Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans in disarray!

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

In after Baud. Damn.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

This blog will pay for itself.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Music / Readership Capture Dawn Open Thread: Musical Notes

Readership Capture Dawn Open Thread: Musical Notes

by | 147 Comments

This post is in: ,

Because I keep meaning to share these snippets with you, but there’s always too much serious news…

… The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. It will stream live on Disney+ with an airing on ABC at a later date and available on Hulu the next day.

Those music acts nominated this year but didn’t make the cut included Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, the late Sinéad O’Connor, soul-pop singer Sade, Britpoppers Oasis, hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim and alt-rockers Jane’s Addiction.

I hope Cher shows up for that event, because last December…

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    It’s good to see the Wilson sisters back together after their recent estrangement, which is alluded to in the linked AP article:

    “We can take any kind of turbulence, me and Ann, and we’ve always been OK together,” she says. “We’re still steering the ship and happy to do it together. So we’re tight.”

    My sister and I are like that. We can’t stay mad at each other more than an hour or so.

  5. 5.

    Splitting Image

    Dreamboat Annie is one of the best albums of the 1970s.

    I still think it’s funny that they wrote the song “Barracuda” about a jackass promoter who published a scurrilous rumour about the two of them, and Sarah Palin came along years later and decided that this would be a dandy anthem for herself.

  6. 6.

    Soapdish

    I know it gets on the nerves of the LGM folks, but I can name a hell of a lot more Foreigner tunes than I can Warren Zevon tunes.

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    There are plenty of Foreigner-level bands in the Rock & Roll HoF already. Cleveland is where it belongs.

  11. 11.

    TBone

    OT but really huge good news if true!

    Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.

    https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2024/04/15/vaccine-breakthrough-means-no-more-chasing-strains

    Additionally, the researchers say there is little chance of a virus mutating to avoid this vaccination strategy. “Viruses may mutate in regions not targeted by traditional vaccines. However, we are targeting their whole genome with thousands of small RNAs. They cannot escape this,” Hai said.

  13. 13.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: I doubt it. Wikipedia strongly implies that heavy lobbying by the Cleveland business community, especially combined with their pledge to put up $65M towards construction of the HoF, was the main incentive for choosing Cleveland.

    Also, Huey Lewis’ song mentions a whole string of cities besides Cleveland.

  14. 14.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Soapdish:

    I know it gets on the nerves of the LGM folks…

    Always a plus.  Liking Zevon is an essential element of being an Insufferable Music Snob which personality wise is in keeping with that crowd.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TBone:

    Sounds very promising! And even better news for needle-phobic people like me:

    Their flu vaccine will also likely be delivered in the form of a spray, as many people have an aversion to needles. “Respiratory infections move through the nose, so a spray might be an easier delivery system,” Hai said.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TBone: In other big vaccine news: ‘Real hope’ for cancer cure as personal mRNA vaccine for melanoma trialled

    The vaccine is an individualised neoantigen therapy. It is designed to trigger the immune system so it can fight back against a patient’s specific type of cancer and tumour. Known as mRNA-4157 (V940), the vaccine targets tumour neoantigens, which are expressed by tumours in a particular patient. These are markers on the tumour that can potentially be recognised by the immune system. The jab carries coding for up to 34 neoantigens and activates an anti-tumour immune response based on the unique mutations in a patient’s cancer.

    To personalise it, a sample of tumour is removed during the patient’s surgery, followed by DNA sequencing and the use of artificial intelligence. The result is a custom-built anti-cancer jab that is specific to the patient’s tumour.

    “This is very much an individualised therapy and it’s far cleverer in some senses than a vaccine,” said Shaw. “It is absolutely custom-built for the patient – you couldn’t give this to the next patient in the line because you wouldn’t expect it to work. They may have some shared new antigens, but they’re likely to have their own very individual new antigens that are important to their tumour and so, therefore, it is truly personalised.”

    The ultimate aim to permanently cure patients of their cancer, Shaw said. “I think there is a real hope that these will be the gamechangers in immunotherapy,” she said.

  21. 21.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @lowtechcyclist:

    There are plenty of Foreigner-level bands in the Rock & Roll HoF already.

    The R&RHOF is pretty much all about Foreigner-level bands.  I don’t say that as a slam the way a lot of people do.  I’m no real big Foreigner fan (they haven’t aged well to me) but they’re pretty much a poster child for the Hall so I’m surprised it’s been this long for them to get in.

    Ann Wilson has a helluva set of pipes (I met her once in 2000 when she was part of a Beatles tribute tour “A Walk Down Abbey Road”) but if you want to see an incredible cover of ‘Barracuda’, this one at the MTV 2007 “Rock Honors” show will blow you away.  Gretchen Wilson (country) and Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqQkECIn738

  23. 23.

    3Sice

    Lou Gramm, Paul Rodgers, Foreigner, Bad Company, solo, super group, or replacement vocalist?

    I can’t always tell, but without them, “classic rock” loses half of its playlist.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Heh. At my age I think I can skip that vaccine. As long as I stay away from the Villages, which I don’t think will be a problem for me.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: To personalise it, a sample of tumour is removed during the patient’s surgery, followed by DNA sequencing and the use of artificial intelligence.

    They had me right up to the end.

    Although quite possibly there’s no AI involved, and they just threw that in because marketing insisted. I just saw a commercial for Wendy’s that said their new app used AI, which is ridiculous for a program that is literally choosing things from a menu.

  30. 30.

    TBone

    Hope is the thing with feathers –
    That perches in the soul –
    And sings the tune without the words –
    And never stops – at all –

    And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
    And sore must be the storm –
    That could abash the little Bird
    That kept so many warm –

    I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
    And on the strangest Sea –
    Yet – never – in Extremity,
    It asked a crumb – of me.
    – Emily Dickinson
    🎶
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wtj59opWKg

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    This morning’s Politico Playbook promoting a Politico Magazine article:

    What They’re  Reading At Mar-a-Lago: “How Suzie Wiles Became the Most Feared and Reviled Political Figure Few People Have Ever Heard Of,” Michael Kruse [link]. Come for the insight into Trump world, stay for the delicious readout– much of it told anonymously by former Ron DeSantis operatives– about how the Trump camp changed the narrative around his most formidable adversary in the primary. (Pudding fingers, boot lifts, a too-powerful wife– all were introduced into the media bloodstream by people working in close touch with Wiles).

    I have not read the article yet but if it’s like most Politico Magazine articles, it’s very detailed and very long.

    Among other items, Playbook also reviews David Pecker’s testimony in New York yesterday.

  34. 34.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @3Sice:

    Lou Gramm, Paul Rodgers, Foreigner, Bad Company, solo, super group, or replacement vocalist?  I can’t always tell, but without them, “classic rock” loses half of its playlist.

    Add Van Halen, AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd to that list and you have the other half.

    Back when I was in Central Misery, I drove to offices I supported in Flyover Country (NE, KS, IA and for a while OK).  3-5 hour drives which meant driving thru 3-5 local media markets which meant 3-5 “classic rock” stations.

    I’d station surf the entire time and the homogeneity of the groups on such stations from market-to-market only grew over the years.  I’d often hear “Gimme Three Steps” 5 times on a 5 hour drive from Jeff City to Lincoln on 5 different stations.

    The interesting thing is that some groups would drop off the playlist for a year or two, Bad Company and Foreigner being two.  But, after a year or two, they’d be back on regular rotation.  I never could figure out why those two bands, as opposed to others, were pulled from time to time.  Lord knows “classic rock” playlists would have nothing without their uber reliance on Van Halen.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I might have to get around to reading that! I find it mighty entertaining when horrible Florida Republicans start flinging poo at each other.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yep — “AI” is at the peak of the hype-cycle, and most of the marketing references are bullshit on stilts.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @Baud: The marketplace news on the radio advertises some AI product, but then it makes a point of listing all the bad things that it is NOT.  Including ‘hallucination free’.  Very strange.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    I know we’ve beaten the NYTimes/Biden story to death but I had forgotten this:

    But it was the paper’s willingness to legitimize rumors swirling around Hunter Biden’s past business dealings in Ukraine that left top campaign officials most incensed. In a letter to Baquet in October 2019, deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield blasted the Times for a story by reporter Ken Vogel and freelancer Iuliia Mendel focused on allegations by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies that Joe Biden took actions toward Ukraine as vice president in order to boost his son Hunter Biden’s business interests there. The paper’s reporting, the letter claimed, legitimized a “debunked … conspiracy theory” that had been, to that point, “relegated to the likes of Breitbart, Russian propaganda … and regular Hannity guest John Solomon.”

    It was absolutely bizarre. Ken Vogel and this “freelancer” were writing and disseminating stories from Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani was their source! I remember Ken Vogel went on CNN and solemnly intoned that there was “something there” on Biden/Ukraine.
    Just complete invented bullshit. They were doing another Judith Miller/Iraq and they almost got away with it.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    And, the NYTimes reporting on Hunter Biden now looks even worse because Republicans desperately spent 3 years and millions of dollars trying to get something on it and came up with nothing.

    The NYTimes should ask Ken Vogel and the freelancer if they regret misleading readers and if they should consider an apology/correction.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: It’s cold comfort, but Vogel missed the scoop of a generation while sniffing around Giuliani’s chum line, and if Vogel’s behavior on Twitter back in the day is any indication, he knows it. A sitting president was shaking down a vulnerable ally, and the clowns in his admin had Vogel and the Times completely snowed.

  45. 45.

    Eyeroller

    @catclub: Current LLMs (large language models) cannot be free of hallucinations.  It isn’t possible.  There may be some different types of model that greatly reduce hallucinating, but they aren’t currently in production.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Fun Susie Wiles facts:

    Susan Sumerall grew up in New Jersey . Her father Pat was a well-known sportscaster and NFL receiver.

    Wiles earned a B.A. at the University of Maryland and in 1979 she took a job with Congressman Jack Kemp, a former teammate of her father’s.

    Her first campaign experience was as advance team scheduler for the 1980 Ronald Reagan campaign. Making the trains run on time.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    @catclub: There have already been several cases where a company’s “AI assistant” has given people wrong information — stuff it hallucinated — and the company has been successfully sued. So the legal disclaimers are getting slapped on every interaction.

    I’ve also seen, in actual training materials for “prompt engineering”, the note that working with an AI is like working with a defiant teenager who will deliberately misconstrue what you tell it, so you have to be careful to close all the loopholes. You can find examples online, which extend to literally telling it not to make up any information, and requiring it respond in the same language as the question.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I love “the freelancer”. THAT’S odd. They have some bullshit Guiliani wants them to launder thru the newspaper and this “freelancer” appears. Some horrible Giuliani crony from  his time in NYC?

  49. 49.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: My building had its monthly trivia game on Monday, and one question was “Who was the first woman in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?”

    As an old Detroit girl, I suggested Aretha Franklin but my teammates thought she might not really be rock and roll. We wound up putting down something like Madonna.

    It was, of course, Aretha.

  51. 51.

    TBone

    Too good to skip.  Although I believe that no human is illegal, Dotard does and so sticking this right in his eye is an enormous pleasure.

    https://twitter.com/herotimeszero/status/1783227252760559717

    Let me see if I got this straight. Mr. Donald Trump, the brave protector of the border, the tireless builder of walls, the leading MAGA voice for throwing out all “illegals”… had dozens of “illegals” working for him the whole time?? So, Donald claimed that he’s one thing but in reality, he was something else entirely?? So, Donald tricked MAGA for 2458th time?? Nooooo <stops to laugh> oooooo!!!

     

    Undocumented workers show their Trump uniforms from various Trump golf courses. All of them illegal. All employed by Trump owned establishments. Let’s end the hypocrisy of the Republican Party at last! It did not begin with Trump, and only we can end it. VoteBlue #ProudBlue

  53. 53.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    You can always tell when a Newzmeedyuh organ knows it’s pushing a completely bullshit narrative for reasons totally divorced from the 4th Estate’s sacred role in civilised society, because once it’s succeeded or failed in achieving its aim, they will never, ever discuss the nuts and bolts of it again, though they will leave it hanging around in the background as dressing for the narrative set – like a bad smell in a public toilet or small-handed scratches on the walls of a Bishop’s private boudoir.

  54. 54.

    lowtechcyclist

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Liking Zevon is an essential element of being an Insufferable Music Snob which personality wise is in keeping with that crowd.

    Is it OK to like Zevon just because I like Zevon? I gave up most of a lifetime ago on keeping track of Who’s Cool To Like According To Whom, so I just listen to stuff and either like it or not.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Wiles is formidable, but she, like dozens of lawyers getting paid by the RNC, has a fool for a client. Hopefully that will be her Waterloo. And if the ever-percolating ugliness between the DeSantis and Trump factions oozes through the seams in the interim, I am here for it! :-)

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    And, the NYTimes reporting on Hunter Biden now looks even worse because Republicans desperately spent 3 years and millions of dollars trying to get something on it and came up with nothing.

    Oh, come on, you libtard. MTG’s dick-pix presentation was not “nothing.”
    Oh, wait — I bet you meant nothing legitimate. Never mind.​

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken:

    I’ve also seen, in actual training materials for “prompt engineering”, the note that working with an AI is like working with a defiant teenager who will deliberately misconstrue what you tell it, so you have to be careful to close all the loopholes. You can find examples online, which extend to literally telling it not to make up any information, and requiring it respond in the same language as the question.

    Beyond some point you have to wonder if this kind of natural-language prompting that turns into a second-guessing exercise out of an Asimov robot story is really less work than just writing some code in a real programming language.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Tony Jay:

    Trump knows NY media so well. He knew they’d bite. God, it must have been like catnip when “Americas Mayor”, another of the authoritarian assholes they all love, showed up with the dirt.

    They created him and he consumed them. He absolutely dominates that whole media corporation.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Maybe some company will come up with an AI system and name it “Plethora.”

    But maybe not; that word seems to have gone out of style already.

  62. 62.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Is it OK to like Zevon just because I like Zevon?

    Heh heh, I see your point.

    Yeah, it’s unfortunate that some artists get that kind of association as in “If you don’t like Artist X, you don’t know shit”.

    I saw him in 1981.  He was doing a co-headlining tour with Kansas of all bands.  I liked them far more than him back in the day but he was far better that night than they were.  Enjoyed his half of the show.

    Really good piece on his life and legacy:

    https://www.theringer.com/music/2018/9/7/17830460/warren-zevon-career-music-albums

  64. 64.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ve used AI to create some small bits of code.  And I’m not a coder.  I think that’s neat. And easy to verify because it either works or it doesn’t.

  65. 65.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    I’ve never read much of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, but I’ve often heard that she wrote practically all her poems in ballad meter. So i sang this one to the tune of the “Leave It To Beaver” theme music.

  67. 67.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    “AI” is at the peak of the hype-cycle, and most of the marketing references are bullshit on stilts.

    At least it seems to have driven crypto off the stage for awhile.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    griffinkyle
    19h
    David Pecker says AMI lied to The Wall Street Journal about paying Karen McDougal for her life rights.
    “I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted to protect Donald Trump.”

    This testimony is just fascinating – he’s admitting everything – all of it. I have to read it over the weekend. I keep trying to compare my impressions of what was happening at that time with what was actually happening – the elaborate lies and machinations, all the gross Trump hires frantically working to cover up all Trump’s shit. Just wild.

  71. 71.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay: I have always thought, and have sometimes even written here, that Rudy Giuliani must have been the easiest mark in Kyiv for anyone with fake bullshit to sell. Even easier than the pasty overweight upper-middle-aged American men you see there shopping for a tradwife.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Well, code can trick you by seeming to work in your test instance. But I’ve done that too, for the kind of donkey work that you could imagine doing by filling in a template–it can get you past the opening stages of coding something with output that is typo-free.

    The weird part is when it hallucinates and tries to use an API feature that isn’t actually there, but seems like it could be there–I’ve seen that happen too.

  76. 76.

    Nelle

    @TBone: Exactly what I needed,  at the moment I needed it.  What a welter of tragedy and wonder in the big picture of the world.  I was just thinking that, while reveling in the blossom and song of spring here, a child is losing her mother in Gaza, a mother in Ukraine has lost her child.  Then there is eastern Congo and Sudan and all the other conflicts.  It is fitting to remember that it all happens at once..as the Northern Hemisphere whirls into spring, the Southern Hemisphere has the chill of autumn and readies for darkness and winter.  Some days, I can’t find balance.  Then, I’m reminded that Hope is the thing with feathers.  Thanks.

  79. 79.

    Eyeroller

    @Baud: Speaking as a coder, if it’s small you can tell whether it works or not, but testing of larger bodies of code is much more difficult (you may get an “answer” that is wrong), especially in areas that aren’t Web programming/markup (writing HTML is not “coding”). Sometimes an entirely different group of software engineers is responsible for testing what the “coders” write because it’s difficult to see your own mistakes.

  80. 80.

    3Sice

    Think of it like a George Miller movie plot.

    The machine was built by the old gods and served the interests of the elites. The elders have passed and now orange god worshipping primitives have found and climbed aboard the ghost ship. They have no idea what all the controls do, but keep pushing and pulling them in tribute to their god.

  81. 81.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay: Worse. Mendel is Ukrainian, and worked (after that Vogel piece was published) as Zelensky’s press secretary. I’ve never figured out her angle.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Eyeroller:

    writing HTML is not “coding”)

     
    In that case, I haven’t done it. I’ve only tried simple html with form fields and a little bit of visual basic.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The epitome of cool is to be unashamedly uncool.

    Or, you could be me: unashamedly uncool, and in fact the epitome of uncoolness.

    Now, get offa my lawn!

  85. 85.

    sab

    @Barbara: I never understood their pique against the Clintons, who were always resptful to them. One theory I believe is that Howell Raines resented another Arkansan being more successful than himself.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I’m already looking forward to Wiles’ memoirs. She has seen a lot, especially the last 4 years.

    I’m also hoping McConnell holds on long enough to write his book, but I’m not sure he will; McConnell looks like about to dry up and blow away any day now. There’ll be proof of life this weekend though, ’cause McConnell is scheduled for two Sunday political shows.

    Mark Milley is another political figure whose book I want to see published. I’ll probably get to, because General Milley doesn’t look at all like he’s about to dry up and blow away. I’m hoping Milley writes most of his account, “with the bark on.”

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: +1

    “The AI said that you wanted to have plaid hair, so we included a gene for that.  You’re welcome.”

    People need to stay in their lane.  Grr…

    Otherwise, good.  Gradually, and then Suddenly, indeed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    Liminal Owl

    Going back to bed (because sick), but here’s a nice bit of morning news: New HHS rule provides speciific extra HIPAA protection for abortion patients and doctors.

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @Gin & Tonic:  Rudy Giuliani must have been the easiest mark in Kyiv for anyone with fake bullshit to sell.

    His scene in that Borat movie provides more evidence, as if we needed it.

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: The first series of questions their oh so serious Editorial Board asked Joe in their 80 minute interview with him in January 2020 were about Hunter.

    They’re clowns.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    Mrs. Fro and I saw our first ladyslippers of the season today!  They popped up in their usual spot along the trail.

    That’s our cue to go check out a few other spots in our local parks and SNP that have had them in the past.  Just in time for the weekend, too!

  98. 98.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    @lowtechcyclist: God will punish you

    God’s put up with a lot from me over the years, but for some reason he still keeps pouring out his love on me. :D

  99. 99.

    TBone

    @lowtechcyclist: 😂 I have a very large paperback volume containing all of her work, a birthday present from Mom one year.  I should unearth and reread some with that in mind!

  101. 101.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: People need to stay in their lane.

    A phrase that in association with AI reminds me of the latest Tesla vehicular homicide. The owner had put the thing in “autopilot” mode, which basically keeps it in the lane, so it stayed in the lane and ran over a motorcyclist. Google “tesla motorcyclist death” for details.

  102. 102.

    TBone

    @Gin & Tonic: I posted on Fascistbook over and over “Rudy is the mole” because he was (is) such an easy mark.  Back when I had an account in the before times.

  104. 104.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Manyakitty: I like Zevon and also think some of Foreigner’s stuff is fun. I gravitate to a lot of “music snob” music but don’t hold anyone else’s musical tastes against them.

     

     

    @Baud: I think the justification for putting the Rock and Roll HOF in Cleveland is because that’s where Alan Freed got his start – in Akron and then Cleveland. He was a very popular DJ in the 1950s who played a lot of the sub-genre of R&B music that became known as Rock and Roll, and he’s credited with inventing the term “Rock and Roll” for that new style of music (at least he’s credited in some circles as the inventor or at least popularizer of the term). So, arguably, Cleveland is where the term Rock and Roll originated.

  105. 105.

    Gin & Tonic

    Today marks 38 years since the nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl, arguably the catalyst (one of the catalysts) in the collapse of the USSR.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I like a lot of music that’s not “popular” or “cool”. I’ve loved Dan Fogelberg since I was in college. I went to an acoustic concert he did here at SMS in 1982 that was an amazing show. I also like Barry Manilow, so sue me! Then there’s all the classical music I like.

  108. 108.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I have 12.5 acres, I think I can squeeze a little lawn in. Much to my dismay. Now I have to cut it from time to time.

  110. 110.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Kay:

    Ken Vogel and this “freelancer” were writing and disseminating stories from Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani was their source!

    Same source for the “FBI has enough evidence to indict Hillary Clinton” stories that were a staple of NYT 2016 coverage.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: Jealous am I. In all my years of running up and down the hills and hollers of Ozarkistan, I have only come across Ladyslippers once.

  112. 112.

    Scout211

    In other music news for all of the jackal boomers: Link

    Mike Pinder, the Moody Blues’ longtime keyboardist and the last surviving founding member of the Rock Hall-inducted band, has died at the age of 82.

    Days of Future Passed. Oh, the memories.

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I knew you had some acreage, envious that it’s that much. Although I guess I should temper that envy, given the upkeep required.

    I have a little over three, which I am not currently using to its highest purpose or some such. Maybe this is the year I get serious about a garden. [Tried some tub-planted jalapenos last year; turned out they were banana peppers, because Burpee’s wholesaler (allegedly)screwed up on the seeds.]

  116. 116.

    Soprano2

    @Another Scott: If only they had enough awareness to know that’s most likely the reason he’s stiffing them now. Perhaps if they apologized for their idiocy he would give them the interview they crave.

  117. 117.

    3Sice

    I like Zevon well enough, but…

    Mid summer, golden hour, just off of work, Friday night in America?

    I’m blasting Lou Gramm (or maybe that’s Brian Howe era Bad Company) out of the T-Top.

  119. 119.

    scribbler

    @Soprano2:  I saw Fogelberg in Chicago in the late 70’s and it was amazing too.   He was great especially in his early songwriting years.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    To be clear I think questions about Hunter are legit. I don’t think his drug addiction protects him from questions about how he used his father’s position for gain. I’m not a big fan of ol Hunter. I read excerpts from his book and he strikes me as having a huge fucking ego (like a lot of addicts). Some of Biden’s family members are horrible – his brother Frank is a huge charter school scammer – the for profit schools he promotes are for the most vulnerable kids – kids with behavior problems. Just a gross person. You can find him pushing the schools on you tube. He’s only ever been able to sell them to Florida.

    I love addicts – I have many in my family and certainly in my juvenile practice but they’re really manipulative and often have huge egos -because they’re addicted doesn’t make them nice people.

    The questions were fine. i don’t want a corrupt President. The NYTimes took it way beyond that. They had NOTHING yet they continued to mislead readers that there was “something” there. They can’t just go forward as if they found something when they didn’t.

  122. 122.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Soprano2:

    I’m not the Insufferable Music Snob here. My wife is a massive Manilow fan.

    An acoustic Fogelberg show must have been great given as his career progressed, he moved more and more in that direction.  I’ve always preferred his earlier, rockier (Joe Walsh produced) stuff.

    I’ve found over the years that I’ve learned to appreciate a lot of artists more *after* I’ve seen a live show by them.

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: the 12.5 is mostly holler with just enough hill for a house, shop, and a few outbuildings, as well as our gardens. Total mowable yard comes to something a little less than an acre I would guess. Just enough that I need a lawn tractor, a push mower, a weed eater, etc. The other 11.5 acres are timber and dump all their leaves in the yard every autumn, such that I also need a blower.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @3Sice: Mid summer, golden hour, just off of work, Friday night in America?  I’m blasting Lou Gramm

    Back in the day I really dug LG’s solo albums – good stuff!

  127. 127.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    You know, I don’t even give them the credit of being naïve or easily caught up in ‘events’. They knew full well that Stench and The Ghoul (amongst a host of other RW choads) were shovelling metric tons of toxic waste their way in place of manure, and they chose to spread it all over the fields and gardens of their readership.

    It’s not even complicity. It’s full-on co-dependence and conspiracy to deceive.

    And it’s most definitely not restricted to the US Newzmeedyah.

  130. 130.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: The Wilson sisters were at odds? I didn’t know.

    Ann and Nancy, along with Grace Slick, were my rock ‘n’ roll goddesses back in the day. Still are, really.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Tony Jay:

    I genuinely don’t believe it’s ideological. I think it’s temperament and (certainly) background – elite media hire really fancy people. They hire for rigidity and conventionality.

    It reminds me of that essay that was making the rounds a while ago – a professor was bemoaning the fact that his “star” students were like expensive racehorses –  trained to run around a track and win. He wanted them to veer off the track they had been on since kindergarten and give him something original to them, try something, maybe fail, but they can’t. They’re afraid if they do that they won’t get an A+.

    You see it on social media with the NYtimes reporters defending their bosses – NEVER an admission of the slightest error, not even any doubt. They can’t be wrong. They were all raised to be the smartest people in any room and ALWAYS right. Natural ass kissers.

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Have you ever been to St. Mary’s Wilderness, over in the Shenandoah Valley near Vesuvius? That’s worth a trip. Might be crowded on weekend, but a great weekday trip if you can find the time.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @Tony Jay:

    It’s like how they had 4 years of Trump and it took them 3 of those years to even figure out that their boilerplate “cover politics” approach wasn’t working. They still haven’t come up with a way to cover him. They haven’t even tried anything at all. Apparently they have ONE approach to this job industry wide and it’s insanely narrow and no one is even interested in looking at whether it still works or is relevant. They’ll just keep hammering on that square peg in the round hole, forever.

  136. 136.

    Another Scott

    @Kay:

    OTOH, …

    Froomkin at PressWatchers.org (from March 7):

    It’s an increasingly common critique of the New York Times: The largest, most influential news organization in the nation is not warning sufficiently of the threat to democracy — while at the same time bashing President Joe Biden at every opportunity.

    And it’s been a bit of a mystery. Why would a newsroom full of talented and mostly liberal reporters be engaging in such damaging behavior?

    Well, mystery solved.

    It’s because that’s what the publisher wants.

    Publisher A.G. Sulzberger — perhaps unintentionally — showed his hand in a speech on Monday at Oxford University on “Journalistic Independence in a Time of Division.” His ostensible goal was to defend the Times against its critics. But the two biggest takeaways, in my view, were as follows:

    One: Sounding the alarm, it turns out, is anathema to Sulzberger’s notion of independent journalism. Independent journalism should instead “empower our fellow citizens with the information they need to make decisions for themselves.” There are plenty of other people sounding the alarm, he insisted. “Indeed, the alarm seems so loud and so constant that much of the public has by now put in earplugs.” Furthermore, he said, “journalists don’t serve the public by trying to predict history’s judgments, or to steer society to them.”

    And two: According to Sulzberger, independent journalism requires being “willing to take a simple, easy, or comfortable story and complicate it with truths that people don’t want to hear.” He described it as a badge of honor that “independent reporting — the kind that doesn’t fully align with any one perspective — will never win over the partisans.” He expressed contempt for “echo chambers” that “celebrate work that conforms to their narratives and protest anything that challenges them.”

    What does that mean — practically speaking — to the editors and reporters who work for him? In my view, the message is clear:

    One: You will earn my displeasure if you warn people too forcefully about the possible end to democracy at the hands of a deranged insurrectionist.

    And two: You prove your value to me by trolling our liberal readers.

    That explains a lot of the Times’s aberrant behavior, doesn’t it?

    […]

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    Right, but their star reporters are all on social media vigorously defending him. It isn’t required. Surely they could just NOT defend him. They’re creating and operating these accounts – No one orders Maggie Haberman or Peter Baker to immediately rush to the defense of this powerful person- they volunteer.

    Natural ass kissers. Racehorses easily looping a track, over and over and over.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    Our public school takes the band kids to the Hall of Fame as a reward for the football season – I chaperoned one year. They were very funny, laughing at how old the honorees are.

  142. 142.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    but their star reporters are all on social media

    Methinks you’ve identified a sizeable chunk of the problem right there.

  143. 143.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    See, I can’t even see it as that. The truly rigidly conventional way of covering politics should – should – be about talking to the Administration about its aims and policies and telling their readership what they are and how successful they are in getting through the sausage machine of Congress. That is, after all, how they cover the GOP when they have the White House. Conventional should mean applying to both sides, right?

    But it’s not. They two Parties are treated very differently. So yes, there is a rigid convention, but the convention is to support and appease Republicans while undermining and attacking Democrats, and it’s followed very, very rigidly, even when the Republican is a demented fascist and the Democrat is the most traditionally conventional mainstream politician i can think of in decades.

    I really can’t put that down to anything but ideology. The ideology being “Who gives our class the best tax cuts and our business model the easiest clickbait?”

  146. 146.

    Chris T.

    @Soprano2:

    I also like Barry Manilow, so sue me!

    He does write the songs. Including those ad jingles that get stuck in your head, like Band-Aids get stuck on you.

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