Episode 245: Stennie’s b’day, shout-outs, Movies (Stennie: The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia), What’s Up With That?, Most Surprising Fact I Learned This Week, Pet Stories, Happy birthday Man-Cub, Oh My, How Times Have Changed, New Favorites, Fuck-Offs and You-Rules, Movie Character Tweets.
Music: “The Hucklebuck,” performed Sierra Rein, Lee Rocker and Frank Sinatra. “Movies” bumper by Duke, “New Fave” bumper by Krizzer.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Per your recommendation, I’ve started watching The Choir. So far, it’s a mixed verdict. I wasn’t at all surprised that the group got to go to China, but that strongly was influenced by “well, by the way, if we come we’re bringing the BBC with us”. That tape wouldn’t get anyone into a serious competition. I haven’t seen if they were invited as competitors or “exhibition” groups. I’ve been to one of those big international choir festivals in China (it wasn’t called the Choir Olympics” in those days, and the number of choirs that actually compete for the final prize are few, but they let everyone show up and do a song or two. (for a fee, of course).
Gareth seems like a nice enough guy, but naive and missing the mark. First, if you want to act like Lord Bountiful and bring music to the great unwashed, you start the first year by letting in a large choir and teaching them stuff. You don’t get all exclusive and keep kicking kids out. I know there’s things we don’t see, but he’s not really teaching them in ways that are likely to connect with them and get them up to speed. He seems to be teaching them like they’re experienced choir singers. The other thing that’s getting me is those kids who keep refusing to sing songs — I didn’t quite hear whether it was because they were Muslim or atheists. “We can’t sing this one, it mentions Cupid”. In a situation like this, they’d be out of the choir so fast — very few places for a competition, and you have people who are unable to sing half the songs. They need a fully participating choir, if they’re going gung ho for a competition with an extremely limited roster. It’s not about religious rights – singing sacred music (of many cultures) is a part of this kind of choral singing. If you have objections to this kind of music, perhaps you need to find something to do that fits you better. I’ve sung in paid church choirs where about a third of the singers were Jewish. You don’t get converted to another religion my mentioning the word “angel” or even “Jesus”.
I know I have the only other post, but an update on the house…which isn’t mine. A hearty eff-off to the real estate agent who misrepresented the status of the other contract to make it sound like if I put in a contract, it was mine. I was being played to force the other buyer to drop their addenda to their contract. Boo.
Thanks for the Man-Cub’s birthday shout-out. When I told him about it, and asked him what he thought, he said, “That’s fucking AWESOME.”
I think movie-character tweets were a win. Could use some work, but overall, a good and fresh addition to the topics hopper.
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY, STENNIE! I feel lamer than lame for missing it. If only I had logged into Facebook, I would have known!! (Because, as you know, I’m a man and we can’t remember birthdays for shit.)
I also feel bad because I haven’t been listening. It’s been hectic and our younger cat had an impacted tooth that actually cut through his cheek and got infected. Of course, it just looked like a bad scratch to me, so I didn’t do anything until he scratched the scab off and started to bleed. Before that, while I still wasn’t doing anything, the infection spread to his kidneys, so when he did finally start to bleed (just the next day) I could tell the blood was infected and took him immediately to the vet. Not a fun time to discover I get queasy at the sight of blood flowing blood. The vet kept him overnight and the next day I learned I’d have to give him 4 different kinds of meds, including an IV. Not a fun time to learn I really don’t like needles.
The good news is that after a really tense week of needles, meds, and seeing Zaphod literally look like a pet to a cast member on “The Walking Dead”, his face is almost entirely healed. There’s a little tiny, red scab where the wound was and his fur is slowly growing back. I had to put the cone of shame back on him though because he was still scratching at his bare flesh. Even with trimmed claws, he was creating little tiny breaks in his skin. This time, though, I had to use an old red bandanna to keep his cone on. It makes him look very folksy. I think I might see if he likes some Hackensaw Boys music. 🙂
During all that stress, I failed to notice that my iPod Shuffle still refuses to play the Hucklebug. I don’t know why, it just refuses to. So now I’ve got it playing on my Nano–but I would have realized it had it been any other week. :\
In other news, I did watch “The Wild and Wonderful World of the Whites” and didn’t care for it. I felt like I was watching a reality show. I really hate reality shows. They make me feel better about myself, but really shitty about humanity.
Andy Rooney has been 195, on the inside, since he was born. My “favorite” segment of his was when he pointed out that technology doesn’t actually help us doing anything better. Made me so mad–it’s EASIER, ANDY! EASIER with technology. >_< Still angers me to this day. Fucker is the king of straw-man arguments. He might as well just start every segment with: "Let me set this utterly false premise up and then criticize it. Don't question it, just stare at my eyebrows."
Didn't Andy Rooney once talk about how Santa Claus doesn't exist in his segment?
I LOVE your topic this week–because I'm a geek, here's mine:
@desertplanetfarmboy tweets: Heading over to Toshi Station–hope my stupid uncle doesn't take me droid shopping again."
Hear ya next week, ladies!
Happy Friday ladies…it’s been a long summer..oh wait, did I miss it? just about to come up for air (the show closes Sunday) then I’ll have LOTS of time to catch up on the HB. I am looking forward to having my life back so I can learn what’s happening in yours. I miss you both!! Stennie, save a long weekend for the last weekend of January…details coming.
love
MMM