The Power of Music Edition

Hello internet stranger,

The Weekly Click is a weekly (shocking, I know) updated list of interesting bits on the internet that I thought I’d share.

Happy clicking!

1. Do you need to feel happy? Watch this duo dance to Michael Jackson. You won’t be able to keep a smile off your face.

2. 25 great albums turning 50 in 2024. Lots of songs I still listen to here, but not many full albums.

3. Justin Hawkins, lead singer of The Darkness, has a YouTube channel called, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, where he reviews music and music happenings. It’s pretty great. He recently reviewed Ace Frehley’s new song “10,000 Volts” in his unique style. I’m glad he dug the song.

4. Florida governor Ron DeSantis ended his campaign and endorsed Trump just before the New Hampshire primary. Banning the dictionary and then getting endlessly mocked for your utter stupidity might have been a warning. Plus, those boots…

5. Katie Woo, writing for The Athletic, has a fantastic profile of the St. Louis Cardinals and the upcoming season. She talks about all the moves, all the issues of last year, and the tremendous pressure on skipper Oli Marmol. I don’t expect Marmol to return to the club next year and if the first 30 days of this upcoming season are horrendous, he’ll be relieved of his duties sooner.

6. Green Day: The Band That’s Been Charting America’s Burnout for Decades

7. "Nones," or the spiritually unaffiliated, are now the largest religious group in the United States. More of this, please.

8. Trolls have flooded X with graphic Taylor Swift AI fakes. Expect so much more of this in the next decade.

9. I BET THIS IS RELATED: Taylor Swift is driving voter registration, and conservatives are terrified. That seems on point.

10. Fifty movies turning 50 this year. 1974 was quite a year for movies.

11. The Fighting Illini football program will host a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Memorial Stadium’s dedication in 2024.

12. This video from Phil Edwards comes pretty close to nailing why the Stanley cups are so hot right now: it’s got a lot to do with savvy marketing and the CEO Stanley brought on in 2020.

13. Online piracy surges as viewers battle ‘subscription fatigue’. The answer is easy and it’s in the article: The streaming industry needs to converge towards a system where consumers can watch “pretty much everything they like for an affordable price.”

14. The right amount of toothpaste to use.

15. Einstein’s 7 rules for a better life.

16. Meet the ballpark chasers, an ambitious group of travelers who dedicate their summers—and often their lives—to seeking serenity in the grandstands. In terms of things to collect, I can think of worse obsessions than seeking to spend time at ballparks all around the country.

17. The wildest roller coasters in 2024.

18. Jeff Sheldon, founder of Ugmonk, with 38 things from 38 trips around the sun.

19. How to quit mindlessly surfing the internet and get stuff done. Sigh.

20. WWE Monday Night Raw is ditching cable for Netflix. This is a pretty big deal. It’s Netflix’s first big live TV deal. I wonder if the show will move into a hard R rating?

21. RELATED: Dwayne Johnson is joining the board of TKO Group, the sports and entertainment company that houses WWE and UFC. More importantly, he’s going to also own “The Rock” nickname. He always seems like a good guy.

22. Den of Geek ranks the Indiana Jones movies in the only possible sane order. It’s either utterly brilliant or incredibly lazy. I’m not sure which.

23. The worst Oscar snubs of 2024. As I understand it, those first four are really bad.

24. RELATED: Simon Dillon on the 2024 Oscars.

25. RELATED PART TWO: Where to stream all of the 2024 Oscar nominees, including Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers Of The Flower Moon

26. Tim Grierson has a great interview with Penn Jillette. I learned a couple of things I did not know.

27. Jon Stewart Returns to ‘Daily Show’ as Monday Host, Executive Producer. After months of guest hosts and pleas for help, Stewart will return to the desk on Mondays starting February 12. Other “reporters” will fill in the rest of the week. This is probably a good thing.

28. Gary Graham, Star Trek: Enterprise and Alien Nation star, passed away at 73. Sad. I always liked him.

29. Road House is getting a remake with Jake Gyllenhaal. It looks fun.

30. How to be alone with your thoughts.

Thanks for reading. If you like this potpourri of internet mélange and want to support it, forward it to someone who might like it, buy my books, or at the very least, let me know what you think. It is my hope you are enjoying my six-word stories or haiku here at the end.

Be seeing you.