Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / I Don’t Know About Y’all…

I Don’t Know About Y’all…

by | 99 Comments

This post is in: ,

But I needed this:

Yes–it’s four years old, and everyone youtube-savvier than me has already seen it, but it’s still wicked awesome, and a temporary escape from all of that from which we crave escape.

And if we’re going to respite, let’s respite hard. Have some bonus Tikka:

I Don't Know About Y'all...

And how about a redwing blackbird harassing a great blue heron at my local pond:

I Don't Know About Y'all... 1

Over to y’all. Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    Hey film lovers, now showing on Amazon Prime is John Frankenheimer’s amazing, amazing film The Train (1965), starring Burt Lancaster and a terrific international cast (incl. Paul Scofield).

    I’d never seen it.

    It’s a masterpiece.

  2. 2.

    Eric S.

    Good evening, all. Here a few blocks west of Wrigley Field I had a moment of Wild Chicago. I heard a screech outside my 3rd floor window. I looked out to see a hawk rising up with a small bird in its talons.

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    Ah, respite. I thought this little item at the New York Review of Books was very sweet.

    How We Met

    My wife and I thought you might be interested in this “how we met.” Fifty years ago, the NYRB printed this non-personals classified in the issue of May 21, 1970:

  7. 7.

    Brachiator

    @BGinCHI:

    Hey film lovers, now showing on Amazon Prime is John Frankenheimer’s amazing, amazing film The Train (1965), starring Burt Lancaster and a terrific international cast (incl. Paul Scofield).

    Great film. Lancaster does a number of his own stunts in the film. Also, he had so much clout as the star of the film, that he had the original director, Arthur Penn fired after three day of filming and brought in Frankenheimer.

  8. 8.

    Barbara

    @Eric S.: Always shocking.  I took my dog for a walk one rainy Sunday morning and heard a commotion and a squeal and looked over in time to see a hawk rising into the air with a squirrel in its talons.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    We have a little marsh down the street. Redwing blackbirds and very loud frogs (or something). It’s our daily entertainment.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    For gentle (but not dull) respite, would again mention the first season of the Danish series Seaside Hotel is free on Prime, but only through May 31. Just six episodes of 45 minutes each, so can still binge all of them if your time permits.

    All the other seasons (AFAIK) are available on Prime through the added subscription cost PBS Masterpiece channel, which has folded in all the offerings from the European streamer Walter Presents.

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    Mansfield Park (1999), on the other hand, is emphatically not a masterpiece. Alessandro Nivola is great in it, though.

  12. 12.

    J R in WV

    OK.

    That display of instrumental virtuosity was amazing. I have never seen anyone play two instruments at the same time, in a live performance. Reminded me of Django Reinhart and Stephen Grappelli and Quintette du Hot Club de France… Only better looking. Amazing music.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @BGinCHI: Another good Burt Lancaster film is The Rainmaker. Aside from an introductory scene I think it followed the stage play word for word, scene by scene. Katherine Hepburn won an academy award for her Lizzie. Lancaster could have won the award for his Starbuck, but it was released in the 50’s and the Starbuck character is kind of subversive.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    @j R in WV

    In the long ago, emceed a couple of concerts featuring the band JF Murphy & Salt, one of whose members played two saxophones at the same time, when that was deemed necessary.

  16. 16.

    satby

    I’ve been binging on an old BBC series on Prime called Desperate Romantics thats been fun. Lots of Aidan Turner (Poldark) shirtless.?

    Why yes, I am that shallow.

  23. 23.

    Ohio Mom

    Brachiator: That’s a sweet story.

    Both my college roomate’s mother and my favorite aunt met their second husbands through the NYRB personal ads. I guess that is what sophisticated New York divorcées did in the 1970s. They are all gone now.

  26. 26.

    HumboldtBlue

    I am reading about the Peninsular War (Portugal/Spain) and the author quotes a description from a contemporary historian describing Lord Liverpool who served as British Prime Minister from 1801-1804.

    Liverpool was dominated by the Wellesley brothers and didn’t appear to be the sharpest bayonet in the scabbard and in fact, sounds an awful lot like a current bumblefuck in charge.

    As described by contemporary historian Peter Brougham —

    Of views upon all things the most narrow, upon religious and even political questions the most bigoted and intolerant, his range of mental vision was confined to his proportion of ignorance on all general subjects.

    Within that sphere he saw with extreme acuteness — as the mole is supposed to be more sharp-sighted than the eagle for half a quarter of an inch before it; but as beyond the limits of his little horizon he saw no better than the mole, so like her, he firmly believed and always acted on the belief that beyond what he could descry nothing whatever existed; and he mistrusted, dreaded and even hated all who had ampler visual range than himself.

    Beside the manifest sincerity of his convictions, attested perhaps, by his violence and rancour, he possessed many qualities, both of the head and the heart, which strongly recommended him to the confidence of the English people.

    He never scared them with refinements, nor alarmed them their fears by any sympathy with improvement out of the old beaten track; and he shared largely in all their favourite national prejudices.

  29. 29.

    JMG

    Redwing blackbirds occupy the pond on my golf course which is a hazard for the approach shot on the 8th and drive on the 9th. They are beautiful. So far this season, I have not disturbed them.

  30. 30.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Amir Khalid:

    Hah! That thought slipped in for a fraction of a second. “Why’s it got to be Lord Liverpool?” Of course, then we read about the big Liverpool slavers that built that city’s economy and I sit back down.

    @Tom Levenson:

    The War of Wars: Robert Harvey. Although I must confess professor, I skipped the first three parts detailing Napoleon’s rise and went straight for the Peninsular Campaign because it’s been on my front burner for about a year. So no quizzes until Part Four, please.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    I turned on the A.C. for the first time this season a while ago. Not the heat—it got up only to about 80° today—but the place feels very stuffy and very humid. Not getting any breeze from outside. And it’s going up to 87° tomorrow. I’ll turn it off after the place cools down and see how it goes.

    And I got through my semiannual twinge of anxiety about whether the system would start up or just blow up. (Same in the fall when I turn on the heat.) Irrational, but there you are.

    Took my friend to an appointment this morning and stayed off the computer pretty much all afternoon, so I feel like I’ve had a mini-vacation.

    And I think I finally might be getting a new computer. I’m eyeballing a ThinkPad T480 at Tiger Direct for a pretty good price. Not as sexy as an X1 Carbon, but way cheaper and I can horse it up to 32 GB of RAM.

    Now to catch up with the news. ?

  35. 35.

    prostratedragon

    @BGinCHI:
    Love that movie, watch every year or so. Frankenheimer was on some kind of hot streak during that time.

    1966 Seconds
    1964 The Train
    1964 Seven Days in May
    1962 The Manchurian Candidate
    1962 Birdman of Alcatraz
    1962 All Fall Down
    1961 The Young Savages
    And hardly a slouch afterward.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I remember there was a bit of fuss when someone pointed out that Penny Lane is named after slavetrader John Penny. But being a port city, Liverpool has a history of diversity; apparently, Britain’s oldest mosque was established there.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    Not at all taxing and kind of cute as light respite is the New Zealand series Step Dave on Prime. Works fine as an interlude of escapism and the kids, especially, are truer to real life youngsters than seen in many a sitcom.

    Ditto as escapist fare for Little Coincidences (from Spain) on Prime. Takes a bit to warm up to as it finds its footing; much of the dialogue writing as it progresses is as sharp as a scalpel.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    @HumboldtBlue: Bernard Cornwell wrote a series of novels featuring British super soldier Richard Sharpe, mostly involving the Peninsular War. Lots of strategy, tactics, and blood. Good stuff if you like that sort of thing.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    Tikka is, as always, majestic.

    There is a pond next to some apartments that has a walkway going to campus in Pullman. I used to walk that way getting to class because it was downhill from my place plus the corresponding uphill is a smaller grade. That pond was full of red winged blackbirds all through the warmer months. They never really bothered us but oh man were they noisy!

  43. 43.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Amir Khalid:

    Its ethnic diversity became its strength and remains so to this day if you listen to the locals.

    And it’s home to the oldest expat Chinese community in Europe and it’s the most Irish city outside of Ireland.

    I’ll find a wonderful series of videos about the history of the city that was hugely enlightening and informative.

    And we haven’t touched the music yet.

    London claims the oldest mosque built in Toxeth in 1889 but the Abdullah Quilliam Society was formed in Liverpool two years earlier in 1887 and it seems their “little mosque” wins the day.

  46. 46.

    BGinCHI

    @prostratedragon: He’s SUPER underrated.

    And if not for Ronin, I don’t think a lot of people would go back to his films as much as they do.

    He constantly astonishes me.

  50. 50.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Geminid:

    Oh, I’ve feasted to my fill on Cornwell. I have the Sharpe TV series as well as the entires series on e-book (one of the first downloads, came soon after Aubrey-Maturin) and as Cornwell put it in a series of excellent videos where he led guided tours of the campaign on the actual battlefields that has since been removed by YouTube, and I paraphrase, “the best thing to happen to Richard Sharpe was Sean Bean.”

    One of the things I liked about how Cornwell presented Sharpe was his ruthlessness, he was a stone-cold killer when he needed to be and I think that underpinned the quality of the saga. He gave Sharpe real depth, both ugly and not.

    I use this website as a resource and companion when reading about the campaign.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The books were made into a British TV series with Sean Bean as Sharpe.

    The man was constantly taking his shirt off. There was a lot of Sean Bean (and another time, can we talk about the absurdity of the English language when we break down two words — Sean and Bean?) nipple in the TV series.

  51. 51.

    Eric S.

    @Delk: Really?!? I wouldn’t have predicted that. I had a hummingbird(s) visiting a flowering tree outside my window for the past week. That definitely paused my work productivity .

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Solid state drive? If not, pass on it. Also too, Tiger Direct’s business track record is somewhat … spotty.

    If it’s at all in the neighborhood of your price range (or you find a decent sale), look at the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    Just got done belatedly reading Larry Kramer’s obituary (NYT). Seems like a nuanced look at his career and “loudmouth” (his word) persona.

    “I was trying to make people united and angry. I was known as the angriest man in the world, mainly because I discovered that anger got you further than being nice. And when we started to break through in the media, I was better TV than someone who was nice.”

    I was gobsmacked by this:

    His breakthrough as a writer came with a screen adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, for which he had obtained the film rights with $4,200 of his own money. He also produced the film, which was a box-office hit when it was released in 1969 and a high point of more than one career. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award; Glenda Jackson won an Oscar as best actress for her performance; and the director, Ken Russell, established himself as an important filmmaker.

  54. 54.

    prostratedragon

    @BGinCHI:
    You know, I’ve read that cinematographers often found him infuriating to work with. What’s the German for too-bad-for-you-but-no-consequence-to-me? ;)

  55. 55.

    Bill Arnold

    The US Consumer Product Safety Commission twitter account is a welcome respite (from e.g. DJT twitter):

    Trampoline season really sneaks up on you.— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) May 28, 2020

  57. 57.

    LarryB

    Blackbirds are badass. I used to work in a high rise office with a view out to a tree lined sidewalk. I kept seeing pedestrians running by wildly flapping their hands in the air. I didn’t understand until I walked out their and got dive-bombed by the birds who “owned” those trees. They peck!

  59. 59.

    J R in WV

    @HumboldtBlue:

    the most Irish city outside of Ireland.

    We have friends who will dispute that claim, NYC, Bahstahn for two places. I dunno the actual statistics, but there are a lot of Irish in both places.

  62. 62.

    Eric S.

    @BGinCHI: Just knock on the window next time. I’m sure I have something to eat in the kitchen. But if you are in bird form watch out for Ozzie The Cat.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @BGinCHI

    Imperious on the set, so they say. Unable to speak to that but can vouch he was wickedly funny in person.

  65. 65.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    It does have an SSD (256 GB, which is plenty for me). Also Win10 Pro (vs. Home), 16 GB RAM and 1,920 × 1,080 HD display. Price is $949, which is pretty good for what I’ve been seeing lately. (Problem lately is not price but what do vendors actually have in stock.)

    I have had success with Tiger Direct in the past, but your warning is noted.

  69. 69.

    HumboldtBlue

    @J R in WV:

    I ain’t got no data, just two arms kept strictly to the side while we dance through the stories.

    After a 2016 poll in the “Liverpool Echo” newspaper revealed 70 percent of its readers favored leaving the UK following the result, Dublin-born Dr. Michael Holmes, currently the senior lecturer in politics at Liverpool Hope University, jokingly suggested Liverpool become Ireland’s 33rd county.

    “Merseyside could apply to the Republic of Ireland for recognition and ask to become the 33rd county,” he said, echoing the calls of a top Irish banker earlier in 2016 that Ireland become the 51st state of the United States.

    “Alternatively, we could arrange for a swap. For instance, we could exchange Merseyside for Co. Offaly.

    “Doing so would also significantly improve the quality of Irish soccer,” Dr. Holmes added.

    Liverpool is known for having a very strong Irish heritage, perhaps only second to Glasgow in terms of the number of residents who claim Irish ancestry.

    Sometimes dubbed “the real capital of Ireland” by its residents, an estimated three-quarter of Liverpool’s population has Irish roots.

  71. 71.

    prostratedragon

    @J R in WV:  Don’t forget that toddlin’ town, where if you’re running for office it still helps to have an Irish-sounding part to your name, even if it’s Muhammed O’Neill Ali.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    256 GB SSD is the bare minimum to squeak by. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but eventually the machine will struggle. Don’t recommend it if there is a 512GB (or even 1TB) option.

    From PCmag:

    So, I mentioned Lenovo’s $959 ThinkPad T480 starter model above, but perhaps I was being a little disingenuous bringing it up at all. Why? Because you really should avoid that model altogether. Source

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    OT (but this is an open thread, after all): just saw a couple of tweets about Clarence Thomas quickly retiring if trumpov loses and McConnell hustling to ram through a replacement SCOTUS judge before Biden is sworn in.

    I know there has already been speculation about Thomas retiring this summer, in time for trumpov to make an appointment in the run-up to the November election.

    Either way, this ain’t a bad hill for the Dems to plant a flag on: if Thomas retires any time between now and Inauguration Day, and trumpov/McConnell try to appoint a new SCOTUS judge, that’s it, we’re adding two more seats to SCOTUS*.  Rubio can try all he wants with his dumb constitutional amendment to limit the number of seats to nine, but we’ve all seen how well THAT procedure works these days.

    *AND doubling the size of the federal judiciary while we’re at it!

    Go for it, Dems.  Tell American voters now, point out the hypocrisy with Gorsuch (again) and remind everyone of what’s at stake in November.

  76. 76.

    Mike in NC

    @BGinCHI: Big Burt Lancaster. One of the greatest American actors of the 20th century and an activist Democrat all his life.

  82. 82.

    smedley the uncertain

    @tybee: Thank you for sharing that discovery.  Also another site in which become aimlessly and blissfully lost…

  84. 84.

    Tom Levenson

    @catclub: Oh he was. But woe to anyone foolish enough to poke fun at it besides himself.

    Tikka has a similar view of lèse-catesté.

  86. 86.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: Also: From Here To Eternity, Seven Days in May, Atlantic City, Ulzana’s Raid, Go Tell The Spartans

    I heard he made ‘Elmer Gantry’ because he hated evangelist preachers.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    His breakthrough as a writer came with a screen adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, for which he had obtained the film rights with $4,200 of his own money. He also produced the film, which was a box-office hit when it was released in 1969 and a high point of more than one career.

    I did not know that of his involvement with this film. I remember seeing the film at a screening at my college film society. Nothing about it felt like a quaint period piece. It was quirky, vibrant and the acting was just … wow.

  88. 88.

    satby

    @HumboldtBlue: can we talk about the absurdity of the English language when we break down two words — Sean and Bean?

    Sean isn’t English, it’s Irish Gaelic, so the phonemes aren’t the same.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @Jeffro: Please. He ain’t finding shit. He’ll get the nominee from Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society and act like he’s known him forever. Then Yertle will try to push him through as fast as possible. There’s a whole process and President Toadface only has to do the ceremonial parts.

  90. 90.

    Gin & Tonic

    Been experimenting with making yogurt in the Instant Pot – I eat yogurt nearly every day. What I can’t figure out is why I might want to buy packaged yogurt starter like this as opposed to using a few tablespoons of a good organic yogurt as a starter. The latter approach has worked satisfactorily the last two batches.

  91. 91.

    prostratedragon

    @Gin & Tonic:  Does the flavor of the yogurt you make resemble the starter? I buy a couple of yogurts I like but do have an Instant Pot, which I might need to use now that the A/C is on, praise the Lord.

  95. 95.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Thanks for the info. I get Newegg’s flyers, but I’ll check out the link.

    I’m using only 75 GB of disk space on my current antediluvian computer (vintage 2012), and if I need to go bigger I can get an SSD and install it myself for much less than the vendors want for one pre-installed.

    PC: “So, I mentioned Lenovo’s $959 ThinkPad T480 starter model above, but perhaps I was being a little disingenuous bringing it up at all. Why? Because you really should avoid that model altogether.”

    The model I’m looking at is not that starter model at all. It doesn’t have a 1,368×768 display, and it doesn’t have a traditional hard disk. It’s equivalent to the “more moderate, in-between configuration with Core i5-8250U power, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a full HD (1080p) non-touch display [for] around $1,200.” But with 16 GB of RAM.

    I’m agnostic on Intel vs. AMD, at least for this non-development machine. RAM is a bigger interest, and I can kick it up to 32 GB.

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @HumboldtBlue:

    and another time, can we talk about the absurdity of the English language when we break down two words — Sean and Bean?

    How about Mr and Bean?

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    Yeah, I saw it in college very soon after it came out, and it definitely was a “shock of the new” thing. Alan Bates, Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson were new faces (Bates a bit less so), and Ken Russell was years from turning into self-parody. It shows up on TCM occasionally and still packs a wallop. Kramer’s screenplay was nominated for an Oscar (if you didn’t read the linked Times article).

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