![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neonvincentYesterday, I wrote that I was done with posting the raw statistics from past months at Crazy Eddie's Motie News. That's not yet the case with the saved comments. I plan on posting those through next month with the saved comments from this month interrupting the sequence on or shortly after August 1st. I have up to 15 still to go.
By the way, if one of the comments below looks familiar, it's because I recycled most of it into The Archdruid and I talk drum corps.
My response to Let The Games Begin.
As our host wrote, "The distraction du jour is whether Trump has become an agent of Russia." The joke about that is now Trump and Putin, a bad bromance. However, it works as a scandal. It can be summarized in one sentence, cuts against a core element of the candidate’s brand, reifies and reinforces a core negative perception, has been by the opposition with little very little pushback by the mainstream media, and caught the attention of the mainstream media--that is, until Trump attacked the parents of a Muslim soldier who spoke at the Democratic National Convention. That became the new shiny object. It also works as a scandal for all the same reasons as Trump's inviting Russia to find Clinton's missing emails.
Speaking of games, there were several "Hunger Games" references at the conventions, including Effie Trinket's actress making fun of Trump by complaining that his acceptance speech was stealing her act and Stephen Colbert as Julius Flickerman, Caesar Flickerman's sillier brother, doing his "Hungry for Power Games" schtick before both conventions. A comparison shows that the Democrats were better prepared for him and better organized in response than the Republicans were. That's the story of the two conventions in a nutshell.
My comment on ZZZZZZZZZZZ….
Krugman paying attention to the costs of pollution is easy. Getting him to pay attention to the limits of growth is impossible. I know; I've tried. He's not having it. However, as stocks resumed climbing a wall of worry to hit new highs last month, even he knew that "What’s good for the Dow isn’t necessarily good for America, or vice versa."
Just the same, I understand why it's hard to get people to pay attention to resource limitations when the price of oil keeps falling, pushing prices even lower and a solar powered airplane completes a trip around the planet. This is exactly the kind of moment in which cornucopians rejoice, never mind how short-lived it's likely to be.
My comment on The Emperor's New Art: A Parable
After examining your taxonomy, I realized that I'm an aficianado of music ranging from lowbrow trash to kitsch to canon, but only canon when it comes to music accompanying visual media whether from movies, television shows, or video games. My music must accompany movement for me to be interested in it. I guess that means I should enjoy ballet and Broadway musicals, too.
As for highbrow trash, I reserve that for my interest in drum and bugle corps. Yes, even marching music has its own version of highbrow trash, which the older audience who prefers lowbrow trash and kitsch despises. Speaking of which, this week is the North American drum corps championship. There will be lots of performances of highbrow trash to impress the judges. With luck, the audience will find enough lowbrow trash to entertain them and the judges and other insiders will find something from the pretentious shows to elevate into the canon. I guess I know what art I'll be examining for my homework assignment!
On another note, you were mentioned at last weekend's Board of Directors retreat for the Coffee Party. Two of our members are ministers and one of them mentioned "Climate Change Activism: A Post-Mortem" as a cautionary tale. Another was looking for an example of the Dreaded Drama Triangle in politics, so I steered her toward "American Narratives: The Rescue Game." I hope she finds that instructive.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, how fascinating. I know precisely nothing about drum and bugle corps (corpses? How do you pluralize that?) as an art form, and it's intriguing to learn that the same patterns play out there, too.
@JMG: "drum and bugle corps (corpses? How do you pluralize that?)" Both the singular and plural are spelled "corps," but the s is silent in the singular but pronounced in the plural; the word is French and the original rules sort of followed along. Coincidentally enough, a corps played on that very confusion by calling their show "The Drum Corpse Bride." The program could have been very pretentious, but it ended up being a great crowd pleaser.
As for the same patterns playing out in drum and bugle corps, that's definitely been the case since the 1970s, when the corps themselves wrested control of the activity from the veterans' organizations, who did their best to keep it lowbrow trash for wage-class youth. As soon as the directors, instructors, and judges got control of the activity, they did their best to make it more artistic, which meant that pretentious trash was the eventual result. They also converted into an activity for salary-class youth, which the wage-class alumni have resented. As you can see, more than one of the societal trends you've decried has occurred in the activity.
@Karen: As a resident of Michigan, I've been following Art Prize. I wasn't surprised at the institution of a separate juried prize from the popular vote, as the opinions of the masses generally do not coincide with the cognoscenti.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, duly noted. And of course it was driven by yet another transfer of things of value from the wage class to the salary class...
For examples of kitch and warhol in science, I recommend the Ig Nobel Awards. They recognize silly achievements in science and allied fields, like economics. Honestly, I'm surprised no one has mentioned them yet.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, we were all waiting for you to do it. ;-)
My comment on Burning Down the House.
"a TILT message will appear in the sky"--Like the fallen tributes images projected into the air after sunset in the "Hunger Games" books and movies, no doubt. When it happens to the economy, it won't be as funny as when Stephen Colbert said "Bye, Bye, Bernie!" on his show last month. Also, the young people might not get the reference. They've been playing video games for so long they might not know what happens when they abuse a pinball machine. They might even confuse it with a marble music machine they saw on YouTube. To them, a failure of the system is a Blue Screen of Death. That wouldn't show up well against an already blue sky, would it?
"Hillary may win the booby prize of presiding over the smoldering wreckage of it all." Based on what I saw last week here in metro Detroit, I'm expecting it. Clinton's forces are much better organized than Trump's. Trump showed up a week ago today and was greeted by protestors--hundreds of them, including more than a dozen who were thrown out of the hall. The news coverage focused on the demonstrations more than Trump's message. When Clinton appeared on Thursday, the news coverage focused on Clinton rebutting Trump and much less on the pro-Trump, anti-Clinton protests. The group was smaller, maybe fifty tops, and were not well-organized. They certainly weren't able to infiltrate the hall where she was speaking and disrupt her message. Better organization on her part in both venues. As long as this election maintains a semblance of business as usual, that will matter.
"As the certified lesser of two evils" K-Dog, you missed two obvious slogans that riff on this very theme. Let me help you. First, Jill Stein's slogan is "Time To Reject The 'Lesser Evil' & Stand Up For The Greater Good." I did my part to help her message along when I reported on Michigan Green candidates from the bottom of the ballot to the top. As for Cthulhu, his campaign slogan has always been "Why settle for the LESSER Evil?"
My comment on Retrotopia: Dinner, Drinks, and Hard Questions.
Shortwave radio and the Erie Canal--where have I seen those before? Oh yes, Seven sustainable technologies, which prompted an exchange between us in which you called a slide rule a "steampunk calculator," and Retrotopia: The View from a Moving Window which elicited my comment about mentioning it as a reviving means of cargo transportation in Great Lakes cities and their roles in the regional economy. Your response was to point out that you've been on that idea for years already. You have indeed, first mentioning it in Energy Predicaments and Prospects from ten years ago. You really do elaborate on your points in this extended discursive meditation on collapse that is your blog!
As for your comment that "the future belongs to those charismatic leaders who can unite the largest possible following from outside the elite -- and that requirement doesn't coexist well with a fixation on racial divisions," a fellow director of the Coffee Party has written repeatedly that U.S. politics will change if Appalachia, the barrios, and the ghettos ever unite, a prospect that frightens the current political elite.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, exactly. As I noted in my ten year retrospective post, this entire blog is the working out of a single idea with all its connections and implications. Your fellow director is quite correct, and we're moving in that direction fairly rapidly; as wage class white people increasingly find themselves being treated more like wage class people of color than like salary class white people, unexpected solidarities are beginning to form.
My comment on Learning From Failure: A Modest Introduction
My pick for the next victory for personal liberty in the U.S. will be full legalization of marijuana. That movement appears to be avoiding most if not all the traps involved. It's certainly avoiding the partisan trap; the Libertarians and Greens are leading the charge, but more and more Democrats are on board and I know there are Republicans involved, too. I told one of my students five years ago that marijuana legalization, along with same-sex marriage, would be one of two achievements that his generation would help accomplish. One down, one to go!
As for what I'm doing about climate change and conservation of energy, I'm advocating for improved public transportation here in metro Detroit. That's become something of a partisan issue, but at least it's practical and helps the wage class as much as if not more than the salary class.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, I think you're probably right -- we're in the some-states-have-it stage, where same sex marriage was ten years ago, and my guess is that federal legalization will be debated within a few years.
By the way, if one of the comments below looks familiar, it's because I recycled most of it into The Archdruid and I talk drum corps.
My response to Let The Games Begin.
As our host wrote, "The distraction du jour is whether Trump has become an agent of Russia." The joke about that is now Trump and Putin, a bad bromance. However, it works as a scandal. It can be summarized in one sentence, cuts against a core element of the candidate’s brand, reifies and reinforces a core negative perception, has been by the opposition with little very little pushback by the mainstream media, and caught the attention of the mainstream media--that is, until Trump attacked the parents of a Muslim soldier who spoke at the Democratic National Convention. That became the new shiny object. It also works as a scandal for all the same reasons as Trump's inviting Russia to find Clinton's missing emails.
Speaking of games, there were several "Hunger Games" references at the conventions, including Effie Trinket's actress making fun of Trump by complaining that his acceptance speech was stealing her act and Stephen Colbert as Julius Flickerman, Caesar Flickerman's sillier brother, doing his "Hungry for Power Games" schtick before both conventions. A comparison shows that the Democrats were better prepared for him and better organized in response than the Republicans were. That's the story of the two conventions in a nutshell.
My comment on ZZZZZZZZZZZ….
Krugman paying attention to the costs of pollution is easy. Getting him to pay attention to the limits of growth is impossible. I know; I've tried. He's not having it. However, as stocks resumed climbing a wall of worry to hit new highs last month, even he knew that "What’s good for the Dow isn’t necessarily good for America, or vice versa."
Just the same, I understand why it's hard to get people to pay attention to resource limitations when the price of oil keeps falling, pushing prices even lower and a solar powered airplane completes a trip around the planet. This is exactly the kind of moment in which cornucopians rejoice, never mind how short-lived it's likely to be.
My comment on The Emperor's New Art: A Parable
After examining your taxonomy, I realized that I'm an aficianado of music ranging from lowbrow trash to kitsch to canon, but only canon when it comes to music accompanying visual media whether from movies, television shows, or video games. My music must accompany movement for me to be interested in it. I guess that means I should enjoy ballet and Broadway musicals, too.
As for highbrow trash, I reserve that for my interest in drum and bugle corps. Yes, even marching music has its own version of highbrow trash, which the older audience who prefers lowbrow trash and kitsch despises. Speaking of which, this week is the North American drum corps championship. There will be lots of performances of highbrow trash to impress the judges. With luck, the audience will find enough lowbrow trash to entertain them and the judges and other insiders will find something from the pretentious shows to elevate into the canon. I guess I know what art I'll be examining for my homework assignment!
On another note, you were mentioned at last weekend's Board of Directors retreat for the Coffee Party. Two of our members are ministers and one of them mentioned "Climate Change Activism: A Post-Mortem" as a cautionary tale. Another was looking for an example of the Dreaded Drama Triangle in politics, so I steered her toward "American Narratives: The Rescue Game." I hope she finds that instructive.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, how fascinating. I know precisely nothing about drum and bugle corps (corpses? How do you pluralize that?) as an art form, and it's intriguing to learn that the same patterns play out there, too.
@JMG: "drum and bugle corps (corpses? How do you pluralize that?)" Both the singular and plural are spelled "corps," but the s is silent in the singular but pronounced in the plural; the word is French and the original rules sort of followed along. Coincidentally enough, a corps played on that very confusion by calling their show "The Drum Corpse Bride." The program could have been very pretentious, but it ended up being a great crowd pleaser.
As for the same patterns playing out in drum and bugle corps, that's definitely been the case since the 1970s, when the corps themselves wrested control of the activity from the veterans' organizations, who did their best to keep it lowbrow trash for wage-class youth. As soon as the directors, instructors, and judges got control of the activity, they did their best to make it more artistic, which meant that pretentious trash was the eventual result. They also converted into an activity for salary-class youth, which the wage-class alumni have resented. As you can see, more than one of the societal trends you've decried has occurred in the activity.
@Karen: As a resident of Michigan, I've been following Art Prize. I wasn't surprised at the institution of a separate juried prize from the popular vote, as the opinions of the masses generally do not coincide with the cognoscenti.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, duly noted. And of course it was driven by yet another transfer of things of value from the wage class to the salary class...
For examples of kitch and warhol in science, I recommend the Ig Nobel Awards. They recognize silly achievements in science and allied fields, like economics. Honestly, I'm surprised no one has mentioned them yet.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, we were all waiting for you to do it. ;-)
My comment on Burning Down the House.
"a TILT message will appear in the sky"--Like the fallen tributes images projected into the air after sunset in the "Hunger Games" books and movies, no doubt. When it happens to the economy, it won't be as funny as when Stephen Colbert said "Bye, Bye, Bernie!" on his show last month. Also, the young people might not get the reference. They've been playing video games for so long they might not know what happens when they abuse a pinball machine. They might even confuse it with a marble music machine they saw on YouTube. To them, a failure of the system is a Blue Screen of Death. That wouldn't show up well against an already blue sky, would it?
"Hillary may win the booby prize of presiding over the smoldering wreckage of it all." Based on what I saw last week here in metro Detroit, I'm expecting it. Clinton's forces are much better organized than Trump's. Trump showed up a week ago today and was greeted by protestors--hundreds of them, including more than a dozen who were thrown out of the hall. The news coverage focused on the demonstrations more than Trump's message. When Clinton appeared on Thursday, the news coverage focused on Clinton rebutting Trump and much less on the pro-Trump, anti-Clinton protests. The group was smaller, maybe fifty tops, and were not well-organized. They certainly weren't able to infiltrate the hall where she was speaking and disrupt her message. Better organization on her part in both venues. As long as this election maintains a semblance of business as usual, that will matter.
"As the certified lesser of two evils" K-Dog, you missed two obvious slogans that riff on this very theme. Let me help you. First, Jill Stein's slogan is "Time To Reject The 'Lesser Evil' & Stand Up For The Greater Good." I did my part to help her message along when I reported on Michigan Green candidates from the bottom of the ballot to the top. As for Cthulhu, his campaign slogan has always been "Why settle for the LESSER Evil?"
My comment on Retrotopia: Dinner, Drinks, and Hard Questions.
Shortwave radio and the Erie Canal--where have I seen those before? Oh yes, Seven sustainable technologies, which prompted an exchange between us in which you called a slide rule a "steampunk calculator," and Retrotopia: The View from a Moving Window which elicited my comment about mentioning it as a reviving means of cargo transportation in Great Lakes cities and their roles in the regional economy. Your response was to point out that you've been on that idea for years already. You have indeed, first mentioning it in Energy Predicaments and Prospects from ten years ago. You really do elaborate on your points in this extended discursive meditation on collapse that is your blog!
As for your comment that "the future belongs to those charismatic leaders who can unite the largest possible following from outside the elite -- and that requirement doesn't coexist well with a fixation on racial divisions," a fellow director of the Coffee Party has written repeatedly that U.S. politics will change if Appalachia, the barrios, and the ghettos ever unite, a prospect that frightens the current political elite.
Greer: Pinku-Sensei, exactly. As I noted in my ten year retrospective post, this entire blog is the working out of a single idea with all its connections and implications. Your fellow director is quite correct, and we're moving in that direction fairly rapidly; as wage class white people increasingly find themselves being treated more like wage class people of color than like salary class white people, unexpected solidarities are beginning to form.
My comment on Learning From Failure: A Modest Introduction
My pick for the next victory for personal liberty in the U.S. will be full legalization of marijuana. That movement appears to be avoiding most if not all the traps involved. It's certainly avoiding the partisan trap; the Libertarians and Greens are leading the charge, but more and more Democrats are on board and I know there are Republicans involved, too. I told one of my students five years ago that marijuana legalization, along with same-sex marriage, would be one of two achievements that his generation would help accomplish. One down, one to go!
As for what I'm doing about climate change and conservation of energy, I'm advocating for improved public transportation here in metro Detroit. That's become something of a partisan issue, but at least it's practical and helps the wage class as much as if not more than the salary class.
Greer: Pinku-sensei, I think you're probably right -- we're in the some-states-have-it stage, where same sex marriage was ten years ago, and my guess is that federal legalization will be debated within a few years.
