For your listening pleasure:
Does anyone know the origins of the “Rubberband Man” concept? Wikipedia (don’t get me started) says, “The song, written by producer Thom Bell and singer-songwriter Linda Creed, was about Bell’s son, who was being teased by his classmates for being overweight. Intended to improve his son’s self-image, the song eventually evolved from being about “The Fat Man” to “The Rubberband Man.”
Okay, but why a rubberband? Oh well. Sometimes you have to just let art wash over you and not analyze it too closely. Open thread!
Yutsano
It was the 70s. It was a more innocent age. Or something like that.
It’s Friday, I have physio after work, and then a huge round of adulting to do tomorrow. In the meantime I’m trying to come up with a good reason to not get blitzed out of my gourd tonight.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m only guessing here — have never heard (or heard of) either the song or the singers — but isn’t stomach-reduction surgery often called “rubber band surgery” because they essentially section off a piece of the stomach (or intestines, or something) with what is, basically, a big stretchy rubber band?
Major Major Major Major
We played Rubberband Man in marching band in college as the warmup song before pre-game at basketball games. Fond memories.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
That surgery became common long after the song was popular.
That said, if the songwriters had been from Pittsburgh, the song would be titled “Gumband Man.”
tallmutha
According to the website “songfacts.com”:
“At first, it was called ‘The Fat Man,’ since his son Mark was rather large, and that’s what his schoolmates called him. Bell wanted to change the perception of this nickname, so he wrote a song about a big man who can really move. He’s the guy everyone waits for at the party, since when he arrives, it can really get going. Said Bell, ‘It was written for big people who were hip, to change the whole idea of a person being large being sloppy, slow.'”
Now, what was it about this particular endomorph that made him such a party starter?
“This is about a guy who makes incredible sounds with a rubber band stretched between his toes. The rubber band sound is simulated in the bassline.”
Asked and answered.
Ben Cisco
No sure about the origins of that concept…
Working on phone fleet cutovers today – needed some tunage, and spun up some old-school Funkadelic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOKn33-q4Ao
(Coincidentally, one-time Spinners lead singer Philippé Wynne later joined the Parliament-Funkadelic crew)
Botsplainer
When I’m in this kind of mood, a dose of Clarence Carter picks me up…
Strokin’!
joel hanes
Saw a peanut stand
Heard a rubber band
Saw a needle that winked its eye —
But I think I will have seen everything
When I see an elephant fly
germy
Rubber Band
David Bowie
ArchTeryx
Heh. Probably shows my age that I remember when the song hit the mainstream – when it appeared in the movie Stripes (during the mud wrestling scene).
Yutsano
@joel hanes: I have to say that Disney has come a LONG way when it comes to the racism in their cartoons. I watched a clip from The Aristocats the other day and WOW there’s some blatant stereotyping in there.
lamh36
Hate to be a Debbie Downer but this is the new Trump America that i am afraid of!!!
Does ANYONE AG Sessions or anyone in the Trump KKKAdministrarion gonna give two shits about this!!!
Joe McKnight’s shooter, Ronald Gasser, released from custody
Oh and the latest from the trial for the officer hat shot Walter Scott
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Well, I said I was only guessing :-)
Betty Cracker
@geg6: And if it originated in Boston, it would have been called “Elastic Man.”
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@lamh36:
I’m just so beyond my ability to emotionally deal with any of this. I feel like I’m being chased by zombies trying to run in quicksand and my legs just won’t work and there’s no place to go for hope.
lamh36
One online site had to close comments on an article about this, cause of the usual racist bullahit
Mall of America hosts first black Santa @CNN
Lots of local malls have a Santa to reflect the neighborhood they are in, my ole neighborhood had a Black Santa.
But I’m betting we ain’t never gone see a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade Santa who’s not white…
trollhattan
Since it’s Friday and all, here’s mah puppeh at the beach last week. Dear Lord this dog needs a lot of exercise.
Mike in dc
@lamh36:
I suspect that it’s better for the country if the president elect does NOT comment on any of this. I imagine that going poorly 99.5 times out of 100.
Pogonip
@trollhattan: Cute! What’s that green thing he’s wearing?
trollhattan
@Pogonip:
It’s a harness thingie the fam decided he needed, because reasons. I suspect primarily a handle to retrieve him by in the event he decided to swim towards Japan. Luckily, and unlike the many Labs at the beach, he’s not especially drawn to diving in (first trip to either a beach or the ocean, one never knows).
Foxhunter
@tallmutha: Well, ok then.
I was going to suggest a reference to that old fat burning contraption, see on 70’s TV…can also be seen here.
Jeffro
This works for a Friday afternoon (especially since everyone else has left for the weekend): Renegades of Funk
As Betty says, sometimes you have to just let art wash over you and RAWK OUT
joel hanes
@Yutsano:
Dumbo came out in 1941
Until 9 November, I would have said that the entire nation has come a long way since then wrt racism.
Phylllis
@lamh36: Watching the live feed from the courtroom right now and it looks as if that is the case. Apparently there is one juror who is the holdout.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@trollhattan:
That dog got the devil eyes!
Schlemazel
Rubberband refers to the tubing used to tie off your arm
and between the toes is an alternate injection site
trollhattan
@Phylllis:
Recalling the Portland Bundy jury, one juror held out for conviction and was dismissed. Freedom!
Hal
@Phylllis: Wow. One asshole who thinks it’s ok to shoot a man in the back. When’s his go fund me page going up?
trollhattan
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Truth in advertising, at least at six months. :-)
Schlemazel
@Betty Cracker:
and if from Mnnesota it would have been binderman
Schlemazel
@lamh36:
Macy’s has offered a black santa option in their store for 20-30 years that I am aware of. a ‘secret’ is that there are multiple santa’s working at any one time. Who you got depended on chance unless you were AA or asked specifically for one or the other (but you had to know the secret)
Phylllis
@Hal: Apparently whoever it is wrote a letter to the judge earlier today indicating they could not get to ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’.
germy
Someone compiled a bunch of regretful drumpf voters on tumblr.
Buyers’ remorse.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
BTW – I made all that up, it is just BS. It is interesting how easily anything can be turned into a drug reference.
Schlemazel
@germy:
Posted several on my wall just to hear the tears of le deplorable
thanks!
Litlebritdifrnt
Apparently the shit gibbon has caused his very first international incident by having a conversation with the President of Taiwan.
gogol's wife
Can Obama declare martial law? I’m serious.
danielx
Musical interlude….rock and roll is alive and well.
I’m on my six string, soapbox, flat top
I’m dressed to kill, dressed to kill
SiubhanDuinne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Will no one rid us of this turbulent president-elect?
Baud
@Litlebritdifrnt: China’s complaining? After we just handed them the century? They need to STFU.
Major Major Major Major
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well isn’t that fun.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Are there no
workhousesprisons?Shell
Well , it did make a good background theme for that OfficeMax commercial.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
beth
@tallmutha: How have I not known about this song facts website before? There goes my Friday night.
Roger Moore
@Hal:
Important missing element, there.
? Martin
@Shell: Great ad. Hey Crabman…
Mary G
Same as it ever was. As true today as it was 240 years ago. It has always reminded me of George III from “Hamilton,” and a lot of the Revolutionary War stuff is comforting me and reminding me that there is nothing new under the sun.
Also, too, General Stuck:
raven
@Mary G: “THESE are the times that try men’s souls.”
This is where “Winter Soldier” came from.
raven
Soulja Boy
And then at the 2007 Georgia Auburn ass whipping.
trollhattan
Kristen Stewart, the Stones and a bitchin’ blue Mustang fastback. Must be Friday.
MomSense
@trollhattan:
Your puppeh is all legs!!! So cute.
MomSense
@trollhattan: @trollhattan:
Yes!!! Love this whole album. I may have downloaded it and started listening in the middle of the night.
M. Bouffant
@trollhattan: Izzat a Trump toy in pup’s mouth?
Suzanne
Lying in dentist’s chair, drooling from Novocain, waiting for crown to be put on. I look sexy.
Pottery time soon.
Feathers
From the previous thread and the Hamilton Wedding Cake – the Dinner:Impossible Williamsburg episode This was a very silly show on Food Network that had at least one great episode – Robert Irvine and co. had to cook a 18th century dinner with 18th ingredients and tools over an open fire. The amusement of the experts on historical cooking working with them is wonderful.
It’s pricey, but actually staying in the historic houses in Williamsburg is worth putting on your bucket list. They serve a historic dinner by fireplace and candlelight. The candlelight events at the Governor’s mansion makes you realize that the human eye really does adjust to candlelight. All those movies with huge blazing banks of candles aren’t historically accurate. It doesn’t take very many candles to light even a large room.
CapnMubbers
Lynda Carter and the Muppets did Rubberband Man (they’re on YouTube). I saw that years ago while in an, ahem, enhanced state….
Jeffro
On the one hand, I’m encouraged that several media sources (WaPo, NYT, CNN) seem to be noting that Obama is “handing off” a roaring economy to Trump.
On the other hand, Orangemandias is still skipping intelligence, defense, and state dept briefings that would have helped him avoid obvious stupid stuff, like hanging out on the phone with the leader of Taiwan.
Trump, you dick, the deal is that you get to run around for four years at your stupid rallies but won’t do anything to get a world war going.
Major Major Major Major
@CapnMubbers: The best way to see muppets.
Zednaught
KTSUFM dot ORG
Click the Listen Now button at the top (opens TuneIn station).
Every Friday 6 am – 10 pm Listen’ Back oldies.
Texas Southern University Jazz in Houston.
From this thread it looks as if a lot of you would like this.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Jeffro:
Large discussion in the thread downstairs about China.
This woman seems to be a good China twitter follow.
Washington Post Security Correspondent
ThresherK
@Feathers: Did they ring the accuracy bell on tallow candles?
I went to a chandlers and the way they described the olde-fashioned candles was awful for those of us with allergies. The ordinary smokeless candles, beeswax or not, are an unrecognized boon.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Litlebritdifrnt: Isn’t the rummor the Chines were helping the Orange one also? So Trump screws China on Tawian, Russia on Iran and the Tea Tards by bringing in Washington Insideers. It’s almost like the banks are right Trump is a bad credit risk.
And all snark asside, a politican who can’t stay bought is going find his support drying up.
gratuitous
@Litlebritdifrnt: Wotta nitwit. For anyone who thinks our good friends the Chinese (the ones with the nukes) will just pass over this, think again. I had a friend assigned by his company to work in China for a couple of years. Naturally, he wanted to take his wife and kids, but there was a weensy problem: His marriage certificate listed his wife’s place of birth as Taiwan, and China wouldn’t recognize his marriage because his wife was born someplace that didn’t exist.
They got married again with a fresh marriage license listing her nationality as American (she had been adopted by an American couple as an infant). Once that was cleared up, China recognized their marriage and they passed a fairly nice sojourn there. But yeah, the Chinese are still pretty sensitive to this.
Compare and contrast President Elect Dumbass’ blunder with George W. Bush’s blunder from early in his presidency. An American spy plane wandered too close to Chinese air space, and was forced down. The Bush administration made all kinds of belligerent noises, but the Chinese didn’t care. They held the plane’s crew hostage (a major diplomatic coup was pulled off by the Bushistas when the Chinese gave the hostages Bibles), and meticulously disassembled and examined our state-of-the-art spy plane. When they got tired of doing that, the Chinese released the flight crew and the plane to the custody of our other good friends the Russians, who brought crew and plane back on a slow boat back from China. No doubt they, too, had a good look-see at the component parts of the plane.
Four months later, the September 11 attacks happened. I’m not saying there’s a bright-line cause-and-effect at work, but the Bush administration’s impotent haplessness probably wasn’t discouraging to the 9/11 plotters. Who’s watching Trump from some dark corner of the world and thinking, “This guy is strictly amateur hour”? Besides Putin, I mean.
MomSense
@Jeffro:
Yup, Taiwan is another thing that can keep me awake at night.
? Martin
@gratuitous: I made a few bucks along the way forging marriage certificates for couples traveling to China.
ThresherK
@? Martin: [obligatory McLovin reference]
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne:
Dear god, I read that as “Potty time soon.” (Note to self: make appointment with optometrist, soonest.)
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Or with gastroenterologist.
Pogonip
@Feathers: They need all those candles in the movies because the camera does not adjust to candlelight.
Do you recommend a particular Williamsburg package?
Baud
@gratuitous: I remember that media praised Bush for bringing our people home.
Pogonip
@gogol’s wife: He can but I doubt he’s fool enough to do so.
Jeffro
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Have to check that out, thank you!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
That’s for Suzanne to decide for herself.
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
Depends on what you’re trying to do. You don’t need much light to eat dinner, but you do if you want to do anything that requires real detail, like reading and writing. And, more to the point, you need a lot of light if you want to properly expose movie film, so the high lighting levels are necessary for the production. Even Barry Lyndon, which was famous for filming its indoor scenes using a special super fast lens developed for NASA, needed huge banks of candles to make the indoor scenes work.
Botsplainer
Oh shit – I just realized – we’re living Back to the Future II, just a couple of years out of the cycle.
Biff Tannen is President, but we got no way to correct space-time.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
And, of course, it’s changed again because digital cameras are much more sensitive than film, so you don’t need nearly as much light to shoot film and TV anymore.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Digital is more sensitive, but lenses like the one Kubrick used (f/0.7!) aren’t generally available, either. So you can shoot in lower light than you used to be able to, but you still need more than the unaided eye if you want it to look good.
Feathers
@ThresherK: No idea. It was the experience of being in a period room actually lit by candles that fascinated me.
@Roger Moore: @Pogonip: Barry Lyndon is a particularly favorite film. Looking at some clips online, the amount of candles seems about right. The difference is the falloff in the light, which makes sense. The eye can adjust to the dimness better than the filmstock. Also, white or pale walls really do help. BTW – the BFI just did a restoration that showed in Brit theaters this year – hope we get it here – too bad there aren’t as many huge screens anymore. Barry Lyndon deserves to completely fill your field of vision.
As to Williamsburg travel, my mother and some of her divorced friends would take a women and kids trip between Christmas and New Years, renting one of the houses, with grownups in the beds and kids (mostly teens who’d known each other since preschool) in sleeping bags on the floor. I got to go along a few times when I was in town and there was space. Can’t really help except to say that staying in one of the colonial houses is recommended. I know that people do go, stay in regular hotels and then do a night in a colonial house. The one bedroom houses book up way in advance for honeymooners. Many of the houses in Colonial Williamsburg actually have people living in them. You have to agree that the outside of the house will be completely period at all times, can’t leave a bicycle outside. There are several taverns where you can order either period food or a hamburger – which of course can be rustled up out of the same ingredients as the period food. Even if you don’t stay in a house, I would be sure to go to one of the evening candlelit events. It definitely has helped my experience reading historical novels! Probably very wrong to say, but it does feel very Jane Austen. It took me a while to realize that “Colonial” and “Georgian” were the same thing. Duh. There is a lot to see in the area, Jamestown, Richmond and Norfolk, as well as the Busch Gardens amusement park and lots of golfing. The Virginia beaches on Delmarva are great and not as built up as most of the Outer Banks ones. Hope that helps.
gratutious
@Baud: The media also praised Bush the Dim Son for “keeping us safe.” Well, except for that one time that we all agree shouldn’t be mentioned. Never forget!
mrami
Way late to the party here – I always heard it was referring to Bootsy Collins and his Rubber Band