The concept for this YouTube channel is so simple, but moving too, and I think these two nail it: Kai introduces his dad to a song, or an entire album, they film themselves listening to the song together, and the dad’s reaction (which is often emotional, and usually enthusiastic). I don’t know if this is the best starting point, but it’s one of the most popular—Tupac’s “Dear Mama.” (I haven’t watched the one in which the dad listens to Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in its entirety (for the first time ever?!?!?!?) yet, but what I’ve seen is really fun). (video)

I don’t know what I could write here to make this more clickable than I feel that it already is: Wanna see British double-decker buses racing each other on a proper race track in the early 1980s?
I’m always a little shy to recommend music because it’s so subjective, but I love everything about this video and this song and if you don’t like it, that’s fine, but I feel like I have to share it regardless, and if it makes your week like it did mine, you’re welcome.
Maybe you remember that Van Halen is famous for having a tour rider requirement to have a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed, and depending on what you’ve heard, it’s either a) an example of rock stars being a pain in the ass because they can be or b) just a way to make sure people are reading their contracts all the way through (which is what David Lee Roth claimed). So which is it? Doug Mack digs into the whole thing.
Sometimes I feel like you don’t need to read an entire satire article to get the gist, or sometimes you don’t even need to read beyond the headline, but I think this one keeps delivering all the way up until the end: John Hancock Explains His Big Signature
You might not be surprised to learn that Joey Chestnut makes kind of a lot of money because he can eat 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes. This article doesn’t quite break it down in detail, but I think it peeks behind the curtain a little bit and shows that most of his money comes from paychecks he gets from winning eating contests—the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest prize is $10,000, which seems like not that much for a sporting event that draws so much attention (but maybe a lot for a contest for speed-eating hot dogs?).
Sometimes when I travel I try to keep a little journal—literally a pocket notebook with one page of handwritten notes from each day. I thought that was a pretty good effort, for me. Then I saw these photos of José Naranja’s travel journals, which I can’t even read, and I’m just in awe. I don’t have a concrete definition for what’s art and what’s not art, but these are definitely art.
I’m not sure if Instagram’s new Threads app will turn out to be a big deal (it seems like I’ve heard of three or four replacements for Twitter in the past six months), but if you used to follow me on Twitter (or still do), I joined Threads yesterday—here’s my account if you’d like to follow it.

+ One From The Semi-Rad.com Archives:
He Was Just A Dog
(from June 30, 2022)













—Brendan
This essay, like all of the posts on this website, was made possible by the wonderful human beings who support my work via my Patreon.