whiel
To think there was once such promise...
That was my resentment typing, not me.
Wasteland or not, the place I'd most like to visit; I've never been there. I've been a fan of Reyner Banham's Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies for years.
What do you know about L.A., Ben? Didn't you grow up in Irvine? And you should go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, it's got your name on it.
The MJT is really, really worthwhile. The hours are kind of weird, though. Also, Chung King Road in Chinatown has a certain demented beauty, and some neat galleries, if you're into the art scene (pop surrealism, lots of anime influence, you know the drill). Taix, a french restaurant in Echo Park, is one of my favorite places: nobody here would like it.
Why do people go to the west side, anyways?
Me? I'm on the east coast.
Wait, Ben you grew up in Irvine? (a) Who am I talking to? (b) Figures.
Say, isn't Sunset Junction next weekend? Or was it this one? Now that is a good time.
I grew up in Irvine, and it's to Irvine that I'm heading.
You and Drum could hit some titty bars.
some neat galleries, if you're into the art scene
But if you're into the art scene, you know that there aren't any good shows (indeed, most of Culver City won't even be open) until mid-September.
This is how I picture you, Beefo Meaty.
Or as I like to think of you, SfTw.
10: I meant to say "the L.A. art scene," but I clearly am not into it enough to even use the correct words.
Hey, I went down there for SRL. Total art.
That link is frankly awesome. I, twilight of Nicolas Cage's career.
11: nothing could ever be worse than the (gay) dude who calls me "Sweety Fu"
Hey, I went down there for SRL. Total art.
SRL. eh, eh. Survival Research Labs, google tells me. Hm. Never heard of it.
Good stuff, if you like giant robots destroying things/each other. Conceptually pretty weak, but again: giant robots destroying things. At some point the inner eleven year old takes over.
a performance of Der Leiermann by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Awesome. I can't answer the question, but your consolation prizes are these:
1. Autumn Journey is an excellent Fischer-Dieskau documentary by the same guy who made the awesome Richter film.
2. Here's a rather different setting of the poem, from Covenant.
Regarding the Covenant thing—I think it's kind of strange that if you google for the lyrics, the first hit you get is a Covenant page. Not, as you might expect, anything to do with that Schubert guy.
How is that a weak concept?
15:
I'm twelve.
But.
Damn. No, see, I just can't ... wait, it's like fireworks, right?
I think that destroying things is best not as a spectator sport. If you've ever torn down a building, wielding a sledgehammer can be excellent.
Smash ... duck, run, laugh ... repeat. You get the sparkling eyes things going.
19: they have a sonic cannon made from a V2 rocket engine. When they point it at the crowd, the line between "spectator" and "participant" tends to blur slightly.
18: oh, if that were the whole concept, it'd be ridiculously awesome. But they try to load it up with all this pretentious folderol. It's still completely awesome, but I wish they'd lose the pretension and get with the GIANT EXPLOSION FLAME ROBOT SHEARING METAL FLESH DESTROY and whatnot.
Not, as you might expect, anything to do with that Schubert guy.
Nor Wilhelm Müller, excepting a mention from a YouTube commenter. Truly we live in a fallen world. Fucking Covenant.
Incidentally, Ian Bostridge has recorded Die Winterriese with Leif Ove Andsnes. Haven't heard it, but it must be great.
That's the recording I have, unless Bostridge has done it more than once (I didn't mark down the pianist when I ripped it). I have nothing with which to compare it, but I like it a lot.
I'll be playing "Der Wegweiser" on Tuesday on the radio, in fact.
I generally prefer baritones in that repertoire, probably just because that's my own range, but I really like Bostridge's voice. This recording of Handel's L'Allegro, il Pensoroso el il Moderato (a pastoral ode with verse by Milton, with loads of catchy tunes) is among my all-time favorites.
with verse by Milton
Sir—do you take me for a philistine?
That was for the benefit of the others, Ben.
So whom here do you think to be a philistine?
(raises hand, waves wildly in air)
All in the Mineshaft familiar with the work in question, please raise your hands.
I actually vaguely am. But don't let that fool ya. Trucker speed and reality tv, that's how I roll.
I'm not familiar with the Handel. But I know the names of a few poems Milton wrote.
Damn, I'm too late to point out that Ben's 25 didn't claim to know it. You gotta understand who you're dealing with, Jesus.
AWB's job is keeping w-lfs-n honest? That's gotta be a hassle.
33: Yeah, tripped up. 'The work in question' would be the Handel, you philistines.
I think Ben just meant that if you're referring to a work by Handel called L'Allegro, il Pensoroso el il Moderato, we're all going to know that it's based on Milton.
I'm not. But if you said "you know that Handel based on the Milton text?" I would say "oh, uh, I think so. Vaguely. Yeah? I like Handel!"
37 is indeed what I meant. Christ, Jesus.
Christ, Jesus Christ.
I'll have a cup of my own blood, shaken, not nailed.
I concede that the set of people who associate the title L'Allegro, il Pensoroso el il Moderato with Milton is greater than the set of people familiar with the Handel work of the same name, but I'm not going to let you people peck me to death rather than confront the more interesting subject, i.e., your philistinism.
Anyway, you really should listen to the Handel. It's some of his most delightful music.
How large is the set of people who associate Milton with Keynes?
Wednesday through Friday? That sounds like an M-Fun kind of meet-up, never-ending, just progressing from one wild drunken orgy party area to the next...
42: The same number who associate "Leighton" with "Buzzard"?
I can't sleep and
1)Associate L'Allegro, il Pensoroso el il Moderato with Milton. I know and have performed a fair amount of Handel, but not that.
2)Also associate "Milton" with "Keynes," having an interest in "new towns" and have learned, I don't know where, that "Keynes" in this case is pronounced the way an American naively would, not like "canes," the way the economist or his brother the literary historian—AWB is probably familiar with him—would.
I've just noticed that my cutting and pasting introduced an error into the thread. el il Moderato s/b ed il Moderato. I apologize for any inconvenience.
How large is the set of people who associate Milton with Keynes?
The set of British and Irish commenters +/- 2?
My wife insists on referring to the place as Maynard Friedman. It's a hell hole.
That implies I'm mistaken about the pronunciation; am I?
Milton Keynes is indeed a horrendous shite-hole. One of the least pleasant hours I ever spent was walking through central Milton Keynes trying to find the bus station. Admittedly, it's no worse than, say, Cumbernauld [another shite-hole newtown].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbernauld#Modern_times
I've been through Milton Keynes on National Express but never got off the bus coach. A couple of years later I met a couple of people who were from there who seemed quite happy not to be there at the time. Despite this, I can't remember how it's pronounced.
I associate "Milton" with "Keynes", but then I also associate "Leighton" with "Baines."
IDP, no, you're quite right: Milton Keenz. (aka Bletchley, and endless inhuman, pedestrian lethal, 60s barbaric blocks that go on and on and on and on...)
My company's HQ used to be there, but they've moved to a fancy address in London, which I take to mean that they'll be going tits up by the end of the decade.
Milton Keynes is like other new towns in that the roads and the pedestrian routes are separated. This is, I think, the worst idea in the history of urban planning, ever.
There are broad roadways that scoot through the town for motorists, but if you want to walk anywhere you, i) have no idea where you are going, ii) can't see anything as you're winding through trees and underpasses, iii) might as well be advertising oneself to be mugged.
I've never been to Milton Keynes, but I do have an aunt who lives in Welwyn Garden City.
The New Town of Hemel Hempsted is/was famous for the six part traffic roundabout on its outskirts.
You drive up to the intersection, and there are no lights, but you're confronted with six raised concrete circles about 15 feet in diameter, arrayed in a hexagon with room for one large vehicle between each of them.
I have no idea what you're supposed to do about this.
All I know about Milton Keynes is that it is the love-spawn of two passionate rival economists, and it contains the only British football team to actually leave one city for another.
As for Hemel Hempsted I believe it is the same thing as Nizhny Novgorod.
In other news: we've had the guy fucked to death by a horse, now check out the woman fucked to death by a camel (SFW).
Just a sort of heads-up..
ferrets won't screw you to death, but if you die and stopp feeding them they will tunnel into your body.
57: I believe "humped" would be the appropriate term here.
So, what do ferrets do if you die but keep feeding them? Sounds like quite a trick.
I've been through Milton Keynes, which was not dissimilar to the Eastern Bloc cities I visited later on the same trip. Ugh.
Given that the process for 'dying and keeping feeding them' is 'allowing them to tunnel into your body', pretty much the same thing. The question is just whether you planned it that way.
I don't think that dead people have enough agency to be said to allow anything. Is there linguistic analyst in the house?
63: Are we still supposed to be shooing you away, or has your workload eased?
I'm feeling momentarily relieved, having sent off a draft of the first one of the three briefs I need to get done, but yeah, keep shooing. I can comment after Labor Day.
You can have the meetup at my apartment, w-lfs-n, but I'll be at Burning Man. Just leave me a mix.
Let me second the recommendation for the MJT and add to it a stop at the Center for Land Use Interpretation next door.
Also: go to Hollywood. Everyone likes walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard and looking at the Walk of Fame. Seriously. Everyone enjoys doing that. Even little bitches. If you're starting either downtown or in the Valley, take the Red Line there.
It's also a really neat moment in Hollywood -- while there's still plenty of tattoo parlors and kitschy shops, you can also see Los Angeles's attempts at creating its dense and urban version.
Drive Sunset end to end. If you need to get back to where you started, drive Wilshire end to end.
If you're there on Sunday, go to the Hollywood Farmer's Market. (Not to be confused with the Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax, a different breed).
And yeah, Sunset Junction was yesterday. I caught a nice set of Blonde Redhead, had some funnel cake, and watched a local funk diva named Medusa sing "That pussy is a gangster / But I don't want her to be / So I gotta cut her / Cut her right out of your gang."
In Echo Park, take yourself on a paddle boat trip and then have lunch at Masa.
Catch a show at Redcat.
See Watts Towers.
Go to MacArthur Park and get .
I don't think L.A. is a very easy place to visit as a tourist. It can come across wastelandy, and trying to see too much of it will give you transit nightmares. But there are good times to be had. And good guava cheese pie.
I didn't include you on the email back, ben? It consisted of you and B., so I thought I had.
As for what to do in LA, fuck if I know. LA is outside the apartment, and thus somewhere I don't venture.
I don't actually care about LA. Since evidently the only people interested in a meetup are you and me, SEK, we wouldn't even have to leave Irvine.
OH BOY! IRVINE!
Clearly SEK is just trying to engineer some time alone with B. "I can't imagine where the others are ... I emailed ben, and Sifu, and ... By the way, don't be perturbed if I lean in close while you talk; I'm a little deaf, you know."
Friday afternoon would rock for me, as PK gets out of school at noon. Other than that, I'm afraid I'm stuck unless y'all want to have a meetup in Ventura, b/c Mr. B. is out of town next week and I'm single-momming it.
Lowenbrou Keller is closing down. Sad. So L.A. will rock a little less.
I concur with the MJT and CLUI recommendations. And the Hare Krishna temple, with a vegetarian buffet, is just around the corner. The food is good, and very cheap, if you can bear the people.
I'm a lurker and LA native. I'd be up for the MJT, let me know andrewvc123 AT gmail.com (Minus the numbers).
There's soo much right by there.