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You are here: Home / Music / Sunday Night Open Thread: Fathers

Sunday Night Open Thread: Fathers

by Anne Laurie|  June 19, 201111:25 pm| 55 Comments

This post is in: Music, Open Threads

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Here’s a virtual toast to all the fathers, good, sainted, good-enough, inadvertent, and otherwise…

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Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    June 19, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    Did anyone get to watch Falling Skies on TNT? Comcast totally fucked me and had such bad reception my DVR wouldn’t even record it.
    And now I’m getting the “Not Authorized: message because the signal keeps breaking.
    It’s either really good PR or really fucking bad service.

  2. 2.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    June 19, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    .
    .
    I can’t believe President Obama said “Now watch this drive!” when he played golf with his friend Speaker Boehner.
    .
    .

  3. 3.

    gbear

    June 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    UCT, If he really said that I’m going to vote for him four times in 2012.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    June 19, 2011 at 11:42 pm

    Good autobiographical tune for the day. And two days from Solstice as well.

  5. 5.

    birthmarker

    June 19, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    Did anyone watch The Killing? If so, please explain…

  6. 6.

    gwangung

    June 19, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    I am going to this conference this week.

    For some reason, they seem to think my name is a draw….

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    June 19, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    Aah, Brad Paisley, my favorite West Virginian (Cole is number five). Young man can play a little.

  8. 8.

    General Stuck

    June 19, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    Deep thoughts in today’s moment of wingnut Zen

    “I support intelligent design. What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don’t think it’s a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.”

    — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), quoted by CNN.

    Shorter Michelle — Science should by multiple choice, or else yer a godless commie

  9. 9.

    burnspbesq

    June 19, 2011 at 11:50 pm

    It’s great when you have a client that likes the same kind of music you do. I’m putting Alison Krauss tickets on an expense report. :-)

  10. 10.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    June 19, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    .
    .
    @3 gbear

    UCT, If he really said that I’m going to vote for him four times in 2012.

    Why? Because right before it he said, “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these Libyan killers”?
    .
    .

  11. 11.

    burnspbesq

    June 19, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    @ General Stuck:

    Any design that incorporates Michelle Bachmann is, by definition, not an intelligent design.

  12. 12.

    Bmaccnm

    June 20, 2011 at 12:02 am

    Great. I watched the video and you made me cry. Thanks a bunch. I’m crying for my dad who died really young, and for my kid, whose dad decided being a dad was too much work. Thanks a big ole bunch.

  13. 13.

    gwangung

    June 20, 2011 at 12:03 am

    Bachmann is using the typical wingnut M.O.

    Intelligent design got thrashed and obliterated at Dover. They just ignore it and plow on, as if it never happen.

    And given the low information level of most voters, they get away with it.

  14. 14.

    Kristine

    June 20, 2011 at 12:05 am

    @birthmarker At risk of spoilers…I think they have the right guy, but they got him with manufactured evidence, which will come to light assuming the suspect lives to face trial.

    Messy messy. I don’t know whether this case will carry over to next season or not.

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    June 20, 2011 at 12:06 am

    For some reason, they seem to think my name is a draw….

    Just remember all us little peeps when your name is shining brightly on that marquee. That’s all I ask.

    I’m putting Alison Krauss tickets on an expense report. :-)

    I should hate you, but it’s just too damn clever. Of course once you go the professorial route little perks like that won’t be around.

  16. 16.

    asiangrrlMN

    June 20, 2011 at 12:07 am

    @burnsie, WORD. Bachmann is SUCH an idiot.

    @Bmaccnm, sorry to hear that. I have my own issues with my father, so no video for me.

    @Yutsy, hey, hon. How you be?

    @gwangung, sad, but true. Nothing to see here. Moving right along.

    ETA: And, congrats on the AA conference. You’re rock and you’ll roll.

    Hm. This lack of a reply button makes my multi-responding even more interesting.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    June 20, 2011 at 12:10 am

    I have my own issues with my father

    We shan’t speak any more of that topic then.

    Been mostly a lazy butt all day, though I did manage to get laundry done and some Thai food.

  18. 18.

    gbear

    June 20, 2011 at 12:13 am

    @10 Uncle Clarence Thomas

    You should have quit while you were ahead. You were funny for a moment.

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    June 20, 2011 at 12:16 am

    hey, at least we didn’t get pegged with Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in The Cradle” which always seems to be trotted out this time of year. Overall, I still think I would prefer the theme song from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father or even My Three Sons. I freely admit that they are old school and archaic, yet they still touch a cache of memories that cover cool headed responses to my presentation of a broken arm while he was stepping out of the shower and the smell of freshly applied iron-on team names and player names on my little league baseball shirts because he was the coach and that’s just who he was. At times he was a hard nosed bastard who demanded obedience but was also often the neighborhood Dad who played in the yard with all the kids, regardless of the season or the sport. Trying to follow in his footsteps and learn from his mistakes and to make my own is frequently a challenge that I wish I could master with more maturity.

  20. 20.

    gwangung

    June 20, 2011 at 12:17 am

    I’ve been passing around the video promo for the conference around for the better part of the week, and then I decided to take a look at it tonight.

    Nice kind of a surprise, and makes me glad that I have at least one acceptable headshot….

  21. 21.

    asiangrrlMN

    June 20, 2011 at 12:20 am

    @Yutsy, I have better things about which to think. Such as…Friday! That’s when my Canuckistani is coming! I gotta clean!

  22. 22.

    Anne Laurie

    June 20, 2011 at 12:30 am

    Yutsano, I have what I consider a pretty cool clip picked out for tomorrow night, but you are more than welcome to offer alternatives. Especially since many people here have mentioned that my idea of ‘cool’ suxx ballz (or however the current phrase of rampant derision goes).

  23. 23.

    Lurleen

    June 20, 2011 at 12:34 am

    My dad was clear about who he loved more and told me. Little did he know that I was the only one standing when he died.

  24. 24.

    Linda Featheringill

    June 20, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Fathers:

    My life has been better and I have had more peace since my father had the good grace to finally die.

    That probably means that I can’t play this game with you guys. Oh, well.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    June 20, 2011 at 12:39 am

    Great. I watched the video and you made me cry. Thanks a bunch.

    Bmaccnm, it always makes me tear up a bit too. My own dad was of the class “inadvertent”, and the best you could say about his parenting skills were that he always admitted they weren’t up to snuff. As the oldest of six, I rememeber him fondly, as the guy who introduced me to Groff Conklin and George Carlin and Mark Twain and Bella Abzug and Jimmy Breslin, even if he couldn’t (didn’t) do much to protect us from mundane life’s cruel realities. My ten-years-younger sister remembers him only with resentment, and glares at me whenever we have reason (not often) to discuss our not-so-joint familial history.

  26. 26.

    Yutsano

    June 20, 2011 at 12:40 am

    I have what I consider a pretty cool clip picked out for tomorrow night

    Run with it and fuck the haterz. But I may suggest this little tune for the video alone. It’s a Solstice circle without the nudity.

  27. 27.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    June 20, 2011 at 12:41 am

    Bleh, it’s 9:40 here in California, still haven’t called my dad in Oregon. I just don’t want to be incorrectly pronouned or named, and feel like a disappointment cause I haven’t achieved upper middle classdom and all that shit.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    June 20, 2011 at 12:55 am

    I get along much better with my dad now that I had seven years of therapy and have heard enough stories from him and his sisters to realize that, for all of his faults as a father, he’s done a FAR better job than his own father. Sometimes doing a little better than your own crappy dad is the best you can do.

    We drive each other crazy because we’re too much alike, but I’ve never doubted that he loves me, which is more than a lot of people can say.

  29. 29.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    June 20, 2011 at 12:59 am

    .
    .
    @18 gbear

    You should have quit while you were ahead. You were funny for a moment.

    So, you’re saying I’m one up on you. I accept your humble praise. Is it also funny for a moment that you put the “lousy” in “jealousy”?
    .
    .

  30. 30.

    General Stuck

    June 20, 2011 at 1:04 am

    but I’ve never doubted that he loves me, which is more than a lot of people can say.

    Same here, that made it possible to let go of a lot of baggage I was carrying around from our years of warring with each other. I did my ten years of therapy back in the eighties and was lucky to find a LCSW I trusted completely. And also getting involved in various twelve step groups. My father also came from an especially nasty childhood experience as well. Much worse than what I experienced.

  31. 31.

    Dennis SGMM

    June 20, 2011 at 1:14 am

    My dad was an officer in the Cold War Navy. That meant extended deployments and us spending much of the time not knowing where he was or what he was doing; no Internet, no email, etc. Because of the nature of his work in the Navy (He was an early participant in the Nav’s nuclear weapons program) he often couldn’t tell us even when he could have reached us. The family dynamic would readjust during his absences with the result that when he was again among us it was as if a distant relative had shown up out of the blue. We didn’t know how long he’d be with us or how long he’d be gone the next time. He was a good man in a bad situation for parenting. My sister called me yesterday and she confessed that she’d never felt close to Dad. I told her that, despite being twelve years older older than she is, I never felt very close to him either. So, if Father’s Day makes you feel a bit ill at ease you’re not alone.

  32. 32.

    Elliecat

    June 20, 2011 at 1:23 am

    My ten-years-younger sister remembers him only with resentment, and glares at me whenever we have reason (not often) to discuss our not-so-joint familial history.

    It seems to me an oddly unexplored topic, how siblings of different ages really experience different families. Even my only two-years-younger sister experienced some huge differences from what I did.

    Her resentment with our father is that she’s still waiting for him to step up to the plate and hit one out of the park; long ago I accepted it was enough if he got hit by a pitch and walked now and then.

    ETA: Damned if I know why I’m using baseball metaphors.

  33. 33.

    Comrade Kevin

    June 20, 2011 at 1:24 am

    Heh, I managed to get some ESPN guy pissed off by making fun of him on Twitter.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    June 20, 2011 at 1:37 am

    @Elliecat:
    Sounds like you’re ready to be SABRmetrically enlightened. The biggest distinction is between reaching base safely and making an out. Or, to paraphrase Woody Allen, 90% of life is just showing up not fucking up.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    June 20, 2011 at 1:37 am

    I managed to get some ESPN guy pissed off by making fun of him on Twitter.

    Nifty. Link? Details?

    (and oddly synchronous with the post above!)

  36. 36.

    MattR

    June 20, 2011 at 1:44 am

    Happy father’s day to all.

    I am fortunate that my biggest complaint about my father was something beyond his control – the shitty genetics that took him from us too early (and which he passed on to me)

  37. 37.

    Comrade Kevin

    June 20, 2011 at 1:45 am

    @Yutsano: It was Scott Van Pelt, and apparently, his pissed-off-ness (eh?) was based on him getting something out-of-context from someone. You can see it by reading my twitter (I think it’s linked to my name now).

  38. 38.

    Yutsano

    June 20, 2011 at 1:53 am

    (I think it’s linked to my name now).

    It was. And at least he had the good sense to realize the stupidity of his comment.

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    June 20, 2011 at 2:01 am

    Travis Tritt, “Where Corn Don’t Grow.”

    The Winstons, “Color Him Father.”

  40. 40.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    June 20, 2011 at 2:09 am

    happy now belated Motherfuckers day.

    it reminds of the time i was taking a dump on campus, fortunately there was plenty of reading material. anyway one paragon of higher education had apparently writen, fairly ubitquitously for this genre of literature “i fucked your mother”. cleverly, another man of letters, it was a men’s room if i am making a hasty assumption i apologize, had written as if in repartee, “dad you’re drunk, c’mon i have to get you home”

  41. 41.

    ruemara

    June 20, 2011 at 2:17 am

    I’m not much for any holiday that requires family or paeans to parents, but I decided to send a thank you to my stepfather. He wasn’t much good to me, in fact, he was downright awful, but he could have been much worse and for my brothers (his real kids) and my mom, he’s been a stable father. Once you let go of the mythical father in your head, it’s much easier to accept the strengths and positive characteristics of the actual human being who’s tried to do his best in a difficult job. I just wanted him to know someone recognizes that fact.

  42. 42.

    asiangrrlMN

    June 20, 2011 at 2:27 am

    My post from last year on why I don’t celebrate Father’s Day. All of you with shitty fathers, enjoy.

  43. 43.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    June 20, 2011 at 2:40 am

    I’ve always had a difficult relationship with my father. Not bad all of the time, mind you, but not good often enough. I think that’s why this scene has always resonated with me.

  44. 44.

    Comrade Kevin

    June 20, 2011 at 2:57 am

    @asiangrrlMN: we already talked about that elsewhere, but damn…

  45. 45.

    R-Jud

    June 20, 2011 at 3:29 am

    My mother, begotten and raised by a Noah Cross-esque monster, had the good sense to marry a blue-collar white version of Cliff Huxtable. Thanks for that, Mom, and thanks, Dad, for being there, even if you did pass on your crooked teeth, scoliosis, and wheezy lungs.

    My kid’s dad is brushing her hair right now.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    June 20, 2011 at 3:54 am

    Gwangung: Congratulations! Looking forward to your reports…

  47. 47.

    MikeJ

    June 20, 2011 at 4:22 am

    I have what I consider a pretty cool clip picked out for tomorrow night, but you are more than welcome to offer alternatives.

    Solstice tunes? I’m sure people will hate music I pick too, but that’s never stopped me.
    The Sun Was High (So Was I)
    Song For Sunshine
    Watch the Sunrise

  48. 48.

    MikeJ

    June 20, 2011 at 4:25 am

    And how could I forget:
    Summer Solstice by Tim And Sam’s Tim And The Sam Band With Tim And Sam

  49. 49.

    kdaug

    June 20, 2011 at 4:44 am

    My dad died when I was 21 from living how he wanted to (he’d gotten plenty of warnings).

    My older sister adored him, I hated him, and my little sister was kinda “meh”.

    Though, like Twain said, I reckon that if he’d stuck around long enough for me to realize how much he’d learned from the time I was 15 to when I was 25, we’d have gotten along just fine.

  50. 50.

    Cliff in NH

    June 20, 2011 at 5:00 am

    Look at some of the Lies in the latest FreeDumbWorks email:

    If we do not stand up now, the failure of President Obama and Democrats in Congress to protect our Medicare system will lead to certain bankruptcy, rationing, and benefit cuts.
    __
    Together, we can save and strengthen Medicare. Congressman Paul Ryan has a plan to put Medicare on a sustainable path for hard-working Americans (Really fucking rich people) while preserving the benefits of current seniors. Stand With Paul Ryan>>
    __
    With 10,000 baby boomers joining the Medicare rolls (You know, the whole fucking reason there is a trust fund to draw down) every day and health care costs spiraling out of control, the only sure way to kill Medicare is to do nothing (LIE LIE LIE) .That, in fact, is the Democrat’s plan: Do nothing (Bullshit fucking Lie) . Plus, they’ve created a new 15-member rationing board, known as IPAB, for the sole purpose of (Determining what treatments are effective) cutting seniors’ Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars. (subsidy of insurance company profits thru ‘medicare’ advantage)

  51. 51.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 20, 2011 at 7:42 am

    My dad was a terrible parent. I’m carrying on the family tradition.

  52. 52.

    birthmarker

    June 20, 2011 at 8:43 am

    @Kristine-Not being able to delay gratification, I had googled around this week to see who was the perp in the original Danish series. So I was quite surprised! It makes me mad that they didn’t tie it all up with a nice bow for us, but the candidate is too obvious. We’ll see. Plus, has there been any explanation of how the candidate got from the remote lake back to the B&B without a vehicle? I missed that if it was given. And I won’t even mention Holder.

    My dad died suddenly when I was in my early 20’s. God, how I have missed him.

  53. 53.

    Kristine

    June 20, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    @birthmarker There’s even an article in today’s USA Today about the “controversial finale.”

    I didn’t see the hole regarding the candidate getting back to the B&B. I didn’t even think about it at the time, but now…

    There are many plot holes that need filling. I’m of two minds about Holder. I’m not aurprised that he did what he did. The question is, was he working on his own or is he on someone’s payroll? And his “evidence” is going to fall apart assuming Linden informs on him.

  54. 54.

    Kristine

    June 20, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    @birthmarker Sympathies re: your dad. I lost mine over 7 years ago. Commercials where the little girl gives daddy a card or gift are hard to watch.

  55. 55.

    birthmarker

    June 20, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    @kristine-thanks for the sympathies. My kids are the age I was when my dad died, so it has been many, many years. Condolences on the loss of your dad.

    It bummed me out to see so many dissing their dads. Not that they might have been wrong about the failings, but just so sad…People don’t become perfect upon bearing offspring.

    Thanks for the tip about the USA Today article. Will go read.

    I can’t see the show without Holder, so somehow his actions will be explained. Perhaps he is misleading Linden so he can make the collar himself? And Belko’s attempt is an unintended consequence?

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