Friday Ephemera

Test footage from Attack of the Giant Grandma. || At last, a pedestal for your glasses. || One for the ladies. || His black car is blacker than your black car. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || He does this better than you. || Get woke, go broke. || Today’s word is suboptimal. || The politics of button replacement. || Mountain King makeover. || Kite of note. || Arctic scenes. || Adventures in the fourth dimension. || Opportunity detected. || Something error happen. || How to make a small sword. || Mystery solved. || Interspecies scenes. (h/t, Damian) || Stayin’ Alive. || Effects pedal colour chart. (h/t, Things) || Fiddlesome trees. || Wasps versus drone, flamethrower. || And finally, satisfy your hunger for experimental jazz.

Comments

[pst314]

Something error happen.

Software error or hardware error? :-)

[pst314]

Just about as ephemeral as anything can be:

"Finally, I asked him to consider that the single biggest corporation - with a monopoly on force and no fear of consequences for almost anything it might do - was Government Inc. It seemed for a moment that realization flickered in his eyes... Just a moment, though."

[Felicity]

Attack of the Giant Grandma.

This troupe came to my outpost several years ago. To say it is an amazing show is an understatement - street theatre writ in the largest format you can imagine. It turned the city in to a street party for two days. I would travel a long way to see another show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhm7mk2oJE4

[Steve E]

At last, a pedestal for your glasses.

Gotta get me one of those to go with this*:

*I really do, actually have one.

[Lord of the Fleas]

At last, a pedestal for your glasses.

Groucho, we hardly knew ye...

[John D]

His black car is blacker than your black car.

That's incredible.

[Connor]

Mountain King makeover.

Much better than I was expecting. Is it on Spotify?

[JuliaM]

"One for the ladies."

*fires up PayPal*

[David]

Morning, all.

street theatre writ in the largest format you can imagine.

It does look fun. Performance art that doesn’t induce eye-rolling or feelings of cultural despair.

Much better than I was expecting.

It has a certain… something. Duke Ellington also did a version, though his was a rather, um, looser interpretation.

[David]

*fires up PayPal*

Heh. And this is my shocked face. But will 3.38 ounces get you through a meeting?

[MarcusZ1967]

His black car is blacker than your black car

I always liked the look of goth girls.... Now you hook me up with a goth CAR????.

[David]

I always liked the look of goth girls....

I’ll just leave this here.

[Liz]

Duke Ellington also did a version,

And Madness.

[George]

I'll just leave this here.

Gosh, that girl Anna Eriksson in the comments clearly takes that stuff terribly seriously...

[Karen M]

Opportunity detected.

Animals.

[David]

Animals.

Not ideal new-neighbour material, I think it’s safe to say.

[MarcusZ1967]

I always liked the look of goth girls....

I’ll just leave this here.

Whelp... seems I missed the boat... (in more than one way)

[asiaseen]

Don't neglect your blackheads.
Viewer discretion advised
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLzF0PTrwE4&feature=youtu.be

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Mountain King makeover.

In the same vein, day by day makeover of The 12 Days of Christmas. Day 11 is tasty.

[David]

Day 11 is tasty.

My tolerance of jazz noodling was well and truly exceeded.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

My tolerance of jazz noodling was well and truly exceeded.

Philistine, all of it is better than the repetitious blandness of the original. Meanwhile, I will leave you with a first world problem.

[Killer Marmot]

I know what color I'm going to paint my body armour for my next antifa rally.

[David]

Philistine, all of it is better than the repetitious blandness of the original.

The original is not a favourite of mine, it has to be said, and a couple of tracks in my current playlist do include traces of what could be called jazz noodling. But a little noodling goes an awfully long way, I find. There does come a point, usually quite soon, at which one wonders what earthly purpose is being served.

[David]

Meanwhile, I will leave you with a first world problem.

Ah yes, the intersectional politics of nipple hue.

[ComputerLabRat]

The politics of button replacement.

Ye gods is there anything they won't politicize?
Has the NY Times never heard of tailors? Weren't they mostly men? Heck - they've even got a famous street - Savile Row. Men have been sewing, professionally, at least, for ages. In this age of cheap, mass-produced, off the rack clothing, nobody sews much anymore, not even women.

[Jonathan]

His black car is blacker than your black car.

That's weirdly disconcerting. I wonder what it would look like IRL?

[Captain Nemo]

"Older populations are whiter... We can start to level the playing field"

Not at all concerning*: https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/1339924261667004422

*sarcasm

[David]

That’s weirdly disconcerting.

If it came in the form of body paint, it’d be great for Hallowe’en.

[WTP]

Meanwhile, I will leave you with a first world problem.

Or can't see the sarcasm for the tease? Or something. I am beginning to believe that one day....now this is probably a bit far past our time here...but maybe not...one day a war will be started because both sides took each other's sarcasm seriously. And THAT my friends (and Mr. Fukuyama) will be the real "end of history".

[Jonathan]

But a little noodling goes an awfully long way, I find.

All noodling, whether jazz or prog, should be a criminal offence.

[pst314]

If it came in the form of body paint, it’d be great for Hallowe’en.

But racist. ;-)

[Darleen]

More white people need to die ... cuz fairness.

[pst314]

Still, it would be fun to own fuligin clothing.

[Governor Squid]

...one wonders what earthly purpose is being served.

Way back in the mists of time (somewhere in the mid-90s), our local morning radio DJs had a feature they called "no apologies" where they'd torture the Twin Cities' morning commuters with some awful single. Sometimes the songs were so-bad-they're-good; sometimes they were just sonic torture.

One morning, they played the Salieri remix of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus. All eight and a half minutes of it. That was the plan, anyway.

It was too much, even for Brian and Steve. Sometime around the 7-minute mark, the song fades out and Brian comes on the microphone, saying "I'm sorry folks, but I can't do it any more. Trust me -- it just gets more pompous and self-indulgent for another minute and a half."

Steve added that the song seemed like a fantastic idea when they came up with it, but they just weren't prepared for the experience of sitting through it in real life.

At any rate, for nigh on 25 years now, the lovely bride and I trot out "Trust me, it just gets more pompous and self-indulgent" any time our patience is tested by an artist. Unsurprisingly, it usually comes up in the context of jazz.

[Steve E]

His black car is blacker than your black car.

Black Cars look better in the shade.

[David]

but they just weren’t prepared for the experience of sitting through it in real life.

There’s something to be said for economy as an aesthetic variable. I’m reminded of the full version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which rambles on forever with needless and tiresome repetition, and dissipates the charm of the much more concise version that most people know.

[Nikw211]

Get woke, go broke

The only surprise is that it didn't come sooner.

Somewhat unexpectedly, here's a look at some of the miscreants responsible in their home environment.

[Nikw211]

For many of us, the task at hand is to stay Black and live. For others, it's time to bankrupt your privilege in acknowledgement of your thieved inheritance. Sure, do whatever you do in order to sleep at night, but also - consider who you want to be when the morning light finds you.

And if that sounds a tad melodramatic, or at least more than a little question-begging.

I want to draw attention to how school officials like Gordeuk and Fields - regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity - "spirit murder" (Love,2013) the souls of Black children every day through systemic, institutionalized, anti-Black, state-sanctioned violence.

More in the vein of the same “The horror! The horror!” here

[David]

And if that sounds a tad melodramatic, or at least more than a little question-begging

They. Are. Poison.

[Steve E]

Dr. Schmidt tells us:

Instead of giving add'l health benefits to those who already had them, we (emphasis mine) can start to level the playing field a bit.

And of course by "we" old Harald means "he" as in Schmidt himself. Why is it that when these guys set out to assuage their guilt someone else pays the price?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...For many of us, the task at hand is to stay Black and live. For others, it's time to bankrupt your privilege...

There is always too much yte privilege.

However, to some Black disability rights activists, like Anita Cameron, Helen Keller is not radical at all, “just another, despite disabilities, privileged white person,” and yet another example of history telling the story of privileged white Americans.

There does come a point, usually quite soon, at which one wonders what earthly purpose is being served...

Unsurprisingly, it usually comes up in the context of jazz.

I am surrounded by nekulturny...

[David]

I am surrounded by nekulturny...

And you’re getting this now…?

[Captain Nemo]

Jazz isn't humorous. It just sounds funny.

[anon a mouse]

Older populations are whiter..

Indeed. There was a time when some might, well, aspire to appear "white".

Today, of course, we are more enlightened, and more must appear "not white". It's for the children/world/climate/fillintheblank.

[WTP]

Older populations are whiter..

Kill off the old whites? That's rather short-sighted. They're going about this all wrong. Obviously the solution to all this disparity is for whites to have fewer fathers in the home, to promote violence in the white youth community, and to encourage white people, especially young white people, to engage in risky behaviors. Especially those involving drugs, alcohol, and kinky/promiscuous sex and such. See Two Girls One Cup. Wait a minute...

[WTP]

Re Jazz Noodling...I have a few Coltrane CD's on my iPod (yes, that old). Greatly enjoy most of them but somewhere along the way I picked up one where in nearly every tune he trends toward annoying noodling. I had a roommate in college who was a Jamaaladeen Tacuma fan, so years ago I was a bit inured to it. Having not heard that CD come up in a while, and given my current raw nerves disposition, it that CD came up while we were going somewhere the other night. Awful stuff. Heroin is an awful drug. Which of course ties into my post above here.

[Daniel Ream]

One morning, they played the Salieri remix of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus.

Hey, I had this single when I was a teenager.

Is it bad that I like it?

[David]

Hey, I had this single when I was a teenager.

[ Wheels out comfy chair, footstool, bag of knitting. ]

[Daniel Ream]

bag of knitting

Not since the arthritis, dearie.

[David]

I swear, this place is turning into a 1980s Werther’s Original advert.

[pst314]

The Sorrows of Old Werther's?

[Darleen]

Flicker of sanity in UK.

[NTSOG]

re Opportunity detected: Aren't looters required to wait for some black 'colleague', usually a violent criminal, to be shot by police before the 'game' starts or are there different rules in South Africa?

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

It was too much, even for Brian and Steve.

Listening to the opening, I was thinking: "That's not too bad. I've heard much worse."

About the 2 minute mark, the guy breaks in reading a chronology of Mozart's life.

I bailed. I know when I'm licked.

[TimT]

Mountain King makeover.

Doesn’t quite do it for me - they get a good groove going but then the orchestration is exactly the same as the original. After a few crescendos even the added percussion- drums, marimba - drops out. I kept on waiting for a sax solo or something like that. Must check out the Ellington version!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Jazz isn't humorous. It just sounds funny.

Worse than heathens. Perhaps this will be more up your collective head bangers alley.

[Steve E]

Someone redubbed a scene from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with Tom Cruise's mask rant. Hilarious!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Via Ace, many uses of face masks.

[pst314]

many uses of face masks.

Some people should be ostracized.

[Cloudbuster]

Get woke, go broke.

Frankly, it's surprising to me that no business owner in Seattle or Portland simply had enough, snapped, loaded himself down with spare magazines and started mowing down every Antifa or BLM protestor in sight. If I was on the jury, I'd vote to acquit.

[semi retired conservative]

"I know when I'm licked"

Posted by: Uma Thurmond's Feet

Synchronicity. And gag.

[Jerryskids]

Noodling of note.

[Sam Duncan]

“Mountain King makeover.”

I once recorded a version of that for a (mercifully) unreleased remake of Manic Miner. This one is, shall we say... better.

“In the same vein, day by day makeover of The 12 Days of Christmas.”

Alternatively... (Warning: Not Safe For... well, anywhere much.)

“All eight and a half minutes of it.”

Pfft. (And that's the short version. The single droned went on for forty minutes.)

“Listening to the opening, I was thinking: "That's not too bad. I've heard much worse."

About the 2 minute mark, the guy breaks in reading a chronology of Mozart's life.

I bailed. I know when I'm licked.”

I know what you mean, but it actually turned quite bearable - in patches - about four minutes in, I thought. I even began to enjoy it. A bit.

[Killer Marmot]

Woke Person (signing): Helen, you benefit from white privilege.
Helen Keller (signing): What is this "white" you speak of?

[Daniel Ream]

The Sorrows of Old Werther's?

Because you asked.

[Richard Cranium]

@Killer Marmot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8

Ms. Keller could speak, albeit not well. (That fact that her speech was fairly comprehensible is mind-boggling to me; those who are deaf can see the way lips move.)

If there's a "killjoy" or "talk about missing the joke" emoticon, feel free to attach that to any reply you might make.

[Nikw211]

They. Are. Poison.

Yes, quite.

A point I was reminded of recently by this Guardian headline: "Most child sexual abuse gangs made up of white men, Home Office report says".

There are just so many questions that spring to mind about that headline and the Home Office report from which it's been taken.

Probably chief of which are: Why are they apparently so convinced that some 85% of the UK's population is a mere headline a way from resurrecting Mosley's British Union of Fascists?

What could possibly have convinced them of that?

And what does it reveal about the utter contempt in which they must hold the vast majority of the British public?

To think so little of so many people must have a root cause somewhere?

Also, presumably, the same people who were stunned and dismayed at the result of the 2016 Referendum and again at the 2019 general election - as if these were black swan events that came out of nowhere - are now trusting that the anger at that headline (and the report behind it) will just somehow blow over as soon as the next series of Britain's Got Talent or Love Island comes on.

And they think we are the dumb ones?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Re: Helen Keller and Time - it appears they were plagiarizing the great Titania McGrath who back in March 2019 wrote the below in her groundbreaking book, "Woke"...

The actual "woke" have truly become a parody of themselves.

[Ted S, Catskill Mtns, NY, USA]

Way back in the mists of time (somewhere in the mid-90s), our local morning radio DJs had a feature they called "no apologies" where they'd torture the Twin Cities' morning commuters with some awful single. Sometimes the songs were so-bad-they're-good; sometimes they were just sonic torture.

Dear Mr. Jesus

[Ted S, Catskill Mtns, NY, USA]

I swear, this place is turning into a 1980s Werther’s Original advert.

What's next?

[Mags]

I swear, this place is turning into a 1980s Werther’s Original advert.

I was thinking it's more like this.

https://youtu.be/E7bGzlth_6s

[pst314]

Because you asked.

Bad link. My sorrows increase.

[pst314]

What's next?

Ha! I'd forgotten that hilarious satire.

[pst314]

Re: Helen Keller and Time - it appears they were plagiarizing the great Titania McGrath...

Is this an example of "naming calls"?

[Y. Knott]

Kite of note.

- not really a kite, but... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gM0dqZ_nuc

[David]

This just in.

Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.

[pst314]

Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.

One more reason to be cautious when walking by a mosque.

[Jonathan]

@ Nikw211:

A point I was reminded of recently by this Guardian headline: "Most child sexual abuse gangs made up of white men, Home Office report says".

There are just so many questions that spring to mind about that headline and the Home Office report from which it's been taken.

A decent Fisking of the report.

It is, quite literally, a whitewash. It uses all the standard statistical tricks to avoid concluding a stark and glaring conclusion, which is otherwise plain to see. That there was a sustained, targeted and focussed attack by Pakistani men on white working class and Sikh girls.

via Julia

(tl;dr: it's bulls**t)

[pst314]

A decent Fisking of the report.

Thank you, Jonathan. Excellent. I was just about to post that link.

[Jonathan]

Thank you, Jonathan. Excellent.

Thank you! ( Tips Fedora, falls down open manhole)

I read the Report and could tell it was disingenuous, to say the least, but couldn't articulate why anything like as well as Katya has done.

[Steve E]

This just in.

It's been said that knotty pine can cause the same effect.

[Darleen]

Ah! Here it is ... 2020's theme song ;)

[Darleen]

Maybe we should rethink this female cop thing.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Maybe we should rethink this female cop thing.

As if the taser wasn't bad enough...

One of the officers kicks the man several times in the groin area.

OTOH, that answers the question from the other day about why those ninja guys were practicing getting kicked in the 'nads. However, I thought Alberta was supposed to be one of the saner provinces:

According to the Alberta government website: "Outdoor team sports must also be limited to 10 people or fewer and 2 metre distancing must be maintained at all times."

Right, so competitive team formation flying is OK, but other than that, not too sure what sports are left where team members are always less than 6 feet 6.75 inches apart.

[Steve E]

However, I thought Alberta was supposed to be one of the saner provinces:

The mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, wouldn't be out-of-place running Portland. Like everywhere else the cities are controlled by woke lefties in Canada. In fact, his bona fides make him eligible to run the leftiest of left cities. He was the first muslim mayor of a large North American city.

Earlier in the pandemic, the mayor of the City of Brampton was discovered to be playing a pick-up game of hockey, breaking his own by-laws. When the cops arrived, they arrested the reporter who made the discovery while the mayor skated the charges. Rules for thee but none for me.

[WTP]

Just visited the Florida National Cemetery to put out a few Christmas wreaths on veterans' graves, including my father's. The problem lies not with the year 2020, but with the people living the year 2020. 2020 will soon be gone. The same worthless boomers, gen xer's, and millennials will be with us in 2021 and beyond. Of course there's a chance some of them might begin to get a clue....bwahahaha...right.

[Daniel Ream]

Bad link. My sorrows increase.

Well, don't kill yourself or anything.

[pst314]

Well, don't kill yourself or anything.

You got my reference! I am filled with joy! [Doffs yellow waistcoat and returns it to closet. Cancels Amazon order for two lime tree saplings.]

[Dom]

If you guys like Luca S. on guitar, you’ll really like Andy McKee.

https://youtu.be/Ddn4MGaS3N4

[David]

Yes, quite.

Speaking of poison.

This, then, is what happens when your entire worldview is premised on a denial of the obvious.

Readers will note just how often the institutions being denounced by leftists as “structurally racist,” egregiously oppressive and generally ruinous are those that are staffed all but entirely by leftists, and are run by leftists, and have been for decades, and in which leftist dogma is propagated relentlessly and with negligible opposition.

[John Lewis]

Contemporary British Carol

Verse
We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Chorus
Glad tidings we bring

2nd Verse
Bring us some figgy pudding

3rd Verse
Where is the figgy pudding

4th Verse
Immediate threat of collective action by public sector if figgy pudding isn’t served

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

... and in which leftist dogma is propagated relentlessly and with negligible opposition.

Schnikes, you have to read the whole thing in big type.

Expand the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to include at least 12 full-time positions: one Director, one Office Assistant, three full-time staff members per division, and one full-time staff member for PE/Athletics.

I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that that individual will not ensure the basketball team has exactly one Black, one Yte, one Asian, one Latin, and one "Native" American, two of each and a "transgender" for the football team, and so on - for the diversity and inclusion, you know.

The previous few weeks have been a stark reminder that Black students and students of color do not receive the same educational experience as their white peers. For some of these students, the benefits of attending Dalton are undermined by otherness, exclusion, and trauma.

So you are saying your 54,000 frogskins/year school sucks for non wypipo students*. Good to know.

*(Offer may not apply to Asians)

[David]

So you are saying your 54,000 frogskins/year school sucks for non wypipo students*. Good to know.

The words that came to mind were pernicious grifters.

[JuliaM]

Darleen: ’ Ah! Here it is ... 2020's theme song ;)’

Superb!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The words that came to mind were pernicious grifters.

That too, though I am still working with the concept of how a BAME BIPOC LSMFTBLT± student going to a school that normally sets someone back 79% of the average US household income is either exclusionary or traumatic.

It is unclear whether this is a picture of a classroom, or the teacher's lounge.

[Squires]

It is, quite literally, a whitewash.

The web tells the presence of the spider.

More detail:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-home-office-s-grooming-report-is-an-exercise-in-obfuscation/amp?__twitter_impression=true

[David]

It is unclear whether this is a picture of a classroom, or the teacher’s lounge.

In a saner world, these clowns would be laughed out of every meeting, every classroom, and directed towards the nearest unemployment benefits office. Here, however, they thrive and multiply.

[pst314]

Expand the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to include at least 12 full-time positions

That comes to one diversity officer (kommissar) for every 100 students. (Enrollment is about 1300.) Who knew that an overwhelmingly liberal-to-far-left group of students and teachers needed so much supervision of thought and speech?

[asiaseen]

54,000 frogskins/year school

When I saw that the school had over 100 faculty* and staff I thought that must be one hell of a big school. Then I looked at the list of those who signed the wishlist and there don't seem to be all that many actual teachers amongst them.
Remarkably they have an Archaeologist in Residence. Presumably the school wil now have to have at least One White One, One Black One and One Brown One...(which may remind some of a bawdy rugby song)

* according to Wiki the faculty alone is over 250 with an 8:1 student/faculty ratio.

[pst314]

That too, though I am still working with the concept of how a BAME BIPOC LSMFTBLT± student going to a school that normally sets someone back 79% of the average US household income is either exclusionary or traumatic.

FYI, the school has an annual financial aid budget of about $6 million, so there is some provision for talented children whose parents cannot afford the tuition. Not that this detracts in any way from your observation that people who can afford the tuition cannot be regarded as "marginalized" or "oppressed".