My sister is a HUGE fan of Pink (the singer, not the color) and went to a concert last night even though it was a school night. She sent breathless fan girl dispatches throughout the evening and was thrilled to report that Pink flew over her:
Yep, Pink got into a harness thingy and flew around the venue. (In my day, we had to make do with acid and lame-ass laser shows.) It didn’t make my sister’s night; it made her YEAR. Open thread!
feebog
Garth Brooks used to fly around at some of his concerts. Not sure why entertainers feel this is necessary. Just sing, strum, and stroll around the stage, no need to play Peter Pan.
ETA, why yes, I am somewhat grumpy today, deal with it.
juliefromOH
Betty Cracker you are such a delight to read.
Maybe you need to get a gig as a writer for a comedy show.
Humdog
I know we are mainly old farts around here, but I think recent pop music has had many great messages, especially to women. Pink is part of that, but there are lots out now. I crack my nieces up that their uncool old aunt knows the lyrics to their songs.
cleek
there are videos of her doing that harness stuff, and it’s pretty amazing.
germy
I remember seeing Bowie during his Diamond Dogs tour, and he sang “Space Oddity” while sitting in a weird crane of some sort that lifted him up over the audience. He sang into a telephone-shaped microphone.
Calouste
I don’t want to spoil David’s thread downstairs, but isn’t the least expensive plan these day to go to Ronny the Candyman and ask him what he has in stock?
EBT
Rockin’
Served
I went to her show in Chicago this tour and the showmanship and athleticism on display while performing near-flawlessly vocally was amazing. I think on awards shows these performances feel like a gimmick, but in the context of a full concert of hers, they only highlight her talent.
She also has a VERY good political-ish video mid-set that Democrats should steal.
Betty Cracker
@Humdog: I like Pink too, but I don’t do big venue concerts. I made an exception several years ago and accompanied my daughter to a Lady Gaga concert. She (my daughter) was/is a HUGE fan and would have perished had she not been allowed to attend, but she was too young at the time to go by herself, so I went with her. I hadn’t been to a pop concert in AGES before that, but damn, was I impressed! It’s so much more of a production now than it was back in the day, which partially explains the absurdly expensive prices. Anyhoo, I agree about the positive messages from Pink — Gaga too.
canuckistani
I remember back in the old times when Peter Gabriel would sing Lay Your Hands on Me and lay down on top of the crowd who would pass him all over their heads as he floated all over the auditorium.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Thank goodness GG Allin never did the whole flying through the air thing. It would have been a real shit show.
Brachiator
Never seen Pink. Sounds like a cool show.
Did see David Bowie at Anaheim Stadium. Loved his showmanship.
Bowie, Elton John, Elvis, Liberace, a boatload of other acts have been known as much for their showmanship as their performing. Funny how old farts forget this.
Barbara
I went to a Grateful Dead concert once upon a time in Troy, Wisconsin where members of the band arrived via parachute landing.
Barbara
@Served: My daughter loves Pink. Pink once told reporters who were tsking that she had gained weight that if anyone didn’t like the way she looked they should look at something else.
Amir Khalid
@feebog:
It can happen when an act is afflicted with a really bad case of Artistic Concept. Or when the music itself is lousy, and the act knows it needs to distract the audience with theatrical flourishes — you know, like drowning a burned steak in ketchup.
oatler.
Wishbone Ash at the Aragon Ballroom not good enough for her, is that it?
Fair Economist
Pink is a very impressive artist. She’s been a top artist for 15 years, which is an eternity in pop music, and she does interesting songs that don’t just follow standard patterns.
trollhattan
Probably the first over-the-top theatrical thing I saw at a concert was Mick Jagger bouncing around the stage astride a giant inflated confetti-spewing dong. Pink could do that.
My most stage-crafted show from start to finish was The Tubes. They were quite the act.
Mike J
I saw a Replacements show where nobody fell off the stage drunk.
Fair Economist
@canuckistani:
One of my friends, a big Gabriel fan, was at one of the concerts which made him stop doing that. Some of the audience tried taking his clothes off for souvenirs. He made it back to stage with his shirt unbuttoned and a shoe missing IIRC (it’s been a long time and I’m telling it secondhand.)
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Mike J: Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime-experience!
dmsilev
I get mail. Physical mail, this time. A ~100 page nicely bound book with a cover letter:
And, for some reason, there are lots of drawings of Alice in Wonderland sprinkled throughout.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
Uhhhh. Any return address on that? Pruitt?
germy
@dmsilev: Green Party presidential candidate?
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
Wow. Somebody’s got a lot of time on their hands.
Mary G
@dmsilev: You get the best spam.
dmsilev
@trollhattan: Somewhere in Turkey, according to the package it came in.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: Same here about large venues – no more stadiums, no more ballparks (unless I somehow luck into VERY close-to-the-stage seats). Black Cat or 9:30 Club for me!
dmsilev
@Brachiator: There are a lot of people who believe that relativity must be wrong. Despite the fact that it’s been experimentally tested in many many different ways over the last century, They Believe. I think the most amusing example is Andrew “Conservapedia” Schlafly; apparently there’s some Christian fundamentalist objection to relativity and because of that he insists that GPS doesn’t use relativistic corrections (spoiler: it does).
J R in WV
Pink Floyd did a great stadium show. I saw one tour twice, early on at Rupp arena in Lexington, Ky, and near the end late next summer at OSU football shrine, a much larger venue. It would be difficult to describe in detail, but there were huge lighting units that floated around the stage, moving while keeping lights focused on the currently featured musician.
Most of the G Dead shows were just lots of great notes of music. Jamming and dancing around. 8th row one time!!
Last Sunday we went to see Gov’t Mule, which is a southern rock jam band, the leader guitarist/singer played with the Allman Brothers for many years. It was great, tho a little too loud. The light show was far from lame, with no medicinal assist thing on the stage moved as the lights swirled.
I’ve planned several musical shows this summer, and so bought (from Amazon, ;( ) some earplugs designed for music, rather than shooting, which we used the other day, and which were not very suitable at all.
I have admired the musical ability of Pink AND Lady GaGa, who doesn’t really need the odd new name and stunts, she’s a great musician out of Julliard. Flying over the audience is probably pretty memorable, tho!!
efgoldman
Last non-classical concert I went to was Paul Butterfield, sponsored by my (music) frat in 1967 or so. We lost our shirts, I couldn’t hear for a week, and that was it for me.
Booger
So what’s wrong with pink, the color? Hmm?
efgoldman
@dmsilev:
Way, way, WAY too much time on his (has to be his) hands.
Also probably shouldn’t be allowed near a Waffle House
Brachiator
@Fair Economist:
I didn’t realize, or had forgot, how long she’s been doing the music thing. I guess she qualifies as a trooper now. Good for her. And good that she continues to have an apparently loyal following.
Adam L Silverman
@cleek: I prefer the ones of her using power tools and hand axes. But I’m funny that way…
J R in WV
@dmsilev:
Surely he knows that measurements of… oh, never mind, he doesn’t know anything he hasn’t measured with a tape. Is he really sure the earth is round? Nope… not really.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
Oh, you were there too?
laura
Roadie brother the elder worked an abreiviated Pink Tour. His report is as follows:
She’s one badass entertainer and the physical demands of her performance in no way come at the cost of her vocal firepower.
That she’s as gracious and kind a performer that makes working for her a pleasure.
She is absolutely certain of her self and her talents.
Shows up on time, every time, no matter what.
He’d not previously been that familiar with her work, and thinks she’s ALL THAT, and that her show delivers.
laura
Roadie brother the elder worked an abreiviated Pink Tour. His report is as follows:
She’s one badass entertainer and the physical demands of her performance in no way come at the cost of her vocal firepower.
That she’s as gracious and kind a performer that makes working for her a pleasure.
She is absolutely certain of her self and her talents.
Shows up on time, every time, no matter what.
He’d not previously been that familiar with her work, and thinks she’s ALL THAT, and that her show [email protected]laura: and here I was thinking I was GG Allin’s only fan….
Bg
My husband’s generosity in taking me to concerts of musicians he would never listen to was rewarded at a Reba McEntire concert. The lights in the arena went out, a spotlight came on , and then Reba McEntire rose up out of the floor directly in front of us in a dress cut down to there.
Nothing like a live concert. Two of my kids went to the Pink concert last night and are still babbling about it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: The Tubes put on a great show.
ruemara
@germy: Sounds about right.
I’m not a huge Pink fan. But then, I not a huge anything fan. However, I am a big Pink respecter. Amazing pipes, has managed a career in a shit industry for over a decade and love her aerial acrobatics.
Yutsano
@efgoldman: Fortunately I don’t think they have Waffle House in Turkey.
I don’t think so anyway…
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Sacrilege!!!!!
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: I once got one of these on terrorism from a retired Soviet general that he wrote. This was shortly after 9-11 and whoever did the translation decided to that bad Soviet accented English from a Cold War spy novel and/or movie would be the appropriate format. So it read like it was written by Boris Badinov.
Aardvark Cheeselog
Donna Fucking Shalala is running in the D primary to replace Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in FL-27. Because of course we need another septuagenarian DLC hanger-on “welfare reformer” who was a fully-committed drug-warrior until like, last week. Instead of a 50-something former public defender who’s never adopted a defensive crouch when someone called her a “liberal.”
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: I’m a big fan of Einstein’s extra special theory of relativity: the longer you spend with your relatives, the slower time seems to pass.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Complete, one hopes, with references to stopping Moose and Squirrel?
cleek
@Mike J:
met a club owner who said he once kicked the Mats off-stage because he thought they were just a bunch of drunk patrons who had just jumped up on stage while waiting for the band.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Da! Uv kourz!
Jeffro
@Aardvark Cheeselog: Ugh. Fresh faces please Dems!!
terraformer
Hey, laser shows weren’t that lame. They were pretty cool! Or maybe that was because I was BBB?
J R in WV
I’m with you guys at stadium shows, ball parks, etc.
We went to the Clay Center, a concert hall for the Symphony, Tony Bennett, Broadway shows, and blues and rock. 1800+ seats, two balconies, boxes attached to the side walls with armchairs, very nice, great sound.
I’m with you efg on sound levels. That’s why we take hearing protection!!! I learned recently that there are units specifically designed for music events, as opposed to industrial protection for power tools and target shooting, perhaps connected to the sound system, which is how they can still hear after 35 years of Allman Brothers shows.Or G Dead, or R Stones…
I bought three brands with varying levels of protection and different sizes, for wife, who is a small person in general… over prepared perhaps…
The ones who don’t/didn’t can’t hear, like Huey Lewis, who recently retired because he can’t hear well enough to perform any more.
Sad!
dr. luba
@Brachiator: I saw the Plasmatics take a chain saw to a television set. Tube TV. Lots of noise and sparks.
Now that’s showmanship.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I presume that’s just the Yiddish version.
Some of us enjoy spending time with our otherwise distant families, you know.
dmsilev
I think TPM wins headline of the day with this: “Christian Conservatives Fight Bid To Toughen Louisiana Anti-Bestiality Law”.
(the “concern”, so to speak, is that by separating out bestiality from other “unnatural” sex acts, this bill acts as a backdoor approval to sodomy)
feebog
Last live concert I went to was Cher at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. After a couple opening songs she did about a 10 minute monologue. She ended by telling us she just turned 70. When everyone started applauding, she yelled don’t applaud, being 70 is not a good thing. Then she said she keeps in shape via intense physical exercise every single day. She said she was able to to a 5 minute plank last week. Then she asked, “What’s your Granny doing tonight?” and broke into her next number.
O. Felix Culpa
@Jeffro: The “Dems” don’t select primary candidates, if by that you mean the party. Individuals choose to run or not to run. Dems, that is, primary voters, choose who will represent then in the general elections. People assign way too much power to the party structure in my experience.
By the way, the “Dems” is us. WE need to recruit and support fresh faces, if WE want them.
germy
@J R in WV: I think Huey Lewis got a diagnosis of Meniere’s.
Not sure if he announced a permanent retirement. He’ll probably resume touring if his doctors can treat it.
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
People believe a lot of shit. A testable refutation might be interesting.
From what I understand, GPS corrections is an elegant and practical proof of relativity.
I’ve been amused and appalled at comments from Christians and other religious people in regard to a story suggesting that hominids walked upright earlier than previously thought. Again, there is the assertion that “macro evolution” could not possibly happen, that scientists are deliberately lying about … something. Man didn’t evolve from monkeys, Jesus rode dinosaurs, yadda, yadda, yadda.
donnah
Elton John came to my college, Miami University, around 1977. I ordered tickets the minute I heard he was coming, and was rewarded with second row floor seats. We were pretty far left of center stage, which concerned me at first, but when the curtain rose (accompanied by rolling fog and bright white lights) Elton’s snow white grand piano was directly in front of us. He came out wearing a sparkly white cowboy suit, white ten gallon hat, white platform boots and a white feather boa. And trademark big white framed glasses.
Oh, I was in fan heaven! I’ll never forget that night as long as I live.
Elizabelle
OT: they’ve made an arrest in the Golden State Killer case. Old guy near Sacramento (Citrus Heights) — former cop. That is not a huge surprise.
Michelle McNamara, the late Mrs. Patton Oswalt, did not live to see it. But the case obsessed her, and she was instrumental in keeping public focus on the search. They’re shooting an HBO documentary on Michelle’s book, so the arrest, just as shooting had begun, is “surreal” — Patton’s word. Really good story:
Sacramento Bee: She wrote the book on the Golden State Killer before dying. Did she just help catch him?
Patton’s been appearing at a lot of book festivals this spring.
ruemara
@dr. luba: There’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.
@Jeffro: So run someone. This is the primary. Anyone can enter.
@Elizabelle: That whole thing was so sad. I’m glad he’s happy and this book became a success.
VeniceRiley
Oh, I’d love to see P!nk. I am a fan of her work and of her. Every time I read an interview, I come away MORE impressed. As for the flying … she does something while up there; so it isn’t just a useless stunt like Garth. It’s more of an athletic performance display of power and grace while singing.
Lets see, hm. Big arena shows I have seen:
Bowie in the Ziggy Stardust era at The Forum
Bad Company at The Forum
Roxy Music at Universal
Pink Floyd at Yankee Stadium
Queen w/ Adam Lambert at The Forum
I enjoyed them all, but I do prefer seeing smaller acts in smaller, more intimate venues and clubs.
germy
@O. Felix Culpa:
The movement you need is on your shoulder
– Paul McCartney
divF
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@trollhattan:
I’m sitting here preparing questions for an oral exam in a couple of hours, and the recollection of The Tubes lifted my spirits. Thanks.
(Don’t Touch Me There, White Punks on Dope, What Do You Want From Life?)
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Every decent sized urban area has at least three serial killers working at any given time. Most are never caught and in most cases it isn’t even clear they’re committing serial crimes because the areas are large enough to have multiple jurisdictions and because the perpetrators are preying on people that aren’t missed when they go missing. And that’s not counting all the transients that commit their serial killings or rapes on the road while traveling, which makes it even harder to discern a pattern because of the geographic and jurisdictional spreads.
rp
@TenguPhule: What an asinine comment.
germy
I saw Bobby McFerrin at Carnegie Hall. Halfway through his show he sat down at the edge of the stage, just him and his mic. A long silence. Then he slowly crooned “This….. is…. the story….”
We all leaned in, not recognizing the song.
He continued, in a faster tempo: “… Of a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed.”
He did a rousing version of that song and fooled us completely at the beginning.
Steve in the ATL
@Mike J:
Bullshit.
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
What? Wow.
Backdoor.. Heh.
Spanky
@dr. luba: AND the chainsaw was miked so it could be heard over the music.
Saw them somewhere in The Village sometime back in ’78 or ’79. Left as the fire department arrived.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: Wasn’t the figure like somewhere around 1-3k active serial killers in the US?
germy
Spanky
@dmsilev:
I see what you did there.
And what the hell? You open strange packages from Turkey? By yourself? You don’t know what crap is in there, man! This is what they have grad students for, you know.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Probably was. Old Boris got around.
(I’ve had a plush Boris on my desk for decades. He’s shooting a pistol with a “bang” pennant)
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
Nothing Yiddish about my in laws. Idiotish, but not Yiddish
TenguPhule
@germy:
Hah!
Josie
Some year ago, for my sixtieth birthday, my oldest son and his wife took me to a rock concert – Kiss and Arrowsmith. I have never been a big Kiss fan, but they put on a dynamite show. The crowd was huge and very enthusiastic. The contact high was also quite pleasant.
TenguPhule
@rp: I see you’re not familiar with the original joke.
efgoldman
@feebog:
Beats the living shit out of the alternative
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Because you predate them by a mesozoic era.
efgoldman
@ruemara:
Except fucking Wilmer. Fuck him
No Drought No More
I know how your sister feels. The first time I ever saw the band live in 1974, the Rolling Stones shared the stage with a giant inflatable cock. It stood proudly erect through most of the show, a few feet to the right of Charlie Watts and to the left of Bill Wyman, as the band worked their magic on stage at the Cow Palace.
To give you a taste of those times: after the show was over and the crowd headed out, we were met with a long, long line of cops wearing riot gear with cop lights flashing everywhere on the far side of the parking lot, as if assembled to prevent another Altamont. At the time, it felt like being menaced by a posse of clowns, albeit just slightly menaced. Then again, Patti Page and How Much Is That Doggie In The Window had topped the charts when the SFPD shot callers in 1974 had been younger men. Which is to say, they didn’t know what the fuck was going on in the country any more- either musically or politically- and ridiculously overreacted. They had, in fact, grown exponentially confused since the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show. Moreover, if memory serves, the SLA had fairly recently kidnapped Patty Hearst and had began making demands. All things considered, I tend to think nowadays they were just playing it safe, by protecting the gossamer threads of what was left of the American dream they once had known. You know, before the hippies on they other side of the parking lot scrambled their world all to hell.
trollhattan
@dr. luba:
The Plasmatics! Ah, Wendy O. Williams made electrical tape cool at a good time in my life. r.i.p.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Well that’s terrifying.
catbirdman
I’m going to see the Pink extravaganza in May — can’t wait!
trollhattan
@germy:
Saw McFerrin several years back. Great performer and show, with lots of audience participation. Good guy.
germy
thread:
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
When you’re in a hole, stop digging
JCJ
@Adam L Silverman:
I assume there were many references to “Moose and Squirrel”
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Knew a gal in college who was one of his early victims. Man, that’s been a good long while the fvcker has been out and free.
Hungry Joe
In the Bay Area in the late ’60s/very early ’70s “putting on a show” — other than psychedelic lights — was peak un-hipness. Bands were supposed to wear jeans and ordinary shirts or t-shirts, walk onstage late and without any introduction, then stand there and play. The idea, more or less, was that showmanship was fake/”plastic”; it was all about, as the saying went, the music. And man, did I hear (not so much SEE) some great shows: Country Joe & the Fish, It’s a Beautiful Day, Youngbloods (WAY underrated), Joy of Cooking, Dead, Airplane (already in a downward glide), Quicksilver … ***SIGH***
Josie
@Josie: That should read “some years ago.” Actually, now that I think about it, it should be “many years ago.”
Anotherlurker
Johnny Winter And at the Tea Party.
No lazers necessary.
Yup, I’m really old.
J R in WV
@germy:
Well, you could sure be correct… I didn’t pay much attention, but now that you mention it, I’m sure you are right… On the other hand, on stage noise would be an issue.
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara: I haven’t looked it up in a long time, but that wouldn’t surprise me at all. It also wouldn’t surprise me if it was low.
OldDave
Way back in the day we’d drive over to Memphis to see a variety of acts on tour – Quicksilver, Procol Harum, Jethro Tull, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour, etc, etc, etc. Most recent ‘rock’ concert was Mark Knopfler closing out his 2015 Tracker tour. No fancy theatrics, but a wonderful sound system and a stage filled with quality musicians at their peak. Most recent concert regardless of genre was (I think) John Prine. SWMBO may correct me.
dmsilev
@Spanky: I gave the book to a bunch of grad students. They found it amusing.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: @Brachiator: I always thought this headline was the gold standard:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bottoming-is-a-messy-process-2011-08-19
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Reality usually is.
Adam L Silverman
@JCJ: They live in a cave in the Hindu Kush.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: That’s believable. Sometimes the presence of a serial killer is only obvious in retrospect. And skipping around amidst jurisdictions works for serial killers. And alleged child abusers. (The latest turn in the Hart family annihilation case — social workers were on to the mothers, but didn’t have enough evidence to build a case.)
I have been fascinated with the Hart family, more for what it says about the isolation of homeschooling, and the presentation of self and family on social media.
Oregon Live and other outlets got social services records through FOIA. While they’d slid so far, events were about to catch up with those mothers. Hart family crash: Alarming details revealed in 2013 Oregon child welfare records
One of the moms, Sarah, blithely told social workers that the couple believed in naturopathy and only saw doctors for emergencies. Those women kept those children away from mandated reporters. No teachers, no doctors, no neighbors (unsupervised).
rikyrah
@Aardvark Cheeselog:
Is she the only Dem running?
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: That’s sad.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: These cases are tragic.
ruemara
@Elizabelle: This story and the Starbucks/Waffle House/Waffle House have me so ANGRY.
Those women, Jen in particular, tortured those kids, but it was all good because nice hippy lesbians rescue those subhuman children who needed civilizing, right? Oh, I mean those urban ghetto crackbabies. Wait, what’s the more upright, lefty slur to imply blacks who are poor are somehow degenerate until whiteness touches their lives. Think about the ridiculous shit that have cost black women their kids – leaving their kids at a park so you can interview for a job so you can take care of them comes to mind. Meanwhile, hippy mcstereotype plays white savior moms on social media, gaslights the schools, the authorities and the neighbors – even with clear evidence of starvation, physical & mental abuse.
I feel strongly that Jen dosed everyone with flu meds to make them sleepy, got drunk herself and murdered her family & partner because she was a selfish, disgusting abusive woman. And I hope every person that made excuses for those ladies and bought the “explanation” that the kids claims were because they had behavior issues (black). It is fucking seductive as hell to paint black people as mentally & emotionally unstable as well as mentally incapable.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Hasten to add she was a rape survivor, “luckily” well before he apparently progressed to murder.
The Sacramento-Stockton metroplex was utterly aghast and mesmerized during the time. A whole lot of gun sales back then, not that it mattered.
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara:
This is actually the pattern for family/partner homicide-suicides conducted by women. They don’t use firearms. Generally don’t use knives. They basically drug everyone up and either drive the car off a cliff or bridge or overpass or they put a hose in the tail pipe and asphyxiate everyone or turn the gas on in the stove and asphyxiate everyone.
Elizabelle
@ruemara: It gets worse, WRT Jen. She was apparently telling people that the kids would never lead normal lives, never be able to marry or hold jobs. WTF? When I heard she told someone she was interested in possibly starting a farm, it was “good Lord, she’s adopted her own migrant workforce.”
That couple was proof that the curve is real for well dressed, well spoken white people, lesbians or not.
I think it’s interesting, and slightly funny, to hear that one or more kids were describing Jen, or both mothers, as “racists.” I think that was Hannah, to the neighbors. Those kids were so smart, and so isolated. It is heartbreaking. They were growing up, and becoming their own selves, despite Jen trying to overcontrol them. I wondered if she was underfeeding them somewhat to stave off puberty, whether she realized that or not.
Only bit of light: cases like this — and the Turpins — wake people up, and maybe protections for vulnerable children will be put into place, or strengthened.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: I wonder what took them down to California, and where they stayed for the up to 2 days before the plunge. We may never know…
Jen was estranged from her father. No surprise there. So many red flags.
Elizabelle
@ruemara: I think Sarah took the rap for Jennifer in Minnesota too, with the guilty plea. The child and children originally accused Jen. And then, they pulled the kids out of school and off the radar screen.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: grrr. enraging. depressing. pain inflicting. Those kids deserved better.
@Elizabelle: The Turpins, yes. but you know, for kids of color and specifically black kids…
You guys are all very good people & it doesn’t make sense. There’s a disconnect in perceiving black people as feeling pain, being young, having normal kid behaviours. It’s real and it’s killing people. I’m sure those kids understood things. But what could they do, this was home & the cavalry was not coming.
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara: No argument here.
NotMax
Shorter Ben Carson: “HUD tenants still have a shred of dignity? We’ll see about that.”
Elizabelle
@ruemara: Agreed.
Mnemosyne
Since people were curious about Penzey’s orders from the big “Soul Box” promo, I got my package today, ordered on 4/14.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
I just saw Oswalt at the LA Festival of Books. The big message that he wanted the killer to hear was that people were looking for him, and it wouldn’t be long until they found him.
Also, apparently Michelle was the one who came up with the moniker of “Golden State Killer,” which helped focus attention on the case.
Elizabelle
@ruemara: Thinking on what you said about black kids (and adults) being penalized for normal behaviors. We see it again and again. I hope we make some progress on the double standard. I guess being more aware is a small start …
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: I would have loved to see that Festival. Almost went one year, a few years past.
Happy Administrative Professionals Day, Mnemo.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
The cops say they matched his “discarded DNA” to old evidence, but have not said why they were digging through his trash/following him around to begin with.
He was fired from the Auburn, CA police force in 1979 after being busted shoplifting, so probably why he left the area and began killing elsewhere. Moved back to the Sac burbs in ’83, meaning there’s a near zero chance I haven’t been near him at some point. Killers among us.
gvg
I used to be a foster mom in Florida. For many years it was required that we enroll the infants and toddlers in daycare, not care for them at home because of a case involving foster parents hiding abused children. later that law was repealed because the memory of the case that made it had gotten old. I think that was a mistake. bio parents do it too and I can’t see how we can force everyone to let their babies be watched by unrelated people sometimes. a lot of people can’t afford it as day care is costly. I don’t trust homeschooling obviously. I know some people actually can do a better job but most I have met are over controlling and too ignorant. florida’s laws about the testing used to be pretty easy to game so at least frequent public testing and interactions. Foster care has a lot of rules. We were taught that false accusations were inevitable, because some families would make up stories and view us as the enemy who were stealing their kids. It does happen. So does abuse though. always investigate is all humans can do.
The funding cuts are always a problem. I don’t think the privatization helped at all. the real shortage that always pushes overlooking things is there just aren’t enough people who actually want to foster. Its hard, especially when you have to give a kid back and never hear again how things went.
one kind of abuse of the system was people taking in lots of kids to get the stipend then pinching pennies has been eliminated, their are limits and frankly it’s a money loser unless maybe if you do medical foster care which is hard work and pretty serious. we looked at it as a kind of social tax, and the lost money was just us supporting society-for the helpless kids. that sounds sanctimonious but the money was unrealistically low and we had to be able to shrug it off to keep going. we could afford it, but many people wouldn’t have been able to so that limits the pool.
From what I found out, every state is different with how good or bad they are. you can’t assume another state is like what I encountered.
Elizabelle
@gvg: Good on you for having been a foster parent. So needed, and so hard.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I do kind of wonder if this is one of the reasons that social workers will rarely place Black children with white families anymore. Even well-meaning white folks can do a whole lot of damage if they’re not careful, and those who mean ill can get away with murder. Literally.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
Thank you! Party is this evening, with champagne poured by top-level executive volunteers. ?
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Oswalt said that they did have some suspects, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they searched his trash. IIRC (and IANAL), the cops can search your trash on the curb without a search warrant.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
” or turn the gas on in the stove and asphyxiate everyone.”
Or turn the gas on and blow up the neighborhood…. I wonder how many of those explosions are that kind of “accident”…
Neighborhood, that’s one of those words where the e is before the i… without the indicator c… no wonder languages are hard!!
Going to a show now, Old Crow Medicine Show, dinner first. Hope it’s fun! Old time country music, no electric, no drums, just pickin’.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Hey now, that’s PG&E’s job!
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Not to be mean to well meaning white folks, but that savior complex is real. And while it seems good, it can be toxic. You’re not dealing with individuals, you’re dealing with a fabrication in your head that you apply to a living, breathing individual. I know I’ve disappointed some as a kid by literally not being the uncultured, struggling minority child of their ego gratification dreams. I was reading college level at 10. So, nice lady who wanted me to be happy about remedial reading she offered, um, sorry I suggested my latest passion of Shakespearean drama. Next life, we’ll do Ramona & Beezus.
But she was almost mad at me.