Once a legitimate blog. Now just a collection of memes 'n menz.
Madonna: Like a Prayer (1989)
This anniversary also marks for me 32 years of being Pepsi free.
When Pepsi dropped Madonna as a spokesperson, citing the "sacrilegious" imagery in the Like a Prayer (Jeez, they had no idea what was coming, did they?) video, I swore I would never drink Pepsi again. And I haven't.
I may have posted this before, but you know what? I have no fucks left to give.
This was my dream car in 1974. My bestie who lived across the street was a Firebird man. Unfortunately, while his parents gifted him a new Firebird for his 16th, there was no Camaro sitting in our driveway when I turned 16. Even today I let out a little sigh whenever I see one of these antiques on the highway, as dated as the design may be now.
I welcome our robot overlords.
And it's glorious to contemplate.
Best wishes to all and a return to something resembling "normal" life in 2021, from our (new) home to yours!
He angrily sounds off at all hours about random, nonsensical shite that dehydrated haunted apples like Lou Dobbs and blocks of Spam like Sean Hannity tell him to be angry about but which they realise they cannot actually come to any firm conclusions about both because if they do it gives the story falsifiability and because it puts them at serious risk of legal action. dRUMPf, like the rest of their audience, doesn't understand this, and so bathes luxuriously in the fetid diarrhea that makes up these 'programs,', engaging with them as they are meant to be engaged with- not as conveyors of actual facts, but as impressionist representations of moods. Deeply angry, suspicious, paranoid, hate-filled, bitter, and sociopathic moods.
dRUMPf was never able to explain what "Obamagate" was. He was never able to explain what, exactly, was on "the server" that was in Ukraine. He cannot explain how the election was "rigged". He cannot tell you how Obama faked his entire life as a naturally born US citizen. Logic is nonexistent. Solid conclusions can be disproved by hysteria. The important thing is the feeling of resentment and anger, the outrage that somehow, someone is cheating you out of something that you think not only that you *want* but that you are *owed*. The sense of persecution, the utter conviction that somehow you are being wronged, the phony victim-posturing is addictive for a man so utterly bereft of any positive emotions. It's intoxicating, and dRUMPf is perpetually drunk on it- and sounds very much like he's just ordinarily drunk.
This isn't a man with a plan. This isn't a strategic thinker who talks in riddles and subtly conveys messages through the placement of an accessory in his otherwise flawless choice of dress. This isn't a man given to the intricacies of a Symbolist painting, with everything chosen to display a meaning about the artist and their subject. This is a man who tries to hide his baldness by having what little hair he still has spun into a bizarre confection and piled on his head, then dyed cat-piss yellow with a candy-corn-orange chaser. This is a man who so FEARS being thought of as short he wears lifts that are too high to allow him to fit his feet in his shoes. This is not a man capable of subtlety. This is a man with a button on his desk to summon a servant to bring him Diet Coke.
And now even that measly amount may not happen because Orange Caligula is too busy playing golf and has completely checked out from all presidential duties.
…for his legal defense.
I don't know who put the toddler at that tiny desk, but it was genius.
Let's hope it works out better for House Biden in the long run than it did for the Atreides…
But seriously, do you remember the scene where Thufir Hawat was in a panic because they kept discovering hidden listening devices? That came to mind last night as I was mulling the Bidens moving into the White House. But you've got to figure that the place will be swept for Russian listening devices after Trump is dragged out…right?
And Trump, being the man-baby narcissist he is, will undoubtedly trash as much as he can on his way out the door. "If I can't have it, NO ONE will!" It's already been confirmed by multiple sources that he's doing as much to fuck up international relations as possible in hopes of confounding Biden.
Trouble is, Trump has no idea who he's messing with. Biden's team is playing four-dimensional chess, while Trump is simply taking sitting on a checkerboard taking a shit.
I also recommend that the Secret Service pat down Lady Be Best for the house silver, because you know that crime family is going to attempt to steal anything that isn't nailed down.
And lastly, please replace ALL the mattresses in the White House before anyone from Biden's team sleeps there. You know they're urine soaked…
Madonna: Like a Virgin (1984)
From Behind the Grooves:
"Like A Virgin", the second album by Madonna is released. Produced by Nile Rodgers, it is recorded at The Power Station in New York City from April – May 1984. By early 1984, with her self titled debut finally gaining significant sales and chart momentum, Madonna is anxious to begin work on her sophomore release. She wants to produce the project herself, after being left in the lurch by producer Reggie Lucas when he quits before sessions for the first album are complete. Madonna's record label Warner Bros isn't willing to grant her full creative control, and insists that a seasoned professional be in charge of the sessions. Being a huge fan of the band Chic, she asks guitarist Nile Rodgers to produce her. The pair get to work right away, selecting songs for the album. Madonna pens five of the nine songs, co-writing four of those with former boyfriend and Breakfast Club band mate Stephen Bray. The rhythm section consists of Nile Rodgers on guitar and Synclavier, along with former Chic band mates Bernard Edwards (bass), Tony Thompson (drums) and Rob Sabino (keyboards). Even with Rodgers firmly at the helm, Madonna is also very hands on, being present at all sessions, observing and making suggestions to Rodgers and the other musicians. Once recording is completed, the album is held back for several more months as Madonna's debut is still generating hits. Released at last in mid-November, "Like A Virgin" is an immediate smash. It spins off four top five pop singles including "Material Girl" (#2 Pop, #49 R&B, #1 Club Play), "Angel" (#5 Pop, #71 R&B, #1 Club Play), "Dress You Up" (#5 Pop, #64 R&B, #1 Club Play) and the title track (#1 Pop, #9 R&B, #1 Club Play). The album's iconic cover, back cover and inner sleeve photos are taken by fashion photographer Steven Meisel (Seventeen, Vogue). The original US and Canadian promo LP copies are pressed on pure white "virgin" vinyl (originally intended for stock commercial copies also, but deemed too expensive) with custom art labels. "Virgin" establishes Madonna as a pop superstar on a global basis, and becomes her biggest selling album, moving over twenty one million copies worldwide. The album is remastered and reissued on CD in 2001 with the 12" mixes of "Material Girl" and the title track as bonus tracks. The album is also reissued as a 180 gram vinyl LP by Rhino Records in 2016, and as a limited edition clear vinyl pressing in the UK (exclusively through Sainsbury's) in 2017. It is also reissued as a limited edition white vinyl LP, as part of Rhino's "Back To The 80's" series in July of 2018. "Like A Virgin" spends three weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200, peaking at number ten on the R&B album chart, and is certified 10x Platinum in the US by the RIAA, earning a Diamond Certification.
And that white vinyl version I was salivating over a year ago? Got it!
Rarer than that Technics interconnect, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the JBL L166 grilles in orange. Not to be confused with the L100 or L100 Classic grilles (which are to found in abundance), these are an entirely different animal altogether, and are not interchangeable with the L100 variety. In fact, this is the only photo (other than catalog images) I have been able to find online of the grilles in the wild.
Some of you may be asking, "Why not just paint the ones you have?" That has been discussed at length by others on several audio forums, but the original grilles were not painted orange; they were molded in that color. In addition, there is an acoustically transparent fabric on the inner surface of the grilles that was also supposedly in the same shade of orange. So, no. Painting my existing grilles is not an option.
The sad thing is any of his interviews could be "bad lip reading" and we'd never know the difference.
From John Pavlovitz:
It's heartbreaking to see someone you love in a toxic relationship: watching them be continually torn down and berated, treated with complete disregard, humiliated publicly over and over again—and knowing that despite how much damage has been inflicted, they will likely stay with their abuser, to their own detriment.
There is a unique kind of helplessness when a human being is so blinded by their past hopes about what the other person would become, that they can't see what they actually are presently; when they are so consumed with the story they've told themselves about the heart of their partner, that no amount of evidence to the contrary will be enough to convince them otherwise.
They will be lied to and gaslit and injured—and still they will fiercely defend the object of their misplaced affections; perhaps because they do not see their own worth and imagine they will not find better, or because fear has paralyzed them into inaction, or because living this way for so long has left them unable to see another possibility.
When they are confronted by the efforts of well-meaning people, they will deny and rationalize and even lash out at the very suggestion that they are being manipulated, rather than face the possibility that they have been fooled by someone they misjudged and trusted. It is exhausting to try and help them extricate themselves from their own hearts, to show them how unhealthy this place is, to wake them up to their greater value.
Nearly 40 percent of this nation is in an abusive relationship with this President and they are the only ones who cannot see it.
He has complete contempt for them and yet they passionately defend him. They cut ties with those who attempt to reach them with the evidence of his betrayal. Though they are being daily devalued and damaged, they cannot see it through the intoxicating romantic haze of their Fox News, Evangelical, Great America back stories. They see those of us who oppose him as the enemy, when the truth is we care far more about them than he ever will—which is why we have to show up in November and help them see what they cannot right now.
This election is the chance for the sixty percent of us to rescue these people from this bitter codependence; to vote them into a safer and more stable place; to show them what it could be like if they were led by someone who actually cares for their well being, who actually works to strengthen the bonds between them and the people around them, who will not subject them to a continual toxic flood of intimidation in order to keep them close and retain their affections.
Whenever someone finds their way out of an abusive relationship, you watch them blossom: you see them embrace the wide-open life that has always been waiting for them, and they get to see themselves and the world with new eyes. Like a mighty Phoenix rising from the suffocating ashes of something that was far less than they deserved, their spirits are reborn—and they wonder how they ever let themselves be treated as anything less than beautiful. They find real freedom.
I so want these people around me to experience this, for them and for the America that I share with them. We all deserve far better than the oppressive, violent, fractured place we now live in, and until they see that we're stuck here.
The best of who we could be as a nation is not possible while they are tethered to something so destructive and injurious, and the greatest gift we can give them is to save them from themselves.
That's what's at stake in this election: everything.
