once weekly, usually on Saturdays
Let’s see what happens when your host (me) has nothing to say, and instead it’s open mike night. Step right up, speak your mind, tell a story, sing a song, whatever.
6/21/2025
Anything goes #33
63 responses to “Anything goes #33”
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Oh man, that’s a trip. I just knew Art Bell would be involved.
> Kirkpatrick’s team procured the metal, and sent it for another round of testing to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the Energy Department’s premier research facilities. Scientists there determined that the alloy isn’t from outer space and doesn’t have antigravity properties. Kirkpatrick’s team found it was probably from a World War II-era manufacturing test of an aircraft part or an armament, such as a shell casing.
I was not surprised, but enjoyed the ride getting there.
Have you seen The Men Who Stare at Goats? All about the military-industrial complex taking extraterrestrials and the supernatural super-serious, and it’s based on fact. I watched a documentary a while back about the factual side of that story, and I haven’t written the review yet but it’s sheer craziness yet somehow endearing, even as I shook my head no all through it.
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>Have you seen The Men Who Stare at Goats<
Have not, but it's on my list. I believe Jon Ronson wrote the source story?
Spielbergo just wrapped his latest film, and it's reported to be a return to sci-fi, in the vein of Close Encounters… here's hoping he has one great alien story left to tell…
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My Spielberg enthusiasm ran out long ago, but if he did something in the vein of Close Encounters I’d be innerested…
Yup, Jon Ronson did the factwork that the fiction flick of Goats is based on.
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You liked Munich (it is great) and I still recommend Bridge of Spies, but nothing he’s done is as good as Jaws/CE3K/Raiders/ET/Empire of the Sun
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I am skeptical of Bridge of Spies, because of Tom Hanks and also because I don’t much give a rip about spies (smiley-face), but it is on the list. I’d estimate I’ll be in the B’s by 2028, if there’s still electricity and America by then. Or maybe I should boost it higher up on the list?
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During my adulthood, I spent one late night a week with friends and drove home in the middle of the night. I’d always tune in Art Bell to see what kind of horseshit ideas he was selling. I finally figured out that he didn’t seem all that whacko because his callers were out there where the busses don’t run, and Art seemed marginally sane by comparison. In retrospect, the whole late night talk jungle doesn’t seem odd at all compared to the current U.S. House of Representatives. I miss Dick Cavett.
jtb
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Before the internet made nuttiness ubiquitous and inescapable, I listened to Art Bell sometimes in the wee hours. Usually found his show entertaining, and I suspect I took at least some of it seriously, though it’s been a long time and I can’t remember what.
Mr Cavett is still alive and well, and I wish someone would give him a show again. Is there an old fogey channel on cable? Man, I would pirate that in a flash.
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My Asshole
I knew I was getting old last year when I got my first hemorrhoid and bi-focals on the same day. How could I know that an airplane trip to a wedding in Canada would bring me this condition?! Well, it was a high-class hemmy because it didn’t come from within but just kind of jutted out of the skin on the side. The daily sitz baths and witch hazel made it vanish in a couple weeks though my former food stamp worker from 1976 (is anyone else still friends with his Home Visitor?) told me it would have disappeared anyway.
This year my doctor, after irrigating my ears and hearing about a little digestive episode I had in Mexico, decided that it was time for my first sigmoidoscopy. I fasted, laxatized, enemized and then went up to Eureka to get a camera up my butt. I lay down on my side, the doctor had the scope in his hands, an anus in his face, and it felt like he just tried to ram it in.
“Ouch! Stop! I don’t think this is a good idea after all!” I said.
“No, we’ll do it,” he said.
He tried to push the thing in again and I gasped, couldn’t he be more gentle? Use more lube? Play with my anus a little and warm me to the occasion? (Maybe even whisper sweet thoughts into my ear and give me flowers?) I swear I would not sue him for sexual harassment.
Finally the camera was in me and traveling up the sigmoid (lower colon). I watched the progress on the video screen and it looked very pink and beautiful and there were no polyps.
The doctor snapped a picture for me which is now on my refrigerator. I might make a Tee Shirt of it or if I ever have a web site it will be Press Here to open. (I did that.)
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Hope you’re exaggerating for comedic effect. A doc shouldn’t be pushing the camera up your bum when you’ve said stop. There are rules, or there are supposed to be. But I’m happy to hear and see that you’re polyp free.
I had hemorrhoids pretty bad in my 20s, bloody painful and bloody bloody, but they faded away without any treatment or surgery.
As webmaster here, the process of adding an illustration for any page brings up a gallery of the site’s 50 most recent illustrations, which means I’ll be gazing deep inside you daily for the next few weeks.
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Wow. Twenty years ago, Jon Ronson was everywhere: all over NPR, SNL, TV talk shows. Then he vanished, like a fist when you open your hand. I know he’s still working, but television and radio have been tsunamied by the Web; one day everybody was taking (or giving) The Psychopath Test, and the next day everybody except Ronson had a podcast. Hell, maybe he has one, but it doesn’t come in up here in the Great Pacific Northwest. I keep twisting the dials.
jtb
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He was on SNL? Is he a funny guy, in addition to the quack studies?
I don’t really remember him riding the top of the charts, but popularity comes and goes. Haven’t read/seen a lot of his work, but what I have seen has interested me. Not that I’m the target audience, certainly.
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Ah the “Men Who Stare At Goats” doc was a rec from me, I’m glad you liked it Doug!
John, Ronson’s done a LOT of podcasts, though most of them are in the vein of “audio documentaries,” but they’re still mostly grouped together with podcasts. I recommended one to Doug in ye olde comments here, called “Things Fall Apart,” in two series over two years. He also did one called “The Butterfly Effect,” which is like a 9 part series on the ubiquity of porn, “The Last Days of August” about a dead porn star, and “The Debutante: From High Society to White Supremacy.” The first two mentioned I thought were phenomenal, I haven’t watched the last two.
I think he explained in another person’s podcast I can’t remember well that he mostly earns a living writing for movies/TV these days. Not a huge number of credits on imdb but that seems like how that racket works.
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Was that you? Well, thanks!
I also listened to most of the first season of Things Fall Apart, and enjoyed it, until I felt like I’d heard enough about the culture wars. It’s just rich people controlling the narrative and telling poor people what to be perpetually pissed off about. When what they should be pissed off about is how rich people control the narrative, and the world, and the world’s poor people.
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Gran, Ronson is a fine writer, and there’s lots of work in the movie industry for people who can write dialog. The folks who do the final cut and rarely get screen credit are frequently called “script doctors”. I think the simple idea is that they take a forgettable script and make it into a memorable one. The late Princess Leia was an SD and word on the street is that she brought home seven figures a year over her last five or six years. Turning a $30 million film into a $50 million film does have rewards, even if you don’t bat a thousand.
I think Ronson is doing this for docs, which is obviously not as lucrative, but keeps the wolf from the door and, on the occasion when you hit it out of the park, word gets around. The film community is deceptively small.
John
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Ronson told the story of Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, which I saw and very much liked a few weeks ago, and co-wrote the non-doc Okja with Bong Joon Ho.
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Goddamn, well, I declare
Have you seen the like
Their walls are built of cannon balls
Their motto is don’t tread on merh/jg – jtb
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Well, all righty then, let’s have the eternal philosophical discussion of Uncle John’s Band. Who’s Uncle John, and who’s the band? Had a long conversation with a Christian Deadhead (!) long ago, who thought Uncle John was Jesus, and the whole this is an allegorical gospel. I asked him where he got such wonderful weed.
But still…
Come hear Uncle John’s Band, playing to the tide
Come with me or go alone
He’s come to take his children home
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Uncle John is Jerome John Garcia, certainly the leader of the band, and the leader of several spinoff bands.
jtb
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Well, if you say so, Uncle John. My ear hears more.
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I’m sorry you’re down to one ear. Sometimes more is less.
jtb
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Two ears, but around 50% hearing in each, so it works out the same.
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What is the most moving song you’ve ever heard? For me (tied for first place with a half dozen other tunes) is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds singing “Into My Arms”. The song was featured in the movie Zero Effect, which would be a top ten film in a world that cared about love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVewUtxyIYs&list=RDDVewUtxyIYs&start_radio=1
johnthebasket
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Hella song. Pretty good video, too, especially that last shot.
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johnthebasket
06/27/2025
What is the most moving song you’ve ever heard?-
One suspects you’re joking, and I’m the one, but that is a kinda cool song.
My gag answer is “It’s a Gas” by Alfred E Neuman. My serious answer is almost anything by Leonard Cohen.
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Well, that’s not the link I posted or attempted to post. I am sufficiently unfamiliar with the Stooges to HAVE a favorite Stooges song. That was supposed to be another Nick Cave song. I think the problem lies somewhere among my free computer, your modest software problems, and my cabeza. (comma courtesy Rule 13). It was a dark, cool evening — the moon took the night off — I reached for the elastic of her pajamas and snapped it like a longbow.
jtb
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That’s Claude, responding to your link, higher up the page.
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Every fifteen seconds it becomes a totally different song… genius
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I’ve heard and liked this song before, and yeah, all the segments are different but also connected enough to seem of a piece instead of a collage. It’s a very cool and *different* song for The Beach Boys, and this morning I’ve noticed something else — it’s a fantastic adult lullaby.
My recliner is old and lumpy and no longer reclines, but I’m too cheap to replace it, so I bought a very thick cushion to soften the lumps, and slept well last night but sleepy time was over at about 8. I listened to “This Whole World” three times and it was suddenly past 9. Listened twice more and woke up almost at 11:00. Part of the credit goes to the new cushion, obviously, but the song sure has an effect.
I have things to do today so I am not listening again at this time, but I’ve saved a copy and will listen again around bedtime.
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Unbelievably brilliant, the strings after “listen” at 1:45, unearthly…
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Pet Sounds a direct link to the greatest record of the 1990s:
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Did Wilson ever do music that wasn’t Beach Boysy? Gotta wonder what he could’ve done with Hendrix or Willie Nelson.
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Post-Pet Sounds he started or had plans for a comedy record, a country record, a sound effects record, a spoken word record, and more. His studio bootlegs surpass even Prince’s legendary unreleased material in variety and quantity.
Even with the BB he released oddball gems like “Love You”
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4-LW5Atpg5jxCxkheqS_em_1P1Ayiyv&si=ZqRbNUdejpZW8h0b
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That’s exactly what I was hoping for but had never imagined.
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What the holy heck? Have I dialed a wrong number?
Well, I can’t listen in the dark like the video asks me to. It’s broad daylight and 84° and I’ll be double-dang hornswaggled if I’m gonna draw the curtains I don’t have.
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Doesn’t sound Beach Boysy at all, except for the background vocals.
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This is new to me, and I really like it…
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I’m not wild about the music but the lyrics are poetry.
What The Pillar Of Salt Held Up
by American Music ClubThe take-off makes no sound
It’s high and far away
Your blue sky by the moon
It takes my breath awayWhy do you choose
What you choose to throw away into the undertow
A happiness like we’ll never knowYou can overcome your bitterness and pain
And you don’t remember how
To start your life againYou were born to please
Born to put on a show
But you always run away
From a happiness like we’ll never knowNo hiding place in all the sky
No camouflage to keep you warm at night
No clothes you got seem to keep out the wind or the rain
No way out from your shameThe take-off makes no sound
As you fly away with that look on your face
That gives it all awaySecrets that the sea would never tell the soul
But where the current flows
A happiness like we’ll never know-
Yeah, Mark Eitzel is a fantastic lyricist.
*****
Western Sky
Time for me to go away
I’ll get a new name, I’ll get a new face
Time for me to go away
No, I don’t belong in this place
But I’m not gonna ask you why
You think the parade has passed you by
Or if everything good is gone into the western skyI hate to see you look that way
All the beauty has left your face
That’s such an easy thing to give away
That’s impossible to replace
So I’ll take you in my two weak hands
And I’ll throw you so high
Watch you fall forever in the western sky
And when you land then you’ll turn into some kind of prize
Into somebody’s sweet prizeI won’t see you no more
Mmm, who am I to rate that high?
The world’s a shadow of what went before
The world gives off none of its own lightSo please be happy baby
And please don’t cry
Even though the parade has passed us by
Well you can still see it shining in the western sky
In the western sky
You can still see it shining
You can still see it shining
You can still see it shining
So why won’t you stop crying?
You can still see it shining*****
Mom’s TV
Where are all your brothers and sisters?
‘Cause I hope they’re not all like you
Where are all your brothers and sisters?
‘Cause I get so lonely when there’s just youWhy do you hate me so bad?
‘Cause I was the best friend you ever had
Oh, tell me why you gave up so easily
Yeah, I guess that you just lost your headThe same water falls in lightning and snow
The same scene of failure every night
The same echoes reach me from far away
Echoes of the end and the faint light of dayCaught a small scene on my mom’s TV
She watched it when she was lonely at night
Oh God, I hate you, God I hate you
Telling me what’s gonna happen the rest of my lifeThe same water falls in lightning and snow
The same scene of failure every night
It’s written all off of your face, it’s in everything you say
Echoes of the end and the faint light of day
See upcoming pop shows
Get tickets for your favorite artistsYou might also like
Art of Love
American Music Club
Electric Light
American Music Club
Western Sky
American Music ClubIt’s so lonely, it’s so lonely, it’s so lonely, it’s so lonely
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https://youtu.be/3eNK38nmzw4?si=J-fmMF1FCbfOsgF-
The only girl I’ve ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her aliveOne evening, 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she’s a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has comeBut now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry onAnd now we ride this circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be aliveBut now he rides a comet’s flame
And won’t be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That’s right above from where you are
He didn’t mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apartBut now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry onAnd here’s where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don’t move anymore
And it’s so sad to see the world agree
That they’d rather see their faces filled with flies
All when I’d want to keep white roses in their eyes-
I became a fan of Neutral Milk Hotel because of a fleeting mention of the band on Parks & Rec. They’re almost enough to convince me that music isn’t going to go extinct.
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That’s in my sweet spot. Moving. Thanks.
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That’s Alex Chilton, you’ve heard his Box Tops song The Letter. He rejected all that and went a little nuts (in the best, most uncompromising way) the remainder of his life. One of my all time rock and roll heroes – he was more self-destructive and subversive than 10,000 mohawked punks. Possibly the most contrarian figure in all of pop music.
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No argument, but an observation. Mr Chilton was a member/leader of Big Star, a highly influential indie band and is remembered perhaps more for that than for the million sellers he had with the Box Tops. Along with some other kickass musicians, he came out of Muscle Shoals and Memphis with the help of Chips Moman, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and that crowd. Had he had health insurance, he might have lived another twenty years.
jtb
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> Had he had health insurance, he might have lived another twenty years.
Last words for a lot of Americans.
Curious coincidence, Chilton was also the surname of a pretty good guy I worked with, in perfect health until a leukemia sneak attack that left him dead within months. He was, I think, 22. Fuck God.
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Dude must be old like us. “The Letter” was postmarked before I ever even kissed a girl.
Respect for his journey.
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Chilton died of a heart attack at 59. He didn’t have medical insurance, so he didn’t go to the hospital. I had a heart attack at 66. I went to the hospital because I had Medicare. They did a four-way bypass and I’ve lived another nine years. I’m running out of time, but those nine years were not without laughs.
jtb
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Oh man, it’s going to be a concert.
Today’s a busy day, but soon as I’m back I’ll slip into my Tinkerbell shoes and trip the light fandango!
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If music be the food of love
Then laughter is its queen
And likewise if behind is in front
Then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
Seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
And attacked the ocean bedAnd so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of palePH/jtb
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Oddly, my first thought at PH was Paul Harvey… good day. But no, it’s Procol Harum.
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I especially liked these three, which I reckon means I like the Replacements. Never knew it until today.
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Dynamite rendition of one of my favorites, but I guess Sam Cooke was mistaken.
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Nope, Sam Cooke was dead-on right. But nothing lasts forever. It’s possible you’re too young to remember segregation in the North, but it was the real deal. A Black President? Impossible.
jtb
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