Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Something/Someone Old
My Something Old today is the song Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. He wrote it just after he left Genesis in the mid-70s.
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing, stretching every nerve
Had to listen, had no choice
I did not believe the information
Just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom, boom, boom
"Son", he said, "grab your things, I've come to take you home"
To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Though my life was in a rut
'Til I thought of what I'll say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom, boom, boom
"Hey", he said, "grab your things, I've come to take you home"
(Hey, back home)
When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom, boom, boom
"Hey", I said, "you can keep my things, they've come to take me home"
It's one of two songs I want played at my funeral.
Something New
My Something New this week is the firestorm that has erupted around the Star Wars franchise--or at least the Disney iteration of that franchise (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Han Solo.) The release of Han Solo, pretty much a critical and popular failure worldwide, seems to have let loose a long-dammed flood of discontent. In particular, The Last Jedi has a real firestorm going on around it. I mention it because one of the problems people have with it is the McResistance-style feminism that has been injected into the movie in a really ham-handed way by Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson.
Perhaps the reason for this firestorm is that J.J. Abrams came out and said that if people don't like The Last Jedi, it's not because there's something wrong with the movie; it's because they're sexist.
I see that this excuse is now going to be used for everything from soup to nuts every time somebody tries to shove a crap product down America's throat. The problem is never with the product being sold, or the people shoving it down your throat. The problem is the fans, the voters, the little guy. You think Hillary is a bad candidate? Well, you're probably just sexist. You don't like the latest Star Wars movie? You're probably sexist. If I don't like the pad thai at the restaurant on the corner, I guess it must mean I'm bigoted against people from Thailand.
This has been called out by everyone from disappointed moviegoers
to resentful conservatives (who I don't feel like giving space to) to a young feminist who thinks McResistance-style feminism is bullshit.
Here's the young feminist:
I don't agree with everything she says. Actually, I think that Return of the Jedi was a shitty slap in the face to every little girl that liked Star Wars and identified with Leia (I did), because it took a kickass female hero, put her in a metal bikini and chained her to a talking penis within the first ten minutes. However, I agree with everything else:
I want my female heroes to battle through adversity to get things!
Great quote!
Here's some more of her. In this one, you can see on her wall two quotes: "Never tell me the odds!" (Han Solo) and "You can't take the sky from me" (Firefly). I mondo approve.
Shockingly, a movie made in 1977 has a better feminism than a movie made two years ago.
Something Borrowed
We got the word fiefdom from Frankish, a now-extinct language spoken in central Europe in the early Middle Ages. To the Franks, "fiefdom" meant "cattle owner!" That's a wonderfully Celtic way of conceiving of aristocracy: the guy who has the most cows.
Something Blue
I loved this song since I was a child. It was pretty great to grow up the child of a hippy; I got exposed to great music from the time I was very small.
This is Leon Russell's "Lady Blue:"
Comments
It's official, the Russian River is "impaired"
and so am i
too many people
-- Peter Gabriel, Don't Give Up
@eyo Thank you, eyo. I love
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning, all. Thanks for the OT CStMS. I haven't seen
any new movies in ages except to simply kill time when I have time to kill, little else to do, and a free movie that I might as well watch as play simple gains on my tablet. The exception would be some classic that I never saw when I was young because of lack of money. There was one year whee my wife and I saw a handful of the top Oscar nominees, and it was fun but certainly not profound nor awakening. Meanwhile I have this stack of unread books ...
I have decided that those who assert that all criticisms of specific people must be some flaw inn the critic such as racism or sexism are simply indulging in idolatry. There is an embedded assertion that the object of the criticism must be perfect, and beyond criticism, ergo the critic must be somehow defective. Obama and Hillary fanatics were/are classic examples. Only gods are flawless. A step below that is hero worship, where they might acknowledge some particular "petty" flaw and shrug it off as immaterial and unimportant because the person is otherwise so overwhelmingly such a perfect person in so many ways. In sort, they aren't capable of a rational discussion of the matter.
Everybody have a good 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 --
@enhydra lutris Well *said*! Jeez,
Thanks for giving my mind new things to chew on.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I insist on multi-think
particularly where Sherlock Holmes is concerned. Do you all realize this dualism has been going on since the tales were still being written and published? Oh yes - there was quite a readership divide between those who thought Sidney Paget's depiction was perfect, and those who thought Frederic Dorr Steele's was the real deal.
As for me, my favorite media Holmes is, and always will be, Basil Rathbone. Not so fond of Nigel Bruce as Watson, but he was even more the EveryEnglishman, a little fuddled but always managing to muddle through, than the Watson of the stories. (An odd thing about Rathbone is that even though he almost always played villains, he had the acting skill to make them interesting and even somewhat sympathetic - a skill that stood him in good stead when playing the not always likable Holmes.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
What most people don't realize, or give any thought to,
is that based on what we're told of the character by Doyle, Holmes and Watson are almost invariably represented, whether in art or in cinema, as much older than they should be. Holmes, for example, was evidently born in 1854. From various references, we can induce that Watson was likely a few years older. This would make the two of them 27 and perhaps 30 years old when they meet in A Study in Scarlet, which is set in 1881, and 44 and 47 when they part ways 17 years later.
Cumberbatch and Freeman are the closest I know of amongst those with any significant notice: They would have been 32 and 35 when cast for the first go-around. Rathbone and Bruce, by contrast, were 48 and 44 when they first played SH and JW. We don't know the exact year in which their story for their first film, The Hound of the Baskervilles, is set, but it could not be later than 1891, making Bruce's age perhaps reasonable, but Rathbone about a decade too old.
Brett and Hardwicke were positively geriatric with respect to their subjects.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Age on the stage, or on screen, is a detail
William Gillette was 46 when he played Sherlock Holmes for the first time (he wrote the play with Conan Doyle's permission), and repeated the role for over thirty years (1899-1932). A 1916 film version - Gillette was then 63 - was recently found and restored. (Steele's Holmes illustrations strongly resembled Gillette: this was not at first intentional, but very quickly became so.)
Arguably the most glaring case of extreme "Dawson casting" was the 1936 MGM film version of "Romeo and Juliet", with every single member of the cast, bar possibly the Nurse and a parent or two, easily twice as old as they were supposed to be. Beautiful production, though. (Edit: and definitely worth sitting through for John Barrymore's Mercutio! Have heard tales about some of that actor's onscreen and offscreen antics during filming that almost defy belief!)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
In this case, I don't consider it a small detail.
The Holmes of A Study in Scarlet is a dynamic young man. Watson is in the prime of life, not some fussy old fart.
For some reason, the mediators have always felt compelled to portray both as fellows well into middle age.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Do Publicly Owned Planned Economies Work?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=241PbrQPKVg]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
@The Aspie Corner I never comment on videos
I already know that what we've got now works worse than planned, publicly owned economies, because what we've got now works worse than just about anything other than immediate nuclear war or the release of a biological weapon--which might end up happening as a result of the current system, anyway. I mean, how could anybody make an answer to the question that entitles that video other than:
"Better than what we've got now."
Because almost anything would work better than what we got now!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I don't even pay attention to the movie scene anymore.
Reactionaries piss me off. Between the McResistance Right-wing saying you're a racist/sexist if you don't go see something, and the Angry White Guy Right-wing screaming you're a cuck if you did go see something or even liked it at all, I refuse to go see anything. Ever.
Most of the movies crapped out of Hollywood's ass these days are meh at best and imperialist/christian propaganda at worst, but neither group of jackasses will ever make such a connection.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
@The Aspie Corner I agree with you so much
Hollywood--and visual media generally--are seriously fucked up right now, and have been for several years. It's not 100% bullshit by any means--you have your Guardians of the Galaxy (the first one, not the second), you have your 13 Reasons Why (1st season) and Sense8 and The Expanse. There's good stuff being made here and there. But watch out: 90% of the time, if something's good and it gets attention there will be a sequel or a second season that sucks and works hard to undo all the good of the original. It's like some censor who can't effectively police all the media being created all the time jumps in and says "Oh, they didn't really mean that. What they REALLY meant was this...."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Netflix rentiers support the Obamas now
"We used to have some money but we spent it
So when we want to have it then we rent it"
-- Indigo Girls, Peace Tonight
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/us/politics/barack-obama-netflix-show...
@eyo I noticed that. Given
Somebody felt the need to plug a hole.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Here's something worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtHNmV-Wtbs]
[video:This is one of many reasons I left social media.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Good morning CStMS and all you c99ers
Wow, another beautiful 59 degree morning...makes it a pleasure to get in a walk and do the morning chores.
So yesterday was Alabama's primary. I went early after trade day. Our little voting scene is quite a trip...in the small Sunday school room of the Friendship Baptist Church. Computerized sign in this year, but we still have bubble in paper ballots which you feed into the scanning machine. They were disappointed at the polls with the low turn out. Later in the day my partner went to vote...and they were giving out slices of homemade chocolate cake...voting is great they give you chocolate cake... and wanted to give her the recipe too.
Life in the hinterlands.
Poetry Daily
Today's Poem
Distraction Display
Some birds, to fend
against predators,
will fake a battered
or broken wing
to redirect
attention from
their young. If this
is evolution's
best guess, well,
it's not a bad one.
Just yesterday,
I saw a grackle
dragging a wing
like out-of-water
tackle, then rise
from a tuft of clover,
tracking with ripe
chokecherry eyes
as it flew up
and over me.
It lit in a maple
by a nest I'd failed,
at first, to notice—
a minor thing
to thank distraction
for, when it
came into focus.
Nicholas Friedman
Thanks for the OT and music today. Hope you all have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Lookout How wonderful. What a
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Hey I like your OT
Check out
http://poems.com/
The piece "Distraction Display" was the poem of the day.
The diversity of voices is what makes this a great site!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Bill Clinton's meltdown on NBC's 'Today' show
Post-primary depression already set, the plutocracy has spoken. No thank you sir, I'll not have another, not one more. Get ready for a crotch kick, that's what I think. Sheesh I hope "Kiss it" becomes the new theme of Bill Clinton's latest
beggingbook tour "How To Abuse Power":... and Ds wanted that asshole back in the Whitehouse? oh please Internets, meme him off the planet, do not let him rewrite his lurid past.
Fact-checking Bill Clinton's meltdown on NBC's 'Today' show
The President is Missing?
Bill Clinton #KissIt
Hi CStMS. :-)
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
@orlbucfan Lucky, lucky, lucky!
I wish I'd been old enough to see some of the absolutely great shows in the 60s and 70s. Well, I saw some of the shows in the 70s, because my parents took me along (that was awesome) but not nearly as many as I would have seen if I'd been an adult with my own choices and my own pocketbook.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo Well, we've already had
What George Galloway would call "a schoolboy howler."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I haven't bothered with Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith.
It was such a disaster I swore I'd never watch another Star Wars movie.
Some of my friends like it. Good for them. I feel like a 1928 prayerbook Episcopal about the subject. They Changed it, and I don't care for the changes.
I still have a full PDF copy of the old school EU RPG. Where they got away with a LOT despite Lucas' oversight.
Another SF series that had a revival recently that I'm MUCH more into is Battletech.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsIMfOo_VO0]
They Dumped 40 years of BAD story, resetting the universe back to the 1982 Origin, lost most of the munchkin Power Creep, let the Bi Poly Ruler of one of the factions be OPEN about it, and added a gender neutral pronoun to character creation, which caused idiots to show their hands in an amazing display of shooting yourself in the head to avoid clogged sinuses.
And it's done by an indie studio that Also released Shadowrun. And did the exact same thing with that one.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQp2HVTVQPo]
I've essentially given up on Hollywood products. With a few exceptions they'll get it right, like "Cobra Kai" but for the most part the propaganda is obvious, tilted towards the rich, and focused on saviors rather than the real hard work necessary to save us all.
Phew, Ok, there's my rant and game ads for folks. Just had Judo Last night and pushed myself harder than I have in a while. Just gets frustrating having to explain to my kids that success, unlike what Hollywood tells you, is FAR more than just showing up. You have to try.
Edit: Aaaaand I just logged onto Twitter and see that one of the big stories yesterday was the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE social media treatment of a Star Wars Actress, which requires people to... I don't know exactly what the idea is here. Stop Criticizing Star Wars? People being dicks to an actress is wrong, but that happens to them ALL the goddamn time. Some of the stories I heard from actors I date will make your hair curl. Actors are always considered an Acceptable target due to being public figures. Why do you think the jerks who make the decisions to release this shit stay QUIET?
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks Star Wars (the Disney
"I think maybe the song just sucks."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I could happily go on... Oh hell with it...
Star Wars has completely abandoned any freshness or essential goodness to be reduced to a family drama with space magic where everybody is included in a loving wonderful world where the only bad guys are people who believe in traditions. It's a sanitized and lovingly inclusive propaganda version of war which leaves out the truth about what's going on.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botILUc2eRo]
Yes, I know this comes across as hypocritical from a guy who just posted two war video game links.
HOWEVER, those specifically emphasize consequences. (Hell, half the time in Battletech you lose do to running out of MONEY. A very real depiction of what war's actually about.)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
SJW vs Right-wing? They're both right-wing.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
@The Aspie Corner Good point.
The SJW's are the murdered zombie corpses of the old New Liberal social justice movements. As a former member of some of those movements, I'm not supposed to notice that they're no longer alive.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@detroitmechworks Well in this case J J
Because that'll put butts in the seats.
/facepalm
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
He's talent.
You'll never see a non-hired help coming out to criticize the Plebs. Of course, I have never cared for his work, so I see it as corporate steered propaganda. (YMMV.)
Actors, writers, and directors in corporate productions are hired help, and the sooner that they realize they're being held up as targets to stoke the anger of the mob, the better.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks I see what you mean.
I worry sometimes about people like John Lewis and Maxine Waters. Black politicians who side with the wealthy establishment are going to be in especially deep shit if things go wrong, and I'm pretty sure that's on purpose too.
I think Obama's trying to get a seat on the lifeboat (not C99!) for himself and his family, and he might make it, but not everbody's gonna.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Obama will be treading water...
Ok, I admit that's extremely cynical, but I personally believe the Clintons would be the first ones to step on his hand if he got one on the boat.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks Oh, no question
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@detroitmechworks Somehow I missed
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Just came out a few months ago.
Then Palladium bought the Robotech license, and that became it's own game. (Which sucks, because Kevin Siembieda is a fatbeard idiot who reeks of Clintonism. Guy actually argues in his books that the Japanese are the most racist people on the planet, because of how he was treated in Japan. Having read his books, I know it had NOTHING to do with racism, and everything to do with the fact that he portrayed their culture and martial arts uniformly like Jedi, kissed China's ass, and claimed that everything Japanese was Chinese. Major asshole, and his hostility to the internet helped drive the D20 takeover.)
Anyway, fast forward almost 40 years. Microsoft no longer has the Mechwarrior License, so the original Battletech name is back up for grabs. World has been reset back to the start point of 3025. Game takes place in my favorite area of the universe. (Yes, Detroit... It's there... ) This area has never been covered, so they added a new faction which feels VERY true to the spirit, fleshed out the universe, and even let Emma Centrella be black. (Random rant. Early in the game among fans, there were major arguments about the fact that a major periphery lord was a black, poly, bi woman. I was all for it, but I was one of the few who agreed with her portrayal. Especially considering that the entire concept of her culture was that they were enlightened.)
Nowadays of course, the morons are pissed because the character creation screen doesn't have a character "Sex" selector. Instead it has a "Pronoun" selector. Which I still cannot understand the anger on, because it's not like you're REQUIRED to pick "They".
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks It sounds good. What
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Old school board game reconstruction.
Only thing I really dislike is that you HAVE to play a Mercenary company. (My personal Distaste for mercenaries made the game a hard sell for me) I understand the reason they picked that however, because in a time of feudal lords, mercenaries did have somewhat more freedom and it allowed players to really pick which side they liked the best instead of being forced to fight for one they thought was dumb. (Firefly Effect, really...)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Speaking of Leon Russell.....!
Gigantic educated fan here. Saw him live twice and both times were superb. May he RIP!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
@orlbucfan Oh, I love that song! My
And watch the sun go down (and watch the sun go down)
And hear the sea roll in (listen to the sea roll in)
etc.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Democrats waving at their polling places as they drove by
Blue Wave! omg that made me LOL. Please excuse my day-after-primary chattiness, I don't mean to bogart the Open Thread but wow, it's a "target rich environment" right now. pew pew pew
Did California Democrats sleep through election day?
holy ker-plunk! batman
"Ni! Ni! If you do not bring us a shrubbery we will say Ni to you! Ni!"
-- In Search of The Holy Grail, Knights Who Say Ni!
I confess to not voting for one D, but I am registered NPP since not one California Dem represents what I stand for, not even the local ones, not even the elected ones. Sucks to be me. hah!
Peace
@eyo I do enjoy a bit of
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo I'm surprised they're
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
A tiny bunch of plutocrats run the 5th Largest Economy
Why voters keep wanting to prop up this mess is beyond me, oh wait... LOL 21% of registered voters! That's all it takes to keep going? Or not. heh
oh well, maybe next time.
peace
This is a song I would like played at my Memorial Service CSTMS
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
@WIProgressive That's very cool. I love
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i think i'd rather have this
(warning: Not safe for, uh, well, uh just about anywhere.)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlEzq58GLpo]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.