A few years back I got irrationally obsessed with reading books about the Rwandan genocide including this excellent, harrowing one, and one thing that stuck with me from it was the role talk radio played in stoking violence and encouraging people to turn on their neighbors. This is a transcript from one of those stations, assuring its listeners that no matter what they see and hear on other channels, THIS is the real story: .. When talking, we should be aware that we are talking to other people, and to intelligent people. Because what will cause harm to the Rwandans, … Continue reading Every Genocide Needs a Soundtrack
It’s easy to imagine that in places where life is already hard, our current circumstances would make life harder. And they have, and they’ve made people braver, as well: Before long, word of the project had spread, and about two dozen people came together to help, working 13-hour days to turn the abandoned house into a welcoming checkpoint. “The house was full of 3-4 feet of snow,” said Bekoalok, who has limited mobility and volunteered from home as a coordinator. “They had to shovel the house out, and they put Visqueen on the windows, so that light comes in but … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
This National Day of Prayer. I just. You want to pray? Give money to a food pantry. You want to pray? Call your parents, your siblings, anyone you’re lucky enough to love. You want to pray? Put a note on your window, as one of my neighbors did yesterday, with your phone number: LOW RISK PERSON WILLING TO PICK UP MEDICINE OR GROCERIES, PLEASE TEXT. You want to pray? Vote early or by mail. You want to pray? My church cancelled communion LAST WEEK. They cancelled mass on Wednesday. That was prayer. You want to pray? Drive someone to work … Continue reading Laborare Est Orare, Motherfuckers
The Darnold got asked a rather uncomfortable question the other day: A month ago? He was bragging on the shutdown. Bragging. Last month, responding to a question from a reporter about why he has consistently called for “enormous cuts to the CDC, the NIH, and the WHO,” Trump responded: “I’m a businessperson. I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them. ” Oh? Does that go for the armed forces as well? After all, for the most part, there are hundreds of thousands of people around when we don’t need them. Until, of course, we do. … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s obsession with the moronovirus
The featured image is of Max von Sydow playing chess with Death in the Ingmar Bergman classic, The Seventh Seal. Von Sydow had a long acting career in America; often playing in horror movies. He died earlier this week at the age of 90. This is the first time I’ve ever started a Saturday post with an obit. I like to change things up.
The Seventh Seal is set during the Black Plague. It was an era with clueless and ignorant leaders; much like the US&A in 2020. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
This week’s theme song continues our board game theme. The Game Pieces was written by Chris Leslie and Nigel Stonier for Fairport Convention’s 1999 album, The Wood and the Wire. Here’s a woody and wiry live version:
I’m a lousy chess player but I know a good song about chess when I hear one. Just say Yes:
Now that we’ve established that we’re all good people, let’s take a straight and stronger course to the break.
On my way to work this morning I got on my usual bus, which was carrying its customary assortment of metropolitan itinerants in varying stages of consciousness and togetherness. At the next stop a young woman got on with a baby, maybe a little less than a year, and sat down, baby on lap. It was 8 a.m. and she had a look I’ve seen so many times in the mirror since I became a parent: The day has barely started and I am already so completely done. The baby gummed fingers and pacifier and waved tiny hands in the … Continue reading First Draft Community Help Thread
I know, it’s Politico, I’m better off reading the inside of the wrapper of the “health” food bar I just ate for information on how stuff works: What the public is about to see is Washington bickering over what legislation is needed to help right the economy and stop the further spread of this pandemichttps://t.co/VsMFYdLquc — POLITICO (@politico) March 10, 2020 Bickering. Or, as we call it in the world where we don’t pretend to be dumber than we are for hate-clicks, FIGURING OUT THE BEST WAY TO DO THIS. These solipsistic fucksticks know this, they know that what they … Continue reading Bickering
Quince Mountain is in the Idtitarod: In dog mushing — a sport where both humans and dogs compete regardless of gender — Mountain, 40, has found a welcoming community. It’s a privilege few trans athletes get to experience, he acknowledged, and one the musher has rarely encountered himself. Gender always posed problems for the athlete, who was assigned female at birth but described himself as a gender-nonconforming kid throughout his youth. He remembered trying out for the softball team at his Wisconsin high school. Despite being faster and more aggressive than many of the girls, he said he didn’t make … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
I know “please everyone quit bitching on the internet” is like the least likely thing to actually happen but I figured I would try to talk about how awful we are all being about our preferred primary candidates right now. Yes, all of us. Bernie Brothers. Even the Biden Bros. Maybe especially you three weirdos stanning Tulsi, whatever you’re about. What is the appeal? I just log on every day and it’s “Biden is basically Trump” and “Bernie will never get anything done” and meanwhile the Republicans are over there debating how many people they can put on death-ships to … Continue reading Please Stop
FREE BOOKS. I’m sure you all were on this way before I was but I figured out how to do this finally YESTERDAY and I’m already halfway through a book I’ve been thinking about reading for YEARS and I finished Gideon the Ninth which you all need to read so we can talk about lesbian necromancers in space and what everyone’s deal might actually be, so on the off chance you didn’t know you could do this, you should do this immediately instead of being on Twitter all day or in addition to it. It will improve your life. A. Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
My stomach bug was a persistent bugger. It slowly got better but I lived without coffee for four days; an experiment I’m not eager to repeat. It’s hard to be alert when you’re under-caffeinated, Coke Zero and tea don’t quite do it. The result was a groggy unprolific blogger. So it goes.
A quick note about the featured art and its influence on the Krewe of Spank. Our theme this year was NOLAOPOLY and our float was designed to be a rolling version of the game board. I suggested that the sides should look like a Mondrian painting. Our float captain, Greg, went for it with gusto.
I may not be able to paint or draw but I have a good eye. Besides, Di Stijl is always in style.
I decided to try and put some pep in my step with this week’s theme song. It was written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler in 1930 for a Ruth Etting movie, The Nine-Fifteen Revue. Etting was later played by Doris Day in the 1956 movie Love Me or Leave Me with Jimmy Cagney as her gangster husband.
We have two versions of Get Happy for your listening pleasure. The artists need no introduction but get one anyway: Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald.
Since we’re trying to get happy, it’s time for Keith Richards’ signature song:
While we were in Texas our friend and neighbor of 20 years, Alli, took care of Paul Drake. She’s officially Aunt Alli after she let PD climb her legs. It’s what he does. Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Social Climber
Before Andy Warhol became a pop art superstar in the Sixties, he worked as a freelance commercial artist. Among his most interesting work in the Fifties were some jazz album covers. Here’s a sampler: Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Early Warhol
Until you address this kind of crap, published on the notoriously dodgy internet website known as CFUCKINGNN: 5W Public Relations said that 38% of Americans wouldn’t buy Corona “under any circumstances” because of the outbreak, and another 14% said they wouldn’t order a Corona in public. The survey encompasses polling from 737 beer drinkers in the United States. In another survey conducted by YouGov, the firm found consumers’ intent to purchase Corona fell to its lowest level in two years. The survey also showed that Corona’s buzz score, a metric that that measures favorability, has dropped significantly since the beginning of … Continue reading Don’t Talk to Me About Fake News
Molly Seidel exists: Getting to the start line of the trials was a victory in itself. Seidel would not have believed it was possible just six months ago. “And if they told me, ‘You’re going to get second at the Olympic trials marathon,’ I’d be like, ‘OK, that’s funny.’” Seidel has shared her struggles with disordered eating, and knew that recovery would not be easy. She told Runner’s World that she turned down sponsorship offers four years ago when she was not emotionally ready to turn professional despite her success at Notre Dame. “Your long-term health is more important than running … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
I spent most of February in the Carnival bubble. On Ash Wednesday we hauled our ashes out of town to the Dallas area-Plano to be exact-to visit my seriously ill cousin, which placed us in the travel bubble as more … Continue reading Burst Bubble
