RenoVous

  Laura Dern Rooney Mara Jonathan Bailey Phoebe Waller-Bridge Nicola Peltz-Beckham Maggie Gyllenhall Pamela Anderson Sydney Sweeney These next two are ALMOST.... Robert Pattinson needed better shoes. And John Malkovich needed a better suit for his collar.

A man bought what he thought was a poorly taxidermied fox head.  It was only 50 quid, and he thought it was funny.  When he later sold it at auction for 1,000 times what he paid, he realized he may have had something else entirely. In fact, it's a thylacine.  An extinct carnivorous marsupial, commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger. As European settlers arrived, they were considered a pest to livestock, and the government offered bounties on them.  The last known individual died in a zoo in September 1936.  Scans confirm the skull is intact, and the forehead overstuffed.

  Near Lahontan and Fort Churchill, along the Carson River, a new state park is being opened. Earlier in August they released some names to be chosen from, and they'll announce the winner in the fall.  So they posted the above sign for now.  ^_^ Naming The land was privately owned for over 150 years, and includes portions of the California Trail as well as the Pony Express Trail. An historic ranching property, it also housed a divorce ranch in the 1940's. So you can see, it covers many aspects of Nevada history. And of course, protects wildlife habitats.

  The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival in 1972, also known as the Bull Island Rock Festival, was a chaotic three day event that ended in fire and a few deaths. The promoters expected a crowd of 50,000 but they got 200,000.  Many bands pulled out of performing as the festival drifted into anarchy.  There was a total lack of sanitation and infrastructure.  Food, water, and security were in short supply from day one. The festival was originally planned to be held in Chandler, as the ticket states, but at the last minute local health officials blocked the event.  Crews had almost no time to relocate. And then there were heavy rains, which turned the entire campground into a disease-ridden mud pit.  The weather caused dangerous currents in the Wabash River, and three people drowned. On the final day, the remaining crowd rioted and burned the main stage to the ground. Due to these conditions, quality video of any performance is extremely rare.  Acts who stuck ar...

 Finished this one over the weekend, just in time for the library to call about The Master and Margarita, so I'll be picking that up today. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  was a curse across time, and a theme often mentioned, "Ideas are wilder than memories." She learns how to work her way in despite her curse, and then there's a surprise towards the end.  We don't get the romantic happy ending, but she gets something out of it. So yeah, I'll be starting Bulgakov tomorrow and if others are on board, we may read together - at our own pace, of course, but with a follow up thread to discuss as we go.

  Maisie Williams plays one of Sandra Bullock's daughters in this second installment, and she's been wearing throwbacks to the first red carpets. Also nice to Dianne Wiest. And Stockard Channing.