OT 06/18/16 "Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox" Edition
Before the Borg, there was advertising. It too seeks to penetrate everywhere, assimilate all, asserts that resistance is futile. It too is loathsome beyond the ability of humans to truly express. Though many have tried. Rudyard Kipling, for example, when in 1889 he shipped to San Francisco, was appalled to discover the city to be one large gaseous mass of advertisting.
But let us return to our sheep—which means the sea-lions of the Cliff House. They are the great show of San Francisco. You take a train whichpulls up the middle of the street (it killed two people the day before yesterday, being unbraked and driven absolutely regardless of consequences), and you pull up somewhere at the back of the city on the Pacific beach. Originally the cliffs and their approaches must have been pretty, but they have been so carefully defiled with advertisements that they are now one big blistered abomination. A hundred yards from the shore stood a big rock covered with the carcasses of the sleek sea-beasts, who roared and rolled and walloped in the spouting surges. No bold man had painted the creatures sky-blue or advertised newspapers on their backs, wherefore they did not match the landscape, which was chiefly hoarding. Some day, perhaps, whatever sort of government may obtain in this country will make a restoration of the place and keep it clean and neat. At present the sovereign people, of whom I have heard so much already, are vending cherries and painting the virtues of "Little Bile Beans" all over it.
At present, "Little Bile Beans," it is not painted all over the sea-lions of this site. This is because this fair tube's guiding hand, Johnny, the little engine that could, he is good and true. Johnny, he does not want the Borg here. He does not want the big blistered abominations of advertisements, to be splattered all over the sea-beasts who post here, as we roar and roll and wallop, there in the spouting surges.
However, Johnny, he does not want to live in a cardboard box under the freeeway, either. Which is where he will be. If he declines to allow the Borg to assimilate this site into the anathema of advertising. And also, from the sea-beasts of this site, there trickles into the breadbox, insufficient bread.
And so. Let us pause today. In our various labors. To pitch a penny or two. Into the "donate" slot. Up there at the top-right of the page. So that neither shall Johnny, he live in a box. Nor we, wander the land, with ads, the veritable Mark of the Beast, tattooed all across our foreheads.
Comments
Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM for First Time in 4 Million Years
"The most remote continent on Earth has caught up with its more populated counterparts."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-co2-hit-400-ppm-for-...
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
As A Wise Philosopher Once Sang
"Let's Break Out The Booze
And Have A Ball
If That's All
There is"
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Sounds like the neoliberalcon theme song to me. n/t
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Maybe you have to be a bit older to get it.
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
No other cover of that song has ever come close to Peggy Lee's
Watch Peggy Lee's performance
as she sings that song. That's not despair, it's irony. It says "think about this" "this needs to change". Song sounds a lot like a Brecht/Weil number. For me it's one of those songs you hear when you're young and every now and then it runs through your mind again.
Yes, irony
The song is all about how life is ironic. IMHO, it is one of those masterpieces of a song.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
story is
Jerry Leiber wrote the song after his wife had him read Thomas Mann's Disillusionment. She was born in Germany, lived in the Netherlands, got out ahead of the Nazis. Most of the chorus is lifted from Mann. Randy Newman composed and conducted the orchestral arrangement in the Lee rendition.
To round the story, here's a German version of the song.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNJpyDbTBxQ]
Wow, the Great Knef!
Thanks so much for posting this! I didn't know about it. The words are pretty different from Peggy Lee's version. (Is this a translation of the Leiber song into German?) I'm hearing more of a class-based inflection in the German version--mentions of poverty, sleeping in the train station, no comforting "Papa" when the houses are burning down. In my earlier comment I meant "irony" in what I take to be Brecht's sense, but Mann's irony--that cold-blooded distancing effect--seems to come through in the Knef version.
Perhaps a better term for the Peggy Lee song, more in keeping with Brecht, would be "estrangement." The song seems to name despair in a way to compel us not to stop there--to overcome the despair. But it never tells us that explicitly. It's like the "Chinese player, showing himself his own gesture, [setting] it apart for us as well, as in a frame, and [obliging] us to name it and endow it with heightened significance." [quoted from F. Jameson].
Am I the only one who thinks
she reminds me of Julie London, both in looks and singing style?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I remember her well, saw her life in Berlin, she belonged to
the city in those days.
https://www.euronews.com/live
ironic or fatalistic?
Always makes me think more of an "eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" kind of thing.
interesting because
When I was younger, I thought this song was a terribly sad one. Also when I was younger, every event in my life was very high or very low. So this song seemed very sad to me. Now, I do not see life or this song that way at all. I see life as rolling with the punches. And through this song, I see it more as how all our lives have highs and lows, but we continue through them all for tomorrow. Perhaps that is the beauty of this song. Each of us can see something in it differently.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
no, at least Knef's version didn't have a fatalistic depressive
flair. It had this matter of factly recognition that "if that was all there is to it" you just let it roll off and with a small sarcastic or snarky smile you decide to think what the heck and go on and live and enjoy life in your small niche of the big bad world. It's a Berlin kind of resilience with a smile of the post wwII women, who had seen too much and lived within the limitations of an enclosed West Berlin and a post wwII Germany. She has just a smile and a "so what?" for all of it. She had her own head and people loved her for that. At least most of us understood her like it. Lots of women went through a lot in Berlin. They didn't let it show.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Out here in the middle of nowhere central NY
we have our own battles. No sealions dying, no sealions. Just battles with the gas and petro-industry, for our water sources. Today, I got this, also a money-beg on several fronts. We have been abandoned by our Country, hard to fight against that which is not there.
http://www.fltimes.com/opinion/write-on-dealing-with-compassion-fatigue/...
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Finally after three days of no AC
It got fixed just a few minutes ago. I donated a small amount of money to C99 today and a large amount of money to the AC repairman. Both ended up being good investments.
Tomorrow we head back to NC where we do not need AC. But it is good to know we have it here in Fla. where we have been hitting highs in the mid to upper 90's.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
One lesson quickly learned
in the Chicago area is to never piss off the HVAC guy - If you find a good one treat them like God.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Keep cool, gulfgal!
It is 80 degrees F here and it's not quite 10AM. Supposed to get to 92, and then for tomorrow it says 96. I figure I should just count on that 96 forecast becoming 100. Time to drag out the portable AC. It's a big floor model that you vent out a window. A small hassle, but it works well.
I had always taken cool indoors for granted, always living in apartments with AC. Now I'm in a little house with none.
I hope I'm not overwatering the flowers. Can't help but give them a little when I know it's going to be 80, 90, etc., and it's been that way for a week.
Have a good weekend, gulfgal, and everybody!
Thanks O'Linda!
It took the AC man less than 15 minutes to fix it. He replaced one part and everything worked perfectly. We do not run our air real cold, but 78 to 80 degrees beats 88 degrees any day. Tomorrow we will head back north where we rarely run the AC.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks, hecate, cool.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
burl,
he say cool, too.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtxqFZbyzS0]
Rain, here. But word is, elsewhere people will broil today at 120 degrees. Ye gods. This song, for them.
My first album!
Was Burl Ives. Don't recall which one. Burl rocks!
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
burl rocks
even when he gets his roles mixed up, and melds Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer with The Big Country.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoYfMa9lqSk]
with a heavy heart,
I must report that Topo Gigio and his entire family have been killed at a Hairball rally.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=garNxavx8gY]
Addressing the three-and-a-half reporters he has not yet stripped of credentials to cover his appearances, The Hairball defended the slaughter.
"I said that 'when I'm elected I will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there's a proven history of terrorism against the United States,''' Herr Hairball heaved. "Gigio and his horde, they were from Italy and Spain, two nations Muslim-dominated for hundreds of years, and that have waged actual war on the United States. You can't get much more terrorist, than war! And since Topo and his brood had already infiltrated the country—thanks to The Kenyan—it was too late to bar their entry. They had to be dealt with in another way. And so, they were."
The Hairball added that there "are plenty of white mice in this country, some that can sing and dance," and so "these foreign rodents," they should not be missed.
Have not
England, France, Germany, Japan, and even Canada made war against the United States? That might get a little problematic.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
I don't know if I love c99p or you for that kind snarky musical
comment, it's beautifully done.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I needed a good laugh today. I've been down & stuck on a problem
I can't solve. Not because I can't think of a solution but because there isn't one ... not that can be done anytime soon at least. Anyway I'm sick of going around and around in mental circles, revisiting it to see if I missed something. I needed something to shift gears but nothing was doing it. Then someone sent me this clip of an 8th grader giving a graduation speech by impersonating several presidential candidates and president Obama.
It starts with him doing trump, which is ok... then he moves on to Ted Cruz, gets funnier, then he does Obama... pretty good impersonation, amusing ... then he does Hillary! OMG ... and finally, Bernie Sanders -- it was perfect! by then my husband and I are both laughing so hard, and my problem shrank to something I can box up, at least for a little while. Humor really can be the best medicine sometimes! And those kids, 8th graders, know who these people are, and they are paying attention, and they *are* hearing Bernie's message loud and clear! I found it uplifting on a day I've been very down...
EDITED: The video has disappeared from YouTube!! So I removed the embed with the useless black screen.
That sucks! I am so sorry everyone. Bummer.
Oh and I hear it's going to be melting hot here in Tucson today... so that's fun too.
It's this one, isn't it?
[video:https://youtu.be/fcukQwDfZ_w]
This is only the Trump.
[video:https://youtu.be/ASabDzqkIYQ]
This has Hillary and Bernie impersonation.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thanks!
boy oh boy, do I hate this hillbot, Sam Stein
he writes for HuffPo and his headline today is "Hillary Clinton Is On A Mission To Rebuild The Democratic Party"
How? With the 50 state strategy. ye gods....
There's a mention of Dean and how he was criticized for not winning more seats. Oh? And how the 2008 election marked a high point but then the Dems started losing. No mention of Dean being kicked out and replaced by incompetents. The piece is incredibly illogical, leaving out honest explanations. Here's the link if you want to think "was this guy even alive then?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-democratic-party_us_...
you might
want to ease off on reading articles by people you Hate. It can disturb the digestion.
I tried to read the article, but soon my brain shut down. I stopped, before it might also cause me to stop breathing.
Here is a song I know you like, offered as a calming agent.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZExWt-bj-k]
thanks, one of my favorites
A song dedicated to the Berniebros
And in response to all the Hillarybot titslingers who harshed on our mellow, I am pleased to introduce Billy Preston:
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Member #2,000 joined c99 today. n/t
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
user 2001
shall be responsible for bringing the monolith, for the rest of us to try to figure out.
Police:Parents admit 'gifting' teen to Bucks man; all 3 arrested
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160618_Bucks_man_arrested_after_12_g...
Blecch.
I feel the need to dump this here.
I have been widowed for 6 years. And no one has appeared in my life who I find suitable as a companion other than a new puppy. So on urging of friends who found mates online, I try that. How depressing. So much need. So many sharks. So many males 55 and up who look Old. Too far away, too weird (some is required, but rubber fetish? To each his own), too short, too uneducated (texting and not using autocorrect for mispleddings?). Men who call and mumble and then ask "what are you doing?" and I wonder whether I should say I'm sitting round nekkid, what are You doing? How is that a proper introduction? Perhaps the monastic life is for me.
A few days ago I got a "courtesy call" from the Hospital. Every time I turn around another bill having something to do with a fall in November and reconstructive same-day surgery and repercussions. So I get bills and wait a month or two to see if the hospital has jumped the insurance coverage. And sometimes they have. SO now I have to dig up a bill for $40, from a pile of other bills and pay it. The money drip. Next month is Car insurance. Looks like I will have to pay $4 extra to split it into 6-mo payments. Drip, drip. Sept is School Tax month. That will be over $3K. Gush.
Thanks for reading. I feel a bit better. In less than two years 2 annuities start up. Drip, drip.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.