No, you grew up grew up on shrimp boat with Forrest Gump. — Hanover

Little known fact - Forrest Gump was actually the thinly disguised story of my life...except for the war hero, all American athlete, character, courage, and decency stuff. I can't play ping pong either. And what I actually said was "Life is like a box of chocolates, they're all for me, so keep your hands off."

Extra!!!! Stop the presses! (Can they actually do that anymore?)

Conservationists rally against Japan’s new whale meat vending machines — News.com.au

I was in Galesburg IL once and they had worm vending machines for fishermen.

I was in Galesburg IL once and they had worm vending machines for fishermen. — T Clark

This makes me wonder if the whale meat vending machines in Japan are for giant and/or colossal squids.

This makes me wonder if the whale meat vending machines in Japan are for giant and/or colossal squids — Noble Dust

:lol:

I’ve heard that Japan has a massive store of uneaten whale meat, by-product of the scientific research program they conducted on ways to infuriate Greenpeace.

I didn't feel anything. Anyone? :)

Earth’s Inner Core: A Shifting, Spinning Mystery’s Latest Twist
^{— Robin George Andrews · The New York Times · Jan 23, 2023}

Multidecadal variation of the Earth’s inner-core rotation
^{— Yi Yang, Xiaodong Song · Nature Geoscience · Jan 23, 2023}

Just so you know, love is the real cause.

:up: Excellent album

Well, you haven't heard the MOST WANTED SONG, obviously.

If you disliked THE MOST WANTED SONG you will positively loathe, hate, and despise THE MOST UNWANTED SONG

You'll be wondering who the hell Dave Soldier, Komar & Melamid are. Komar and Melamid are avant gardistas, born and raised in the Soviet Union. They are provocateurs; one of their artworks is a sculpture of Joseph Stalin installed in the red light district of The Hague. They also wrote an interesting book on the most popular kinds of painting around the world.

David Soldier received a Ph.D in neuroscience at Columbia and is a composer, arranger, and collaborator.

Don't be fooled by the bland cowboy opening:
"Yo, I'm ropin' up my saddle for the long, long ride"

Best approach: jump around in any order

And then

Out on the plains, just me and my mind
Took me a break to read some Wittgenstein
Born in Vienna in '89
He obsessed with theories of language and time
Like the Tractatus where Ludwig would claim
"The logic of our language is misunderstood"
Philosophy is based on a false pretence
So philosophy itself is nonsense, nonsense!
Philosophy itself is non-sense!

Do all your shopping at Wall Mart

Later still (hey, it's a long song -- 21 minutes)

Two party system!
Struggle!
Gain control of the government!
Executive branch!
Military branch!
Foreign affairs!
Influence policy!
Promote ideology; fascism!
Promote individual interests;
George Stephanopoulous, Imelda Marcos!
Promote special interests;
Sugar, Beef, Bananas, Lumber, Pork bellies, Pork barrels, Coca-Cola!
The information superhighway!
Three thousand years of oppression!
Who enslaved people of color?
Who invaded the Caribbean?
Who murdered all the innocent children?!
You did! You! You! You!

Wow, I definitely like the most unwanted better than the most wanted. But I guess that's how it goes with modern music, the badder you get the gooder the song. I couldn't make it through all of either of them.

I find modern music (when not intended to be a joke) is often less enjoyable than 19th century and earlier music, but it is often more interesting. But then there is modern music that is both enjoyable AND interesting. Morton Lauridson's Lux Aeterna (1998?) is a wonderful choral piece. So is Stephen Paulus' Pilgrim's hymn is one of my favorites.

Here's the Houston Chamber Choir, outdoors, lip syncing themselves.

As a commie atheist fag, I find choral religious music to be among the loveliest of genres.

As a commie atheist fag, I find choral religious music to be among the loveliest of genres. — BC

As a capitalistic theist Jew straight fucker, I find sitting in the pews of empty churches, especially small quaint ones, among the most peaceful places to sit.

As a commie atheist fag I find choral religious music to be among the loveliest of genres. — BC

As a lilly-livered liberal, unitarianish, cis-heteronormative, patriarchal dude I agree. I find it more moving when the singers are in a formal chorus than I do in this informal setting. Then again, I can just close my eyes.

Shit, @Hanover beat me to it.

Shit, Hanover beat me to it. — T Clark

It's what he does.

Isn't it remarkable how one gender who resents or rejects the state of society and the resulting "average person" of whichever gender (typically the lesser, subjected one) is now deemed "unfit to reproduce" aka "a homosexual". Or to believe in an idea of a god that could not be farther from anything now or ever divine and is merely a racial proxy for race war as an "atheist". Economic systems are one thing, it's far from unreasonable to think another person who perceptibly threatens one's way of life (has the ability to render their entire life choices and work as meaningless) as negative.

But the counterargument is, yes if there is indeed a problem with society, reaching to the opposite gender required to reproduce and continue life itself, if you know this, yet do nothing to fix it and prefer to say get your "love" from the same gender again (and this is the most important part) recognizing there is a problem and doing nothing, should, for the sake of continuity of an intelligent, productive, human race, you be called an otherwise meaningless three letter word? I mean, it's like giving up. Isn't it?

Ahh, Outlander... are you talking about me or somebody else? I recognize myself in your statements as though through a glass darkly; but it does seem likely you are addressing me.

Could you perhaps say what you want a bit more directly?

I do resent the way society operates; I'd reject this society if it would then go away, but it won't.

It's getting late, so I won't attempt to explain it all, but the source of my dissatisfaction is a weird mix of Jesus, Karl Marx, and gay liberation. Of the three, the influence of Jesus came first, then gay liberation, then Marx. It's an odd mix, for sure -- not the usual cocktail.

I'm getting old and I don't have the energy to fan the flames of discontent like I did, once upon a time. Then too, there comes a point when one 'settles'. One accepts the way the world is, not because it is so good (it is not) but because the world is so much the way it is. We're stuck with it, as is, for now.

and prefer to say get your "love" from the same gender again — Outlander

What is important is that love is love. That we love and are loved is the object. The gender of the love object is not important.

Anyway. I've been called very rude things before for reasons that couldn't be further from anything they're supposed to actually mean and did not internalize them to the point of identity, however since I could not properly explain myself due to likelihood of purposeless conflict inherent to the situation in which it occurred where due to the factors present I would have had zero chance of winning, If I ever had to be around those people who I was originally unable to defend myself (and thus my identity) around, one would naturally have resurfaced feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt.

To be able to recognize a lie for what it is, no matter how vile, loud, or internalized by violence or orchestrated "misfortune" it is and to help others overcome similar illusion is a magnificent feeling. I only wish the same for others. So long as I breathe, this is what I will do.

It is a very big deal. You can make a rational, intelligent person believe they're a specie of insect with enough shouting and physical violence. Even short of physical violence, implied violence. The brain will internalize this as what it needs to accept and occur to ease the suffering and restore mental homeostasis. It's military psychology and I thought in this day and age it would have long been put to rest.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Friday:

Bang on, sir! :up: I bang on drums after work. I’ve a feeling that if i banged the drums AT work, I’d soon have a lot more free time to drum even more. Hmmm...

The Todd Rundgren album and Sir Douglas Quintet (from Texas) have a sort of similar sound

This doesn't:

That one's for @Mikie

:gasp:

This doesn't: — Baden

The sound is awful but it has a nice snide title that sniveling nabobs of negativism** who aren't rotting in the free world can snicker at.

**Spiro T. Agnew, resigned in his second term as VP after pleading no contest to corruption charges. He also said, "I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort."

Last bite of tiramisu

That was the song my mother used to rock me to sleep to.