I Hear You’re Mad About Brubeck…
I have to confess I’ve never really listened to Dave Brubeck. I’m sure I’ve heard his music without knowing who performed it. I did a Google search and the first video result was “Take Five,” which sounded pretty familiar. I’ve been meaning to listen to some of his stuff, but just never got around to it. I do know he was hugely influential on jazz and popular music.
A quote from here –
Brubeck believed that jazz presented the best face of America to the world.
“Jazz is about freedom within discipline,” he said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press. “Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it just seemed to represent freedom, democracy and the United States.
“Many people don’t understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz. … And that is really the idea of democracy – freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don’t just get out there and do anything you want.”
When was the last time you heard an artist or celebrity say anything like that?
Title of post from “New Frontier” by Donald Fagen, an avowed Brubeck fan.
Shooting The Moon
“In a secret project recently discovered, the United States planned to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb in the 1950s as a display of the country’s strength during the Cold War space race.”
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-moon-nuclear-project-631/
Carl Sagan was almost a moon nuker.
They never wanted to actually blow up the moon. The plan was to create a nuclear flash visible from Earth to scare the USSR. But I guess making it sound like moon rocks would be splashing into the ocean from an empty sky makes for better copy.
When Black Friday Comes…
…I’ll rush right through the door
Running from aisle to aisle
Blue Light Special on the sales floor
They could rewrite the song from a stock market crash to sales-obsessed shoppers and not lose any of the cynicism.
Happy Thanksgiving
This is a special holiday for us here at Night Sky Radio, because Thanksgiving and radio have a long tradition together.
Jacked Up Game
This is Game.
Jack likes girl. Jack is a dork and gets shot down. He goes home and starts getting his shit together. He meets the girl again, hits her attraction triggers, and takes her on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Is he still a dork? Well… yeah. But now he’s a dork who’s comfortable in his own skin and moves with assured confidence in himself.
A lot of it is played for laughs, but the core concept is still true – he got Game. He never manipulated her, he proved himself to her.
The fact that he can play drums probably doesn’t hurt, either.
Now I’ll Relate This Little Bit
Something that has been kicking around in the back of my mind for at least 15 years –
Somewhere in my mid to late 20s, I noticed that some women who had been married for a length of time acted differently. They seemed more laid back, confident without being arrogant, and just nicer to be around. This isn’t to say there weren’t any single women who weren’t pleasant company, or that all married women were like this. I would even say women like this were a minority. But not even one single woman had this demeanor – it seemed like it was something specific to a subset of married women.
It could be that being married, they felt “safe” around me, and could be more relaxed.* Or it could be that I subconsciously acted different, since I knew they were off-limits. I’m disinclined to think so, however, since none of the single women came across this way to me whether I was interested in them or not. This makes me wonder if there is something about being married for some undetermined length of time that changes a woman.
If this is the case, how do I spot this future potential in a woman? And if I’m wrong, then what really is happening? And am I just pulling something out of the air here?
*Not that it would have made any difference – no married woman was going to even look twice at a Nice Guy, broke-ass, sucker with no self-esteem.
Only In Japan. Or California
The two places that almost all weird trends originate in. I wonder what PJ O’Rourke would think of these shocking and unconventional people?
Want some coffee with your bagel?
Full piece here. The last pic in the article looks like every 70’s sci-fi TV show ever.
Different Like Everyone Else
“The weirder you’re going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with green hair and three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person.” — P. J. O’Rourke
I’m always amused when “unconventional” and “shocking” people act uncomfortable around me. They really do. I guess when everyone is different, the person dressed casually normal is the freak.
Interestingly enough, people who really are unconventional seem to get along ok with me. I suppose I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck attracts I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck.
Do You Have Your Papers, Mr. Kent?
I saw this on Coyote Blog and had to swipe it.
Coyote wrote –
Sometimes I have odd reactions to things. For example, my immediate reaction to this comic book cover was, “comparative advantage fail.”
I am sure that Superman would be a super-productive gardener, but there are likely much better tasks to assign him for which his comparative advantage is much greater.
What also occurs to me is that Superman, being from the planet Krypton without proper papers, is an undocumented worker. Imagine if he decided to do every job he could. No matter what he was paid, it would still cost jobs that would otherwise go to, oh, everyone else on Earth. The planetary economy would be shattered within days.
Then again, we could all just lay about and do nothing while Superman takes care of everything. I doubt even the strongest critic of the welfare state would mind spending all his time by the pool with a 5000″ TV while Supes takes care of everything.
