Mini Board

Walmart doesn't know what's happening in my backyard

Madeline Vega

NOT HERE

Pulling all the weeds and dead flowers now to plant bulbs for next spring sounds great, except there are spider webs big enough to ensnare Betty and the raccoons are tearing up the yard in search of bulbs or anything that is not a cucumber. In the previous issue, Percy had his eye on a squirrel that liked to get into the bag of bird seed. Then the bag was ripped, seeds everywhere. I put seeds in plastic containers. Something tore open boxes to get to the seeds, flipped a garbage can, and dug up my strip of grass. This is more than some fat birds breaking their pole...

A giant spiderweb

Madeline Vega

I don't know what did this

Madeline Vega

Raccoons did this

Madeline Vega

I think raccoons did this, too

Madeline Vega

A fat Mourning Dove probably did this

Madeline Vega

CLEAN SWEEP

I don’t know if I ever watched the second or third Karate Kid movies. Say Ralph Macchio and I think of My Cousin Vinny. Luis announced Cobra Kai was out, and I thought he was talking about Snake Eyes again. I was not expecting a show about a washed up drunk—or that I would enjoy watching it so much.

Originally on YouTube Red, now on Netflix

Throughout the first season, I could not stop thinking of how Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) on How I Met Your Mother declared Johny (William Zabka) was the real karate kid. Cobra Kai seems to be a show based on the premise that Daniel (Macchio) was the bully. It’s extra fun because everyone is kind of an asshole. The writing isn’t very good, but the way it alternates between making fun of itself and trying to recreate moments from the first Karate Kid kept me happily bingeing.

I don’t normally talk about the writing on TV shows. There are things I definitely prefer to watch with captions so I don’t miss anything. Cobra Kai does not require captions... Before this, we were watching Umbrella Academy, GLOW, and The Boys—three shows where I was afraid to miss any clues of what might happen next. Our current mystery is what to watch next: finish the second season of Cobra Kai or start the second season of The Boys. Johnny wins.

hannisbrown.com

I HEAR THAT

“Hannis Brown also wrote our theme music, and it was performed by the Outer Borough Brass Band” is a phrase I think I’ve heard Kai Wright say a hundred times at the end of “The United States of Anxiety, a podcast about the unfinished business of our history and its grip on our future, produced by WNYC Studios” (that I listen to at *not* double speed). Brown is a composer, focused on scoring and sound design for radio. “WNYC” appears 28 times on his select bio. I think Trump, Inc. was the first place I heard his name, but to really experience the magic of his ability to set the tone, go listen to the series Caught or the episode The United State of Anxiety: Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business (at not double speed). To jump straight into Brown’s music, visit https://www.hannisbrown.com/selected-music--multimedia.html