tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39536542024-03-14T05:22:10.073-04:00A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes AgoAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.comBlogger16790125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-74014789886674996672024-02-02T08:00:00.001-05:002024-02-02T08:00:00.139-05:00<div dir="ltr"><b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="https://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div><div dir="ltr"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr">Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div> Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-11253589945571646992023-10-24T15:31:00.002-04:002023-10-24T15:31:41.038-04:00<b>TALK ABOUT THE PASSION: </b>In an overload of 1990s nostaglia, earlier this month<b> </b><a href="https://consequence.net/2023/10/frances-bean-cobain-riley-hawk-wedding-michael-stipe/">Frances Bean Cobain married Riley Hawk</a>, son of skateboarding legends Tony Hawk, in a ceremony officiated by Michael Stipe.The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-35246940542231949762023-02-02T08:00:00.003-05:002023-02-02T08:46:49.976-05:00<div dir="ltr"><b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="https://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2022/02/blog-post.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div><div dir="ltr"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr">Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div> Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-52167523916206852212022-11-11T10:37:00.001-05:002022-11-11T10:37:12.767-05:00<b>PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, WHITE BOY:</b> One of my favorite discoveries during COVID was funk ensemble <a href="https://www.scarypocketsfunk.com/" target="_blank">Scary Pockets</a>. If you didn't know you needed a funk cover of Radiohead's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcNuPheBQgU" target="_blank">Creep</a>, Hanson's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiShsfvbFUA" target="_blank">Mmmm Bop</a>, or Guns n' Roses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl7a9YztLN4" target="_blank">Sweet Child o' Mine</a>, I am here to disabuse you of that ignorance. The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-16874443314329160382022-10-26T18:09:00.002-04:002022-10-26T18:09:52.703-04:00<b>YOU SHAKE MY NERVES AND YOU RATTLE MY PREMORSE: </b>Okay, there is no way Jerry Lee Lewis was alive yesterday to have <a href="https://pagesix.com/2022/10/26/jerry-lee-lewis-not-dead-rep-confirms/">died only now</a>.The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-75356121580328301482022-02-22T16:14:00.003-05:002022-02-22T16:14:21.893-05:00<b>ALOTT5MA ALUMNI UPDATE: </b>Yeah, <a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/faces/biden-administration-taps-s-f-transit-leader-to-help-improve-access-for-disabled-people/">Maddy</a>!The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-6902077087527549912022-02-02T08:00:00.002-05:002022-02-02T08:00:00.317-05:00<div dir="ltr"><b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="https://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2021/02/okay-campers-rise-and-shine-and-dont.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div><div dir="ltr"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr">Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div>Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-26391122978725752072021-11-24T16:27:00.004-05:002021-11-24T16:27:46.029-05:00<b>WE WENT FISHING: </b>Does this look like a man who has had <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59331975">all he could eat</a>?The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-13134098843207531022021-07-24T22:42:00.003-04:002021-07-24T22:42:37.813-04:00<b>USUL, WE HAVE PREMORSE THE LIKES OF WHICH EVEN GOD HIMSELF HAS NEVER SEEN: </b>I remain proud of my neologism "Premorse," but never has it been quite so pronounced as with the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/jackie-mason-comic-dead-1201848/">death of Jackie Mason</a>. It boggles the mind this fellow hasn't been dead since 2004.<br />The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-67041741946277765872021-02-26T15:44:00.001-05:002021-02-26T15:44:08.758-05:00<b>#3 - THE PLANTS WIN: </b>Vulture's Rebecca Alter says there's <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2021/02/there-are-only-two-types-of-musical-endings-that-matter.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym">"only two acceptable ways for any musical to end"</a>, providing plenty of footage to support her claims.Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-16556921762356443592021-02-02T08:00:00.001-05:002021-02-02T11:28:25.915-05:00<div dir="ltr"><b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2020/02/okay-campers-rise-and-shine-and-dont.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div><div dir="ltr"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr">Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div>Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-50273891994466714092020-03-21T07:05:00.000-04:002020-03-21T07:05:03.209-04:00<b>YOU PICKED A FINE TIME TO LEAVE ME: </b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/entertainment/kenny-rogers-country-singer-dies/index.html">Kenny Rogers has died</a>. Given that I was born in 1970, many musical acts for me are wedded to their associations with the Muppet Show. John Denver, Harry Belafonte, Crystal Gayle. But none, for me, quite so strongly as Kenny Rogers performing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnrTNFWcsg">The Gambler</a>.The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-6676057509345636352020-03-19T10:02:00.000-04:002020-03-19T10:02:02.499-04:00<b>BINGING TIME:</b>At a time when many of us are looking for entertainment they can readily binge, and feel they've exhausted what's on Netflix, wanted to offer a suggestion--the CW's <i>Katy Keene</i>. All episodes of the season are available on the CW app (with commercials). The show is a spinoff of <i>Riverdale, </i>set 5 years later, and Josie (of "and the Pussycats") has moved to New York to follow her dream, where she shares an apartment with aspiring fashion designer Katy Keene, aspiring Broadway performer Jorge Lopez (who also performs in drag shows at night), and mysterious socialite Pepper Smith (who it turns out is actually a broke con artist).<br />
<br />
The show replaces <i>Riverdale</i>'s murder and sex with musical numbers, ranging from Christina Aguilera to "My Strongest Suit" from the Elton John/Tim Rice <i>Aida</i>, and uses New York well both as a shooting location and by enabling it to draw from Broadway's talent banks for recurring guest stars (Andre de Shields as a friendly record store owner, Bernadette Peters as Pepper's con artist mentor, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Jorge's mother).<br />
<br />
Is it GOOD? Not really. Is it incredibly WATCHABLE? Absolutely, and that's what you probably need right now.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295270766215749309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-17913966404579748952020-03-18T10:57:00.000-04:002020-03-18T10:57:25.811-04:00<b>AWAKENING FROM HIBERNATION:</b>We've been quiet around here for quite a while, though remaining connected to many of y'all via social media. In these times of social distancing and self-isolation, communities like this one are more important than ever. For that reason, we're having our first ever virtual happy hour via Zoom on Thursday night--9 Eastern/8 Central/6 Pacific. If you want more details, find me or one of the other Throwers of Things on social media, and we'll share the info you need to get in. (There's also a Slack many of us have been using.) And we promise we won't spoil <i>Grey's </i>for those of you on the West Coast.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295270766215749309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-74625720704880696142020-02-02T08:00:00.000-05:002020-02-02T14:06:45.184-05:00<div dir="ltr"><b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2019/02/okay-campers-rise-and-shine-and-dont.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div><div dir="ltr"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr">Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div>Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-89026147301137647472019-09-02T11:19:00.003-04:002019-09-02T11:19:54.512-04:00<b>THE LEGO MOVIE 3 - THE ANTITRUST PARADOX:</b><br /><br /><a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/central-perk-21319?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvf2_17ey5AIVlLfsCh04ygOcEAAYASAAEgItn_D_BwE&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMIvf2_17ey5AIVlLfsCh04ygOcEAAYASAAEgItn_D_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!790!3!379974965697!e!!g!!lego%20friends&Buffer&cmp=KAC-INI-GOOGUS-GO-US-EN-PS-BUY-SHOP-Ideas-BP-EX-RN-Central_Perk">If I only had time enough</a>.The Pathetic Earthlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01175375245392827577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-14141793644930027432019-02-02T08:00:00.000-05:002019-02-02T09:17:26.664-05:00<div dir="ltr">
<b>OKAY, CAMPERS, RISE AND SHINE, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BOOTIES 'CAUSE IT'S COOOOOOLD OUT THERE TODAY:</b> It's February 2, so it's time to talk about the movie <a href="http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2018/02/okay-campers-rise-and-shine-and-dont.html">again.</a> Do you buy the whole <a href="http://www.schindler.org/psacot/20010813_ghd_lin.shtml">Buddhist thing</a>, or should we just quote lines for a while and generally discuss its awesomeness?</div>
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<div dir="ltr">
Participate in this thread, or it's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.</div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-82899167292199903412019-01-11T17:05:00.000-05:002019-01-11T17:05:17.935-05:00<b>IF YOU WANT TO SEEK A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, TURN TO PAGE 25: </b>ChooseCo, a company affiliated with R.A. Montgomery that currently owns the "CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE" marks (and many of the old books), has <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5682672-ChooseAdventure.html">sued Netflix</a> over its marketing for <i>Black Mirror: Bandersnatch</i>. Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295270766215749309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-33053409637342149742018-08-13T16:15:00.000-04:002018-08-13T16:15:01.912-04:00<b>OUR ANNUAL ENDEAVOR INTO FAKE FOOTBALL: </b>There are two openings for the tenth edition of our ALOTT5MA fantasy football league. Redraft league, non-PPR, $200 auction. If interested, comment here. First come, first served.Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-87478505154084997542018-08-03T17:16:00.002-04:002018-08-03T17:16:51.563-04:00<strong>GIVE BACK MY TV; IT DON'T MEAN THAT MUCH TO ME: </strong><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Hi, me again, another review of an album for the Best Album
of 1993 bracket-style tournament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Follow
@bestalbum1995 and vote for your favorite albums, unless they are matched up
against PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me!</em><strong> </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps, in 1993, you were 23 years old, and your friends
invited you to a weird club (which you called the United Nations, because of
its semicircle-tiers-of-tables setup) in a weird sleepy neighborhood to see a band
on the rise touring their newest album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If so, that band, and that album, would imprint itself on your
mid-twenties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would become the
soundtrack to road trips, to drunken camping trips, to the breakup of a couple
of your best friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’d later form a
band with one of the guys who invited you to the concert; your drummer would,
coincidentally, have taken drum lessons from that other band’s drummer; and you’d
cover one of the songs from the album during messy, noisy practices in dim
basements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the concert, the band wore
cowboy hats and ripped through tight versions of their songs, cover songs, and
old standards, all sounding suspended somewhere closer to the twangier side of
a wire tethering 70s folk-country to early 90s garage rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’d pause for long stretches between
songs, trading instruments with each other and with a harried roadie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two singers barely looked at each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They finished with a cover of
Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” and they broke up within
months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That was Uncle Tupelo, and the album was Anodyne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uncle Tupelo had earlier invented the country-punk
(though, really, neither) movement called No Depression with their album
entitled, ahem, <em>No Depression</em>, and whatever that was, they perfected it with
their perfect <em>March 16-20, 1992</em>, a combination of originals and standards whose
hasty assembly manages to convey intimacy and urgency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em>Anodyne</em> was to be Uncle Tupelo’s
breakthrough, like <em>Nevermind</em> was Nirvana’s and <em>Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain</em> was
supposed to be Pavement’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every song on <em>Anodyne</em>
is great or close to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
Jay Farrar mopes ("Anodyne"; "Slate"); genuinely sad Farrar breakup epics (“High
Water”; “Steal the Crumbs”); combative romps (Farrar’s “Chickamauga”; Tweedy’s “New
Madrid”); and genuinely funny tunes (Tweedy’s “Acuff-Rose” and “We’ve Been Had”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, there’s the so-seventies-country-it-might-be-parody
“Give Back the Key to my Heart,” which you just kind of have to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is just a great collection of
pop-folk-country-rock, a great band’s swan song and the No Depression version of the Beatles’ <em>Let it Be</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think it’s
the greatest album of 1993, but to me, it’s top-5, maybe top-3. Don't let it lose to, like, Counting Crows or James, please. </span></span><br />
<strong> </strong>Isaac Spacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323229474266628712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-7286722851278323172018-07-23T16:11:00.000-04:002018-07-23T16:11:35.593-04:00<strong>GREAT AD, BUT WHAT IS IT FOR? </strong>Tour de France sponsors and what I know or guess to be their lines of business:<strong>
</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><strong>AG2R</strong>: Insurance </li>
<li><strong>La Mondiale</strong>: French newsmagazine </li>
<li><strong>Astana</strong>: Package delivery </li>
<li><strong>Bahrain</strong>: Country with too much money if it spends it on sponsoring a cycling team </li>
<li><strong>Merida</strong>: Natural-fiber clothing</li>
<li><strong>BMC</strong>: People who like to try out the Tour for a week or so </li>
<li><strong>Bora</strong>: Exotic wicker and bamboo gifts</li>
<li><strong>Hansgrohe</strong>: HVAC equipment </li>
<li><strong>Dimension Data</strong>: Facebook privacy violations </li>
<li><strong>Education First</strong>: Violent radicalism </li>
<li><strong>Drapac</strong>: Skullduggery </li>
<li><strong>Cannondale</strong>: Bikes your dad used to ride </li>
<li><strong>Katusha</strong>: Oligarchy </li>
<li><strong>Alpecin</strong>: Tinctures and oinments for the scalp</li>
<li><strong>Lotto</strong>: Supermarkets </li>
<li><strong>Jumbo</strong>: Elephant husbandry </li>
<li><strong>Soudal</strong>: Montenegrin bar soap</li>
<li><strong>Movistar</strong>: DVD rental kiosks </li>
<li><strong>Michelton</strong>: Agritourism </li>
<li><strong>Scott</strong>: A guy</li>
<li><strong>Quick Step Floors</strong>: Floors, obviously, but also fast-setting concrete </li>
<li><strong>Sky</strong>: British DirecTV </li>
<li><strong>Sunweb</strong>: Florida Department of Corporations Internet site </li>
<li><strong>Trek</strong>: Walkabouts</li>
<li><strong>Segafredo</strong>: Direct-sales bakery</li>
<li><strong>UAE</strong>: Another country with too much money in a cycling-related arms race with Bahrain</li>
<li><strong>Groupama</strong>: Coupons that are bad for both you and the company redeeming them </li>
<li><strong>FDJ</strong>: Lockjaw </li>
<li><strong>Cofidis</strong>: ED medication </li>
<li><strong>Direct Energie</strong>: Undiluted snortable caffeine </li>
<li><strong>Fortuneo</strong>: Cryptocurrency </li>
<li><strong>Samcic</strong>: Casually racist river cruises </li>
<li><strong>Wanty</strong>: Animal-themed manga figurines </li>
<li><strong>Groupe Gobert</strong>: Laxative yogurt conglomerate</li>
</ul>
Isaac Spacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323229474266628712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-27500110878649831922018-07-05T16:25:00.000-04:002018-07-05T16:25:32.221-04:00<b>DON'T YOU DON'T YOU WISH YOU NEVER NEVER MET HER:</b> I volunteered to write a short essay on PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me for the Best Album of 1993 tournament run by the anachronistic Twitter handle <a href="https://twitter.com/bestalbum95?lang=en">@BestAlbum95</a>, and I thought I’d post it here. In a minute I’ll get to why you—all of you, including the dwindling number of ALOTT5MAers still punching Hurley's numbers into the Dharma box—should follow @BestAlbum95 and vote for Rid of Me. But first, I’ll let David Thomas, author of <a href="http://ew.com/article/1993/05/07/rid-me/">the worst review ever to defile the pages of a then-major publication</a>, tell you why you <i>shouldn’t</i> vote for Rid of Me: <br />
<blockquote>
I was disposed to like <b>Rid of Me</b>, the second from the current darling of British street-cred arbiters. The guitars are hard and up-front without being stoopid[*]. The production is wonderful: abstracted, uncompromised, poetic, and mostly like listening to a cheap stereo with one channel shot away — often stunning. Polly Jean Harvey is an inventive and passionate singer. The ingredients were lined up for something good to happen. Only trouble is, gee whiz, this is one of those angry-woman-spews-sexual-politics records. It has no heart. It speaks not of the hopes and fears of people like you and me, but of doctrine. Like a Led Zeppelin record: sounds great, means nothing. Unless, of course, you want to buy the flavor-of-the-month PC attitude, stick it in your head, and parade it like a banner. D</blockquote>
In other words: I loved every single thing about this album, but I am giving it a D because I would like to punish the practice of women having thoughts that I have not approved. So here’s Reason Number One to vote for Rid of Me: because #FuckDavidThomas. <br /><br />
*<i>Sic, or anyway I need to point out that this person intentionally used the word "stoopid" in a review. </i><br /><br />
The second, and equally constructive, reason to vote for Rid of Me is that it is the greatest of the four or five masterpieces of 1993. It is titanic, brash, louche, hilarious. It careers recklessly between hiss, boast, howl, and sob. Harvey has said that she wanted the album to be confrontational, “to cause a riot,” and she and her fracturing band, locked up in Steve Albini’s isolated Minnesota studio, delivered. <br /><br />
Take the first track. Rid of Me begins with a muted rhythm on two guitar strings, a taut, controlled seethe, mirrored by a barely-audible tap on a loose snare that sounds like somebody dropping something in the background, plus <i>maybe</i> a bass, I can't tell, and soon joined by Harvey’s half-whispered, half-moaned pleas and threats. It’s mixed so quietly that it invites the listener to keep turning the volume knob just to make it audible, a clever trick (used probably once too often on this album, but beautiful here) that pays off when the band suddenly shifts into a crashing wall of sound under Harvey’s commanding shout, carrying the Pixies’ and Nirvana’s quiet-loud template to its logical extreme, before dissolving into Harvey’s third voice of the song, an unsettling hoarse falsetto bearing an equally unsettling instruction. It was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBZoL8wpZzU">enough to befuddle Jay Leno and Michael Richards</a>. <br /><br />
And if you like it, that's the Polly Harvey who showed up for most of this album, with the twin anthems of gender-twisting braggadocio, Man-Size and 50ft Queenie, the crisp menace of Rub 'Til it Bleeds, the sardonic Dry. Also, track down the band’s unhinged cover of Wang Dang Doodle, which inexplicably didn’t make the album but showed up as the B-Side to Man-Size. Those are the songs that built the character Harvey would play on this album and her next, To Bring You My Love: larger-than-life, elegant, with a penchant for sudden, intimate violence. But the album also buries other treasures among those songs. Its second track, Missed, is a lush, aching (and cleanly produced, for you Albini haters) ballad of a woman sick with grief; the alternate version of Man-Size dials the anger back to "conversational" but undergirds it with dissonant strings; Ecstasy prefigures the loosely translated blues of To Bring You My Love. <br /><br />
It's a great album. Not loving it would be a character flaw. <br /><br />
Bonus terrible review, from Andy Gill in The Independent, via Spin’s <a href="https://www.spin.com/2013/05/pj-harvey-rid-of-me-oral-history-steve-albini/">oral history of the album</a>: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>Rid of Me</i> is one long clumsy galumph, an extended tantrum of foot-stomping and frowns. </blockquote>
I mean, I guess that's one (point-missingly reductive) way to look at it. But seriously, #FuckDavidThomas.
Isaac Spacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323229474266628712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-78039969806807612122018-07-04T08:00:00.000-04:002018-07-04T08:00:00.363-04:00<b>IN CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776: </b>The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,<br />
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[FYI: TCM's airing <i>1776</i> at 10:15 pm tonight, EDT.]<br />
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[<i>See, related, </i>Isaac Spaceman's "A Word From Your Editor" (July 4, 2008) <a href="http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2008/07/word-from-your-editor-tom-great-first.html">here</a>. In the meantime, enjoy <a href="http://youtu.be/yxZQ4tUOsdw">"The Lees of Old Virginia" as performed by the My Little Pony troupe</a>, and read <a href="http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17760703jasecond">John Adams' letter to Abigail Adams of July 3, 1776</a> ("It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.")]<br />
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When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.<br />
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.<br />
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He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.<br />
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He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.<br />
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He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. <br />
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He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. <br />
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He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.<br />
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He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.<br />
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He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.<br />
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He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.<br />
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He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.<br />
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He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.<br />
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He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.<br />
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He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.<br />
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He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:<br />
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For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:<br />
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For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:<br />
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For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:<br />
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For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: <br />
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For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:<br />
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For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences<br />
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For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:<br />
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For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<br />
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For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.<br />
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He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.<br />
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He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. <br />
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He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.<br />
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He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. <br />
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He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.<br />
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In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.<br />
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Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.<br />
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We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-60390369684713757842018-06-02T10:05:00.000-04:002018-06-02T10:05:18.544-04:00<b>OMIGOD YOU GUYS:</b>On the 10th anniversary of its premiere, Playbill takes a deep dive into <a href="http://www.playbill.com/article/the-oral-history-of-legally-blonde-the-musical-the-search-for-elle-woods"><i>Legally Blonde: The Musical: The Search For Elle Woods</i></a> with an oral history. Of the final 10, almost all have wound up working on Broadway and/or national tours, and you might have forgotten 5th place finisher Celina Carvajal, who went on to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C7UhbYgZd8">this after changing her name.</a>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295270766215749309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-34996529836787830782018-05-22T17:37:00.002-04:002018-05-22T17:37:47.451-04:00<b>DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL —</b> namely, the gradual but enormous shift from blogging as a means of online interaction back it the Aughts towards social media, and especially Twitter for reactions to live events — it makes no sense except for tradition itself to continue live-blogging the Spelling Bee at this site in 2018. <a href="http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2017/05/i-n-e-v-i-t-b-i-l-i-t-y-unless-yall.html">I wrestled with this decision last year</a>, and you persuaded me to try it here one last time, but I fear that we've finally reached an inevitable transition point after fifeen wonderful years of creating our annual spelling brigadoon.<br />
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So I'll try using <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=alott5mabee&src=typd">#alott5mabee</a> for my subsequent tweets, and you can see <a href="https://twitter.com/adambonin/status/998605014338764801">my thoughts about the new RSVBee procedure here.</a> If I have something long-form to write, I will do it here.<br />
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And no one's doing a schuhplattler over this news.Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.com0