Posted on General

Support Life And Music

I was holding off on my big announcement until the day we had all our ducks in a row, but let’s face it: that’s the day that never comes. There will always be some ducks that are out of line (yes, autocorrect, I actually meant “duck” this time). I need to acknowledge that things are actually in pretty good order. So. . . no more hesitation. Duck it.

Support Life And Music is officially live.
https://www.supportlifeandmusic.org/
S.L.A.M. is a fiscally-sponsored non-profit founded by Jack Mangan to help musicians combat suicide, substance abuse, and other self-destructive behaviors. S.L.A.M. delivers information, awareness, and wisdom from veteran industry pros and musicians about how to survive and find happiness in “the life” through articles, audio podcasts, and videos. https://www.supportlifeandmusic.org/voices/

A recent study showed that in the U.S., the highest female suicide rate among all occupations is found in female musicians, while male musicians face the third highest rate. S.L.A.M. exists to tackle this problem head-on. To find solutions. To restore hope.
S.L.A.M.’s Life-Saving and Critical Services for working musicians:

♯ Lobbying for policy and fees changes to make the working musician’s career more sustainable

♯ Access to Mental Health Resources

♯ Guidance from musicians and industry professionals

♯ Access to financial survival resources

♯ Data and essays on Music’s importance for communities and individuals

So, how can you help?

Volunteer. Support Life And Music is growing fast, but still in its early days. We’re going to need help with all kinds of tasks. Contact us directly to find out more. jack@supportlifeandmusic.org

Donate. https://givebutter.com/lifeandmusic The money we raise will enable S.L.A.M. to powerfully, successfully implement our programs of musician outreach, support, access to trained professional help, awareness, and education.

Like, Follow, Subscribe, Support.

Subscribe to the S.L.A.M. YouTube channel
Follow S.L.A.M. on Facebook
Follow S.L.A.M. on Bluesky
Follow S.L.A.M. on Instagram

Support Life And Music is proud to announce its all-star Advisory Council:

Jack Mangan (Journalist, Writer, Executive Director)
Dr. Sheila Dee (Educator)
Jack Frost (Musician)
Eric Haley (Attorney)
Sarah Hyde (Entrepreneur)
Evo Terra (Podcast Strategist)

Jack Mangan has been working in music media since 2006, his non-profit background includes a VP role with the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund (2007 – 2008), content creator duties with Immunization Ambassadors (2015 – 2019), and a role with Easter Seals New Jersey (2002 – 2003, 2006 – 2007). In 2024, he founded Support Life And Music to provide resources and inspiration against the scourges of suicide, substance abuse, and self-destruction that have run rampant through the professional music community for over a century. 

If you’re a struggling musician, please know that you’re not alone, and that there are people out here who’ve been there too. We want you to persist and succeed.

We’re glad you’re here.

You and your music are special.

There are many good and caring people in the music industry (In fact, they’re the majority. No, really!). Don’t let the negatives silence your beautiful voice. 

999 thoughts on “Support Life And Music”

  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bright_Sword

    I finished this book just a few days ago. I’ve never read any King Arthur stuff (nope, not even that one. Or that one), so prior to this, my main exposure to the mythos has been through Monty Python, Excalibur, and some kids books. It’s been decades since I watched The Sword in the Stone.

    Anyway, it’s probably the best page-turner I’ve read in years. Highly recommended.

    • I recently tried to get through one of the prime Arthurian sources “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Thomas Malory as it was free on Audible and I had just listened to a podcast on Arthurian legends (https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/m0027sx8). The podcast was great. Le Morte d’Arthur is Definitely NOT a page turner. Then again, it is not of our time and the style is not one I’m comfortable with.

      • Was listening to latest episode of that podcast today, covering the disastrous Franklin expedition to find the North West passage in the artic.

        • That one is two down on my list of podcasts. I will definitely get to it soon. I do an audio book, then catch up on built up podcasts. Rinse and repeat.

  8. So today finished the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey by Homer.

    My first impression is how sparse it is compared to modern fantasy, I mean it’s a poem so ok, but the bits covering the cyclops encounter or sailing past the sirens all feel very barebones.

    So that’s me consigned to literary hell….

  9. Great post, Jack, and congrats. As a sometime musician and singer and a person who values music, this cause really appeals to me. (Also, I started humming “First of May” when you mentioned the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund. Good times, good times.)

    It was a nice warm day in Omaha today, and I accomplished the last of my pre-trip shopping. Now waiting for laundry to finish so I can pack.

    • Amy, I was just noticing that the long response I typed up about my Norway trip, somehow never got posted.
      So I’ll try again.
      No wait, I’ll summarize.

      This was a Viking cruise billed as “In search of the northern lights“. We were supposed to sail out of Bergen and then travel to the very north of Norway with a stop in Alta than Tromso the Narvik and since they can’t guarantee, you’ll see the northern lights there are fun adventure things to do at those ports such as dog sled rides, and snowmobile rides and reindeer sleigh rides and cultural educational things like visiting with the indigenous people of the area.
      Viking is really good about these things, doing a lot of research before hand (often helping smaller businesses upgrade their infrastructure to handle a bus load of visitors) and they hire local people to be your guides.

      However, has any sailor who had a tour of duty in the North Sea might say “A vacation cruise in the North Sea, in the winter… ARE YOU NUTS!“
      So the night we left our first port (Bergen) they informed us that due to a storm in the North Sea, they were going to have to change the entire itinerary and we were sailing south instead of North. They did their best to make other interesting ports of call, but none of the new activities were anything I would have signed up to do if I wasn’t already onboard ship with nothing else to do.
      The saving grace of all this is that first night at sea we saw a spectacular and rare light show. I highly recommend if you’ve never seen the northern lights you add it to your bucket list. It’s just stunning and all of that. So where we did end up going was Stavanger, Trondheim, Eidfjord where we had a nice train excursion ride up into the mountains and then Oslo where we toured the fjord by excursion, boat (electric- no sharks were injured) and the National and Munch museums (The Scream).
      I really liked Norway and the people there. Striking scenery and as a functional country they really have their act together.

      We also stopped in Amsterdam for a few hours and we took a canal Boat cruise.
      Then we disembarked in London and were there for three nights and saw theater shows every night, went up to greenwich and saw the Royal Observatory and walked basically all over the place and that was great fun.

      I will say this about ship cruising:
      Turns out, over 4 years of selling this particular cruise, Viking’s failure rate is like 70% They rarely make it to the north of Norway due to weather but they don’t advertise this. Ships are just to susceptible to the whims of nature so if you have a destination you really want to get to, fly as close as you can and take ground transportation.
      However if you like taking cruises, they will make the trip very pleasant, no matter the destination. We like Viking because the ships can be smaller only (1000 people on this one) and the passengers tend to be more about the adventure of seeing the world and less about “woo hoo paaaarty”. Also, there are no children on board.

      Believe it or not this was the shorter version.

  12. Another parent in our crew is some sort of former chess grandmaster. I have never played chess at that level, but I actually did fairly well against him – it came down to the last few pieces on the board.

    and then he checkmated me.

    • It seemed like Richard Chamberlain was on primetime TV every single night when we were kids. And while I strongly prefer the newer Shogun miniseries, Richard Chamberlain was the better Blackthorne. RIP

    • He had some incredible roles. Jim Morrison and Doc Holliday are his best, I think, but he was also great in Top Secret! and Real Genius. I was not a fan of the latest Top Gun movie, but I appreciated his appearance.
      His documentary was eye-opening. It’s a shame his life was cut short.

  22. Crap joke for the day:

    A man walks into a café, and browses the menu above the counter. Amongst the various choices the man finds:

    Ham Roll -50p
    Cheese Roll -50p
    Beef Roll -50p
    Wanks -£1
    He then sees there is a beautiful woman serving behind the counter.

    “Excuse me love” he says.

    “Can I help you?” she answers, walking over to serve him.

    “Is it you that gives the wanks?” asks the man, pointing to the menu.

    “Yes, it is” says the woman.

    “Well, here’s £1” the man says, placing the coin on the counter.

    “But wash your hands please, I’d like two cheese rolls”

  28. This has been a busy week.
    The husband went in for a bone density scan earlier this week and found out he has osteoporosis.
    We were suppose to game yesterday but it was cancelled.
    Today we bought a new washer and dryer to be delivered on Saturday.
    We’re also going to get a new air fryer.
    D & D with friends on Sunday
    What happened to relaxing on your holidays?

  30. We’re on episode 6 of Skeleton Crew, and I have to say, this is one of the very best Star Wars D+ shows. I think I’d enjoy it even if I wasn’t watching with a 7-year-old.

  31. The Lemmy rubber ducky I received as a DPSS gift has been co-opted to play with four of the smaller rubber ducks in the house. And he’s been identified as the parent of the little ones.

    The Lemmy rubber ducky has a JD bottle attached to his wing. I can’t say I approve of this while parenting, but I try not to judge.

  32. So… 9/11 was a surprise attack with 3000 innocent people murdered. Today was not the same.
    But.
    The aftermath permanently changed the country’s relationship with itself and with the rest of the world, and mostly for the negative. More fearfulness, more distrust, more broken faith.
    I hope we don’t look back on today, “Liberation Day,” with the same awful feeling.

    “Worst day for our economy since Covid, except this time, he’s the disease.” -Stephen Colbert

    • It must be new washer/dryer season. We just replaced ours as well. Old washer was well over 20 years old. It’s like going from a landline to an iPhone. Although, honestly, we don’t use the app or deviate from the normal setting. We still just throw in clothes and hit start.

        • Is he a shit stain because he sent used condoms to his Suicide Squad castmates? (Which is incredibly uncool, don’t get me wrong). Or did he do something really heinous?

          Yes, I can search….

          • For me it’s just that I don’t like him as an actor. Even movies that I really like otherwise (like Blade Runner 2049) are nearly ruined by his performances.

          • His actions on Suicide Squad don’t help but for me he’s one of those actors who spoils any movies he is in.

  39. Pandora (the dog) been sick for about a week now, eating very little, spiking low-grade fevers, and looking pretty weak, overall. We already spent about a grand at the vet, we’re maxed out – – and they didn’t seem to have any answers anyway.
    So we’re just giving her skritches and gentle encouragements to eat, but we’re starting to get concerned.

  40. So a random memory surfaced today.

    There used to be a tv programme about all sorts of modelling. There was one bit about people making very light weight model aeroplanes that used bubble films on the wings. These moved very slowly but could stay a loft for quite aw while.

    Wondering if that is still done.

  41. Another milestone achieved. We showed Leeloo The Princess Bride for the first time today. Another all-time favorite for me. I think it went over well. Now I can unleash the Princess Bride references.

    Interesting reactions. . . She was a little bothered by the violence, not bothered by the R.O.U.S.es, not too overtly disturbed by Westley’s scenes on The Machine. She laughed at many of the expected parts, but not for “Mawwiage,” which I thought would have her on the floor.

  42. Well this punchline from an old beer advert for a brewery that no longer exists is running through my brain today:

    “If you want good beer make the V sign, cos V’s the sign you want a pint of Vaux.”

  47. Why do delivery people have so much trouble with my address? Why do they always deliver to my address in Calgary, not Airdrie? Since my address doesn’t actually exist in Calgary, they make their best guests and drop it off at random places as close to that address as possible.
    Just lost another package today.
    Strangely, Amazon never seems to have this problem. Just other delivery people.

  48. A pastor, a priest, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender glances up, nods toward a sign that reads **“NO JOKES ALLOWED”**, and says, “Sorry, folks, you’ll have to leave.”
    They shrug and walk out.
    The next day, a horse trots in. The bartender sighs, points to the sign, and the horse lets out a snort before turning around and clopping away.
    On the third day, a chicken struts through the door. Before it can say a word, the bartender gestures toward the sign and says, “Sorry, no jokes here.”
    Frustrated, the chicken flaps its wings and squawks, “Fine! But where can I get a drink around here?”
    The bartender smirks and replies, “Try the place across the road.”

  50. I find it difficult now, to detect if an on-line article was written by AI or just someone who is trying to pad their word count.

    About 10 years ago I knew a guy who was really good at padding 2 paragraphs of information into a much longer piece to sell to web sites who had a “word count” minimum.

    Either way. It is annoying.

    • I feel that same frustration when looking for recipes. I don’t need your grandmother’s life story along with definitions and pictures of every ingredient. Just give me the stinking recipe.

  53. We finished White Lotus season 3 (blecch)* and started The Residence. I haven’t spent much time with “Shondaland” shows, but this doesn’t seem to too much like a Grey’s Anatomy soap.

    I don’t know how much more mileage we can get out of the “eccentric world’s greatest detective” trope, but it was a stellar first episode.

    • *Tiffany enjoyed White Lotus S1, said the seasons were each independent, so we could watch S3 as a standalone.

      People are loving this show, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time hating on it. But. I hated it. I could write 2000 words of my complaints.

      I will say: the characters were interesting, and it’s the kind of show you find yourself thinking about afterwards.

    • I’ve watched the first half of this now and will have to say it is finally an account that fills in some gaps I’ve always wondered about.
      And while her tone on this comes across to me as “sure, but wink wink nudge nudge we all know he was a Nazi“ The data she presents shows it pretty clear he didn’t support Nazi policies or ideals,
      he continued to try to steer research towards space travel and away from weapons,
      and he was clearly given the choice by the SS to join or go to a work camp.
      Although she glosses over that fact with just a short single sentence before concluding that he finally chose to join the SS “to keep his funding” as opposed to the obvious conclusion – he joined in order to keep breathing.
      She also talks about the prison labor at the missile base. While she does point out, he had nothing to do with that branch of the project and was directed by the SS. She seems to indicate that somehow he could have put an end to it without any comment on how. She also completely deleted the fact that nearly 1000 prisoners were killed when America bombed the factory barracks.

      Still, I appreciate finally having someone filling in the circumstances of how and (probably why) he joined maga instead of telling them no and being liable a traitor to the murderous reich.

    • I know I’m in the minority here but I read one Murderbot book and went “meh” and haven’t read another one. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad book, I just don’t think it was worth all the fawning it seems to get.
      That being said, I’ll probably still give the show a chance. Not because it’s a Murderbot series but because it’s scifi.

    • listened to the first book on Audible. I really like it, I can’t say it was mind blowing, but looking forward to the series. Not looking at the preview, I assume Murderbot has an inner monologue. The monologue would be necessary for the series to translate.

  58. There is a company I ordered from once but am on their mailing list. Earlier this week (before the over 100% China tariff), they sent out an email saying that (paraphrasing), since many of their products are made in China they are adding a line to their billing called “Trump Tariff Surcharge”. They are doing that so you know how much is added on by the tariff.
    I thought it was an interesting email.

    • Without exaggeration, I’d estimate that 80% of the world sees what a dangerously incompetent tyrant we have in the Oval. And 95% of history will see him for what he is, no matter how much they try to control the narrative.

      • Yep, we’re kind of like an abuser in a bad relationship. Our partners only stick around as long as they have to, but are actively looking for an escape, never to return. It was only two years ago that Republicans really objected to executive orders and circumventing Congress. They seem fine with it lately.

  61. I tried a “Theory of Everything” documentary on Kanopy.

    It turned out to be a lecture, not a Nova-style show. The speaker is really dry, but he’s not the problem. He’s actually great. The problem is me.

  64. For reasons I can’t even begin to guess, the husband is looking at orc romance books on Amazon. He keeps showing me steamy orc covers (and some not so steamy). I feel like I’m being punished

  66. I know he revealed himself to be a piece of shit, but I just picked up Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons in an Audible sale.

    I have them in trade paperback but always wanted to do a reread.

    • Art ——————————— artists.

      Did you like them, or are you just trying to rediscover them?
      I recall finding those books incredibly disappointing after the amazing Hyperion series.

      • Yeah I liked them, even though they followed the old ACC rule about advanced tech being indistinguishable from magic.

        Although all I really remember are the intelligent robots roaming Saturn’s moons, aliens who die after communicating and a goddess who enjoys fucking Odysseus in alternative timelines where nuclear war breaks out.

  67. Sometimes when I’m having trouble deciding what film I’m going to watch I have a root around the ‘titles expiring in the next 30 days’ section on Amazon Prime.

    Tonight it was The Majestic, Jim Carey’s first non comedic film role.

  69. I’d never properly watched Frozen 2, so we did that one tonight. Weird movie. . . But I’m not the target audience. And the kids seem to like it!

  73. I finally started the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book. The premise is Snowpiercer levels of ridiculous, but it’s a fun read.

    I have had to pause because the little one assigned me the Frozen: Polar Nights novel after she finished it.

    • I do hope you’re taking in DCC as an audiobook. Jeff Hayes makes that whole story and all the characters something far beyond the mere text.

      • That’s how my eldest daughter has been doing the series, but I’ve been doing it the old-fashioned way.

        I guess I need to check out the audio, if nothing else, to hear Princess Donut.

      • I keep seeing it advertised on Audible. I might check it out based on recommendations here. I was leery because I just listened to a free book on Audible called “The Mayor of Noobtown” by Ryan Rimmel and the ‘dungeon crawler’ part of the title had me afraid it would be similar. MON was like listening to Twitch. It took a concept that I’ve seen done before (a person from our regular world thrown into a fantasy game environment) and was insanely overburdened by listing out the same person’s character sheet about 1000 times as he advances in level, listing out text descriptions that the character sees despite having seen that description at least 3 times before, and describing out every single stat and interface even during the middle of battle scenes. The story wasn’t bad, it just really wasn’t meant for audio.

        • I think what sets DCC far an above the rest of the “LitRPG” genre (and I’ve not read anything else in that group myself) is that the author doesn’t get bogged down in that. Certianly, there are heavier descriptions the first time something comes up, but as the story progresses it fades into the background. In fact, in the newest book, there are only a couple of mentions of certain stats and that’s because they hit some extraordinary levels.

          DCC emphasizes the characters and story like you would expect an actual novel to do, as opposed to some guy giving you a live play by play of a DnD campaign.

          • DCC is the first LitRPG I’ve ever done. My enjoyment of this still doesn’t change my leeriness of the subgenre. I’ll reserve the rest of my comments until I finish the book.

  76. I finally watched “The Electric State”.
    I thought it was really well done, given it’s constraining parameters as a YA film.

    I suppose another way to look at it is it shows how many films for adults lean on sex and gore to prop up otherwise weak scripts.

    This film also avoided the YA trap of living in “the pit of teen angst/dispare.”
    While “teen with no parental love” was one of the pillars of the plot… it didn’t wallow in it. IMHO It established it and moved on.

      • The Kindle giveaways are only US. I’m not sure of why the restriction. Print books are US and Canada but the author has to foot the printing and shipping, unlike Kindle giveaways.
        I have no idea why it’s country limited

  82. I really enjoyed this latest Daredevil season. The allegory was spot-on.

    Teeny-tiny non-specific spoiler: I just wish there had been more resolution in the finale. It was pretty much all set up for the next season. It’s almost like this stuff is based on comic books.

  83. Things I didn’t like:
    Less atmospheric music. Villains in marriage counseling. Forgettable new characters (with a few exceptions). The move to Panavision. Trying to ape CSI.

    Things I liked:
    Having more Daredevil. Every scene with the Punisher. Every scene with Bullseye. The character of the White Tiger.

  84. A few scattered thoughts, RE: the all-female celebrity space flight, some celebratory, some critical. Correct me on any of these where I’m wrong.

    They’re passengers, not crew.
    Why was Shatner’s launch celebrated, but this one booed? Both were celebrity publicity stunts.
    I would absolutely have accepted the invitation, if I were in their shoes. (Their $100,000 designer shoes.) Seriously, it must have been an amazing experience.
    A lot of unnaturally puffy lips and surgical sculpting in those publicity photos. They certainly aren’t representing the common everyday women of the world.
    I don’t think it’s appropriate to frame this as a feminist victory. I see it as another great event in the charmed lives of 7 famous people.
    Sending famous people on high-profile space missions is not inherently bad. It’s a big step forward to a day when spaceflight can be available for everyone.
    It is, however, a bit of a tone-deaf stunt to pull right now, with so many havenots on earth fighting for their rights and lives while authoritarians take over the US government and burn everyone’s finances.
    It’s a bit tone-deaf to celebrate this flight “for women” when the gubmint and NASA just purged thousands of brilliant women – – and men – – from their jobs in the name of some bogus bullshit “efficiency” quotient.

    From Pitchfork, of all places: “For Perry’s class of people, nothing is at stake and nothing ever has to change, so concepts like empowerment, hope, and resilience have no material reality. They are words for an Instagram caption, lyrics to a song. “

    • I am not following this.
      It’s noise at the edge of my awareness but I haven’t looked into it because right now my bandwidth is FULL with the US Constitutional Crises that is an President who says he doesn’t have to follow any laws and that interpretation of the constitution is up to a President.
      … and if the Judicial branch does NOT re-assert the authority that was clearly given to them by the constitution and do it this week, we will see American citizens being disappeared by mid May.

      That being said-
      A) “Yea” for anyone getting to go into space.
      I would go (though maybe not on SpaceX).

      B) The people on this Blue Origin flight were what my NASA pal would lable as
      “Self Loading Carbon Payload” and nothing else. Which is fine.

  85. Concluding my recommendation way up there ^^^^

    We finished The Residence (another “endearingly eccentric world’s greatest detective” murder mystery series) and it was a blast. Clever and fun.

  87. I just did a SLAM panel with a big-name author, focused on grief and coping, and wow, the emotions were flying. I’m a little verklempt.

  90. An author friend on Facebook just retrieved her son from FSU, after today’s mass shooting on campus.

    We’ve become too desensitized to this shit.

  99. This is the eldest daughter’s current Spotify obsession: EPIC: The Musical
    It’s a Hamilton-esque/Disney Descendants-esque 9-part series of concept albums telling the full story of the Odyssey. There is no visual performance anywhere (AFAIK), but it sure sounds like it wants one.
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvayv7u6HrpENlleXekJ2fg

    I’m listening now, at her insistence, and I think many of you fine folks here will enjoy it.

    Full disclosure: To me, there are many cringe moments, but I appreciate this for what it is, and I enjoy lots of parts of these songs. And what a cool, ambitious, admirable project to take on. The storytelling is fantastic.

    I do recommend you click through, although I’m not really sure of the best place to start.

    • Wow. He said and did some crappy things (as I’m sure the internet will remind us all in the days to come), but I think overall he was a force for good. I hope his successor is as strong or stronger against tyranny.

      RIP.

      • He finished out his innings by publicly dressing down the Trump administration to their face (JD Vance) for their horrific lack of humanity. I’d say that’s a win.

      • Just found this. From the Pope’s Easter Sermon –
        “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants…I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others.”

        It has been pointed out that this cannot be repeated in schools or Universities in the U.S. as it violates several of his recent EO’s.
        Seems pretty “anti christ” to me.

  108. Due to fatigue, we only made it through episode 1 of Andor. We didn’t do a recap, so I spent the whole episode going, “Wait, what’s their deal again?” every time a new character appeared onscreen.

  111. Crap joke for the day:

    A very distinguished lady was on a plane arriving from Switzerland.

    She found herself seated next to a nice priest whom she asked: “Excuse me Father, could I ask a favor?”

    “Of course my child, What can I do for you?”

    “Here is the problem, I bought myself a new sophisticated hair remover gadget for which I paid an enormous sum of money. I have really gone over the declaration limits and I am worried that they will confiscate it at customs.

    Do you think you could hide it under your cassock?”

    “Of course I could, my child, but you must realize that I can not lie.”

    “You have such an honest face Father, I am sure they will not ask you any questions”, and she gave him the ‘hair remover’.

    The aircraft arrived at its destination. When the priest presented himself to customs he was asked, “Father, do you have anything to declare?”

    “From the top of my head to my sash, I have
    nothing to declare, my son”, he replied.

    Finding this reply strange, the customs officer asked, “And from the sash down, what do you have?”

    The priest replied, “I have there a marvelous
    little instrument designed for use by women, but which has never been used.”
    Breaking out in laughter, the customs officer said, “Go ahead Father. Next!”

  112. I posted about it on the FB – – yesterday was the eldest daughter’s 21st birthday.

    Many of you met her when she was a tiny person. Now she’s more grownup than many adults I know.

    • It’s been one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums since I first heard it as a teenager. I’ve definitely had to defend that choice on several occasions. Glad to hear from someone else on the same side. My defense is typically that no other Pink Floyd album has as many songs (like The Gunner’s Dream and Southampton Dock) that evoke such powerful emotions from me.

      • I find TFC better than its reputation, but I still don’t hold it in the same esteem as their classics. It is always a thrill when Brit Floyd or Aussie Floyd trucks out a Final Cut song in their sets.

  119. My kitchen counters can be annoying sometimes. I can clean and scrub them completely, which I just did, but they have the kind of texture in which, although they look clean, if you run your fingers over them, they still feel gritty as if they’re not

  120. Funny exchange (well it made me laugh) on Bluesky this morning.
    This was in response to an article about how little Petey, having an office where cell phones can’t be used because it is specifically secured from the outside world, installed an insecure messaging app on his computer to reach the outside world.

    Person 1 – “Somewhere Hilary is screaming into a pillow.”

    Person 2 – “problem is that somewhere we ALL screaming into our pillows”

    Person 3 -“The Abyss ™ is really getting overloaded with screams it was never meant to handle. The phone line is off the hook and we can’t transfer the screams to The Void ™ fast enough.”

  122. We got caught up on Andor today. Watched the first two episodes Tuesday and the third tonight. I was feeling a little unsure after the first two, but the third one resolved the first arc nicely.
    I think the plan to essentially give us four mini-series (each batch of three will cover a short time frame and then jump one year) is a smart plan, especially knowing ahead of time that this is the “final” season and will lead into Rogue One.
    Can’t wait to see what the “new year” brings.

    • One theory I saw on Twitter, was that Cassian will lose more friends that turn him in to cold calculating rebel seen in Rogue One.

      • After seeing the “inside look” extra for the first three episodes, I could buy that hypothesis. Diego Luna mentioned that there’s still work to do for Cassian to become who he is at Rogue One.

  123. When ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was released in 1981, it was set 45 years in the past in 1936.
    If it was to be remade next year with the same 45 year gap, it would be set in 1981.

  127. There’s apparently some controversy right now with Cemetery Dance Publishing. If what I’ve read is true, they’re refusing to pay authors and mocking them on social media when they demand what’s owed.

    This isn’t all the facts, so let’s keep the torches and pitchforks on standby. But – – writer beware.

  128. So reread of Ilium done.

    Enjoyed it but the Moravecs are the best characters in it, the humans, post humans and Gods and are all pretty shitty,

  130. I just finished the game Robocop Rogue City and the husband has just started it. Because he is who he is, apparently we’re watching the original Robocop tonight and the remake tomorrow.

    • The first film I love but all I remember of the sequel
      is that it was better than R3 which is an example of damning with faint praise.

      • The Robocop remake was better than I remembered. I think it would be a fine movie if it didn’t have the RoboCop name to it.

  135. Four loads of laundry today. For context, that adds up to one load for every day since I last did laundry. I can’t decide if we’re the cleaners people I know, or the dirtiest

  138. I do have a request of everyone:

    I’m eventually going to go to big companies to ask for their sponsorship,* so every visible supporter will help.
    Please subscribe to the SLAM YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColy3WXfjor9Lk1oJ85hqpg if you haven’t already. Thank you!

    *Assuming we’re not driving around the wastelands in armored vehicles killing each other for food, gas, and water, for the glory of Immortan Joe.

      • I don’t know enough about either candidate to really comment – – I’m just grateful for the statement that was made. Reject fascists and their coddlers.

    • Thunderstorms are so rare here that losing power for a while is almost acceptable for a decent light and sound show from nature.

  148. And I watched Run Lola, Run again for the first time since it was new.

    Franka Potente’s first big role, I believe. It’s about as 1990s as you can get, but still stylish and lots of fun.

  150. So currently reading Olympos, the sequel to Illium.

    The first book has a slight smell of dirty old man, but with the sequel it’s become an overwhelming stench!

    • Please feel free to insert an apostrophe. Technically it would go in We’re but, meh, if you choose to insert it elsewhere, who am I to judge? 😉

      • I greatly enjoy Ki’efer S’uther’land’s acting, but I didn’t know about his whiskey. Or his country music. I’m not generally a fan of either of those things, but I’d try them both.

  166. What I learned today:

    Al Bowlly was a crooner who was popular in the 30s. Two weeks before he died he recorded (with Jimmy Messene) this song about someone thinking the world would be a better place if Hitler was dead:

    https://youtu.be/WJYCh8Sqzsw?si=VQn9oLrg03VRhpxO

    He died when a Luftwaffe parachute mine exploded outside his flat in London in 1941.

    Oh and he’s the guy singing on the song that plays before the credits start rolling in The Shining.

  168. Thanks for the Birthday Greetings all.
    I had planned to go to a neighborhood music festival but it stormed all day and then got cold.
    So I got some BBQ ribs and drank scotch while watching a James Bond film.
    All in all a good way to spend a birthday.

  170. Crap joke for the day:

    A woman was in bed with her lover when she heard her husband opening the front door.
    ‘Hurry,’ she said, ‘stand in the corner.’
    She rubbed baby oil all over him, then dusted him with talcum powder. ‘Don’t move until I tell you,’ she said. ‘Pretend you’re a statue.’
    ‘What’s this?’ the husband inquired as he entered the room. ‘Oh, it’s a statue,’ she replied.
    ‘The Smiths bought one and I liked it so I got one for us, too.’
    No more was said, not even when they went to bed.
    Around 2 AM, the husband got up, went to the kitchen, and returned with a sandwich and a beer.
    ‘Here, have this, he gives the sandwich and beer to the statue.
    Then he said to the statue:
    ‘I stood like that for two days at the Smiths house and nobody offered me anything!!

  171. So my NASA budy (who just got his “25 year” pin) was over for dinner Saturday.
    The latest is, his performance review will be on a points system where 25% of his score will be based on his support of trump and his agenda.

    After he told us that we just sat there in silence for a bit.

    This doesn’t end well for America.

      • So does kidnapping people off the streets and then shipping them out of the country to a death camp without so much as a chance to refute why that is being done to them.
        … and yet here we are.

        • It **will** end badly for the Fascists too, as it always does, but it will take far longer than any of us would like. Much of the damage they’ve done will be permanent. And even that which is mended will be forever scarred.

          • Yep
            The fascists will suffer from their folly In the same way that the guy who decided to run the Titanic at full speed, at night, in Iceberg infested waters- went down
            With the ship. He took everyone else with him though.

          • Yeah, I didn’t intend to gloss over the part where they cause millions (billions?) of other humans to suffer before they’re done.

  172. The husband told me this morning he doesn’t expect to work late at all this week. Will wonders never cease.

    • Right below that article is the top 100 80s rock albums. It weirded me out to see Bob Segar’s Against the Wind there because, despite time and facts being against me, I still perceive it as a 70’s album.

      • I hadn’t heard of the dBs or The Church. I’ll have to check them out. And, after my stint in Spain as an exchange student, I still have a hard time separating Husker Du from the 80s Spanish band Duncan Dhu in my head.

    • I have heard of all of them.
      The Fixx is one of my favorites. The album “Reach the beach” is infinitely listenable.

      The Db’s song “amplifier” is a cult classic for it’s genre

      I liked the one song I can remember hearing from “The Church” (Under the Milkyway) but not sure I have heard any other.

      I remember the name “Husker Du” but only because it’s fun to say.

      I’m not familiar with “The Replacements”

  177. On Amazon Prime last night, I found a 1992 version of the play “Noises Off” that had such a power packed cast, I was amazed I didn’t know it had been done!
    Cast-
    Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Marilu Henner, Nicollette Sheridan, Julie Hagerty, Mark Linn-Baker and Denholm Elliott

    If you like your comedic farces to be outlandish and frenetic – this is for you.

    John Ritter is at the peak of what he did best in a role that want written for him but could have been.

  178. There’s a lotto drawing tonight for $75m. The husband is drawing up plans for a secret lair.

    (BTW: In Canada, lottery winnings are tax free)

    • well Norway was selling an old cold war sub base a while back, was set in a mountain and had a tunnel the subs could use to reach the base.

      • I found it and sent the link to the husband. He’s now very happy that you can buy secret bases. Easier than designing your own then killing all the contractors. There might be something wrong with him 😉

  179. I’ve come to utilize ChatGPT’s image generator. I find it helps take a picture in my mind and visualize it . I then post it to Insta (making sure to say it’s a AI rendering though). Not sure if I’m suppose to do that but *shrug* meh.

  181. Ok peeps. The husband and I are having a disagreement on what makes a book a specific genre. I say, even if a book takes place in what essentially is a parallel earth, if the majority of the story is a romance, then it’s a romance. The husband says, since the main character is from earth, and the entire story takes place on the parallel earth, no matter how close it is to real earth, and the story feels like a romance, it’s still sci-fi/fantasy.
    Thoughts?

    • I know Gini Koch used to do Romance Cons and Sci-Fi Cons with the same stacks of books.

      Isn’t there a Speculative Romance subgenre?

      I must say, if I worked at Barnes & Noble HQ and had to pick a shelf for your example, I’d put it in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.

    • I would say that if the “parallels” are integral to the story than it is sci-fi. Meaning they have to keep referring to something being like the main character is used to, but not quite what the main character is used to and those differences must be influencing the action in someway.
      If it’s set in a parallel universe, but none of that comes into play then it’s just romance.

  182. Lots of books fall under multiple genres. I don’t feel it’s an either or. And this specific scenario is why the Romantasy genre was invented.

      • Unfortunately, in this particular case, sub genres were not an option. science fiction and fantasy was even combined as one genre.

  186. I’m not shaming anyone for being less music-geeky than me, but I’m surprised that a few people don’t remember The Church. It seemed like “Under the Milky Way” got a lot of play. It’s a pretty great 80s Alternative genre song.

    • I still have that one on heavy rotation…since I rediscovered it a few years ago. I always thought they were a one hit wonder band, but apparently they were much bigger in the rest of the world.

  187. “For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” – J.R.R. Tolkien razzlepuzzles.com/cryptogram

  189. CW: Warfare

    Was getting annoyed as I couldn’t remember where I had seen the actor playing one of the Marine Snipers before.

    Turns out he played the English guy in Shogun.

  191. I was watching (Canadian) news and a government person said, “This is the greatest country in the world“. I know they say the same thing in the US. My question is is there a country in the world where the leaders don’t say this is the greatest country in the world?
    I have trouble believing that any countries politician would go this country‘s mediocre

  193. Some of you will remember Peter Morwood from a past Deadpan MMMmmmeetup. Sad news from Diane Duane today:

    Friends,
    Some of you will gave heard about this from Bluesky or Tumblr, earlier in the day.
    I am so sorry to have to tell you all about this. None of you, I suspect, will ever have any idea how sorry.
    I am in utter shock and terrible pain to have to inform everyone that our friend, my dear husband and creative partner of nearly forty years, Peter Morwood, passed away suddenly early this morning after a brief illness that as late as yesterday (when his doctor saw him) had seemed to be on the mend.
    I’m not in any position to say much more about this situation now, as you’ll understand my current mental state is not up to the task. (I keep expecting to wake up from a truly terrible dream, but this one shows no sign of breaking.) I will let people know more about this in coming days.
    There will be a postmortem shortly to determine the exact cause of his death. I’ll share what details of this are appropriate as they become clear.
    Meanwhile in the short term I’m very much going to need assistance with the expenses that in the days that follow will inevitably surround what’s happened. For those people who want to assist, please feel free to use the Ko-Fi account here, and simply tag the associated messages, etc, “P expenses”.
    ETA: Please choose the Stripe payment option at Ko-Fi rather than PayPal, as PP seems to be having some kind of obscure difficulties at the moment. I have disconnected PayPal until this is resolved.
    My love will wait for me, I know, however long it takes. He’s never minded waiting. (the saddest smile) My job now is to make sure he’s not forgotten while I go on.
    Meanwhile, can I just say to all of of you: I thank you all ahead of time for all the support and fondness for Peter that I know so many of you will express. He’d blush over it, I know. (He always has.) Please forgive me for being unable to do much in the way of answering messages, just now, in the wake of having to get to grips with this sudden and awful change in my world.
    But also let me say, so urgently: Hug your loved ones now, while you can. Eventually a day will come when, expected or not, your opportunities end.
    Thanks, friends.
    –DD

    • My question about this craft has to do with its power system.
      The launch year for this was about the right period in time for it to have been powered by a small nuclear reactor.

  198. I went to the bookstore to get a book on turtles
    “Hardbacks?” Asked the shopkeeper
    “Yes,” I said. “They also have little tiny heads”

  204. Headed to my parents house to meet with an HVAC technician who is going to replace their house’s thermostats.
    Their old ones have way too many buttons and they’ve reached the point where that’s confusing to them. Also, even I couldn’t read the display on the old thermostats. So the new ones will have a very BIG temperature display, an up arrow for warmer , a down arrow for cooler and a switch for heat or cold.
    There is a “lock-out” function that will keep them from getting into any of the other menues.
    Also unbeknownst to my parents, these are Wi-Fi enabled so that I or my sisters can check in and see what’s going on with them.
    I’ve reached that part of the game where the parents are going to require fairly constant attention from us kids. Like we may have to take turns staying with them now.
    Fortunately 3 of us all live in the same area and we all get along.

  205. Morris the Alligator, star of the great Alligator (1980), Interview with a Vampire, Happy Gilmore and many more, has died at the age of more than 80 years old, according to the Colorado Gator Farm. The farm also reported that Morris would be taxidermied, “so that he can continue to scare children for years to come.”
    “It’s what he would have wanted.”

    • I see the Variety article.

      I don’t see any comments in the Pending folder. The SPAM trap is bursting, but nothing in there from Vanamonde.

      • Well that was weird, definitely saw the awaiting moderating message when posting the link to the variety article.

        Thank you for checking it out.

  208. Apologies to everyone here if I’m a bit single-minded these days. . .

    Our latest SLAM Summit has gone live. This panel and this topic should garner a bunch of attention: David Ellefson and Burton C. Bell both had public, contentious splits from famous bands. They both appeared on this SLAM Summit with me to discuss band infighting. It’s not tabloid stuff, but I think it’s a great discussion.

    I’d like to request your clicks, please.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBYY58t_9E

    • Done and done.
      Also shared on Bluesky and Threads.

      Found it quite interesting even if I’m not “in the business”

    • Wow that is amazing.
      Took me several viewings before I saw it.
      Look to the right of the screen, just outside the fence.

      Not clear to me if that bit of earth is moving or if the bit our camera is in is moving forward. It’s also possible that both are happening.

  212. What I learned from Star War is that the cloning process is flawed. Jango Fett, whom the clones are supposedly based on, was supposed to be a decent bounty hunter and, in theory, a decent shot. Something in the cloning process obviously went wrong for that skill in storm troopers

  213. Speaking of. . . I’m eager for a small amount of time to pass so I can watch all of Andor S1 and S2 again. We finished S2 tonight. What a ride.

    • Just watched the Andor finale.

      Now I know saying I enjoyed a Star Wats tv series is somewhat of a low bar as I’ve enjoyed all the live action series but the two series of Andor were outstanding.

      A rewatch is in order and I will hopefully do it over summer.

    • I only watched until it told her to hurt herself then stopped and didn’t watch the rest.
      I like horrors and watch a lot of them, but I do not enjoy the Jigsaw type of movies. Or self mutilation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ok with blood and gore, it’s just that type that bothers me. (For example, I did like the Smile movies and the Chucky TV series was fun).
      I know it’s a crazy fine line but *shrug*
      Give me a terrible supernatural horror and I’m a sucker every time.

  219. SLAM had a huge day for content and media attention, but then I learned something that’s thrown me for a huge loop.

    Sorry to vaguepost (I try to never do that), just venting through the keyboard in a somewhat remote place with trusted friends.

    I’m not back to the drawing board, but I definitely need to make some adjustments.

  223. “In time, in time they tell me, I’ll not feel so bad. I don’t want time to heal me. There’s a reason I’m like this. I want time to set me ugly and knotted with loss of you, marking me. I won’t smooth you away. I can’t say goodbye.” – China Mieville

    I sometimes forget just what a master of words he is.

  224. Heard a very sad story about a drummer who was fired from his band because of his bad timing. Poor guy took it very hard and drove to his local train station where he threw himself behind a train.

    • Some of them look awesome and some look like they are intentionally trying to combine things that they know damn well aren’t going to taste good just for the shock value. For example, I love pickles and frequently have them in forms that most people don’t like the sound of (fried pickles, and pickle soup). But putting pickles in a fried oreo just doesn’t make sense.

      • It’s amazing how varied fried pickles can be. My first few experiences were magical, but I’ve had some strange pickle encounters since…. So now I’m hesitant to order them.

        Yeah, I should probably reword that.

    • I won’t speak for Bunny, but I thought she mainly objected to the character, not the actress.

      This seems to be yet another nail in the coffin for Skeleton Crew season 2. :-/

  228. In recent “America is in a cult” news: I saw a FB post asking: “Who is the worst guitarist?”

    There were a handful of genuine answers, but over half of the responses were: “Bruce Springsteen.” I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that every last one of those responses was inspired by a certain orange politician’s anti-Bruce twitter tantrum.

    BTW, I think the question itself is mean-spirited. I didn’t chime in.

    • Given the times we are in and the available technology …
      I’d place a bet that the question was a plant from a maga propaganda outlet and the bulk of the responses were from an automated maga bot farm.

      All that being said, I am probably the worst guitarist.

  229. Whoever is running social media for (HBO) Max is having a good time with the upcoming rename back to HBO Max. I don’t follow it on Facebook, but it’s posts have been coming up as suggestions in my feed. Most “suggested” posts are waste of time garbage, but the HBO Max stuff has been pretty amusing.

  233. Having a real tough time with my dad right now.
    When he started chemo on Valentine’s Day, he was pretty much fine for a guy who will be 90 in July.
    He could drive, get up and down stairs, mow his yard … pretty much anything he wanted to do.
    Within a month, his new medications had him confused and in a bit of a fog all the time and drug interactions caused his blood pressure to plummet and send him to the ER. The family had to finally intervene and get his MDs to realize he was on way to many drugs that lower blood pressure as a side effect.
    About 4 weeks ago he began loosing the ability to walk and get around. Now he has to use a walker and can’t feel his hands or feet.
    He doesn’t sleep through the night.
    So my mom doesn’t sleep through the night.
    The chemo kicked the cancers ass but I’m not sure it hasn’t taken him with it.

    This sucks.

    • This past weekend we were talking to friends about the husband’s retirement in a few weeks. They are already retired and said one of the best things was they could get up whenever they wanted.
      You can tell they don’t have pets because, when we said no, we’d still have to get up early because of the cat, they had trouble wrapping their heads around that.

  238. Living in the same place for almost six decades leads to a lot of inertia.

    I should either move my bed into the rear bedroom or get blackout blinds to stop the sun waking me up early in spring/summer.

    I will probably do neither.

    /shrugs

  241. We’ve only watched the first three episodes but, so far, we’re enjoying this season of Doctor Who more than last season

  243. If you’ve finished watching Andor season 2, the short declassified episodes under the extras menu on Disney+ are worth a watch.

  244. Watching an episode of the Studio and Matt is being so cringie arguing with a bunch of oncologists that I had to mute the audio and just read the subtitles.

  245. Peter Piper is a local chain of pizza and game places. For some reason, our group of parents thought it would be a good place to go after the last day of school. . .

    And so did everyone else in Phoenix. We are overrun. I hear drums in the deep.

  247. So the husband and I bought what we thought was a Canadian whiskey. We brought it home and read the bottle and it said it was based on the Pendleton roundup. The most famous rodeo in the world. We never heard of it. In Canada, the most famous is the Calgary stampede. So we looked it up, it turns out this rodeo is based in Oregon. Further investigation show the whiskey is from Oregon. It says right on the bottle Canadian whiskey. WTF America?

    • I don’t disagree with any of the above – – except that I think we crossed that Rubicon long ago. How many times has he broken the law with zero consequences?

  253. Crap joke for the day:

    I got cut off by a taxi driver last week.
    I was walking through town today and I saw him at the back of the queue at the taxi rank.
    I got in the first taxi in the queue and said “How much to the station ?”
    “$5” said the driver. “And how much for a blow job ?” I asked him.
    “That’s disgusting” he said “Get out of my cab”
    I got in the second taxi and said “How much to the station ?”.
    “$5” said the driver. “And how much for a blow job ?” I asked him.
    “I’m not having any of that” he said “Get out of my cab”
    I worked my way down the line, getting thrown out of each taxi in turn, until I came to my target at the back of the queue.
    “How much to the station ?”. “$5” said the driver.
    “Ok” I said “Let’s go”
    As we pulled out and overtook the other taxis I wound the window down and gave all the other drivers a thumbs up with a big grin on my face!

  254. Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience puts on an incredible show. I’ve seen some other phenomenal Zeppelin tribute bands, but these guys are my favorite. Jason plays just like his dad – – and the stories from his childhood are the cherry on top.

  258. So LeeLoo spent the morning at a local playground, then started to feel woozy, then spent the rest of the day vomiting. :-/ Poor little one.
    We thought it might have been overheating from the sun and the spinny playground stuff, but it went on all night. Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow.

  259. Your crap joke for the day:

    “I’ve just built a model of Mount Everest”

    “Is it to scale?”

    “No, just to look at..”

    • Apologies all. I was AWOL for a few days to visit my son/daughter-in-law/granddaughter/grandson for my grandson’s first birthday. Wound up driving all day on my birthday to get home and then spending yesterday getting caught up on things. Late thanks for the birthday wishes!

  265. While we were unable to steal it, there is good news and bad news regarding the deck of many things.
    I pulled two cards. I got a level four knight companion. I also have a demon that is now hunting me. Stupid deck.
    The others in my party got such things as experience upgrades, the ability to change your fate once, stuff like that. But me? No, I get a demon willing to hunt me to the ends of the earth.
    I don’t think I like this game.

  267. JW: Airport

    Haven’t watched the film in about 40 years but still a good watch. This was the start of disaster movies in the 70s. You can also see some of the tropes the guys behind Airplane were taking the piss out of.

  269. LeeLoo’s stomach bug improvement has been slower than we’d hoped. 🙁

    We had won tix to see Empire Strikes Back at the Symphony on Sunday, but she was unable to go. I ended up taking her big sister. Today was better, but still not 100%. Here’s hoping tomorrow is a brand new start.

    • The silver lining, I had a nice afternoon out with the older daughter. We had a lovely time at the Symphony.

      I have to say that Empire never fails to impress. It’s jut brilliant storytelling, while also being a truly thrilling adventure. I kept getting lost in the movie and forgetting to enjoy the live orchestra.

  274. Between SLAM work, Tiffany’s 3rd-shift work schedule, Leeloo’s sickness, and general housework, I’ve been busier than ever these past 2 weeks. Yet, I never feel like I’m getting enough done.

    With our weekend plans, that trend will continue.

  278. The girl at the liquor store gave me a free six pack of lemon San Pellegrino. I’ve never had it before. Do I like lemon flavoured sparkling water?

  279. Guys, I’m struggling with Necroscope. I’d heard for years about its brilliance, but I just can’t get it going.

    I usually shrug and put stuff down, but I’d really like to finish this one. . . Has anyone read it – – this century?

    • M*A*S*H was a big deal in the Mangan house in the late 70s/early 80s. RIP to one of the first TV beauties of my childhood.

  282. I forgot to mention that our bus driver on the zoo tour was bragging that he was a stuntman in over 80 movies, that Netflix series was coming up about his life, and that he was BFF with Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, etc. He bragged so much I assumed he was full of shit, but our friends looked him up and said he was who he claimed to be *¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    So there’s my Lame Claim to Fame. His name is Gary Montana, but in IMDB, it’s Gary Robert.

  285. How unobservant am I you may ask?

    Well started my second rewatch of S1 of Andor and just noticed it say BBY 5 when Cassian starts walking towards the brothel.

    Umm.

  286. Tough times on planet earth.

    My dad has to have one of us kids there 24/7 now.

    I did a stint last Thurs night. I was cognitively impaired myself the next day after having to fully wake up every two hours at first, and then every hour after that. He does this every night and that can’t be good for him.
    When he wakes in the middle of a dream, that is his reality and it can take 20 minutes before he will relax enough to go back to sleep.

    I do another shift tonight and Sunday night.

    I have to find a window when his “engineer” self is there so I can have a talk about the rehab program I am trying to get him in.

    His subconscious is terrified about being “put in a home” (absolutely not what this is) and if we can’t get him on board with this program it just won’t work and the future gets REALLY bleak.
    I’m not really cut out for this. When I woke up this morning and remembered wha was going on I immediately felt nauseous.

    BTW- My dad is absolutely the best.

    • Thanks guys.

      My eldest flew in yesterday to visit him and got him giving great stories of his first job out of college, managing a team that was designing a solid fuel rocket that could lift a 10 pound payload to 80,000 feet.
      Initially, back in the 60’s they actually tested a few from a facility in Virginia.
      Regulations were … “different” … back then.

  291. Currently watching French open tennis with my Dad.
    He is kind of in and out but we had a good night.
    He slept from 8 to midnight then was only up at 1:30am and 6am
    That’s huge! For weeks he has been sleeping in 1 and 2 hour increments at night and that has to be interrupting his REM sleep which I am told is bad for mental function.

    • We had to clone him, age him, and transfer his memories (with a few tweaks for nefarious purposes, mind you) into the clone. Maybe this explains the high cost of health insurance in the US, it’s a front for these black ops medical marvels.

      (That was sarcasm, for you AI bots that scour this site for training.)

  296. JW: Little Shop of Horrors

    This was the 1986 musical version.

    I first saw this film at a cinema showing horror films all through the night. The audience would sing along to the songs and whenever the Rick Moranis character came would come on screen they would shout:

    SEYMOUR! SEYMOUR! SEYMOUR!

  297. My eldest is having a terrible time trying to get back to Denver today.
    Her departure was delayed well over two hours as apparently a hole opened up on one of Denver’s runway.

    Now she’s in the air but they’ve rerouted her twice.
    Apparently Denver now experiencing high winds which has delayed all departures and arrivals.
    I’ll be happy when I hear she has finally touched down

    • Well crap.
      After all of these shenanigans they weren’t going to have enough fuel to make it to Denver so they have been diverted to Rapid City, SD to re-fuel.

      I myself am taking a flight in the morning and have to say it has been decades since I have had this much angst about flying.

  298. I love Andor. But I’m getting overwhelmed with all of the modern day earth references. Every time I see an electronic dance song at a wedding, a morning show on a television, a radio talk show, or a stretch limousine dropping off a senator, I am torn from the Star Wars universe. It’s a super minor thing, and if it’s the worst part of Andor that just speaks all the more to what a great show it is overall. But, goodness.

  300. And, we’re back. Traveling week with extended family vacation and getting my son dropped off for the summer internship he’s working. We drove 22 hours yesterday to get back from DC.

    Made lots of great memories and saw lots of cool sights.

    Just getting caught up on the recent comments from everyone.

    Joe, my thoughts are with you and your family – dealing with aging parents I can strongly sympathize with.

    Van – congrats, and curse you on your inevitable retirement! You’re my hero.

  301. Every year, around this time, the husband’s school system (8 schools) holds a dinner in honour of this year’s retirees. As an administrator, the husband was always obligated to go.
    Normally, it’s at this point I’d say I’m alone tonight. However, as a wife as one of the retirees, I’m going too, so I won’t be alone tonight.

  302. However, on Thursday I will be alone. The husband was informed by his staff that there will be a “fun event” he has no choice but to attend as a retirement send off by his particular school.
    Just so you know, the husband hates these kinds of things. He’d much rather slip quietly out the back door at the end of June.
    His staff all know this but they’re making him do it anyway. Telling me, this is not really for him but more for them.

    • Well I hope he’s able to enjoy all of the fanfare anyway. And how exciting that he’ll soon be hanging out with Van in retirement!

    • Fun Deadpan fact: I saw a behind-the-scenes about how Beck and the Dust Brothers recorded the chorus of this song, and I based my own recording technique for the “Dumb! Ass! Memories!” intro bit on that.

  307. The youngun requested Ferdinand for tonight’s movie viewing. It came out in 2017… I’d never heard heard of it, but it turned out to be pretty fun. I laughed far more than I expected to. John Cena was pretty good as the lead voice actor.

  308. Crap joke for the day:

    A man lay sprawled across three entire seats in the posh theatre. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the man, “Sorry, sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.” The man groaned but didn’t budge. The usher became impatient. “Sir, if you don’t get up from there I’m going to have to call the manager.” Again, the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager.

    In a few moments, both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man. Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him, but with no success. Finally, they summoned the police. The cop surveyed the situation briefly then asked, “All right buddy, what’s your name?”

    “Sam,” the man moaned.

    “Where ya from, Sam?”

    With pain in his voice Sam replied, “The balcony.”

  311. I’ve been holding it all day,
    and I just finished this big Slurpee.
    But I’ll hold it anyway, think about
    our big day.
    Conserving water means not feeling sorry.

    Drink my pee.
    Drink my pee.
    Drink it gone.
    Drink my pee.
    It’ll taste strong.
    Woohoo! Drink!

  312. I did some research into Zildjian Cymbals – – they’re celebrating their 400th anniversary this year. Holy crap. Also remarkable: every person on their executive board page has the last name of Zildjian.

    This has got to be the longest-running family empire of all time.

    Well. Aside from THAT one.

  314. We will be volunteering at Phoenix ComicCon. . . I mean. . . Phoenix FanFusion tomorrow, then spending the day there on Saturday. I’m going as a fan, but I do intend to network like mad too.

    Any locals planning to attend?

  315. Crap joke for the day:

    Fella buys a talking centipede for £5000 and takes it home in a small box.
    After 30 minutes, he opens the box and says, “Would you like to go for a pint?”

    The centipede doesn’t answer.
    He repeats the question louder – still no reply.
    Now annoyed, he shouts it.

    The centipede sticks his head out and says:
    “I heard you the first time… I’m putting my freakin’ shoes on…”

  316. The husband says today feels surreal. He doesn’t actually retire for another three weeks. Yesterday was his retirement party. Today he’s back at the school, and having to stay late because it’s a school dance (another evening alone for this Bunny).
    He didn’t actually want a party at all but we both wonder, since the staff was insistent on giving one, why it didn’t happen closer to his actual last day.

  317. Day 1 at Phoenix ComicConImeanFanFusion under our belts. It was just a few hours, 2 claimed by volunteer work and 1 for awful food court dinner, but we managed to see many friends and lots of amazing art and costumes.
    Tomorrow will be the big day. Hopefully we’ll see Rhettro & Co. there!

  320. So… just back from an extended trip to NYC.
    The situation with my dad made it a terrible time to go but we had bought tickets and made reservations months ago ( non refundable of course) and with two sisters and their husbands here in town, other than my guilty conscious there was a specific NEED for me to be here.
    But to make matters worse… I got to the airport and realized I forgot my freak’n phone and there was no time to go back for it.
    So I couldn’t even get messages. Everything had to be funneled through my wife.
    That being said … managed to have a good time.
    For you theatre fans I will give a list of shows I attended in another post.

    Will share this thought I had.
    As I walked amongst an endless sea of accents and looks and heard a variety of music (both busked and blaring from street vender carts) I actually felt sorry for people whose hate/ignorance makes them fear our differences. I was excited and energized by the chance to experience the new and different.

  321. Oh and a dad update-
    They got him into short term PT last Thursday evening.
    He had some real ups and downs with it but by yesterday he seemed to be settling in. I will be spending part of the day with him and part with my mom who now has pneumonia.

  322. We did enjoy our two days at Phoenix Fan Fusion. Connected with a lot of old friends and made a bunch of new contacts. Too many to name. Sadly, the Rhettro family were a missed connection…

    I chatted with Jeph Loeb for < 2 minutes, but it was cool to tell him how much I enjoyed Batman: The Long Halloween.

    Lots of amazing cosplay. The little one got so many wonderful reactions for her Hermione costume. She even got into a kids' "quidditch" (aka Quadball) game, which amounted to 40 kids aged 7-18 running in every direction around a room clutching broomsticks with 4 balls flying in every direction. No injuries.

    And how many people commented on yesterday's Arthur Dent cosplay? 2. My Photon t-shirt from the previous day got 1 comment.

    • And to JustaJoe’s point: a vaaasssst diversity of lifestyles and backgrounds was on display everywhere. None of them caused any harm to me or my family or anyone else. You might say that ComicCon is fringe, but NYC is not. Fascists may win this moment, but individual freedom to be whatever-the-fuck-you-want will win out in the long run.

    • Sorry for the miss. We had big plans to see Charlie Cox, but he canceled last minute. Funny enough, there was a function that Teresa’s crossfit place scheduled at the exact same time as the Charlie Cox signing, so we ended up going to that. At 2pm we were pretty wiped to head out Fan Fusion. We stayed home and played board games with the kids, and it was good time. We did make it out to Fan Fusion yesterday and it was a blast. We parked at my office and took a robot taxi to downtown, hey it’s the future after all. We stumbled upon a display of SideShow Collectables, which was their first showing at PHX. Consequently, our wallets are a lot lighter, but there is a great disturbance in the force above our mini fridge now. We ended the day playing Mysterium with strangers and won the game for them, LOL. It was a good time. At the Con, we kept hearing about a board game Con in Mesa in July. We may make plans to attend that one.

  325. Shows I saw on Broadway –
    “Oh, Mary” – I literally laughed so much and so hard that I left the theatre with my face hurting. Plot? Mary Todd Lincoln wants nothing more than to persue her dream … to be a Caberet singer. This irreverent, farce careens off the rails in the first 5 minutes and never looks back.

    “Glengarry Glen Ross” – Sometimes big names are brought in just to fill seats. Not the case here. This was a master class in acting. Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr & Michael McKean… all with amazing performances.
    https://www.glengarryonbroadway.com/

    (More to come)

    • “Old Friends” – this was more of a two hour performance of numbers from Stephan Sondheim musicals.
      Featuring THE Bernadette Peters it was wonderful. My favorite was numbers from “Into the Woods”, “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunday in the park with George.”
      Yes, I still have a crush on Bernadette Peters… even at 77 she’s got it.

      (More)

      • “Good Night and Good Luck” –
        Yes. This was all that.
        I had seen the movie years ago and was more than impressed with the stage adaptation. Amazing and important.

        “Dead Cowboy” – incredibly strange but fun. Based on a true story. I’ll explain… no wait, I’ll summarize … I can’t even do that. Read the story at this link… and then ask how in the world they could make a musical out of THAT!
        But they did.
        https://allthatsinteresting.com/elmer-mccurdy

        • Bonus – went to the Metropolitan Museum of art.
          All the great Masters said to say “Hi”.

          Central Park – you could just get a cold drink and sit on a bench and watch people for hours. For the cost of the cold drink.

        • She also took time to sign autographs and take pictures with folks outside the theatre on the way to her car after the show. Keep in mind that was after like 2 hours of dancing and belting out show tunes.
          She is truely a class act.

  330. The husband’s great to class had a complete lyric assignment. They were given the first few words of a well-known song and they had to finish it. The husband got to bring them home. So we have such things as.
    It’s close to midnight, and: (from Thriller by Michael Jackson)

    Everyone is awake, singing and screaming because they’re bored doing nothing in the tiny little house except for farting

  333. Statin’ Alive by the Bee Gees

    Ah, ha, ha, ha, staying’:

    In the office doing work for a century, and the door is locked

    (BTW all of these also came with pictures the kids drew)

  335. Umbrella by Rihanna

    You can stand under my:

    Tree while holding a 100 pound dumbbell. Try not to drop it on your foot.

  336. No scrubs by TLC

    I don’t want no:

    Food tonight for food because I ate four meals for breakfast and four for every meal and if I eat more, I will get fat

  337. Every break he take by The Police

    Every breath you take, every:

    Candy you get to look on the rainbow to get a free iPhone

  338. Creep by Radiohead

    I’m a creep, I’m a:

    Rubber boy with swords that I like to cut cucumbers and meat and defeat a boss with my devil, fruit powers named gumfruithild. I’m a monster

    • Grade two. I probably won’t share images. They all have the kid’s names on them. Even with the name covered, the husband is still a little leery about such things

  348. Excerpt from a long rant on a FB connection’s wall:

    “The only issues that matter are religious extremism. Fascism. Income inequality. Public health. Climate change . That’s the list. Not “woke.” Not pronouns. Not immigrants. Not trans kids playing sports. Not “gender ideology.” Not “cancel culture.” Not “identity politics” . Finding cultural trends annoying doesn’t make them real political threats worthy of addressing . The DNC isn’t obligated to engineer pop culture to make people feel comfortable.”

    I’d add infrastructure to the list of current matters, as in: maintaining roads, bridges, airports, etc.
    I’d also replace “DNC” with “government.”

  350. Crap joke for today:

    A fellow went into a pub, and ordered a bowl of stew. The landlord said they were out of stew.

    He noticed the man next to him had a bowl of stew in front of him, and wasn’t eating it, so he asked if he could have it.

    The man said, “Sure, here” and passed over the stew.

    The first guy started eating the stew and about a quarter of the way down, he found a dead mouse. He threw up the stew he’d eaten back into the bowl.

    The second man said, “Yeah, that’s about how far I got too.”

  351. Morning Pan
    Because of the smoke from up north, our air quality is such the kids at the husband’s school will be having an indoor recess.

  354. My laugh for the last few days is Americans getting irate when I said the Space Shuttle went faster that the X15 when it was coming home.

  356. Man
    Another tuff evening of dinner with dad.
    He is ok for the longest time and then it’s like a lightswitch has been thrown.
    And you go to leave at the end of the evening and he wants to go as well.
    And you explain to him that there is no one at home to help him and if he falls and breaks something he will be in the hospital strapped to a bed. And he is there. And he understands and says yes, this is the best place for him. And you stand up to leave and he starts to get out of bed and this repeats for 45 minutes.
    Then you get home and it’s 9:30 and in order to be able to sleep you drink for a while until you are dizzy and then put in earbuds and blast some triphop until that is all that is in your head.
    … and then it is morning.

    I’m not special. Millions of us go through this.
    Is it easier for people whose parents were horrible or just absent? Probably not.
    Maybe so.
    I do think some people are better built to handle it.
    Guess I’m not the stoic, pull up your boot-straps, take it like a man type.
    Not sure I want to be friends with that man.

    Sorry folks. What was it this used to be called? A chat cast? Blather casting?
    That’s more than enough self indulgent whining.
    My glass Is empty.
    My head still is not.
    I’ll work on that.

    • You don’t need to fix a goddamn thing, Joe.
      I rarely speak for “everyone,” but I will: every last one of us is here for you. Never hesitate to vent or chronicle or whatever you need to do as you endure this experience. From here, all I see is you doing good and doing well.

      I’m not one for toxic positivity. I’ll just say: Even these trying times will someday be bittersweet memories.

  359. Another lonely evening.

    It’s orientation for next year’s kindergarten classes. They will also get to meet their new principal this evening

  361. So Artex is the bane of my existence when it comes to surround sound soundbars with upward firing speakers.

    It’s on almost every ceiling of house.

    So plugged in the old Sonos Arc in the older Panasonic tv in the computer room which does not have Artex on the bloody ceiling..-ahem.

    Changed the settings in the Roku streaming stick to transmit Dolby Digital+ to the soundbar, lo and behold surround sound. It actually sounds better than the newer soundbar in the sitting room with that fucking Artex on the ceiling!

    So Artex I hate it…

    Oh it has asbestos in it and has to be left well alone.

    • I guess the advantage of being at the bottom of the organisation and living by yourself is not much paperwork. I only had to fill in one form and I could do that online.

  367. I got a text from a foreign phone number saying they were the Ministry of Arizona Motors, warning me that my vehicle registration was up.

    Weird that they wanted my SSN and bank account info, but I’m relieved they contacted me. Thank you, Ministry of Arizona Motors!

    • Yeah, I got a text from ADOT saying that I had a large traffic fine and they would reposes my car unless I sent them a payment via a link. They didn’t bother to mention my name or the alleged vehicle though. And the return email said it was from some dude @priest.com. But why take chances, so I just sent him the $3000. I’m sure it will be fine.

    • I have a world of respect for Hanna Barbera. They did bring limited animation to the TV world forefront (e.g., Flintstones, Yogi, etc.). But they were also at the forefront of 40s animation with Tom and Jerry and were largely responsible for the 90s resurgence of animation through their incubation studio that produced things like Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, etc.

    • Yeah, it’s an exciting moment right now. I’ll keep an open mind, but I’m pretty damn sure it’s going to be a painful watch.

      TBH: I love Mel Brooks, but the original Spaceballs is one of his least funny. There are a few great quotes, but otherwise, it’s nothing I want to rewatch.

      • Spaceballs was about the point where his comedy took a turn. I feel his earlier stuff (Young Frankenstein, History of the World, etc.) focused on jokes that were specific to the time period of the movie, but not (typically) targeted at things that were the pop culture of that specific year. Spaceballs took on a specific property (although I admit I absolutely adore Spaceballs) and then Robin Hood Men In Tights the jokes started to make pop culture references of the specific time period that the movie came out (rather than references to the time of Robin Hood). I didn’t enjoy Men in Tights or much of his stuff after that. Just like bands, sometimes they grow in a different way than you do and it just doesn’t click any more. But the early Mel Brooks stuff is still some of my most re-watched and most loved stuff ever.

  374. The Tomasi Pool Party was a bit of a different scene this year. It was great to see Cj! And Chuck! But they were the only podcast-connected folks there. The rest were his friends from church and work. Still – – lots of nice people and good foods.

  378. I hope everyone had a lovely Father’s Day.

    I had a packed, wonderful day with the girls. We started with MacAlpines downtown for specialty ice cream sodas. puppy yoga, which is exactly what it sounds like, then dinner at a combined gaming store/restaurant called Forms and Boards.

  379. Well my question about Salad Cream has generated 659 responses on Threads.

    Appears Miracle Whip and Kraft Sandwich spread are the nearest equivalent.

  380. We’re going down from two cars to one starting next week. I’ve been on hold with the insurance company for twenty minutes already so we can cancel the car insurance. I have yet to talk to an actual person. It really shouldn’t be this hard.

  381. I thought I’d mentioned this: I finally rewatched Excalibur about 2 weeks back. It had been decades.

    It. . . hasn’t aged all that well. The first hour is mesmerizing. It kinda falls apart in the second half.

    Dame Helen Mirren was quite a Morgana, though.

    • I get the impression that this perspective was from younger people watching the film version that aren’t necessarily used to 1970s special effects. Especially lines like “by modern standards”. Yes, a film from 1977 doesn’t look like the digital thing that Lucas created to look and feel more in line with what came later. But to say it looks “terrible” and “Every scene had the visceral sense of watching actual people photographed doing actual things with sets and props that had been physically sawn and glued into place” just smacks of youth that just don’t get that this was made in a time where that was actually necessary.

      • The complaint would seem to indicate a consumer that finds animation more “real” than reality.
        Perhaps in the future, a market will re-emerge for the reality of actual actors on physical sets and real-life locations.

        I mean I know this still happens now but I mean in the way that a new generation is discovering vinyl records,
        A generation raised on the reality of the “unreality” of video games and animated viewing content may “discover” things like the opening segments of a James Bond film and marvel that it was all done with real humans, real explosions, really skiing of a cliff.

        Someday.

    • Then there is the one where he is going to send the army into Iran in petty retribution for the lack-luster job they did at his Big-Boy Birthday Parade.

  388. Crap joke for the day:

    A Husband and Wife were fighting. The Husband said to the Wife, “When you die, I am going to engrave on your Headstone that you were a cold bitch “. The Wife turned around and said to him, “Well, when you die, I am going to engrave “He’s finally Stiff” on your headstone”!

  392. Possibly TMI, but I promise not to complain any more today:
    I had a pretty awful stomachache for about 2 weeks. And seriously – – just as it started to relax, a terrible ongoing sinus headache flared up. Possibly hilarious to Abbott and Costello fans, but less funny in practice.
    I’d like to just feel a base level of no pains anywhere, please.

    • Dang, that makes me feel old. I have a memory of watching some Weird Al documentary in the 90s I think were Al talked about “Dare to Be Stupid” was a style parody of Devo. The camera cuts to an interview with Mark Mothersbaugh, were he says something like “Al has created this beautiful piece of art, and I hate him for that.”

    • I saw mention of that on Reddit earlier today. He was definitely in my “he’s still alive?” category, much less the “he’s still be doing his show?” category.

      Spent a lot of late weekend nights in the late 80’s and early 90’s tuning in.

    • He’s insane and as simple-minded as a toddler. And he was frothing to launch a nuke during his first term. At other countries, at tornadoes, whatever.

      I need to believe that his controllers won’t let him. I have no illusions that they’re decent compassionate people, but they care about money, and this act could disrupt their bank accounts.

        • No worries. Mood and preference matter a lot when it comes to humor. For instance, I can’t stand things like Jackass or America’s Funniest Home Videos. The majority of those clips involve bad things that people laugh at as if they are funny. How does getting hit in the balls be funny? /shrug

    • Maybe 1/4 of the gags in that preview hit with me.
      I think a lot of it might be in the mood your in when you watch it.
      With that sort of thing you’ve just gotta be in the mood for the silly, not just “funny”.

    • Good interview. Nice easy flow, good energy, well spoken, entertaining.

      Don’t be afraid to own it… You were a part of the “GOLDEN AGE“ of podcasting!
      Yeah, I know that puts a certain age on you. But you worked hard for it and hard AT it, and you deserve to claim it.
      It was an amazing time to be in “it”.
      Proudly own it!

  404. It’s almost amusing how Americans post on Threads with the assumption that only Americans will read it.

    So a guy posts he drove past London and observed the damage.

    People from the UK:

    “what damage????”

    Turns out he meant London Kentucky..

  406. So saw 28 Years Later today.

    With all the fake and not fake Geordie accents I’m wondering if it’s going to be subtitled or dubbed when it’s shown in the US..

  407. We’ve been getting a lot of rain the last two days. Too bad it’s not further north where they really need it.

  409. Well, we had plans to go see a fossil dig site this weekend, but cancelled due to the crazy heat.

    AC was invented for a good reason. 😀

  410. Blasphemy incoming:

    I stopped working and stayed up late to finish watching Vertigo. I accept Hitchcock as one of the great masters, but this movie just doesn’t work in 2025. For me. I can appreciate the filmmaking of certain scenes, but the overall story is bizarre. And bits of it are just too much of a stretch.
    And. I’m fine with stories where the protagonist is an asshole, but by the end, Jimmy Stewart is severely unlikable.
    I had seen it once before, but I remembered nothing of the plot.

    • There are many people who can legally, ethically, nonviolently remove the problems.

      But this is fantasy. Those are the only methods I advocate for, but no one is going to step up.

      None of his recent actions have made us forget: he’s an Epstein-Islander.

  415. Just finished up “Department Q” on Netflicks. Think it’s BBC product.
    Another police procedural featuring flawed and damaged people looking for their redemption arc while solving crime.
    Like most BBC shows it is above the U.S. average for such things … but doesn’t bring anything new to the genre other than the packaging.
    Enjoyed it I guess.

  417. Now Psycho holds up. (The original). It had been a really long time.

    I know it’s become all about THE SCENE, but there’s so much more to it than that. It must have been such a whiplash experience for audiences in 1961. About 45 minute into a drama about a woman on the run after stealing cash, the entire movie changes: the plot, the tone, the main character, everything.

  418. CP: In The House – In A Heartbeat — John Murphy

    Though I’ve never seen “28 Days Later”, this song has become iconic and reused in so many movies, TV shows, and trailers.

  421. Just finished giving my Boo one of our cars. With the husband retiring on Friday, we decided we would only need one car. Hopefully nothing comes up between now and Friday since I no longer have wheels

  423. Your crap home for the day:

    If you watch Jaws backwards, it is a heartwarming story about a shark who gives arms and legs to people who need them.

  427. We watched the first episode of The Bondsman the other day. Interesting start.
    Tonight we watched the first ep of Ironheart. I found it pretty damn uninspiring… but it has potential. My doubt is extremely high.

  430. I’ve been listening to Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” on Audible. I heard it was different from the movie, as it is a parody of the book. It is interesting, but as a form of storytelling, it is like an extremely long political lecture.

    • I love Heinlein and “Stranger in a Strange Land” was my first actual sci-fi (as opposed to fantasy) book. But I think all of Heinlein is like an extremely long political lecture. Interesting how in my youth that kind of thing was what attracted me, and now politics and religion in literature repels me (like water on oil).

  432. Your crap joke for the day:

    A truck loaded with Vicks Vaporub overturned on the highway.

    Amazingly, there was no congestion for eight hours.

  434. Yesterday, one of the kids gave the husband a box of cutlery as a retirement gift. It wasn’t an expensive box, more like the type you would get at Walmart. We were both a little confused.

  436. Sooooo torn. Interesting that Mel Brooks is making so much new content. But I didn’t care for History of the world Part II, haven’t had a chance yet to decide on Spaceballs 2, and he’s already planning new Young Frankenstein content. Great that he’s partnering with Taika Waititi, but FFS can’t we get some new platforms instead of just rehashing his “best of” catalogue?

    https://geektyrant.com/news/mel-brooks-producing-very-young-frankenstein-series-pilot-for-fx-with-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-team

  444. FU T we already had a trade deal with you broke. Why would we make changes to our tax code when you will give us nothing in return?

  445. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_forbi

    Forbidden Planet is truly great. I’d only remembered a few details: Robbie, the drunk chef, Leslie Nielsen… But there’s so much more to it. You can absolutely see the foundations being paid for Star Wars, Star Trek, Space:1999, Alien, and just about every space Sci-Fi film since. The monster is great! They worked wonders with their limited FX.

    But it’s absolutely a movie of its time. A lot of it is seriously outdated. This is the rare classic that would benefit from a remake.

    • Sonofa!…. Now you’ve done it Jack. There are probably 15 remakes, re-envisionings, and re-imaginings now in the works. And Amazon just picked up the rights to a 30 part TV series of loosely related content in that same universe. Thanks 🙁

    • I am 100% down for a well-made remake and new stories in the Forbidden Planet universe.

      Do I trust any major studios to do it right? That’s a different question….

  446. Crap joke that I particularly enjoyed:

    Their fourth grader was on crutches for his fourth birthday, so he couldn’t carry cupcakes for his classmates to school without help.

    His mom asked their sixth grader, Noah, to carry them for his brother.

    “I could,” he said, “but I’d prefer not to.”

    Spotting a teaching moment, his father asked Noah, “What would Jesus do?”

    Noah answered, “Jesus would heal him so he could carry his own cupcakes.”

  447. The pundits have been talking about the NY candidate and the “unacceptable amount of hatred” towards him.
    Does this infer there’s an acceptable amount?

      • I don’t know a lot about him, so I won’t condemn or endorse him. What I do know: he was running against sex offender Andrew Cuomo.

        Until I know more, I’ll say it’s refreshing to see a sex offender finally lose an election.

    • Apparently there is a deep fake, Twitter post from him, purportedly supporting the terrorists on 9/11.
      If anyone shares this with you, you should point out that –
      (A) he would’ve been like nine years old when that happened.
      (B) Twitter didn’t exist for several more years AFTER 9/11.

  451. The fetishism that some Americans show to military vets is bad enough but it gets dialled up a notch when commenting about an English spy who died in WW2.

    Yeah just fuck off with that bullshit.

  455. I finally got around to rewatching Tron:Legacy tonight.

    Not as bad as I remembered.

    I then watched the trailer for Tron: Ares and spied Jared Leto is in it, Think I will wait for that one to come to Disney+

    • “Neutralize odors naturally. Spread dried tea leaves in stinky spots like the cat litter box or in the bottom of your garbage bags.”

      Stop putting your tea bags in the garbage and start putting them at the bottom of your garbage can 🙂

  457. The latest was Strangers on a Train, which is also just fantastic. Bruno is possibly the 2nd-best Hitchcock villain. No one can supplant Norman as the greatest.

    It will be a few days before I get to the next, but it’ll probably be The Birds or Dial M For Murder. I watched The Birds with my parents on network TV when I was a wee lad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dial M.

    • You know, I just might actually have to go to the theater this year. It will be interesting to see just how faithful they stay to the book. They are clearly following the book premise more closely than the original Arnold version.

  461. Grand Canyon accomplished for the little one. She enjoyed it as much as a 7-year-old could. It was also nice to get a break from the Phoenix frying pan.

  464. There, I finally updated my LinkedIn profile. I almost always forget about this site except when, once in awhile, it sends me an email saying someone looked at my profile.

    • “My brother Michael has left the stage.
      He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother—etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.
      We’re not mourning a public figure. We’re not mourning a myth — but flesh and blood and ferocious heart. Who stormed through life loud, brilliant, and half on fire. Who leaves us echoes—gruff, brilliant, unrepeatable—half legend, half lullaby.
      I’ll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I’ll miss the boy he was before the legend; I miss my big brother.
      Thank you to everyone reaching out with love and memory. In time, we’ll share how we plan to celebrate his life—but for now, we stay close, and let the silence say what words can’t.”

      — Virginia Madsen
      on behalf of the Madsen family

  473. I only really remember dreams when I wake up
    early and go back to sleep for a few hours.

    Dreamt I was discovered sleeping at work and threatened my boss would informed.

    Woke up and thought:

    Phew!

  474. I only really remember dreams when I wake up
    early and go back to sleep for a few hours.

    Dreamt I was discovered sleeping at work and threatened my boss would be informed.

    Woke up and thought:

    Phew!

    • State and county officials are already pointing the finger at the NWS (which put out warnings 3 to 4 hours before local officials put out any warnings) but what this serves to prove is that even in Texas, the politicians believe that the NWS is our frontline of defense against ever increasing “extreme weather” events and maybe, just maybe – cutting their funding and firing most of their staff (hell ,ANY of their staff) is an idea that is fatally flawed.

  481. Crap joke for the day:

    A man walks into a bar and asks for a beer.
    The bartender says, “Certainly, sir — that’ll be 1 cent.”
    “One penny?!” the guy says in shock.
    “Yep,” says the bartender.
    So the guy checks the menu and asks,
    “Could I get a T-bone steak with fries, peas, and a salad?”
    “Of course, sir. That’ll be 4 cents.”
    “FOUR CENTS?! Where’s the owner of this place?”
    Bartender replies,
    “Upstairs with my wife.”
    Guy says, “What’s he doing with your wife?”
    Bartender goes,
    “Same thing I’m doing to his business.”

      • There’s actually a band out there called Beatallica, who’ve made a bunch of albums around this theme. Some of their mashups are brilliant – – and the singe does an amazing James Hetfield impression. .

      • In high school, I worked a lot of hours bagging groceries so I could afford an Atari 800XL. I upgraded to an Atari 130XE a few years later, but always wanted an ST. Got the Amiga 500 in college in the 90’s instead.

  486. I didn’t pay for the Black Sabbath livecast, and I obviously didn’t travel to Brimingham, but I’m happy to read that David Draiman was heavily booed.

    Also happy that Ozzy’s voice was strong form. It’s great to see a legendary band retire with a proper sendoff.

    • So the guy is t completely wrong but he also comes across as very bitter that a property he was familiar with was produced as a PG-13 film instead of R.
      I think somebody else here had the same experience I did with tES which is –
      It covered no new ground but was a very solid “young teen” film that was watchable by adults because it didn’t wallow in the “poor me” teen angst mode.
      Next time you find your “need to watch” list has run low you should give tES a look.
      I think you’ll find it want bad and it has heart.
      Then you’ll promptly forget you watched it.

  489. I will say, re: the horrific Texas Flood situation: people need to focus on the crisis right now, not the finger-pointing and the disinformation.
    Yes – – in the future we will need to find ways to improve infrastructure and warning systems. . . But the lost and their families are concerned only with the life-and-death problems right now.
    No one should be trying to score political points right now.

  490. Unrelated to the flooding, related to everything else:

    The closing narration to “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”

    “The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own: for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined… to the Twilight Zone”

  493. This past weekend we celebrated my dad’s 90th Birthday!
    Quite joyous as 3 weeks ago we weren’t sure he would make it to that mark.

    All his kids were there. His grandkids flew in from Washington, Denver, Pittsburg, Boston and Germany (2 in NYC couldn’t make it). They include a Chip engineer from Nvidia, a bio-engineer, a lawyer, and a PHD with degrees in molecular and marine biology (who has discovered and named a new creature.) Durring the weekend, one of his grand daughters (former nurse) rebuilt an old Victrolia she had previously found in his attic. Completely disassembled, cleaned the bits, replaced the main spring and got it working.
    Oh, also his 2 great grand children were there.
    All of these folks love to laugh, enjoy sports AND the arts and support tolerance and acceptance.)

    I post all of this just to say he has had a good run and even if just by chance, he has definately done his bit to make the world a better place.

    I hear endless stories of drunk/abusive/absent fathers. He was the exact opposite of all of these.
    He has been the example of the human I want to try to be.

  495. Talking about bikes, me and my sister were given an old bike by an Auntie in our youth. It didn’t have brake cables but you braked by pedalling backwards.

    I learnt today this is called a coaster brake and was developed in the 1890s.

    So now you know.

    • I don’t remember the first bike, but my brother and I made friends with the local bike shop and they let us rummage through a cage of junk parts they had out back. So most of my bikes were franken-bikes that we built from junk parts. They were fantastic bikes.

  496. For having time off, we see awfully busy. Yesterday the husband was at the dentist. Today I got a haircut this morning then a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Tomorrow the husband has a doctor’s appointment.
    When do we get to sit and do nothing?

  499. I’m seeing a lot of enthusiastic critical reactions for the new Superman movie – – and lots of cloned chatbot praise (We live in the future. It sucks!) – – but one actual civilian whom I don’t know well absolutely savaged it. They didn’t give much detail, just said it was childish and dumb.

    I gotta say that the trailers have been mostly off-putting to me. I have serious doubts. I guess I’ll see it, but I will wait to decide if it’s a theater or a home viewing.

    If it matters: I liked Man of Steel quite a bit (except Costner’s terrible Jonathan Kent – – and the way the Superman-Zod battled resolved), but I hated all the other Snyder Superman movies.
    And I really really disliked the one with Kevin Spacey.
    Only the first two Christopher Reeve movies are sacred to me.

  500. So I had decided when I put in my notice in to retire I was going to buy a smart telescope to start experimenting with Astrophotography.

    Anyway finally ordered a Dwarf 3, hopefully it will arrive in the next few days.

  501. Netflix is (already) cutting its Hitchcock catalogue at the end of July, so I did go with The Birds. Some flitting reactions.

    I remembered a lot more pecked out eye sockets than there actually are. . . .

    It’s an eerie, disturbing movie that does an amazing job making something as common as a flock of birds look sinister.

    The FX are dated and often hokey, by today’s standards, though still better than Birdemic.

    It’s not his best, but it’s still effective for audiences of the right age. I assume most Gen Z and younger wouldn’t be able to get past the cheesey FX or the slow buildup.

  502. Today it’s the doctors in the morning, then the dentist to get a filling in the afternoon for the husband.

  503. Yesterday I set a “small animal” trap on my back porch to deal with a pesky squirl that has been terrorizing my bird feeder.

    I immediately caught a bird.
    Then another.
    This morning … it was full of possum.

    On another note… did you know that “playing possum” is a real thing?
    Crazy.

  504. Was listening to the radio. The person said that saying something like “the best in the world” is wrong. We should say “on the world” not “in the world”. While this was said slightly with tongue in cheek, he is correct

  505. They still haven’t removed the husband’s work email. Today he got a request to attend a meeting in September. I told him he should accept just to see what happens

  506. I’m beginning to doubt this bird song identifying app, it’s says I’m hearing European Goldfinch singing.

    But all I see are sparrows and crows.

  508. Crap joke for the day.

    An American tourist visits the Lake District in England. After a week of rain and getting exasperated he accosts a young local lad and asks “does the rain ever stop?”

    After thinking for a bit the young lad replies; “I dunno I’m only 18..”

    • I don’t think I’m the target audience for “Elio.” But, I kind of agree this art style is looking a little long in the bean tooth.

  510. And BTW, many of you were here in AZ 9 years ago, sweltering in the heat to attend the big wedding. Yes, today marks 9 years of marriage for Tiffany and me.

    That’s 14 years together, because our wedding anniversary is one day off from our first date. Update your scorecards accordingly.

  512. We do these things once a week now. The featured guest this week is Pat Gesualdo, the founder of the Drums and Disabilities program and – – of course – – The Metal Hall of Fame.

    https://youtu.be/OXEfGee1HX4

    As always, your clicks help me to make this successful.

    Apparently the rules are: 30 seconds counts as a view.

  513. A little treat for after the season finale of Murderbot:

    https://m.macmillan.com/e3t/Ctc/I9+113/d4GfKf04/VWkM1t805fdTW6M6YCF5vyGSZW2H1VMy5yRwj_N4gTlKY3lYM-W8wLKSR6lZ3l0W64DWvy8djbx4Vy_Jqc6SwDqbW6JmZfD66hHz5W30fsnC44F0g6W75nHKZ3Zn68HW25g1kM5WcKlmW3tyMyj6zPxCqMtKB_DHhv4yVhYfhP7LWHcbW6rVJPq3nvWCwW7CR9My4WDcHqMtZvvdtGHlbW90L1qf5tRfNCW8JKHvg9cl86JVJJ25T3BtFtnW6mdG_J2VbpvbW8-n2xK66STPVN6VwvJ7v5x8-W2lyBRM4g6t4fW61Xw-84NwVTfW5YP_sP5ZKq5QW2G5QrT4FsQQbW1qZRz92QDff4W6y0ntf2s4-KXW5k2qYM4YHpjDVPSGBM4xB9FwW3cKzR-1kSyCJW3WsjV_3jwv4HdK_sbR04

      • Glad to hear it will continue. Overall I really like the series. Having read all of the books, I think they did a pretty good job. A few nitpicks here and there (like making the Preservation Alliance people a bunch of laughable hippies instead of the strong, independent, refugee survivors they are in the books). But every series will do something like that. So happy I got most of what I got.

    • Not being familiar with this property, I immediately mistake it with “Love, Death and Robots”
      Which I have recently noticed, has a new season.

      • I haven’t seen the Murderbot season finale yet, but I give it a strong recommendation. As is usually the case – – I recommend reading at least some of the books first.

        I look forward to checking out that little Murderbot treat! Thanks, Van.

  516. JW: Superman

    Enjoyed it.

    Kudos for not retreading the Superman origin story and starting off with a world where everybody knows there is a Superman.

    Quite funny in places.

    Two post credit scenes, both are short.

  517. By a strange quirk of fate, Tiffany and I each bought each other concert tickets last year for back to back shows this July. Last night was Brit Floyd, who were absolutely amazing, and tonight will be Alison Krauss with Union Station.

  522. So I love Rick and Morty.

    Watched a video by the author Jason Pargin, where he points out the show is a satire of Back to the Future.

    So all I can say is:

    Doh!

  523. Imperial Outpost is shutting its doors. We got some smoking deals on games and minis.

    Some guy got the store’s demo game of Ogre for $10. Jerk.

  524. Crap joke for a Sunday morning:

    All throughout dinner, my wife’s best friend’s four-year-old daughter stared at me as I sat opposite her.
    The girl could hardly eat her food for staring. I checked my shirt for spots, felt my face for food, and patted my hair in place – but nothing stopped her from staring at me.
    Finally, I asked her, “Why are you staring at me?”
    Everyone at the table had noticed her behavior, and the table went quiet, waiting for her response.
    Finally… the little girl said…“I’m just waiting to see how you drink like a fish.”

  525. Back home from Superman. Boom! Kapow! It’s aight. I disagree with most of the high praise I’ve heard about it. I could have waited to watch at home.

      • I will withhold my criticisms until a later date. There are some things I did really like about it.

        Many people love this movie and many have seen it multiple times already. I’ll let them enjoy without my negative commentary rattling around.

  527. Crap joke for a Monday afternoon:

    When Bill Gates died, he went up to Heaven, where Saint Peter showed him to his house, a beautiful 20 room house, with grounds and a tennis court.

    Bill Gates was pleased, and spent many months enjoying the amenities of Heaven.

    One day, he was enjoying one of Heaven’s many fine parks, when he ran into a man dressed in a fine tailored suit.

    “That is a nice suit, my friend,” said Gates. “Where did you get it?”

    “Actually,” the man replied, “I was given a hundred of these when I got here. I’ve been treated really well. I got a mansion on a hill overlooking a beautiful hill, with a huge five-hundred acre estate, a golf course, and three Rolls Royces.”

    “Were you a Pope, or a doctor healing the sick?” asked Gates.

    “No,” said his new friend, “Actually, I was the captain of the Titanic.”

    Hearing this made Gates so angry that he immediately stalked off to find St. Peter.

    Cornering Peter, he told him about the man he had just met, saying, “How could you give me a paltry new house, while you’re showering new cars, a mansion, and fine suits on the Captain of the Titanic? I invented the Windows operating system! Why does he deserve better??!”

    “Yes, but we use Windows,” replied Peter, “and the Titanic only crashed once.”

  532. I read several people say good things about “The Devils.” It is my next Audible read now that I finished “Starship Troopers.”

  533. I know I’ve been all-SLAM-all-the-time lately, but – – I think I may have a book cover.
    I was a little leery, suspecting AI, but my artist assures me it’s all cobbled-together stock images.

    • Not everybody has an artist daughter.
      I’ve used AI on my insta for promo stuff, though. And to help with visualizations. The husband has used it for our D&D campaigns. It can look quite good as long as you’re patient enough to tweak out some of the silliness

      • Is there an AI that people would recommend using for this?

        Last Christmas I was playing with one to create a Christmas card and while it showed it had possibilities… I couldn’t seem to get it not to add extra limbs on people. Also, when I came up with something that was on the right track, trying to tweak it just seemed to get it to remove the stuff I wanted to keep.

        • The husband created images of our d&d characters just using chat gpt. It took a bit but they all look pretty good. I’ve created people, buildings, and a cat on chat as well for some things. Well I know means perfect, I think they all turned out pretty good for their purposes. one I did for insta of a couple had to be tweaked lots and I did end up choosing the closest to my mind. They will never be perfect, or exactly replicate an actual artist. You just need to bear that in mind

          • I draw the line when attempting to make money using AI-generated art. That applies to writing, images, music, etc.

            AI art for fun, D&D characters, whatever personal use is cool with me.* I tend to make homemade cards anyway, so I’m even down with that. . . No artist is losing out.

            *I’m aware that the AI companies have done shady things, training and stealing from existing arts without the creators permission. We as a culture do need to get the proper ethics and laws into place. That will take time.

          • This is what the husband came up with for my D & D character using Chat
            https://www.instagram.com/p/DKXa8g9SOjm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=azRkNXNmamd4OW5y

            She came out quite well

            Also Chat did this for me https://www.instagram.com/p/DJW9L5Jpuud/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MWZvd21qcnN2NjY2dw==

            Nothing like the real thing but good enough for quick visualization.

            As Jack said, using a real artist is still best, especially if you plan to make money off the image as all AI tends to steal from other sources, even in pictures.

          • That is my take. If I am using an image for casual use, without making a profit, I see AI as fine. If art is going to be sold for a profit, I’ll likely create it myself. In the unlikely case that I would be doing something art heavy for profit, and it was beyond my abilities, I would hire someone. I actively avoid paying for works with AI art and I actively buy works of artists I enjoy to support them. I view AI as sort of like the atomic bomb, I won’t be uninvented. And I expect it to get better and better. Until the law catches up to the issue, I think the above is the best path forward.

          • Agreed.
            I would only use AI for my own amusement or for things that I would have never hired someone for to begin with.

  534. I have yet to watch Metropolis.

    Of course I’ve seen it mentioned numerous times in media, currently listening to podcast about the film, yet never got round to watching it.

  535. Yesterday, I watched the Jack Black “Mr. Crowley” cover. It was good. This morning I noticed my comment on Facebook to Felicia Day was “hearted” by Mark Sheppard, the actor who plays “Crowley” on Supernatural. Cool incident, or should I consider converting to Thelema?

  536. The last few months I have been enjoying this podcast- “The Rest is History”
    https://therestishistory.com/

    It is filling me in on details of our planets history that, as an American, we really only know about through what we have picked up through movies or (for the adventurous) books.

    Turns out that things like “ Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants” might be the LEAST interesting thing about his whole story!

    Anyway- It’s quite enjoyable. History told in a “story” like fashion. I recommend it.

    Two days ago though, I went to back episodes and started listening to a series in the French Revolution and considering how our country is unraveling, it is making me … concerned.

  542. Dunno where all this is tour is going as there doesn’t seem to be a “main” site that I could find, but it’s the 50th anniversary of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.

    John Cleese is hosting showings with Q&A and his sharing of behind the scenes stories. It’s coming to Houston in September on Mrs. from Texas birthday weekend, so we’re booked to take it in.

  544. From yesterdays installment on the French Revelotion I learned :

    With problems mounting, what finally set off the French revolution was the fact that France, already in a huge amount of debt, financially ruined themselves backing the American revolution.
    They took out a bunch of short term loans that were coming due and they were already spending 60% of their annual revenue on just the interest on their debt.

    So the king’s advisors told him to re-write the French constitution so that he could raise land taxes on the noblemen and clergy to keep the country from going bankrupt … and the Noblemen somehow convinced the peasants that this was an Imperial grab for THE PEASENT’s liberties. So the peasents turned on the French Government.
    How about that? The aristocracy convinced the lower classes that taxing the aristocracy was taking away the peasent’s rights.

    Spoiler- this worked out well for the very rich. Until suddenly it didn’t.

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