Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

This fight is for everything.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You are here: Home / Music / Friday Morning Open Thread: Amen

Friday Morning Open Thread: Amen

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… A word, they taught me in parochial school, that meant Be it so, although Wikipedia prefers truly. The wishfulness of my childhood version seems better suited to this year’s compendium, in all its goofiness. I like it better than the last couple, anyway. Verily, DJ Earworm is truly a master for turning some ugly, ugly components into something beautiful…

***********

Apart from elegies, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another horrible week?

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Mustang Bobby

    Should be quiet at the office today; the PTB are all at a conference in Jacksonville and I’m all caught up on assignments. That means that I’ll get seagulled with something before I’ve had time for breakfast, I’m sure.

    Following up on the thread below, I watched the first hour of “Peter Pan Live!” In a chat with my younger brother in Seattle who asked if it was worth watching, I told him that I had memories of watching the live TV version with Mary Martin in black and white on our old Magnavox TV-radio-phonograph console when I was five and that was good enough.

  2. 2.

    raven

    @Mustang Bobby: I bought the vhs of the 1960 version and I just couldn’t get into it. I DVR’s last night’s show and popped in once in a while but I don’t think I’ll be able to hack it.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heading back up to STL for another days work at that south side apartment. Best thing about going up there to work is that riding with my wife I get into STL app 7 am which is too soon to start work ’cause some people are still in bed. So to kill some time I head over to my brothers restaurant for coffee and when my niece wakes up and comes down I get to have breakfast with her before she heads for school. The highlight of my day, and it seems to be one for her too.

    The bad thing is, it’s all downhill from there

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: I switched over to Rachel Maddow where they were doing their own live theatre: shots from marches in New York and Chicago. This was real street theatre.

    There’s something karmic about changing channels from one show about fighting the forces of evil set to music to another show set to chants of “I can’t breathe.”

  6. 6.

    srv

    I will fly over all you people in fly over country today and have nothing new yet to be outraged by.

    Er, maybe this:

    Benedict Cumberbatch will star in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” as the neurosurgeon-turned-superhero.

    I think this hurts the Brand Cumberbatch. There are way too many smart people playing smart people. I find that bigoted.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Well here, after reading it when you fly over you can give that gutless wonder of a governor the finger. Oh Hell, why limit it to just one man? Flip off my whole racist state, especially the not so fine citizens of Rosebud MO.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    @Mustang Bobby

    Hadn’t planned to watch the whole thing, and followed through on indeed not doing so. What parts I did see constituted a weird, disjointed production – grown men in British schoolboy outfits as the Lost Boys, warpaint bodysuits for the Indians, etc. The singing was passable, the acting amateurish, the choreography straight out of any random pedestrian high school drama club, the special effects primitive and sloppy.

    And what a total waste of Christopher Walken, having (or allowing) him attempt an imitation of Johnny Depp on heavy duty tranquilizers.

    (Second go at posting – excised a brand name drug.)

  9. 9.

    Mustang Bobby

    @NotMax:

    And what a total waste of Christopher Walken, having (or allowing) him attempt an imitation of Johnny Depp on heavy duty tranquilizers.

    He had tough pumps to fill. No one camped it up like Cyril Ritchard. Hell, even Dustin Hoffman had more fun in Hook.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    Orion orbiter launching in less than a minute. Too cloudy this morning for me to see it. Boo!

  14. 14.

    beth

    @OzarkHillbilly: I like how that article makes no mention of the fried chicken, melon and beer left by the side of the road. Because that would make it about race and that’s not what this is about right? Disgusting people.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    @Mustang Bobby

    Having played the part back in the days did that sort of thing, experienced how much romping one can wring out of it, and it’s nearly the case of too much isn’t enough when it comes to Hook. Walken appeared to be not having fun. There was no twinkle evident in that evil eye. (Maybe he warmed up to it in later acts, didn’t stick around for the whole thing.)

    Only other part I ever played which was more fun to do, each and every night, was Fagin in Oliver! There’s so much an actor can get away with in a part balancing villainy and scampishness.

  16. 16.

    Mike E

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m angling to visit my niece and her 2 babies(!) the weekend before Xmas… Miss E hopefully has off so she can come with. I have a vintage photo of said niece holding my (then) baby daughter when she was 12.

  17. 17.

    PurpleGirl

    I did not know there was a Peter Pan on the TV last night. I might have watched it. From comments here and last night, I guess it’s good I missed it. I remember Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard in productions from the 1950s. I wouldn’t want to to mess up the memories I have of it and them,

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @Mustang Bobby

    Love it.

    Was playing Cromwell in A Man For All Seasons and there was one particular night was cooking on all burners.

    When came out during curtain calls, the audience switched from applauding to hissing (not booing). Sheer heaven.

  27. 27.

    MomSense

    We had a late night last night because we went to see my son’s concert last night. I had heard nothing but doom and gloom about it and then they played (autocorrect won’t let me write the name of this song) and I wondered if Carlos Santana had inhabited my sons body for the solo.
    One of the other students said that the sound check was horrible and that my son brought them in a practice room and “band leadered the shit outta them” and then he realized he swore in front of me but we all had a good laugh.
    Maybe all those years of dragging the kid to my rehearsals and playing music of all kinds at home took hold.

  28. 28.

    Mustang Bobby

    @NotMax: Apparently Mr. Walken was in the chorus of Noel Coward’s High Spirits, a musical version of Blithe Spirit with Tammy Grimes and Beatrice Lillie. I saw that on Broadway in 1964 — my first Broadway show a week before my 12th birthday — so I guess I saw him then but didn’t know it.

  29. 29.

    Mustang Bobby

    @NotMax: It is so much more fun to play a villain. The closest I got was Leo in The Little Foxes in grad school, but he was a sniveling coward so I couldn’t camp it up. I switched to playwriting the next semester.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    @raven: Peter Pan as presented last night would not keep the interest of children. I did dream that NBC replayed it thirty eight times between now and xmas though.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Ben Cisco:

    Out of sensitivity, respect, and support for all sides of an important debate taking place all across our great country, it is necessary to proactively postpone this year’s race.

    Good for them, I guess. Better still, maybe they should have just changed the name. Hell, even in Spain, they call it running with the bulls.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    Advise and Consent just beginning on TCM. Interesting to see how adeptly Charles Laughton portrays a weasely senator from South Carolina.

  36. 36.

    PsiFighter37

    Great payrolls number today. And yet the public thinks Republicans would run the economy better…

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Laughton does Southern pretty well. Heck, he directed The Night of the Hunter, which is in the movie dictionary next to “Southern Gothic.”

    I see it’s Otto Preminger day on TCM. I have issues with him; dunno exactly why. I always sense a vaguely reptilian presence in the background of his movies, like everything is coldly calculated or mechanical. But, hey, all is forgiven for Laura (6:30 p.m. EST)! I never get tired of that. Lately I’ve been watching it for the décor. Still can’t figure out how those swanky apartments feel so big with so much furniture crammed into them.

  38. 38.

    RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)

    I’m glad Orion made it to orbit this morning. Wishing it well on the rest of its journey.

    I work with folks from the Air Force and they have a stake in the Delta IV booster that lifted Orion to orbit. I imagine they’re happy, too.

  39. 39.

    ThresherK

    Anyone here cut the cable cord?

    I’m making this a short as possible:

    I’m getting out of an expensive replationship with expanded basic cable and no premium channels. We can get DSL 6mpbs (max) hi-speed internet from the phone company after our move. Is that enough speed to watch TV on-demand online from cable channels?

    What’s it like for sports consumption? How do ESPN, FS1, NBCSN and local places like NESN or Comcast Sports New England fare?

    (Disclaimer: We don’t Netflix, let along Roku such. Our TV is a CRT we’re riding until it dies under us, so suggestions for a Digital TV converter would be nice. And we have never had a broadband connection in any home we’ve lived.)

    Thanks for your indulgence. We now return you to your open thread.

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    @ThresherK:

    Unfortunately, (live) sports is the Achilles heel of “cutting the cable.” I think you are going to find your options limited and unsatisfying. I’ll let the more rabid sportoholics weigh in, but this has been my experience (as family/friend-group IT guy) in helping several people go through this process.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco

    @Baud: As I understand it, they (the cops) participate in this event by:

    – Giving the civilians a head start
    – Taking off and trying to “catch” as many of them as they can

    All in good fun, of course. You know, for the kids!

  43. 43.

    PsiFighter37

    @Baud: And Senate Democrats thought it was best to run away from the bully pulpit despite the longest streak of 200k+ monthly job increases in recent memory (even more than Clinton).

    Idiots. To lose 9 Senate seats with the economy doing a lot better is political fucking malpractice.

  46. 46.

    ThresherK

    @Steeplejack: Hmmm.

    There is over-the-air and a digital converter. (Our TV would need the converter–it’s c. 1998–so I have to see the Consumer Reports and such for which ones don’t stink. Someone gave an older relative one which had all the utility of a brick.)

    What do you think of a phone company 6mbps line for streaming?

    And I think our new service area has gone Fiber, rather than DSL. I’ll have to double-check.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    @ThresherK: I cut the cord years ago and it has become difficult to stream sports online. My son used to be able to sign on espn using his password for me, but that’s now blocked since my contract doesn’t have u-verse tv.

  48. 48.

    ThresherK

    @JPL: Thanks. I am thinking of the upcoming bowl season. I ventured to a bar to watch the Grey Cup, one of my must-sees.

    I have a decent track record in the ESPN Bowl Challenge, but I will admit it may be luck, so my not watching hardly any TV for about 5 weeks may not adversely affect it!

    How fast is your internet service, in peak and / or real-time average?

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    @ThresherK:

    I’m trying to figure out how to cut the cable cord as well. We don’t watch sports except soccer and that isn’t usually available anyway. My problem is that we are getting charged additional fees because we are doing too much streaming. Netflix, hulu, etc are killing us.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    My son used to be able to sign on espn using his password for me, but that’s now blocked since my contract doesn’t have u-verse tv.

    This is another area that I have been checking out for a friend who is thinking of cutting the cord. There are some sites for streaming TV shows that apparently won’t run a show if you don’t have a cable-TV subscription. Not saying NBC is one, but, to use it as a hypothetical example, you go to nbc.com to stream a show and get the message “Sorry, you’re not a subscriber, no can do.” Apparently the site does some double-secret background checking of your ISP. No cable-TV subscription, no streaming shows.

    I must add that this is very vague and unconfirmed. I have had the devil of a time finding reliable information on this, but it seems to be a thing.

  51. 51.

    Steeplejack

    @ThresherK:

    Over-the-air with a digital converter would get you live network sports, but it wouldn’t get you ESPN and all the other cable channels, obviously. I guess it would depend on which sports you are interested in and where they tend to be televised.

    I have no experience with digital converters. I would look on Amazon and see which ones get good reviews there.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @ThresherK:

    What do you think of a phone company 6mbps line for streaming?

    Forgot to add that theoretically this should be okay, but it’s at the low end. Netflix (for example) recommends a minimum of 5 mbps for streaming HD video. And it will depend on whether you get a reliable 6mbps bandwidth pipe at all times. I don’t know of a single provider where you always receive the maximum advertised rate. Just sayin’.

  53. 53.

    ThresherK

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, that was along the lines of my thinking too.

    @MomSense: BeIN seems to be pretty big on the Euro leagues but was not on our previous basic cable list.

    I was getting by with ESPN, CSNNE (Revs), and NBCSN (“Up the Hammers”, plus those other 19 teams that get on TV somehow). My wife could not care less, and thinks there’s such a thing as “enough soccer”.

  54. 54.

    Mike E

    @ThresherK: I got an RCA converter for my Trinitron tube TV back when the feds gave out a voucher for the things…I think it was for $10, and the box I chose was mebbe $4 more. You’ll need an extra antenna to pull in over the air digital channels, mine gets 20+ (including Univision for various soccer matches).

  55. 55.

    KS in MA

    @Mustang Bobby:

    I saw that show too. Went with a group from my school. My mom went as one of the chaperones (out of character for her) ’cause she was crazy about Tammy Grimes; she got Grimes’s autograph after the show and was deliriously happy.

  57. 57.

    ThresherK

    @Mike E: I’d love Univision for football, except when I hit the SAP button it doesn’t change to English!

    To clarify, that’s a “me” issue, not a “them” issue. My Spanish is, you may say, behind the times. I can’t follow even the cliches, and soccer is too all-over-the-place for me to feel like I’m not missing something because the announcers are telling me things which aren’t directly on my screen.

    I am looking up the better digital converters. Many of them are available used and guaranteed, much better prospects than the free one someone got an older relative 5 years ago which had all the capabilities of a brick.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack:

    RE Otto Preminger day on TCM.

    VCRing Laura, and the movie before it too, a noir with Robert Mitchum, my new posthumous crush.

    And saying thanks that Skiddoo is not among today’s TCM offerings.

    I saw a play in London many years ago about Jean Seberg during her acting affiliation with Otto Preminger. Good play.

  62. 62.

    Bob In Portland

    Born in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia, Kvitashvili graduated from the TSU with a degree in history in 1992. In the framework of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, he continued his education at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and obtained his M.A. in Public Management in 1993. Having briefly worked for financial and administrative departments at the Grady Memorial Hospital, Kvitashvili returned to Georgia in 1993 and worked, at various times, for the United Nations Development Programme, United Methodist Committee on Relief, International fund of the Georgian NGO Curatio, and the EastWest Institute. He consulted various international organizations based in Azerbaijan, Latvia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Greece on the education-, healthcare- and social security-related issues.

    Kvitashivili was appointed to a government position in Ukraine and granted citizenship by Poroshenko the same day. He can’t speak Ukrainian so the meeting he attends have to be held with Russian spoken. Quote from wiki.

  64. 64.

    Bob In Portland

    It can’t happen here because someone at Balloon Juice would have been snarky about it.

    This past week, the U.S. was one of three coun­tries to vote against a U.N. res­o­lu­tion con­demn­ing the cel­e­bra­tion of Nazi col­lab­o­ra­tors as “free­dom fighters”–something the U.S. has been pro­mot­ing since the end of World War II. Ger­many and the EU nations abstained.

    Ukraine itself and Canada were the other coun­tries that voted against the res­o­lu­tion. The OUN/B dias­pora and its influ­ence in the GOP and intel­li­gence ser­vices of the U.S. is the pri­mary con­sid­er­a­tion to be weighed in con­nec­tion with this dis­grace­ful episode.

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