That playlist will no doubt be many things, but I don't think "accessible" will be one of them.
Any Klezmatics? That's my teacher's band.
I think I'll listen for the first time.
NB: I almost wrote this comment so that it suggested I was thinking for the first time.
Any Klezmatics? That's my teacher's band.
Only have one of their albums and it didn't make the cut.
Frank London once gave me and my friends a package of cookies. They were Grasshoppers, those Oreo-cognates with minty filling. Which was nice of him.
I trust that John Zorn's Tzadik Records series of "Great Jewish Music" will feature heavily? I have the album where various downtown NYC avant garde noise merchants play the songs of Burt Bacharach and it is guaranteed to annoy purists.
Grasshoppers are not Oreo-cognates with minty filling. They are available-all-year-'round Thin Mints.
I have part of the Serge Gainsbourg album, but it won't be featured, SORRY TENNESSEE.
Then what did I eat? They were some kind of green filling between chocolate cookies.
Ah! Food of the 80s seems to indicate we're both right.
Wow, this is not what I expected Electric Masada to sound like.
I have a moral question. Is it wrong of me to think, when I go into the athletic club in the morning and the fat guy is working at the front desk, to think, "An athletic club really shouldn't employ a fat guy to work at the front desk."
For the record, I don't mean once-fit running to paunch, I mean really truly over-the-charts fat.
Okay, how wrong? Can I go on thinking it, and just feel a little bad about thinking it, or do I really have to try not to think it?
Or are you just taking a whiny lefty line that I don't have to respect much?
Wrong. The thought police will be knocking on your office door shortly.
Seriously, it's (a) none of your business, and (b) even fat, you don't know whether or not he works out. The strongest woman on my crew team was unambiguously fat, but incredibly strong. (Rather attractive as well -- she looked sort of like a giant baby, in that radiantly healthy glowing pink rounded pudgy way.)
But if thinking moderately uncharitable thoughts about the health club desk clerk this is your worst moral trangression for the day, go give yourself a gold star.
Yeah, "feel just a little bad" about covers it.
LB, I'm not sure about this "giant baby = rather attractive" thing.
17: But it's not about the guy, it's about the image he presents, especially as the first employee you see walking in the door. If I were an athletic club, I would ensure that what you saw walking in was a demonstrably fit person. I.e., he may be fit (It's impossible, trust me. Again, not talking a little flabby, but seriously, seriously, fat.) but he's evidently unfit, and thus a bad advertisement. I.e., this is not the Dove real bodies ad we're talking about.
You'd have to see her. Sexy, I'm the wrong judge of for other women: I can never tell. But she was very pleasant to look at -- she just looked so glowingly healthy in the same way that a chubby baby does.
You know, if you don't want to listen to my show, that's fine. I accept that. But must you rub it in my face so?
Sexy, I'm the wrong judge of for other women
Didn't we establish that you're not allowed to say this, o thought-police-person, as it's vaguely homophobic or something? I can't remember.
I'm still thinking, it doesn't stop him from doing his job, and so they should be equal-opportunity.
Put this way, it wouldn't be cool to think "The beauty partner shouldn't employ a receptionist who's ugly." I realize that you're saying that he's obviously not doing something that he could be doing, but still, I think 'fat' is not so mutable. And fat have a harder time getting jobs anyway.
(I like this Food song. Go Ben! On preview: written before 21.)
I'm not sure about this "giant baby = rather attractive" thing.
19: Yeah, but what's the harm? People going to work out shouldn't be reminded of the fact that other people don't? People working out will be discuraged by his fatness? No one is reasonably going to think that the health club made him fat, so I don't see the image problem.
And even if there is an image problem, any harm is to the club, not to you, which puts this firmly back into the absolutely none of your business category.
Truly, Ben? I was listening, but I didn't find it to be the right kind of music to grade papers to.
Apo, that's a link to the frog-baby thing, isn't it? sheesh.
What would you prefer we rub in your face, Ben? (I'm not allowed to stream anything at work.)
Frog baby? I don't know of what you speak.
Maybe they hired a fat receptionist as an affront and spur to their patrons. "You were once like this man, and could be so again!"
Didn't we establish that you're not allowed to say this, o thought-police-person, as it's vaguely homophobic or something?
Maybe? I just meant that women I find appealing to look at don't appear to correspond all that closely to those straight men of my acquaintaince do. Not that there's no overlap -- I'm just often surprised by the disagreements.
I know I'm venturing into -gg-d (pbuh) territory here, but what the heck, I'm grading papers and need an outlet other than marginalia for socially unacceptable levels of uncharitable feelings.
So:
any harm is to the club, not to you
See, I don't know about this. For one thing, I'm a member of the club and partake of its successes in part.
For another, suppose I don't find the fat guy particularly a motivational advertisement. (I can think of an argument that you might, e.g., I don't want to look like him, but that's also uncharitable.) Aren't I allowed to think to myself, I'd rather see someone who inspired me a bit more?
More like a beauty parlor hiring someone with an awful haircut and then telling you they can do something with your hair. It's pretty minor, slol, but not a Nice Thought.
23 -- Is "beauty partner" a mistyping of "beauty parlor"? If so it is a lovely one.
"giant baby" = "rather attractive" (link SFW and perfectly innocuous, but you may not want to click past it)
I'm still kind of smarting about the schoolgirl Google image search; fortunately I was not at work at the time.
What would you prefer we rub in your face, Ben? (I'm not allowed to stream anything at work.)
Your tits, obviously.
(A) You're allowed to think anything you want to yourself, and no one will ever give you a hard time for it. Until you stop keeping it to yourself, of course.
(B) Allowed to have the thought cross your mind is one thing. Actually thinking that: "This human being who needs a job shouldn't be allowed to have this one because, although he can do it just fine, I find him uninspiring to look at"? Call me judgmental and PC, plenty of other people have, but that's lousy.
I accept that it's not a Nice Thought. I accept that any time I think anything like, gee, I wish that person were nicer for me to look at because it would be gratifying to me in some way, that that's not a Nice Thought. (What, the world should be painted in a palette of my choosing?) I'm just thinking, in these specific circumstances, is it Morally Wrong? Which is, you know, down the road a ways from Not Nice.
As I said above, it gets to Wrong, when you start thinking about taking his job away. (not that you have the power to do so, or would if you could, of course. But you take my point.)
See, there's no way a beauty parlor should say, we don't hire ugly people, but a beauty parlor might conceivably say, we don't hire people who appear not to use the products and techniques we're advertising. (I.e., more or less what Cala said.)
Forget it, I'm Not Nice. Now I can get on with being Judgmental in peace.
29: Did you leave the Internets in your other pants, apo?
34: Yep. Oops.
38: Morally wrong in a very minor way; as LB said, if it's the worst thing you've done this week you're all right. But it may be worth going on to think, "Fat people get a raw deal, actually."
33: I think it's worse than the bad haircut thing, because it takes a lot less effort to improve your haircut than it does to stop being fat (or to become fat-but-in-shape like LB's giant baby friend).
35: How do we know that wasn't photoshopped? Is that a reputable news outlet. That didn't look even remotely human.
Obviously, I really do need to become a Catholic. Then I can confess, and be forgiven, instead of feeling guilty like the Protestant / Jew I am.
It wasn't photoshopped. The baby is anencephalic.
I am a member of the club
Isn't "health club" a little misleading? It's not properly speaking a club, it's a business; and you are a customer, not a member. Or is this some kinda weird co-operative, member-run health club?
I mean your "partaking of their successes" seems wrong to me -- do you partake of Home Depot's home-improvement-empire-building successes, by virtue of their having installed your new windows? Do you get a thrill of feeling-included when you present your Sam's Club membership card to the cashier?
48: This is a relatively small, locally owned, neighborhood enterprise, and I do feel involved in it to a greater extent than I would a Large Chain. It competes with Large Chains, and I am concerned to see it thrive. Hence my urge to give it (obviously, morally wrong) advice (which I would never actually give it) on how to staff its front desk.
Ah. Clearly, in that case, the guy behind the desk constitutes quirky charm, and demonstrates that your s.l.o.n.e. isn't as overprocessed and plastic as those damned L.C.s. Do not look askance at the fat desk clerk. Revel in him!
the guy behind the desk constitutes quirky charm.... Revel in him!
Aha! That's actually a sound bit of advice, because it accords with the kind of thing it cheers me to think. I'll try that out.
I think I actually might like a health club employee who wasn't intimidatingly in shape. I never can bring myself to meet the eyes of the front desk people at my gym.
intimidatingly in shape
Oh, yeah, but there's a lot of territory between "intimidatingly in shape" and the fat quirky desk clerk.
51 -- Revel on me, not in me.
This is all reminding me that I should really get up from my desk (clearly I'm not working very hard) and go do a lunch-hour workout. Bleah.
I wish I were fonder of sports. It must be so nice being able to exercise and play a game simulataneously; get into a pickup basketball game rather than lifting weights. Sadly, I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination.
get into a pickup basketball game
What we need is an Unfogged pickup basketball game! IRL. In NYC or other places where members of the Unfogged Commentariat congregate.
57: As 55 would indicate, I would be not so much participating in such a game. Mild humiliation is one thing. My attempting to play sports? Far beyond that point.
I wish I were fonder of sports
I hadn't thought of her as a role model. But, I've never cared much for the Sportans.
56/57 -- NYC is also a really bad place for people who are not excellent basketball players to attempt to organize a pickup game. Possibly in Cobble Hill or in Astoria or Long Island City you could find a court not already monopolized by amazing athletes. But you would spend a while looking for it.
What we need is an Unfogged pickup basketball game!
Word.
The comments will surely fonder under the weight of these puns.
I am entirely in favor of Unfogged pickups. Where's Becks?
amazing athletes
You mean black people, right?
19: I actually have to say that I think it's worse to think, priggishly, "well that person isn't putting forth the Right Corporate Image" than "huh, a fat guy at a fitness club. Funny." It's kind of better, I think, to have the unavoidable prejudices that we all have than it is to cultivate the libertarian bullshit that moral judgments are *really* only about believing in The Market.
I'm pleased that KZSU has a 24-bit stream, which means I *can* listen on dialup, with minimal pauses for rebuffering.
65: If it makes you feel any better, I thought both things. So I'm Even WORSE!
You'd have to be an amazing athlete to swim all the way to NYC.
Crap, let's *not* have an Unfogged pickup game. It'll be just like high school, and LB and I will sit awkwardly on the sidelines talking and thinking "we *aren't* this kind of girl, and yet, here we are. Shit."
You left out the embarrassing five minute period in which I do attempt to play, and become confused and nauseated to the point of having to sit with my head down for a bit. And then I end up sitting on th sidelines, bored.
Come on, B. We all know you're "that kind" of girl.
67: Yes, but with LB's help you reached the right frame of mind. So congratulations!
And I would push myself so hard to prove that I'm not one of those girls and that I coulda been a contender and that I'm not so out of shape, not really, that I'd sprain something.
Is there a version of Philosophers' football for neurotics?
I'm a member of the club and partake of its successes in part.
I don't know that the fat receptionist works the way you think, slol. mrh's 52 may be the more common sentiment—or, specifically, is the potential for growth here. There is a population that wants to stay fit no matter what (of which I suspect you are part); there is another, fatter population who need really low barriers to entry and welcoming, unintimidating staff. And that's the, um, expanding market that your health club wants to appeal to. Who knows, perhaps it is a deliberate decision on their part.
72: Yeah, I'm THAT that kind of girl, but not that kind, the one that sits around and watches boys do stuff. Fuck that shit.
LB, maybe you and I could go for a bike ride or find a swimming pool instead. Something that doesn't involve overcoming the stupid Anxiety About Looking Like an Ass while Being Sporty problem we doubtless picked up in middle school.
I have been known to join pick-up soccer games sometimes. But generally think these things should be much more organized for adults. It seems so easy as a kid to join little league or soccer teams. And there are leagues for adults, but it's usually for people who have been playing all their lives. You should be able to learn how to play a group sport as an adult, and it should be easy and, once again, not so intimidating.
The World Adult Kickball Association (at kickball.com, natch) has just chosen the park across the street from me as one of their venues. It makes street parking really irritating and I resent them, but it does look like they're having fun. Probably 'cuz it's impossible to take yourself seriously while playing kickball. There's also plenty of beer on evidence.
77: Word. I would totally love a gym with beginner's basketball classes, developing into games.
81- I think I have spotted my niche. Nobody form a company before me.
78- I'm sure you are a bronzed god(dess?).
the one that sits around and watches boys do stuff. Fuck that shit.
While the others hoop it up, LizardBreath, BitchPhD, and I will wrestle.
Speaking of Jewish music, Muir Vidler has a gallery of photos from the Israeli death metal scene. I can't link directly because it's a Flash site (click 'Projects'), but I grabbed a screenshot of the first picture in the series. The 'Rebels Without a Pause' project about the aging British rebels is interesting too.
The intro text:
Israel has a big metal scene. On August 26th, 2004 they had their second annual heavy metal music festival attracting over 2000 people. The Metalist Festival in Tel Aviv draws people from all over Israel, and more surprisingly some Palestinian and Arab Muslim fans (some from as far away as Jordan, Egypt and Turkey). It's one of the very few cultural events where Jews and Muslims can be found together.
'Orphaned Land' is one of the biggest metal bands in Israel. They are famous there for singing in Hebrew/English/Arabic and Yemeni about peace and love. They also have a very wide Arab fan base. Just before the festival they played a show in Turkey in front of 4000 Muslims from all across the Middle East. They regularly correspond with fans from countries including Syria, Libya, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria. Being an Arab fan of Orphaned Land can be a dangerous thing. Their fans have been jailed for possessing their CDs in Syria and Egypt.
As well as reportage pictures there are also portraits and interviews (click on text button next to relevant picture) of some characters involved in the scene: from an Orthodox Jewish metalhead who worries about the Nazi imagery used by some death metal bands to a Satanic, Muslim Palestinian metalhead who claims Satanism has brought him closer to Allah.
Ooh, I will play pick-up basketball, and then LB and B will play, too, because there is no way in the world they can be worse than I am.
But we should play soccer instead. I'm too short to play basketball. Heightists!
LSJU's student radio really has call letters KZSU??? Wow.
I could go along with soccer. Maybe I can start saying my b-ball problem is height-related, instead of being about my total inability to dribble and throw.
Yes yes yes to soccer. It would be lots of fun, and in playing his favorite sport we'd be honoring ogged (pbuh), too.
Was that a statement that if there were a pickup soccer game, Bridgeplateself would show?
I was just pointing out that it's what ogged would have wanted, if we were all gathered in the same place and feeling sportifs/ives.
Stanford's motto is "Die Luft der Freiheit weht"?
We could play a game of virtual soccer.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL?
Sorry, not taking out the ball gag until you say the safeword. Good luck with that.
I think Jiminy has something to say to you in the last panel.
102: "Honey Slider" appears to be something to do with some video game involving Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and also a marijuana preparation. Has Craig Anderson been alerted?
