Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

When we show up, we win.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

So many bastards, so little time.

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans in disarray!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Friday Night Open Thread

Friday Night Open Thread

by | 77 Comments

This post is in: 

As I was sitting down to start my post, I noticed that Rose already discussed the Trump lawsuit against the WSJ, which is fucking awesome and I love it, more please. Someone clearly has never heard of the Streisand effect.

So on to my next favorite thing that happened, which is that married dickweasel AI techbro CEO who got caught on the KissCam at a Coldplay concert grinding on the “Chief People Officer” (which I am assuming is some sort of new lingo for HR once everyone figured out that HR is there to protect… the company, not the employees) who herself is married, and the fallout from it:

The technology company Astronomer said Friday that its board of directors has started a formal investigation after its CEO, Andy Byron, was shown embracing a woman on a screen during a Coldplay concert.

“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability,” the New York company said in a statement posted on social media.

It added, “The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.”

Byron was shown with his arms wrapped around a woman on a jumbo screen during a Coldplay concert on Wednesday in Foxborough, Mass., according to a social media post that went viral. Some media outlets identified the woman as Astronomer human resources chief Kristin Cabot.

Byron didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment sent to Astronomer.

Not really a smart play, there, was it?

***

I took a break after writing the above and came back and realized I had lost interest in thinking and writing. In lieu of any more of my incessant rambling, instead a game! The greatest name for an album is REO Speedwagon’s 1978 classic “You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish.”

Prove me wrong.

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  4. 4.

    M31

    It’s not the best album title but it did produce the best telegram to the suits at a record co: “Miles just called and said he wants this album to be called BITCHES BREW. Please advise.”

    lololol

    it was Miles, he got the title he wanted

  6. 6.

    hells littlest angel

    Let me guess: the company called Astronomer does nothing even peripherally related to astronomy, but it sounds kind of brainy.

  11. 11.

    OlFroth

    Not a real band or album title, but I always thought the ultimate 80’s band name would be A Flock of Police Men Working Without Hats.

  12. 12.

    Splitting Image

    As far as album titles go, Dinner Music For People Who Aren’t Very Hungry (by Spike Jones) is one of my favourites. The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse (by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) is another.

  15. 15.

    WTFGhost

    @OlFroth: You’d think so, wouldn’t you? And you’d think the audience wouldn’t be carrying expired produce, much less so *much* of it, wouldn’t you?

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Mechanics have tuned Barracudas.  So the REO Speedwagon title is incorrect.

  19. 19.

    WTFGhost

    @toine: “Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts!”

    (Bloom County thing. Yes, I’m old. I remember mosquito-nose Opus.)

  20. 20.

    MazeDancer

    Andry José Hernández Romero, the make-up artist who was wrongfully sent to CECOT prison is free. He is in Venezuela. Do not have more details. But at last he is released..

  21. 21.

    toine

    @WTFGhost:

    OMG, I had totally forgot about Billy and the Boingers!

    I remember buying a Bloom County anthology book that had a Billy vinyl 45 included!

    …. kneels in hommage….

  23. 23.

    kalakal

    In the Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson

    Countdown to Ecstasy – Steely Dan

    The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars – David Bowie

    Trans Europe Express – Kraftwerk

    Candidate for most prog rock pretension

    The Penteteuch of the Cosmogony – Dave Greenslade & Patrick Woodruffe ( prossibly the best artwork ever though)

    and a candidate for hippy-dippy-drippiest

    My People Were Fair and had Sky in Their Hair… But Now They’re Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows – Tyrannosaurus Rex

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    one of They Might Be Giants’ rarities compilations was called “Album Raises New and Troubling Questions.”

  25. 25.

    No One of Consequence

    The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get – Joe Walsh

    (My submission anyway.)
    -NOoC

    eta close runner-up:

    Songs About Fucking – Big Black

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean​

    ETA: Honorable Mention:

    My Head Is an Animal – Of Monsters and Men
    This Album Does Not Exist – Dreamers

  33. 33.

    No One of Consequence

    @toine: DethTongue or GTFO!

    The original Bill for Prez!

    God I miss those halcyon days. When one could wake each day and hope (with reasonable chance of success) that you would find a new Bloom County strip. (Or failing that a new Far Side.)
    -NOoC

  36. 36.

    Sandia Blanca

    Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, by Traffic.

    Also, Where’s the Money, by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

  38. 38.

    trnc

    For album titles, my personal favorite is “Tyranny and Mutation” for the sinister vibe that’s perfect for early BOC, but I’m a huge fan and the content of the album probably sways my opinion of the title. I’m partial to “Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch” (just for the title, because I know almost nothing about the album) and “The Beatles,” the latter mainly for the irony of finally having a self titled album for the 9th release of the world’s biggest band AND people deciding that the album needed a nickname.

  41. 41.

    BlueGuitarist

    Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
    title suggests attention to evidence of the escape of seriously wounded…

    The Beatles, Revolver – wordplay band name, wordplay title.

    Steely Dan, Countdown to Ecstasy
    Sly & the Family Stone, Stand!
    Joni Mitchell, Blue
    Terry Anderson & the Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team, What Else Can Go Right

  42. 42.

    trnc

    @lowtechcyclist: This Album Does Not Exist

    That reminds me that Public Image Ltd (John Lydon’s band after The Sex Pistols) released an album named “Album”  on vinyl, “Cassette” on cassette tape, “Compact Disk” for the CD, etc. The song “Rise” became a single and was released as “Single.”

  44. 44.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @trnc: “Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch”

    I remember that book of Droodles. It figures Zappa would use it for a title. “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” after all.

  45. 45.

    No One of Consequence

    @Gin & Tonic: Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch

    (also nominated for best line art minimalist album design)
    -NOoC

    eta: (gotz to remembahz to read the whole thread foist)

  46. 46.

    kalakal

    Deep and Meaningless – John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett

    You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind – Joe Walsh

    The Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys – Traffic

  47. 47.

    Craig

    Songs About Fucking- Big Black

    Locust Abortion Technician- Butthole Surfers

    ETA. I see NOoC got there first.

  49. 49.

    RandomMonster

    The greatest name for an album is REO Speedwagon’s 1978 classic “You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish.”

    No, because “REO Speedwagon”.

  50. 50.

    prostratedragon

    Charles Mingus, Let My Children Hear Music. Tracks include “The I of Hurricane Sue,” “Don’t Be Afraid, the Clown’s Afraid Too,” and “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers.”

    A late Mingus album was Me, Myself an Eye.

  56. 56.

    No One of Consequence

    @Matt McIrvin: Did not know this. Thank you. I always thought it was Zappa being clever. He was, independently of this album cover, whose origin I can now correctly cite.
    -NOoC

  57. 57.

    No One of Consequence

    @prostratedragon: And points for Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife. I didn’t believe a buddy who told me the album name until he showed me.

    Mingus was a bad ass.
    -NOoC

  58. 58.

    Ian R

    That REO Speedwagon title was definitely riffing on an older joke. I think I first heard “You can tuna fish, but you can’t tune a banjo” on a Kingston Trio album from the late 50s. (Right after the banjo player commented, “One of these days, I’m gonna get this thing in tune and weld it there.”)

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    “You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish.”

    Funny and true.

    OK I could at one time reasonably tune a piano, I seriously doubt I could now. Guitar on the other hand…nope. And I actually used to own one. Oh wait I still do!

  60. 60.

    BlueGuitarist

    Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
    Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow
    Weather Report, I Sing the Body Electric
    Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
    Third World, 96° in the Shade
    Elvis Costello, Get Happy!!
    Bob Marley & the Wailers, Confrontation
    Digable Planets, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
    Fountains of Wayne, Sky Full of Holes
    Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, I Learned the Hard Way
    Taylor Swift, Fearless

  64. 64.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Splitting Image:

    some of these are Terrific !

    really, I think a list of the 100 or so zaniest coolest album titles would be a delight to read. And soothing to the senses when swear words no longer hit the spot. 

    Creative fascinating absurd word play and language outrages, for the win.
    Yes, a list. It will be like reading great weird poetry, the jabberwocky meets ee Cummings…

  70. 70.

    Spc

    @Shalimar: data engineering is the management of how data is stored, collected, distributed, and analyzed in a company. It is very much a real discipline these days. This particular company probably provides AI support – agents etc. for data engineering tasks.

  72. 72.

    Nancy

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Thanks to you both, Magda and No One, I no longer have to try to remember who did it, whodunit. Joe Walsh in the studio with the guitar.

    Isn’t Big Black’s title an homage to all rock and roll? And the Blues?

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    @Rokka: Made me look.

    “10 HP Briggs & Stratton”

    That’s a banger!!

    [ rofl ]

    Thanks!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Spikester

    De-lurking to nominate Yo La Tengo’s “I Am Not Afraid Of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.”

  77. 77.

    Origuy

    Dropkick Murphys, This Machine Still Kills Fascists

    Natalie MacMaster (Cape Breton Scottish fiddler), My Roots are Showing

    A friend of mine, Catherine John, released an album that is a bilingual pun ¡Fandango Brah! It’s an Irish-Mexican fusion. She plays Irish fiddle and also is in an all woman mariachi band.

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