I thought we could use a fresh one. Samwise says play nice. He’s watching!
I’m just hanging out doing some reading. I had an exhausting week. I had to go to the office four whole days! Poor me.
It was actually sort of funny, the team came to visit from (mostly) San Francisco, they were absolutely horrified that it was eighty degrees out. “And it stays hot so late!” Yes. That is how it usually works, especially in cities. I’ll admit that when you’ve just been in SF it can be disorienting to not carry a light sweater everywhere, but…
Open thread!
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I lived in SF for a few years, and you do get very used to the climate. Which makes even a short heatwave really awful. Most downtown apartments don’t have AC, and I didn’t even own a fan because why would I, and when we had temps in the mid-90s for a couple days one summer, I seriously considered staying in a hotel until it passed.
NotMax
80? A joy compared to the first 10 or so days when I was there a month ago.
;)
Another joy was finally getting to greet you in person.
Major Major Major Major
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: yeah, mid-80s always felt weirdly hot to me when I lived there. ‘Tis a silly place.
HumboldtBlue
Is flouncing allowed up here? I’m just asking for a friend.
GoBlueInOak
We got weeks & weeks ahead of high 70s/low 80s daytime & high to mid 50s overnight, here in East Bay. While rest of country is starting to bust out the pumpkin spiced lattes.
I’ll take the Bay Area anytime.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@HumboldtBlue:
Of course! And so is going “Goodbye Cruel World!”
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: likewise! Glad I didn’t get COVID, too.
@HumboldtBlue: I’ll bet we can still have fun without it!
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I find that people are less defensive and prickly in my threads (because nobody respects me).
@GoBlueInOak: it was only 80 for a couple days. High of 60 today.
I was in Denver the week of Labor Day and it went from high of 95 to high of 50 in like a day. Classic.
scav
@HumboldtBlue:
Of course! But, remember, one will be graded on a strict curve for one’s twirl and elevation.
HumboldtBlue
@Major Major Major Major:
Whatcha gonna do when you get out of jail? I’m gonna have some fun. And what do you consider fun? Fun, natural fun.
@scav:
This is why we read this blog.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@HumboldtBlue:
1981! I always assumed that was a 90s song
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I know this is a joke, but I’ve gotten a whiff of that. I’ve always liked your perspective on technology news in your posts
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Fun, fun fun in the sun, sun, sun.
:)
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): omg you haven’t seen Stop Making Sense have you
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Thanks! I’ve been meaning to do another in the AI art series… there have been developments and discourse but I have to organize my thoughts.
And yeah it’s whatever. Caring about respect is for suckers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
I remember watching on TV while I was on vacation a few weeks back that temps were in the triple digits on the west coast
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major:
Mid 80s is hot. Damn it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I haven’t! I had no idea it was from the same people behind Talking Heads
Looking forward to reading it!
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Oh dear god. That there is Tina Weymouth, the greatest member of the Talking Heads,* and her husband, Chris Frantz (also from the Heads).
*Yeah, I said it. Fight me.
BeautifulPlumage
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): it’s actually just the rhythm section + others
ETA Omnes got there first
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: it is, and in SF it feels really strange, and none of the buildings are designed for it so it’s worse. They were seriously apprehensive about the whole thing, it was cute. Just outraged.
JeffH
@NotMax: We can’t do that Mr Flibble! Who would clean up the mess?
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major:
I’d respect you, but I am still traumatized by the affect/effect scandal from ten or so years ago. It shook me.
Omnes Omnibus
@BeautifulPlumage: Cool women who play bass are a thing.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I saw it at the Castro Theatre (great theatre, currently closed 😔), it was great.
NotMax
@JeffH
Dwayne Dibbley?!
:)
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: The first summer after we moved up from Riverside, CA to Castro Valley in the East Bay, the temps in the high 70s in SF sent a lot of people to the ER. They were really sick from the heat, not being used to it. We were astonished because high 70s was early-early spring in Riverside and only lasted about a week before the Santa Anas began and it shot up into the high 80s and worse. Days in September and sometimes even October could be over 100.
I visited Seattle in 1985 for Memorial Day Weekend and the Folk Life Festival, and it was in the low-80s and lovely, and not many commercial buildings had AC, including SEATAC airport. That was the unpleasant part.
HumboldtBlue
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
There’s a knuckle of pop music — 1978 to 1986 — that gets obscured by the dawn of video and the smelly haze of a high school dance.
There was some absolutely great music in that moment.
Omnes Omnibus
@HumboldtBlue: That’s the world of college radio from back then. Those dates also match my high school and college years.
BeautifulPlumage
@Omnes Omnibus: then I was reminded of one of those weird life experiences: Blondie, The Ramones, and Tom Tom Club came through Seattle on a “Get Out of New York Tour. Friend said I had a ticket at will call for sold out show. I get downtown and there is no ticket. I’m standing at the curb outside the Paramount when a car pulls up right in front of me, the window is down, and some dude holds out a ticket and says ‘anyone want a ticket?” I ask “how much?” “Free” hands me ticket, I go in, it’s like the 10th row back. My friend is actually a few rows behind me.
I missed most of Tom Tom Club but saw the rest.
Omnes Omnibus
@BeautifulPlumage: Envious, I am.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: it is said that the music from that part of one’s life always sounds the best, but for you it might also objectively be true. Could start it a year earlier with My Aim Is True.
BeautifulPlumage
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m still weirded out by it, but very grateful to experience the performances.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: My personal theory is that the time frame is really more like 14 or 15 to 25 or 30, depending on how into music you are. You can still like new stuff, but it never hits as hard.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I also think this. Kids today are a bit impoverished, I must say.
BeautifulPlumage
@Major Major Major Major: AL’s earlier thread ”
Friday Evening Softballs Open Thread: Point! Mock!
Had MazeDancers’s link the the Sir Elton John concert at the Whitehouse tonight. His greatest hits was one of the first albums I ever bought.
The performance was wonderful! I have never seen him live but his music is definitely part of my formative years.
BeautifulPlumage
@Major Major Major Major: yes but KEXP.org!
I gotta plug my local (but streaming) “college radio station”. It’s how I fill in the gaps of years I missed and hear new things. They used to broadcast out of a tiny closet-like space in a basement room at the UW as KCMU. Now they’re at the Seattle Center and support music of many generations and genres. They have a lot of live performances on their website/social media.
ETA my rebuttal to “kids these days’. The kids are alright.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
While I was aware of contemporary rock music while at those ages, considered the genre secondary to my preference at the time for heavily devouring big band, swing and associated songs from the 30s and 40s.
Benw
Yay Samwise!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@BeautifulPlumage:
Ah I see.
@Omnes Omnibus:
@HumboldtBlue:
@Major Major Major Major:
Synthpoppy music reminiscent of the early-mid 80s is actually kind of popular and has been for the last 10 years, like the Weeknd
Synthwave, future funk, etc, I discovered on Youtube some years ago. Have to give a shout out to Neon Indian, an early 2010s chillwave/synthpop, I’ve enjoyed listening to
Love Me More and The Only Heartbreaker by Mitski just came out earlier this year and sound like they could’ve been released 30 years ago imo
Omnes Omnibus
@BeautifulPlumage: WSUM in Madison. The snake on the lake. It serves the same purpose for me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If all you know of that era is synth pop, you are missing out on a lot.
guachi
I know no American actually cares about women’s cycling but Annemiek van Vleuten put in the most incredible ride just now at the World Championship to cap an incredible season. Days away from 40 and riding on an elbow broken two days ago she won the World Championship. This, after a year where she won the three biggest races of the year winning the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta.
Americans gush about Serena Williams but what van Vleuten did this year was astonishing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@BeautifulPlumage:
That’s like a radio station out of Akron I listen to all the time, the Summit. They’re an independent non-profit outfit that plays practically every genre of music from (well, typically not the “hard stuff” like gangsta rap, heavy metal, etc, it’s very much Music for White People) every decade. They have a lot of music documentary specials they play every night, including a famous Canadian music show, The Ongoing History of New Music
Omnes Omnibus
Call me when she does it for 20 years.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s what I like the most, but hell I’ve listened to punk, some country, early hip-hop, R&B, rock, you name it. I think Rush did some of their best work from that era, with the Power Windows album being my personal favorite
HumboldtBlue
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Damn, son.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): KCRW has some good stuff.
guachi
@Omnes Omnibus: lol. Just stop. You know nothing about women’s cycling. Van Vleuten has been a pro for 15 years and been the 1st or 2nd best rider for the last 6 years. And at 39 is way, way better than Williams was at the same age
Williams last won a Grand Slam 5 years ago.
Omnes Omnibus
@guachi: I guess I am just an ignorant American unlike sophisticated and worldly people like you. Besides, 15 isn’t 20. Call me in five years.
guachi
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, you are. A typical American who can’t imagine that there are athletes who aren’t American who might just be really good at what they do and might, maybe be better than an American athlete.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@BeautifulPlumage: I’ve seen Sir Elton 5 times, the best was at the Hollywood Bowl.
I got my COVID booster this afternoon and now feel like I was on the loosing end of a bar fight
ETA: And I have to work tomorrow(today).
BeautifulPlumage
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Omnes Omnibus: I will give it a listen!
BeautifulPlumage
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’ll look up that one, too. Thanks
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Hope you feel better. I’m not looking forward to my booster in the next week or two. I hope they get the side effects fixed one day
@guachi:
Why are we shitting on Serena Williams?
Omnes Omnibus
@guachi: You really don’t know me at all. I am perfectly happy to recognize any athlete who is the best at what they do from whatever country. But you couldn’t just talk up your sport’s champion, you felt you needed to get a dig in at Williams and her fans. I am sure van Vleuten is great; you’re just a shitty hype man.
BeautifulPlumage
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: lucky you for seeing Sir Elton. Unlucky you for the last bit : (
I hope you feel better after sleep!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ll have to check it out
Origuy
I saw Sir Elton on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay several years ago. It was a private concert for attendees of OracleWorld convention. He actually opened for Beck, which isn’t as strange as it sounds since a lot of the people were older and needed to get back to their hotel. They put us all on buses from SF to the island. I ate too much of a special brownie before I got on the bus and the whole evening is a bit of a fog.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: KCPK, Cal Poly Pomona. The college sits against some hills, almost in a bowl, and the signal was so weak we could just barely pick it up in the dorms. IIRC, the “radio shack” was next to the horse stables where the Arabian horses lived. They played the hits of the day, mostly, but one guy who ran it late at night played classical music
They closed it down in the 80s, when the school decided that it needed to be a bit less hands-on learning.
HumboldtBlue
I will state openly and honestly, I did not expect women’s cycling to be a bone of contention.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: I mean, before the 80s students lodged in the horse stables to keep an eye on the mares when they went into labor. Students lived in and were part the campus fire department. There were professionals who attended the horses if they needed assistance, but the students were there to call them if anything went wrong.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@HumboldtBlue:
Cool visuals and good socially conscious lyrics with a catchy beat. I’m sure I’ve heard that song sampled in something else
opiejeanne
@HumboldtBlue: Yeah. And dissing Serena Williams wasn’t on my list of things I expected to read on this here blog.
HumboldtBlue
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
That’s the original sound. The “sample” you heard is just that, a sample, and it’s good. That’s the origin of hip-hop.
oatler
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ever since Tal Wilkenfeld.
Amir Khalid
@oatler:
Since way before Tal Wilkenfeld. There’s Weymouth herself, there’s Suzi Quatro, there’s the legendary sessionist Carole Kaye …
raven
My brother was on Name That Tune hosted by Jane Krakowski. They filmed it in Dublin and it covided out the first time so he go to go twice.
raven
nice
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Mariah Carey lifted bits of it for “Fantasy” in 1995 and had a huge hit (which made Weymouth and Frantz a nice bit of cash). You probably hear it more often in Mariah Carey form than the original. But that also led to it being an incredibly frequently sampled and quoted tune.
I never saw Talking Heads live but I did see Tom Tom Club around 1986. Great show. (And David Byrne in 2018, also a great show.)
Geminid
Hey Mister Majormajor! One of the substories regarding the protests in Iran is the role of the internet and social media. A watchdog organization, Net Blocks, has reported on the recent suppression of these platforms by the regime (I believe their alert was featured in Mr. Silverman’s Thursday night Ukraine post).
I’ve seen reports that the US Treasury Department has issued sanctions waivers that will allow Musk’s Starlink system to operate in Iran. I’ve also seen complaints that Meta has been removing some video of protests from its platforms.
There is an important story here that this digital dinosaur can only dimly comprehend. I’m humbly hoping that you might find time to post on this.
bjacques
@Geminid:
Mohammad
Mohammad
Mohammad
Mohammed
Who needs to think when your feet just go?
rikyrah
Samwise🤗🤗🤗🤗
Josie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Back in the 50’s, I played string bass in a dance band. Does that make me cool?
Geminid
@Josie: Was it Texas swing? (not that all swing music isn’t cool).
Josie
@Geminid:
Nope. Rock ‘n Roll
Geminid
@Josie: Well, that’s cool too! Did you play any Buddy Holly?
Josie
@Geminid:
Oh yeah. Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Bill Haley and the Comets, and so many others.
Geminid
@Josie: I sometimes wonder what Buddy Holly would have created had he not died before his time.
I wonder the same about Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and John Coltrane.
Omnes Omnibus
@Josie: It doesn’t hurt.
Interstadial
The Bay Area is mostly not San Francisco. In the general area there is a strong climate gradient in summer between the coast and the interior, with the famous coastal fog (that makes San Francisco so chilly in summer) getting somewhat inland where it can, but in most areas being blocked by hills and low mountains. So as you go farther inland it gets hotter and drier, and less and less like San Francisco.
So people note the weather in San Francisco and assume that’s “Bay Area” weather… but it’s often not.
In other parts of the country it makes sense to think that going 20 miles means the temperature is about the same, especially on an average basis. Along the central and northern coast of California that’s not the case in summer. There can be up to a 30 degree average difference between coast and interior (40 miles), and more on a given day.
What this also means is that as the air heats up, it dries out. Instead of starting with humid warm air and and making it hotter so it’s still pretty humid (like in the East), we start out with saturated air in the 50s on the coast. By the time it warms up to 90 or even 100 it’s quite dry, making the heat a lot more bearable. Of course if you’re acclimated to 65 degrees then it’ll still be too hot.
We live in the East Bay in an in-between climate. I chose the location carefully, aiming to get about the right amount of summer warmth. Not too many places you can do that in a single metro area!
Rand Careaga
@Interstadial: I’m near Lake Merritt. It’s usually at least twenty degrees warmer east of the Oakland hills—we refer to those precincts as the “Least Bay.”
For medical reasons the frau and I have been spending about three weeks out of each five since mid-year in the San Fernando Valley, where daytime temperatures every day have hovered within a few degrees either side of 100° (for most of this period, we are advised, Oakland has been in the sixties and seventies). We should be quit of that hellish scene, if all goes well, by December.
Another Scott
@Origuy: Nominated.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Rand Careaga: Fingers crossed. Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Dopey-o
I will then plug my local community radio station, http://KDHX.org
Their format changes every 2 hours. Soul, rap, jazz, blues, power pop, native american (!), early jazz and ragtime, rockabilly. Streams live at the link above. The DJs are so knowlegeable, it’s also an education.