASCAR Wheel Changer -- How Hard Can It Be? March 30, 2022

You had one job. 

Bubba Wallace's NASCAR  crew suspended four races for loose wheel. 

Yes, I saw that live. There is one ... one, count them -- lug nut -- just one lug nut on a NASCAR wheel -- and one was not tightened, resulting in a wheel coming off Bubba Wallace's car last weekend, another DNF for the driver. 

Well, I suppose three out of four ain't bad. 

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Biggest Story At The "Oscars"

Well, it would have been Apple. Financial Times, paywall.

But not to be. 

Top story stolen by "the slap."

Regardless, it's a huge story:

After a movie year often light on crowds, the Academy Awards named an unabashed crowd-pleaser, the deaf family drama “CODA,” best picture Sunday, handing Hollywood’s top award to a streaming service for the first time in a ceremony that saw the greatest drama when Will Smith strode onstage and slapped assaulted Chris Rock.

Sian Heder’s “CODA,” which first premiered at a virtual Sundance Film Festival in winter 2021, started out as an underdog but gradually emerged as the Oscars’ feel-good favorite. It also had one very deep-pocketed backer in Apple TV+, which scored its first best picture Academy Award on Sunday, less than three years after launching the service.

It also handed another near-miss defeat to Netflix, the veteran streamer that for years has tried vainly to score best picture. Its best chance, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” came in with a leading 12 nominations. It won one, for Campion's direction.

Netflix has been around for decades: no "best picture Oscar."

Apple TV+: two, maybe three years: first "best picture Oscar."

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The Movie Page

It is absolutely amazing how much content for so little money is now available. It blows me away.

Basic cable, no bundling. Hulu. Amazon Prime. Firestick. Apple TV+. And I guess we get some Disney with the Hulu subscription. 

My evening pretty much runs like this:

• 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.: with Sophia -- flashcards, Duolingo, biking, reading, some writing (journal), Legos, piano, Bat Cave, hoverboard, maybe an episode of Psyche with Sophia;
  
• 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Perry Mason re-runs
• 10:00 p.m. -- 1:00 a.m. Movie night, every night -- last night, Midnight in Paris

Obviously the movies are in the background, while I'm blogging and/or reading.

Now today, over at Literary Hub, Beth Parker's 14-month-long communion with Robert Ebert. Takes two minutes to read and provides some nice movie suggestions. 

Another suggestion, just found it last night: Ramen Heads, Osamu Tomita -- ranked #1 ramen in Japan three years running. First question, how does one even top the list one time in all of Japan, not to mention three years running. This is my third "ramen movie." The Clint Eastwood spaghetti western ramen movie is still the best. I'm not sure where it streams; I wasn't on Hulu but easily found it again this morning, but forgot to note "network." Whatever. IMDB.

Can't remember where "unconditional love" showed up in one of the movies. I misheard "unconditional" and thought I heard something else. Unrequited love, unconditional love, uncompleted love, unknown love, unbelievable love, unquestionable love, unlikely love, unending love. Most interesting: uncompleted love.