brainwise
mastodon
4.5.8
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @brainwise@mas.to on the bird app.
Posts
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Action Comics #1 was published on April 18th, 1938*... 88 years ago today!
Several characters debuted within that issue's 68 pages. Most notably, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster's strange visitor from another world, Superman, made his first appearance. It was the lead-off story, taking up the first 12 pages.
So, happy publication day Superman. You're looking swell, you big blue boy scout!
*cover date of June 1938
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
The Friday #80s Flashback has a two-fer of 40-year-old records featuring two bands that could not be more different. It's Judas Priest with TURBO and Cocteau Twins with VICTORIALAND. #music
https://bookendedbycats.blogspot.com/2026/04/friday-80s-flashback-for-april-17-2026.html
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Annual post: April 17 is BAT APPRECIATION DAY! Bats Are Cool!
Bats 101:
https://www.batcon.org/about-bats/bats-101/
Bat Appreciation Day on National Day Calendar:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/international-bat-appreciation-day-april-17/
Help bats!
https://www.batcon.org/
Nat Geo Kids: Things You Wanna Know – Bats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBCODnTUOrY&ab_channel=NatGeoKids
Image description: Frans de Waal's photo of a bat mom.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
“You can actually use sound to listen to the soil, and get an indication of soil health, based on the little critters moving around...”
// How Can You Tell If Soil Is Healthy? Just Listen to It. //
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/healthy-soil-sounds
Image: Researchers at Flinders University in Australia use sound to study soil health. (Credit: Traci Klarenbeek Via Grist)
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Make music, not war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaKrmYwaOkk
1 hour of Iranian Jazz -- "Contemplative but not paralyzed. Persian melodies navigate through jazz chord changes like picking through debris to find what's still intact, still valuable, still worth saving. For moments of processing change, creative reconstruction, or when you need music that understands: yes, things fell apart. No, that's not the end of the story. 🎵🕊️"
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Have you subscribed to the Bad Astronomy newsletter? The latest one has Phil talking about a JWST image of NGC 5134, using real AI to find galaxies, and whether we should mine asteroids (he was interviewed about space rocks for the Science Stuff podcast).
https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=LwfK0kGqWm
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
"Why does this man have a light bulb instead of a head?"
[Lightbulb head man advertisement for the Environments series of albums by Irv Teibel; circa 1970s.]
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
7 insanely fast versions of The Flight of the Bumblebee
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/rimsky-korsakov/guides/flight-of-the-bumblebee-videos/
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
The Moody Blues are featured on this week's Friday #80s Flashback. 40 years ago this week, they released their 12th studio album, THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE, which included the top 10 hit, "Your Wildest Dreams". #music https://bookendedbycats.blogspot.com/2026/04/friday-80s-flashback-for-april-10-2026.html
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Starting in 1989, Aadam Jacobs secretly recorded over 10,000 local concerts -- from early Nirvana to Phish. Now, they have been made available to listen to for free online.
Story via Block Club Chicago: https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/10/from-early-nirvana-to-phish-a-chicago-fans-secret-recordings-of-10000-shows-are-now-online/
Link to the collection: https://archive.org/details/@aadam_jacobs_collection
Image: AP photo of Aadam Jacobs in front of his record storage bookcase.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Pour one out for Afrika Bambaataa, dead At 67.
I first heard of him when he teamed with John Lydon for "World Destruction" by Time Zone, which I previously featured in an #80s Flashback: https://bookendedbycats.blogspot.com/2020/06/friday-80s-flashback-for-june-5-2020.html
Stereogum post: https://stereogum.com/2495346/afrika-bambaataa-dead-at-67/news
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
“It Takes a Village” is one Irish town's experiment with a voluntary ban on smart devices for preteen children. The program's purpose is to let kids just be kids for a while longer, and to help them ease into the digital future instead of being swallowed up by it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/realestate/ireland-cell-phones-children.html#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20Irish%20seaside,with%20workshops%20and%20social%20events
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.
Awesome | Bearded | Coffee Drinker. MDiv, Interfaith minister, & former theater techie. Pagan. Heathen. Comics, pop-culture, & 80s tunes. 1/2 of BookendedByCats.com. (he/him). I'm also @ brainwise on the bird app.