Friday Food for Thought: September 9, 2022

Hello Friends, welcome to Friday Food for Thought. Every Friday I’ll help start your weekend by sharing four people, thoughts, or things that are on my mind this week. These may be books or movies, podcast suggestions, interesting people I follow on social media, music, products, or, well, anything. You may find interesting creativity boosts here, some conversation starters, or just a small dose of entertainment. Click here for my previous post. Feel free to share this with friends, or offer suggestions via the comments. Let’s begin!

1) Your Hands are Getting Heavy:

By constantly chasing fitness fads, we can easily miss the rare fad that actually seems to work. Heavy Hands was introduced by Dr. Leonard Schwartz in the 1980s as a way of combining aerobic training with a limited upper-body workout. Imagine power-walking, but incorporating a range of arm movements using light hand weights. Because I don’t live in the safest neighborhood for walking (hostile drivers and limited sidewalks), I’ve started experimenting with Heavy Hands using a step-aerobic movement at home. Heavy Hands is a much more intense workout than you might expect. Heavy Hands was fairly popular initially, but a lot of people gave it up, not because it’s ineffective, but because they were doing it wrong. Carrying the weights isn’t enough, the weights are meant to be used. As far as I can tell, Dr. Schwartz’ books are out of print, but used copies are out there and well worth your time.

2) At Home on the Space Range:

Maybe I’m the last person to discover Cowboy Bebop, but better late than never. Other than childhood viewings of Sandy Frank‘s Battle of the Planets (which was a heavily toned-down adaptation of the Japanese series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), Cowboy Bebop is my first anime experience. I’ve read that CB is considered one of the best, so I’m not sure where to go from here. The best way I can describe the show – about bounty hunters tracking criminals across a galaxy where every planet looks suspiciously like earth – is to imagine an animated series directed by Quentin Tarantino. The animation is extraordinary, the soundtrack is excellent, and the stories are more complex than you might expect for a half-hour animated series. I’m watching the original Cowboy Bebop, in Japanese with English subtitles, which is currently streaming on Netflix. There is a 10-episode live-action adaptation, also on Netflix, but the trailer doesn’t give me the same vibe as the original.

3) In a World…:

Do you love movies? Do you enjoy making fun of movies you hate? Do you enjoy making fun of movies you love? Then Honest Trailers is the YouTube channel or you. Screen Junkies is the actual channel, but Honest Trailers is their primary stock in trade. An Honest Trailer is a combination mock-film trailer and movie take-down, perfect for all of us who understand that movies are not the kind of thing we should making death threats over. Some may think the channel is past its prime (at least, according to Deadpool), but I think they’ve still got it. Find out yourself, a new Honest Trailer is released every Tuesday.

4) Flipping Out:

I’ve been feeling nostalgic for pinball these days. I’ve always enjoyed pinball over video games, which I assume is a generational preference. I certainly spent time in video arcades, but wherever I came across a pinball machine that was my first choice. The evolution of pinball is a long and winding affair, tracing back to attempts to adapt outdoor games like bocce and croquet for indoor use. The first game that bears a clear resemblance to pinball machines was the18th century Billard japonais – a plunger with a coiled spring launched balls onto a wooden board covered with pins but no flippers, which didn’t come along until 1947. Pinball was associated with gambling at various times and was even banned in New York City from 1942 – 1976, a move imitated by other cities like Oakland and Chicago. I miss the physicality of pinball, the sounds and hands-on operation that can never be duplicated by a computer. Perhaps that makes me old-fashioned, but in this I’m okay with that.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend!

This post contains NO affiliate links. All suggestions are based on my own personal experience, your experience may vary. Nothing herein is intended to serve as medical, legal, financial, or any other advice for which you should consult professionals and not some random guy on the Internet.