Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The revolution will be supervised.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

No one could have predicted…

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are here: Home / Music / What’s All That Wet Stuff In My Eyes?

What’s All That Wet Stuff In My Eyes?

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I just watched this, and I can’t quite explain why my vision went all damp and blurry for a moment there:

This one rings across so many of the changes being played right now.  I won’t rabbit on about them; I think the film speaks for itself far better than any commentary could.

But I will say that it made me feel moved, sad, redeemed, and reminded of what’s worth fighting for in the here and now.

And with that…over to y’all.

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  3. 3.

    hovercraft

    I almost didn’t watch it because it was so long, but I’m so glad I did. Thank you for posting this beautiful story, it is a reminder of our resilience, we can survive almost anything. As Briana said, Joseph never gave up, and neither should we.
    I’m not sure why, but I too experienced blurry vision through most of the video.
    Thanks again.

  4. 4.

    The Moar You Know

    I end up donating about 2-3 instruments a year to our local high school district. I’d like to hope that one of them gets into the hands of somebody who really needs it, like that violin does.

  5. 5.

    Larkspur

    Beautiful. Thanks.

    I kept a cello for nearly 25 years after I had stopped playing it. There was no special history to it. It was just a very good student-quality instrument. When I moved, I finally understood that I’d neither play it nor be able to sell it, so I donated it to a local school that has a big rummage sale every year. When I dropped it off, they asked if the school could keep it for their music program, rather than selling it – they’d had a cello on their wish list for some time.

    That made me so happy. As I said, there’s no special history to it…but maybe it will be the start of some child’s special history to come.

  6. 6.

    ? Martin

    Focus, people.

    There are two elections I want to focus on today.

    First is the Montana at-large district currently held Rep. Ryan Zinke, who Trump has nominated to be Secretary of the Interior. Montana is a red state. So winning this seat would be a challenge. But it’s not impossible by any means. We’ll have to wait on Zinke’s confirmation to have a date called for an election.

    Second is Georgia’s 6th congressional district, represented until days ago by Rep. Tom Price (R), before he was confirmed as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Governor has called a special election for April 18th. This is the district I really want to talk about.

    Georgia’s 6th District is built on a series of affluent and highly educated suburbs of Atlanta. It’s a conservative district. The arch-conservative Price has won it handily in the last three elections. He took 64.5% of the vote in 2012, 66.04% in 2014 and 61.7% just last November. But beneath those numbers there’s a more complicated story.

    In 2012, Mitt Romney won this district by 23 points (61-38). In 2016, Donald Trump won it by just 1 point (48-47). That’s a massive drop off, which signals deep opposition to Donald Trump. What’s more, the last three congressional cycles show another dimension of the problem. In 2012, Price spent $1.77m against $44k by his Democratic opponent. 2014 was similar. Price spent $1.724m while his Democratic opponent spent $14k. In 2016, at least according to the latest FEC filings listed on OpenSecrets.org, Price sent $2.462m against literally nothing spent by his opponent, Democrat Rodney Stooksbury. In other words, it seems fair to say that the current version of Georgia 6th has never been seriously contested by the Democrats.

    Democrats normally get massacred in midterm and special elections because they don’t see voting as nearly the critical act that it is. With the energy behind the protest movements that should change, but only if we steer attention in the right way.

    We need to flip 24 seats in the House. You flip 24 seats and you now have a legislative filibuster. You flip 24 seats and Chaffetz is out as Chair of Oversight and Elijah Cummings is in. Elijah Cummings becomes the most important person in America at that moment, and I think he’s a pretty fucking good choice to have in that job. What’s more, Paul Ryan is no longer 3rd in line to the Presidency, Nancy Pelosi is, and there’s an outside chance that matters.

    We can’t get 24 by 2018, but if we can get that down to 22, that’s a big help. Democrats need to steer all of that cathartic energy against Trump into these two races – drown out the republican candidates. Our primary goal through 2018 should be to ensure that Republicans only leave congress, never enter it. It’s the only national action that will actually matter. Do we have people in those districts who can give us info on the ground?

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    Wow.
    Just Wow.
    It’s so nice to know that life isn’t always about politics, some times it’s about the good regular people who make life worth it.
    We heard the word Hope not all that long ago, and we see it in action here again. Not bad for 4 little letters.

  9. 9.

    efgoldman

    OT, but – My kid just went to NBC in DC to tape a talking head segment about Verizon. No idea if it will run tonite – it’s a feature, not breaking news, so it is easily bumped by the Shitgibbon stupidity of the day. We’ll see. Don’t know how much advance notice we’ll get, it any.

    Tom, at first I thought that was Dan Stepner; mrs efg worked with him in the early 80s. It isn’t, of course.

  10. 10.

    mai naem mobile

    I watched about a third of it and had to come back after a phone call. Up to that point, I figured Tom had just touched his eyes with hands contaminated with hot sauce . In the last 5-10 minutes I managed to touch my eyes with hot sauce contaminated hands too.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    We can’t get 24 by 2018, but if we can get that down to 22, that’s a big help.

    Yep. This is especially true because actually having to implement policy is showing that the Republicans aren’t as unified as everyone said they were. Each seat we can win in one of these special elections is one fewer Republican we have to peel off to defeat an odious Republican legislative proposal or pass an amendment that does something helpful.

  14. 14.

    Michael

    Honestly, I think this short film is kind of a set-up similar to waiting for Superman. The fact that they were following this story from the beginning and they were using a charter school suggests this is the case. The story of the holocaust survivor and his instrument is beautiful. The fact that it was use to sort of promote this type of charters school is not. BGLIG administration has done some not very good things. Teachers are not treated that well and underpaid, one of the reasons there is a close to 50% turnover rate. You have to be careful with basically any story involving schools.

  15. 15.

    brendancalling

    I’ll have some comments later on the violin playing (I’m in the waiting room for acupuncture, and it probably wouldn’t go over well).

    I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for being concerned about my well-being last night. As I said then, when I hit a depression it’s generally quite short, no more than 2 days. And so this AM I was back on track.

    The acupuncture is going to do wonders for my back and shoulders (and, tying it into the thread theme, I’m an upright bass player and that can do a number on your upper body) as well as whatever mood stuff I have going on.

    Y’all are pretty awesome.

  16. 16.

    ? Martin

    The situation in Oroville seems stable at the moment. Lake levels now 5′ below the flood level, dropping at a steady rate of about 8′ per day. Apparently the damaged spillway has eroded down to bedrock so the high water flow isn’t doing much additional damage. That also means the amount of debris entering the Feather River isn’t too terrible which is good news for downriver fisheries. They’re still releasing the maximum 100K CFS. That doesn’t pose any risk to the river itself – it can easily handle that volume.

    They’re still assessing the damage to the emergency spillway and are moving crushed rock into the eroded area, hoping to build it up so that if the lake overtops again they can minimize the amount of erosion.

    Sounds like best case they can get the lake to 870′, about 30′ below flood by Wed night when the next rain comes through. They’re expecting 4-5″ of rain in Oroville proper from Wed through the following Monday. Given the size of the watershed, I’m not sure they’ll be able to prevent another flood situation. The lake previously rose 50′ in 5 days on 6″ of rain. Now, that was a warmer storm that not only caused more rain in the watershed, but also caused snowmelt as well. If this storm is colder, then they’d get less melting and more of that precipitation staying on the ground and not running to the lake. If it’s colder, this may not be a problem, they may see minimal runoff into the lake and the spillway can handle the volume. if it’s warmer, this may go back to having double the inflow than the spillway can handle and we’ll be right back where we started. For all of their efforts, they may be down to a weather forecast at this point to determine whether the evacuations need to continue or not.

    My guess based on the forecast as it is now, and assuming they can keep running the spillway at full volume, they’ll be able to keep the lake below flood point. Ideally they want the lake down at 850′, below the foundation of that concrete emergency spillway. They may not get that for a while.

    Hopefully they will allow people to go home and pack later today and tomorrow so they can bug out better prepared.

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    WASHINGTON—Telling reporters they were working hard to provide important national security updates to the new commander-in-chief in a manner he found most useful and actionable, intelligence officials confirmed Monday they have been struggling to condense President Donald Trump’s briefings down to a single word. “The president prefers his briefs to be concise and straightforward, preferably no longer than two or three syllables, so we’re now focusing on compressing each day’s classified intel and any intercepted geopolitical chatter down to the sole most salient word,” said Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland, adding that a team of staffers had been tasked with stripping each briefing of the overly technical or complex details that President Trump disliked, such as arcane insider terminology, multiple bullet points, and any compound or hyphenated words. “The president tends to grow frustrated if crucial intelligence is not delivered within the first seven letters or so. We recently gave him a briefing that consisted only of the term ‘nuclear proliferation,’ but he clearly became distracted by the end of the first word, so we shortened it to simply read ‘bomb,’ and he seemed to respond well to that.” At press time, McFarland confirmed President Trump had asked officials to continue formatting his daily intelligence memos in the model of his most recent briefing, which consisted entirely of a brightly colored clip-art fighter jet

    (yes, it’s The Onion, but honestly would you have been surprised if it had been the Washington Post?)

  20. 20.

    J R in WV

    Tom,

    I can see why this got a prestigious nomination. Such a sweet story, Joe is so generous, obviously worked hard to survive when so many did not, could not. And the new violinist, she is so well spoken, working hard to become a survivor. I hope she has a passport, or at least permanent residency of some kind. And her school, striving to give all those little girls a chance, a fighting chance to become wonderful women.

    It’s a tiny slice of America, what we stand for. What most of us stand for.

    Thanks so much for sharing the story, it’s wonderful and uplifting! We need some uplifting these days…

  23. 23.

    JPL

    @The Moar You Know: I read about the arrest earlier, and it’s so sad.
    You would have thought that after the dad’s abuses, the children would have been screened and counseled. It’s a vicious cycle.

    also may Paterno rot in hell, since he could have stopped it ages ago.

  24. 24.

    imonlylurking

    Some friends and I saw all of the Oscar contenders for short documentaries last night. The theme across all of them was compassion-and I don’t think I will ever forget the one about the Greek Coast Guard trying to rescue Syrian refugees from the Aegean Sea. I walked out of the theater simultaneously hating and loving people. So much awfulness and so much empathy.

  25. 25.

    Calming Influence

    It’s not tears; I think I got something in my eye.

    I’m 61, and her soul is way older than mine. There’s always gonna be shitty people but there’s always gonna be way more Brianas.

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:

    It’s a tiny slice of America, what we stand for. What most of us stand for.

    I think this is a much larger slice of America than a lot realize. At least I hope so and that you are right that most of us stand for real humanity. That we don’t see it or know about it is a huge issue.

  30. 30.

    realbtl

    Thanks Tom, I had already asked my only child to pass out my 10 or so guitars to “starving artists” as I did with my late wife’s expensive easel and supplies. Pay it forward works for the good of us all.

  31. 31.

    martha

    Thank you Tom, seeing a film like this gives me hope, which many of these days is in short supply.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    Sorry I’m coming late to this. Just wonderful.

    As a modes add-on, check this out

    This cellist has rearranged Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah into the most spine-tingling chamber piece

  34. 34.

    laura

    @? Martin: I spoke with my former coworker who represented the Operations & Maintenance workers at Oroville and Thermolito this morning and was both reassured and concerned. Robert reassured me that my personal fear was unfounded-that the erosion of the main overflow would result in a boil through at the level of the erosion and cataclysmically fail. It won’t happen as the Dam itself is structurally sound and includes an impenetrable barrier of clay instead of what appears to be an earthen Dam or glorified levy.
    Now for the bad news. Robert, along with a number of engineer and technicians attended many meetings at the State Water Board and brought stacks of binders documenting years -years of preventive maintenance not done. The Water Board gave shit not one about the lapses and oversights to routine maintenance. Nor did they care that chronic understaffing and retention of skilled workers was a risk that shouldn’t be ignored. But the Suits and major metropolitan water District users were willing to take those risks in order to increase profits or reduce costs.
    So Thermolito suffered an avoidable fire due to understaffing and three electricians almost lost their lives in an underground accident below Oroville Dam in which those lives were only saved because one had his leg caught in a collapsed catwalk (multiple fractures) and the other two held on to him for dear life as tools, equipment, chairs and desks funneled past them.
    These events occurred in 2009 and 2010 or 11. That’s your Governor Schwartzenegger Administration and Republicans don’t give shit one about the normal and routine upkeep of our infrastructure, because tax and spend liberal policies are all about waste, fraud and abuse and Union Workers are bad.

    The State’s water system remains fragile and has n
    Many, many moving parts. If/when it goes down it will impact everyone, rich or poor. Maintenance costs real money. Replacement could cost so much money that every other need would have to keep needing.

  35. 35.

    MCA1

    @Riccardo Cabeza: Sadly, and more complexly, I don’t think that’s actually true. I think a majority of your Drumpf voters would say it’s wonderful that this Holocaust survivor was connected to a young woman with a love of music and they shared a deeply American moment, and Stalin was a bastard, etc. All the clues are there to tell them they’re supposed to empathize and see this as uplifting. The sad part is they can’t or won’t allow themselves to connect to that empathy correctly when it’s in the abstract, and admit that they just voted for the very opposite of the decency and humanity they claim to admire about Joe, and the America that took him in and which he loved back.

    It’s not that they’d actively send him back to a labor camp, it’s that they’ll do anything they can psychologically to not notice that they’ve enabled those who would. That’s an inconvenience too many can’t be bothered with, because it means admitting you made a mistake, or that there’s evil in the world, and having to stop watching football and talking about how awful Hillary Clinton was long enough to come to grips with that.

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