Off to observe a Gangnam style flash mob.
What are you all up to?
Update. It’s amazing the way music, even silly things like the Gangnam style video, brings people together. I have only one good friend in my department, someone I never though I’d be friends with since she is a vegan hippie, but we bonded over our love of old soul music and R&B. She couldn’t make it but wanted me to check out the Gangam style flash mob students were having. On my campus, a lot of the East Asian students went to high-school back at home, and I don’t see them socializing with the other students that much. But at this thing, everyone was mixed together.
Nom de Plume
Oh, just watching a presidential candidate completely blow his campaign. You know, the usual.
shoutingattherain
Rage building.
Violet
Paying bills, cleaning the house, watching Mitt Romney implode. The usual.
General Stuck
I’m wondering what happened to the innocence.
Nellcote
Jeebus Fucking Krist, Dick Halprin manages to bring it back to both sides do it already.
Poopyman
Working, more or less.
And I have no idea what a Gangnam flash mob is. And it occurs to me that I’m not really interested in finding out what it is anyway. My brain’s too full today, I guess.
ranchandsyrup
On a conference call thinking about which non-lethal tools and weapons I can use to escape this building. So far I’m up to a potato launcher, a grappling hook and some rope and a flying squirrel suit.
Villago Delenda Est
Wondering what OvenMitt will do to top today’s outrage.
The popcorn, it’s selling like hotcakes.
J. Michael Neal
I’m long winded when I write, so I set myself a challenge to write a story in 2,000 words or less. It took me 633 to turn out a rough draft of “Beautiful.”
Face
Can anyone explain the analogy that Jon Kyl is trying to make here? I’m simply lost at how rape and Embassies intertwine.
MikeJ
Sifting through disaster girl memes and seeing which ones can repurposed to smirking Mitt walking away.
raven
=
Caught a few minutes of Hannity and Ollie. They are flipping out about an open mic that “caught” reporters colluding to actually ASK Mitt questions in the presser!
piratedan
@Face: you have to remember, that anything he says, may not be intended to be a factual statement.
dr. bloor
As the Great Orange Satan noted, Mittstake is likely to lose, and the only play left on his clipboard is the Hail Mary. This is going to get even more disconnected from reality and rage-driven before he’s done.
I love the smell of narcissists self-immolating. It smells like…victory.
MikeJ
@ranchandsyrup:
That trick never works.
quannlace
Cutting back my basil plants to make some tasty pesto, looks like they’re starting to go to seed.
********
Oh, and waiting for the next bone-headed move from Romney, Preice et al.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
I see what you did there.
? Martin
They were going to ambush him at the press conference he called! How underhanded!
John.Ty
Where’s this flash mob? I now want to go to one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Wondering what a Gangham style flash mob is, but not caring enough to google.
@Nellcote: and not being even a little surprised by this.
Culture of Truth
A federal judge has made permanent her preliminary injunction against the NDAA for 2012, finding the provision allowing for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on suspicion of providing substantial support to people engaged in hostilities against the U.S. to be unconstitutional.
ranchandsyrup
@MikeJ: It works if you have Boris and Natasha Badenov pursuing you.
Erm. I’ll recalculate.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Villago Delenda Est:
__
He could announce that his response to the embassy attacks was due to his “having been brainwashed” and blame the hired help.
Schlemizel
I’m so old I have no fing idea what the heck Gangnam is. Its a word all over the Intertubes the last few days and apparently being made fun of by all the cool kids bit I have no idea.
Thats how you know you are no longer hip. The entire fad passes to meme and point of derision and you have no clue.
JasonF
@Nom de Plume:
Apparently, that’s the thing to do when you’re running against Obama for the White House and September comes around. Pick a crisis and use it as a soapbox to demonstrate that you have no flipping clue. Any minute now, I expect Romney to announce that he’s suspending his campaign.
FlipYrWhig
@Culture of Truth: Cool!
Jay in Oregon
@Poopyman:
Some context.
And I’d be there right next to you, DougJ…
The Ancient Randonneur
Nice photos of a peaceful Libyan demonstration apologizing for the violence in Libya.
Jay in Oregon
@JasonF:
…to head to Libya to take charge of the situation?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am beginning to suspect after Romney loses in November he will declare himself president anyway and try to move into the White House.
quannlace
At first I read it as ‘Gingham.’ and I thought, ‘Everybody’s gonna come dressed like Little House On The Prairie?’
Culture of Truth
@JasonF: That comes right after you pick an idiot VP and before you wander aimlessly during a debate, right?
jgaugust
@piratedan: Hahaha. That was excellent.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
“Mr. Puddles? I’ve got some snausages for you, Mr Puddles!”
FlipYrWhig
@quannlace: Gangsta bitch Nellie Oleson, reprazent, yo.
burnspbesq
In case you’re too old-school for Gangnam and missed it when it aired live earlier today, the Los Lobos live-in-studio performance of “Kiko” in its entirety is archived at kcrw.com.
Go play on DougJ’s lawn, you rotten kids.
Josie
Gangnam is a district in Seoul, South Korea. The music video is making fun of the hip people who live and party there. I know this because I have a son who is in the music business and he played the video for me last month and said it was going viral all over the world. If not for my kids, I would know nothing about the modern world.
Randy P
I’ve been in on a “random act of culture” flash mob (600 people bursting out in the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the middle of a department store).
I’m guessing whatever Gangnam is, it’s different from that.
tBone
I’m enjoying Romney flailing around incoherently, like a supercomputer caught in a logic trap devised by James T. Kirk. I hope the final meltdown involves sparks, smoke billowing out of his ears, and the smell of melted wiring.
Rich (in Name Only) in Reno
Gadding around the web, reading about Slick Willard’s latest foot-in-mouth outbreak and eagerly awaiting Charles P. Pierce’s evening post, regretting I sent a letter to the editor of our local paper which they’re going to publish, because now I’m on their 90 days between letters list again, and it was the one I sent in reply to some birther nonsense, not the ones calling out Marc Thiessen over his BS 9/11 Op-Ed in the WSJ or Mitt flip-flopping three times on his “Repeal Obamacare” pledge, and waiting till 5 PM to go over to my Folk’s place in Sparks to watch Kruk and Kuip call the Giants/Rockies game (series is tied at a game apiece.)
Nellcote
John Kyle weighs in:
“It’s like the judge telling the woman who got raped, ‘You asked for it because of the way you dressed.’ OK? That’s the same thing. ‘Well America, you should be the ones to apologize, you should have known this would happen, you should have done — what I don’t know — but it’s your fault that it happened.’ You know, for a member of our State Department to put out a statement like that, it had to be cleared by somebody. They don’t just do that in the spur of the moment.”
burnspbesq
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Nice to see. Alas, it doesn’t make the victims any less dead.
Hill Dweller
@quannlace:
‘Gingham’ always reminds me of the Bill Hicks bit about our foreign policy.
Jay in Oregon
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Some of those signs have better spelling than the Tea Party’s.
PurpleGirl
From Time magazine Newsfeed:
Gangnam style (n.): a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul’s Gangnam district. This definition is adapted from an Urban Dictionary entry–an increasingly popular entry since South Korean rapper PSY released a cheeky music video celebrating “Gangnam style.” In it, he does a signature “horse-riding dance,” which has made “K-pop”–Korean pop music–the toast of trend-watchers. This week Britney Spears even got in on the equine action … which was as weird as it sounds, and a great deal more charming.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/12/wednesday-words-gangnam-style-geek-speak-and-more/#ixzz26IJzeHsH
Villago Delenda Est
@Nellcote:
Actually, it appears that’s exactly what was done, in an effort to calm the crowd that was threatening to storm the embassy.
But of course, John Kyl is as well informed about what was actually going on at the time as OvenMitt was.
So there you go, right there. Fire, then aim.
ranchandsyrup
@Rich (in Name Only) in Reno: The Reno Gazoo Journal? That’s some fine journalamism right there.
Also, too, Krukow and Kuiper are really good.
FlipYrWhig
Likewise, it has been noted that music makes the bourgeoisie and the rebel.
trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
That’s Natasha Fatale, dalink.
Also, too, gettink now moose and skvirrel.
jgaugust
Anyone else catch the little blurb on TPM earlier today that CBS is reporting Mitt is not receiving national security updates and briefings like normal opposition presidential candidates? I found that particularly poignant on the day in which he put his foot so far down his own throat it is coming out his ass.
MCA1
This is the sound of a milkshake being slurped:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-on-romneys-libya-response-shoot-first-aim?ref=fpa
trollhattan
@tBone:
Yup, or triggered by Spock saying to primary Willard, “I love you.” then turning to nominee Willard “But, I hate you.”
“Illogical, illogical…exterminate! Exterminate!”
From RomneyTron12 to Dalek in two easy steps.
JPL
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Tomorrow Mitt will simply say I didn’t say that.
ranchandsyrup
@trollhattan: Consarnit you’re right. My treasured childhood memories are now just figments of my imagination. Or I’m too lazy to google.
@MCA1: Yeowch. That’s gotta hurt. Even a partially sentient being like Mitt.
trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
You’ve still got cred and are hereby invited onto my lawn. Don’t point out the dandelions.
Culture of Truth
@Josie: It’s like a William Gibson novel come to life
ranchandsyrup
Thank you kindly. Is that old man Biden washing his vette down the street?
steve
Content aside, does anybody else find the way MSNBC.com performs in their browser to be just shitty? I’m using Firefox, and MSNBC takes forever to load, doesn’t navigate right for several seconds, etc. It’s by far the most deflicted website I visit.
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
Or Willard could just say “I always lie,” which is true.
Norman, Norman …
Nunca el Jefe
Funny timing. Just arrived in Seoul last night and am staying in a hotel in Gangnam. The taxi driver played the video for me on the way from the airport. On his dash mounted Galaxy pad. Awesome. Seriously.
raven
@Nunca el Jefe: See if you can go up to the Turkey Farm in Yangicol!
tBone
@trollhattan:
I dunno. I think the metal bra and go-go boots would clash with the magic underwear.
trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
Yup, but it’s a drought year so the ‘vette comes on the lawn for its washin’.
True story: the morning after the very first night in our new house, I went outside to see that my new neighbors across the street had parked their Camero on the front lawn. That family provided “entertainment” for the next decade, until loan default and eviction (well before the market collapse, I’ll add).
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
ABC national news just showed the photos of the demonstrators with the apology signs.
sacrablue
@trollhattan: Now, if you could just get a dalek to smirk we’d really have something.
pragmatism
Ha! I totally know what you mean. I lived in Oceanside CA for a couple of years. It’s a “working man” and military city (in fact the harbor is called the Working Man’s Harbor). The city is low budget. No animal control so there were random pit bulls crusing around from time to time. But it’s a beach town and people just go with it. Lawns are just non-paved driveways. Muscle cars, 4 wheelers, RV’s, boats, you name it. I’ll take some pictures the next time I head up there. That is entertainment indeed.
Anoniminous
Wrote 18 pages of a technical and marketing White Paper today. Have an absolute drop-deadline of Friday.
Now I’m shivering in the corner of my office gibbering, drooling, and sucking my toes. Occasionally I burst out into techno-babble before collapsing back in a pile of goo.
JGabriel
DougJ @ Top:
Ah, yes. I remember the summer of 1984, dancing at parties to When Doves Cry*, and getting drunk to Unsatisfied.
(*Hollywood Mon Amour version, Prince apparently doesn’t permit any of his songs to be uploaded to YouTube.)
.
Rich (in Name Only) in Reno
@ranchandsyrup: Yeah, the Reno Gazette Journal is another fine member of the Gannet Family of Newspapers, which has absorbed more local dailies than the Borg Collective has planetary systems, so news-wise everything except the local section is USA Today pabulum. But, for us old dudes who ply the dying art of expressing our opinions in pulp in 200 words or less, it’s the only game in town.
Their editor in charge of letters likes to play table tennis with the section, alternating between delusional FOX fed wingnuts and we of the reality-based community. As Reno is chock full of angry, semi-literate wing-nuts who still haven’t gotten over Harry Reid’s drubbing of Sharron “Lemonade” Angle, writing rebuttals would be a full time job were it not for the RGJ’s “90 days between letters” rule (not kept religiously.) So, I find I share a hobby with Associate Supreme Court Justice Scalia; that of writing daily letters to the editor which I never actually send.
As for Kruk and Kuip, we are indeed blessed to have them doing our games; watching the FOX and ESPN broadcasts is torture, even with the occasional Jon Miller appearance. I’ve tried turning off the TV sound and listening to the radio, but the radio is live time while the TV has a delay, apparently they still fear wardrobe malfunctions or something, and it’s too disconcerting to hear “It high, it’s deep, it’s…outta here!” several seconds before you see the pitch.
Darkrose
I needed a cooldown from the rage today, and this made me want to watch the Gangnam Style video again. The flash mob must have been cool.
Darkrose
@Rich (in Name Only) in Reno: I like Kruk and Kuip, but I adore Jon Miller and Dave “David B.” Flemming. Even now that we have cable–which we got primarily for Giants games–my wife and I still listen to a lot of the games just to hear them.
I do hate the way the Gameday feed from MLB is frequently two pitches ahead of the radio broadcast, though.
And wow, am I nervous tonight. Last year if anyone had told me I’d be dreading a Timmy start, I’d have laughed. Bizarro World.
Joel
@Schlemizel: Gangnam is a district in Seoul.
Gangnam style is a parody of K-pop released by essentially the Korean Weird Al Yankovic. The video is so absurd that it’s become an internet phenomenon. But it doesn’t beat Yatta! in my book.
red dog
Just watched a gangnam flashmob video…a bunch of kids who can’t dance trying to so to background noise. Yeah, I’m a grumpy old fart.
Paula
@The Ancient Randonneur:
People in Libya obviously can do whatever they feel like, but this display is making me feel depressed.
“Big dumb Americans must be soothed so they don’t invade us.”
Not that it’s inaccurate.
Jay in Oregon
@Paula:
Or, it could be an expression of compassion and solidarity, as Le Monde did on this day 11 years ago when it published “We Are All Americans.”
http://www.worldpress.org/1101we_are_all_americans.htm
pragmatism
@Rich (in Name Only) in Reno: True enough regarding Reno. The RGJ was awful at journalism before being awful at journalism was “profitable”. I grew up there and I check their site from time to time. The commenters there are a sight to behold.
I get the Padres games. Dick Enberg and Mark Grant. Enberg reminds me of when I was a kid watching NFL games that he did. I get to hear Vin Scully too, but that means I have to listen to the Dodgers play so its a push.
Sad_Dem
Here in Los Angeles the news has covered some college-kid life guards in the suburb of El Monte who got fired for making a gungnam video at the pool facility where they worked (in their off time, in their lifeguard suits). It’s on HuffPo if you feel like contaminating your browser.
Mnemosyne
@Paula:
Well, sort of — Stevens was apparently pretty instrumental in the recent Libyan revolution and helped the Libyans organize themselves so they could beat Gaddafi. He had been working in the Middle East for the US Foreign Service since 1991.
He wasn’t a stranger to the people of Benghazi, and they would be shocked and horrified at his murder for its own sake, not because they fear US retaliation.
burnspbesq
@pragmatism:
At least you don’t have to listen to Howie Rose.
In contrast, the Mets TV broadcasts are fabulous, especially when they have both Hernandez and Darling in the booth. More insight than you can process.
Maude
@Paula:
What an awful thing to say.
Mnemosyne
@Sad_Dem:
I heard that story and wondered if they misheard the title the same way I first did, as “Condom Style.” And then were too embarrassed to back down after their freakout.
Also, too, the only reason I know about this video is because one of my nephews is 19. Otherwise I would be as clueless as the rest of the middle-aged people.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Darkrose: I will never forgive Orioles owner Peter Angelos for running Jon Miller out of town because he wasn’t enough of a “homer” in his broadcasts.
That was within a year or two of letting go of the best general manager (Pat Gillick) and manager (Davey Johnson) they’d had in years.
Paula
@Maude: Is it? I’m just being honest. If that’s offensive, then I apologize.
But I was greeted this morning by Ashleigh Banfield speaking to a reporter who covers the Pentagon about the attack in Libya. She yapped about a “power vaccuum” in Libya and wondered what kind of a security presence we have in the region. And the reporter had to remind her that 1) Libya’s had a provisional government in place and that 2) no American troops actually set foot inside Libya during the revolution and 3)that it would take a long time before Libya’s democracy stabilized.
This is what passes for mainstream reporting: something bad happens, ergo, American troops go in.
(And then you’ve got folks who think that anything less than cowboy kickin-ass revenge is going to doom Barack Obama in the election for being soft on terrorism.)
Reklam
@FlipYrWhig: +1. That’s solid contact hitting it right back up the box for a clean single.
Darkrose
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I read about that…Angelos said that Miller “didn’t bleed orange and black”.
So he came to the Giants.
Yeah, from what I’ve heard, Angelos is a piece of work. At least the Giants ownership consortium is just cheap, and not actively assholes.
Mnemosyne
@Paula:
And you assumed that those people in Libya were watching Ashleigh Banfield and had no idea that the American ambassador who was killed had helped save their city during the revolution, so they ran out into the street with signs so the US wouldn’t bomb them?
Yes, there probably will be some stupid commentary along the lines of, “See, they’re expressing that they’re sorry so we don’t retaliate.” That’s no excuse for perpetuating the stupid.
AA+ Bonds
Gangnam Style (the video) is very class conscious in its humor and I wish there was less huuu huuu foreigners are funny in how it’s being received, PSY is like most K-pop, he is way smarter than his lyrics
Paula
@Mnemosyne:
I was mostly expressing apprehension about American ignorance and tendency to fuck up when it comes to counter-terrorism in the ME. It’s been noted by many in the international community before me, I’m sure. Especially since this is all occurring in an election year, when everyone wants to posture.
It’s true that I’m not being very charitable to my fellow Americans. Yes, I’m still bitter about the various wars and wary about drones. (No, I don’t want to argue about drones, as I prefer them to invasions.) I’m not exactly sure where you’re getting me blaming Libyans.
AA+ Bonds
From most of the stuff I read about Gangnam Style a lot of Americans, even the people making their own versions, believe that the video is supposed to be deadly serious which is just mind boggling
A comment on YouTube at least compared the Noh Hong-cheol scene to suddenly having Will Arnett and Portia de Rossi doing the chicken taunt in a music video which is right I think
JustAnotherBob
@Schlemizel:
I’m so old I have no fing idea what the heck Gangnam is. Its a word all over the Intertubes the last few days and apparently being made fun of by all the cool kids bit I have no idea.
Thats how you know you are no longer hip. The entire fad passes to meme and point of derision and you have no clue.
Google it and watch a video.
That will make you glad that you’re too old to have to get caught up in stuff like that any longer.
Mnemosyne
@Paula:
It was the part where you assumed the Libyans held their demonstration because, “Big dumb Americans must be soothed so they don’t invade us” and not because they knew who Chris Stevens was and were sad he was murdered.
Not everything is about us.
WaterGirl
@Paula: google “sorry everybody”. it’s from after the 2004 elections.