We don’t get HBO, but wife is watching an old movie broadcast channel – The Manchurian Candidate, B&W with Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra. Amazing how it fits into today’s politics.
Winter is OVER Bitches!!
Today it went from 50 or so up to 85 while I was shopping in town. The wine and cheese shop (for wine) and Krogers for Milk, veges and food. Sweaty and humid, air from the Gulf of Mexico. There were tornado warnings on the highway signs, and now it’s blowing and stormy, we need the rain.
@J R in WV:
Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I first knew of Angela Lansbury from Murder, She Wrote and as Mrs. Potts from Beauty & the Beast. So imagine my reaction when I first saw her in Manchurian Candidate. That lady knew how to play a villain.
@debbie:
Being serious, as it’s the last season there should be a pretty quick DVD release after it’s done airing.
13.
Steeplejack
I’m watching Rowan Atkinson as Inspector Maigret on WETA-UK, a lesser PBS station here in D.C. that is all Brit all the time. I’ve seen it before, but it’s well done, and it passes the time while I wait for Unforgotten at around 10:00. “Around” because they’re in the middle of some pledge thing, so they keep interrupting the programs to ask for donations and memberships.
I’m (finally) going to spring for $60 for the basic membership so I can access their streaming service. I need to catch up on Endeavour and some other programs that slipped through my fingers. Also, apparently on some series you can binge-watch a whole season on line as soon as it’s “released,” before they trickle out the episodes a week at a time.
14.
lamh36
when did every other tweet in my TL become about Game of Thrones? I don’t remember these many folks who were into it. Now it’s darn near every other tweet from people I follow..
I usually get to the Big Shows months or years or seasons after they air. Still have to finish Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Downtown Abbey — and to date have not seen anything from Game of Thrones except for what’s-her-name’s Walk of Shame. At some point I will catch up.
I’m watching “Corner Gas” on Amazon.
It amuses me because I spent some time in that part of Saskatchewan, as a child.
Moi aussi, 1954-56 or so. And a couple of official visits when I worked for the Cdn Govt.
I have the complete Corner Gas on DVD, and treat myself to a Great Binge every couple of years.
16.
raven
The first episode of Les Misérables with Dominic West and Derek Jacobi was very good.
17.
Aleta
My 12 yo dog has a single tumor in the upper part of one of his lungs. Not sure of exact size, but it might be between 3-4 cm. It’s growing but “not real fast” since last October. Does anyone have experience with this that they want to share?
I don’t know yet if the vet will say that he can “thread in” to the location to needle biopsy it. And I don’t know whether to trust his confidence in himself and his imaging tech either.
The pup is in great shape for his age and no fluid in his lungs, but he’s had a cough for months (which might be reaction to dust or like a kennel cough, both of which he sometimes has had). I think we will have to decide whether to do tests, and then what; or whether to leave him alone for the ? of time that he has. He’s an incredible soul, of course.
Though I have tried three times now, I still haven’t gotten past the fifth episode of season 1. I feel the same way about Game of Thrones as I do about Pete Butageig (sp?). Meh. Does. Not. Merit. The. Hype. At. All.
My 12 yo dog has a single tumor in the upper part of one of his lungs. Not sure of exact size, but it might be between 3-4 cm. It’s growing but “not real fast” since last October. Does anyone have experience with this that they want to share?
No experience, but I can send you the biggest hugs the Internets allow.
{{{{{{{{{{{{ HUG }}}}}}}}}}}}
21.
raven
The first episode of Les Misérables with Dominic West and David Oyelowo was quite good.
We did the whole enchilada for an anal carcinoma. Surgery, chemo and radiation. It was an awful experience for the pup and we say we wouldn’t do it again because of how awful it was but he did fully recover and live 2 1/2 years. That said all the books in the world could not have prepared us for it. Do what you think is best and try not to beat yourself up whatever that is.
25.
raven
@zhena gogolia: It’s on again later here, can you record it?
My cat Tehya developed lung cancer, and it just kinda came from nowhere and within a month she went from coughing constantly to refusing to eat to meowing in pain. By the time I got the vet to take x-rays and find out what was wrong, it was too late. :(
I am so sorry your puppy is in this situation. I don’t know what else to say or do. :(
My oldest sister is in Paris and went to a Vivaldi concert on our mom’s birthday.
I, umm, had lunch on the boardwalk, so there’s that!
29.
TomatoQueen
@raven: Liking it so far. It’s on 2 stations and an HD, definitely worth recording.
30.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh36: Neat. When we went to Igauzú Falls a few years ago, we didn’t cross over to the Brazilian side because it would have cost another $160 each and it just wasn’t worth it. Would have been nice, though.
i read the first GOT book and it was horrible, very long-winded. i enjoy the hbo series much more. though this modern trend of only having a few episodes in a season (7 in the last GOT season), and years between seasons (2 years since the last GOT season), is extremely annoying.
Ironically, since the episode was not written by George RR Martin, watching it was the experience most like reading the first few books.
Lots of rich story and character interaction. Not so much gratuitous violence.
45.
MobiusKlein
Soylent Green is Zombies!
46.
Bobby Thomson
Bran creeping on literally everyone is my favorite part of this episode.
47.
Barbara
@geg6: Hated Breaking Bad. With the exception of Jesse, there were no characters that had any redeeming features, certainly not enough to offset the mayhem they caused.
Totally agree. Despicable creatures were celebrated too much in that show. Walter disgusts me. I wanted them all to die. This is not how I want to feel about entertainment.
ETA: I had the same problem with The Sopranos.
49.
geg6
Watching a round table show with Anderson Cooper, John Dean, Richard Ben Veniste and Carl Bernstein about Nixon. Good conversation.
Why would one judge a work of drama by the metric of whether or not its characters had redeeming features?
And, having decided to subject these imaginary characters to such moral calibration would you then create a formula that balances this imaginary redemption against imaginary mayhem?
@Harbison: I find it hard to care about people who have zero virtues. It was well done, not dull, but after watching one season I didn’t care what happened to any of them.
53.
Irony Abounds
@geg6: In total agreement with you. GOT just didn’t do it for me, probably because it was too far out on the fantasy scale (never cared a whit about Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings either). Also didn’t really care for Breaking Bad because I could never root for a meth dealer. Mad Men was much more my taste.
54.
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: Oh, noes! Not the pupper who was in the pictures with Finney?
Some of us aren’t enamored of anti-heroes. You may be, so bully for you. We others are free to dislike the hateful and misogynist crap that passes for entertainment right now. White male criminality and violence is probably fun for you but not so much for those of us who are subject to it IRL. I’d rather be uplifted, find humor or be educated by my entertainment. Your mileage is obviously different. But fuck you very much for condescending assholishness that confirms my every thought about fans of shows I don’t like.
56.
Barbara
@geg6: I never watch movies about the mafia. I am on a mobile device so I will spare you the details but I can never get past the idea of lionizing people who suck the life out of others for a living.
Totally agree. Hated The Godfather movies, Goodfellas, Scarface, etc.
59.
jl
The Game of Thrones has too many pieces that are hard to tell apart. The board is confusing, and the wall got tore up when I didn’t fold it right one time. I lost the special dice you have to throw. So, I threw it out.
And, if the damned show is such a big deal, like, say, the Superbowl, why isn’t anyone talking about the commercials?
Anyway, never watched it, have no interest.
60.
Miss Bianca
@geg6: Hear, hear. Everyone can like and dislike what they please. I’ll never be into “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad”, I fear, just because the violence will get to the point where it seems nihilistic to me, and if I don’t care about any the characters, then it’s just torture porn. One reason that I watch “Deadwood” over and over again for example, even tho’ I *know* that there are violent scenes that will make feel positively faint, is that I CARE SO DAMN MUCH for the characters, even the ones I find awful. The writing is that rich and compelling.
Imagine the falls area is significantly more accessible (and built up) than when I was there – Brazilian side – 58 years ago. Also was in the same area where we were held hostage by the chief of a village of Guaraní Indians.
Never saw a minute of Breaking Bad or the Sopranos. Game of Thrones has tons of actors I love but I have zero interest in watching it — torture is not entertainment for me.
Wow, you go from zero to full-on asshole faster than shit through a goose.
Enjoy the pie because I’ll never see another fucking word you write.
64.
jl
@zhena gogolia: I do remember seeing a clip of Game of Thrones a long time ago. It seemed to be about bronzing some guy while he was still alive. Kind of turned me off. And I think I saw a clip of the dragons flying, that that stuff’s a dime a dozen. Plenty of dragon action around fantasy show biz. And I’m kind of boycotting medieval fantasy stuff until someone can do horses as well as Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
LOL, talk about your snowflake. That was being polite, sweetie.
66.
Luciamia
A pretty satisfying episode, but less than an hour length with only5 more to go? Aaaargh.
Theon makes good.
Repeating the fact that Dany murdered Sam’s father brother reminds us how ruthless she can be.
Greatest midieval fantasy ever made. Should have been a mic drop. Nothing will ever come close. Certainly not GoT.
69.
patroclus
This was sort of an “Everyone Arrives at Winterfell Homecoming” show, which was appropriate for a first episode of the season – it’ll get way better as the season progresses. I also thought Bran creeping up on everyone was the best part of this one. I’m predicting a Clegane Bowl, Jamie doing something incredibly heroic, Varys dying horribly and Jon and Dany really doing it (like Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York) before it’s all over.
70.
mrmoshpotato
Pfft….here it’s CONTINUING SEASON 10 OF BONES MOTHERFUCKERS.
@geg6: The only movie I’ve ever seen in my life that I called “obscene” was the Al Pacino Scarface. And I’ve seen most of the movies you’d expect a guy my age saw when he was younger
76.
Scuffletuffle
Anyone else waiting for Sandor to re-meet Sansa? Everyone else has had their reunion…and he’s looking quite lordly in Season 8 so far.
77.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: 58 years ago, you would have had an opportunity to see the no-longer-existing Guaíra Falls.
78.
Gin & Tonic
@Harbison: You think that’s bad? You must be new here.
79.
WaterGirl
@geg6: I find that there has to be at least one character that I like or that I can relate to, or some redeeming characteristic, otherwise, I’m just not interested. There has to be something positive, somewhere.
80.
Mike in NC
Oddly enough, Hollywood has a long history of not only glorifying the American mafia and organized crime, but also the Confederacy. So much for those liberal snowflakes.
81.
Nicole
I really did not like Season Seven, but I am cautiously optimistic after this episode for Season Eight. I liked it a lot. I especially loved how many shots recalled the first episode of the first season. Especially the episode ending with Jaime and Bran facing off in the courtyard, since the first episode ended with Jaime and Bran at the tower.
And was pleasantly surprised that Dany’s execution of Randall and Dickon Tarly came back to bite her.
@Nicole: Only commenter tonight who seems to have actually watched the show.
83.
Aleta
Lots of places online have the video of 6 officers pinning student Alexander McNab on his back and threatening him, trying to intimidate him. I didn’t realize til I read this in the Columbia U Spectator that they were Public Safety Dept. officers (at Barnard) who are not allowed to act like NYPD toward students.
What is it these days that so many people who’re given a little authority go overboard straight off, and claim they’re “protecting people.” It’s the gun mentality; but in all kinds of places, even those w/o guns. I notice they still think of themselves as nice people. As though ‘abuse of power’ has lost its meaning of wrongdoing.
…
In the video, Public Safety officers said they followed McNab because he ran past a Public Safety van and through Barnard gates without showing his ID to the officer, and continued running across the lawn. However, both McNab and multiple witnesses at the scene corroborated that he was walking at a normal pace when officers began to follow him.
Concern over Public Safety’s relationship with students of color came to a height at a recent Barnard Student Government Association meeting in March, where representatives said to Public Safety Executive Director Antonio Gonzalez that there have been multiple incidents of officers catcalling or harassing women of color on campus.
While speaking to SGA, Gonzalez emphasized that Public Safety officers act as civilians on campus and have no authority over students that is comparable to that of the New York Police Department or any other police force.
According to McNab, Barnard Public Safety officers have approached him twice in the past year, both times when he was in Barnard Hall for dance practice.
According to witnesses, when students approached Public Safety officers to correct their view of McNab’s actions, clarifying that he had not been running away, the officers also responded negatively.
“When I corrected them, they started screaming at me,” Norah Hassan, BC ’21, said. “It was so shocking that as a student and a witness, that the people supposed to serve and protect me were pointing at me and screaming. They were trying to police the way that we were responding to them, policing our actions because we didn’t agree with them.” Hassan’s account was corroborated by Caroline Cutlip, BC ’20, who witnessed and filmed the incident.
…
@Major Major Major Major: Stahl interviewed her again? Not a Stahl fan. I’ll watch the whole damn thing so if/when I come back to complain about what a crummy interview Stahl gave, I’ll won’t be accused of picking rotten fruit off the ground.
90.
jl
@Aleta: IMHO, it started 30 or 40 years ago with conservative ‘lock up all the bad guys’ and ‘scared straight’ barbarism.
91.
eemom
Sheeyit. With this level of vitriol about who likes what teevee series, I think we oughtta just give up on that “civil, respectful primary season” flying pig/unicorn/pony.
Also, since civil was never my thing to begin with, I’ll just snicker at the various pious-ass disses of movies/series about bad people. Depicting something is not the same as glorifying it….unless your imaginative capacity is at the depth of a mud puddle.
92.
Sab
@Jay: Well that’s a bit late. I liked the first three seasons, but it did get to be increasingly gratuitously violent, so I gave up after season four. But I thought there were a number of very interesting, decent characters trying to navigate in a morally impossible world.
Liked the books better, but while Martin writes some interesting men, he isn’t very good at writing adult women, although his little girls are great. The adult actresses really filled these roles out. Cersei in the books was a two dimensional soap opera villaness. Lena Headey did an amazing job of fleshing her out into a complicated person for at least a couple of years, until the plot overwhelmed her. By season four her character was just inexplicably nuts.
I just love all the big and little Starks, trying to be good in a horrible world.
Probably not the best comment to highlight, probably not a comment she should have made at all.
95.
Aleta
@jl: god, I think you’re right. And Deliverance maybe. Redemption of hetero masculinity in order to be saved.
ETA My older sister tried to use Deliverance as the reason she became a gun loving libertarian. But I know it started way back when she burned our comic books to punish us.
@Jay: Stahl and whatever simpleton CW hack producers who work with her did the interview. The whole thing was tripe. IMHO, absolutely nothing worth highlighting came out of that mess. I just endured the whole waste of time.
Once in a while 60 minutes still can do a good investigative piece, but it has become very trite corporate media tripe. IMHO.
But, Trump didn’t like it and said it was a ‘puff piece’ so I guess it did a tiny bit of good in the world.
99.
Nicole
@Sab: The mania over GOT reminds me of the mania over the releases of the last few Harry Potter books. It’s fun to be part of the viewing, or reading, crowd every ten years or so. GOT has its good episodes and its bad ones, but overall it’s been a very fun ride.
100.
PJ
@Sab: What’s the point of commenting on something you actually have some knowledge about? Far better to say “I never liked X even though I’ve only seen a little of it (or none of it) and Y is far better but I’m above watching any of these things the great unwashed enjoy.”
Game of Thrones has its strengths and weaknesses, but, at its best, it shows richly developed characters grappling with the seemingly unendurable and impossible, often making bad and awful decisions, and having to live with the consequences.
101.
jl
@Aleta: I was pretty young when the ‘scared straight’ crap started, and I thought it was horrific and barbaric. Like a lot of the 80s, I was just out of college and wondering why all this reactionary racist, hideous crap was allowed to be put on to debauch the whole country. That was when I started muttering sarcastically and half-jokingly about ‘crypto-fascists’, even while I was kind of libertarian curious as well. But soon decided it was all reactionary crap. Thank God while ‘curious’ I always managed to keep away from voting for any of those GOP scumbags. I now remind my younger self that my skepticism has been vindicated many times over, during the last several decades.
Did any of the conservative experiments in US governance not turn into messes? Was any of them not completely corrupted? Give me a few days to think of one, maybe.
Nancy Smash should know by now not to feed the “Dems in Disarray” MSM meme,
And Major, Major, Major, Major should also know better than to clip a tweet feeding that.
Leave it to failing RedState, FTFNYT and Still Dead Briebart.
103.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: And I watched a 60 Minutes archive piece. Seems like they only let Stahl interview Pelosi. And on tonight’s interview, Stahl ran some weird shit-show focus group with women House members like it was a ladies night at the ball game. ‘Retro’ much, Stahl? It was so sad, Pelosi had to note to Stahl that there were plenty of men House members she could have talked with, too.
Rest of it was exhausted CW corporate media concern trolling by Stahl, who for some reason narrated it like she was talking to first graders. I’ve seen similar messes from other 60 Minute corporate hacks, but I can’t think of their names right now.
We’ll be generous and give you a year, not just a few days.
105.
Sab
@Nicole: I missed the whole Harry Potter thing, being too busy with a bad marriage and a difficult job, etc. I love JK Rowling’s adult book, plus especially her pal Galbreath’s detective novels.
My husband got me a complete boxed set that is sitting on my bedroom floor, waiting for me to have time to read them this summer. The set came in a little box disguised as a trunk. Very cute. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was waiting for a British edition, where the spelling would be in sync with the syntax.
It has been quite a while since I have read an actual book on paper.
106.
Aleta
There might be almost 20 of these trash can resemblances in this thread of pictures of Junior “Greasy” Hair.
@eemom: Maybe some of us just don’t want to spend time with monsters. As I age and feel that I have less time to waste, I’ve decided to stay away from stuff that corrodes the spirit. You can call Breaking Bad an exploration of moral ambiguity and a character study, blah-de-blah-blah. I saw people I knew who watched the show vicariously enjoying the power to transgress limits, and wondered how far they’d take it. I do believe that you become what you practice; why practice inflecting misery and pain and contempt?
Read all the Potter books, watched all the movies. Still do.
Sits with me as a paired “classic” like “A River Runs Through It”, book and movie.
111.
jl
@Emerald: There’s one with the guy in a plaid shirt, Looks like he is slumped on a stump, thinking that he is sober enough to stand up, and about pitch forward and face plant. That was my favorite.
To state the obvious, everybody should watch whatever they want. My only point is, don’t mistake your own personal moral condemnation for any kind of valid commentary on the artistic merit of a work. Because it isn’t.
Dany is nothing if not ruthless. Remember the roadside crucifixions? But seriously, who is going to miss Old Many Tarly and his dickweed son?
117.
Jay
“There is a major problem with this thesis: there is no evidence for it, beyond the words of the Bush officials themselves. And since we know the administration was engaged in a widespread campaign of deception and propaganda in the run-up to the Iraq war, there is little reason to believe them.
My investigation into the causes of the war finds that it had little to do with fear of WMDs – or other purported goals, such as a desire to “spread democracy” or satisfy the oil or Israel lobbies. Rather, the Bush administration invaded Iraq for its demonstration effect.
A quick and decisive victory in the heart of the Arab world would send a message to all countries, especially to recalcitrant regimes such as Syria, Libya, Iran, or North Korea, that American hegemony was here to stay. Put simply, the Iraq war was motivated by a desire to (re)establish American standing as the world’s leading power.”
Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.
– Michael Ledeen, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute
Long story short, the chief had fallen head over heels in love at first sight with my mother and at both gun and spear point refused to let us leave. Took a couple of days until negotiations with the Brazilian government (including deploying some military) peacefully resolved things. We were treated like royalty the whole time there, albeit restricted as to movement and accompanied by a contingent of villagers present, some always carrying arms which must have been of WW1 vintage.
120.
Mel
@SiubhanDuinne: Me, as well. I like being able to watch as many episodes (or as few) at a time as schedule and sanity break need necessitate, versus watching one doled out per week.
121.
Sab
@Jay: I just wish that every ten years or so we could figurativley throw Michael Ledeen and his ilk against a wall before they get more people killed to prove their manliness or whatever.
Jeez guys, I thought it was a funny clip, classic Pelosi.
123.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry. My mood soured as soon as I saw what a hack job 60 Minutes made of the interview.
Do politicians have to participate in these con jobs?
124.
PJ
@lahke: You sound like those crazy preachers from the 80’s who thought that D&D was going to lead kids into actually summoning demons, or that heavy metal would turn kids into devil worshipers. People have been enjoying Macbeth for hundreds of years without wanting to murder their way to the throne.
125.
Lyrebird
@Aleta: Aw, here am I just feeling overwhelmed about facing Monday at my job and I read about your dear and kind-to-cats doggie. Sending good thoughts along.
@Major Major Major Major: me too, FWIW, but I am a total fan girl when it comes to Nancy SMASH!
It’s very dismissive to a whole new generation of “bootstrap”, not billionaire Democrats. The Justice Dem’s ratfuckers will put it in endless rotation,
And it follows her not really condemnation of calls by The Insane Clown POSus and others calls for the murder of Ilhan Omar and her repeat of 9/11 as a Religious Event, sacred.
It’s bad positioning.
127.
Mary G
I am a GOT fan, despite the violence, particularly the sets, costumes, and set direction. I was happy to see that Tormund, Beric Dondarian, and Dolorous Edd survived and the “Goddamit, I’ve always had blue eyes” moment. I missed Brienne, though they probably couldn’t have jammed one more character in. Jon and Arya’s reunion was great.
128.
Mel
@geg6: Have you watched Southland? I liked it almost as much as “The Wire”. Complex characters, and good writing. Regina King was phenomenal in Southland.
@Major Major Major Major: I do appreciate when the fanboys of the status quo say the quiet part out loud.
Makes it easier to flag the enemy within.
Those “five” are all grassroots elected, younger women of color working to upend the status quo that has utterly failed working America, dipshit.
132.
jl
@Jay: While the interview pissed me off because I thought it was produced by 60 Minutes in a hackish way, I don’t know how much you should hold Pelosi, or any politician, who does those things responsible for how they come off. I view this whole genre of interview as basically fraudulent. They are so heavily edited, the interview itself so interlarded with attitudinal and tendentious sidebars full of crap to make whatever BS points the show feels like making, it really doesn’t make much difference what Pelosi said.
I guess politicians feel they have to do them. I couldn’t get through one without going apeshit on the media hacks that put out these frauds. I’d tell them they start recording, do an honest damn interview without a cut. When we’re done they turn off the tape and show the whole damn thing or show nothing. Then, I’d start cussing up a storm. So, probably why I am not in politics.
My question is why this crappy junk exists, who watches this garbage, and why do politicians do them?
Edit: well, OK, I watched it, but I was provoked into doing BJ blog homework.
Edit2: and I got increasingly steamed as I watched the interview and counted the obvious cuts to what were obviously very different parts of the interview. Totally dishonest crap. About as informative and entertaining as a vegematic infomercial. Junk.
You make some very valid points, but I have a hard time with this:
whole new generation of “bootstrap”, not billionaire Democrats
..because I am not sure why this is “new”. Take some older Dems, how about Pat Leahy? Ed Markey? Okay they got law degrees but they grew up poor. Jim Clyburn, not a billionaire that I know of.
I don’t doubt your concerns about what “Justice” “Dems” may do with the clip, it’s just that after more circular-firing-squad stuff in the previous thread, I’m jumpy.
So, the other day, my “how I would handle the opiod question” response.
Any time a Democratic Party Member sits down with the MSM, there’s gonna be gotcha’s and shit stirring.
If you need a quick quip in response to that question,
“ they are living rent free in ReThug heads and are bringing a strong, fresh energy to the Democratic Party, which I welcome.”
136.
piratedan
@Major Major Major Major: well the hard part of these kinds of interviews, you never know what ends up being used and how its being framed, so for all we know, Nancy Smash could have waxed poetic about the bills that have been passed, and how Dems allow differing voices but how they embrace that versus the lemming-like behavior of the GOP… and all of that could have ended up on the floor as some faceless Producer cut in a way to approve or reinforce whatever agenda they chose to.
Sorry about the media handling of the framing of the narrative being my own hobby horse, but it don’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
It WAS a good clip. And she has a point that resonates with anybody who has enough sense not to fall into the same Bernout-esque faux Savior bullshit with AOC et al
And I will say it again. Who the fuck are you to tell US Democratic leaders what they should and shouldn’t say, Canadian goatfucker?
138.
jl
@Lyrebird: ” I don’t doubt your concerns about what “Justice” “Dems” may do with the clip, it’s just that after more circular-firing-squad stuff in the previous thread, I’m jumpy. ”
IMHO, the one upside to this stuff is that the vast majority of voters don’t pay attention to twitter spats about what some politician appeared to say on some show watched by oldsters. IIRC, 60 Minutes has an old audience (not as old as Fox News, but mid-60s). They probably fine with Pelosi being made to appear as if she is barking at these dang kids these days. And Stahl asserting that, based on absolutely nothing at all, it ‘looks’ like there are big fractures in the House Dem caucus, despite what some bogus clip of Pelosi seems to say, is about the most exciting kind of entertainment they can put up with. Gives them the galluping fantods.
Biden’s comment on being buddy, buddy with the ReThug boys, naked, in the locker room.
At a certain point in time, in some politicians careers, they spend so much time in the Halls of Power, and so vested in staying there, that they forget why they are there in the first place.
I’m not saying there arn’t good old Democratic Party Reps, I’m just saying, you welcome the Freshman Class, you don’t diss them.
@Jay: Unrelated to anything except you sail: Crewed today on skip’s new j/105. Our skipper can only make it to two of the six races in the spring session, and we just got 4 (of 5) crew today. But we’re learning the boat and when summer comes we’re going to be cursing the fact that everyone knows she’s fast. We’ll be taking the line and hoping we’re far enough ahead. (I think we’re 80-90 phrf. The boat I usually skip is about 225. Crewing at 80 gets the heart rate to the same point as skippering at 225.)
Today I was foredeck monkey, pit squirrel, trimmer, and for a half hour, driver. Everyone did everything, which isn’t the best way to get good at what you do, but it makes you appreciate what everyone else does.
Since I moved inland, all I’ve got is a Pelican dinghy and an Iceboat.
144.
Aleta
@Lyrebird: Thanks. The decisions are unnerving. They mostly seem to turn out wrong lately.
145.
Cathie from Canada
@Mel: Loved Southland! Yes, I thought it was almost as good as The Wire, too. Plenty dark, just a little too much of a procedural so not as much depth as The Wire achieved. Lots of great actors who have gone on to other good things, too.
The thing now, is that every “Progressive” politician has to be aware that the MSM, Daily Caller, the dying Red State and Still Dead Briebart is going to try to selectively edit and twist their words.
CNN ran a Town Hall with Harris, then edited clips to ratfuck her in their “news” feeds.
So, you need to be unratfuckable.
147.
janesays
@debbie: Game of Thrones Season 7 released on DVD on December 12, 2017, which was about three and a half months after the season finale aired that year (August 27th). Assuming HBO uses the same window for Season 8, we’re looking at a release sometime around Labor Day.
@Jay: It’s not Dems in Disarray. It’s a near accurate counting of the democratic socialist types who hold elected office in the House. And probably an accurate counting of how many people outside of DSA circles give a flying fuck about them.
Iain Glen, Jerome Flynn, Diana Rigg, etc., etc., etc. (I guess some of the ones I like are dead already). I’ve only seen bits and pieces when Leslie Jones was live-tweeting it, and it looked like a beautifully produced and acted Masterpiece Theater film, only with sex and torture.
155.
blackcatsrule
@PaulWartenberg: So sorry to hear about your kitty. My tiny gray fluffball passed away Friday morning after a precipitous decline. I’m still reeling.
156.
Barbara
@blackcatsrule: I am so sorry. It’s just the hardest part of loving critters. Sending you sympathy and condolences.
157.
blackcatsrule
@Barbara: Thank you. It’s hard but the years of love are so worth it.
I’ve only seen bits and pieces when Leslie Jones was live-tweeting it, and it looked like a beautifully produced and acted Masterpiece Theater film, only with sex and torture.
And dragons.
Loved the episode. Feeling wistful that there are only 5 more to go.
159.
Medicine Man
Good start to the last season of GoT. I’m hoping this season will all be a good send-off to the series.
I’ll stand by Breaking Bad on its merits. Entirely understood that it is not some people’s cup of tea, on account of the ugliness of what was presented, but BB was about more than just white male power fantasy. Not that you would know that from listening to – lets say half – the fan base. BB demonstrated how powerful the myth of the self made man is. That coupled with the tendency to empathize with the protagonist of a story, made many never grasp that Walter White was the villain of the story. Didn’t matter how obvious the writers made it either. I feel for poor Anna Gunn; she took so much shit from the BB fanbase; buncha choads.
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Hawes
Is there something on TV?
J R in WV
We don’t get HBO, but wife is watching an old movie broadcast channel – The Manchurian Candidate, B&W with Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra. Amazing how it fits into today’s politics.
Winter is OVER Bitches!!
Today it went from 50 or so up to 85 while I was shopping in town. The wine and cheese shop (for wine) and Krogers for Milk, veges and food. Sweaty and humid, air from the Gulf of Mexico. There were tornado warnings on the highway signs, and now it’s blowing and stormy, we need the rain.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@J R in WV: Donald Trump is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
rikyrah
Disney streaming will only cost $7?
???
HumboldtBlue
That’s a picture of Mohammed Salah, an extraordinary football player for Liverpool Football Club.
That’s him posing in front of the Kop end on Sunday after scoring an absolute belter of a goal against Chelsea Football Club.
On Wednesday, Chelsea fans who traveled to the Czech Republic for a Europa League match were proud to sing “Salah is a Bomber” to slur the Egyptian.
I watched about 20 minutes of the first episode of GOT years back and never got further.
MagdaInBlack
It snowed 6 inches here.
I’m watching “Corner Gas” on Amazon.
It amuses me because I spent some time in that part of Saskatchewan, as a child.
rikyrah
@J R in WV:
It snowed here ?
I mean, actually stick to the ground, snow???
debbie
I’m hoping the DVD will be out for Christmas.
Joe Falco
@J R in WV:
Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I first knew of Angela Lansbury from Murder, She Wrote and as Mrs. Potts from Beauty & the Beast. So imagine my reaction when I first saw her in Manchurian Candidate. That lady knew how to play a villain.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Ugh. It was warmish but not sunny here. I think your weather is heading our way.
Amir Khalid
@HumboldtBlue:
That’s our Mo.
Buckeye
@debbie:
Being serious, as it’s the last season there should be a pretty quick DVD release after it’s done airing.
Steeplejack
I’m watching Rowan Atkinson as Inspector Maigret on WETA-UK, a lesser PBS station here in D.C. that is all Brit all the time. I’ve seen it before, but it’s well done, and it passes the time while I wait for Unforgotten at around 10:00. “Around” because they’re in the middle of some pledge thing, so they keep interrupting the programs to ask for donations and memberships.
I’m (finally) going to spring for $60 for the basic membership so I can access their streaming service. I need to catch up on Endeavour and some other programs that slipped through my fingers. Also, apparently on some series you can binge-watch a whole season on line as soon as it’s “released,” before they trickle out the episodes a week at a time.
lamh36
when did every other tweet in my TL become about Game of Thrones? I don’t remember these many folks who were into it. Now it’s darn near every other tweet from people I follow..
https://media2.giphy.com/media/Xt5QqMyQSN1O8/giphy.gif
SiubhanDuinne
I usually get to the Big Shows months or years or seasons after they air. Still have to finish Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Downtown Abbey — and to date have not seen anything from Game of Thrones except for what’s-her-name’s Walk of Shame. At some point I will catch up.
@MagdaInBlack:
Moi aussi, 1954-56 or so. And a couple of official visits when I worked for the Cdn Govt.
I have the complete Corner Gas on DVD, and treat myself to a Great Binge every couple of years.
raven
The first episode of Les Misérables with Dominic West and Derek Jacobi was very good.
Aleta
My 12 yo dog has a single tumor in the upper part of one of his lungs. Not sure of exact size, but it might be between 3-4 cm. It’s growing but “not real fast” since last October. Does anyone have experience with this that they want to share?
I don’t know yet if the vet will say that he can “thread in” to the location to needle biopsy it. And I don’t know whether to trust his confidence in himself and his imaging tech either.
The pup is in great shape for his age and no fluid in his lungs, but he’s had a cough for months (which might be reaction to dust or like a kennel cough, both of which he sometimes has had). I think we will have to decide whether to do tests, and then what; or whether to leave him alone for the ? of time that he has. He’s an incredible soul, of course.
lamh36
Oooh… CARNIVALE!!!
geg6
Though I have tried three times now, I still haven’t gotten past the fifth episode of season 1. I feel the same way about Game of Thrones as I do about Pete Butageig (sp?). Meh. Does. Not. Merit. The. Hype. At. All.
SiubhanDuinne
@Aleta:
No experience, but I can send you the biggest hugs the Internets allow.
{{{{{{{{{{{{ HUG }}}}}}}}}}}}
raven
The first episode of Les Misérables with Dominic West and David Oyelowo was quite good.
HumboldtBlue
@Amir Khalid:
Indeed.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
We were at a dinner party — we got home in time to watch it but I didn’t have the energy. Good to know it’s good — I’ll jump in next week.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Here’s a book we got when Raven went through his fight
Pets Living With Cancer: A Pet Owner’s Resource
We did the whole enchilada for an anal carcinoma. Surgery, chemo and radiation. It was an awful experience for the pup and we say we wouldn’t do it again because of how awful it was but he did fully recover and live 2 1/2 years. That said all the books in the world could not have prepared us for it. Do what you think is best and try not to beat yourself up whatever that is.
raven
@zhena gogolia: It’s on again later here, can you record it?
JCJ
@Hawes:
The Bucks first playoff game just finished. Detroit was slightly overmatched.
PaulWartenberg
@Aleta:
My cat Tehya developed lung cancer, and it just kinda came from nowhere and within a month she went from coughing constantly to refusing to eat to meowing in pain. By the time I got the vet to take x-rays and find out what was wrong, it was too late. :(
I am so sorry your puppy is in this situation. I don’t know what else to say or do. :(
HumboldtBlue
@raven:
My sisters were all about that today.
My oldest sister is in Paris and went to a Vivaldi concert on our mom’s birthday.
I, umm, had lunch on the boardwalk, so there’s that!
TomatoQueen
@raven: Liking it so far. It’s on 2 stations and an HD, definitely worth recording.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh36: Neat. When we went to Igauzú Falls a few years ago, we didn’t cross over to the Brazilian side because it would have cost another $160 each and it just wasn’t worth it. Would have been nice, though.
James E Powell
@lamh36:
Things went sorta the same way when Sopranos wrapped. Suddenly, everyone who had ever watched the show was focused on it at the same time.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
I guess I could if I had the slightest idea how to record anything!
geg6
@James E Powell:
Also not a favorite but vastly superior to GoT. More of a The Wire fan, myself.
ETA: Guess I’m not in the cool crowd with any of the cultish shows. Really disliked Breaking Bad, too. Mad Men was a thousand times better, IMHO.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I wish I had had the chance to meet the Original Raven. And I think it is SO COOL that you took his name as your BJ nym.
Am sending all the best thoughts to you and your current menagerie. When does the Princess Bride return?
SFAW
@Hawes:
It’s a documentary about the 1962 NY Mets: Game of Throneberrys
It’s Amazin’
Steve in the ATL
Not familiar with GoT, but I’m binge watching “facts of life”
James E Powell
I’m watching the last episode of last season to review and recall. Gwendoline Christie, Rory McCann, and Jerome Flynn are treasures.
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: felt that ! thanks !
lurker dean
i read the first GOT book and it was horrible, very long-winded. i enjoy the hbo series much more. though this modern trend of only having a few episodes in a season (7 in the last GOT season), and years between seasons (2 years since the last GOT season), is extremely annoying.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: aw, no! Hugs ♥️♥️
debbie
@raven:
Yes!
PsiFighter37
More of a setup episode. I think episode 3 is going to be the one that is an absolute bloodbath, based on the preview for episode 2.
Aleta
@PaulWartenberg: @raven: Thanks for yr experience
Major Major Major Major: thanks!!
MazeDancer
Ironically, since the episode was not written by George RR Martin, watching it was the experience most like reading the first few books.
Lots of rich story and character interaction. Not so much gratuitous violence.
MobiusKlein
Soylent Green is Zombies!
Bobby Thomson
Bran creeping on literally everyone is my favorite part of this episode.
Barbara
@geg6: Hated Breaking Bad. With the exception of Jesse, there were no characters that had any redeeming features, certainly not enough to offset the mayhem they caused.
geg6
@Barbara:
Totally agree. Despicable creatures were celebrated too much in that show. Walter disgusts me. I wanted them all to die. This is not how I want to feel about entertainment.
ETA: I had the same problem with The Sopranos.
geg6
Watching a round table show with Anderson Cooper, John Dean, Richard Ben Veniste and Carl Bernstein about Nixon. Good conversation.
Harbison
@Barbara:
Why would one judge a work of drama by the metric of whether or not its characters had redeeming features?
And, having decided to subject these imaginary characters to such moral calibration would you then create a formula that balances this imaginary redemption against imaginary mayhem?
Harbison
@geg6:
What network/source?
Barbara
@Harbison: I find it hard to care about people who have zero virtues. It was well done, not dull, but after watching one season I didn’t care what happened to any of them.
Irony Abounds
@geg6: In total agreement with you. GOT just didn’t do it for me, probably because it was too far out on the fantasy scale (never cared a whit about Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings either). Also didn’t really care for Breaking Bad because I could never root for a meth dealer. Mad Men was much more my taste.
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: Oh, noes! Not the pupper who was in the pictures with Finney?
geg6
@Harbison:
Some of us aren’t enamored of anti-heroes. You may be, so bully for you. We others are free to dislike the hateful and misogynist crap that passes for entertainment right now. White male criminality and violence is probably fun for you but not so much for those of us who are subject to it IRL. I’d rather be uplifted, find humor or be educated by my entertainment. Your mileage is obviously different. But fuck you very much for condescending assholishness that confirms my every thought about fans of shows I don’t like.
Barbara
@geg6: I never watch movies about the mafia. I am on a mobile device so I will spare you the details but I can never get past the idea of lionizing people who suck the life out of others for a living.
geg6
@Harbison:
CNN
geg6
@Barbara:
Totally agree. Hated The Godfather movies, Goodfellas, Scarface, etc.
jl
The Game of Thrones has too many pieces that are hard to tell apart. The board is confusing, and the wall got tore up when I didn’t fold it right one time. I lost the special dice you have to throw. So, I threw it out.
And, if the damned show is such a big deal, like, say, the Superbowl, why isn’t anyone talking about the commercials?
Anyway, never watched it, have no interest.
Miss Bianca
@geg6: Hear, hear. Everyone can like and dislike what they please. I’ll never be into “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad”, I fear, just because the violence will get to the point where it seems nihilistic to me, and if I don’t care about any the characters, then it’s just torture porn. One reason that I watch “Deadwood” over and over again for example, even tho’ I *know* that there are violent scenes that will make feel positively faint, is that I CARE SO DAMN MUCH for the characters, even the ones I find awful. The writing is that rich and compelling.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Imagine the falls area is significantly more accessible (and built up) than when I was there – Brazilian side – 58 years ago. Also was in the same area where we were held hostage by the chief of a village of Guaraní Indians.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara: @geg6:
Never saw a minute of Breaking Bad or the Sopranos. Game of Thrones has tons of actors I love but I have zero interest in watching it — torture is not entertainment for me.
Harbison
@geg6:
Wow, you go from zero to full-on asshole faster than shit through a goose.
Enjoy the pie because I’ll never see another fucking word you write.
jl
@zhena gogolia: I do remember seeing a clip of Game of Thrones a long time ago. It seemed to be about bronzing some guy while he was still alive. Kind of turned me off. And I think I saw a clip of the dragons flying, that that stuff’s a dime a dozen. Plenty of dragon action around fantasy show biz. And I’m kind of boycotting medieval fantasy stuff until someone can do horses as well as Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
geg6
@Harbison:
LOL, talk about your snowflake. That was being polite, sweetie.
Luciamia
A pretty satisfying episode, but less than an hour length with only5 more to go? Aaaargh.
Theon makes good.
Repeating the fact that Dany murdered Sam’s father brother reminds us how ruthless she can be.
Jay
@Barbara:
The Family was pretty good, but it’s kinda an anti-Mafia movie.
geg6
@jl:
Greatest midieval fantasy ever made. Should have been a mic drop. Nothing will ever come close. Certainly not GoT.
patroclus
This was sort of an “Everyone Arrives at Winterfell Homecoming” show, which was appropriate for a first episode of the season – it’ll get way better as the season progresses. I also thought Bran creeping up on everyone was the best part of this one. I’m predicting a Clegane Bowl, Jamie doing something incredibly heroic, Varys dying horribly and Jon and Dany really doing it (like Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York) before it’s all over.
mrmoshpotato
Pfft….here it’s CONTINUING SEASON 10 OF BONES MOTHERFUCKERS.
khead
@Barbara:
Was joking with a friend today about this exact thing.
George Constanza was a saint compared to Walter White – who is a saint compared to the Gallagher clan.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Ditto, except haven’t clue one as to which actors are in GoT.
NotMax
@patroclus
What are the bookmakers’ odds on a final episode meteor?
;)
lamh36
Ok…I had to post this…this article is ok, but someone said the cover looks like the 40 Year Old Virgin movie poster and now I can’t unsee it…LOL
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: The only movie I’ve ever seen in my life that I called “obscene” was the Al Pacino Scarface. And I’ve seen most of the movies you’d expect a guy my age saw when he was younger
Scuffletuffle
Anyone else waiting for Sandor to re-meet Sansa? Everyone else has had their reunion…and he’s looking quite lordly in Season 8 so far.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: 58 years ago, you would have had an opportunity to see the no-longer-existing Guaíra Falls.
Gin & Tonic
@Harbison: You think that’s bad? You must be new here.
WaterGirl
@geg6: I find that there has to be at least one character that I like or that I can relate to, or some redeeming characteristic, otherwise, I’m just not interested. There has to be something positive, somewhere.
Mike in NC
Oddly enough, Hollywood has a long history of not only glorifying the American mafia and organized crime, but also the Confederacy. So much for those liberal snowflakes.
Nicole
I really did not like Season Seven, but I am cautiously optimistic after this episode for Season Eight. I liked it a lot. I especially loved how many shots recalled the first episode of the first season. Especially the episode ending with Jaime and Bran facing off in the courtyard, since the first episode ended with Jaime and Bran at the tower.
And was pleasantly surprised that Dany’s execution of Randall and Dickon Tarly came back to bite her.
Also, the very funny Michael Harriot offers the Presidential Candidates and their GOT counterparts.
Sab
@Nicole: Only commenter tonight who seems to have actually watched the show.
Aleta
Lots of places online have the video of 6 officers pinning student Alexander McNab on his back and threatening him, trying to intimidate him. I didn’t realize til I read this in the Columbia U Spectator that they were Public Safety Dept. officers (at Barnard) who are not allowed to act like NYPD toward students.
What is it these days that so many people who’re given a little authority go overboard straight off, and claim they’re “protecting people.” It’s the gun mentality; but in all kinds of places, even those w/o guns. I notice they still think of themselves as nice people. As though ‘abuse of power’ has lost its meaning of wrongdoing.
Jay
@Sab:
I won’t get to see it until it comes out on DVD.
Major Major Major Major
Aleta
@Miss Bianca: yeah. That’s not his best angle :) He’s one of the greats.
eldorado
never change, comment section. never change.
Major Major Major Major
@lamh36: oh. Oh no lol.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: Stahl interviewed her again? Not a Stahl fan. I’ll watch the whole damn thing so if/when I come back to complain about what a crummy interview Stahl gave, I’ll won’t be accused of picking rotten fruit off the ground.
jl
@Aleta: IMHO, it started 30 or 40 years ago with conservative ‘lock up all the bad guys’ and ‘scared straight’ barbarism.
eemom
Sheeyit. With this level of vitriol about who likes what teevee series, I think we oughtta just give up on that “civil, respectful primary season” flying pig/unicorn/pony.
Also, since civil was never my thing to begin with, I’ll just snicker at the various pious-ass disses of movies/series about bad people. Depicting something is not the same as glorifying it….unless your imaginative capacity is at the depth of a mud puddle.
Sab
@Jay: Well that’s a bit late. I liked the first three seasons, but it did get to be increasingly gratuitously violent, so I gave up after season four. But I thought there were a number of very interesting, decent characters trying to navigate in a morally impossible world.
Liked the books better, but while Martin writes some interesting men, he isn’t very good at writing adult women, although his little girls are great. The adult actresses really filled these roles out. Cersei in the books was a two dimensional soap opera villaness. Lena Headey did an amazing job of fleshing her out into a complicated person for at least a couple of years, until the plot overwhelmed her. By season four her character was just inexplicably nuts.
I just love all the big and little Starks, trying to be good in a horrible world.
ETA: of course loved Tyrion.
Aleta
@NotMax: Held hostage for what in exchange?
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Probably not the best comment to highlight, probably not a comment she should have made at all.
Aleta
@jl: god, I think you’re right. And Deliverance maybe. Redemption of hetero masculinity in order to be saved.
ETA My older sister tried to use Deliverance as the reason she became a gun loving libertarian. But I know it started way back when she burned our comic books to punish us.
Jay
@Sab:
Yup, there’s a bunch of redemption stories in there as well.
Not everybody’s Lyanna Mormont when they are only 9 years old.
rikyrah
@Aleta:
Sending positive thoughts ?
jl
@Jay: Stahl and whatever simpleton CW hack producers who work with her did the interview. The whole thing was tripe. IMHO, absolutely nothing worth highlighting came out of that mess. I just endured the whole waste of time.
Once in a while 60 minutes still can do a good investigative piece, but it has become very trite corporate media tripe. IMHO.
But, Trump didn’t like it and said it was a ‘puff piece’ so I guess it did a tiny bit of good in the world.
Nicole
@Sab: The mania over GOT reminds me of the mania over the releases of the last few Harry Potter books. It’s fun to be part of the viewing, or reading, crowd every ten years or so. GOT has its good episodes and its bad ones, but overall it’s been a very fun ride.
PJ
@Sab: What’s the point of commenting on something you actually have some knowledge about? Far better to say “I never liked X even though I’ve only seen a little of it (or none of it) and Y is far better but I’m above watching any of these things the great unwashed enjoy.”
Game of Thrones has its strengths and weaknesses, but, at its best, it shows richly developed characters grappling with the seemingly unendurable and impossible, often making bad and awful decisions, and having to live with the consequences.
jl
@Aleta: I was pretty young when the ‘scared straight’ crap started, and I thought it was horrific and barbaric. Like a lot of the 80s, I was just out of college and wondering why all this reactionary racist, hideous crap was allowed to be put on to debauch the whole country. That was when I started muttering sarcastically and half-jokingly about ‘crypto-fascists’, even while I was kind of libertarian curious as well. But soon decided it was all reactionary crap. Thank God while ‘curious’ I always managed to keep away from voting for any of those GOP scumbags. I now remind my younger self that my skepticism has been vindicated many times over, during the last several decades.
Did any of the conservative experiments in US governance not turn into messes? Was any of them not completely corrupted? Give me a few days to think of one, maybe.
Jay
@jl:
Nancy Smash should know by now not to feed the “Dems in Disarray” MSM meme,
And Major, Major, Major, Major should also know better than to clip a tweet feeding that.
Leave it to failing RedState, FTFNYT and Still Dead Briebart.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: And I watched a 60 Minutes archive piece. Seems like they only let Stahl interview Pelosi. And on tonight’s interview, Stahl ran some weird shit-show focus group with women House members like it was a ladies night at the ball game. ‘Retro’ much, Stahl? It was so sad, Pelosi had to note to Stahl that there were plenty of men House members she could have talked with, too.
Rest of it was exhausted CW corporate media concern trolling by Stahl, who for some reason narrated it like she was talking to first graders. I’ve seen similar messes from other 60 Minute corporate hacks, but I can’t think of their names right now.
Jay
@jl:
We’ll be generous and give you a year, not just a few days.
Sab
@Nicole: I missed the whole Harry Potter thing, being too busy with a bad marriage and a difficult job, etc. I love JK Rowling’s adult book, plus especially her pal Galbreath’s detective novels.
My husband got me a complete boxed set that is sitting on my bedroom floor, waiting for me to have time to read them this summer. The set came in a little box disguised as a trunk. Very cute. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was waiting for a British edition, where the spelling would be in sync with the syntax.
It has been quite a while since I have read an actual book on paper.
Aleta
There might be almost 20 of these trash can resemblances in this thread of pictures of Junior “Greasy” Hair.
Emerald
@Nicole: Hilarious. Especially the last one.
lahke
@eemom: Maybe some of us just don’t want to spend time with monsters. As I age and feel that I have less time to waste, I’ve decided to stay away from stuff that corrodes the spirit. You can call Breaking Bad an exploration of moral ambiguity and a character study, blah-de-blah-blah. I saw people I knew who watched the show vicariously enjoying the power to transgress limits, and wondered how far they’d take it. I do believe that you become what you practice; why practice inflecting misery and pain and contempt?
eemom
@Jay:
She shouldn’t have made the comment at all, eh?
Dammit Nancy — when are you gonna learn to consult the all important Canadian goatfucker demographic before you open your mouth?
Jay
@Sab:
Read all the Potter books, watched all the movies. Still do.
Sits with me as a paired “classic” like “A River Runs Through It”, book and movie.
jl
@Emerald: There’s one with the guy in a plaid shirt, Looks like he is slumped on a stump, thinking that he is sober enough to stand up, and about pitch forward and face plant. That was my favorite.
Jay
@lahke:
Yup. There are a minority of people who took “Wall Street” as a cautionary tale, and far, far more who took it as an ethos.
Once upon a time 1984 and Animal Farm were cautionary tales, now they are user manuals.
Sab
@Jay: Yes. Did you like “River Runs Through It” book or movie better? The book haunts me.
Sab
@Jay: You sound like Michael Lewis reacting to readers reactions to his works.
eemom
@lahke:
To state the obvious, everybody should watch whatever they want. My only point is, don’t mistake your own personal moral condemnation for any kind of valid commentary on the artistic merit of a work. Because it isn’t.
James E Powell
@Luciamia:
Dany is nothing if not ruthless. Remember the roadside crucifixions? But seriously, who is going to miss Old Many Tarly and his dickweed son?
Jay
“There is a major problem with this thesis: there is no evidence for it, beyond the words of the Bush officials themselves. And since we know the administration was engaged in a widespread campaign of deception and propaganda in the run-up to the Iraq war, there is little reason to believe them.
My investigation into the causes of the war finds that it had little to do with fear of WMDs – or other purported goals, such as a desire to “spread democracy” or satisfy the oil or Israel lobbies. Rather, the Bush administration invaded Iraq for its demonstration effect.
A quick and decisive victory in the heart of the Arab world would send a message to all countries, especially to recalcitrant regimes such as Syria, Libya, Iran, or North Korea, that American hegemony was here to stay. Put simply, the Iraq war was motivated by a desire to (re)establish American standing as the world’s leading power.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/opinion/bush-war-iraq-190318150236739.html
Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.
– Michael Ledeen, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute
Has not turned out well.
Jay
@Sab:
I like both, and they both haunt me.
It’s hard for a writer to capture the bright water, the deep wading, the ballet of the flyline. The movie did that well.
But then, I am haunted by waters.
NotMax
@Aleta
Long story short, the chief had fallen head over heels in love at first sight with my mother and at both gun and spear point refused to let us leave. Took a couple of days until negotiations with the Brazilian government (including deploying some military) peacefully resolved things. We were treated like royalty the whole time there, albeit restricted as to movement and accompanied by a contingent of villagers present, some always carrying arms which must have been of WW1 vintage.
Mel
@SiubhanDuinne: Me, as well. I like being able to watch as many episodes (or as few) at a time as schedule and sanity break need necessitate, versus watching one doled out per week.
Sab
@Jay: I just wish that every ten years or so we could figurativley throw Michael Ledeen and his ilk against a wall before they get more people killed to prove their manliness or whatever.
Major Major Major Major
Jeez guys, I thought it was a funny clip, classic Pelosi.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry. My mood soured as soon as I saw what a hack job 60 Minutes made of the interview.
Do politicians have to participate in these con jobs?
PJ
@lahke: You sound like those crazy preachers from the 80’s who thought that D&D was going to lead kids into actually summoning demons, or that heavy metal would turn kids into devil worshipers. People have been enjoying Macbeth for hundreds of years without wanting to murder their way to the throne.
Lyrebird
@Aleta: Aw, here am I just feeling overwhelmed about facing Monday at my job and I read about your dear and kind-to-cats doggie. Sending good thoughts along.
@Major Major Major Major: me too, FWIW, but I am a total fan girl when it comes to Nancy SMASH!
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s very dismissive to a whole new generation of “bootstrap”, not billionaire Democrats. The Justice Dem’s ratfuckers will put it in endless rotation,
And it follows her not really condemnation of calls by The Insane Clown POSus and others calls for the murder of Ilhan Omar and her repeat of 9/11 as a Religious Event, sacred.
It’s bad positioning.
Mary G
I am a GOT fan, despite the violence, particularly the sets, costumes, and set direction. I was happy to see that Tormund, Beric Dondarian, and Dolorous Edd survived and the “Goddamit, I’ve always had blue eyes” moment. I missed Brienne, though they probably couldn’t have jammed one more character in. Jon and Arya’s reunion was great.
Mel
@geg6: Have you watched Southland? I liked it almost as much as “The Wire”. Complex characters, and good writing. Regina King was phenomenal in Southland.
Jay
@Sab:
Trebuchet or catapault?
Insane Clown Potus’s “Wall”?
Mike J
@PJ:
Bad example. As long as there have been thrones, the best way to get in it was murder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y7JzXOhBpQ
goblue72
@Major Major Major Major: I do appreciate when the fanboys of the status quo say the quiet part out loud.
Makes it easier to flag the enemy within.
Those “five” are all grassroots elected, younger women of color working to upend the status quo that has utterly failed working America, dipshit.
jl
@Jay: While the interview pissed me off because I thought it was produced by 60 Minutes in a hackish way, I don’t know how much you should hold Pelosi, or any politician, who does those things responsible for how they come off. I view this whole genre of interview as basically fraudulent. They are so heavily edited, the interview itself so interlarded with attitudinal and tendentious sidebars full of crap to make whatever BS points the show feels like making, it really doesn’t make much difference what Pelosi said.
I guess politicians feel they have to do them. I couldn’t get through one without going apeshit on the media hacks that put out these frauds. I’d tell them they start recording, do an honest damn interview without a cut. When we’re done they turn off the tape and show the whole damn thing or show nothing. Then, I’d start cussing up a storm. So, probably why I am not in politics.
My question is why this crappy junk exists, who watches this garbage, and why do politicians do them?
Edit: well, OK, I watched it, but I was provoked into doing BJ blog homework.
Edit2: and I got increasingly steamed as I watched the interview and counted the obvious cuts to what were obviously very different parts of the interview. Totally dishonest crap. About as informative and entertaining as a vegematic infomercial. Junk.
Lyrebird
@Jay:
You make some very valid points, but I have a hard time with this:
..because I am not sure why this is “new”. Take some older Dems, how about Pat Leahy? Ed Markey? Okay they got law degrees but they grew up poor. Jim Clyburn, not a billionaire that I know of.
I don’t doubt your concerns about what “Justice” “Dems” may do with the clip, it’s just that after more circular-firing-squad stuff in the previous thread, I’m jumpy.
Jay
@goblue72:
Fuck off troll,
@Major Major Major Major:
Case in point.
Jay
@jl:
So, the other day, my “how I would handle the opiod question” response.
Any time a Democratic Party Member sits down with the MSM, there’s gonna be gotcha’s and shit stirring.
If you need a quick quip in response to that question,
“ they are living rent free in ReThug heads and are bringing a strong, fresh energy to the Democratic Party, which I welcome.”
piratedan
@Major Major Major Major: well the hard part of these kinds of interviews, you never know what ends up being used and how its being framed, so for all we know, Nancy Smash could have waxed poetic about the bills that have been passed, and how Dems allow differing voices but how they embrace that versus the lemming-like behavior of the GOP… and all of that could have ended up on the floor as some faceless Producer cut in a way to approve or reinforce whatever agenda they chose to.
Sorry about the media handling of the framing of the narrative being my own hobby horse, but it don’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
eemom
@Major Major Major Major:
It WAS a good clip. And she has a point that resonates with anybody who has enough sense not to fall into the same Bernout-esque faux Savior bullshit with AOC et al
@Jay: .
And I will say it again. Who the fuck are you to tell US Democratic leaders what they should and shouldn’t say, Canadian goatfucker?
jl
@Lyrebird: ” I don’t doubt your concerns about what “Justice” “Dems” may do with the clip, it’s just that after more circular-firing-squad stuff in the previous thread, I’m jumpy. ”
IMHO, the one upside to this stuff is that the vast majority of voters don’t pay attention to twitter spats about what some politician appeared to say on some show watched by oldsters. IIRC, 60 Minutes has an old audience (not as old as Fox News, but mid-60s). They probably fine with Pelosi being made to appear as if she is barking at these dang kids these days. And Stahl asserting that, based on absolutely nothing at all, it ‘looks’ like there are big fractures in the House Dem caucus, despite what some bogus clip of Pelosi seems to say, is about the most exciting kind of entertainment they can put up with. Gives them the galluping fantods.
Jay
@Lyrebird:
Biden’s comment on being buddy, buddy with the ReThug boys, naked, in the locker room.
At a certain point in time, in some politicians careers, they spend so much time in the Halls of Power, and so vested in staying there, that they forget why they are there in the first place.
I’m not saying there arn’t good old Democratic Party Reps, I’m just saying, you welcome the Freshman Class, you don’t diss them.
It’s ammo for people like GlowBlue.
Sab
@Jay: Which would smack them harder?
Mike J
@Jay: Unrelated to anything except you sail: Crewed today on skip’s new j/105. Our skipper can only make it to two of the six races in the spring session, and we just got 4 (of 5) crew today. But we’re learning the boat and when summer comes we’re going to be cursing the fact that everyone knows she’s fast. We’ll be taking the line and hoping we’re far enough ahead. (I think we’re 80-90 phrf. The boat I usually skip is about 225. Crewing at 80 gets the heart rate to the same point as skippering at 225.)
Today I was foredeck monkey, pit squirrel, trimmer, and for a half hour, driver. Everyone did everything, which isn’t the best way to get good at what you do, but it makes you appreciate what everyone else does.
Jay
@Sab:
Trebouchet, but it’s a higher arc, more difficult to calculate, requires more tuning,
On the other hand, it drags them across the ground at high speed before the arc launch.
Jay
@Mike J:
Wow, great for you.
I’m jealous.
Since I moved inland, all I’ve got is a Pelican dinghy and an Iceboat.
Aleta
@Lyrebird: Thanks. The decisions are unnerving. They mostly seem to turn out wrong lately.
Cathie from Canada
@Mel: Loved Southland! Yes, I thought it was almost as good as The Wire, too. Plenty dark, just a little too much of a procedural so not as much depth as The Wire achieved. Lots of great actors who have gone on to other good things, too.
Jay
@jl:
The thing now, is that every “Progressive” politician has to be aware that the MSM, Daily Caller, the dying Red State and Still Dead Briebart is going to try to selectively edit and twist their words.
CNN ran a Town Hall with Harris, then edited clips to ratfuck her in their “news” feeds.
So, you need to be unratfuckable.
janesays
@debbie: Game of Thrones Season 7 released on DVD on December 12, 2017, which was about three and a half months after the season finale aired that year (August 27th). Assuming HBO uses the same window for Season 8, we’re looking at a release sometime around Labor Day.
frosty
@Nicole:
Yes, I thought that was quite a good flashback, from looking at the expression on Jaime’s face. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Jay
@janesays: @frosty:
Dudes, spoilers.
ruemara
@Jay: It’s not Dems in Disarray. It’s a near accurate counting of the democratic socialist types who hold elected office in the House. And probably an accurate counting of how many people outside of DSA circles give a flying fuck about them.
Jay
@ruemara:
They arn’t DSA.
DSA supported them, now claims that the only reason they won is DSA, just like JD’s.
DSA and JD’s are all about the benjamins and taking credit for other peoples work.
And like GlowBlue pointed out, Pelosi’s Quip and Major, Major, Major, Major’s twit repost is already being weaponized.
Kathleen
@Aleta: Sending hugs to you and your doggie!
janesays
@Jay: How is guesstimating when the Season 8 DVD will be released a spoiler?
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Iain Glen, Jerome Flynn, Diana Rigg, etc., etc., etc. (I guess some of the ones I like are dead already). I’ve only seen bits and pieces when Leslie Jones was live-tweeting it, and it looked like a beautifully produced and acted Masterpiece Theater film, only with sex and torture.
blackcatsrule
@PaulWartenberg: So sorry to hear about your kitty. My tiny gray fluffball passed away Friday morning after a precipitous decline. I’m still reeling.
Barbara
@blackcatsrule: I am so sorry. It’s just the hardest part of loving critters. Sending you sympathy and condolences.
blackcatsrule
@Barbara: Thank you. It’s hard but the years of love are so worth it.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
And dragons.
Loved the episode. Feeling wistful that there are only 5 more to go.
Medicine Man
Good start to the last season of GoT. I’m hoping this season will all be a good send-off to the series.
I’ll stand by Breaking Bad on its merits. Entirely understood that it is not some people’s cup of tea, on account of the ugliness of what was presented, but BB was about more than just white male power fantasy. Not that you would know that from listening to – lets say half – the fan base. BB demonstrated how powerful the myth of the self made man is. That coupled with the tendency to empathize with the protagonist of a story, made many never grasp that Walter White was the villain of the story. Didn’t matter how obvious the writers made it either. I feel for poor Anna Gunn; she took so much shit from the BB fanbase; buncha choads.