Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
Clip to Blog

Because summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the street....

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 30, 2012 9:37 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Hot Weather in Richmond this Weekend

WTVR CBS 6 in Richmond, VA provides the last weather forecast you'll ever need.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 29, 2012 6:42 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
This Is the Oldest Record In History—Scanned and Recreated From a Photo

A recording made in the 19th century of the voice of a man born in the 18th century.

"Sometime in 1889, Emile Berliner recorded the first album in the history of the world. Then, that record by the father of the gramophone was destroyed. Today, Patrick Feaster, a sound historian at Indiana University, recreated the album using just a printed photograph of the album. His technique defies belief.

"Feaster found the photo of the album by chance, in a German magazine from 1890 stored at Bloomington's Herman B Wells Library:

I was looking for a picture of the oldest known recording studio, to illustrate a discussion I was giving on my work with Thomas Edison's recordings. I pulled it off the shelf and, while I had it open, I looked at the index and saw there was an article on the gramophone. I thought, 'Oh, that's a bonus. So I flipped through and, lo and behold, there's a paper print of the actual recording.

"Let me emphasize that last point: there was no relief on that photo. As the video above shows, it was printed on paper. The image was completely flat, absolutely bi-dimensional. It had none of the three-dimensional valleys and mountains that make the sound in an album.

"But Fester is an expert on resuscitating records from photographs. He scanned that image at a very high resolution. Then, using image processing software, he enhanced the resulting image. After obtaining the sound profile hidden in the shadows of the print, he used software to recreate the actual sound. -- Gizmodo



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 29, 2012 6:20 PM | Comments (14)  | QuickLink: Permalink
KA-POW!: The Higher Education Bubble



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 29, 2012 2:11 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Street Legal Objets d'Art: The Derelicts -- Part 2

Gourmet Films Presents "Icons & Derelicts" Part 2 from Gourmet Footwear on Vimeo.

Updating this classic item from last February: Street Legal Objets d'Art: The Derelicts by ICON @ AMERICAN DIGEST

The vehicle uses a complete powder-coated Art Morrison chassis with a front independent suspension and a four-link rear. An all-aluminum, fuel-injected 6.2-liter General Motors LS3 V8 sits between the frame rails and cranks out 430 horsepower. The engine is mated to a 4L65E automatic transmission and a full set of six-piston brakes with anti-lock control ensures that the whole party can come to a stop in a timely fashion. Despite looking like junkyard relics, the wheels are actually custom CNC-machined pieces shod in ZR-rated BF Goodrich rubber.
If the Coupe's mechanicals and exterior aren't enough to flip your switches, take a peek indoors. Both seats have been recovered in a combination of wild-caught alligator and buffalo hides(!) that have been dyed to the same Hermes hue as John F. Kennedy's briefcase. The carpet is Rolls-Royce Wilton wool bound in buffalo as well, and an Aston Martin vintage mohair headliner finishes out the indoors. An array of tech is also tastefully hidden away as well, including Focal and Parrot audio components with Bluetooth capability. -- Icon Derelict '52 Chevy Business Coupe is unassuming masterpiece


Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 28, 2012 12:31 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Taxing Economic Inactivity

I'm unclear on how I can be "taxed" on something I don't buy; something I don't do. I understand how I can be fined or forced to pay a penalty for failing to do something, but it seems to me that "taxation" is a different kind of pocket picking by the state.

If I earn nothing I pay no income tax. If I buy nothing I pay no sales tax. If I own nothing I pay no property tax. If, however, I do nothing I pay an Obamacare "tax" which is not part of the general pool of tax revenue. So is the new deal that I can be taxed simply for being born in America, just for existing as an American, for just standing around breathing? I guess so.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 28, 2012 11:22 AM | Comments (19)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Obamacare: "The Greatest Tax Increase in the History of the World" -- Limbaugh

joyland.jpg

"Don't mourn. Organize." -- Joe Hill

"Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
       formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms
       and counter-storms of general destruction; killing of men,
Destruction of all goods and materials; massacre, more or
       less intentional, of children and women;
Destruction poured down from wings, the air made accomplice,
       the innocent air
Perverted into assasin and poisoner.

"The sword: that is: treachery and cowardice, incredible
       baseness, incredible courage, loyalties, insanities.
The sword: weeping and despair, mass-enslavement,
       mass-torture, frustration of all hopes
That starred man's forhead. Tyranny for freedom, horror for
       happiness, famine for bread, carrion for children.
Reason will not decide at last, the sword will decide."

-- Robinson Jeffers



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 28, 2012 9:09 AM | Comments (25)  | QuickLink: Permalink
To Watch the World Burn

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

-- Kipling- 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings'



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 28, 2012 8:21 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
How puny are the works of Man!

fireflag.jpg
Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation....Our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. -- Isaiah 64:10-12

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown described the blaze as "a fire of epic proportions," as tens of thousands of Colorado residents and tourists have been evacuated ahead of the growing, potentially disastrous Waldo Canyon fire. -- "Epic" Colorado Wildfires

And behold, "How puny are the works of man!"Sense of Events:

AirForceFire.jpg

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 27, 2012 10:44 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Dear Haters

A response to some of the (actual) comments on One Nation Under God: A Book for Little Patriots.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 27, 2012 9:54 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Who Is John Galt? Who Is Karl Rove? Who Is Paying the Marching Morons?

A credit to their cause: Karl Rove Protesters Can’t Really Describe Who Karl Rove Is.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 27, 2012 9:34 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
I'm Farming and I Grow It

When I'm up at seven, the sunrise gives me a glimpse of heaven
I get right to work, a farmer's life can be a little berserk yeah
This is how I roll, I feed the cattle till their stomachs are full
Treat em right, that's my belief,
What's for dinner? I say beef!

Gotta feed Everybody
Gotta Feed Everybody
Gotta Feed Everybody
(Uh-Huh) I work out (side!)

When I step to the bunk (yeah)
This is what I see (Uh-huh)
All the hungry cattle are staring at me

I got passion for my plants and I ain't afraid to show it show it show it show it
I'm farming and I grow it

When I'm in my tractor, I got more power than an arc reactor
And when I'm in the field, I try to raise crops to maximum yield
This is how I roll, without me the world would be outta control
The hours I work, there is no equal
Gotta feed the mouths of hungry people

Gotta Feed Everybody
Gotta Feed Everybody
Gotta Feed Everybody
(Uh-Huh) I work out (side!)

When I step to the bunk (yeah)
This is what I see (Uh-huh)
All the hungry cattle are staring at me

I got passion for my plants and I ain't afraid to show it show it show it show it

I'm farming and I grow it

Water, water, water, water, water
Water, water, water, water, water
Water, water, water, water, water



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 26, 2012 6:14 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: The Empowered Man -- Jon McNaughton

The Empowered Man

There is something simmering deep inside the soul of all Americans. We want to know that we are a free people; that the government acknowledges our individual rights; that fiscal responsibility is an absolute requirement. We want our presidents and politicians to mean what they say when they take the oath of office..."to defend the Constitution of the United States!"

Do we have freedom when half the country pays taxes to support the other half?

Do we have freedom when government regulates every aspect of our lives?

Do we have freedom when our currency is controlled by a corporation that has no accountability to the American people?

Do we have freedom when we have more debt than can possibly be repaid?

The government bureaucracy is to a point where it is no longer worth what the tax payer is required to maintain it. I wonder how many Americans realize they have sold our God given freedoms for a mess of pottage.

I hope everyone will see themselves as the Empowered Man. It makes no difference whether you are a man or woman, how old you are, or the color of your skin. You must decide to no longer be silent, to get off your bench, pick up that Constitution and hold it high in the air as a standard for the world to see. Don't hold back! Don't be silent! You are the future of this nation and without YOU, the American dream will perish.
==
Link to McNaughton Fine Art is HERE



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 26, 2012 9:01 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"We no longer have time for the good, the beautiful, or whether or not something is true. We have only time for conversation"

lamuseumrock.jpg

Everybody not only must get stoned, everybody is.

340-ton rock makes its debut at L.A. County Museum of Art: A crowd of people attends the opening of 'Levitated Mass', artist Michael Heizer's exhibit which features a 340-ton megalith rock now on permanent display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, June 24. The massive granite rock made headlines in March when it was slowly carted along a winding, 105-mile journey from Riverside County to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

As Don Rodrigo in the comments puts it: "Wow. The Pet Rock craze is back. But this time it's a government pet rock; hence, the huge size, the over-the-top logistics involved and the massive expense."

As Gloria in the comments puts it: "This form of art reminds me of Obama. He doesn't do anything either; he can't do anything because he has no skills. So he thinks up things in the abstract, like health care or special immigration waivers. But just like the artist here, he doesn't have the skills to create anything intelligent or intelligible or beautiful or truthful."

I try to become more cynical everyday, but lately I just can't keep up.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 25, 2012 11:56 AM | Comments (19)  | QuickLink: Permalink
ADD: The Mainstream Media Disease

[Note: This is a test of your attention span. If you can't read all of this you may be infected by media-induced ADD. Seek professional help.]

deadseapaper.jpg

Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind

- Eliot, Burnt Norton

The Short Attention Spans of Media Professionals Mean a Hyperactive Headline Glut for You

headtwist.jpg Recently I became acquainted with a young boy, just turned nine. He's a brilliant and happy kid, but he has a problem with cleaning up and organizing his room. It isn't that he can't do it, he simply has to be told about every five minutes to continue the process. In the course of picking things up to put away he discovers anew their potential to fascinate him.

The Gameboy? "Oh, here's where I saved that last stage of Turoc. Let's see if I can get the flame-thrower and..."

Any one of the 3,000 + Lego units? "Gee, I never did get the moon base hemi-dome set up, just let me put these 400 blocks in place and..." Books? "Sure thing and, hey, did Horton ever hatch that egg..."

On it goes until, after the sixth or seventh cajoling instruction, a path has been cleared for the vacuum cleaner. After which, he promptly begins taking everything he has put away out and strews it about the floor once again.

Today's pop psychologists, addlepated educators and the marketing departments of large drug companies are hard at work trying to convince me children who behave like this have "Attention Deficit Disorder" or ADD. But I know enough to know it is the companies who are obsessed, confused and greedy in about that order.

What this young boy suffers from is no more than being a normal, heedless and all around great nine-year-old boy. He doesn't have ADD anymore than I have an elephant chained in my back yard. (Yes, I just checked.)

The only group that I can see in the United States that, as a group, is seriously afflicted with ADD is a group of would-be adults -- the group we call collectively "The Mainstream Media." For members of this group ADD is not an option, it is a requirement. Far from being a means to informing and enlightening the public, the primary role of the MSM is to distract it. At this they are very good since they are "Distracted from distraction by distraction" by their very nature. They are "the ADD professionals." They actually get paid for doing this. Paid well for having a disease.

Let's review....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Jun 24, 2012 1:27 AM | Comments (21)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Bill Whittle: Follow the Ideology

Gun control via brainwashing Americans "under the radar."



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 23, 2012 2:56 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
At MsNBC the Lie Goes In Before the Name Goes On [Updated]

It's just a continuing fornication festival for the PhotoBlog boys working their way up at the traitors' network this week. First it was the creative editing of the Romney speech by Andrea "I'm lying as fast as I can" Mitchell and now they round out Friday with one of their classic pro-Palestinian bias jobs.

Step one: Take a photo of an Isreal/Palestinian land dispute (hardly rare, what?), and whip it out to the net with the thoughtful courageous headline:

msnbcphotoblogrssfeed.jpg

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 22, 2012 4:02 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Dumbocrat on Drugs

Polis Questions DEA on Marijuana Policy - YouTube

Congressman Jared Polis questions DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart during a hearing on the agency's priorities. He repeatedly pressed the administrator on the relative health impacts of marijuana versus other drugs.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 21, 2012 4:54 PM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: 50 Years of The Beach Boys -- The Lost Concert (1964)

=== Lista de canciones ===
1) Fun, Fun, Fun
2) Long, Tall Texan
3) Little Deuce Coupe
4) Surfer Girl
5) Surfin' USA
6) Shut Down
7) In my Room
8) Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
9) Hawaii

The release last fall, after 44 years, of the Beach Boys' abandoned masterpiece Smile is a milestone of American popular culture. Rolling Stone has called it "the most famous unfinished album in rock & roll history." But Smile is also something much bigger. It is the pinnacle artistic achievement of a lost civilization, the middle-class, baby-boom, sun-soaked, clean-cut, work-hard-play-hard, bungalow-and-car culture of post-war Southern California. It was a paradise for the common man, one that produced legions of loyal and productive citizens, developed the modern aerospace industry, helped the West win the Cold War, and exported an attractive and fundamentally decent (if often vapid) vision of American life to every corner of the globe. -- Michael Anton - Paradise Lost and Regained


Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 21, 2012 2:11 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
THE ULTIMATE AR-15 MALL NINJA TACTICAL ZOMBIE DESTROYER (Just In Case the November Elections Don't Work Out)
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 21, 2012 1:57 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Origins of Their Faith

chine-cherche-steriliser-10-000-parents-l-1.jpg

They expose the unwanted infant
On a hot, flat stone or throw it,
By the feet, whirling into the ravine
For the ravens' obscene brunch,
And walk back down
The barren brindle hill
To their village of rocks,
Hearing the mother moan,
Noting the father's stern smile.
All male, the state demands,
And sound.



Posted by Vanderleun Jun 20, 2012 10:41 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
DUCK!

Summer is now officially here!

pb-120619-thrownbat-923p.jpg
Fans try to avoid a thrown bat by Seattle Mariners' Brendan Ryan against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of an interleague baseball game, Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in Phoenix.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 19, 2012 10:05 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Ideology of Art

canseewholeroom.jpg
[ Commenter Minta Marie Morze on art in the discussion The Cult of Ugliness ]

My personal assessment is that until about the middle of the 1800s, a lot of people who were artists or scientists were those who had both a driving desire and a true ability to follow such a career. A lot of people who might have been economically unable to follow art or science were recognized by their abilities and then apprenticed or brought into the art or scientific world by those they impressed. More than anything else, it used to be the quality of the work they were capable of doing that gave them entrée to the worlds of art or science.

For the last century or so, there have been ideologically-driven departments organized in colleges and other training arenas that receive large funding for their departments from those who have similar ideologies and have access to both private and public funds that can be disbursed. This has led to (1) criteria for "€œofficial"€ entrée, curricula, educators, and credentialing following the ideology; (2) great numbers of students going into the fields who would not have been able to do so if it were still a matter of determination and measurable ability; and, (3) ideologically mapped-out routes for achieving professorships, peer reviews and/or private reputations, funding, gallery exhibition, and so on. Now, more and more, OUTSIDE of engineering, technology, and certain sections of science, and, in a parallel way, "€œmere illustration"€ (for instance by the above-named Boris Vallejo and Norman Rockwell) -- €”all of which demand Skillful Results -- €”[IDEOLOGY] has instead become the MOTIVE behind the art or science that has largely channeled entrée to these vocations. (This is true now for a lot of other fields, too, such as Journalism, the "€œsocial sciences"€, and so forth.)

Now a true desire connected to a true ability too often meets with fierce and immediate roadblocks. In art, the official prestigious critical, gallery, and museum pathways are [open] by motive only. In science, more and more "peer review"€ and publication is becoming limited by motive-driven work.

Motive is becoming everything, and the Big Money follows the Motive. There have been some remarkable frauds discovered in science lately, and a lot more [are] suspected. And an examination of modern artwork shows that in too many prestigious areas it is hollow and ugly -- €”and carries unbelievable price tags. And these works are being purchased, and others ignored.

Yes, I am well aware there is still excellent science and art and reporting and teaching going on. But the sheer numbers of the others, and the prestigious reputations and really incredible amounts of money that can be had by taking the already set-up motive-driven routes is almost overpowering to some people -- €”and to those with little or no talent in their chosen field, it is often the only path to money and position. And they take that path that has opened before them. Sometimes they even lie to themselves about what they are accomplishing, because they really want to do something worthwhile; but, sometimes they know precisely what game they are playing.

Posted by: Minta Marie Morze at June 18, 2012 4:56 PM



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 19, 2012 7:58 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Why Beauty is Important


BBC - Why Beauty Matters - Full Version - BBC... by singaporegeek

"We no longer have time for the good,
the beautiful,
or whether or not something is true.
We have only time for conversation."
-- John Cage

No, do not go. Rest easy here awhile. This will take time, true, but the good, the true, and the beautiful always does. Here "Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives, making a case for restoring it to the centre of our civilisation."

[This meditation on beauty in this ugly age came up in the extended discussion regarding "The Cult of Ugliness" in the Sidebar over there on the right. I remembered that I had indeed showcased Scrunton's program in its entireity back in 2009. Here it is again. More that worth the 58 minutes it takes to watch it. That is if you care about the beautiful. And you do, right?]

Some quotes:

"What is shocking the first time round is boring and vacuous when repeated. This makes art into an elaborate joke but one that has ceased to be funny."

"The greatest crime against beauty the world has yet seen. The crime of modern architecture."

"Nothing is more useful than the useless. People come here because it is the last bit of life around and the life comes from the building.... Our feeling for beauty is a spiritual and not a sensual emotion. Beauty is a visitor from another world. We can do nothing with it save contemplate its pure radiance. Anything else pollutes and desecrates it. Destroying its sacred aura."

"There has been, among today's artists, a desire to destroy and to desecrate.... This willful desecration is also a denial of love; a desire to remake the world as though love were not a part of it.... Conceptual art is entirely word-bound. It is a work of art is exhausted in its description."

"The ugliest of modern art and architecture does not show reality but takes revenge on it. The call of beauty is what gives our life meaning.... We must look for the path back from the desert, the place where the real and the ideal may still exist in harmony.... The sacred and the beautiful stand side by side. Two doors that open onto a single space, and in that space we find our home."



Posted by Vanderleun Jun 19, 2012 7:43 AM | Comments (22)  | QuickLink: Permalink
At the Sulzberger's Summer Home

20090505_nytimes_560x375.jpg

Bright blooms of flame spattered shadows on that tide
Whose strangling fingers clawed into our land,
And scraped out slots like graves upon our sand.

A far-off signal flared and sputtering fell,
Its bloom of sparks splashed deep in slate,
But, like our last edition, this signal came too late.

The drumming bursts of broken cannons
Stomped along the edges of our gilded cage,
And faded like the lies we smeared on our front page,

Faded until all we heard of want or wish or war
Were the screams of our grandchildren slain
Beyond our gilded sand, upon our once fruited plain.



Posted by Vanderleun Jun 18, 2012 4:30 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Цекало и Puttin` отожгли на Воробьевых горах (Super Dooper!)
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 18, 2012 12:51 PM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Wars and Rumors of Wars and Wars with Bows and Arrows

pb-120618-papua-da-02.jpg
Papuan tribal warriors armed with bows and arrows and improvised shields move into position as clashes erupted anew between two tribes in Kwamki Lama village in Mimikaa, a district located in Indonesia's restive Papua province, on June 18, 2012. -- Arrows fly as tribal clashes break out in Indonesia's Papua

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. -- Matthew 24:7



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 18, 2012 11:27 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Portal - When Video Games Become Real
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 12, 2012 5:02 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Somthing Wonderful: Welcome To Any World, Maine
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 10, 2012 9:49 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: "I have great "water clock" of Osaka Station"
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 8, 2012 12:54 PM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Someone Wonderful: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

aawpid2234-schwabel_ray-bradbury2.jpg

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 6, 2012 9:08 AM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Newspaper Death: Dr. Johnson and Today's Liars for Hire

Buh-bye: In 'survival mode,' newspapers slashing jobs -Washington Times

"In Sir Henry Wotton's jocular definition, 'An ambassador is said to be a man of virtue sent abroad to tell lies for the advantage of his country ; a news-writer is a man without virtue, who writes lies at home for his own profit.'"

sam-johnson.jpg
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention, and the world therefore swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read. -- Samuel Johnson, The Idler, #30, 1758

One of my odd hobbies is to read authors so ancient that they are only seldom taught and even less read in our post-post-modern world. Currently these authors are Montaigne and Dr. Johnson. A glance at the prose of these two giants is usually enough to warn today's readers to flee. Dense, extended paragraphs are composed of prolix sentences packed to the the gills with ten-dollar words. Unlike the thin consumé of contemporary fare served lukewarm and then constantly reheated in newspapers, magazines, and the books on the best-seller lists, these authors are thought to be difficult and, in absolute terms, they are. But in reading as in life, it is generally the case that the path of greater difficulty leads to the greater reward.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Jun 5, 2012 8:17 AM | Comments (25)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Shape the Invisible

"Somewhere a small boy is playing with his toys
Someday his innocence
Will Shape The Invisible"

Sooner or later, some society will want to escape the dreaded "€œDing-Ding-a-Dong"€ which Steyn describes. Which society shall it be? Text your replies to the World Idol Contest, now accepting votes. It's for North America to lose. But nothing is certain in this world. Even homeless men in Korea can dream. Success can emerge in surprising places. It always has. -- Belmont Club » The Twilight and the Dawn
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jun 4, 2012 2:36 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Uses of Sixties Slang

tellmewhatzapcomics.jpg

Long ago when the Web was the Net and Social Media was Usenet, I spent some years at a watering hole called The Well. From my own personal collection of lists made in those years, I came across this small selection of Sixties slang in the context it was used that I think I made around 1989.

Additions and corrections gratefully accepted.

  • ACED:"We aced him out!"
  • AX:"He blows a bad ax."
  • BAAAD:"Hey, I checked out yer old lady today.She's baaad,man."
  • BARF:"You barf after the peyote milkshakes, bro, but, hey, it's beautiful."
  • BALLSY:"She is one ballsy chick."
  • BALLING:"So we smoked some righteous reefer and spent the afternoon balling our brains out."
  • BLOW YOUR COOL:"What ever you do, don't blow your cool."
  • BLEW HIM AWAY:"The pigs just blew him away with their shotguns."
  • BOONDOCKS:"Let's make it to this pad I scammed out in the boondocks."
  • BREAD:"Dope will get you through times without bread better than bread will get you through times without dope."
  • BRING DOWN: “No, oh no!, don’t bring me down. No, no, no, no, no…”
  • BUMMER:"Bummmmmmmmmer!"
  • BUBBLEGUM MUSIC:"Scott McKenzie, my ass! He's the king of teenyboppers and bubblegum music."
  • CATCH SOME RAYS:"You've caught enuf zzz's, let's hit the beach and catch some rays."
  • CLICK:"That town's about 50 clicks back in the boondocks."
  • COPE:"I've got no dope and cannot cope."
  • CRASH:"I just wanna flash before I crash."
  • CRASH PAD:"Flash runs a shooting parlor and crash pad for teenyboppers in the Haight."
  • DINKS:"When I was in Nam we used to waste dinks just to pass the time."
  • DING A LING:"He's a star-class ding-a-ling."
  • DO YOUR THING:"I do my thing and you do your thing and if by chance they meet, hey, it's yabyum."
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Jun 1, 2012 11:25 PM | Comments (39)  | QuickLink: Permalink
G2E Media GmbH

MONTHLY ARCHIVES


SIDELINES

FIND


BACKMATTER

RECENT ITEMS