Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

This blog will pay for itself.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Fight them, without becoming them!

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Physical Graffiti

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    Punchy

    I suspect Cole +8……at the very least.

    That said, that song is the shizzle. The entire album is unprecedented.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    @Punchy: I was going to demand a + report, but I think I’m gonna just sit back and enjoy the last hour of this crappy decade.

  3. 3.

    Face

    I about cried when I saw Dick Clark and his clearly stroke-induced problems. Maybe others were ready for this, but I sure wasn’t. Holy effin shit did it shock me.

  4. 4.

    JGabriel

    Les Zeppelin. It is good.

    I think you need another ‘s’ after ‘Les’.

    (Sorry, Zep just brings back bad memories of slow dances and rejection at high school dances.)

    .

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Led Zeppelin. It is good.

    Oh, sure. Silently correct the typo and make the rest of us look stupid. Like we can’t do that on our own.

    Wait, what?

    .

  9. 9.

    peach flavored shampoo

    Les Zeppelin

    You spelled “Claypool” with a Z, for some reason. Typo, bizzitch.

  10. 10.

    bruins01

    This single, freewheeling lifestyle is great until you’re alone in your apartment on New Years Eve because you have a bad cold.

    bruins01 +3 doses of NyQuil.

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    Happy New Year, RedKitten! Cheer up, you’re still in better shape than John will be in a few hours. I’m thinking this will be the day when Lily finds out how much Cole really cares about her, and hopefully it won’t involve being held out a window & told to aim carefully b/c himself can’t find his shoes to go walkies…

  14. 14.

    John O

    John will do his dog duty.

    *rolling eyes*

    Some people just don’t get it…

    It doesn’t take long. You take care of the dog, and climb back into bed, both happy and content, assuming John is coherent enough to pee/poo, too.

  16. 16.

    John O

    Been listening to tunes for much of the night…

    “…still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

    Yeah, yeah, but I’ve been listening to other stuff, too.

  19. 19.

    Morbo

    @Chuck Butcher: Ha, that was my activity from about 12:10 til a few minutes ago. It’s a lot more like what I wanted the original to be (as opposed to what it was). Throwing archers off rooftops never gets old.

  23. 23.

    OriGuy

    This is the first time in a while that I’ve stayed home on New Year’s Eve. It sounds like a war zone out there (East San Jose). I’m hoping what I hear are just illegal fireworks and not firearms. I don’t need to have a bullet coming through the roof.

  24. 24.

    MelodyMaker

    ya know-a-wo-a-wo! that’s right.

    Cole does LZ too! I knew I liked him for some reason besides that big white bastard on the futon.

  27. 27.

    Mike G

    It sounds like a war zone out there (East San Jose). I’m hoping what I hear are just illegal fireworks and not firearms.

    My peaceful ‘burb sounded like Beirut for about five minutes. But it mostly sounded like fireworks and not celebratory gunfire. Dunno why, but much more than previous years.

    New Year’s Day – U2
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoAChL_scxA&feature=related

  29. 29.

    burnspbesq

    Happy New Year, y’all. Hope it brings you everything you need to be healthy and happy.

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    Fascinating tale meaning nothing: I ask my brother if he would like a milkshake, and he grumbles sure. (He grumbles a lot, but that’s another story.) We head off in my car to Jack-in-the-Box (open 24 hours), machine is down for cleaning. Decide to head for the 24 hour McDonald’s. THEIR machine is not working. Neither of us feel like going to Denny’s and sitting down so I grabbed some churros and call it a night. I hope this isn’t some strange omen for the new year.

  32. 32.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Oh it could have. Grandpa could be in office and there could be Republican supermajorities in Congress again. We could be in the throes of a depression that makes the Great one look like a cakewalk. Plus we could all be unemployed and starving with little to no hope of the wars ever ending with a third invasion in Iran. So yeah we’re doing better.

  33. 33.

    MelodyMaker

    MM+4 is celebrating 14 years since I adopted my first kitty. She was in the Golden Valley Humane Society jail genpop long enough to be close to mercy killing. They don’t fuck around.
    And she’s sitting in my lap.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Okay there yeah you have to do better. Look around at where you are now. In an exotic (well to us) locale enjoying fascinating foods and you’re still checking in with us at the speed of light. It really is a remarkable age.

  38. 38.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Don’t make me tickle you. Or even worse use the power of Tunch to get you cheery again. Maybe we should get a hold of your brother and get you ot eating street food again.

  39. 39.

    MelodyMaker

    in fairness, I think the HS system has become somewhat less brutal since 1995. But now I have three torties and well…

  40. 40.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I’ve been busy setting up a Left4Dead2 dedicated server, the daughter and friends are drinking and testing it out now. Nice way to start the year, killing zombies in the South. ;)

    Done blowing up the ‘hood, them mortars is real purty! I am sure the three cops that live around us didn’t mind the show too much. ;)

    I am sure the crappy weather helped to keep them at bay. :)

    Oh, and Happy New Year!

  42. 42.

    MelodyMaker

    Pictures at an Exhibition (the live ELP album) has been in my head since I was a little kid. Studied the Картинки с выставки texts and cranked them out on my parents piano. Then I decided to just play bass– until someone loaned me a Gibson Melody Maker.

  43. 43.

    robertdsc

    /stops in from playing Modern Warfare 2 through the turn of the clock

    I never really liked Led Zeppelin. Their music doesn’t catch my ear in any way.

  44. 44.

    MelodyMaker

    I never really liked the Grateful Dead. Their music doesn’t catch my ear in any way.

    edit:
    -not mocking. just like the frame

  45. 45.

    ==-+

    Led Zeppelin. It is good.

    Led Zeppelin makes the baby Jesus weep with joy. And that my friend is one of their best songs.

    ==-+ (looks around…) + some obscene number…

    May you all have a wonderful and lovely year.

  46. 46.

    ==-+

    @robertdsc:

    I never really liked Led Zeppelin. Their music doesn’t catch my ear in any way.

    You heritic…you…commie…you…um…um…TEABAGGER.

  47. 47.

    J. Michael Neal

    I spent all afternoon, and part of the evening, applying for jobs. I’m not sure that there is a more loathsome way to spend one’s time. I would rather pull out my own fingernails than hunt for a job, and, unlike most people, I have actually pulled out my own fingernails, so I can make an informed comparison.

  49. 49.

    ==-+

    Oh and John Bonham is the greatest rock drummer of all time. No dissenting views will be tolerated on this statement.

    Proof That’s a single kik

  50. 50.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ruckus: Nope, I’m just a good listener who grew up in a working-class Irish-American family. You ever watch the TV show Rescue Me? That’s what passes among my people for a documentary.

  52. 52.

    oldhat

    Led Zepplin did a great job ripping off riffs illiterate black bluesmen from the Mississippi delta had been playing for 40 years and marketing them to suburban teenegers as “rock” in the 1970s.

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    I will be tolerant of people who don’t get Led Zep.

    Perhaps one had to be there, immersed in the radio sounds of the time, to grok how rad Led Zep was. This isn’t even touching on their stage show, mind you.

    Just as one cannot understand the impact of Elvis without grasping that he appeared in the midst of The Pat Boone Sound.

    Then you get it.

  60. 60.

    ReNewMan

    happy new year, people!

    I was buying strangers drinks in a bar at 5am last night! So wasted, I see a full beer at my desk that I left the bar with, what a night, in bed still at 2.30pm and no plans to get out but to eat at some point.

    And if we’re talking Zeppelin, the early live stuff is where it’s at and How Many More Times and the Lemon Song are two of my favorites.

  63. 63.

    A Mom Anon

    Well,Happy 2010,you crazy ass people. I hope everyone has a better and happier year,that last one wasn’t so fab.

    I lead such an exciting life that I was in bed asleep well before midnight. The Husband woke me up with a kiss on the cheek at that time,I mumbled something barely coherent and then fell back asleep. Yes,I am the Queen of Adventure.

  65. 65.

    demkat620

    Good morning! And isn’t it a lovely morning!

    Three harps, no hangover and a Dr. Who Marathon all day.

    I’m good. How about you?

  66. 66.

    mr. whipple

    Led Zeppelin. It is good.

    If you don’t mind me asking, what are you listening through?

  69. 69.

    bemused

    We haven’t left the house for several years on New Year’s Eve but after trying to eat up a mountain of leftover turkey, ham, etc because we had 5 less people on Christmas Day due to hellacious snowy/icy roads, we were looking forward to going out for dinner, steak & fish. We didn’t get that dinner. Instead we stayed home & kept an eye on one of our dogs who had started throwing up late afternoon. Oh well. The lovely vomit aroma lingering kind of killed our appetites.

  71. 71.

    flukebucket

    Physical Graffiti is their best and Dick Clark looked better last night than he did the last time I saw him.

    About an hour until kick-off. This is the only time of year that I can almost get too much football.

    Almost.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    @flukebucket:
    Yeah, Dick Clark didn’t look all that bad. Can’t believe they still wheel him out on New Years Eve, though.

    Caught a few minutes of the Big Gay New Years Eve on CNN. Kathy Griffin taking no prisoners with Anderson Cooper cracks me right up. Not a lot of other cable networks making a point to interview drag queens in Key West.

  74. 74.

    gbear

    @oldhat:

    This. Tony Glover (of Koener Ray and Glover) used to DJ the absolute best late night radio show in the twin cities in late 60’s. (I listened to him interview Pete Townsend about how people were reacting to his new album ‘Tommy’) One of his missions was to point out all of the blues artists that Led Zeppelin was literally stealing music from. He hated the band, but I was fifteen so there was no way that Zep wasn’t going to become my fave.
    To me, the self-indulgence and bloat started to get in the way after the fourth record. I saw them live in St. Paul in 73 (or 74?) and I thought the concert was phoned in and boring.

    Favorite Zep in gbear’s world is side two of LZ3.

  75. 75.

    MikeJ

    @waynet:

    Mr. Martin is the vessel of the venom. He is a frequent candidate with a history of stridently anti-Jewish comments. As a law school graduate named Anthony Martin-Trigona, he was rejected for entry to the Illinois bar due to a psychiatric finding of a “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”

    Uhm, wow. That’s an interesting race there. I know we call a lot of people crazy, but this guy is clinically diagnosed. Not just a Krauthammer slur. And he’s running ads attacking the purity of the GOP senate candidate. Wow.

  76. 76.

    SIA aka ScreaminginAtlanta

    Happy new year all!

    Trying my question again from another thread – anyone have experience going to work in Europe for a few years and then moving back to U.S.? Most likely (if it happened) would be Italy or Brittain.

  78. 78.

    gbear

    @MelodyMaker:

    in fairness, I think the HS system has become somewhat less brutal since 1995. But now I have three torties and well…

    Well don’t we have a lot in common. I’ve got two torties adopted from the St. Paul HS in 2000.

    I know the HS has a bad rep because the ‘no-kill’ shelters can pick and choose which animals they take (kind of like health insurance providers) so the HS gets stuck trying to care for the explosion of homeless kittens that’s been happening over the last few years. They’re mission is thankless in many ways so I try to support them when I can.

  79. 79.

    Cat Lady

    Happy New Year everyone!

    O-bot reporting for duty, and I’m feeling way better than I should, and that is good.

    @Violet:

    Dick Clark should have been left at home. He messed up the countdown from 20, which is just sad. He’s had a good run, but say goodnight Dick. If they want him there, fine, he can sit there and mouth the numbers with the orange pancake makeup on, but please, enough of Dick Clark. He looks animatronic now anyway.

  80. 80.

    RedKitten

    Happy new year, Juicers!

    We never do anything on New Year’s, but this year decided to have a few friends over. It wasn’t a big crowd — about 10 of us — but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in merriment.

    Mind you, I am feeling a titch seedy this morning, as I consumed the better part of a bottle of champagne last night. I’m kind of glad the holidays are over — too much indulgence. I’m starting the new year off right this morning with a nice, big, healthy bowl of steel-cut oatmeal.

  83. 83.

    Violet

    @Cat Lady:
    I didn’t see him do the countdown. I just saw him chatting with Ryan Seacrest – who is creepily like Dick Clark reincarnated before he’s gone – and he did okay-ish.

    I agree, though. It’s time for him to exit the stage. It’s sad and a little disturbing all at the same time. I wish him well.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SIAakaScreaminginAtlanta:

    Happy New Year! I have a dear friend (from Atlanta, actually) who moved to the UK about 16 years ago and still lives and works there. She was in Nottingham for a few years, but has mostly been in London. I’m sure she’d be willing to share some of her experiences, both the good and the not-so-great.

    Not sure the best way to put you in touch with her. I will email John Cole and ask him to email you with my contact info if you wish; we can talk and go from there. It probably won’t happen today as I think Cole is epoxied to the futon in front of the TV all day — but I’ll ask the question.

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @RedKitten: Did you think to slip some of the bubbly in Sam’s bottle? ‘Cause nothing says Happy New Year like a baby with hiccups.

  88. 88.

    NobodySpecial

    Happy New Decade, Balloonists.

    And, yes, Zeppelin is good. But the next person who calls them the progenitors of heavy metal deserves being strapped to a gurney and being forced to listen to Britney Fox for several weeks without a break.

    I mean, half of their recorded work is frigging acoustic or in styles that can’t possibly be associated with heavy metal. Give the frigging title to the hippies from Birmingham, where it belongs.

  90. 90.

    PanAmerican

    Rose Parade. Bob Eubanks & Stephanie Edwards. Is the inane banter intended as punishment for the hungover?

    Stephanie Edwards at the start of the parade:

    You can’t back out now…

    unh?

  91. 91.

    geg6

    Well, Juicers, I am not at my best this morning. Could have been the bottle of white, bottle of red, and bottle of bubbly. As I nurse my headache and eat greasy food and prepare the pipe with the Best Hangover Cure Evah, I’d like to mention that Kathy Griffin’s Totally Gay and Fucking Hilarious CNN New Year Beating of Anderson Cooper is the awesomest New Year countdown show. Kathy Griffin RULES.

  92. 92.

    Libby

    Good morning John Cole and all you lovely BalloonJuicers. Have one last family gathering so just driving by to wish you all a very happy new year and thank you for helping me get through the dreaded Oh-nOs decade. Don’t think I would have made it without your wit and wisdom.

    xxL

  93. 93.

    SIA aka ScreaminginAtlanta

    I was just reading what Libby said and it suddenly hit me how truly wretched the last ten years have been. Anyone who thought which party is in power or who is the president doesn’t really shape world events was taught a fucking painful lesson. This country has been severely damaged, possibly beyond repair. I always automatically leaned liberal (must be the DFH gene) but was fairly non-political until Nov 2000, when I saw the theft of a national election and the beginning of a regime of thugs, thieves, war-mongers and incompetent fools. All the criticism of Barack Obama from the left is starting to really piss me off. We’re in pretty damn good hands considering the shit pile left to us from the former crew.

    Deep breath. OK – rant over.

  95. 95.

    RedKitten

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @RedKitten: Did you think to slip some of the bubbly in Sam’s bottle? ‘Cause nothing says Happy New Year like a baby with hiccups.

    Not quite. :) He did sleep through the whole party, though, which was impressive.

  97. 97.

    GregB

    I for one am happy that President Obama is taking some flack from his left flank.

    It needs to be realistic criticism and not shit that is retreading the worst of the Orly Taitz-Glenn Beck conspiracy shit.

    It makes me realize why I’m a lefty. Always questioning auhority even when I helped to get that authority into place.

    Consider it a congenital anti-lemming gene.

    -G

  98. 98.

    gbear

    @GregB:

    Consider it a congenital anti-lemming gene.

    Right, because finding actual working compromise solutions is exactly like running off the edge of a cliff.

  100. 100.

    Steeplejack

    @Cat Lady:

    [. . .] because that Motown sound isn’t going to drag itself into the future.

    Word. That’s what I like about Mayer Hawthorne. I actually prefer listening to the album and not looking at the videos, because they kind of undercut the honest homage to the Motown tradition.

    And I like Saadiq a lot. I even liked Seal’s Soul album. Very heartfelt, very “genuine.”

    Maybe I’m getting into “You kids get off my lawn” territory, but I’m always amazed at how much the yoots seem to ignore their musical heritage, or at least the huge chunks of it that are out of the “mainstream.” Pop music has been in a slump for a while, and it’s going to take some young genius pulling from more than just “arena band” and/or “emo singer with piano” to get things going. And don’t get me started on the quality of most songwriting today.

    Okay, no kids on the lawn, so I will get back to burrowing around in my Beatles remasters (Christmas present to myself).

  101. 101.

    gbear

    @NobodySpecial:

    Yes you are right. They need to be negotiated. Often, no one comes away feeling like they got just what they wanted, and sometimes people just say the hell with it and walk away from the table without finding a solution.
    In regard to healthcare, not finding a solution is killing people right now.

  103. 103.

    NobodySpecial

    @gbear:

    Yes you are right. They need to be negotiated. Often, no one comes away feeling like they got just what they wanted, and sometimes people just say the hell with it and walk away from the table without finding a solution.
    In regard to healthcare, not finding a solution is killing people right now.

    Accepted. Here’s the main two problems with that formulation right now.

    1) The ‘bad guys’ in this got just what they wanted.

    2) This solution may save some people, but for a lot like me, it’s not going to save me, so it’s hard to get excited about it. I’m sure more than a few people are in my sitch.

  104. 104.

    Cat Lady

    @Steeplejack:

    I only listen to college radio for music. The best one in Boston is Emerson College ( WERS, which live streams), and they’re mainstreaming a lot of new great music. The young singer songwriter scene is alive and very well, but you’re not going to hear any of it on any of the commercial stations. Don’t worry, the kids are alright. And, they love the Beatles too. Doesn’t everything always come back to the Beatles, anyway? I listened to Magical Mystery Tour recently – Blue Jay Way?!- that was 43 years ago! Get off my lawn!

  105. 105.

    Bruuuuce

    @==-+:

    John Bonham is the greatest rock drummer of all time. No dissenting views will be tolerated on this statement.

    Feel free not to tolerate this friendly dissent. :-)

    John Bonham was a very, very good drummer, and easily in the top 5. But, in my not at all humble opinion, Keith Moon was transcendent, and the defining rock and roll drummer.

    For example.

  106. 106.

    gbear

    @NobodySpecial:

    1) The ‘bad guys’ in this got just what they wanted.

    What the bad guys wanted more than anything was to kill the healthcare reform bill. They were (and still are) willing to say and do anything to kill it.

    An imperfect version of it passed and now the healthcare genie is out of the bottle where improvements can be negotiated over time.

    2) This solution may save some people, but for a lot like me, it’s not going to save me, so it’s hard to get excited about it.

    You might want to think about what you just said there.

  109. 109.

    NobodySpecial

    @gbear:

    You might want to think about what you just said there.

    What? That it’s hard to get excited about a bill that doesn’t help me?

  110. 110.

    BillCinSD

    All music is derivative, not all music has the out of court settlement indicating something more plagiarized.

    Dred Zappelin are great.

    gbear must have different bad guys in mind. Phrma and insurance got pretty much what they wanted, although since their isn’t a final bill yet who knows exactly where it will end up.

  111. 111.

    S. cerevisiae

    Happy New Year to all of you who make this site great.

    Zeppelin Rules! and my favorite from Physical Graffiti is “Ten Years Gone”, but I want “In My Time of Dying” played at my wake.

    That whole album is IMO the best hard rock album ever.

  113. 113.

    skippy

    @oldhat:

    led zepplin did a great job ripping off riffs illiterate black bluesmen from the mississippi delta had been playing for 40 years and marketing them to suburban teenegers as “rock” in the 1970s.

    unlike any other rock and roll band in the 70’s.

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