Month: February 2020

Dunnett group and instrument acquisition

Interesting. mOm you may find this diary entry provokes some feels about HTW and how he had v. progressive views.

Dunnett meet at the Sandbar on Granville Island was absolutely wonderful; met a woman I felt like I’ve known my whole life, and she’s moving from the bay area to Bellingham in MAY!!! Good news for me anyway – I told her about the Unitarian outfit there and she told me about the Bellingham ukelele orchestra. Then we all mocked Bellis Fair Mall, which, being an American mall constructed in 1988 which I drive by every time I go to Seattle and NEVER ENTER, is extremely mockable, and turns out anyone who’s been there feels the same way.  She’s been to Findhorn twicet! She told me I look younger than 61! Jan wasn’t there but Ingrid and Cheryl and Rob were.

Anyway I had shrimps and scallops and they were so goddamned good words can’t cover it. I did NOT have alcohol, for once; I had raspberry lemonade instead. In consequence, I felt better and did not muck up my digestion. Trip home was dented by wetsuweten protesters, who’ve been fucking up Vancouver for days.

Then I bought a pan drum – think a portable (not fantastically…) steel drum. I shall forward a sound file later, mOm.

This is me with baby Yoda earrings.

A startled looking white woman displays her baby Yoda earrings.

another song for fawm

The Standard of the Crow (Thorfinn’s Song)

When you’re really in it
As deep as you know how to go
There’s no end, once you begin it
Thorkel had to teach you so
It’s a dream, it’s a trap
For no matter how far down you go
You must rise, refreshed, for battle
And stand under the standard of the crow

Pull the axe from my stiffened hands
There was a lot of blood, not all from my side
I am good at killing men
If you follow, you’d better ride.

It’s not wise to ask them
Folks seeking comfort are rarely wise
The seer told me I’d win half the battle
And mocked me for my doubting eyes
It’s a dream, my heart rattled
I saw her eyes, like oxblood on snow
Hers the first face that I’m seeking
Standing on my stirrups, under the wing of a crow

Pull the axe from my stiffened hands
There was a lot of blood, not all from my side
I am good at killing men
If you follow, you’d better ride.

She has an errand, seaward
I died on land like an aging fool
And she will make my goodbye for me
make herself a young king’s school
It’s a dream, it’s a trap
Knowing that life goes on, just so
But she made it through one last battle
And still stands under the standard of the crow

 

8:55 am 11 Feb the tune is very slowly stabilizing

8:15 Sunday September 13 2020 this is the stabilized lyricset

The Standard of the Crow (Thorfinn’s Song)

When you’re deep down in it
As deep as you know how to go
There’s no end, once you begin it
Thorkel had to teach you so
It’s a dream, it’s a trap
For no matter how far down you go
You must rise up for the next battle
And stand under the standard of the crow
Pull the axe from my stiffened hands (40 miles a day, oh)
There was a lot of blood, not all of it mine (riding in the rain oh)
I am good at killing men (make a joke, run him through, oh)
If you would follow, you’d better ride. (ride ride ride, oh)
It’s not wise to ask them
Folks seeking comfort are rarely wise
The seer told me I’d win half the battle
And mocked me for the doubt in my eyes
It’s a dream, my heart rattled
I saw her eyes, like oxblood on snow
Hers the first face that I’m seeking
Standing on my stirrups—-under the flag of a crow
Pull the axe from my stiffened hands (40 miles a day, oh)
There was a lot of blood, not all of it mine (riding in the rain oh)
I am good at killing men (make a joke, run him through, oh)
If you would follow, you’d better ride. (ride ride ride, oh)
She has an errand, seaward
I die on land like an aging fool
She will make my goodbye for me
make herself a young king’s school
It’s a dream, it’s a trap
Knowing that life goes on, just so
But she made it through one last battle
Stands under the standard of the crow

opprobrium

standing on the balcony at the Aerie — just had a hummingbird park two feet off my nose and address me with three short sharp chirps, which, freely translated, meant, “Where is the hummingbird feeder, hand ape!?”

 

 

also, and who cares, but my latest story on A03 has an eleven percent kudo rating, which is the highest I’ve ever experienced, even though the traffic is low <200 readers

this is a really really weird found poem

SO I MERGED two of ‘the 500 most common words in English’ lists. and then sorted alpha – the type was two different sizes and weird gaps formed in parts of it. Word duplications are deliberate. WHY because I’m working on inventing a language which merges the sounds that a basketball makes when it’s shot through a hoop with the more bizarre English phonemes.

Continue reading this is a really really weird found poem

sigh

Mike Pence just hinted that Trump intend to abolish the position of the Speaker of the House. I don’t like Pelosi much but what the fuck.

I got the most wonderful comment on the fic I posted day before yesterday.  (Like REALLY NICE I AM FLOATING ON AIR.) mOm you can expect that in your inbox.

content warning ableist language use of the word idiot, ripped away from its original eugenic roots

It’s Hard Working For Idiots

is the name of this song

Lorrie Morgan wrote “What Part of No Don’t You Understand” a modern classic if ever there was one, and I filked it as subtly as I could

Somebody asked me to do this for FAWM

 

Sir if you don’t mind I’d rather be alone

From the moment I walked in today

You’ve been gassing on

If I’ve told you once I’ve told you twice

Got shit here to unwind

I’m not interested in chatting or

What you have in mind

 

What part of no don’t you understand

To put it plain and simple

I can’t make physics bend

I’ll be glad to explain it

If it’s too hard to comprehend

So tell me what part of no

Don’t you understand

 

It was sincere, our chat, and the

plaque was nice of you

I don’t mean to be so mean

But I don’t think I’m getting through

No I don’t need this company

You won’t get a second chance

So what part of no don’t you understand

 

What part of no don’t you understand

To put it plain and simple

I can’t make physics bend

I’ll be glad to explain it

If it’s too hard to comprehend

So tell me what part of no

Don’t you understand

Just so it’s clear, Lorrie Morgan owns that, I’m borrowing it for the purposes of fair use but since I don’t own it I can’t give it away. capisce?

Image

This is a true picture of me and Katie having breakfast at IHOP

just called twitter a gunnysack full of weevils

in response to this.  If the link disappears, here’s the skinny, written by Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day; reported on line 3 Feb 2020

In an email seeking clarifications about the incident, Twitter told ZDNet that they became aware of exploitation attempts against this API feature on December 24, 2019, following a report from tech news site TechCrunch. The report detailed the efforts of a security researcher who abused a Twitter API feature to match 17 million phone numbers to public usernames.

Twitter says that following this report it intervened and immediately suspended a large network of fake accounts that had been used to query its API and match phone numbers to Twitter usernames.

During its investigation into the report, the social network told ZDNet that it also discovered additional evidence that this API bug had also been exploited by other third-parties, beyond the security researcher at the heart of the TechCrunch report.

this is just a test (bones of a new song)

This is just a test!

No, of course not.

You don’t have to.

You don’t need to say it.

Not if you don’t feel it.

You embody it, that’s all.

The way you hold me

kiss me

pass me pepper

bring me coffee

(five long beats) disagreeeeee with me

throw popcorn at me

throw your arm around me

This is just a test!

 

(Think that clunky 80’s 86 bpm dance beat)

 

Just a test

In all the fuss and fury

Just a test

of modern life it comes

Just a test

no speed but hurry

Just a test

no percussion but taiko drums

 

when performing romance

Just a test

a pirouette or two

Just a test

you line out a paraph          (note, you can pronounce it either way, I prefer   

                                                           second syllable emphasis)

on your paragraph

mess it up

with a pedestrian ‘I love you’

Now maybe once in fifteen

Just a test

years I get those magick words

Just a test

Mostly unforeseen

Just a test

it comes out like a blurt

Just a test

I get to wondering

Just a test

Is it really real

but I’m a materialist baby

I’m all about the way you make me feel

extremely horn and reed-intense instrumental, including a bass line that makes you want square up conga style and wend your way through the neighbourhood

This is just a test!

No, of course not.

You don’t have to.

You don’t need to say it.

Not if you don’t feel it.

You embody it, that’s all.

The way you hold me

kiss me

pass me pepper

bring me coffee

(five long beats) disagreeeeee with me

throw popcorn at me

throw your arm around me

This is just a test!

 

 

 

obviously I updated it. The instrumental part is coming along fine, it will all be kazoos very pleased with it so far. Only 13 more songs to write for the end of the month ha ha

 

Earthquake Tourists

Earthquake Tourists (animated film idea) (mOm I already sent this to you so if it seems familiar that’s why)

 

Fyza is the orang

Safeer is the bonobo

Millie is the gorilla

Freed by an earthquake, they leave the botanical garden they temporarily live in as they await transfer to a new national park in the tropics. Fyza will be freed – the other two will be in a permanent display with a large enclosure, but they’ll still be locked up, which we learn as the camera pans over a notice tacked next to the glass of their shared enclosure.

They wander through the apocalypse, calmly sitting down to denude a copse of fig trees and fill themselves at a pond at the beginning of the film so they are neither starving nor thirsty for the in-city action. Also, sadly, this fills their digestive tracts with nasty shit quite literally since they gorge to calm themselves. (During the course of the movie all three of them take memorably timed and placed shits.) Safeer eats the least, being freaked out by the smoke and fire and noise and humans, the other two go to town and just don’t pay attention to anything else.

They smell another ape “Binky”, and find that a banker has an illegal menagerie in his house, which he has abandoned. Fyza, who carries a piece of metal in her mouth for the duration of the movie – which she uses for many other purposes – frees the young male chimp, who becomes hostile and leaves. Safeer thinks of going with but reconsiders. There is then a comic scene of animal on animal liberation, resulting in the crushing and death of one of the lizards, which Safeer mourns, then eats. Safeer wants to stay put because there’s a food supply and she and Fyza have a shrieking fight. Finally Fyza stuffs a backpack full of primate chow and hands it to Safeer and leaves. Safeer thinks about it and follows, dragging the packsack, to comic effect (a stray dog, freaked out and whining for its family, benefits from the chow bouncing down out of the smoke). The three continue until they reach the Golden Gate bridge. A fantastical and death defying climbing sequence follows and finally Fyza sees the patch of green she thinks will be the safest place to go, and climbs down to lead her friends there. She kisses the bridge as she gets off it repeatedly and to great comic effect.

They make their way with other adventures (they help a broke family get diapers, they stop two assaults) to the green patch of ground where they are tranquilized and put small cages, and finally flown to their final destinations. The last thing you see of that scene is Fyza transferring the piece of metal into Millie’s unconscious mouth.

Two months later in Papua New Guinea, Fyza comes back to rescue her friends, and the two of them slip off into the jungle with their leader. Fyza gets her piece of metal back from Millie, who makes quite a show of how happy she is to be rid of it. The last thing you see is Fyza teaching her pals how to get at the best bits of a fruit.

Ingmar Bergman’s Undead Laugh-o-Rama

 

Ingmar Bergman’s Undead Laugh-o-Rama!

Casting calls for Nordics who get drama

Watch those stony faces soften

As they kill the dead more often

Maybe one day they will crack a smile

(The title is ironic)

 

Ingmar Bergman’s Undead Laugh-a-Minute

What a cast! You won’t believe who’s in it!

Sven Nykvist popped up from his grave

Just to hear the critics rave

Happy that he’s come back in such style

(That part is sardonic)

 

Ingmar Bergman’s Undead Laugh-a-Ganza

More tropes than a season of Bonanza

It’s the movie of my dreams

The ultimate in crossing streams

And there’s old Ingmar turning up the dial!

(And it went supersonic)

(jet roar – bombs falling, abrupt end)

 

Image

Tobie the doctor had one of these – it’s a picture of the wounds of battle done up renaissance style

Giri Haji is not a show about Japanese gagsters

I am liking this show SO MUCH AND WE ONLY HAVE ONE EP LEFT wail

Did you know coyotes and badgers have been known to hunt together? There’s video on the internet that looks like the first shot of a movie. Further pics.

Storage Jar (1858), David Drake.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Stoneware vessel (1858), David Drake At the Stony Bluff Manufactory in Old Edgefield, South Carolina, the enslaved potter David Drake made stoneware vessels of extraordinary workmanship, often inscribed with short poems describing their owner and function. ‘When you fill this Jar with pork or beef / Scot will be there; to get a peace’ is carved into one side of the vessel, among other lines. This is of 40 known surviving ‘poem vessels’ by Drake, and the first to enter the Met’s collection.