Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

This fight is for everything.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

After roe, women are no longer free.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

No one could have predicted…

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You are here: Home / Music / Open Thread: Hello (from the Other Side… )

Open Thread: Hello (from the Other Side… )

by | 148 Comments

This post is in: ,

Via / for valued commentor LAMH. You don’t have to like the song (although I do) but ya gotta at least admire the choreography!

Device query: I’ve been in the habit of ‘shrinking’ YouTube embeds & other images so they fit inside a 500-pixel box (the ‘standard’ size seems to be 560×315 but that used to hang off the edges on some screens). I deliberately didn’t change the sizes on these embeds; let me know if your device (platform? browser?) still has a problem, okay?

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    I got some great video of “The Human Jukebox” when Southern visited here in October. This is an official version of “The Whip-Nae Nae. One really cool thing they do, and it can’t be rehearsed, is spell out the score at halftime!

  7. 7.

    guachi

    Adele’s eyelashes are ridiculous.

    A good song but so slow that it’s almost turgid. It’s paced like a funeral march. By the time she finishes a line I’ve forgotten what she said at the beginning.

    The version on Jimmy Fallon with classroom instruments is far better. It’s more melancholy than turgid. A bit faster paced.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I am seeing Anderson Cooper with the sound off, and I must say, it is a revelation.

    He tilts waa-a-a-a-aa-ay backwards, as though he wants to distance himself as much as possible from his guest(s). I am especially noticing it tonight, but it looks familiar enough that I think he must do this all the time. Will have to pay closer attention.

    It is a curious way to experience the media, listening to (but not watching) MSNBC in the car, and watching (but not hearing any audio for) CNN in my watering hole of choice.

  12. 12.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s funny, the addition is new enough that we came back and are having trouble finding stuff! The princess went out at 6:15 to “take some things back” to Target and came back at 9. She made curtains at the beach but she’s still going nuts with all kinds of lamps, rugs and whatever else!

  15. 15.

    Another Holocene Human

    @mdblanche: pfffffffuuuuahaahahahahahaha

    eta: I mean, Herman Cain is an asshole and the National Restaurant Association is literally The Worst and Hess sucks such that no pizza sold there could possibly be edible, even to a dog, but my comment stands.

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: Nah — like I told the Spousal Unit, you plan the new decor around the well-loved, vintage, “unique” item!

    (I actually compared it to redesigning around an 80s pinball machine, ‘cuz he was quite an expert back when he worked the arcade night shift… )

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    Awesome-sauce!

    I went to SUBR for my freshman and sophomore year of college right after high school (after that I had to drop out of school and didn’t go back until 3 years later, but not at SUBR). If I had it to do over again, I would have found a way to stay in school at Southern and I’d be a graduating alumni instead of just an attendant.

    Still, I consider SUBR more my alma mater than the school I actually graduated from.

    Love my time at Southern, and lot of that had to do with the band and social activities I experienced there.

  23. 23.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @raven: My DH is a HS Band Director. I am amazed at the discipline it must take to learn how to spell out 1-9 (and 0) and then do it on the field on the fly minutes after the half has ended. Color me fucking impressed.

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    @efgoldman: Lordt…yes…and it’s always around this time too…lol.

    They draw me in everytime. Cause I usually watch the Golden Girls run nightly, but during the holiday season, Hallmark, shows all day movie marathons…bastards.

    So I end up flipping the channel, surfing the net and the Hallmark movie in the background…lol.

    Bastards…

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: ha! I’m the “Sheldon Cooper” of my family…lol.

    But they know I’m a sucker for my young godkids and I love spoiling my younger cousins and I’m a big sucker for romantic dramas or comedies

  30. 30.

    srv

    let me know if your device (platform? browser?) still has a problem, okay?

    My only problem is the song sucks. And I like Adele.

    As for the choreography, Solid Gold did it first.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    The only good thing on the Hallmark Channel is….. Kitten Bowl. Kitten Bowl III is February 9th, 2016. They are also planning some sort of summer games for August. Yay Kitten Bowl.

  37. 37.

    p.a.

    Have to admit I like The Family Man with N Cage and Téa Leoni. Sucker for redemption stories, even if Nick Cage is involved.

  39. 39.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Ok, I love Adele. I have a bunch of her songs. But I hate this song with a white hot passion and there is no getting away from it. It just feels like she’s trying to hard to be….melancholy (IMO). I was kind of expecting something new and different after five years.

    But that voice. Such an amazing voice.

    This is one of my favorites.

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: I have seen it actually. I may even have it on DVD, not my favorite, but I’m not particularly a Danes or SJP fan.

    Still, I do recall liking it when I did see it

  42. 42.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @lamh36: It’s the holiday season, so I allow myself the indulgence. Also see: ABCFamily 25 Days of Christmas holiday movies. I have several favorites that I make sure I rewatch this time of year.

    They aren’t on par with my traditional favorites (Christmas Story, Bishop’s Wife, Christmas In Connecticut) but fun to bake cookies or decorate to.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ever since we had a plague of opossums at my college apartments, I’ve thought they’d make a far more fitting symbol for the Repubs than the current elephant. Possums are scrimy-looking remnants of a prehistoric idea, scavengers who yowl louder & less harmoniously than feral cats. They attack each other relentlessly, use their prehensile talents to get into the most unlikely places, shit on anything they can’t chew up, and despite all their noisy bravado pass out cold when they’re “threatened”. And they carry / spread every filthy parasite & disease known…

  45. 45.

    divF

    @lamh36:

    ruins my cold-hearted persona credits

    What with your photos of/with your nieces, I’m afraid that ship has already sailed.

  46. 46.

    srv

    WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump got personal with New Hampshire voters Tuesday night, telling them of the guilt he sometimes feels for not serving in the Vietnam War and advising young people to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

    “I always felt a little guilty, frankly, like other people who didn’t serve,” Trump said. “I had friends that served, and they’re very proud and some are no longer with us because of the fact that they served.”

    More than you’ll ever get out of W, Jeb or Mitty.

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh…I still liked the movie, but I contend Danes and SJP could have been played by anyone and it wouldna made a diff. But the rest of the cast I loved.

  51. 51.

    mdblanche

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Hess sucks such that no pizza sold there could possibly be edible

    Somebody once insisted I have a bite of their pizza. One bite was all I could choke down. You don’t want to know how right you are.

    @efgoldman:

    Ouch! That smarts!!

    If Jeb:( can only learn to hit the other candidates like he hits himself, he should be all set.

  53. 53.

    lamh36

    Alright, new work schedule, earlier bedtime for me. So I’m out…Peace.

    But first, my movie recommendation for the week/month: Creed.

    If you haven’t already, you should def check it out. Micheal B Jordan is so good. It’s been said that this is the best Stallone has been in forever, plus 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. To a person, everyone I know who has seen Creed, has LOVED it and have all said, they’d pay to see it again.
    Stallone is getting def Oscar buzz.

    Oh, and I love that two of the movies getting big business and great critical acclaim of the year includes 2 “contemporary” films with diverse leading cast (Straight Outta Compton & Creed).

    Good night BJ.

  54. 54.

    p.a.

    @Roger Moore: For an interview he did last week, the makeup person had to be a Dem. The pancake makeup was gray-green, like for the patient in a hospital scene, except for the 2 pink ovals around his eyes without makeup. Add the ‘do and the look was Halloweenish.

  55. 55.

    Tommy

    I was so late to Adele. Just got 21 3-4 months ago. I don’t listen to much “popular” music. I of course knew who she was but thought she was like Taylor Swift or Kate Perry. Nothing wrong with their music (Fireworks is on my workout mix), but just not my cup of tea.

    When I got 21 I was blown away. Same with 24.

    Side story that just rocks IMHO I found when I went to the “Google” to try to figure out who this lady was.

    As a kid her single mom was poor and Adele would perform Spice Girls songs at b-day parties and such to make money. That was her world of music. She was in a record store and saw in a “bargain bin” CDs by Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone.

    Said she had never heard of either lady, but bought the CDs because they were in these elegant dresses, scarfs, and amazing hats. She wanted to dress like that. Not the Spice Girl outfit her mom made for her that included a studed eye patch. I guess she was “Pirate” Spice Girl :).

    Got home and listened to them and she started to cry. Didn’t know there was music like this. So for 3-4 years every night she’d lock herself in her room and for hours try to sing like them. Asked in an interview early in her carrer what she wanted people to remember about her, she said the power of her voice. Said something like, “if I am playing a little pub with like 100 people in it I want them to feel like my voice creates a wind turbine.”

    Oh and if anybody here is not a fan of hers and don’t own her CDs, try this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_k-dY_L7c

    I think about my favorite song by her!

  59. 59.

    Tommy

    @TaMara (BHF): A voice that is flat out stunning. I came to her late. I have to admit I am still wrapping my mind around 24. With any album it takes me listening to it more than a few times before I get a “feel” for it.

  66. 66.

    Tommy

    @p.a.: Yeah you’d think, but he often looks terrible.

    I hate to admit it but I am 46, metrosexual, somewhat vain. I pay attention to how people present themselves, how they dress, you name it. I don’t base everything I think about a person on this of course, but I do factor it in.

    His attire is passable, barely. His makeup is flat out terrible. Pretty sure a crack whore could improve on it. And this hair. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I used to have the most amazing, thick head of hair. But I started to go bald. The sides till this day, still as thick as when I was 18. I could do the “comb-over” but I would not be kidding anybody. So I joked when I had hair when that day came I didn’t, I’d shave it off. I did.

    Of course there are other ways to deal with it …..

    I know I am like the 10th million person to say it, but his hair is flat out embarrassing. His family should have had an intervention many, many years ago if they loved him.

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: Those could be ironic. No hipster would go Rubio and drive an Acura SUV – too easy to be confused with the normals.

  71. 71.

    Tommy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Why do you find that strange? Curious. Now if you said you saw a Rubio sticker on a VW Microbus I could see confusion. But I’d think the “moderate” Republican “soccer” mom in an Acura SUV would be his core audience.

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    One last thing, on the subject of Adele…I like Hello, but it’s no “Someone Like You”.

    I haven’t listened to the entire album, but she performs a different song from the album at every US appearance so far. Her latest “Water Under The Bridge”, is faster pace and I really like that one.

    my younger sister loves this album, but I’m still not sure, but 19 & 21 are great albums…I have them both and can literally listen to both albums in their entirety on a loop.

    Also too, in today’s world of studio born pop stars, Adele literally sounds better LIVE then she does on the recording…and she sounds damn good on the recorded album

  77. 77.

    srv

    @Botsplainer: At least Cruz has Seasonal items, unlike this godless website.

    You’d think liberals could monetize on Christmas Hate, but not the John Coles of the Left.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy: Tommy, I live in Madison, Wisconsin. You know your little blue town that just happened to go red last election we don’t. The city goes 70% D every election and a good number of those who don’t vote D don’t do so because they are Greens, or Socialists, or Anarcho-Syndicalists. Rubio would be an oddity here.

  79. 79.

    The Other Chuck

    @TaMara (BHF): I didn’t think too much of the song til I learned that the song isn’t some post-breakup call, it’s a call from her current self to her younger self. “The both of us are running out of time” means her younger self doesn’t have much time left til fame robs her of all of her innocence, while her current self is acknowledging that the fame and fortune she admittedly is enjoying despite the personal price (“it clearly doesn’t tear you apart”) is still fickle and fleeting.

    Damn if I don’t like it a lot better than the angry-vindictive-bitch lyrics of Rolling in the Deep.

  81. 81.

    Tommy

    @p.a.: Yeah, I watched his NBC show. Mom and I don’t have a lot in common. She doesn’t understand what I do for a living. Heck doesn’t understand much of what I enjoy doing when I am not working.

    So I looked for things that she enjoys and tried to engage in them so we have stuff to talk about.

    The Apprentice was one of those things (there were others thank God).

    Clearly it is a scripted show even if they call it a “reality show.” Edited. So who knows who these people are.

    This son Donald is a total asshat.

    But Ivanka seems to be somewhat sane. From the press reports I’ve read she is the only “insider” with Trump that has been telling him to tone it down and stop this or that. “Love.” I often wonder if nobody either “loves” the man or if they are in a such a “Trump Bubble” they lost touch with reality a long, long time ago.

    But if somebody loved him they ought to have a long, long conversation with him.

  87. 87.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Tommy: I once caught about 5 minutes of “The Apprentice” when it ran over into the time when the news was supposed to broadcast. I’m not getting that 5 minutes back.

  89. 89.

    eemom

    It is my understanding that an opossum and a possum are the same animal. Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why there’s sometimes an o and sometimes not.

  90. 90.

    Tommy

    My gosh I am terrified ……..

    About an hour ago got off the phone with mom. I got her a tablet I’ll give her for X-mas. Bought her a laptop a few years ago but she seems to think the entirety of the Internet is eBay. Feel like with the tablet she’ll engage more.

    So it gets here Friday and I’ll open it up and get everything set-up for her. Asked her again today what she wants to use it for.

    Text messages with my brother so she can get the pics he sends out of her granddaugther, the phone she shares with my father has like a 1.5 x 1 inch screen.

    Watch some soaps that I guess are only online (just order her a Fire Stick).

    Notes about her collectables.

    Take pics.

    Then, the stunner, she really wants to get on Facebook and Twitter. Said she thought that would be fun.

    What “monster” have I created :)?

  93. 93.

    Tommy

    @Omnes Omnibus: There might be something kind of “nice” about cyber-stalking Olivia Munn in a very polite manner. I will just say. Olivia Munn. G4. Attack of the Show. Drops mic ……

  94. 94.

    Punchy

    @eemom: that is correct. My guess is that the “possum” peeps are just too lazy to employ the “o”. The one my wife ran over was called a “OH SHIT possum” as it went beneath the car tire.

  100. 100.

    Tommy

    @Punchy: Well can’t we all agree they are terrible animals. I live in a very rural area and I hate, let me say this again, I fucking hate them. Look I get the eco-system thing. Food chain. But if they ceased to live on this earth tomorrow I would not cry much. I might stand up and cheer. Give me rats, racoons, anything but possums.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @eemom:

    Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why there’s sometimes an o and sometimes not.

    They’re both ultimately from Algonquian, so it’s possible that they’re just different transliterations. You’ll see that sometimes, viz our discussion of amok vs amuk.

  110. 110.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Tommy: When we had them around the house where I grew up, my dad used to pick em up by the tail and show them to my mom and me. We get them around here on occasion, usually on the brick wall in back of the cave.

  111. 111.

    max

    @Omnes Omnibus: I saw a Marco Rubio sticker on an Acura SUV this evening. WTF?

    I’ve seen a Trump: Make America Great Again 2016 sticker on a Prius.

    Ha! Top that!

    max
    [‘Video size is fine.’]

  113. 113.

    Mike J

    @Roger Moore: OED lists many variants:

    Forms: aposoum, apossoun, opassom, opossom, oppusum, ouassom (transmission error), ovassom (transmission error), opassum, opossum, oposon, opposom, opposum, oppossum, o’possum (irreg.)

    Etymology: Virginia Algonquian opassom op- white + -assom dog, doglike animal. Compare French †opassum (1640, probably English), opossum (1704).

    but possum has its own entry, defined as a colloquial version of opossum.

  114. 114.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Roger Moore: A bit better. Wartburgs could do something near the speed limit in West Germany. Trabbies couldn’t. Just imaging coming around a corner at speed in a GTI finding two Trabbies fighting with one another at 37 mph. One dives for the clutch and brake very quickly. Add in that we didn’t actually know the seismic shift that was occurring. They were just in the way.

    ETA: You started me.

  117. 117.

    Roger Moore

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I actually got to ride in a Wartburg once. It wasn’t bad for the short distance I was driven. Of course my judgment wasn’t necessarily the best at that point; I hadn’t slept in 36 hours or so, the last 6 of which I had spent on Friedrichstrasse just past Checkpoint Charlie trying to figure out why the hell our East German translator wasn’t there. Any car that was taking me somewhere I could eat and sleep would have seemed wonderful.

  120. 120.

    scav

    @srv: Theoretically, I should be inspired by someone so content with so very little. Theoretically also, I should be concerned for the long-term health of someone consuming nothing but such nutritionally weak pablum.

  121. 121.

    David Koch

    @max: Last week I saw a Sanders sticker on a Subaru SUV; driver had no passengers. Guess U can oppose carbon emissions and “free trade” in name only.

  122. 122.

    Roger Moore

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s Berlin.

    Technically speaking, it was East Berlin at that time, which was what made being on that side of Checkpoint Charlie most definitely The Wrong Side. It also made the Wartburg a status symbol for the person who owned it, as ridiculous as that might sound.

  123. 123.

    Tommy

    @Roger Moore: Yes. But maybe not Beavers if I had a stream near my property. I knew Beavers were builders but gotten into these outdoor shows the last year or so and I had no idea, I mean no idea the damage they could do.

  124. 124.

    Tommy

    Tech question. Anybody here have a:

    Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

    Do you like it? Would you suggest it to somebody you liked :)?

    I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy Note II which clearly is more than two years old.

    I am the dude that always wanted the newest tech. The bright shiny thing. But learned often through some painful upgrades (looking at you Apple, that first $5,500 PowerBook) isn’t always smart if what you have works.

    My phone still works well, stellar actually, but just started to notice some problems with my new Fitbit.

    The Edge seems to me from the reviews either you love it or hate it. Doesn’t make a purchase easy.

  126. 126.

    Tommy

    @David Koch: My favorite political bumper sticker of all time, around 2002. On a beat up VW:

    Frodo Has Failed, Bush Has the Ring

    There are layers of how cool that bumper sticker is.

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy: BTW you should understand that your first comment on that thing along with your assumption that no one got your reference is the impetus for my iffyness (okay/) about you. It was insulting.

  128. 128.

    Tommy

    @efgoldman:

    Isn’t that the official Vermont state car?

    LOL. I worked in advertising for decades. The best book I ever read about advertising and what it was actually like to work at an ad agency was “Where the Suckers Moon.”

    Subaru and the agency gave the author total access to anything and everything they did. This was in the mid-90s. The agency went out and did their research and literally came back and said the liberal in Vermont is your target audience.

    You have all-wheel-drive cars (most didn’t at the time). Amazing gas mileage,

    The person that will buy your car is going to put their family in it (and pets), skis or a kyack, and spend their weekends out in the woods. During the week they need a car, not a truck. They are your target audience and they are all throughout the country. Not just Vermont.

    You can make a fortune.

    Subaru pushed back again and again until they fired the agency.

    I now see ads, like the “dog Subaru” ads and think, well those folks were right 20 years ago and Subaru just didn’t listen :).

  131. 131.

    max

    @David Koch: Last week I saw a Sanders sticker on a Subaru SUV; driver had no passengers. Guess U can oppose carbon emissions and “free trade” in name only.

    Enh, that’s not that big a deal. A Sanders sticker on a diesel VW, or on a Ferrari, OTOH…

    max
    [‘…’]

  135. 135.

    David Koch

    Obama: “I’m anticipating a Democrat succeeding me. I’m confident in the wisdom of the American people on that front.”

    President and Secret Service Agent Robert Buster hug on his last day on the job.

  137. 137.

    Peale

    Cnn headline

    Study: Unprecedented support for ISIS in the U.S

    Supporting facts:

    The report noted that the average ISIS recruit is male and around 26 years old. It identified at least 300 Americans who actively support ISIS on social media and spread propaganda on the terror group’s behalf.

    Though the FBI believes that the trend of foreign fighters from the U.S. to Syria and Iraq is on the decline, it has been previously estimated by U.S. officials that more than 250 Americans have traveled to join ISIS with only a few dozen actually joining the ranks and about 20 have died fighting.

    In other words, unprecedented levels of support are surprisingly small considering the press has spent the past three years making it seem that ISIS is a group of super villains with super powers of persuasion.

  138. 138.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Peale:

    It identified at least 300 Americans who actively support ISIS

    So, less than 1 in a million. I think that’s probably a bit more than the chance of being struck by lightning.

  139. 139.

    ? Martin

    There are 61 chapters of the National Socialist Movement in the US. Probably easily 30x as many members as ISIS supporters. Nobody seems to mind our National, let alone Illinois Nazis.

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tommy: What’s wrong with opossums, aside from their kind of ugly faces and tendency to get squished by cars? I’ve always liked that there is a North American marsupial; it pleases my sense of the odd.

    And they eat ticks. Huge numbers of ticks. If you are anti-opossum you are pro-tick.

  143. 143.

    Matt McIrvin

    @eemom:

    It is my understanding that an opossum and a possum are the same animal. Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why there’s sometimes an o and sometimes not.

    Technically, opossums are the ones that live in North and South America. Possums are the distantly related animals that live in Australia, and are invasive species in New Zealand.

    Australian possums were named after the informal shortening of “opossum”, which is an Algonquin word, but it became more official there.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore: I recall visiting Berlin just after German unification. There were still Trabis and Wartburgs all over on the east side of town, and the Trabis definitely made the Wartburgs look like luxury cars.

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    @Punchy:

    While it is spelled o’possum, the o isn’t pronounced… so people not hearing the o prefix wither never learn it or forget it should be there. Or just contract that awkward spelling to match the pronunciation.

    I frequently spell it possum in informal usage, just to save the extra fingerstrokes needed. I note that FYWP spell checker things the correct speling is without the o’ – which is just wrong.

  148. 148.

    EthylEster

    I’m not getting the love (obsession) for this song. It doesn’t have a great beat and you can’t dance to it. And I haven’t figured out the melody yet. But several outlets have informed me that this song is the greatest EVAH! I guess I’m just too old.

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