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Small Talk: Out of Genoa


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This site has been lousy again for me. And a crappy new feature is - if I'm reading posts and someone "likes" one of mine then their avatar pops up on my screen and fills the whole window and then some, all big and blurry, and I can't get rid of it and just have to wait for it to go away. What an oddly craptastic feature to add.

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34 minutes ago, SweePea59 said:

This site has been lousy again for me. And a crappy new feature is - if I'm reading posts and someone "likes" one of mine then their avatar pops up on my screen and fills the whole window and then some, all big and blurry, and I can't get rid of it and just have to wait for it to go away. What an oddly craptastic feature to add.

Yep. I was just talking about that upthread. It's rather alarming.

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At the start of every disaster movie is a scientist being ignored … In 1988, U.S. scientist James Hansen went before Congress and testified about his research into the warming of the planet. More than 30 years later, Hansen’s prediction that the average global temperature could rise by about 1 degree Celsius (almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2019 has come to pass. His warning, and appeals for action from Hansen and others, went largely ignored by policymakers, despite an avalanche of confirmatory research from ensuing generations of climate scientists.

This is the Reuters list of the world’s top climate scientists. To build it, we created a system of identifying and ranking 1,000 climate academics according to how influential they are.

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OMG you guys. I had a dream about Victor last night. Not a sex dream, thank heavens but a romantic dream where we were going to run away together. Yikes! No more cake and ice cream before bed for me!

Edited by peacheslatour
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First Saturday in May is Kentucky Derby Day!

Our wedding anniversary. We got married on May 3rd, 1980 and it was the first time a filly had won the Kentucky Derby in something like a hundred years. We stopped by a bar in between receptions (we had three) and watched it with some of the wedding party.

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Olympia Dukakis, Broadway and Oscar-Winning Actress, Dies at 89

Olympia Dukakis, a character actress best known for her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Norman Jewison’s “Moonstruck” and for her role as the wealthy widow in “Steel Magnolias,” has died. She was 89.

Dukakis’ brother, Apollo Dukakis, confirmed her death to Variety. Apollo Dukakis announced her death in a Facebook post, writing: “My beloved sister, Olympia Dukakis, passed away this morning in New York City. After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her Louis.”

The actress was 56 when she came to prominence overnight thanks to her Oscar-winning turn in “Moonstruck,” in which she played, with an extraordinary comic ethnic gusto characteristic of the movie as a whole, the mother of Cher’s character. The Washington Post singled out Dukakis for praise: Cher and Nicolas Cage are “backed by an equally quirky cast of marvelous supporting players — especially Olympia Dukakis, whose role as Loretta’s world-weary mother Rose is expected to get Oscar’s attention.”

Dukakis, who also did a lot of television work, was thrice Oscar nominated, first for the 1991 TV movie “Lucky Day,” the second time for “Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City” in 1998 and the third time in 1999 for the miniseries “Joan of Arc.”

Probably made before her Oscar changed her fortunes, Mike Nichol’s “Working Girl” returned Dukakis to the sort of role she had had on a regular basis for much of her career: She was 12th credited for her role as the personnel director.

By the next year, however, she was third-billed, behind John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, in baby comedy “Look Who’s Talking,” in which she played the pregnant Alley’s mother in a manner reminiscent of her work in “Moonstruck.” She returned for the 1990 sequel.

Herbert Ross’ 1989 hit “Steel Magnolias,” starring Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine and Dukakis, drew women of all ages with its effective sentimentality and even more effective one-liners, but Rolling Stone said, “For the real fun, stick with MacLaine as the town crank and Dukakis as the wealthy widow who goads her to distraction; they’re priceless.”

The actress starred with Diane Ladd and Ellen Burstyn in the Bill Duke-directed 1993 film “The Cemetery Club,” about three Jewish women all of whom find themselves widowed over the course of a year and must reconstruct their lives, with Dukakis’ character prickly and strong-willed.

Dukakis was part of the Greek chorus that was either a charming conceit or an ungainly one, depending on whom you ask, in Woody Allen’s 1995 romantic comedy “Mighty Aphrodite,” in which the chorus comments on the Allen character’s infidelity. Also that year she appeared as the skeptical, hard-nosed principal in sentimental Richard Dreyfuss vehicle “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” and as the mother of a gay man in the AIDS drama “Jeffrey.”

The next year she had a small role in Danish auteur Bille August’s spiritually based period film “Jerusalem.” The actress also had a small but powerful role in the 2005 father-son road movie “The Thing About My Folks,” starring Peter Falk and Paul Reiser.

In 2006, Dukakis was part of the ensemble cast of “The Great New Wonderful,” a series of vignettes about life in New York City a year after the 9/11 attacks, and she did excellent work in Sarah Polley’s Alzheimer’s drama “Away From Her,” starring Julie Christie, in which Dukakis’ character reveals an unwaveringly realistic view of a difficult situation — her husband is an Alzheimer’s patient as well.

She played a senile grandmother in Jon Kasdan’s “In the Land of Women,” starring Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart and Meg Ryan. But much more interesting was writer-director Thomas Fitzgerald’s 2011 film “Cloudburst,” in which Dukakis starred with Brenda Fricker as a lesbian couple who travel to Canada in order to get married. Variety said, “Dukakis outdoes even her most memorable earlier turns as Stella, the irrepressible old dame determined to spring her lover free.”

Her TV work included playing Anna Madrigal, the flamboyant matriarch presiding over an apartment house in San Francisco, in HBO’s 1993 “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” and the 1998 sequel “Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City,” for which she drew an Emmy nomination; and 2001’s third entry “Further Tales of the City.”

Among the many TV movies in which Dukakis appeared was HBO and BBC’s “The Last of the Blonde Bombshells” (2000), starring with Judi Dench and Ian Holm and focusing on a reunion of a group of women who formed an orchestra in London during WWII.

Dukakis was a series regular on the brief 2004 CBS sitcom “Center of the Universe,” starring John Goodman and Jean Smart. She also guested on numerous TV series, providing voices on “Frasier” and “The Simpsons” and appearing on “Numbers”; “Law & Order: SVU,” as a defense attorney; and HBO detective comedy “Bored to Death.”

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Dukakis graduated from Boston University and studied acting with Peter Kass in Boston.

Dukakis’ first experience on Broadway was as an understudy in 1962 on the original play “The Aspern Papers,” written by Michael Redgrave based on a story by Henry James and starring Maurice Evans and Wendy Hiller. Dukakis won an Obie in 1963 for her work Off Broadway in Bertolt Brechlt’s “Man Equals Man.” She hit the stage in 1964 in the one-nighter “Abraham Cochrane.” She returned to Broadway in 1974 in Peter Ustinov’s “Who’s Who in Hell,” but its run proved brief as well. Much more successful was her 1986-87 run in Andrew Bergman’s “Social Security,” directed by Mike Nichols and also starring Ron Silver, Marlo Thomas and Joanna Gleason. In 2000 she starred on Broadway in the one-woman show “Rose,” in which she played an 80-year-old Jewish woman in Miami Beach who talks to the audience of her life, including her experiences in the Holocaust.

She made her television debut in 1962 on an episode of “The Doctors and the Nurses,” also guesting on “Dr. Kildare” the same year. The actress made her bigscreen debut in the 1964 film short “Twice a Man.” Over the next 10 years she had a number of small, often uncredited, roles in films including “Death Wish.” In the Peter Yates’ 1969 film “John and Mary,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, Dukakis played the Hoffman character’s mother; she also had a supporting role in 1971’s “Made for Each Other,” starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna.

Dukakis was one of the stars of a 1974 political film by writer-director Jules Dassin called “The Rehearsal,” concerning the massacre of students protesting the ruling junta in Greece; many famous people were involved with the film, including Laurence Olivier, Arthur Miller, Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell and Arthur Millet, but by the time the film was completed the junta fell and it was never publicly seen in this country until decades later. In 1975, the actress appeared in a “Great Performances” presentation of a production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” that also starred Frank Langella, Blythe Danner and Lee Grant. She had supporting roles in Philip Kaufman’s “The Wanderers” in 1979 and in Taylor Hackford’s “The Idolmaker” in 1980. But despite years earning credits in film, on television and onstage, the actress did not break through until “Moonstruck” in 1987.

Much later, Dukakis taught master classes in acting throughout the U.S. and elsewhere. In July 2020, a documentary feature about her life, titled “Olympia,” was released in the U.S.

Dukakis is predeceased by her husband, actor Louis Zorich, who died in 2018. She is survived by daughter Christina Zorich, an actress; and sons Peter and Stefan Zorich.

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Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that they are separating. I'm sad because I used to do flowers for her every Friday in the nineties and early aughts. I got a call one afternoon from Microsoft saying that Mr. Gates had admired some arrangement I had sent for an employee and wanted me to make a bouquet for Melinda and deliver it to the house every Friday. It was a lot of fun and I got to go crazy on big budget vases and flowers. I never saw the house though, my driver said he had to leave the flowers at the gate.

Edited by peacheslatour
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4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that they are separating. I'm sad because I used to do flowers for her every Friday in the nineties and early aughts. I got a call one afternoon from Microsoft saying that Mr. Gates had admired some arrangement I had sent for an employee and wanted me to make a bouquet for Melinda and deliver it to the house every Friday. It was a lot of fun and I got to go crazy on big budget vases and flowers. I never saw the house though, my driver said he had to leave the flowers at the gate.

How cool!

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On 5/1/2021 at 1:24 PM, peacheslatour said:

Our wedding anniversary. We got married on May 3rd, 1980 and it was the first time a filly had won the Kentucky Derby in something like a hundred years. We stopped by a bar in between receptions (we had three) and watched it with some of the wedding party.

happy anniversary love GIF by CBC

Congrats @peacheslatour!

We are going to hit 40 years in July, and I seriously cannot believe that.

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The Flaming Lips - Assassins of Youth

 

Subsource - The Reason

 

Iron & Wine - Naked as We Came

 

Anya Marin - Not a Through Street

 

Reggaeton Explosion - Boom!

 

Ozomatli - After Party

 

Cherry Hill - Anymore

 

TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me

 

Epik - I'm So Fly

 

Griffin House - New Day

 

Sum 41 - 88

 

The 88 - How good it can be

 

The Brokedown - Please

 

Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire

 

The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey - Closer

 

Ben Gidsjoy - Bounce with Me

 

Sir Colin Davis · London Symphony - Requiem in D Minor, K. 626: No 7, Sequence - Lacrimosa

 

Jeremy Kay - I'm Alive

 

Deccatree - Tonight

 

Plumtree - My My

 

Bob James - Angela (Theme From 'Taxi')

 

Goldfrapp - Lovely 2 C U [T.raumschmiere Remix]

 

Joel Evans Big Band ft. Carmen Bradford - No Easy Way to Say Goodbye

 

The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You

 

John Butler Trio - Zebra

 

Teddybears - Different Sound

 

Leif Vollebekk - Never Be Back

 

Bill Baylis & David Hewson - 21st Century Renaissance

 

MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS - Fredonia

 

Baby Strange - Jukebox Queen

 

G Love - Free

 

RZA - Tragedy

 

Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away

 

Robert Finley - "Sharecropper's Son"

 

The Obscurities - All Over

 

Prince - Welcome 2 America

 

 

From the US National Archives, an 8-minute film of aerial footage filmed from a dirigible piloted by Roy Knabenshue in 1914. I am not super familiar with Chicago and the architecture of the time, but given the city’s role in the development & popularization of the skyscraper, I bet there are some amazing views in here of iconic buildings not so long after they were constructed as well as some buildings and spaces that no longer exist.

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4 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

 

From the US National Archives, an 8-minute film of aerial footage filmed from a dirigible piloted by Roy Knabenshue in 1914. I am not super familiar with Chicago and the architecture of the time, but given the city’s role in the development & popularization of the skyscraper, I bet there are some amazing views in here of iconic buildings not so long after they were constructed as well as some buildings and spaces that no longer exist.

Thanks for this film of Chicago, it's spectacular!  I love Chicago - my first foray out of Iowa.  What a city!

Edited by boes
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1 hour ago, boes said:

Thanks for this film of Chicago, it's spectacular!  I love Chicago - my first foray out of Iowa.  What a city!

I used to live in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago. I loved all the museums and cathedrals there. Thanks Cupid!

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Alison Krauss - When You Say Nothing At All

 

Pulp - Common People

 

The Zutons - Valerie

 

Fatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins - Weapon Of Choice

 

The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

 

Lorenzo Materazzo - Bach, French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: I. Allemande

 

Bird York - In the Deep

 

Envio ‎- Love Poison

 

Blind Willie McTell - Little Delia

 

Grant Lee Buffalo - Happiness

 

Toussaint McCall - Nothing Takes The Place Of You

 

Estrella Morente - Tangos En lo alto del cerro de Palomares

 

Earlimart - It's Okay To Think About Ending

 

Jon Cleary - Got To Be More Careful

 

Victor Bellomo, feat. Windy Wagner - DEVIL

 

Foo Fighters - Everlong

 

The Who- Baba O'Riley

 

Robert L. Wyckoff - You Better Stop

 

Joe Cocker - Feelin' Alright 

 

The Crystal Method - Trip Like I Do

 

Thomas Newman - American Beauty

 

Jayme Kelly Curtis - Years May Go By

 

Rickie Lee Jones - On Saturday Afternoons in 1963

 

The Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want

 

Massive Attack - Teardrop

 

Richie Sambora - When A Blind Man Cries

 

Leon Bridges 2016.07.30, Lollapalooza

 

Maria Daines ~ Love Calls Time

 

Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues

 

hn Mayall & The Bluesbreakers with Gary Moore - So Many Roads

 

Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's

 

Joaquin Cortes - Satachanispero

 

Adam Faith & The Roulettes - It's Alright

 

Sam Palladio & Clare Bowen - Fade into You

 

Blind Willie Johnson - Dark was the night

 

O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei

 

 

Edited by Cupid Stunt
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Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren dies at 90

Paul Van Doren, co-founder of the Vans company whose iconic Southern California sneakers were beloved by skateboarders and became an international success, has died. He was 90.

The company, based southeast of Los Angeles in Costa Mesa, announced Van Doren’s death on social media Friday but didn’t provide any details.

“Paul was not just an entrepreneur; he was an innovator,” the company said. “Paul’s bold experiments in product design, distribution and marketing, along with his knack for numbers and efficiency turned a family shoe business into a globally recognized brand.”

Van Doren was a high school dropout who moved to Southern California from the Boston area. Van Doren, his brother James (who died in 2011) and business partners Gordon Lee and Serge Delia opened the Van Doren Rubber Co. in Orange County in 1966, making and selling their own shoes. At first, they struggled to produce enough of the product to fill the shoeboxes on store shelves.

Van Doren had two decades of experience in shoe manufacturing but none in retail, he recalled.

“The first person gave me a $5 bill; a pair of shoes was $2.49,” he told Los Angeles Magazine last month after releasing his memoir, “Authentic.”

“But I didn’t have any money in the cash register, so I gave her the shoes,” Van Doren said. “We ended up selling 16 or 18 pair of shoes that day. You know what? I said, ‘Come back later to pay.’ Every one of those people came back and paid.”

Van Doren’s son, Steve Van Doren, said his father’s acumen helped make the business a success.

“My dad was a systems guy,” Steve Van Doren told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. “He did things like color-coding the boxes, blue for men, green for women and orange for boys, so you could see what inventory you had right away. He would only open stores that had a free right-hand exterior wall because he thought that was the best place to catch someone’s eye if they were driving by.”

Van Doren also allowed people to order customized shoes. He expanded the customer base by allowing various designs to be sold everywhere from surf shops to department stores.

In “Authentic,” Van Doren said the key to success was to give customers what they wanted.

“If it’s a checkerboard, if it’s bright pinks and yellows, or if it happens to be dinosaurs or a skull and crossbones, listen to their two cents’ worth about colors and designs,” he said.

The shoes, with their canvas tops and tough, diamond-patterned rubber soles, caught the fancy of skateboarders. The company, which kept a sharp eye on trends, was quick to catch on.

“Everybody else was kicking these kids out of the park, kicking them out of pools. And here’s a company listening to them, backing them, and making shoes for them,” Van Doren told Los Angeles Magazine.

The company paid professional skateboard Stacy Peralta to wear its shoes. Vans also sold shoes individually, which benefited skateboarders who tended to wear out one at a time.

The brand’s popularity soared after Sean Penn wore his own pair of Checkerboard Slip-Ons in the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

However, knockoffs and competition ate into Vans’ profits, along with misguided efforts to expand the range of its offerings with specialized shoes for football, basketball, skydiving and even breakdancing. The company was forced into bankruptcy protection in 1984 and was sold to a banking firm in 1988.

Over the years, the brand’s popularity waxed and waned, losing ground to newer, high-techier kicks and regaining it when retro came back into fashion.

The firm, renamed Vans Inc., went public in 1991 and in 2004 was sold to VF Corp. of Denver, which owns a large number of footwear and apparel brands including Dickies, JanSport, Timberland and The North Face.

Today, Vans produces its shoes overseas. It continues to sell its traditional designs while also keeping an eye on trendsetters by collaborating with designers, skateboarding, BMX and surfing pros and other celebrities.

Vans racks up around $2 billion a year in sales and its shoes have been seen on the feet of Justin Bieber, Kanye West and the Kardashians.

The company also has built skateparks and sponsored various events, including the Warped Tour, an annual international traveling rock festival, and the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California.

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Tawny Kitaen, star of ’80s rock music videos, dies at 59

Tawny Kitaen, the sultry red-haired actress who appeared in rock music videos during they heyday of MTV and starred opposite Tom Hanks in the 1984 comedy “Bachelor Party,” has died. She was 59.

The Orange County coroner’s office said she died at her home in Newport Beach on Friday. The cause of death was not immediately released.

Her daughters, Wynter and Raine, confirmed their mother’s death on Kitaen’s Instagram account.

“We just want to say thank you for all of you, her fans and her friends, for always showing her such support and love. You gave her life everyday,” their statement said.

Kitaen became the rock world’s “video vixen” after appearing on the cover of two albums from the heavy metal band Ratt and starring in several music videos for Whitesnake, including the 1987 smash song “Here I Go Again.” The video, played repeatedly on the burgeoning music television network, featured Kitaen performing cartwheels on the hood of a Jaguar.

She also starred as the fiancee to Tom Hanks’ character in the comedy “Bachelor Party,” and as Jerry Seinfeld’s girlfriend in a 1991 episode of “Seinfeld.” Other TV credits included a stint as co-host of “America’s Funniest People” and on the reality shows “The Surreal Life” and “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” in which she revealed her struggle with substance abuse.

Kitaen had a tumultuous personal life, which included a brief marriage to Whitesnake’s lead singer, David Coverdale, and a rocky marriage to baseball pitcher Chuck Finley, with whom she had two daughters.

“My sincere condolences to her children, her family, friends & fans,” Coverdale tweeted on Saturday.

-- DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press 

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For a Six Degrees of Y&R relationship, Tawny Kitaen was also in one of my favorite cheesy 80s horror movies, Witchboard, which also starred the guy who played Tucker McCall. 

 

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Iron & Wine - Passing Afternoon

 

Michael Penn - Walter Reed

 

People In Planes - Light For The Deadvine

 

Bon Iver - re: Stacks

 

Source - Goodnight

 

Ꭲhe Ᏼrian Ꭻonestown Ꮇassacre

 

!!! (chk chk chk) - There's No Fucking Rules, Dude

 

Kristen Mari - I Want It

 

Accentus Ensemble - Nani, Nani

 

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky

 

Waldeck - Jerry Weintraub

 

Civil Twilight - Human

 

Pussy Galore - Kicked Out

 

The White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends

 

My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday

 

Alan Milman Sect - Nicotine Caffine

 

 Alanis Morissette - Not As We

 

The Verve - Slide Away

 

Joe Purdy - Rainy Day Lament

 

Joseph Arthur - My home is your head

 

Lizz Wright - I Idolize you

 

Christian Tetzlaff - Schubert,, Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 114, D. 667, "Die Forelle" (The Trout) : I. Allegro vivace

 

Hot Hot Heat - Let Me In

 

Gomez - See The World

 

Richard Kaplan - Niggun of the Alter Rebbe

 

The Beta Band - Needles in my Eyes

 

 

Web performance and security company Cloudflare uses a wall of lava lamps to generate random numbers to help keep the internet secure. Random numbers generated by computers are often not exactly random, so what Cloudflare does is take photos of the lamps’ activities and uses the uncertainty of the lava blooping up and down to generate truly random numbers. Here’s a look at how the process works:

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At Cloudflare, we have thousands of computers in data centers all around the world, and each one of these computers needs cryptographic randomness. Historically, they got that randomness using the default mechanism made available by the operating system that we run on them, Linux.

But being good cryptographers, we’re always trying to hedge our bets. We wanted a system to ensure that even if the default mechanism for acquiring randomness was flawed, we’d still be secure. That’s how we came up with LavaRand.

LavaRand is a system that uses lava lamps as a secondary source of randomness for our production servers. A wall of lava lamps in the lobby of our San Francisco office provides an unpredictable input to a camera aimed at the wall. A video feed from the camera is fed into a CSPRNG [cryptographically-secure pseudorandom number generator], and that CSPRNG provides a stream of random values that can be used as an extra source of randomness by our production servers. Since the flow of the “lava” in a lava lamp is very unpredictable, “measuring” the lamps by taking footage of them is a good way to obtain unpredictable randomness. Computers store images as very large numbers, so we can use them as the input to a CSPRNG just like any other number.

 

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The Boomtown Rats - "I Don't Like Mondays"

 

Yo-Yo Ma - Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude

 

The Pocket Queen feat. Ryck Jane - WE CAME TO MOVE

 

Mungal feat Nitin Sahwney - Awake

 

Allan Holdsworth - City Nights

 

James Brown Live Paris 1968

 

The Smithereens - Only A Memory

 

Mad Season - River Of Deceit

 

Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter

 

Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

 

Commodores - Slippery When Wet

 

The Source - How Does It Feel

 

Eddie Harris - Listen Here

 

Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan - Grey Room

 

J J Cale - I Got The Same Old Blues

 

Josh Ritter - Good Man

 

Roy Buchanan - Live from Austin TX

 

Ben Harper - Waiting On An Angel

 

Linda Lyndell - What A Man

 

Donovan - Season of the Witch

 

The Replacements - Bastards Of Young

 

Wolfmother - Dimension

 

Jenevieve - Baby Powder

 

A Fine Frenzy - Hope For The Hopeless

 

Brett Dennen - Ain't No Reason

 

Matthew Ryan - Follow the Leader

 

THE FLAMING LIPS - NOX ORAE 2019

 

 

I recently made a 720 and it was a battle. The last one I made before this was over three years ago, and it’s much harder now all things considered: recently dislocated fingers hinder my grab, my spin is slower so I need to go higher for full rotation and…
I’m really old. pic.twitter.com/u8pbwRhS9j

— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) January 27, 2021

 

There’s a way in which watching Hawk perform these tricks and watching, say, 11-year-old Gui Khury perform the world’s first 1080 is the same: they’re both attempting something they aren’t sure they can do at that moment. But Hawk has both the benefit and hindrance of wisdom to draw upon here. He knows he can do a 720 because he’s done probably hundreds of them before, but he’s also battling his body, self-doubt, and probably the tiny voice in the back of his head saying “why exactly do you need to do this, dumbass?” Hawk probably knows better than anyone that as you get older, the true battle in sports (and life) is not against others or the record book, it’s against yourself.

 

 

More than two decades after Tony Hawk completed the first 900-degree turn, Khury shattered a long-standing record by flying off the top of a ramp and completing three full spins in the air before landing cleanly and skating off. The manoeuvre has long been one of the holy grails of skateboarding.

“The isolation for the coronavirus helped because he had a life that was about school and he didn’t have a lot of time to train, when he got home from school he was tired,” the skater’s father Ricardo Khury Filho told Reuters.

“So now he is at home more, he eats better and he has more time to train and can focus more on the training so that has helped. He has an opportunity to train here, if he didn’t have [the skate facilities] … he would be stuck at home like everyone else and unable to do sport. So the isolation helped him focus.”

Edited by Cupid Stunt
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Lloyd Price, Singer and Early Rock Influence, Dies at 88

Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ‘n roll star and enduring maverick whose hits included such up-tempo favorites as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Personality” and the semi-forbidden “Stagger Lee,” has died. He was 88.

Price died Monday at a long-term care facility in New Rochelle, New York, of complications from diabetes, his wife, Jacqueline Price, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Lloyd Price, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, was among the last survivors of a post-World War II scene in New Orleans that anticipated the shifts in popular music and culture leading to the rise of rock in the mid-1950s. Along with Fats Domino and David Bartholomew among others, Price fashioned a deep, exuberant sound around the brass and swing of New Orleans jazz and blues that placed high on R&B charts and eventually crossed over to white audiences.

“Very important part of Rock history. He was BEFORE Little Richard!” rock singer and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt said Saturday on Twitter. “Lawdy Miss Clawdy of 1952 has a legit claim as the first Rock hit…. Righteous cat. Enormous talent.”

Price’s nickname was “Mr. Personality,” fitting for a performer with a warm smile and a tenor voice to match. But he was far more than an engaging entertainer. He was unusually independent for his time, running his own record label even before such stars as Frank Sinatra did the same, holding on to his publishing rights, and serving as his own agent and manager. He would often speak of the racial injustices he endured, calling his memoir “sumdumhonkey” and writing on his Facebook page during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests that behind his “affable exterior” was “a man who is seething.”

Born in Kenner, Louisiana, one of 11 siblings, Price had been singing in church and playing piano since childhood. He was in his late teens when a local DJ’s favorite catchphrase, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” helped inspire him to write his boundary-breaking first hit, which he worked on in his mother’s fried fish restaurant.

Featuring Domino’s trademark piano trills, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” hit No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1952, sold more than 1 million copies and became a rock standard, covered by Elvis Presley and Little Richard among others. But Price would have mixed feelings about the song’s broad appeal, later remembering how local officials in the Jim Crow South resisted letting both blacks and whites attend his shows.

Price was drafted and spent the mid-1950s in military service in Korea. He began a career restart with the 1957 ballad “Just Because,” and hit the top with the brassy, pop-oriented “Stagger Lee,” one of the catchiest, most celebratory songs ever recorded about a barroom murder.

Written by Price, “Stagger Lee” was based on a 19th century fight between two Black men — Lee Shelton, sometimes known as Stag Lee, and Billy Lyons — that ended with Shelton shooting and killing his rival. Their ever-changing legend was appearing in songs by the 1920s, and has inspired artists ranging from Woody Guthrie and Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan and the Clash.

Price’s version opened with a few spoken words that had the understated tension of a crime novel: “The night was clear, the moon was yellow, and the leaves came tumbling … down.” The band jumps in and Price shouts out the story of Stagger Lee and Billy fighting over a game of dice, concluding with a bullet from Stagger Lee’s 44 passing through Billy and breaking the bartender’s glass. “Go Stagger Lee!” a chorus chants throughout.

The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart early in 1959, but not everyone was entertained. “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark worried the song was too violent for his teen-centered show and pressed Price to revise it: For “Bandstand” watchers and some future listeners, Stagger Lee and Billy peacefully resolve their dispute.

“I had to go make up some lyrics about Stagger Lee and Billy being in some kind of squabble about a girl,” Price told Billboard in 2013. “It didn’t make any sense at all. It was ridiculous.”

Price followed with the top 10 hits “Personality” and “I’m Going To Get Married” and the top 20 songs “Lady Luck” and “Question.” He fared no better than many of his contemporaries once the Beatles arrived in the U.S. in 1964, but he found his way into other professions through a wide range of friends and acquittances. He lived for a time in the same Philadelphia apartment complex as Wilt Chamberlain and Joe Frazier and, along with boxing promoter Don King, helped stage the 1973 “Thrilla in Manila” between Frazier and Muhammad Ali and the 1974

“Rumble in the Jungle” championship fight between Ali and George Foreman. He was also a home builder, a booking agent, an excellent bowler and the creator of a line of food products.

His career in music continued, sporadically. He and his business partner Harold Logan started a label in the early 1960s, Double L Records, that gave an early break to Wilson Pickett, and they also ran a New York nightclub. But after Logan was murdered, in 1969, Price became so disheartened he eventually moved to Nigeria and didn’t return until the 1980s. He would become a favorite on oldies tours, performing with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis among others.

He settled in New York with his wife, but was not forgotten back home. A street in Kenner was renamed Lloyd Price Avenue and for years Kenner has celebrated an annual Lloyd Price Day. Price would credit clean living and steady focus for his endurance.

“I never drank, smoked, used drugs or had bad habits,” he told interviewer Larry Katz in 1998. “I’d drive a taxi cab to get me the food I need to live. I never was starstruck. I had 23 hit records and I never looked for the next record to hit. I never had that need that they had to be somebody. I just wanted to be.”

 

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Anyone else having a crappy day/week/year?

Work is stressing me out and I'm tempted to just quit and go into hiding for a year because I'm tired of life. And then, since last month I had mentioned to my cousin that I had to bring Steve in for a nail trim and I needed more probiotic for him. I had asked my cousin if she would mind driving me since it's far by bus and I was hoping to avoid an Uber. She told me it would depend on the day but seemed up to it. 

Last week I reminded her about it and she told me to try for this Thursday. The place I bring him to now didn't have anything until next Thursday and it was only at 7:30 PM. I said yes, but then asked my cousin if she would prefer if I tried the animal hospital where I used to work, if they could get a better date and time, while reminding her that it was further away and parking in harder (and also I hate going there.) So, I call them, they can get me an appointment for the Thursday my cousin wanted (today) and the appointment was for noon. So I said I would take it and cancelled the original appointment. 

Well, naturally, nothing in my life goes as planned. 

Two days ago, my cousin mentions my grandfather took the car (she drives his when he doesn't need it) and needed it for Thursday. Frustrated, I asked why he needed the car because lately it's like he has a sixth sense and he always needs the car the rare times I do and it's driving me nuts. This has happened more than once. Anyway, grandpa mentioned the breaks were weak and he wanted to bring it in to be checked. Then he asked why I needed it and I said I wanted to bring the bird in for nail trim which I then had to listen to him say all I do is 'waste money' and 'why am I going back to the place that let me go,' etc. 

Then yesterday my cousin had the car and thought she could drive me but then messaged me an hour later saying her dad (my douchecanoe uncle) didn't want her to because the breaks weren't fixed. Which fine. But if he wasn't an ass, he could have let her use his car. He's retired and does nothing these days.

Anyway, today I went to the vet. It cost me $85 in Uber fees. There was a shortage of drivers for some reason. At one point, the fee was $67 for one direction, but I managed to check a little later and got a ride for $32 one way, but then if you want a pet friendly ride, it's an additional $5.75 now. 

So in addition to the Uber fees, it cost me another $63 for the nail trim and and the supplements and food I bought and that is with the 10% discount they gave me. 

But, while there, they weighed Steve and the tech was alarmed. Their last weight on file for him was 80 grams. And he now only weighs 68 grams. They told me to call the other place I go to and mention it to them which I did. He was last there in November and weighed 83 grams. So he lost even more weight. He's molting but even that doesn't account for such a large weight loss and I was advised to bring him in for a check up. They can only give me next Friday at 4:15 PM. And I was told if he deteriorates, I will have to bring him to an emergency hospital because they don't have availability before then. 

So now I'm stressing out. Is his aspergillosis back? He was doing so well for awhile. He was fine in November, we even checked his liver enzymes and they were okay. Is this another nasal infection or something else?

Now I have to leave work early next Friday, maybe Uber again (another fortune) or have to take the bus (over an hour and a half each way), and spend god only knows how much on various tests and cultures. And I need to do this without grandpa seeing me because I'm tired of hearing him bitch about me and Steve. Today he was like 'we'll kill him and eat him for Christmas, I'm going to open the door and let me free', etc. It's not funny and I'm not amused. 

I just hope it's not too serious. My mom's advice was 'well if it's too expensive or serious you'll have to put him down.' Like I don't want to hear this shit right now. 

And Steve has hardly touched his food today although after a vet visit that is not unusual. But with everything, it's adding to my stress. 

Sorry for the long rant but I just needed to vent. 

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I'm sorry you're going through this difficult time, jewel.  As hard as it may be, try not to stress too much about Steve, only because animals can pick up on our anxieties.  I hope there is nothing seriously wrong with him.  If he does need some treatment that ends up being expensive, we all know you'll do whatever you can to help him.  Take care of yourself, too.  It sounds like you're overwhelmed.  Is there a friend you can spend some time with who isn't as negative as some of your family members?  You need to be around people who make you feel good about yourself, even for a little while.  All the best to you.  Please accept this virtual hug!  (((💓)))          

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Thanks, Snap. You've managed to make me feel better. And you're right about animals picking up on stress, birds especially are sensitive to it. He's currently eating a bit so that's also making me feel a bit better. 

I'm overwhelmed at work and the toxic environment and this added stress isn't helping matters. I miss the pre-covid days when you could hang out with friends and see movies. And I had normal bosses. 

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(edited)

Messer Chups - Magneto

 

The Strokes - Reptilia

 

Floater - Last Forever

 

Junior Kimbrough - Most Things Haven't Worked Out

 

FACES - Stay With Me

 

Laurie Anderson - O Superman

 

Mint Royale - Blue Song

 

Wanda Jackson - Hard Headed Woman

 

Billy Roberts - "Hey Joe"

 

Jack White - "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground"

 

L'Impératrice — Anomalie Bleue

 

Hiatus Kaiyote - 'Red Room'

 

The Cramps - Mad Daddy

 

KONGOS - Birds Do It

 

Norah Jones - Chasing Pirates

 

The Crystal Method - Vice

 

Robert Finley - Live

 

Long John Baldry - "Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King of Rock & Roll"

 

The Stone Roses - Where Angels Play

 

Valentina Lisitsa. Schubert Impromptu op. 142 No.3 B flat major

 

Josh Ritter - Temptation of Adam

 

Joe Satriani - "Ice-9"

 

Dawn Landes - Drive

 

 

Inventor of Post-it Notes adhesive dies at age 80

The inventor of the adhesive used on one of 3M’s best-known products, the Post-it Note, has died, according to the company and his published obituary.

Spencer Silver was 80 and died May 8 at his home, the family’s obituary said.

Silver was working in a company lab in 1968 when he discovered a unique adhesive formula, according to 3M. The adhesive allowed notes to be easily attached to surfaces, removed and even re-posted elsewhere without leaving residue like other glues.

Silver looked for several years for a practical use for the adhesive, calling it a “solution waiting for a problem to solve.” In 1974, his colleague Art Fry came up with the idea of using the adhesive to prevent paper bookmarks from falling out of his hymnal when he sang in church.

The product was originally called the Press ‘n’ Peel memo pad in 1974, but it wasn’t brought to the market until 1977 and didn’t really take off until 1980, when it was renamed the Post-it Note. It’s now one of the top-selling items in 3M’s consumer products division.

Silver retired as a corporate scientist in 1996 and earned 37 patents during his time at 3M. He also won several awards, including the 1998 American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention, according to the company.

Silver is survived by his wife of 56 years, Linda, a daughter and two grandchildren.

Edited by Cupid Stunt
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(edited)
20 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Thanks, Snap. You've managed to make me feel better. And you're right about animals picking up on stress, birds especially are sensitive to it. He's currently eating a bit so that's also making me feel a bit better. 

I'm overwhelmed at work and the toxic environment and this added stress isn't helping matters. I miss the pre-covid days when you could hang out with friends and see movies. And I had normal bosses. 

Oh jewel21, that's all awful.  It's the casual cruelty or thoughtlessness, whatever, that adds such extra weight to all the difficulties you can't do anything about but endure.  If people were just kinder it all might be more bearable.

Keep us updated on Steve and on you as well.

Edited by boes
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Thanks, Boes. This was just part of my interactions today with my boss. 

 

Boss: Did you call this patient to confirm for Monday.
Me: I sent him an email two days ago, and left two voicemails.
Boss: He has to take 4 antibiotic 1 hour before his appointment!
Me: I know. I wrote it in the agenda and will tell him when he confirms. He's coming at 1 PM Monday.
Boss: Call his house number!
Me: He doesn't have one.
Boss: Call his wife!
Me (calls wife)
Wife: I don't know if he has antibiotics. Call the other number.
Me: I did. He didn't answer.
Wife: Well if I talk to him I'll tell him.
Me: Thank you.
Boss: HE HAS TO TAKE 4 PILLS I HOUR BEFORE. WRITE IT IN HIS FILE. CALL HIM AGAIN AND KEEP CALLING UNTIL HE ANSWERS. You have to call every number on file. This is common sense. You've been here a year. You need to wake up.

 

Boss: Have this patient come an hour before.
Me (calls the house number and leaves a message)
Boss: Call her cell! She has a cell, you should have it in her file! Ask her when she comes and put it in her file!
Me: I don't have a cell. I have her work number.
Boss: Call her at work! But I think she might be retired. 
Me (if she's working I don't think she'll come an hour earlier, plus you just told me you think she retired but whatever. )
Me (calls her work)
Receptionist: Sorry, she's working from home.
Boss: Call her at home again! Call her husband's cell. Leave a message! In English! Bring everyone up an hour!

Me (later): Patient wants to have wisdom teeth extracted. Can come Monday after two only.
Boss: Why not at 11?
Me: She didn't say. She said she's only available after 2 PM.
Boss: Call her parents! They have to bring in the consent form! Call them! Call the other number too!
Me (calls patient and tells her she was given a form in March to sign. Patient remembers and says she will bring it in.)
Boss: YOU DIDN'T SAY A CONSENT FORM. YOU JUST SAID FORM. HOW WILL SHE KNOW WHAT FORM IT IS? YOU NEED TO WAKE UP. YOU'VE BEEN HERE A YEAR. WRITE THIS DOWN. THEY HAVE TO SIGN AN CONSENT FORM 48 HOURS BEFORE AND UNDER 21 THE PARENTS HAVE TO SIGN OR ELSE THEY SUE US. I want you to learn, to have love in your heart for this job, blah blah blah blah

I'm so tired of this bullshit. I've worked jobs where I was treated well and appreciated for my work. I was told how patients liked me, I was efficient. All I hear from this ass is everything I do wrong. Like if you're not happy, fire me. I can go on unemployment and find a job where I'm appreciated. And you can become the dentist and the secretary since you can do no wrong. Even though you yell at patients, treat them like crap, screw over insurance companies, and constantly use the wrong pronouns for people. Do you know how confusing it is to hear 'she' or 'her' when he's referring to a man and vise versa? But if I make a mistake, I don't hear the end of it. 

I don't know if all dental offices are like this, but so far I'm not amused.

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