45 responses to “The News: Tuesday, June 27, 2023”

1. 

   Anonymous

   06/27/2023

   That's sad about ET

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      06/27/2023

      He had a long life behind bars.

      Reply
2. 

   johnthebasket

   06/27/2023

   Frederic Forrest died as we all will. The obit pointed out that One From the Heart and Hammett were failures. I am at peace with both of those films — they were both noble experiments that sort of failed, but I'm glad I saw them, and Mr. Forrest was fine in both. He didn't become as rich or famous as the actors in Star Wars, but most actors didn't. A chance to play Teri Garr's hubby whilst Tom Waits croons should be its own reward.

   John
   John
   John

   Reply
3. 

   Doug Holland

   06/27/2023

   Mr Forrest had the face of a sad man, I thought, but yeah, he was always good at what he did.

   Reply
4. 

   johnthebasket

   06/27/2023

   I'm a pretty big fan of Chris Hadfield. I suppose everybody out here has seen this music vid he and his son put together, recorded in orbit and edited in Canada. It's worth a second or third look. . . .

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

   jtb

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      06/28/2023

      He was a one-hit wonder, but it was a pretty good hit.

      I heard a couple of idiots talking about that song when it first came out, and one of them said, "Filmed on the space station, my ass, it's all faked," and the guy he was talking to shook his head yes.

      And that was before Trump and MAGAs.

      Reply
   2. 

      johnthebasket

      06/28/2023

      The center of the ISS was built and is owned by the Russians. I thought MAGA folks loved the Russians. It is true that the recording was mastered on Earth and that Commander Hadfield lip-synched the song on the ISS. It's possible that SOME audio on the master came from the official ISS guitar which, by now, might be the most traveled musical instrument in history. I'll be damned if I'll run the numbers.

      John

      Reply
   3. 

      johnthebasket

      06/28/2023

      I think Col/Cmdr Hadfield had multiple hits, at least in Canada. Here he is with another song he recorded (part of) on the ISS called Is Someone Singing? (ISS). He is accompanied by The Barenaked Ladies who are hot shit in Canada and perhaps slightly less well known in the United States. At one point, Hadfield had schoolchildren all over Canada singing along with him on this song while he was in orbit. I think he put out the equivalent of an album before/during/after his orbital assignment.

      https://www.google.com/search?q=is+somebody+singing&source=hp&ei=inScZJiaK82C0PEPsKO-yA0&iflsig=AD69kcEAAAAAZJyCmnTk_5_l7ifOXTkq7Tz559lRZWym&gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TCupKirMNS0yYPQSzixWKM7PTU3KT6lUKM7MSwciANsXDIU&oq=is+someone+singing&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADIHCC4QgAQQCjIHCAAQgAQQCjIHCAAQgAQQCjIGCAAQFhAeMggIABAWEB4QCjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjILCAAQFhAeEPEEEAoyBggAEBYQHjoLCC4QigUQ1AIQkQI6CAguEIoFEJECOgsILhCABBCxAxCDAToLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgcIABCKBRBDOgUILhCABDoLCAAQigUQsQMQgwE6CAgAEIoFEJECOggIABCABBCxAzoFCAAQgAQ6CAgAEIoFELEDOgQIABADOggIABAWEB4QDzoICAAQigUQhgNQAFiAJWDXRWgAcAB4AIABcIgB-QqSAQQxNy4xmAEAoAEB&sclient=gws-wiz#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:441cd23a,vid:wN5YILF5jNE

      My goodness, that seems like a long web address, but I suppose Cmdr. Hadfield was in an obscure ZIP code for the performance.

      John

      Reply
   4. 

      johnthebasket

      06/28/2023

      I can sing two or three notes, but then I get nervous, especially if anybody is listening. Col. Hadfield was a test pilot for the Canadian Air Force before his astronaut assignment (he said he applied for astronaut training because he needed to get into a less dangerous line of work) so he just lets the music fly. I think he's a competent singer.

      John

      Reply
   5. 

      Doug Holland

      06/29/2023

      Outer Space's Got Talent!

      Dude is a better singer and far better guitarman than me. Better astronaut too, probably, but can he fart the 20th Century Fox fanfare?

      Reply
5. 

   Pulp Free

   06/27/2023

   Thank you for that Steely Dan music, it is beautiful and makes me feel half my age. They always worked at making it sound perfect.

   Reply
   1. 

      johnthebasket

      06/27/2023

      I sign my messages.

      John

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xN0hmNS_IU&list=RD6xN0hmNS_IU&start_radio=1&rv=6xN0hmNS_IU&t=0&t=0

      Reply
   2. 

      Doug Holland

      06/28/2023

      I would've bet money that was Steely Dan. I'm an idiot no doubt, but I've never heard of Skunk Baxter. Wow.

      Reply
   3. 

      Doug Holland

      06/28/2023

      Nobody else like Steely Dan, I would've said to Pulp Free before I'd listened to a band that sure sounded like Steely Dan.

      Reply
6. 

   johnthebasket

   06/27/2023

   And it's possible you haven't heard the Hurra Torpedo version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. They get it pretty close.

   John

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNOVL8axH8A

   Reply
   1. 

      johnthebasket

      06/27/2023

      I should have noted that Hurra Torpedo performed that song live on the Lille Lørdag show in Norway. Of course, Lille Lørdag means "little Saturday" which, in Norway, is Wednesday. The idea is that two days of drinking a week is insufficient, so Norway has added a little Saturday on Wednesday nights, as well as a television program by that name. It makes sense.

      jtb

      Reply
   2. 

      Doug Holland

      06/28/2023

      That was both terrible and fantastic. My eyes are wet from and my belly hurts.

      Reply
7. 

   johnthebasket

   06/28/2023

   Once you've seen Hurra Torpedo the shine is kind of worn off, but they dabble in a number of different musical forms. Here is their cover of All the Things She Said. It's a nice cover. . .

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMi_Bu4PesA

   John

   Reply
8. 

   johnthebasket

   06/28/2023

   And here is a cut from their tour of the United States in 2006. They're in Memphis, the most segregated city in America and home of Southern Soul. They are visiting Howard's Appliance Store. Howard sells used appliances — in some cases very used, and his appliance store is in his back yard. And his front yard. And both side yards. But the boys find a Norge appliance and they feel like they're back in Oslo. It's a four minute clip.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSP2ikbMwsI

   John

   As you can tell, I've been a fan of Hurra for 20 years or so, and they never fail to entertain me. Even on gentle cycle.

   Reply
9. 

   johnthebasket

   06/29/2023

   I should also note that the band is still together, although they only tour annually. In 2016, in honor of their 10th anniversary, they released a digital single called We Fuck You with Music. I think the title is friendlier in the original Norwegian.

   I think it's still possible for music to bring the world together in peace..

   John

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      06/29/2023

      It's always kitchen appliances with those guys, huh? I likes it.

      Reply
   2. 

      johnthebasket

      06/29/2023

      It's been kitchen appliances for 20 years and counting. Their record label is actually a collective (good old socialist Norway) where players switch among and between bands. And the appliance bands don't go in for the modern air fryer shit. They like traditional stoves, refrigerators and freezers. You get a nice bass tone out of a chest freezer. I think weed is legal there. I suppose it would have to be,

      John

      Reply
   3. 

      Doug Holland

      06/30/2023

      "the appliance bands" …

      Wait, there's more than one? Appliance rock is a musical genre in Norway?

      Reply
   4. 

      johnthebasket

      06/30/2023

      Just to be clear, I said that Hurra Torpedo's record label was a collective and that musicians jumped from band to band. In general, when traditional appliances were used as musical instruments, the band would be introduced as Hurra Torpedo, but might have one or two refrigerator or stove players from other bands. If you can keep good time while allowing your jogging suit to fall slowly to the floor, there was always a chance of a tryout. That doesn't make appliance rock a genre. Maybe a sub-genre.

      jtb

      Reply
   5. 

      Doug Holland

      06/30/2023

      For twenty years you've been a fan of this kitchen appliance band I'd never heard of. So's I'm just curious, do you remember where/how you first heard of them? Were they on Dr Demento or some especially wacky hour of MTV, or were you in Norway?

      Twenty years ago, was YouTube even a thing? I think I was still listening to cassettes people sent in the mail…

      Reply
   6. 

      johnthebasket

      06/30/2023

      YouTube went live in early 2005, so more like 18 years. I have no recollection who turned me on to Hurra Torpedo, but the were active on the Web early and I had broadband pretty early for work. There were other ways to stream, and my aging memory tells me I stumbled upon the band, which still has a name that immediately finds them in the vastness of the Web. Maybe somebody emailed me, knowing that I was a music guy. I knew a lot of people 20 years ago or so. Not so many now.

      John

      Reply
   7. 

      johnthebasket

      06/30/2023

      I was sort of "in the business" twenty years ago, and on the Web in 1995. You wouldn't know it given my general ignorance of IT tools, but I was there. I worked for a company called (roughly) Russell. A Russell Lumber Company in Massachusetts owned the URL russell.com. We called them and bought it from them for a nominal sum. Early Times is more than just a moderately priced bourbon.

      John

      Reply
   8. 

      Doug Holland

      07/01/2023

      1995 is pretty close to the dawn of the modern era, and You Were There.

      I plugged in around 1999, and it was still almost entirely nerds having fun. There were businesses online, but online wasn't a big business yet.

      Damn, we're old.

      Reply
   9. 

      johnthebasket

      07/01/2023

      Hey, baby, I was an official test case guy for Google. I used Google as my search engine for a few months and they sent me a nice thank-you letter. They were short on cash. Today, not so much.

      jtb

      Reply
   10. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       If you still have it, I'll bet a nice thank you letter from Google 1.0 is worth some money.

       Did they ask you to fill out a survey, like, "On a scale from 1-10, how likely are you to recommend Google to your friends?"

       Back then, Google seemed like the good guys, and I remember enthusiastically switching from AltaVista. But they're a business, always were, so of course they turned to shit.

       Still the best search engine for results, though.

       Reply
   11. 

       johnthebasket

       07/01/2023

       Unfortunately the thank you letter and the regular feedback requests were digital, and I didn't think to send copies to the printer. And, of course, testing the pornhunting capability of Google was a tough go at work. One of my guys tried anyway, and the search log caught him and I was soon doing a Perry Mason imitation, promising my boss and the H/R folks that my engineer was "just doing his job when one of the actors removed her undergarments".

       jtb

       Reply
   12. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       Google was so young then, it seems likely that whoever was sending you those emails is a millionaire now. Or, more pessimistically, a dead millionaire. Been a long time, after all.

       I always wonder how closely IT and management are looking at those logs today. I could easily explain an hour a day wherever the web takes me, because you get lunch plus two breaks, but an hour of websurfing at work is my baseline.

       No porn in the office, though. Dress code says you gotta wear pants.

       Reply
   13. 

       jtb

       07/01/2023

       They'd lose me at the dress code.

       jtb

       Reply
10. 

    johnthebasket

    06/30/2023

    I didn't miss many minutes of the Senate Watergate Hearings, and there were heroes on the Senate panel. Certainly Senator Sam, but Republican Lowell Weicker really let Nixon have it when he learned of the Enemies List. Weicker set the tone for the panel as a Republican who was not going to tolerate another Republican treating people who disagreed with him as enemies. Weiker was a consistent progressive when Republicans could do that. He is in my book an American hero for putting his country ahead of shoddy Republican politics. His Enemies List speech was short but profound.

    John

    Reply
    1. 

       Doug Holland

       06/30/2023

       Defibrillate me if I OD on my own cynicism, but did it make any difference? I root for the good guys too, and hope some politician will make the right speech or even do the right thing, but Nixon got pardoned, everything political has gotten exponentially worse, a basically decent guy like Weiker couldn't get elected as a Republican any more.

       As for the Dems, they're at about the same distance to the left from Republicans that they were in Weiker's, but they'd followed the Republicans miles to the right.

       Not quite all, but *almost* all of politics seems like theater to me. Good show, sometimes, while the world burns.

       Reply
    2. 

       johnthebasket

       06/30/2023

       I've worked on three Presidential campaigns, all unsuccessful, and written for a few local politicos. My last foray was in 2004, and I've been done for a long time. My previous philosophy was roughly that I couldn't complain about political shit if I didn't try to make it better. I don't regret any of the many hundreds of hours I worked on campaigns. It was kinda fun. And I met some really decent people who were genuinely trying to make things better.

       This is a horrible time in America's political and social history. I have no idea where it goes from here.

       My uncle was hunted in the McCarthy purges of the mid-fifties. It looked like the end of democracy or whatever America's system is. It wasn't. This looks like the end as well. I'll not be around to witness what happens. Send me a message somehow and let me know how it comes out. I'm mildly curious.

       John

       Reply
    3. 

       johnthebasket

       07/01/2023

       I supported the Nixon pardon. I'd been working on campaigns for a few years and I didn't think throwing a former President with a 20% approval rating in the pokey would do anything but boost whatever was left of his mystique. His Watergate crimes had diminished the Republic, but it was going to be hard to try him for the 100,000 lost lives that resulted from his failed Southeast Asia policies. What the hell would you charge him with? Living free in disgrace was the more suitable punishment in my view, but I understand the other argument. And, unlike Agnew, Nixon couldn't play celebrity golf because of a distinct lack of motor control (although he was a better bowler than me and that kind of pissed me off).

       jtb

       Reply
    4. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       Send you a message somehow? We're all rising off under the sunset together, I think. Ain't gonna be nobody left but the kids with their tattoos and nose rings.

       Reply
    5. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       Guess it's good to remember McCarthy and his dour idiots. A shitty man for a shitty time, but America came through it.

       I remain pessimistic that America's gonna come through this shitty time and still look like America.

       But we'll both be gone before a bet on the outcome would come due.

       Reply
    6. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       Yup and yup, same as Trump they (sorta) came at him over something truly trivial, and let him get away with a litany of high crimes.

       The rich almost never face justice.

       The powerful even less so.

       Reply
    7. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       Did Nixon really like bowling, or was that a public relations invention to make him relatable for the common man?

       Reply
    8. 

       johnthebasket

       07/01/2023

       You will not be surprised to learn that I've not read a Nixon biography, but he DID have two bowling lanes installed in the White House basement and the word is he visited them a couple times a week. Another unsurprise is that Nixon was not an athlete, but by all accounts he was not a bad bowler. I carried a 147 average the the four years I bowled, worst on the five-man team by a dozen pins or so. I ordered more drinks than I scored strikes, but, to be fair, the numbers were tolerably close.

       Johnny Strike

       Reply
    9. 

       Doug Holland

       07/01/2023

       NIXONLAND is terrific. Rick Perlstein. A biography of the man, and also of the era.

       Reply
    10. 

        johnthebasket

        07/01/2023

        Thanks. I had a lot of Nixon in my early adult life, but it sounds like a good read. I know more about the 1960 election than I should, and Nixon probably won. Johnson "pushed" Texas into the Dem column and Daley owned Chicago, which was 30 percent of Illinois. Nixon took a week deciding whether to go to Federal Court, but hard evidence was problematic.

        I've always thought that, at some level, most men and some women have some Nixon in them. When I feel my Nixon roiling up, I try to remember who and what he was so that feeling will go away out of sheer shame. I'm not crazy about admitting any of that.

        John

        Reply
    11. 

        Doug Holland

        07/01/2023

        The book was ten years ago and most of it's drained out of my leaky mind, so this is me talking, not at all Perlstein: Nixon was uncomfortable around people yet went into politics and was as successful as a politician can be. Never liked people, never trusted people, hated lots of people, I think "deeply paranoid" is an exaggeration but he was not a trusting soul, so I have lots of Nixon in me too. It's in my head not on paper, but you bet I have an enemies list.

        I'm not gonna bomb Cambodia, though.

        Reply

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