On Saturday, Bave and Smearcase and I went to Marie's Crisis, which I'd never done before. This genius at the piano plays every show tune he can think of and those who know it sing along--usually quite well, as there are more than a few pros there. It was pleasurable.
I was surprised, though, by the number of straight women who have dragged their burly, argumentative boyfriends there. The boyfriends made a lot of loud homophobic jokes to make sure everyone knew they were in fact straight, and tried to drag the girlfriends into arguments so they couldn't sing and enjoy themselves. Girl, make some friends.
They should DTMFA and take up with me.
I kept thinking that a nice straight guy could really clean up there.
Speaking of rejection, I heard back from a journal today. The verdict was not good.
2: They should DTMFA and take up with me.
Yeah, why should they go see the work of dead artists when they can be in the presence of living art?
And a resolutely off-camera guitarist.
You can go back to talking about other stuff now.
I did not have either the inspiring 4th that Witt had or the distressing one the SP did, but I did got to see fireworks, although due to fireworks-attending incompetence and local fireworks oddness I saw a different display than the rest of the party despite my being the driver.
other stuff
I also learned a new Spanish word for "brick" this weekend ("tabique"; I already knew "ladrillo") mere hours before someone fell into me sending me painfully down onto a brick patio. That smarted something fierce.
I also learned a new Spanish word for "brick" this weekend ... That smarted something fierce.
Vocabulary is but a poor proxy for intelligence, Stanley.
An extremely irritating student of mine this summer tried to lecture me on how medical doctors make a lot more than I do because "spelling just isn't that important, but saving lives is." On the other hand, he argued, my job must be a lot more stressful than it looks because I look so much older than my age. He promises he'll be taking more classes from me because he enjoyed this one so much. I look forward to seeing him in my Advanced Orthography seminar.
Correct spelling makes life worth living--or, more precisely, correcting others' spelling does.
15: Au contraire. I would pour out all my blood for a stack of poetry papers that had been at least proofread before arriving on my desk.
It is not enough to spell correctly. Others must misspell.
I feel like I've been to the bar AWB mentions. Is it in midtown? Do broadway types head there after they've performed?
18: Greenwich Village, but packed with Broadway types and hangers-on. There may be more than one such place.
16: Mmmm, yes, you're right.
17: How opinionated would you say you are? Quickly, before Megan gets here!
One of my fantasies (have I confessed to it here before?) is that a dull birthday party will be enlivened by a bunch of caped ASCAP reps intervening, a la Monty Python's Spanish Inquisitors, to demand payment for public performance of "Happy Birthday to You!"
Also, are there many other countries besides the US which have multi-verse national anthems that virtually no citizen can sing in their entirety?
PEDANTIC AND OPINIONATED ARE RELATED BUT DISTINGUISHABLE INTENTIONAL STANCES!!
multi-verse national anthems
I was the only one present last night who was aware there were additional verses, and my credibility was highly in doubt (because I don't, like, know the additional verses; I know of them) until an iPhone was pulled out to confirm it. Thanks, Steve Jobs!
22: That's why I have to ask for clarification!
23: I used my iPhone yesterday to aid a discussion of the lyrics of Maryland's State Song. No one was buying that "Northern scum" could be in the lyrics (but the last stanza, presumably also almost never sung).
You should call her and sing The Star Spangled Banner. Stanley taught me that.
Our iPhone debate settling during fireworks was over the line "from California to the New York Island." Yes, island singular. Point, Blume.
In less triumphant news, my favorite patriotic song has been ruined, at least for the time being, by BP. "From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Str--" Oh. Shit.
Also, are there many other countries besides the US which have multi-verse national anthems that virtually no citizen can sing in their entirety?
Which is not to mention how totally weird the message is when you only sing the first verse. Like, whether or not the nation has been totally annihilated overnight is left as an open question?
And then there's the fact that the melody was taken from a drinking song. The hell, America.
Our iPhone debate settling during fireworks was over the line "from California to the New York Island." Yes, island singular. Point, Blume.
Which is so ambiguous. Which New York island? Long? Fire? Riker's? Ellis?
Which is not to mention how totally weird the message is when you only sing the first verse.
And then there are national anthems whose first verse you aren't even allowed to sing.
my favorite patriotic song has been ruined
I've just learned that the name is "This Land Is Your Land", whereas I had it in my head named "This Land Is My Land". Presumably, because I'm a selfish American.
33: One assumes Manhattan. Long Island is neither my land nor yours. Speaking of geographic pedantry, I had someone use "paradoxical" this past week to characterize the fact that the Battle of long Island was fought in Brooklyn. I mean hardly.
I learned that it was composed as a counterpoint to the execrable "God Bless America". I might sing it the next time I go to a sox game.
This land is my land,
It is not your land.
I've got a shotgun,
And you don't got one.
If you don't get off
I'll blow your head off;
This land was made for me not you.
28.last is depressing. I hadn't remembered that yet.
Yesterday I was called upon to identify the Philadelphia city flag. Today Wikipedia informs me that the color scheme is a tribute to Swedish settlers.
38: Neb demonstrating what those women at the show tune bar are missing by not ditching their burly, argumentative boyfriends.
Woody Guthrie disliked the song, and wrote "This Land Is Your Land", originally titled "God Blessed America For Me"
I mean, that's so great. That's almost as good as the original lyrics to "Le Freak" by Chic.
the next time I go to a sox game
Executive order: you must henceforth specify which Sox team and cease the historical discrimination against Chicago by surly Bostonian sports fans.
Pfft. The real Barack has read enough unfogged threads to figure out which sox I'm talking about.
No one was buying that "Northern scum" could be in the lyrics (but the last stanza, presumably also almost never sung).
Next you'll be saying that there's a national anthem that refers to tainted blood.
Can you do that hit-the-note-pull-way-back-slow-crescendo thing? Y'know, I bet that has a name.
Have you ever really held a fermata? I mean, really, truly *held* one.
Loathe though I am to admit it, it was a mistake.
You should see my choice of careers.
That's almost as good as the original lyrics to "Le Freak" by Chic.
"Le Fuck; c'est Chuck"?
I don't mind God Bless America. I like that it was written by a Jewish immigrant. Plus, nobody dies.
The Marseillaise takes first place among bloodthirsty national anthems. Great tune, and you can't beat "let impure blood water our fields".
Why would you want impure blood to water your fields? Wouldn't that result in impure crops?
If you assume that "impure" refers to sepsis or basically the blood not being sterile, then it shouldn't matter.
My mother's birthday is today.
Notable people who share a birthday with apo's mom:
-Joan of The Tower, Queen consort of Scotland
-Mary Walcott, American accuser at the Salem witch trials
-William Crotch, composer [tee-hee-hee]
-Sylvester Graham, developed graham cracker
-Phineas Taylor Barnum, Bethel Conn, circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey)
-Wanda A Landowska, Warsaw Poland, harpsichordist
-Henry Cabot Lodge, (Sen-R)/ambassador (VP candidate 1960)
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Wash DC, daughter of Richard Milhaus
-Huey Lewis, rocker ["rocker"?]
-RZA, American rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
-Letha Weapons, porn actress
-Dolly the sheep, first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell born in Scotland
61: Are you sure one of those people isn't apo's mom?
Animals had been cloned from adult cells born elsewhere long before.
63: I noticed that weird phrasing and left it in just for you, neb.
Also: that Henry Cabot Lodge VP run threw me off. It's Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
59: after bayoneting the foreigner, you can then chew them up in foodstuff form once you get the next crop. As the inventors of haute cuisine, the French like to work eating into everything they do.
Another thing I like about the Marseillaise: it inspired the French to conquer the world immediately after it was written. That's a good proof of anthem potency. We lost the war of 1812 and had to wait over a century before finally conquering the world.
We lost the war of 1812
Someone around these parts (I think) recently referred to France as the US's "first ally", which pithy locution I borrowed yesterday to dampen some nitwit's "the French are weak surrender monkeys" talk. (Okay, actually it was a joke: Q: Why did it take Germany three weeks to conquer France in WWII? A: Because it was raining.)
No one was buying that "Northern scum" could be in the lyrics
And it rhymes with "she breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!"
14: Medical doctors need to know how to spell. Also write neatly.
70: There are about 400 things wrong with what he said. This is one of them.
I'm not sure why it's so hard to communicate to undergrads that "spelling" is something they were expected to have gotten a handle on around age 10. And I still get questions like "Does spelling count?" My God, are you asking me if your analytical prose on the subject of the ironic deployment of 17c amorous complaint tropes in 20c feminist poetry should be written in words? Yes, please use words to do that.
AWB torments her students the way heebie torments her cats.
61: William Crotch, composer
I'll bet he pronounces it "Croach."
The Marseillaise takes first place among bloodthirsty national anthems.
Few moments in film beat the scene in Casablanca in which the people at Rick's sing "The Marseillaise" to drown out the Germans. As for anthems that are less bloodthirsty than they are flat-out awesome, I recommend the Polish national anthem.
At any rate, I've really enjoyed listening to the anthems during the World Cup and watching how teams from various countries react--who sings along, who salutes, etc.
JennyRobot, I greatly enjoy the way, on the "categories" sidebar of your blog, "Grad School" looms so imposingly over "Life".
||
Someone just explained to me, in great detail and off the top of her head, the curious mating habits of the Siamese fighting fish:
During and after spawning, the male uses his mouth to retrieve sinking eggs and deposit them in the bubble nest (during mating the female sometimes assists her partner, but more often she will simply devour all the eggs that she manages to catch). Once the female has released all of her eggs, she is chased away from the male's territory, as it is likely that she'll eat the eggs due to hunger. [...] Afterwards the fry leave the nest and the free-swimming stage begins. It is common practice in the aquarium hobby to remove the male at this point, so that he would not eat his young (although it has been suggested that this danger is overrated).
How does a species so jonesin' to eat its offspring even survive?
|>
How does a species so jonesin' to eat its offspring even survive?
Volume!
Pwned, out-brevitied, and generally defeated.
Afterwards the fry leave the nest and the free-swimming stage begins.
If you call your offspring "the fry", they're going to sound tasty.
77: In searching on their natural history, came across a college biology lab exercise using them. I enjoyed this warning (all caps in the original):
DO NOT EVER PLACE TWO FISH IN THE SAME BOWL. SUCH IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR WILL RESULT IN YOUR BEING DISMISSED FROM THE LAB AND YOUR RECEIVING A ZERO FOR THIS LAB EXERCISE. FURTHER DISCIPLINARY ACTION IS ALSO POSSIBLE.Somehow I don't think they were responding to the purely theoretical notion that someone my chose to do so. (But as a nihilist I guess I need to support the notion that they would still be acting within the rules of the lab.)
81: It's hot here. I could really go for some sort of fruit beverage.
I've got just the screamy, exhausted drink you ordered.
77: Ah, the Siamese Fighting Fish: graceful, beautiful, elegant, yet single-minded, and deadly when it finds what it wants.
Something tells me fm got a zero on that lab.
74: Indeed, grad school does loom largely over life. Also, I should probably be writing chapter nine instead of reading Unfogged....
If you don't get off
I'll blow your head off;
This land was made for me not you.
That could be the prototype for most of the national anthems in the world. Except for Canada and Switzerland, whose songs are weirdly... introspective.
Chapter Nine: "Suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck." Done.
I'm still revising chapters 1–4, and I only have a projected 6 chapters total.
It's hot here.
Neighbor please. Actually, I don't know where you are and just wanted to share my photo, but it was 98° here today. Just like the boy band!
I'm guessing history. 500+ pages i9n a dissertation.
Oddly enough, I was in the middle of using my dissertation just now to double-check a definition. I had 9 chapters. But only 66 pages. But they're good pages!
96: heebie is former Florida Congressman Mark Foley?
85: Siamese fighting fish, fascinating creatures. Brave, but on the whole, stupid. Yes, they are stupid. Except for the occasional one such as we have here... who lets the other two fight, while he waits. Waits until the survivor is so exhausted that he cannot defend himself, and then, like SPECTRE... he strikes!
46 Can you do that hit-the-note-pull-way-back-slow-crescendo thing? Y'know, I bet that has a name.
Multiply pre-pwned but I'm going to go ahead and say messa di voce is the most specific term for this.
1: were the straightniks really making homophobic jokes? I just saw a lot of that "clutch girlfriend's neck to demonstrate regrettable unavailability" gesture. Is there a word for that?
and 3 I kept thinking that a nice straight guy could really clean up there. Well someone ought to. As Bave pointed out, the place is grimy. But then I suppose that somehow dulls the acute gay of being in a piano bar where everyone knows all the words to "They both reached for the gun."
And as long as I'm blithering about this, in response to the OP, yeah, it is always better to go for broke. On the occasion mentioned by Ms. Bear, I know I sounded a hell of a lot better belting even a rather tender song like "People will say we're in love" in a room full of other people really tearing into it than I do when I timidly peep some tune because nobody else is singing. Self-consciousness is the enemy of diaphragmatic support.
102.1: Yes. That asshole next to us got really into it once those straight tourist guys showed up to meet them. Before then he was just making all the lyrics of the songs into reasons to be weird at his girlfriend. "You've found someone new? What a hell of a way to find out."
I suspect that 101 is what 46 was getting at, despite 46 describing essentially the opposite thing.
It will probably be around 300 pages, 10 chapters. To be fair, the first three would likely be lumped together in most dissertations, but my advisor wanted separate introduction, lit review, and theory/method chapters. Sadly, while I am on chapter 9, I am not writing the damn thing in order. Only about 1/3 of it is drafted so far.
the acute gay of being in a piano bar
I had friends in San Francisco who, every saturday night, would dress up in tuxes, drop half a tab of acid each in order to stay awake, and head to the piano bar (Martuni's) for eight or more hours of cocktails and torch songs. It was like olympic-level gay.
belting even a rather tender song like "People will say we're in love"
DON'T PRAISE MY CHARM TOO MUCH!
DON'T LOOK SO VAIN WITH ME!
DON'T STAND IN THE RAIN WITH ME!
"awake" is probably the wrong word in 106. "Conscious and able to keep drinking" is more apt.
It was like olympic-level gay.
Yet its not in the Gay Olympics
Is there a word for that?
Beard?
106: A friend of mine plays at Martuni's! I have never heard him play so I don't know if he is as drastically brilliant as above-mentioned Dexter of Marie's.
TOS/Opinionated Me: the verses are hard to remember. It would seem I am not alone in finding this, as the pianist shouts them out just before it is time to sing them.
||
"Thank you for submitting your article for consideration.
You will receive a confirmation by e-mail."
In the meantime, I am going to die, or something.
|>
Remember how he made us re-do "Oklahoma" because somebody fucked it up? That was upsetting.
I had an apartment-mate who met her husband in a piano bar. She really liked musical theater. He liked it at least enough to get in the door of a piano bar and realize the opportunities for a straight guy. I got the distinct impression that every piano bar has at least one straight man as a regular who plays this angle. My apartment mate's marriage lasted four years.
It was my MIL's birthday on the 4th too. We sang Happy Birthday in a deliberately dirge-like fashion so she could act all exasperated with us, as she would not be able to straightforwardly enjoy a cheery Happy Birthday.
I like the sound of this going out and singing though. I could have a great evening doing that.
114: No, Sound of Music! I have seen this happen before. I think at this point it's shtick. He gets to the part where Maria teaches those repellant kids solfege and if people sing along he cracks a joke to the effect of "Shut up! I haven't taught it to you yet!"
In the meantime, I am going to die, or something.
The second, I hope.
118: SoM as well, but I thought that was just his schtick. "Oklahoma" we actually fucked up.
Maybe you should go to somewhere. Somewhere with restroom attendants.
I wan tu plus I wan tu minus I wan tu big I wan tu littl I wan tu aul I wan tu nuthing.
121: Am I in danger of needing to finish my paper?
106: A friend of mine plays at Martuni's!
And a friend of mine regularly sings there. Small world!
Re flags and boom: don't argue about soccer in Germany
||
This seems like the relevant place to put this particular PSA - Janelle Monae fans in SF can see her for a whole whopping $10 at the All Shook Down festival.
|>
But that's the same time that Shudder (Bruckmann/Greenlief/Grabmiller) is playing a set at the Café du Nord with special guest John Shiurba!
!!!
Unless, of course, she's performing during the daytime part of the event.
||
Hey, nerds: has anybody read/does anybody have any thoughts on this book?
I read briefly about some of the topics covered earlier, and it seems exciting, depending on how rigorously it's treated.
|>
Kieran Healy had a review of MacKenzie's An Engine, Not a Camera that you might want to look at (obviously that doesn't pertain to the new book, but Engine would also be interesting to you if you're interested in it).
Happy fourth!
I stayed in and sang, which means that I had all of the verses printed out handily for me and could order the accompanist to repeat a nice bit. Then it was out on the roof for a nice bit of "that one wasn't a gunshot was it?"
And now it is 99 degrees in the city and all the girls are wearing hotpants.
Reading!
In related news, this is a fairly well written and interesting post, though clearly written by somebody positioning himself as an analyst-who-explains-things-to-finance-types kind of guy.
126: Wow. And the hell of it is, the Italians were right: four titles to Germany's three.
Far from The Onion's best work, but on-topic with the vituperative national anthem theme.
In related news, this is a fairly well written and interesting post, though clearly written by somebody positioning himself as an analyst-who-explains-things-to-finance-types kind of guy.
also, he uses "honed in on".
I would also guess that the author of 133's link hasn't actually tried to program anything that makes use of semantic reasoners, SPARQL, and the like. In the future, we will not be slaves of a giant Redland database, nor yet blasted wrecks staggering through a landscape of dry turds, but probably swearing at the screen trying to query a semantic dataset.
Actually, I recently surprised a roomful of financial analysts and top managers of a Huge Tech Co (telecoms billing/operational support systems) by making this point with regard to their shiny new product, which actually contained a JavaScript-to-SPARQL compiler...
By the way, you're certainly not alone in having a national anthem with a secret menu.
Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King
Don't like that? Here's another:
God bless the prince, I pray,
God bless the prince, I pray,
Charlie I mean;
That Scotland we may see
Freed from vile Presbyt'ry,
Both George and his Feckie,
Ever so, Amen.
And another...
From France and Pretender
Great Britain defend her,
Foes let them fall;
From foreign slavery,
Priests and their knavery,
And Popish Reverie,
God save us all.
yeah, fuck a bunch of popish reverie! nominally protestant lack of introspection for all!
136: yes, that endeared him to me.
140: Reverse messa di voce? Messa di voce-cancelling vocalization?
May he sedition hush, and like a torrent rush, Rebellious Scots to crush
I like Billy Connolly's recitation of this, where he follows that last line with a sardonic, 'oh aye?'.
143: I really don't know! But they do do that in musicals, right? I'm not making this up?
My Google searching was fruitless.
So, this news is sort of on-topic:
SYDNEY -- A judge ordered Australian band Men at Work on Tuesday to hand over a portion of the royalties from their 1980s hit "Down Under," after previously ruling its distinctive flute riff was copied from a children's campfire song.
But the penalty -- 5 percent of the song's royalties -- was far less than the 60 percent sought by publishing company Larrikin Music, which holds the copyright for the song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree."
The non-USian mentioned in the OP was Australian; when asked to reciprocate with the Aussie national anthem, she demurred, offering instead a childhood favorite: that Kookaburra song, which we all learned and sang in a round.
Kookaburra I knew, and of course "Waltzing Matilda". I misread a jukebox once and heard "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" which was a protest song about Gallipoli. That is the sum total of Australian music until the modern era.
Now the goddamn Kookaburra song is stuck in my head. Fuck.
134 -- Germans are in pretty complete denial about the period between 1933 and 1945.
OT bleg, in the choral thread: I just caught the last five minutes of an NPR show called "The World" (a BBC program?), during which some astonishing person whose name I believe included "Yousef" or "Youssef", probably from Morocco, vocalized. It, or he, was astounding, like to make me wonder and cry, for the few minutes of his singing I heard. I don't suppose anyone would be willing to look this up for me, or even heard the program.
It is so fucking hot here -- forgive my language, but 103 degrees (Fahrenheit) today-- and I have so much to do, and feel like I'm on basic maintenance, that I'm not going to investigate this myself at the moment.
150: This, maybe? I didn't listen to it.
151: Possibly. I didn't hear the story itself, just the singing at the very end -- I'll have to look into it later.
You're a kind soul, Stanley.
103 degrees (Fahrenheit) today-- and I have so much to do, and feel like I'm on basic maintenance
Oh man, do I hear you. It was 102 here today, and it's still -- at 9:15 p.m. -- 91 degrees. I am going back and forth to the outside assiduously watering what may be weeds. (I did not do the plantings, and it's too dark to see.)
I am considering sleeping downstairs tonight. Ceiling fan and cross-ventilation may not be enough.
It is already down to 85 in Pittsburgh. Maybe because of all the trees make us less heat absorbent.
Maybe because of all the trees make us less heat absorbentgrammatical.
AND I got approximately 32 mosquito bites in the past seven minutes. Why it it that none of the things people told me I would grow out of have actually come true? I still get eaten alive, I still get cold swimming, and I still can't float.
/end unsolicited whining
So: Justice Department, yay? Not really sure how I feel about them intervening in the AZ case. The state was already getting sued by five other parties. Maybe the supremacy/preemption argument is a shot across the bow to intimidate other states from passing similar laws? Tough economy already; do you really want to tick off the feds?
I dunno. Lawyers, what do you hink?
and I still can't float
That's because you're not a Wittch.
Not floating means you have more muscle per unit of body volume. Unless you don't float at, which is a problem. But, if your legs and arms sink, that means you are strong for your size.
s/b "float at all" instead of "float at."
Still in the low 60s or lower, little sun, out here. Even southern California was unusually cool this last weekend. I'm not actually enjoying it, as it's becoming clear that I will have no real summer this year. Even Vancouver is going to be hot in the next few days.
Even southern California was unusually cool this last weekend.
But not central....it was dang hot here. But it was rather nice watching fireworks stand next to the river, enjoying the breeze in shorts and tank-tops at 10 pm.
...enjoying the breeze in shorts
The 4th just isn't right without baked beans.
