Looks like we can use an open thread.
I had no idea that Frank Zappa was so prescient.
Frank called it. pic.twitter.com/GPQMhBR2u8
— The bad ass kicking new atheist (@atheist_bad) April 15, 2023
Open thread.
This post is in: Open Threads
Looks like we can use an open thread.
I had no idea that Frank Zappa was so prescient.
Frank called it. pic.twitter.com/GPQMhBR2u8
— The bad ass kicking new atheist (@atheist_bad) April 15, 2023
Open thread.
Comments are closed.
OzarkHillbilly
Frank never called me.
NotMax
FristHuggbees!:)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
He definitely got it right
Raoul Paste
Frank could really hold his own, well spoken with such a command of the facts. He was unfazed when he testified before Congress, completely at ease.
Just as it is today, the only thing his opponents could do was try to shout him down
Miss Bianca
Frank was a genius in every sense of the word. Alas, died way too young.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Fun fact: Zappa was on an episode of Miami Vice. A villain I think? He was a good actor
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes, he played (unsurprisingly) a coke dealer.
He was indeed, in the overused term, a genius, and not just musically. His bands were like the Art Blakey or Miles Davis bands, like grad school for musicians.
I had the good fortune to see him in concert about a half-dozen times.
AlaskaReader
Quote from Frank’s 1968 Life Magazine interview:
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: There’s even a song about that.
Geminid
“This old world, it is exploding…”
Fighting erupted today in Khartoum between Sudan’s Army and a rival paramilitary force. There were clashes in other Sudanese cities as well.
Things were better a few hundred miles to the east. 900 former Yemeni fighters spent time with their families and friends after a prisoner swap yesterday. This was an important step in ending the civil war that started back in 2012
And up north next to the Mediterranean Sea, an estimated 100,000+ Israelis marched in Tel Aviv for the 15th week of protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Protesters turned out in other cities all over the country including 40,000 in Natanya.
Michael Bersin
Because, you know, Missouri.
The right wingnut controlled Missouri House of Representatives deleted all funding for public libraries from the budget. Because, you know, Missouri.
Ignorance isn’t expensive, getting there is cheap
AlaskaReader
For those wanting a more in-depth view of Frank and his activism,
Here is a good start.
Frank was instrumental in opening the minds of many people of my generation and I surely wish more of succeeding generations will learn from what Frank had to offer.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Gin & Tonic: That was a great episode. It starts with Roberto Duran committing graphic suicide in prison to frame Crockett.
Tony G
@Miss Bianca: Ha ha. Zappa was indeed a genius, and he died way too young. (He’s be a little bit older than Dylan if he was still around.). The funny thing about this clip is that Zappa — the “crazy rock star” — is obviously working at a much higher level of intelligence than the other guys on the panel. It’s like watching the LA Lakers play against a middle school basketball team. And he’s absolutely right on the facts. The alliance between the Reagan Administration and the evangelical religious fanatics was the beginning of the path toward fascism that we’re on right now.
Cameron
@Michael Bersin: They didn’t just go long, they went all the way out of the stadium.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Frank used to call Tipper Gore (head of the infamous PMRC) “Reich Marshal Tipper”🤣
mrmoshpotato
It’s apparently summer (“farmer’s” at my local market) sausage season already!
Happy summer sausage season to all, and to all a Go Cubs Go!
NotMax
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Death by paper cuts?
Hungry Joe
Who’s the smug little toad to Zappa’s right?
trollhattan
Again, Frank’s the smartest guy in the room there. He also had a special affinity for Jimmy Swaggart.
Cautious good news on energy and climate.
This afternoon CAISO says California’s grid supply is 59% renewables and that we’re even exporting to other states. This year, large hydro will be back after a few drought years of vacation.
Benw
Frank had the power.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Hungry Joe: [oops, Richard Perle on Zappa’s left, I am blanking on the one to his right.]
Another Scott
@Hungry Joe: John Lofton from the Washington Times (the Moonie paper).
It’s from Crossfire
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Hungry Joe: IDK other than “john” when a supply-sider correctly says “John, you don’t have to buy them.”
John McPunchableface?
Another Scott
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Robert Novak, you mean. ;-) See the full video at #23.
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Raoul Paste: Brilliant man. As a Slovak, i was very proud when he was one of the first people Václav Havel invited to Czechoslovakia after he became president.
HumboldtBlue
@Raoul Paste:
Yup.
mrmoshpotato
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Let’s not forget about Dee Snider saying Tipper Gore had a dirty mind.
jlowe
A mountain is something you don’t wanna f**k with.
oatler
According to Deke Leonard’s “Twang Dynasty” book, Zappa had been approached by Dylan in the 80s to produce an album. Despite assurances from Dylan there would be no “J-word” in the lyrics Zappa found several and left (that’s during Bob’s J-word phase).
evap
@OzarkHillbilly: He was too busy calling vegetables
AlaskaReader
@Tony G: Those beginnings weren’t unknown in Nixon’s time, …and unsurprisingly, Frank was on to that at that time too.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Geminid:
Am in Cape Town at the moment. Did some driving about – despite a 35% unemployment rate, the populace doesn’t appear to be seething in rage – yet. It actually appears on the surface to be more prosperous than it was 5 years ago when I was last here. I understand that COVID did a number on a lot of economic sectors.
The Rand is crazy cheap – we’re eating great meals and drinking topnotch wine for next to nothing. We’re eating full meals for two with wine for about $35USD. I think we paid $450 for 8000ZAR yesterday.
Started anti-malarial for upcoming Kruger visit in a few days. Took it with Xanax to ease off the crazy dreams. Will report results tomorrow.
SFAW
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I think that’s Robert Novak, not Richard Perle.
lowtechcyclist
Don’t know if it’s already been said in one of the earlier threads, but Glenn Youngkin has joined Pompeo in pre-dropping-out of the 2024 race, IOW dropping out before they ever dropped in.
Guess he can fleece his followers in other ways.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Another Scott: oh of course! Thanks. [Why am I even trying to remember?]
zhena gogolia
OT, for Richard Armitage fans, he is Teh Hawt in Obsession on Netflix.
Geminid
@trollhattan: The U.S. hit an important waypoint last year when renewable sources of electricity surpassed coal for the first time. It was also the second year that combined hydro, solar and wind generation exceeded nuclear.
Generation from natural gas still leads with about 40%; renewables account for a little over 20%, coal is 20% and dropping, and nuclear is about 18%.
Sister Golden Bear
I’m gonna have to take another Covid-recovery nap, but before I do, I needed to call out another major step toward #TransGenocide.
Thursday Missouri’s AG essentially banned gender affirming care for most trans ADULTS via emergency rule, starting April 27.
Needless to say, the requirements are completely at odds with the consensus of medical professionals in the field, and world-wide standards of care.
Much like Republicans are doing with abortion, gender care treatments may remain technically legal, but impossible to get in real-life. In both cases, it’s all about denying bodily autonomy.
This includes hormone therapy, seemingly including trans people who are already on it, also including those of us whose bodies, no longer produce any testosterone or estrogen. Not having hormone replacement therapy available can cause long-term health issues.
The ban on gender care for those with depression is like requiring that the migraine is cured before you can get pain pills for it. Many, many trans people are depressed and/or anxious before gender health care because dysphoria fucking sucks. The ban on autistic people is infantilizing, presuming they’re not competent to make decisions about their own bodies.
While I assume organizations are already seeking temporary restraining orders, we’re gonna see other Republican states follow suit. Just the uncertainty alone has caused a number Missouri doctors inform their patients that they’ll now longer be able to prescribe/renew prescriptions for fear of losing their medical licenses.
And of course the Missouri AG cited FTFNYT anti-trans hit pieces in his justification for the order.
Another Scott
I’m sure he’d have opinions about the “AI” stuff happening now.
Thirteen.
I remember hearing an interview with him where he said something like it’s composing that matters. Machines will eventually be better at playing music, but it’s the human creativity in actually coming up with the composition that matters. (And improvising a piece of music is composing.) I don’t think he’d be a fan of ChatGPT and the like, but whatever view he had on it would be well thought-out.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Sister Golden Bear:
Yeah, it was all about the children for about five minutes there. I’d add “before they showed their true colors,” but even their child-specific legislation went there.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Foungkin’ Youngkin has General Assembly elections to worry about this Fall. He won’t be on the ballot, but he’s the party leader and he’s got to campaign, so his prestige will be on the line.
Delk
Some of you might not agree
‘Cause you probably likes a lot of misery
But think a while and you will see…
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Psychiatrist: OK, Johnny, look it this picture, and tell what you see [shows him a picture of a circle)
Little Johnny: That’s a porthole on a ship, and that man and woman are doing all sorts of dirty things in their room — boy oh boy!
Psychiatrist: OK, Johnny, how about this one? [Shows him a square]
Little Johnny: That’s their bedroom window, and boy oh boy that man and woman are doing all sorts of dirty things in there!!!
Psychiatrist: OK, Johnny, one last picture, what do you see? [shows him a triangle]
Little Johnny: That’s the keyhole in their bedroom door, and boy oh boy that man and woman are doing all sorts of dirty things in there!!!
Psychiatrist: Hmmm. Johnny, you seem to be preoccupied with sex.
Little Johnny: ME?!?!??? YOU’RE the one showing me the dirty pictures!!!!!
HumboldtBlue
Sweet Jesus weeping in a corner, why are you women err… harlots, doing your best to bring down western civilization!!!?
We are doomed, and it’s all because of you wimmins!
RaflW
Richmond Dispatch ripping into Youngkin for halting a major Ford battery plant. It would have created 2,500 jobs per the daily paper. But rock-ribbed Republican had to say “shove it” because it’s a JV with a Chinese company. Because something something communists or whatever.
Oh, and Glenn is following Mike Pompous in declaring an unwillingness to be humiliated by MAGA voters in the 2024 potus contest.
Sister Golden Bear
@lowtechcyclist: Yep.
BTW, I forget to mentioned this will forcibly de-transition tens of thousands of trans Missourians.
Also too, the FTFNYT has front-paged numerous anti-trans hit pieces. Their coverage of the Missouri ban… buried on page A17, written by a sport writer, who as far as anyone can tell has never written about trans issues previously.
AlaskaReader
@zhena gogolia:
As you may well know, Havel named Frank the “Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism,”
…causing such an uproar from within the US government that Havel was ‘forced’ to rescind the appointment.
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Sounds like a good trip. My friend Joan visited Cape Town a few months ago. She liked it.
Joan gets around. She visited Puerto Rico in February, and next week she’s heading to Vera Cruz, Mexico for two weeks. I told her that Ulysses Grant passed through Vera Cruz on his way to Mexico City, but there may not be any plaques commemorating it.
zhena gogolia
@AlaskaReader: Yeah, I couldn’t remember the details, but I was too lazy to look it up. Havel’s Plastic People of the Universe were inspired by Zappa.
Cameron
@HumboldtBlue: I think that might be the stupidest thing I’ll read today. Which is pretty remarkable when one considers the number of stupid ideas/statements/thoughts we’re constantly exposed to.
bbleh
@Mr. Bemused Senior: @Hungry Joe: @SFAW: Definitely looks and behaves like Novak.
divF
@Gin & Tonic: I saw Frank Zappa in 1974 or so, and his opening act was Tom Waits. Before the show started, someone from Zappa’s team came on stage, and told the audience that Frank wanted them to be nice to Waits, ’cause he is really good.
AlaskaReader
@Another Scott:
In 1984, Zappa was the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers 19th Annual Festival Conference, held at the Ohio State University School of Music.
zhena gogolia
@bbleh: It’s Novak, no doubt about it.
bbleh
MEANwhile, anybody happen to notice that
Grand InquisitorJudge Kacsmaryk happened to evidently falsely remove his name as author of a “law” review article explicitly endorsing a particular theological viewpoint and using incorrect and inflammatory terms to describe approved medications coincidentally just before his Senate hearing?I realize that pointing this out is almost certainly Woke, broadly speaking, but I’ll take that hit.
Kent
Since this is an open thread I gotta share that last night my 16 year old daughter turned me on to Randy Feltface who is a purple puppet comedian from Australia and honest to God the best and most funny comedy show I have seen in years. Bar none. Apparently the kids these days love him.
If you guys haven’t heard of Randy Feltface or seen it, take a look. Pure genius and pure talent: https://youtu.be/ooUWO8BMSuo
Or maybe you have all seen and heard of him and its just me who is the old boomer.
AlaskaReader
@Another Scott: Here’s an account and edited version of the speech he gave to the American Society of University Composers
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: LOL! Never heard that one.
AlaskaReader
@divF: Waits, …another genius.
Central Planning
@HumboldtBlue: Maybe tupperware should get into the sex toy business.
Shana
@lowtechcyclist: Oh goody. He’ll be spending more time and energy in Virginia.
Shana
@zhena gogolia: You should read Rock and Roll by Tom Stoppard, a wonderful play all about the Czech history from ’68 (?) to freedom with some Syd Barrett thrown in. Saw it on Broadway where it was wonderful and made me think it was production-proof but then saw it in DC a few years later and it was awful. A great read though. Highly recommended.
M. Bouffant
Oh, he was prescient as hell.
Liner notes to We’re Only In It For The Money:
THIS WHOLE MONSTROSITY WAS
CONCEIVED & EXECUTED BY
FRANK ZAPPA AS A RESULT OF
SOME UNPLEASANT
PREMONITIONS, AUGUST
THROUGH OCTOBER 1967.
A quick review.
And the album.
divF
@AlaskaReader: yes, and Zappa recognized it at the very beginning of Waits’ career.
kindness
Loved Frank. Saw him in ’74 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester NY during the Roxy & Elsewhere tour. They killed it. One of the most alive shows I’ve ever seen.
Maxim
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m autistic. The AG can go fuck himself sideways with a rusty pitchfork. Thank the FSM I’m in California, but I’m so angry on behalf of all the trans folks living in fascist areas.
Ajabu
Sometime in the late 70s, I auditioned for Zappa’s band with a drummer friend. Zappa gave me the black page as an audition piece. (it’s a melody Frank created on top of a drum solo.- titled because the page is so thick with notation it appears to be black.) Three pages of increasingly complex rhythms. I got through the first page no problem, started stumbling on the second page and gave up on the third page. He said, “you’re not much of a reader, can you play?” And kicked off the rhythm section in an odd meter. I jumped in, and did well with that. Frank’s response was. “ OK, you can play. But I need classical readers with jazz chops.” I didn’t get the gig, but my friend did! And I always admired Frank Zappa’s genius!
WaterGirl
@Cameron: Because of course the well-being of a company is more important than millions of women.
RaflW
Authoritarianism insanity watch:
April 14 (Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a bill on Friday allowing juries to recommend the death penalty in capital cases on an 8-4 vote, a move spurred by the less-than-unanimous vote that led to the Parkland school shooter being sentenced to life in prison.
The state’s Republican-led House of Representatives approved the measure with an 80-30 vote on Thursday, following the Republican-controlled state Senate’s approval in March.
— —
Hopefully Ramos v Louisiana (Scotus April 2020) will prevail and this abhorrent hideousness will be overturned.
8-4 is utterly BONKERS in a capital case!!
Sister Golden Bear
@bbleh: You’ll be shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that the article to a Texas law review criticized Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions.
Cameron
@RaflW: The only “justice” considered in the Pudd’nhands legal system is “Are we punishing enough?”
dnfree
@HumboldtBlue: The trouble is that it’s difficult to store leftovers in my lingerie and sex toys. I must be doing something wrong.
different-church-lady
Zappa wrote a lot of unfortunately puerile lyrics, but he was not at all dumb guy.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
The things we’ll miss when Twitter is gone…
(via Oryx)
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: You didn’t try to call me.
Sure Lurkalot
@Sister Golden Bear:
That is seriously fucked up. And there’s another FTFNYT transphobe reporter seeking information for another poorly sourced bunch of crap to write another screed to be cited by the next fascist legislator. Below is the reporter’s solicitation…it’s ridiculous.
Peter
@Central Planning: They’d have to rebrand as Shtupperware™.
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue: “Wonderful World of Tupperware”, a promotional doc that occasionally runs on TCM. First two-thirds describes the industrial process, which frankly I found interesting. Notably, many of the line workers featured were women, this back in the early 1960s. The remainder goes into the multilevel marketing process, as weird as it ever was, complete with Anita Bryant(!) swaying the hips of tradition to a Tupperware-bowdlerized “Blues in the Night” at a sales convention.
Wyatt Salamanca
This is supposedly Zappa’s first tv appearance; as a guest on the Steve Allen show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF0PYQ8IOL4
Zappa discussing PMRC and censorship with Johnny Carson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9b2omecW7o
Sister Golden Bear
@RaflW:
Part of a much larger picture….
The Florida House Thursday passed an bill that seeks to allow the death penalty for people who commit sexual batteries on children under age 12.
Florida’s Leg has passed/is expected to pass multiple laws that among other things:
Sensing a pattern here… While they may not be able to actually convict and execute trans people or their allies — and not for lack of trying — FL Republican sure as hell are going to threatened to do so.
different-church-lady
@HumboldtBlue: It’s far more likely the downfall is the result of there being 15 trillion plastic take-out containers in the universe. Who needs to buy special plastic for food storage when you’ve probably already got 83 things that do the job already?
different-church-lady
@Sister Golden Bear:
Just as in the sixties, the Feds are going to have to step in at some point. And very soon.
Raven
A good listen
Episode one hundred and forty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Trouble Every Day” by the Mothers of Invention, and the early career of Frank Zappa. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-140-trouble-every-day-by-the-mothers-of-invention/
Dan B
@Sure Lurkalot: Both siding trans care. Zero moral judgement. If they were writing about AIDS or Malaria they’d want to hear from physicians who believe it is God’s will for punishing sinners.
Sister Golden Bear
@Another Scott: On a more practical level, I’m seeing Twitter posts from the likes of the local National Service, BART, CalFire etc. that the changes mean they can no longer automaticallypost weather alerts, alerts about BART delays, fire alerts and updates, etc.
Ya know, the sorts of things that people found Twitter really useful for.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: Puerile? (hahaha) watch out where the huskies go, etc.?
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Soon to he extended to LGBQ people, ie. Groomers. It may take a few years to extend it to black men looking at white women.
frosty
@evap: Nice one! I grant you a win of the internets, for awhile.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sure Lurkalot: Fortunately there was enough blow back that the FTFNYT retreated (for now) and cancelled the piece (it was by a freelancer). But the tell was the writer explicitly stating that he didn’t want to talk to doctors with expertise in the field of trans healthcare.
@Dan B:
I suspect if we checked the FTFNYT’s archives from the ’80s, we’d find at least one AIDS article doing just that.
prostratedragon
Sister Golden [email protected]: What are these creatures? Is it projection when they say that demons walk among us?
Sister Golden Bear
@Dan B:
Missouri’s legislature is currently considering — or may have already passed (there’s so many bills it’s hard to keep track) a law that would allow state officials to deny marriage licenses to same-sex and interracial couples,* so it might not even take a few years.
*Couched in language of “strong moral objections.”
HumboldtBlue
@different-church-lady:
Are you implying the Mail is being hysterical and batshit crazy with their “you strumpets ruined a grand company all for sex and giggles?”
Glidwrith
@Sure Lurkalot: This crap reminds me of when Dick Cheney would plant stories in the press anonymously, then once published, use that as justification for whatever crap he wanted to do.
Redshift
@Cameron:
Only if you skip reading George Will’s latest incoherent nonsense. He claims that in the late twentieth century, America had the “idea” of a classless society with mobility. (He’s slippery enough not to say we had it in reality, just the idea.)
But the real stupidity is that he claims – get this – that by opening up college to everybody, liberals created a class of educated people who look down on the working class (which doesn’t exist outside of the Fox fever swamp), so now we have class divisions.
The fact that Will was ever considered an “intellectual” the political media is a testament that it’s all about how you look and your tone of voice, not about your ideas.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks for the reminder. So the only 0laces to get a marriage license for interracial couples would be St. Louis and Kansas City. Perhaps Springfield.
Chetan Murthy
@Glidwrith: Oh, you remind me of the days of “The Transatlantic Puke Funnel”. Good time, good timmes.
Baud
@Redshift:
That is dumb. Real intellectuals blame Hillary Clinton.
Scout211
Evan Corcoran has recused himself from representing TFG in the documents case. So grand jury testimony did not go especially well for him, yeah?
Cameron
@Redshift: He’s the Leon Trotsky of conservative idea-pimps! Yeah, that is remarkably dumb, particularly the handwaving that implies cause and effect without bothering to demonstrate either. If not dumb as a stump, certainly intellectually lazy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Hungry Joe:
Late to the thread and haven’t read all the comments yet, so it’s probably already been suggested, but my guess is Robert Novak. Well-known (at the time) conservative columnist and commentator, although I think he identified as a Democrat.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: You know, I really, honestly, cannot understand the right-winger’s lust to, as you so succinctly put it, control others’ bodily autonomy.
I sometimes wonder if it’s not a subconscious desire to still be able to just fucking OWN other people, period. Like they’re still mad that actual slavery was abolished.
Central Planning
@Raven: That podcast is pretty good. I think I’m around episode 40 or so. I’ve learned a ton, and you can tell he’s done a ton of research.
raven
@Central Planning: Yea, I’ve enjoyed it!
Uncle Cosmo
@Central Planning: IOW, Shtupperware?
(ETA: Hearty FUCK YOU to Peter at #78.)
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: God, did I hate Robert Novak!!!