jago's recent activity
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Comment on Sharing my music with Tildes in ~creative
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Comment on What we know about the explosion at the hospital in Gaza in ~news
jago LinkOver NYT's paywall: https://archive.ph/Lc90tOver NYT's paywall:
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Bi-Weekly Thread in ~games
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Bi-Weekly Thread in ~games
jago Link ParentI made Don't You Look Fletching, and a few other bad-pun-named bows, and left them for anyone to use/have/keep. However you came by it, you're welcome to it.I made Don't You Look Fletching, and a few other bad-pun-named bows, and left them for anyone to use/have/keep.
However you came by it, you're welcome to it.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
jago Link ParentAs I read something by Mark Twain (I don't now remember if it was Innocents Abroad or Huckleberry Finn), I was struck by the description of a Black man's hair as "wool" or "woolly". The...As I read something by Mark Twain (I don't now remember if it was Innocents Abroad or Huckleberry Finn), I was struck by the description of a Black man's hair as "wool" or "woolly".
The contemporary reader mayn't bat an eye at that. We have the hindsight advantage.
I can acknowledge my own reaction to an offensive/racist passage, term, attitude in an extant work, but I can't, wouldn't ever want to, change the fact that it was put there by the author.
That was the zeitgeist. In literature, you have to either say it, roll with it, or predict it.
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Comment on Ten churches around the world that have been repurposed in interesting and creative ways in ~design
jago Link ParentIf I may presume to extend? Religion isn't a church, it's a by-product of "church". As my sometimes-Anglican, sometimes-Baptist, sometimes Messianic-Judaism, confusing but liberal-leaning...If I may presume to extend?
Religion isn't a church, it's a by-product of "church".
As my sometimes-Anglican, sometimes-Baptist, sometimes Messianic-Judaism, confusing but liberal-leaning upbringing taught me, church is not a building, it's a meeting of people coming together (congregating) for a shared interest/collective purpose that provides mutual enjoyment, edification, and as you said, community. The interests in, and purposes for, congregating are as varied as are the people.
To congregate, people must occupy proximate space/time. Their emotions of the moment(s) in that space/time get yoked to the locus, and BOOM! reverence is tagged in memory to the space in which the emotions of the moment occurred.
That's how you get "holy ground" upon which is erected "churches", the sanctity of cemeteries (sanctity? come on, this whole planet is a graveyard), and the idea of consecrating/deconsecrating edifices (the hubris of claiming/releasing some dirt from its ownership of an almighty Origin is celestial-level colonial thinking!)
I don’t mean that to be dismissive of anyone, or anything held emotionally important. Rather, it's on par, a shared experience to anyone who's lost a favourite dance club, pub, restaurant, hell, maybe even a cancelled bus route.
Religion is a curse. Finding your own chuch can be a blessing. Making that church your religion is a curse.
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Comment on Atari 2600+ announced in ~games
jago Link ParentThat's your frame of reference speaking. A friend's dad came home with an early game-machine that he'd borrowed from a co-worker, to entertain the kids. We figuratively played the knobs off that...That's your frame of reference speaking.
A friend's dad came home with an early game-machine that he'd borrowed from a co-worker, to entertain the kids.
We figuratively played the knobs off that PONG console for days, and mourned its eventual return to the owner.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~movies
jago Link ParentI love this film, so low-key and understated. The premise is so interesting: a paranormal/supernatural story told as strictly an 'around-the-campfire' sort of narration. I've not read anything...I love this film, so low-key and understated. The premise is so interesting: a paranormal/supernatural story told as strictly an 'around-the-campfire' sort of narration.
I've not read anything about it regarding others' complaints, and frankly wouldn’t be interested to do so; I just like enjoying the story as told, imagining "what if?"
However I can't say the same for the 2018 sequel, Man From Earth: Holocene, which I found on Amazon Prime. I know I've watched it, and I recognize the synopsis, but for the life of me I can't remember it. That's a mark of its unremarkableness. I'd need to watch it again to remind myself of why it's so forgettable, but I've got so many yet-unwatched other films, and life's too short as it is (ha!)
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Comment on Do you have favorite lighthearted or silly songs? in ~music
jago LinkPinball Number Count by the Pointer Sisters. My fellow North American Gen-X may remember this from Sesame Street in the 70s. When I went about looking it up on YouTube 13 years ago (apparently,...Pinball Number Count by the Pointer Sisters. My fellow North American Gen-X may remember this from Sesame Street in the 70s. When I went about looking it up on YouTube 13 years ago (apparently, according to how long they say it's been that I bookmarked it) I knew nothing about it other than my memories. Something like "Sesame Street pinball song" served it up, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn it had been performed by such a popular act. It still, as I believe the young fronds today like to say, slaps. Or bangs. Or kills. Or some other such violent metaphor for being good to listen to.
Mahna Mahna, just about any version I've heard brings a smile. Favourites are the original by Piero Umilani, the Muppet Show version by Vib Pippadotta & the Snowths (this video is missing a great Stadler & Waldorf outro: S: "Question is, 'What is a Mahna Mahna', W: 'Question is, 'Who cares?!'"), or the cover by Cake. There's also a... version? parody? ... rendition by a duo called Mr Mo that's an egregiously hilarious take that should be watched only by those not offended by hilarious egregiousness. I like to think that this Mr. Mo version is not so spiritually far removed from the use of Umilani's original in its role in the soundtrack of the film Svezia, inferno e paradiso. Admittedly, I've never seen that film in full. I've seen only a snippet of the film with the song as used in the film for background (possible NSFW flag, depending on where you work: young women entering, and shown towel-clad in, a sauna), so my imagined connection to the spirit-of-the-thing is entirely subjective.
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Comment on Do you have favorite lighthearted or silly songs? in ~music
jago Link ParentSo happy to see this one mentioned. It shuffled into rotation on my playlist on the trip to work yesterday. I was reminded of how I would define it, if asked: it's my favourite cover of a Bob...So happy to see this one mentioned. It shuffled into rotation on my playlist on the trip to work yesterday. I was reminded of how I would define it, if asked: it's my favourite cover of a Bob Dylan original.
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Comment on When help shows up after a house fire, it might be gang members in ~life
jago LinkUn-paywalled: https://archive.is/vrE8qUn-paywalled:
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Comment on Rare and working Discs Of Tron arcade cabinet rescued after being left out for trash pickup in ~games
jago Link ParentLabelling the woman who discarded this great find an "idiot" is ungracious. We don't know her. It may be accurate, for all we know she habitually takes 37 hasty and uninformed actions before...- Exemplary
Labelling the woman who discarded this great find an "idiot" is ungracious. We don't know her. It may be accurate, for all we know she habitually takes 37 hasty and uninformed actions before breakfast, but it's surely more kind to say that she was either ignorant of, or uninterested in, the item's value?
Article says,
she wanted to get shot of it. Tim was welcome to take it away for free, but she didn’t really want to discuss the machine’s provenance
Perhaps there were painful memories associated with this closet-sized construct that had occupied space in her home for far longer than she'd wanted, but had been hitherto unable to rid herself of? And once she had found means of removing it to the roadside, she wanted it to just disappear, damn the niceties of where it would go, and how it would go, just as long as it isn't here anymore.
Of course that's not a responsible and rational way to deal with an item like this. The trash collector's tag instructing a "BREAK DOWN" recommends a bare minimum of effort that should be obvious to the average tax payer, outside of privately paid trash collection. But we can't know the capacity for responsibility and rationality at play here. (Dare I suggest that a breakdown might be what put this beautiful piece of history on the curbside in the first place?)
I'm most impressed at the subtext after the comment that the woman "didn't really want to discuss the machine’s provenance." There's no suggestion that the conversation progressed into discovering the value that the item might represent. Nope, just essentially, 'Okay, you don't want to talk about why you have it, or are throwing it away, fine. (As much as that info could be of interest to the future, I'll respect that and) I'll just take it out of your driveway, then. G'day!'
The guy knew when to take "Take it" as an answer.
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Comment on What are the best cover songs that reinterpret the original into a different genre, style, or mood? in ~music
jago (edited )LinkDanzig's Trouble is originally an Elvis Presley song. -- I just recently learned that Bananarama's Venus is a cover of the original by Dutch band Shocking Blue. I've gotta say, I'm now leaning...Danzig's Trouble is originally an Elvis Presley song.
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I just recently learned that Bananarama's Venus is a cover of the original by Dutch band Shocking Blue. I've gotta say, I'm now leaning heavily towards preferring the original. (Also, now I know what Claudia Wilkeman was doing in the late 60s, a few years before she was even born).--
Snake River Conspiracy covered The Smiths's How Soon Is Now. Where The Smiths version is soulful and contemplative, the SRC version is brash and keen-edged. I really enjoy both versions of the song, to listen to them.However, in composing this comment I had to look up the videos on YouTube. On finding them, two thoughts came to mind:
- The Smiths version of the video, the Official Music Video, on The Smiths YouTube channel, fades out before the song's end. It truncates the final lines, obviating the song's title. I wonder what was the reason for that. And none of the 11,210 commenters (and counting) seem to notice or object to that.
- The SRC version of the video is a laughable pastiche of look-a-like stunts and imagery from The Matrix (1999). This video and that movie are contemporaneous, so I get that the video's imagery was an intentional reference to what was popular at the time, but the contents of video vs. lyrics couldn't be more mismatched. Still a great cover, though.
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Comment on ChatGPT can be broken by entering these strange words, and nobody is sure why in ~tech
jago Link ParentOn reading the headline, I was hoping for something salacious in the article, along the lines of a key phrase like "Bene vixit, bene qui latuit," or even a throwaway "Klaatu barada nicto." Alas,...The really real reality is that this will fuel conspiracy theories that last the next 20 years.
On reading the headline, I was hoping for something salacious in the article, along the lines of a key phrase like "Bene vixit, bene qui latuit," or even a throwaway "Klaatu barada nicto."
Alas, the truth of the article was much more reality-based and interesting.
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Comment on SAG begins granting waivers to indie productions but plenty of questions remain, not least whether actors will show up in ~movies
jago LinkI am disinclined to lend attention to an article written by someone -- wait, TWO someones -- who can't catch a "quiet/quite" typo in the(ir) jointly composed piece.I am disinclined to lend attention to an article written by someone -- wait, TWO someones -- who can't catch a "quiet/quite" typo in the(ir) jointly composed piece.
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Comment on Expanding heat wave prompts alerts for 115 million people in the United States in ~enviro
jago LinkI'm glad I live in Canada and won't be at all affected by this. Thoughts and prayers to 115M Americans. (Exhales in wildfires' smoke)I'm glad I live in Canada and won't be at all affected by this. Thoughts and prayers to 115M Americans.
(Exhales in wildfires' smoke)
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Comment on Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website in ~tech
jago Link ParentPlease don't apologize for the ramble; thank you for it! Your mention of Agaricus bisporus reminded me of the term 'Mushroom Treatment', by which the under-ranked are "kept in the dark and fed...Please don't apologize for the ramble; thank you for it!
Your mention of Agaricus bisporus reminded me of the term 'Mushroom Treatment', by which the under-ranked are "kept in the dark and fed bullshit."
This is tangential rambling. Googling the term 'Mushroom Treatment' for this reply gave me this hit: https://wordhistories.net/2020/01/01/mushroom-dark-fed-bullshit/ . An interesting and fun read, to be sure.
But I take exception to the author's opening designation of the term as "American-English" when the very first citation mentioned in the opening paragraph is :
The earliest occurrence that I have found is from Indecision Hurts Service Morale—‘Kept in the Dark, Fed Nothing But Manure’, published in The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) of Saturday 9th January 1965...
It strikes me as Exceptionialism of the first order to refer to something as an American-English idiom, and then cite a Canadian source as the first occurrence of it.
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Comment on Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website in ~tech
jago LinkI was served a page of some magnificent photos of dung fungi: https://www.hughsmith.org/dung.htm What an interesting organism: seems to grow tall stems (some of them), presumably to get as far...I was served a page of some magnificent photos of dung fungi: https://www.hughsmith.org/dung.htm
What an interesting organism: seems to grow tall stems (some of them), presumably to get as far away from the odor of their origin, but then, being the mushrooms they are, they go and cap themselves with an effluvia-trapping umbrella top. Hah, stupid mushrooms.
There's a metaphor in there, straining to get out.
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Comment on A very interesting video on the phonetics of English regional accents, spoken by a polyglot in the accents in ~humanities.languages
jago LinkI'm always impressed and entertained by someone who can shift accents as this gent does, mid-sentence. Imagining the exercise, and how much study of vocal anatomy, and practice at a mirror this...I'm always impressed and entertained by someone who can shift accents as this gent does, mid-sentence. Imagining the exercise, and how much study of vocal anatomy, and practice at a mirror this must take, is daunting.
Other than watching a variety of UK comedy panel shows with the same rotating guests, I've no experience with these accents myself, so can't assess the authenticity of their reproduction, but as the saying goes, "it sounds pretty good from here."
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Comment on Complaints about Tildes and comparisons to other sites in ~tech
jago (edited )Link ParentThat triggered a memory that wasn't Chip 'n Dale or Heckle and Jeckle, but Looey Tunes' Goofy Gophers. If our mutual historical time-frames align, I suspect these are the personified animals in...the polite back and forth you, no you, no you thing
That triggered a memory that wasn't Chip 'n Dale or Heckle and Jeckle, but Looey Tunes' Goofy Gophers.
If our mutual historical time-frames align, I suspect these are the personified animals in your memory:
10 minutes into your "vulnerary (a mixtape)" on Spotify, I very much like your work.
It reminds me of some slow-build/no-build sounds that I've recently discovered. Invercauld and Boards of Canada are two such. I'm sorry I can't recall more. It also reminds me of the early 90's The God Machine, to which I believe this genre owes much of its heritage.
Do continue musicking, you're doing it well. :)