OT - 12-10-15: Ricky, Prince of Denmark
Please talk about anything you like. Hopefully you might find this exercise a tiny bit amusing. After you've read it or ignored it, please tell us what's on your mind, whether it's political (domestic or foreign) or anything else.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls....Ricky, Prince of Denmark!
"The play opens on a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle."
Macellus (beholding the visage of the late king): Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
Wally: Gee, maybe we better tell Ricky. He might wanna know.
Horatio: Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
(exit Ghost)
Wally: Gee, that was spooky.
Later...Scene II, in the castle. Thorny (friend of Ozzie) enters, with Harriet, Ricky, Dave, Polonius and others
Thorny: Well we sure do miss Oz, don't we everyone? Especially Ricky. Oh well. Now that I'm married to Harriet let's talk about something else. Dave, what's new with you?
Dave: Well, Pop, I was thinking of going to France.
Thorny: Ok. Ricky?
Ricky, Prince of Denmark: (aside) I'm sure not gonna call him "Pop".
Thorny: Speak up, Ricky. I can't hear you.
Ricky: Oh everything's peachy....uh, Pop. Uh...think I'll stick around for awhile.
Harriet: Gee, Ricky. I know you feel bad about your father but sometimes people die.
Ricky: uh...yeah, I guess so, Mom.
(they all leave except Ricky...enter Paul McCartney)
Paul: Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt. Zap!
(Paul exits)
(Wally enters)
Wally: Hey Ricky. Know what's weird? We saw your Dad a little while ago.
Ricky: uh...hi, Wally. You mean Thorny?
Wally: no, Ozzie.
Ricky: Whoa. What did he say?
Wally: That's the funny thing, Ricky. He didn't say anything. You'd expect him to say "uh...hi Wally" but nope. Nothing.
(much later....)
(Ricky and the ghost of Ozzie are on the ramparts...)
Ricky: Gee, Pop. I can see you. Can you talk? Wally said you couldn't.
Ozzie: uh...hi Ricky. No, I can talk, I just didn't want to talk to him (laughter from the laughtrack)
Ricky: yeah, Pop, he can be funny to talk to sometimes (laughter)
Ozzie: uh...I had something to tell you.
Ricky: uh...what is it, Pop?
Ozzie: well usually this is where I tell you to ask your mother (laughter) but I don't think she knows.
Ricky: Knows what, Pop?
Ozzie: well, uh, you see, I think Thorny put poison in my ear while I was sleeping.
Ricky: Gosh...don't worry, Pop. I'll fix it.
Ozzie: How? Sing him to death? (laughter)
Ricky: I'll think of something...
(much, much later...)
(Ricky is wandering on the beach near Laguna, California. Enter Greg, brother of shaharazade)
Ricky: Oh..uh, hi Greg. Whatcha doing?
Greg: Not much, just climbing on the rocks.
Ricky: oh...uh, ok. That looks like fun. Can I join you?
Greg: Sure, climb on up.
Harriet: (from far away) Oh Ricky. Can you come here for a second? I need your help with the decorations.
Ricky: (calling back to her) oh sure, Mom. Right away. (to Greg) Sorry, I gotta go.
Greg: Ok, maybe later then.
Ricky: (sadly) sure...maybe later.
(much much much later...)
Ricky: Gee, Thorny, uh...I've got to kill you now.
Thorny: Say it ain't so, Ricky! (laughter)
(they all die)
and now a scene from before the tragedy...
Comments
Well, being familiar with Hamlet helps, but I
am one of those extreme few who knew and know of the Nelsons only thru Ricky's music> Never saw a show or read about their shows ar had friends who talked about them. Alas! Then again, I did remain blissfully unaware of that surreal non-reality that drove the country's self image for so long while I watched in combined bemusement and bewilderment. Thank you for the opening thoughts, I think.
Meanwhile, just to tickle the fancy - how about uranium in the drinking water in CA's central valley? Enough that some places that filter it out have to have hazmat crews empty the filters and cart it off for processing into fuel.
Fear at the tap: Uranium contaminates water in the West
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 --
time to get your own water testing kits and
establish your private lab. The water that comes out in my house often is foul-smelling. Oh boy.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I put up a stand-alone post on this, mostly
because I decided to use it for a Daily Bucket at Kos tomorrow and wanted to show it as crossposted from here.
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 --
the science fiction future dystopia is now
it'll take several generations of human mutation but boy, we're on our way! We really don't have enough resources for an eternally expanding population and it's going to be hard on poorer people.
That's what war, disease and famine are for.
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 --
Try Netflix
…for Ozzie and Harriet collections.
I distill all my water. I call it brand new water. But I don't think even that would remove radioactivity. And, in any event, I wash the filter "dust" down the drain, which means uranium would be re-introduced back into the water system.
My question is: Should I wear a hazmat suit when making espresso?
I don't think that water gets radioactive very
easily, it is just a carrier for the uranium, I suspect.
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 --
being a carrier doesn't mean that the uranium radiation
isn't present. All depends on how much uranium got solved in the water (mostly coming out of the soil's rocks' as minerals, but may also come through fertilizer, which contains traces of uranium, that finds its way to the ground water.) or how much is carried as unsolved substances in the water. It's not clear if the soil particles, when rain water that percolates through the soil, are keeping the uranium substances attached to the soil particles or not.
I read that the uranium radiation is less dangerous than its toxic features as a heavy metal, which can damage the kidneys. I could imagine that the upper limit for uranium in water with 0.001 mg per liter must be quite a bit surpassed before any acute damage will happen. LIke the damage that happens to people handling too often and too closely depleted uranium in the military. But I haven't searched for it, so I don't know anything but from hear say of Veterans who got disabled through their exposure to depleted uranium.
Look under Oxides and Aqueous Chemistry and Human Exposure
https://www.euronews.com/live
It's weird
Because when I read the title, the first name that came to mind was Rick Nelson. He was tragically killed in an airplane crash.
I do remember the Ozzie and Harriet Show from my youth. Yeah, I am old. Thorny was Ozzie's friend in the neighborhood. We never knew what Ozzie did for a living though.
We did read Shakespeare in high school and Hamlet was one of the plays we studied. But honestly I do not remember it that well. When my mother was cleaning out her house in preparation for downsizing into an apartment, one of the things I kept was my father's book of Shakespeare plays from his college days. I guess I should read Hamlet again.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
my odd train of thought that produced this epic
I have generally liked Sinclair Lewis, author of books like "Main Street", "It Can't Happen Here", "Babbit", "Elmer Gantry" etc. But recently I read a pre-"Main Street" novel of his called "Free Air" that was not good at all. To cleanse the palate I decided to read something ultra light and chose the Hardy Boys adventure "The Secret of the Caves". Oddly enough, it was superior to "Free Air". But yeah, it was as light as I expected. The Hardy family was so perfect! Somebody in distress? Stay at our place! Meanwhile the 17 and 18 year old boys are absolutely competent enough to corral the cartoonish criminals.
The whole thing reminded me of Ozzie and Harriet, where all problems are minor and everybody gets along just great! Just like all families should but don't! So I got to thinking about what sort of personalities would be necessary to create an environment like that...and what if the Nelsons weren't perfect at all? I could have used something else, maybe "Look Back in Anger at the Nelsons" or "A Streetcar Named Desire that runs by the Nelsons' House" but I thought Hamlet would be better known. At least I know it better than the others.
Anyway, this is the sort of thing I'd write in 8th grade, along with gems like "I pledge allegiance to the clock of the Union Clock Company of Springfield, Massachusetts...." because, you know, the flag was right next to the clock.
I always Thought Ricky Nelson should have a couple
of kids, name them Half and Full, and raise them up to be wrestlers.
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 --
Part of this play
is real. My grandmother in the 50's lived in Laguna Beach in a trailer park on the ocean side cliff. As youngsters we spent our summers there living with my garandma. Next to this magical trailer park was a upscale gated community that was a slice of Beverly Hills built on a cove in Laguna Beach. This part of the CA coast had great rocky beaches and coves. When the tide was out you could cross the rocks to the next cove. In the Nelson's private beach was a island right past the surf line. My brother liked to clime up Golf Island to it's one tree at the top when the tide was out. We were both little kids and Ricky Nelson as a teenager. My grandmother had a TV, which we did not have at our parents home. We watched the Nelson's TV show as I liked seeing the show as at the end teen idol Ricky would sing a sappy rock tune.
One day when Greg was making his assent up the island Ricky Nelson was on the beach and asked Greg if he could accompany him on his climb. He was the epitome of the poor little rich kid. We said sure come along but he chickened out and said his Mom, Harriet was watching him from the house and would pitch a fit. He ran home to help her instead but he seemed really sad and lonely. We were pretty scruffy kids who intruded on the exclusive beach whenever the tide went out. It was kind of thrilling to cross the rocks to another world .
As for what Ozzie did, he played himself a retired 40's swing band leader. Harriet was his band's torch singer. So there you go. Shahryar turning this bizarre stilted 50's sitcom into Hamlet does not surprise me one bit. Next he should publish his silly skit of Julius Caesar MD. featuring Julius as a baseball player. I always find his sense of humor welcome in a surreal world that's getting darker.
I need to get back to work or rather start working. Hope you all have a good day. I'm going to try to get back this evening to read all the bad news that fit to print this evening. You can't please everyone so you got to please yourself.
I made a pretty penny, 50 cents apiece, at my Catholic girl's school by drawing Rick Nelson and Elvis in ball point pen and selling mimeograph's of these teen idols. I had the curled up upper lip they both sported down pat. The nun's put an end to my youthful entrepreneurship as I was promoting lustful sinful thoughts. I was drawing the originals during religion class when sister Fatima busted my sinful ass.
Historical surrealism is the finest kind. That song,
"Garden Party" is faintly such. It is a tale of when Ricky made a "comeback" at Madison Square Garden and got booed off of the stage, or so I have heard. Have a pleasant day.
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 --
i liked
this. It was fun.
Ricky Nelson is an interesting person. Dylan wrote this about him:
Nelson is also the only human ever suspected of crashing a plane with a crack pipe.
In other news, it's pretty bad when your Mooslem-hating is so extreme Netanyahu doesn't want to meet with you.