Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

We still have time to mess this up!

The willow is too close to the house.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

This fight is for everything.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The revolution will be supervised.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

T R E 4 5 O N

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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100Comments

  2. 2.

    patroclus

    Obama just took a break from reading my e-mails and listening to my phone conversations and launching drone strikes to give a whale of a barnburner on the economy at Knox College in Galesburg Illinois to numerous standing ovations. Raise the minimum wage! Invest in the economy! Make college affordable for all! Fix the student loan problem! Implement comprehensive immigration reform! Stop manufacutring fake crises! Green jobs! Pass the farm bill!

  5. 5.

    Napoleon

    Does anyone know if the Tunch swag with the Obama ’08 style red and blue with his picture and “feed” which is displaying for me in the left hand column made it onto t-shirts with “hope” instead of “feed” on it? I saw 2 people last night with t-shirts like that at a Steely Dan concert.

  6. 6.

    jl

    Anyone in the SF Bay Area should check out Andy’s Orchard (andysorchard.com). Got some great heirloom fruit there. I think one more open house pick ’em yourself in early Aug.

    No comment on current events, politics, hotdogging mayoral .candidates, or the GOP loon pit digging away again a the bottom of the privy. Just too ridiculous, awful sad and horrifying.

    Just going to enjoy summer for awhile.

    Edit: I mean jaysus keeerist, you read the news some days, and it is like your still raging drunk from last night.

  9. 9.

    c u n d gulag

    I studied classical piano when I was a kid.
    When I was 13 or 14, I got the highest grade you could get from NY State’s NYSMA, which graded our playing.

    But I never could do what he’s doing, which I’m assuming is doing some extemporaneous playing.
    Back then, you gave me notes, and after a short while, I would come back and play the sh*t out of some classical piece.

    I tried taking some Jazz piano lessons, and quickly learned that, sadly, I had NO talent for that.
    It’s too bad.
    It looks like such fun!

  12. 12.

    Fezzik

    Hate on Carly Rae Jepsen all you like, but the marker of a great pop song is if it can be covered in a totally different style and still sound great. See also: Britney Spears’ “Toxic” or Van Halen’s “Jump” done in bluegrass style.

  13. 13.

    gogol's wife

    @Fezzik:

    And you think this sounds great? The musicians are fine, but this could never have been written in 1927. There is no melody here of any interest. The piano player has nothing to riff on.

    They’re called “standards” for a reason. This is not a standard.

  14. 14.

    burnspbesq

    We didn’t have anything like NYSMA in NJ. What we had were All-County and All-State orchestras and choruses that you could audition for. I made the All-State Chorus as a baritone (350 guys auditioned for 80 slots) both junior and senior years. The hardest part of the audition was the sight-reading, which was where eight years of piano lessons and three years of guitar really saved my ass.

    You’ve never seen more teen angst in one place at one time than at the All-State Chorus auditions.

  16. 16.

    Nicole

    Moderation? For what? Oh, wait. the rule ette part. I guess WP is shocked, shocked, to discover gam(bling) is going on in here.

  19. 19.

    Napoleon

    @Fezzik:

    I do not think that is limited to pop songs. By changing timing and the like you can make a waltz a country song (note, I do not play music but from listening to multiple outtakes where musicians are playing with how to present a song and talking with friends who do, whereas a typical listener may perceive a song as somehow etched in rock style wise in fact they really are very pliable).

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Fezzik: Who was hating on CRJ? She’s a pop starlet. Hell, I believe she even writes some her own stuff. I have no strong feelings either for or against her. Unlike disco.

  22. 22.

    Jewish Steel

    Why don’t the firebaggers accuse the obots of being members of the Hussein Clown Posse?

    Do I fucking have to think of everything?

  23. 23.

    lol chikinburd

    So in Madison, the Capitol Police are going ahead and arresting the Solidarity Singers. Among the arrested was at least one media personality who wasn’t even singing.

    A direct state crackdown on dissent, in America, and roughly half this state’s population will no doubt applaud wildly and demand more, like this, in America.

    We really are in trouble.

  24. 24.

    oldster

    a) The piano player is, indeed, just killing it. And it’s a thing of beauty.
    b) This performance makes painfully clear what a boring tune and structure that song has. As gogol’s wife says above, there is no melody of interest here. Tin Pan Alley turned out 23 tunes this good before lunch every day, and then threw them all in the bin and started over after lunch.

    NIce touch when she goes to the break on “miss you so bad” and the pianist brings in the lush romantic chords. God, give these kids some real music and they could do wonders.

  25. 25.

    eldorado

    the chatroulette link is probably not safe for your work, in case you didn’t get a clue from the name. good stuff though

  29. 29.

    noodler

    Ragtime remixes are good, but lounge goes that way too, as in when Robert Goulet used to do ESPN commercials, catchy and snappy. Just back from an Iftar here in Sana’a, Yemen. It’s hard to get used to the fact that wednesday is their friday over here. Most of the middle east has gone to Fri-Sat weekends, but not Yemen…

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    Not so obscure — Danny Peary had an essay about it in one of his Cult Movies books.

    And the title is The First Nudie Musical, TYVM. Yes, that is Cindy “Shirley” Williams playing the lead. The “let’s put on a porn show!” movie is not nearly as new as Kevin Smith and others seemed to think.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Unfortunately, the state has a permit process for demonstrations within the Capitol building. It was recently found to be constitutional by a federal court.

    Basically, it is a time, place, and manner restriction not a content restriction and thus okay. OTOH the fact that the rule was put into place to stop this very group and is being used to do so raises some concerns about how little content restriction is going into it.

    I don’t trust Walker and Co. one bit.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    @raven

    You might like this one. Found this photo hiding on an older thumb drive.

    Haleakala adorned with snow. Taken from slightly above sea level at Kahului – as the crow flies, probably about 25 miles away.

  37. 37.

    schrodinger's cat

    @raven: In fact, I should cover music for NYT, I have the perfect credentials!

    ETA: True story, I was once taken off a chorus in school, since I was singing off-key. I can dance, though.

  38. 38.

    FourTen

    “Righty’s”, I mean “Lefty’s” complaning about the taxes on his golf winnings is in the news again, pity the rich! They have a little less of a lot more!

  41. 41.

    Liberty60

    From TPM, 27 Senators have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to repeal Obamacare.

    Yes, thats 27% of the Senate.

  43. 43.

    lol chikinburd

    @efgoldman: I’m sure they’re working on that. This is all occurring in the wake of a U.S. district court ruling on DOA’s permit procedures for gatherings inside the Capitol. The original policy banned non-permitted “gatherings” of as many as four people; the court ruling said that that was excessive, but that permits in general were okay as long as the size threshold was more like…(and here they made up a number)…twenty. Capitol Police are apparently saying “OK, this is more than twenty” (and maybe they’ve counted and maybe they haven’t), and brought out the zipties and the $200 citations.

    It would be easy to see this whole matter as a relatively-unexciting rights-balancing case involving the minutiae of permit policy, if the above was all we knew about it. Context matters, though, a lot. Before the suit was filed against the previous DOA policy, they were sending police to people’s homes to serve citations.

    (ETA: yes, the article said that the permit process had been ruled constitutional; however, the article glossed a good deal of relevant detail when it said that.)

  44. 44.

    burnspbesq

    @lol chikinburd:

    The next time the cops show up, they should break into that insipid Lee Greenwood song. Let’s see how content-neutral this restriction is in practice.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: I really don’t know. No frontrunner yet, but that does help keep Walker from having a target on whom to focus.

  48. 48.

    NickT

    Helluva good soccer game going on between the Swedish and German wimmins in the Women’s European Championship.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @Liberty60:

    From TPM, 27 Senators have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to repeal Obamacare.

    Laserlike focus on jobs! How long do you think it will take for them to whine that Harry Reid isn’t giving them an up or down vote on the bill?

  55. 55.

    Trollhattan

    Even for Glenn Beck this is weird.

    Looking a bit like a homeless re-imagining of horror movie icon Freddy Krueger, right-wing conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck appeared on his Blaze TV Internet show Monday sporting a beard, rolling condoms onto his fingers and taping a birth control pill to his nose in an apparent effort to mock MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.

    http://wonkette.com/523585/happy-day-latex-and-marshmallow-fetishist-glenn-beck-comes-out-in-favor-of-birth-control#more-523585

  57. 57.

    Yatsuno

    I just noticed something about the new royal name: Grorge Alexander Louis. He’s a GAL!

  59. 59.

    IowaOldLady

    @Trollhattan: That’s not Wonkette satire? It’s real. Holy cow. IMHO, Beck and Scalia are two people who I’ve recategorized as truly having mental problems rather than just being evil.

  62. 62.

    Violet

    Crappy week. Two family friends have died in the last week. Going to one of the funerals tomorrow. The other is in another state so I can’t go. Just crappy and hard. Really nice, wonderful people. One suffered with a long illness, which was so hard on the family. The death is in a way a relief, but it’s always so hard to admit that and the loss is still there and real.

    Sigh. Sorry to be a downer. Been a lot on my plate recently.

  65. 65.

    Napoleon

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    Sister said: “It depends on what people strongly associate with the song.”

    My comment was completely setting to the side the possibility that a song had already been released in one style and the cover was in another. Obviously you are completely correct as to a song that has already been publically released.

    By the way it first started to occur to me how pliable a song could be listening to The Beatles Anthology, where they have some great examples of how songs of theirs would really significantly change sometimes based on speed, timing, arrangement and the like. A year or two ago I by total chance saw a video on You Tube fairly early on in their career during some recording sessions and it actually caught Harrison saying to Martin something to the effect “hey, if you take a rock n roll song and change it to XX time you have a waltz – you can basically do anything you want with a song”.

  67. 67.

    Less Popular Tim

    I think the Puppini Sisters (not real sisters) have done some fun and quality work in this area (performing a current pop hit in the style of the Andrews Sisters).

    I didn’t take the time to check every youtube link to see if it was already referred to (if not mentioned).

    As a general proposition, since a YouTube URI is non-descriptive, I would encourage everyone to put in a short blurb about what the video is, so if someone is familiar with the material they don’t have to click it if they are worried about missing out. To wit:

    Puppini Sisters — Crazy in Love (You Tube)

    or
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdZYkucI_MY
    Puppini Sisters Crazy in Love

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    @FourTen: Every time I see “Lefty” I think of Lefty’s House of Squid. The story (it helps if you’re an obsessive foodie):

    This reminds me of the best squid I’ve ever had at Lefty’s House of Squid. It’s on 38th street but it moves around a lot – the owner only signs one month leases. When he leaves a location he chalks special symbols on the sidewalk to tell you where the new restaurant is. Only a few people know how to read the symbols – you have be one of Lefty’s regular customers.

    Make sure it’s Lefty behind the counter. His identical twin brother (who according to a perverse Moldavian custom is also called “Lefty”) also works there but his squid tastes like rubber while Lefty is the Zen Master of squid. You can tell them apart because his twin brother is right handed and the real Lefty is, well, you get the picture.

    There is no menu and you must NOT ask for the squid by name. The word “squid” drives Lefty into a murderous rage since the English word for squid is a mortal insult in his native tongue. Just point at it and he’ll fry you up the best squid you ever had.

  70. 70.

    Yatsuno

    @efgoldman: It’s not ready until August 1st, but everything in the unit is brand new. Plus it’s 2 bedrooms and 2 baths for about what I’m paying now. It’s another 20 minutes on the commute but I can live with that since it’s all freeways. It’s not too bad a deal really.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    Could Mrs. EF tell her that she’s going to teach her to “modulate her voice and control her breathing” so that at least she’s not drowning out everyone else?

    The downside to all of the “diva” singers is that’s it’s convinced a lot of people that louder is better, singing-wise.

  75. 75.

    gogol's wife

    Okay, now here’s a tune. “Ain’t She Sweet” — a 1933 Fleisher cartoon in which the song (in infinite variation) accompanies a dizzying array of animated hijinks, followed by a live-action performance by the fabulous Lillian Roth.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFM5YHVMEZs

    Correction: “Ain’t She Sweet” comes in at about 4 minutes. But still.

  78. 78.

    Another Halocene Human

    Why am I surrounded by narcissistic bullies in my professional life? Why, Lord, why?

    I mean, it’s not like I’m in surgery or finance.

  79. 79.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Gin & Tonic: This sounds like it walked right out of the pages of Moore’s TOP TEN.

    When the invisible perv man goosed a lesbian patron, the volcano deli owner quips “Don’t look at me! I’m inactive.”

  81. 81.

    Yatsuno

    @Mnemosyne: One of my vocal professors told me that your true vocal range is only what you can sing full voice pianissimo. It really does make you focus on your actual vocal capabilities.

  82. 82.

    Another Halocene Human

    @IowaOldLady: Official RWer scorecard:

    Glenn Beck: Bugfuck Crazy
    Antonin Scalia: Crazy like a fox

    Scalia isn’t nuts, he’s just a flaming jerk. Beck acts and talks like he needs some therapeutic meds STAT. Unfortunately like many people with unstable moods he would never, ever adhere to any regimen because his life would be dull and uninteresting and the side effects “suck”.

    “Besides,” as a psychotic friend of mine explained freshly remedicated after an epic bender that began with the delusion that his mother had died, “I thought I would only have happy dreams.”

  85. 85.

    IowaOldLady

    @Another Halocene Human: I don’t know about Scalia. To me, he seems to be losing his ability to censor himself. Old people do sometimes. So he may not be crazy, but I think his mental abilities are changing.

  86. 86.

    Nicole

    @efgoldman: I hope (and assume) they’re being kind about it, though. I still have memories of being absolutely humiliated in fourth grade music class (no option about taking it; it was part of curriculum) by Mrs. Hawke, who stopped class to point out to the rest of the class how bad I was singing. I’ve never forgotten it. Absolutely crushed my love of music.

    I was fortunate enough to have an acting teacher in college who was of the opinion that everyone could carry a tune; you just needed to know what you were singing about, and surprisingly, his method worked for me. I ended up doing a piece with five part harmony senior year. Unfortunately, I was never able to audition for musicals because I would panic, thanks to memories of lovely Mrs. Hawke lecturing the class on how lovely children’s voices raised in song were, as long as one of them wasn’t RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE. Hell, even the prospect of karaoke starts me panicking.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @gogol’s wife

    Used to blow the dust off the 45 and spin the Beatles single of “Ain’t She Sweet” late at night on the college radio station, just to mess with people’s heads.

  88. 88.

    catclub

    @Another Halocene Human: “When the invisible perv man goosed a lesbian patron, the volcano deli owner quips “Don’t look at me! I’m inactive.” ”

    I looked to see if it was a palindrome.

  89. 89.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Napoleon: Well, it’s not a cover if it hasn’t already been released. :D

    You also run into the problem of rock and country, by and large, being a bit bare of chord to translate successfully into another style.

  91. 91.

    PurpleGirl

    @efgoldman: Is there someone the girl stand next to and not overpower? Can she “copy” the singing of another girl?

    I’m a soprano but I can’t really hit notes correctly, not totally out of tune but enough. However the choir master at the Lutheran congregation I went to found that I could copy (and fairly well) the choir’s alto. She was a woman in her 70s and her voice was very thin. Standing next to her I could mirror what she sang and had the power to create a floor and the alto part could be heard. So I became an alto. (It was his idea to get me in choir in the first place, choir masters are always scouting for members.)

  92. 92.

    Dr. Dave

    @Fezzik:

    For an absolutely LOL bluegrass parody, check out the Austin Lounge Lizards version of Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage”–it’s available as an mp3 on Amazon and you can also find it on YouTube (though for some reason it would play for me in IE but not Firefox).

    Saw this live about 20 years ago and it was one of the highlights of the show.

  93. 93.

    Flying Squirrel Girl

    I am not sure if this has been covered or not, but my aunt posted this on the Book of Faces and it bears repeating, nay, shouting from the mountain tops:

    Obamacare confession

    The GOP can only lie about and obfuscate the good that ACA will do for so long before people find out they are full of shit.

  95. 95.

    Left In Idaho

    this cool vid looks modern tho ‘agedshopped’, first impression, singers attitude seemed too bold for 20’s but ‘dark-skinned’ drummer clinched it ! But the real reason I comm’d:

    I prepare for sleep listening most nights to the BBC on NPR, lotta times I have to turn it off ’cause the ‘horrible’ story will give me nightmares aNd further my sickness of cynicism. Last night I almost turned off this story due to her pain but thankfully I stayed with it and WoW, Sunny & Peter restored me in humanity’s grace. I too am not ‘godly’ but , but , but , later conversation … at first glance, there doesn’t seem to be the link to last night, but maybe it was an old segment. -Nick
    http://sunnyandpeter.com/
    /

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    Late back here so you probably won’t see this, but a paranoid thought occurred to me — could the kid have a mild hearing problem? That could potentially make it difficult for her to modulate properly since she wouldn’t be hearing herself properly.

  99. 99.

    johnny aquitard

    Fun. Gonna check out their other stuff.

    Also makes me want to play my Hot Club of Cowtown cds again.

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