@Old Man Shadow: Last birthday that was problematic for me was when I turned 40. I’ll be 73 next month. Now if I could only figure out what’s happened in the last 30 years or so………………..
@Betty: Oh. That’s sad. Imagine how stressful it would be to be questioned for this particular trial. And that’s without having the press there, reporting on you, and quite possibly blowing up your life.
I am happy to see some people calling out the press for being so fucking irresponsible. Angry Staffer for one.
The Mark Summer guy who I never heard of before his awesome live blogging of the first day of the NY trial, is back again today. Not live blogging, but with a great summary of yesterday.
Today Tyler McBrian is doing a stellar job of live blogging on twitter. He is apparently with Lawfare, as managing editor, but I had never heard his name before this week.
@eclare: Do we know anything about the order of the bills? Because I don’t want any vote on Israel, or anything else for that matter, until we have a binding vote on Ukraine.
There doesn’t seem to be a particular reason other than that Taylor is too popular for her to say she likes. Her desire to not have albums by Ms. Swift long predates the MAGA turn.
I got in my 7,000 steps this morning, collecting litter and recycling along the way for tonight’s collection. This afternoon will be spent wringing my sermon for Earth Sunday: “Let’s Get Down to Earth!” Saturday night, I take my wife out to dinner at the Savory Grille (culinary gem of the region) to celebrate her birthday.
Well, let’s see. First, the Earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and turned into oil. And then the Arabs came along and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And then Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di’s clothes! I couldn’t believe it! He took her best summer dress out of the closet…
Speaking of albums, one thing that Rick Beato talked about in a recent video that I think younger people will never truly appreciate is just how much mystery there was around our favorite artists/bands when we were growing up. There was no internet at the time and no Wikipedia, so all we had were what we saw in music videos, Rolling Stone/music magazine articles and album liner notes.
I know many of us used to spend hours reading the liner notes of our favorite albums under a fucking magnifying glass trying to figure out just who these artists were and what they were trying to tell us. If they included lyrics (which only a small minority of albums did) all the better. But the whole enterprise was like a Nancy Drew attempt to solve a mystery or find a hidden treasure.
One unfortunate casualty of the major changes of the music industry in the early 2000’s (streaming, pirating, corporate consolidation, death of record stores etc.) is that the magic and mystique of album cover art and liner notes pretty much disappeared into the dustbin of history. I wonder if kids obsess over this stuff the way we did when all they have to do is Google to find out endless info about any given artist.
For one example: Here is the cover art (and the story behind it) for Van Halen’sFair Warning which is by far their darkest album (and probably my overall, favorite).
@WaterGirl: John Bresnahan of Punchbowl News posted what looks like an official schedule for tomorrow. It shows the House meeting at 9 a.m. and holding genersl and amendment debate. Roll call votes are scheduled starting at 1 p.m. If the order listed is followed, the Israel bill will be first, Ukraine aid second, Indo-Pacific aid third and the border security bill fourth. I think that under the Rule adopted today, it all bills will get a vote.
And wow! Also from Bresnahan:
Matt Gaetz attended a party in 2017 where minor and drugs were present, woman’s sworn statement obtained by Congress claims- ABC News.
@Josie: Oh, I get the funeral crap and ‘take care of your final needs’ life insurance policy pitches too. It is my theory that after my last near death experience, I got put on the accelerated list.
BTW, I actually feel a similar way about geography. When I was young and went on an international flight, there’d be this big board showing planes going to all theswe cool exotic destinations. The board is still there, but now it’s easy to pull up something about all these places on the Internet. Some of the mystery is gone.
@John S.: Oh shit, I never realized that was the same lady. Another one I investigated for hours was Synchronicity by The Police. And not only because it had boobs (though I definitely noticed and approved of that too).
There was no internet at the time and no Wikipedia, so all we had were what we saw in music videos, Rolling Stone/music magazine articles and album liner notes.
Going back further, no videos, almost nothing on TV except for the major and mainstream artists. Creem Magazine.
To be truly in the know, you had to work for or hang out at a really good record store.
All the alternate jurors have been chosen now, so it’s on to the trial. I keep thinking of all the people who thought TFG could never be brought to trial, but here we are. They’re probably the same people who now say he’ll never be imprisoned, but we wont know if that’s true or not until we get there.
I know many of us used to spend hours reading the liner notes of our favorite albums under a fucking magnifying glass trying to figure out just who these artists were and what they were trying to tell us.
Also, to find out if Paul McCartney was really dead.
I had one of those when I turned 30. That’s quite common, of course, but I wasn’t expecting it at all.
Haven’t had another in the several zero years since. Some things already happening probably helped (I met the person I later married and am still married to a few months before my 30th).
No notion. It literally just happened. Apparently EMT extinguished the fire and the man is moving. Hope he lives and gets help for whatever prompted him to set himself ablaze.
UAL will neither confirm nor deny the plane in question was a 737 MAX. Please return to your seats and prepare for approach.
Given all these rules, an incident that occurred on a United Airlines (UAL) flight chartered by the Colorado Rockies baseball team has caught FAA attention.
Both the government agency and United are investigating the April 10 incident in which a member of the team was shown to be sitting in the pilot’s seat. As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, a video that was initially showing off how “fun” the flight was started circulating online but would later end up being removed. The person in the seat has not been identified but United said that the two pilots on the flight have been relieved of their duties for the length of the investigation over reportedly allowing someone to come into the cockpit in this way.
“We’re deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged,” the airline said in a press statement. “As a clear violation of our safety and operational policies, we’ve reported the incident to the FAA and have withheld the pilots from service while we conduct an investigation.”
I bought the first David Grisman Quintet album because of the cover photo: 4 gorgeous acoustic instruments, artfully arranged. The single most mind blowing first listen of my life.
When I was young and went on an international flight, there’d be this big board showing planes going to all these cool exotic destinations. The board is still there, but now it’s easy to pull up something about all these places on the Internet. Some of the mystery is gone.
I read a piece about why Bond films were in fact so popular in the early days: they showcased cool, exotic places that most people could only dream about.
Once travel became more available to the masses, one of the basic “pulls” of Bond films went away.
One unfortunate casualty of the major changes of the music industry in the early 2000’s (streaming, pirating, corporate consolidation, death of record stores etc.) is that the magic and mystique of album cover art and liner notes pretty much disappeared into the dustbin of history. I wonder if kids obsess over this stuff the way we did when all they have to do is Google to find out endless info about any given artist.
The LP album cover as an art form came and went in our own lifetime, beginning in the mid-1960s (compare Meet the Beatles and Revolver) and ending when CDs displaced LPs. A rather short time, historically speaking.
I had crushes on Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart and Annie Haslam of Renaissance. The covers of Dreamboat Annie and Ashes are Burning gave me much pleasure since their faces were nice and big on them.
ETA the big 12X12 LP jacket format did not translate well to the CD’s minuscule Jewel box and yet they tried to just stick with the same artwork. Some of the lyrics inserts are set in comically tiny type, like 3 point or something. You need a 12 YO to read it out loud do you.
The original Wilburys were a stationary people who, realizing that their civilization could not stand still forever, began to go for short walks – not the “traveling”, as we now know it, but certainly as far as the corner and back. They must have taken to motion, in much the same way as penguins were at that time taking to ledges, for the next we hear of them they were going out for the day (often taking lunch or a picnic). Later, we don’t as yet know how much later, some intrepid Wilburys began to go away for the weekend, leaving late Friday and coming back Sunday. It was they who evolved simple rhythmic forms to describe their adventures.
A remarkable sophisticated musical culture developed, considering there were no managers or agents, and the further the Wilburys traveled the more adventurous their music became, and the more it was revered by the elders of the tribe who believed it had the power to stave off madness, turn brunettes into blondes and increase the size of their ears.
As the Wilburys began to go further in their search for musical inspiration they found themselves the object of interest among many less developed species – nightclub owners, tour operators and recording executives. To the Wilburys, who had only just learnt to cope with wives, roadies and drummers, it was a blow from which many of them never recovered.
A tiny handful survived – the last of the traveling Wilburys – and the songs gathered here represent the popular laments, the epic heroic tales, which characterize the apotheosis of the elusive Wilbury sound. The message of the music travels, as indeed they traveled and as I myself must now travel for further treatment. Good listening, good night and let thy Wilbury be done…
Maybe not so lost if my nieces and many students (mostly female) are any indication. They are way into vinyl My youngest niece requested a turntable for Christmas and has amassed quite the little collection, some from my LP collection. There was also a story on local news about a record store appreciation day happening this weekend (don’t know if it’s nationwide or just local) and one of the store owners they interviewed said his customer base has changed a lot over the last couple of year and is mainly olds like me and lots and lots of young women. I’m glad to see vinyl making a comeback.
I had heard that there was a really great Ukraine update on KOS daily, but I hadn’t been to KOS in decades until Dorothy Winsor linked to the great live blogging of the court proceedings on Monday.
@WaterGirl: I started reading Daily Kos again due to Sumner’s coverage of Ukraine. Good stuff. Sadly, he’s onto other topics now and DK has reverted to being mostly useless.
FOX is reporting someone set themselves on fire at the Trump Courthouse. Any chance this was just Loose (with morals, not money) Lucifer just spontaneously combusting? That would be a fine Friday indeed.
@…now I try to be amused: I remember as a young male adolescent discovering the album covers of Badfinger’s No Dice, Golden Greats of the Ventures and Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass’ Whipped Cream and Other Delights…..
designed to appeal to a certain demographic, to be sure.
CNN reports that the guy who set himself on fire was throwing flyers into the air before that. Nothing yet on what – if anything – the flyers have on them.
@geg6: That’s cool. Doesn’t surprise me. I know fans of punk and indie rock never really abandoned vinyl and 7″ records. But I still imagine that the amount of attention paid to the artwork and liner notes is probably infinitesimal to what it used to be. Of course, now they have lots of Instagram and other social media posts from their fave artists. And some artists, like Beyonce, are still very good about keeping things under wrap to build anticipation. So there is still some mystery it just works different nowadays.
@Geminid: Well, shit. Then Israel could pass and Ukraine could be shanked.
I’d think it would be more likely to be the other way round, but we will have wait and see. CW is that the anti-Ukraine-aid agitation is a pet obsession of the MAGA Moron Caucus, and that if the issue actually makes into onto the House floor, the general inclination (outside the loonies) would be to pass it; for once, I think the CW is right. Also, I think opposition to aid to Israel is pretty much mainly intense on the portside of the D bloc, so probably even fewer in opposition.
@Old Man Shadow: When I was in my thirties I saw a book on my in-law’s shelf: Oh To Be Fifty Again. Now I understand. Enjoy the next few years and everything you can do! And be aware that with luck nothing will change for the next twenty or so.
@WaterGirl: Since they had to pass a rule with Dem support, I’m thinking there must be something in the rule to ensure that splitting it doesn’t allow them to only pass the parts they prefer.
So listening to about 3/4’s of Taylor Swift’s new album and: zzzzzzzz……
Everything is slow-to-mid tempo, ballad-y, with fairly similar chord progressions. Not much variety and nothing at all that is even close to up-tempo. Some pretty songs and interesting lyrics, but overall, pretty much one-note from beginning to end.
Right now one of my cats (Rommy) is yelling at me and batting a stained glass mirror that hangs on the wall near the top of the refrigerator. This is a very effective bid for attention, as I don’t want to see that mirror get knocked off the wall. Since I’ve been trained by the best, I have to go. Shame on me for trying to be on the computer when he’s bored…
Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom: WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.
The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide.
@TBone: I always assumed when pundits and experts talked about the Trump gag order that it was in reference to shutting Trump up, and not, in fact, the order in which people close to Trump dry-heaved.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the former chair of the January 6 select committee, has filed legislation that would strip Secret Service protection for anyone sentenced to jail for a felony.
The Act may be cited as the ‘‘Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable Former Protectees Act’’ or the ‘‘DISGRACED Former Protectees Act’’.
Doubt it goes anywhere, but I like it AND the acronym!
@Papa Boyle: 😆 they got more than they bargained for in every way. I was wondering recently if they’d be smart enough to bring a jar of Vicks Vapo Rub to smear a dab under their nostrils. Any person who has to change adult diapers knows that trick. I bet they were unprepared.
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve resurrected my vinyl and my CDs. I’ve also bought CDs of iTunes purchases that I really liked just in case Apple ever loses the rights to the music.
@TBone: I’d heard that the Wilbury name originated from the frequent use of the phrase, “We’ll bury it” (in the mix) every time someone hit a wrong note during recording.
@Kristine: I still have my CDs. The vinyl is going out the door this year since it’s worth something to some people finally. I think it’s crazy; records can get dirty and scratched and you have to flip them every 20 minutes! I like CDs.
90% of my iTunes library is CDs that I ripped. I don’t like buying vaporware music. I prefer something I can hold in my hand, which is why I haven’t bought music in a couple of years.
@Raoul Paste: CNN: “Investigators are now fanning out to collect the flyers the unknown man threw into the air, another senior law enforcement official. A CNN team on the ground observed one of the flyers. It said “NYU is a mob front” and had various allegations of wrongdoings against the school”
@JPL: I hope it doesn’t travel as far as the jury box. From the video at the link I posted, it’s only his attorneys seated with him who are suffering from old man fell asleep and so did his sphincter. 😆 They insist that information is from credible sources.
I grew up in the vinyl era like a lot of people here. All the stories people have related about poring over liner notes, etc., still resonate.
But like you, I gladly embraced the CD era because of ease of play despite the fact that in the early days, most of the conversions to CD were hastily and poorly done. Over time, particularly with remastering, the media reached it’s promised sound quality.
One thing we did during The Plague Years was rip all our non-surround material and setup a centralized media platform with a 5-disc RAID array run by a Win 10 PC. It connects to the central receiver and we can bring up the menu on the TV and select stuff. Took forever to do.
That means the only time we use a disc player is for anything surround sound and heaven help me, I have 2 players, one that’s DVD-A and SACD while the other is Blu-Ray.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard stuff like Alice Cooper’s ‘Welcome to My Nightmare”, or Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” or Jeff Beck’s “Blow By Blow” in surround.
Back when we were in Central Misery, our surround setup was to die for, mainly because the living room had a 15′ high ceiling and enough floor space that we could put 20 people in there with maybe 4 in the “sweet spot”.
A memory I’ll treasure forever is having Alan Parsons sit in the sweet spot and critique the James Guthrie surround mix of “Dark Side of the Moon”. Alan did the original quad mix and it’s far, far superior.
Since the downsize resulting from the Denver move, our living room is quite small so it doesn’t sound as “full” when cranked but still nice.
@TBone: Yanno, I don’t especially like chocolate, but SuzMom does, and her birthday is coming up. I have been meaning to try that recipe. Maybe I’ll give it a go.
I prefer the mouthfeel of milk chocolate to dark, but it can be too sweet. I love using milk chocolate chips in cookies, but the espresso powder in the dough helps that issue.
It’s ok to have complicated feelings about responses to challenges in unprecedented times. The threshold for shutting down campus protest should be high. That said, I’d like to see a criticism of Columbia’s shut-down that includes the info that the protest was named after 10/7.
Please believe me: I’m not trying to be obnoxious. I wanted to just type “I have complicated feelings about shutting down any campus protest.” But how do I justify those “complicated feelings,” given the name of the protest celebrated the massacre, torture, & rape of Jews?
What about if the Charlottesville march were to occur on a college campus? Wouldn’t I want it shut down for the safety of students of color and Jews? How is this different?
In line with this: protesters associated with this movement are engaging in increased violence. Charting Jewish preschools. Threatening council members. If a protest is named after a massacre, & there is increased violence associated w/ a movement, why not shut it down?
Please note none of this is a defense of the methods for shutting down the protest. That’s a different argument. It’s about Columbia’s decision.
These are, indeed, unprecedented times. It is, again, ok to have complicated feelings. We live in a democracy & democracy is inherently messy. When our democratic institutions, such as universities, are tested by competing interests, it’s ok to see no solution as purely “good.”
I’m open to arguments, here. I want to know how people cogently defend allowing a protest to occur on a campus when the protest is named after a genocidal massacre of Jews. Would we allow other campus protests to name themselves after other genocidal massacres?
…
This is why I have called, repeatedly, for the Western U.S.-based ceasefire movement to weed out bad actors. The antisemitism is vile & reasonably viewed as an incitement to violence against Jews. The antisemitism also damages cogent & humane Pro-Palestinian protest.
It’s hard to imagine how Tweeting out flyers titled “Flood Columbia For Gaza” for the protest wasn’t a clear and intentional reference to “Al-Aqsa Flood” (the official name Hamas uses for the 10/7 massacre). And I think Magdi is 100% correct that we would never just hand-wave away protests that made playful reference to the Tulsa Massacre, Ohio State or other racist assaults on Black People. The whole thing reeks of not-too-subtle Anti-Semitism.
@Suzanne: I highly recommend that cake. It is not too sweet until the icing goes on it. You could skip the icing given in the recipe and use something less sweet. The cake itself is fabulous, dark, rich, moist heaven.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard stuff like Alice Cooper’s ‘Welcome to My Nightmare”, or Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” or Jeff Beck’s “Blow By Blow” in surround.
Haven’t heard those ones, but by far the best engineered surround recording I’ve heard is ‘Buena Vista Social Club’. Ry Cooder did the engineering. It helps that most of the tracks have around a dozen musicians which sounds pretty natural spread out over 5 channels + subwoofer.
I continue with bifurcation of my stereo and media rigs, mostly because the 5.1 gear cannot produce music to the quality and finesse of the 2-channel gear. But I also dragged the stereo into the 21st century with a combo streaming receiver and DAC. A thumb drive plugged in has my ripped digital discs and after reviving my SACD changer (dead belt-ectomy) I port it through the DAC, which I’m informed is really quad DACs. Who can count? Whatever is inside, the former brittle Redbook sound from standard CDs is banished and much more music seems present now.
Internet radio has proved amusing. Reggae station from Switzerland? Why the hell not?
re: set self on fire guy – I bet he repented of this action after about 30 seconds or so. Those who used to actually do this would practice up by burning a finger to get used to the experience.
@frosty: With the right set-up, for example, I once had a McIntosh receiver, and my very decent Luxman turntable. Played my record album of Nina Simone’s Live at Town Hall and it sounded as if she was singing to us in our living room. Never had that experience with CDs. But it’s easier of course dealing with digital.
@TBone: If I find it elsewhere, will post; maybe if you either change the nitter site to twitter.com, or if you use noscript or something be sure poast.org is permitted.
It’s an ad for a new high-end(!) Trump brand product.
My favorite new band, Starbenders, only had vinyl on sale at their gig we caught last month! I still have a turntable, it’s just not hooked up at the moment. :)
Have any members of Our Liberal Media present at the trial of Caesar Flatulus noted that there’s something in the air? Somehow I think that would not fit well into a framework of bothsideserism. When you report on a horse race, you’re not supposed to report on the smell of horseshit.
Old School
It’s a slow news day. Everyone is listening to the new Taylor Swift album.
Attempted Chemistry
@Old School: with her new hit, “OK, but you’d better not lose any ring I get you”
Edit: ah, crap, I thought it was Travis and not Jason.
trollhattan
Looks like we have a music festival delay on account of the venue being too soggy.
The tragedies continue unabated.
Villago Delenda Est
He’s napping in court again.
Old Man Shadow
Had a brief existential crisis because I’m turning 50 in a couple of weeks.
I got better.
I’ll get worse.
I’ll get better…
Repeat for another 1-50 years until I die and stop existing or discover an afterlife.
Jackie
TIFG is still using his court time for napping.
We now know he’s definitely not a morning person; and what Executive Time really means.
ETA per Maggie Haberman, TIFG looks very messy today.
Doc Sardonic
@Old Man Shadow: wait ‘til you start getting all the ‘it’s time to consider your Medicare options’ shit in the mail, in your voicemail, in your email.
Harrison Wesley
@Old Man Shadow: Last birthday that was problematic for me was when I turned 40. I’ll be 73 next month. Now if I could only figure out what’s happened in the last 30 years or so………………..
Betty
Several potential jurors have broken down in tears because they are so anxious about being on this jury.
WaterGirl
@Old Man Shadow: You will never be as young again as you are today. Enjoy today!
eclare
@Old School:
Ahem, albums. She released not one, but two, overnight.
Geminid
@Harrison Wesley: Since 73 is a Prime Number, if someone asks you your age you’ll be able to reply, “Let’s just say I’m in my Prime.”
Old School
@eclare: I thought I heard it was a double-album.
I guess it doesn’t really matter. My daughter, Middle School, is strongly anti-TayTay so I won’t have to listen to it anyway.
eclare
Someone in the prior thread ( apologies, I can’t remember who) said roll call votes should start tomorrow on the aid packages around 1 or 1:30 EDT.
WaterGirl
@Betty: Oh. That’s sad. Imagine how stressful it would be to be questioned for this particular trial. And that’s without having the press there, reporting on you, and quite possibly blowing up your life.
I am happy to see some people calling out the press for being so fucking irresponsible. Angry Staffer for one.
The Mark Summer guy who I never heard of before his awesome live blogging of the first day of the NY trial, is back again today. Not live blogging, but with a great summary of yesterday.
Today Tyler McBrian is doing a stellar job of live blogging on twitter. He is apparently with Lawfare, as managing editor, but I had never heard his name before this week.
eclare
@Old School:
Wow! Marching to the beat of her own drummer.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Do we know anything about the order of the bills? Because I don’t want any vote on Israel, or anything else for that matter, until we have a binding vote on Ukraine.
Baud
@Old School:
I hope for reasons other than she’s a budding MAGA.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Someone said something about procedure where they were going to vote on all four bills at once. But maybe that was about today’s rule vote.
mrmoshpotato
Just into Michigan, en route to Ann Arbor to see my brother’s family for the weekend and go to the Spring football game.
eclare
@Betty:
I don’t blame them one bit. It’s like being on a jury in a mob boss trial. Maybe worse with all of the press attention and so many in the cult.
Trivia Man
@Geminid: thats always fresh. I use it every chance i get when wishing someone happy birthday. “You’re turning 53? That means you are in your prime!”
Bonus joke: we really need to add puerto rico, Washington dc, and Guam as states. That puts us at 53 and we will truly be One Nation, Indivisible.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
I haven’t seen anything on the order.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty:
That’s sad. I feel bad for anyone who’s on the jury because Dump is a mobster POS with a fanclub of absolute trash.
Old School
@eclare: @Baud:
There doesn’t seem to be a particular reason other than that Taylor is too popular for her to say she likes. Her desire to not have albums by Ms. Swift long predates the MAGA turn.
(Mrs. School like Taylor though.)
Josie
@Doc Sardonic: I’m now past that point and heading into respite care and funeral parlor territory. Always an uplifting message in the mail.
brendancalling
@Old School: I have to check that out.
RevRick
I got in my 7,000 steps this morning, collecting litter and recycling along the way for tonight’s collection. This afternoon will be spent wringing my sermon for Earth Sunday: “Let’s Get Down to Earth!” Saturday night, I take my wife out to dinner at the Savory Grille (culinary gem of the region) to celebrate her birthday.
geg6
@Baud:
I believe that was for the rule vote, from what I read earlier today at TPM.
Harrison Wesley
@Geminid: Isn’t it also known as a Bezos number?
Baud
@Old School:
If she likes things that aren’t popular, she should join us here.
@geg6:
Thank you.
Baud
I was told there’d be no math.
Chris
Well, let’s see. First, the Earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and turned into oil. And then the Arabs came along and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And then Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di’s clothes! I couldn’t believe it! He took her best summer dress out of the closet…
eclare
@Old School:
MAGA turn?
Harrison Wesley
@Josie: Yep. Lots of invites to lunch where we can discuss cremation. Haven’t gone to one yet, but I’d definitely order a well-done steak if I did.
different-church-lady
Everything sucks and everyone is insane. Specific examples at 11 tonight.
eclare
@RevRick:
Sounds like a great weekend.
different-church-lady
@Chris: I’m looking forward to turning into oil.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mrmoshpotato: I love Ann Arbor in the spring
Sister Golden Bear
@Old Man Shadow:
<TV graphic of chart that omits Gen X from list of generations>
AARP: Hey gurl, we see you.
Narrator voice: All will be assimilated.
brantl
@mrmoshpotato: small world , flying back from Arizona, to wind up in Dexter, Mi.
UncleEbeneezer
Speaking of albums, one thing that Rick Beato talked about in a recent video that I think younger people will never truly appreciate is just how much mystery there was around our favorite artists/bands when we were growing up. There was no internet at the time and no Wikipedia, so all we had were what we saw in music videos, Rolling Stone/music magazine articles and album liner notes.
I know many of us used to spend hours reading the liner notes of our favorite albums under a fucking magnifying glass trying to figure out just who these artists were and what they were trying to tell us. If they included lyrics (which only a small minority of albums did) all the better. But the whole enterprise was like a Nancy Drew attempt to solve a mystery or find a hidden treasure.
One unfortunate casualty of the major changes of the music industry in the early 2000’s (streaming, pirating, corporate consolidation, death of record stores etc.) is that the magic and mystique of album cover art and liner notes pretty much disappeared into the dustbin of history. I wonder if kids obsess over this stuff the way we did when all they have to do is Google to find out endless info about any given artist.
For one example: Here is the cover art (and the story behind it) for Van Halen’s Fair Warning which is by far their darkest album (and probably my overall, favorite).
Old School
@eclare:
When all MAGA networks turned against Taylor a year or so ago.
Chris
@different-church-lady:
There’s a lot of worse things you could turn into. Like a Republican.
different-church-lady
@Trivia Man: Sure, you make a 53 star flag that doesn’t create eyeball pain.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Can you even play digital music backwards?
Geminid
@WaterGirl: John Bresnahan of Punchbowl News posted what looks like an official schedule for tomorrow. It shows the House meeting at 9 a.m. and holding genersl and amendment debate. Roll call votes are scheduled starting at 1 p.m. If the order listed is followed, the Israel bill will be first, Ukraine aid second, Indo-Pacific aid third and the border security bill fourth. I think that under the Rule adopted today, it all bills will get a vote.
And wow! Also from Bresnahan:
different-church-lady
@Baud: Sure, just turn your phone upside-down.
Doc Sardonic
@Josie: Oh, I get the funeral crap and ‘take care of your final needs’ life insurance policy pitches too. It is my theory that after my last near death experience, I got put on the accelerated list.
John S.
@Old School: My middle school age daughter is also not a fan of Taylor Swift, but mostly because she’s not Korean.*
*My daughter is obsessed with K-pop.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
I remember endless speculation of who that man was who was on the cover of Led Zep IV and why he was on the cover.
different-church-lady
@Geminid: Shit, he’ll wind up on the Supreme Court now.
eclare
@Old School:
I couldn’t tell from your reply whether you thought Taylor had turned MAGA, thanks.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
BTW, I actually feel a similar way about geography. When I was young and went on an international flight, there’d be this big board showing planes going to all theswe cool exotic destinations. The board is still there, but now it’s easy to pull up something about all these places on the Internet. Some of the mystery is gone.
eclare
@Geminid:
Thanks!
John S.
@UncleEbeneezer:
My favorite album cover as a kid was Breakfast in America by Supertramp.
When I saw Total Recall years later, I instantly recognized the woman that was Arnold Schwarzenegger in disguise. Hard to forget that face.
jimmiraybob
A play in four lines.
Representative Luna: “The whole ‘theory’ of solar eclipse is a deep state attempt to subdue the masses.”
Me: “Representative Luna, surely I think that we can all agree that the Earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the Earth.”
Representative Luna: “I am going to have to respectfully push back on that because I disagree.”
Me:
The end.
UncleEbeneezer
@John S.: Oh shit, I never realized that was the same lady. Another one I investigated for hours was Synchronicity by The Police. And not only because it had boobs (though I definitely noticed and approved of that too).
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
I don’t remember that from the cover of Synchronicity. BTW that tour was my first rock concert, The Fixx opened.
Quadrillipede
@Old Man Shadow: 50 is just a number. Although it is sneaking up on me faster than I would like as well… 🧓
Melancholy Jaques
@UncleEbeneezer:
Going back further, no videos, almost nothing on TV except for the major and mainstream artists. Creem Magazine.
To be truly in the know, you had to work for or hang out at a really good record store.
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: ha!
SiubhanDuinne
Holy fuck, some guy just set himself on fire in front of the courthouse. Jesus.
smith
All the alternate jurors have been chosen now, so it’s on to the trial. I keep thinking of all the people who thought TFG could never be brought to trial, but here we are. They’re probably the same people who now say he’ll never be imprisoned, but we wont know if that’s true or not until we get there.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
That sometimes happens with people protesting for legitimate causes. Did somebody do that for Trump?
different-church-lady
@jimmiraybob: The earth orbits the Sun.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m really curious about how many people are gonna show up for the game.
jimmiraybob
@different-church-lady:
“The earth orbits the Sun.”
I happily yield to your point.
Melancholy Jaques
@UncleEbeneezer:
Also, to find out if Paul McCartney was really dead.
A Streeter
@Old Man Shadow:
I had one of those when I turned 30. That’s quite common, of course, but I wasn’t expecting it at all.
Haven’t had another in the several zero years since. Some things already happening probably helped (I met the person I later married and am still married to a few months before my 30th).
Ramalama
@UncleEbeneezer: I miss the whole experience of the album and reading liner notes.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
No notion. It literally just happened. Apparently EMT extinguished the fire and the man is moving. Hope he lives and gets help for whatever prompted him to set himself ablaze.
Gvg
@different-church-lady: people have already done designs, 51 52 53 are all out there very similar to what we have, no special eyeball pain caused.
There are also some weird ones, but I really can’t see us choosing them.
trollhattan
UAL will neither confirm nor deny the plane in question was a 737 MAX. Please return to your seats and prepare for approach.
Boys of summer will be boys.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne: REALLY wanted on that jury.
StringOnAStick
I bought the first David Grisman Quintet album because of the cover photo: 4 gorgeous acoustic instruments, artfully arranged. The single most mind blowing first listen of my life.
WaterGirl
@Chris: Great summary!
Ramalama
@different-church-lady: Big Flag Lobbying Inc is there to support you and your loved ones from experiencing the asymmetry new states would cause.
trollhattan
@jimmiraybob:
Only missing “Representative Luna, what does your last name mean?”
OzarkHillbilly
The sad part is, he looked better than she did in it.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: Here are arrangements that look pretty normal for every number of states up to 70, except that 62 looks kind of bad:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/8feqte/stars_of_us_flag_with_5170_states/
Baud
UncleEbeneezer
@Ramalama: Exactly. It was a ritual for me. Even well into the transition to CD’s (though they were much harder to read).
Roberto el oso
@Old Man Shadow: you’re a youthful 49? so all this time you should have been Middle-Aged Man Shadow?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
I read a piece about why Bond films were in fact so popular in the early days: they showcased cool, exotic places that most people could only dream about.
Once travel became more available to the masses, one of the basic “pulls” of Bond films went away.
...now I try to be amused
@UncleEbeneezer:
The LP album cover as an art form came and went in our own lifetime, beginning in the mid-1960s (compare Meet the Beatles and Revolver) and ending when CDs displaced LPs. A rather short time, historically speaking.
I had crushes on Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart and Annie Haslam of Renaissance. The covers of Dreamboat Annie and Ashes are Burning gave me much pleasure since their faces were nice and big on them.
groveboy
@WaterGirl: I read him everyday on daily kos. He’s great. Does a Ukraine update daily. It’s also good.
TBone
Some dude just self immolated outside the court house. 20 feet-in-the-air flames
trollhattan
@…now I try to be amused:
Now we shall discuss Carly Simon’s “Playing Possum.” :-)
ETA the big 12X12 LP jacket format did not translate well to the CD’s minuscule Jewel box and yet they tried to just stick with the same artwork. Some of the lyrics inserts are set in comically tiny type, like 3 point or something. You need a 12 YO to read it out loud do you.
trollhattan
@TBone: Sure hope the manifesto was written on stainless steel or something.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Well, shit. Then Israel could pass and Ukraine could be shanked.
Thanks for the info.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: For real? A MAGA guy?
TBone
@UncleEbeneezer: my favorite liner notes:
TBone
@trollhattan: 😆
geg6
@UncleEbeneezer:
Maybe not so lost if my nieces and many students (mostly female) are any indication. They are way into vinyl My youngest niece requested a turntable for Christmas and has amassed quite the little collection, some from my LP collection. There was also a story on local news about a record store appreciation day happening this weekend (don’t know if it’s nationwide or just local) and one of the store owners they interviewed said his customer base has changed a lot over the last couple of year and is mainly olds like me and lots and lots of young women. I’m glad to see vinyl making a comeback.
WaterGirl
@groveboy: Thanks, I had no idea.
I had heard that there was a really great Ukraine update on KOS daily, but I hadn’t been to KOS in decades until Dorothy Winsor linked to the great live blogging of the court proceedings on Monday.
brendancalling
@WaterGirl: I started reading Daily Kos again due to Sumner’s coverage of Ukraine. Good stuff. Sadly, he’s onto other topics now and DK has reverted to being mostly useless.
Dangerman
FOX is reporting someone set themselves on fire at the Trump Courthouse. Any chance this was just Loose (with morals, not money) Lucifer just spontaneously combusting? That would be a fine Friday indeed.
piratedan
@…now I try to be amused: I remember as a young male adolescent discovering the album covers of Badfinger’s No Dice, Golden Greats of the Ventures and Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass’ Whipped Cream and Other Delights…..
designed to appeal to a certain demographic, to be sure.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: Oh, so he’s not still doing the Ukraine updates? Or at least not daily?
smith
Posted without comment.
Harrison Wesley
CNN reports that the guy who set himself on fire was throwing flyers into the air before that. Nothing yet on what – if anything – the flyers have on them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Person apparently sets self on fire outside Trump trial in New York | Donald Trump trials | The Guardian
UncleEbeneezer
@geg6: That’s cool. Doesn’t surprise me. I know fans of punk and indie rock never really abandoned vinyl and 7″ records. But I still imagine that the amount of attention paid to the artwork and liner notes is probably infinitesimal to what it used to be. Of course, now they have lots of Instagram and other social media posts from their fave artists. And some artists, like Beyonce, are still very good about keeping things under wrap to build anticipation. So there is still some mystery it just works different nowadays.
Jay C
@WaterGirl:
I’d think it would be more likely to be the other way round, but we will have wait and see. CW is that the anti-Ukraine-aid agitation is a pet obsession of the MAGA Moron Caucus, and that if the issue actually makes into onto the House floor, the general inclination (outside the loonies) would be to pass it; for once, I think the CW is right. Also, I think opposition to aid to Israel is pretty much mainly intense on the portside of the D bloc, so probably even fewer in opposition.
frosty
@Old Man Shadow: When I was in my thirties I saw a book on my in-law’s shelf: Oh To Be Fifty Again. Now I understand. Enjoy the next few years and everything you can do! And be aware that with luck nothing will change for the next twenty or so.
UncleEbeneezer
@piratedan: Yeah, album art was definitely hella misogynist and objectifying for the vast span of pop music (60’s-90’s).
West of the Rockies
@Old Man Shadow:
You’re 49 and calling yourself Old Man Shadow? Try Young Pup Shadow.
Redshift
@WaterGirl: Since they had to pass a rule with Dem support, I’m thinking there must be something in the rule to ensure that splitting it doesn’t allow them to only pass the parts they prefer.
JPL
@smith: Best comment so far, “Odor in the court”
UncleEbeneezer
So listening to about 3/4’s of Taylor Swift’s new album and: zzzzzzzz……
Everything is slow-to-mid tempo, ballad-y, with fairly similar chord progressions. Not much variety and nothing at all that is even close to up-tempo. Some pretty songs and interesting lyrics, but overall, pretty much one-note from beginning to end.
xephyr
Right now one of my cats (Rommy) is yelling at me and batting a stained glass mirror that hangs on the wall near the top of the refrigerator. This is a very effective bid for attention, as I don’t want to see that mirror get knocked off the wall. Since I’ve been trained by the best, I have to go. Shame on me for trying to be on the computer when he’s bored…
HumboldtBlue
frosty
@Harrison Wesley: Or you could wear your T-shirt when you go: Cremation. My last chance for a smoking hot body.
TBone
@JPL: this one is too funny to pass up 😆
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1781380399698002206
WaterGirl
@Redshift: I missed the whole “rule” part, so I don’t know anything about that, except that the rule passed. What they were, I have no idea! :-)
WaterGirl
@xephyr: Come back when he takes a nap.
frosty
@Quadrillipede: The ones that got me were the years divisible by 20:
20: I’m not a kid any more!
40: I’m not young any more!
60: I’m Oooolllldddd!!!!
30 was a big one though. Within a couple of months I turned 30, got a good job, moved to the suburbs, got married, and bought a station wagon. Yikes!
BethanyAnne
I heard that Amazon announced that the Fallout TV show is getting a second season.
Raoul Paste
@JPL: I liked “He’s gaslighting them“
And just to be clear, I’m not talking about the guy who said himself on fire, God help him
Ruckus
@Old Man Shadow:
Congrats on 50.
I passed that what seems a long, long time ago. Rather shortly (in the overall scheme of things) I hit 50% older than you.
Suzanne
It’s Mr. Suzanne’s birthday! I baked him a cookie cake. Which is really just a big cookie.
My hot take on chocolate chip cookie dough: it’s dramatically better if you brown the butter, use all brown sugar, and throw in some espresso powder.
Papa Boyle
@TBone: I always assumed when pundits and experts talked about the Trump gag order that it was in reference to shutting Trump up, and not, in fact, the order in which people close to Trump dry-heaved.
Thanks for the correction!
Ruckus
@Jackie:
ShitForBrains is shitty every day. How do you think he got this moniker?
Oh you mean he looks shitty. Well his name can have more than one meaning.
Jackie
Heh
Doubt it goes anywhere, but I like it AND the acronym!
Ruckus
@Doc Sardonic:
SS doesn’t write me anymore, they just make a monthly deposit.
For some reason I don’t seem to mind….
geg6
@Suzanne:
Happy birthday to Mr. Suzanne!
TBone
@Papa Boyle: 😆 they got more than they bargained for in every way. I was wondering recently if they’d be smart enough to bring a jar of Vicks Vapo Rub to smear a dab under their nostrils. Any person who has to change adult diapers knows that trick. I bet they were unprepared.
TBone
@Jackie: 💙😎
Kristine
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve resurrected my vinyl and my CDs. I’ve also bought CDs of iTunes purchases that I really liked just in case Apple ever loses the rights to the music.
Kristine
@Suzanne: Espresso powder is great for boosting chocolate flavor.
Dr. Fungus
@TBone: I’d heard that the Wilbury name originated from the frequent use of the phrase, “We’ll bury it” (in the mix) every time someone hit a wrong note during recording.
TBone
“Vast conspiracy theory” written on fire guy’s pamphlets. No one could’ve predicted.
frosty
@Kristine: I still have my CDs. The vinyl is going out the door this year since it’s worth something to some people finally. I think it’s crazy; records can get dirty and scratched and you have to flip them every 20 minutes! I like CDs.
90% of my iTunes library is CDs that I ripped. I don’t like buying vaporware music. I prefer something I can hold in my hand, which is why I haven’t bought music in a couple of years.
TBone
@Dr. Fungus: that’s a fun factoid!
Suzanne
@Kristine: Agreed. It also cuts the sweetness of the dough a bit.
There’s no bad chocolate chip cookies. But there’s a lot of mediocre chocolate chip cookies.
Lyrebird
@Trivia Man:
Thank you!
Laughter is GOOD.
Spanky
@Suzanne:
Hmmmm. I find your ideas compelling and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
JPL
@TBone: Poor jurors
Raven
Redacted
JPL
@Raoul Paste: CNN: “Investigators are now fanning out to collect the flyers the unknown man threw into the air, another senior law enforcement official. A CNN team on the ground observed one of the flyers. It said “NYU is a mob front” and had various allegations of wrongdoings against the school”
oldgold
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-apparently-sets-himself-on-fire-outside-courthouse-where-trump-is-on-trial/ar-AA1njU1v
TBone
@JPL: I hope it doesn’t travel as far as the jury box. From the video at the link I posted, it’s only his attorneys seated with him who are suffering from old man fell asleep and so did his sphincter. 😆 They insist that information is from credible sources.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Seems unlikely. Dems should be unified on Ukraine, so we’d only need like three Republicans.
TBone
@Spanky: she’s absolutely correct. My favorite deep, dark chocolate cake recipe calls for one cup of hot, strong coffee. The cake is AHMAZING
https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/beattys-chocolate-cake
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
I grew up in the vinyl era like a lot of people here. All the stories people have related about poring over liner notes, etc., still resonate.
But like you, I gladly embraced the CD era because of ease of play despite the fact that in the early days, most of the conversions to CD were hastily and poorly done. Over time, particularly with remastering, the media reached it’s promised sound quality.
One thing we did during The Plague Years was rip all our non-surround material and setup a centralized media platform with a 5-disc RAID array run by a Win 10 PC. It connects to the central receiver and we can bring up the menu on the TV and select stuff. Took forever to do.
That means the only time we use a disc player is for anything surround sound and heaven help me, I have 2 players, one that’s DVD-A and SACD while the other is Blu-Ray.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard stuff like Alice Cooper’s ‘Welcome to My Nightmare”, or Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” or Jeff Beck’s “Blow By Blow” in surround.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I am, not without reason, experiencing distrust whenever Republicans are involved.
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I used to have my small, urban condo set up with surround sound in the main living area. My poor neighbors!
David 🏀Caitlin Clark🏀 Koch
@TBone: You can never find a Ghostbuster when you need one
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@TBone:
Back when we were in Central Misery, our surround setup was to die for, mainly because the living room had a 15′ high ceiling and enough floor space that we could put 20 people in there with maybe 4 in the “sweet spot”.
A memory I’ll treasure forever is having Alan Parsons sit in the sweet spot and critique the James Guthrie surround mix of “Dark Side of the Moon”. Alan did the original quad mix and it’s far, far superior.
Since the downsize resulting from the Denver move, our living room is quite small so it doesn’t sound as “full” when cranked but still nice.
Suzanne
@TBone: Yanno, I don’t especially like chocolate, but SuzMom does, and her birthday is coming up. I have been meaning to try that recipe. Maybe I’ll give it a go.
I prefer the mouthfeel of milk chocolate to dark, but it can be too sweet. I love using milk chocolate chips in cookies, but the espresso powder in the dough helps that issue.
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: holy cow!!!!
UncleEbeneezer
I’m with Magdi Jacobs:
It’s hard to imagine how Tweeting out flyers titled “Flood Columbia For Gaza” for the protest wasn’t a clear and intentional reference to “Al-Aqsa Flood” (the official name Hamas uses for the 10/7 massacre). And I think Magdi is 100% correct that we would never just hand-wave away protests that made playful reference to the Tulsa Massacre, Ohio State or other racist assaults on Black People. The whole thing reeks of not-too-subtle Anti-Semitism.
TBone
@Suzanne: I highly recommend that cake. It is not too sweet until the icing goes on it. You could skip the icing given in the recipe and use something less sweet. The cake itself is fabulous, dark, rich, moist heaven.
PAM Dirac
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Haven’t heard those ones, but by far the best engineered surround recording I’ve heard is ‘Buena Vista Social Club’. Ry Cooder did the engineering. It helps that most of the tracks have around a dozen musicians which sounds pretty natural spread out over 5 channels + subwoofer.
trollhattan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Ambitious.
I continue with bifurcation of my stereo and media rigs, mostly because the 5.1 gear cannot produce music to the quality and finesse of the 2-channel gear. But I also dragged the stereo into the 21st century with a combo streaming receiver and DAC. A thumb drive plugged in has my ripped digital discs and after reviving my SACD changer (dead belt-ectomy) I port it through the DAC, which I’m informed is really quad DACs. Who can count? Whatever is inside, the former brittle Redbook sound from standard CDs is banished and much more music seems present now.
Internet radio has proved amusing. Reggae station from Switzerland? Why the hell not?
prostratedragon
@TBone:
Quick out of the block😆
TBone
@prostratedragon: dagnabbit nitter always says forbidden for me (maybe my privacy browser?). What am I missing out on dang it
2liberal
re: set self on fire guy – I bet he repented of this action after about 30 seconds or so. Those who used to actually do this would practice up by burning a finger to get used to the experience.
Ramalama
@frosty: With the right set-up, for example, I once had a McIntosh receiver, and my very decent Luxman turntable. Played my record album of Nina Simone’s Live at Town Hall and it sounded as if she was singing to us in our living room. Never had that experience with CDs. But it’s easier of course dealing with digital.
prostratedragon
@TBone: If I find it elsewhere, will post; maybe if you either change the nitter site to twitter.com, or if you use noscript or something be sure poast.org is permitted.
It’s an ad for a new high-end(!) Trump brand product.
Miss Bianca
@geg6:
My favorite new band, Starbenders, only had vinyl on sale at their gig we caught last month! I still have a turntable, it’s just not hooked up at the moment. :)
trollhattan
@2liberal: I’m forbidding cremation, so great is my opposition to being burned. Worst kind of injury, worst kind of pain.
TBone
@prostratedragon: golden diapers? C’mon man!
I can’t get to the special character e with accent that changes “lame” into “lamay” or I’d have typed it.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@eclare: The Fixx, Thomson Twins and Berlin opened for The Police when I saw them at Hollywood Park.
eclare
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
What a lineup! I only got The Fixx at the stop in Knoxville TN.
JML
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I still love the Thompson Twins.
Harrison Wesley
@frosty: WIN
Harrison Wesley
Have any members of Our Liberal Media present at the trial of Caesar Flatulus noted that there’s something in the air? Somehow I think that would not fit well into a framework of bothsideserism. When you report on a horse race, you’re not supposed to report on the smell of horseshit.