* We started out this week with some watch talk that may or may not be SFW, depending on your physiological reaction to things such as the Patek Philippe Constellation.
So what I really want to do is go write a longform piece about Baselworld, which is, as I say, the Comic Con of watches. You can get a flavor for it here, or here.
If you’re into watches and care to weigh in on the question of the Grand Seiko Snowflake versus the Hi-Beat 3600, I’m all ears. Go ahead and tweet at me. I’m all ears.
* About orangutans: Here’s some video of the O-Line at the National Zoo, in which orangutans can cross from one section of the park to another above the humans. What could possibly go wrong!
* Pirates of the Caribbean is now the 15th highest-grossing franchise of all time. It’s done $4 billion worth of business worldwide and will probably move into the #11 spot a few weeks from now. Why? Because audiences are garbage and capitalism doesn’t work. #BernieBro
* Two points about the Baywatch movie that I didn’t get to during the show:
First, as ridiculous as this sounds, I was genuinely pleased at how Kelly Rohrbach got the CJ character right. The trick of why Pam Anderson’s Baywatch turn made her such a star was that she was the hottest thing on the planet, but she played her character as a totally normal girl-next-door. That dissonance was great, and funny, and charming—and Rohrbach hits makes that same chord sing. That was kind of nice. A better version of the script would have given her more to do.
Second, throughout the movie I couldn’t stop wondering why the film moved the setting from real-world Los Angeles County to a fictional place called Emerald Bay. That was weird enough, but to make it worse, Emerald Bay is clearly somewhere in Florida and has a very Miami vibe.
It’s such a weird choice that there must be an interesting reason behind it.
* As always, you can download the episode here and subscribe to the Substandard on iTunes or on Google Play.
Every five-star review inches me closer to the next watch.
