Every once in awhile, I’ll go to the BBC to see what’s shaking.
IFC-TV is running a series of Python reunion movies and documentaries: Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers’ Cut). At least we can see the video clips (I guess Brits can’t).
I just like this title.
Maybe Madonna should just buy the whole building.
Roman Polanski is fried. I really have mixed feelings about this whole thing. What do you say?
I don’t know how I found it last night, but somehow I ended up on some guy’s Flickr site about transistor radios. It was a walk down Memory Lane.
Back in the early 70s (around ’70-’73), Mavis and I would spend our entire summers at “The Pond” in Brown Deer (a suburb of Milwaukee) where we grew up. It was a manmade lake, complete with trucked-in sand for a beach. If you could swim to “the raft” — a stationary platform in the center of the pond where the lifeguard perch was located — then you had truly arrived, and they’d let you swim in the “deep end,” which was all of six feet. (I cannot BELIEVE I found a group of people on Facebook who started a BD Pond fan page! Ka-RAZY. Of course I joined, and so did Mavis. We had a huge laff.) Our parents bought us each a transistor radio to take with us. We used them everywhere, especially in our bedrooms.
I specifically remember putting the radio under my pillow and listening to WLS or WOKY play a list of Beatles tunes in the spring of 1970, when Paul “officially” left the group. I was so sad. The last song they played was “The Long and Winding Road,” and it was late (probably like 10 p.m., but to me it seemed like the middle of the night). I knew I’d be in a world of trouble if Mother walked in and caught me awake, listening to the radio. I loved that radio. I can’t really recall exactly what it looked like, but it was something like what is pictured here (cool photos courtesy of the aforementioned guy). It’s likely close enough; our parents bought everything at Sears.
Dad had one of these in the garage. When he’d do yard work or work on the car, he’d listen to Cubs games on it.
And I can’t remember if I had one of these mod round radios or not. I *think* I did…Mavis, did I ever? If I didn’t, I know I always wished I did.
We didn’t know thing one about sound quality; highs and mid-range and what have you. We just knew that we could take these little jobs to the Pond and spend all day singing along to “It’s Too Late” and “Maggie Mae” and “American Woman” while we nursed our intense crushes on lifeguards named Reinhardt, Jeff and Bob.
Good, good times. *sigh*
Happy Monday — off to another insane week.
Fink, all nostalgic
~ Why is there such blatant disregard for the Golden Rule nowadays? Maybe it’s always been that way. Here’s a guy who has apparently spent a lot of time thinking about it.
~ We expect 18-year-olds to have a plan for their lives by graduation. They can vote, be prosecuted as adults, and take a bullet in Afghanistan. They can buy tobacco, a lottery ticket and a rifle. But they can’t buy a glass of wine at a restaurant.
~ This is funny, and pretty much true:
~ In my BU class (Have I mentioned that this is the last graduate course I will ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever take?), we’re discussing democratic education — you know, the “pedagogy of the oppressed”: letting students basically take over their school experience, questioning authority and raging against the educational machine. For the first time, I feel really, truly old fashioned and out-of-date. But I don’t care. I said the other day in class that I think this particular aspect of education, among other things, is what helped start the downward spiral in the first place. But that isn’t a very popular viewpoint nowadays. (I’ve used the word “nowadays” twice in this post so far…now I know I’m old. Soon I’ll be ordering gimlets with dinner.)
~ Even in a world where violence and war are all around us every day, to the point where the whole thing becomes somewhat routine and we are no longer horrified, I still marvel at man’s inhumanity to man.
~ Sometimes, I just want to write for a living. Sometimes. Don’t get me wrong; I love my students. It’s, well…those other people. I know: those other people are everywhere.
~ I saw this on a friend’s Facebook profile. Made me laugh, especially starting at about 1:57. I didn’t know this comedian’s stuff at all. He rather puts things in perspective, no? (Notice his play-in is “Kids” from Birdie)
~
~ The Thriller and I are going to see the Broadway touring production of Young Frankenstein this afternoon in Cleveland. How fun will this be? I will report back.
Until then, my fiends,
Fink out (of ideas on how to start the thesis — it’s only 24 pages; could it be that bad?)
In the movie Risky Business, Tom Cruise says something about yanking down your drawers and sliding on the ice. That’s kind of what’s going on here.
I’ve had to make all kinds of adjustments/cuts in the vocal and orchestral score for this show, and the kids are doing well with it. (Haven’t had orchestra rehearsal yet, so I don’t know about those krazy kats…but I’m sure it will be fine.)
Some people do really well with flying by the shoelaces; others freak. Some people do their homework little by little and just put finishing touches on it the night before it’s due; others wait till the last minute and pull an all-nighter (I’ve been guilty of this). Some people are like, “Feh,” and others worry and fret about every little thing in life. Takes all kinds, I suppose.
What kind are you? Are you the last-minute guy, or the “I’ve had it planned out and gradually processed for weeks” type? I guess you could be both, depending upon the situation. I tend to procrastinate on BU stuff, entering grades, the district website…but I am just about always prepared for choir rehearsals every day, and musical rehearsals every night. Me funny.
Several of my RtB fiends asked me what was going on with yesterday’s post (my wanting to commit various & sundry felonies). It was very much along the lines of improvisation: taking the unexpected garbage and making stroganoff out of it. Lemonade. You know.
All right. Enough psychoanalysis for today. I’ll leave that up to the Thriller.
FO
…want to kill and maim. And kill. Feel me?
Fink out.