Friday Ephemera

I play guitar, A, D, E,
I don’t play bass cuz that’s too hard for me,
I play the piano if it’s in C,
And when I go to town, I wanna see all three.
— Ringo Starr, “Early 1970”

On watching Alien for the first time.
I went to see it on its release in 1979 with a few friends.
The only seats to be had that Saturday night were in the front row of the Odeon, which in those pre-multiplex days seated about 400 people, and it was packed.
As the creature exploded out of John Hurt’s abdomen, my mate Frank exclaimed loudly “He’s got a hard-on!” and the whole place erupted in laughter. I doubt Ridley Scott ever envisaged that happening.

Sleep tight…..
I’m busting out my dance moves as I type.
Ahem.

This Tweet nicely sums up what we’ve thought for ages…
via Geoffrey Miller

This Tweet nicely sums up what we’ve thought for ages…

(An introductory chemistry course at Berkeley has as its stated primary goal “to disrupt ‘the racialized and gendered construct of scientific brilliance,’ which defines ‘good science’ as getting all the right answers. all students are scientifically brilliant.’”)

When everyone is “scientifically brilliant”, no one will be …

I think it’s been mentioned before on these pages that there is absolutely no indication that any of has possesses the slightest musical acumen.
Au contraire, counselor, just yesterday Lancastrian Oik admitted to being a plank-spanker and I, he said with all modesty, can spank a plank in all seven modes and other oddball scales, though when I do I must confess I get the “WTF is he up to now” look, but no one has thrown a cymbal at me. Yet.
So all we need is someone to confess to being able to play a bass and drums and we have the start of the band plus, it appears, the Guild of Evil Singers and Dancers.

all we need is someone to confess to being able to play a bass and drums
Reminds me of a joke heard in a studio during the early 90s. “What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?” “You only have to punch the instructions into a drum machine once.”

[ Straightens coasters, resumes nonchalant wiping of bar. ]

“What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?”
How do you get a guitar player off your porch ?

Pay for the damn pizza.

What’s the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist ?

A rock guitarist plays three chords for a thousand people, a jazz guitarist plays a thousand chords for three people.

What do you call a bass player with no girlfriend ?

Homeless.

I’ll be here all week, don’t forget to tip the veal and try the waitresses.

I married the bass player … 🙂

I married the bass player … 🙂
I’m now picturing Darleen as a rock chick with a scandalous history.

I can be an Evil Dancer as long as I don’t have to go up or down any stairs the day after the performance.

How do you know when there’s a singer at your door?
They can’t find the key and don’t know when to come in.
Speaking of plank-spanking… (that’s me in the tasteful shirt on the left)

Q: What do you do when the drummer locks his keys in the car?
A: Break the window to let the bass player out.
Q: How can you tell when the drum riser is level?
A: The drummer drools out of both sides of his mouth.
I’ll get my coat….

BTW, of all of the people in all of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Hal ?
Now you’ve done it David. Farnsworth is going to be glowing and have an ear to ear grin for weeks now.

A rock guitarist plays three chords for a thousand people
Speaking of limited chordage…

On watching Alien for the first time.
Details, details.

Shifting gears: All heroes must be deconstructed.
I doubt I’ll see this movie, thanks to the above review, although I was already ticked about the absence of the American flag making an appearance. I think I’ve mentioned before on these pages, my father played a minor role in the space program as an engineer for a prime NASA contractor. As a kid, I got to see Apollo 10 lift off from the VIP section at Cape Kennedy. I remember driving there in the morning and seeing Americans of all demographics parked along the coast highway with lawn chairs out waiting for the launch.
I was so proud of . . . us.
These people who wish to destroy those memories can bugger right off.
(Sorry to dampen the mood.)

@Jonathon
Dad actually worked with “computers” back in the day. I heard about their efforts back in the ’60s. Nothing but admiration from him. Fun fact: Dad became a Republican because of the Democratic senate majority’s reaction to LBJ’s civil rights legislation.

a rock chick with a scandalous history.
Years ago, the pretty young things from some programme began pinning photos of various C and D list celebrities they’d cavorted with, on the office notice board. That particular game of one-up-personship came to a shuddering halt when the quiet, middle aged lady who was filling in as a researcher, dropped a bundle of pics from her younger days as a librarian at the Beeb. Apparently the thing with several blokes from some rock group which didn’t crash like a lead dirigible lasted quite some time.

Still, we finally had a color TV!
My grandparents had the Zenith color console with wireless Space Command channel changer!!! mid-60s. Sister and I fought over the remote when we stayed overnight.
Finally got our first color TV — RCA — 1968. The channel changer was me & my sister 😉
Oh the fun of learning to adjust the color/tint knobs.

…it’s sooo much easier!
Oh, another link to The Curia.
I’ve been swamped in classes and I.T. research, but in passing I did recently finally notice a way to mebbe get a general count of U.S. congressional right wingers vs actual conservatives vs left wingers, or so . . .
With the UK party Stuff, as rather noted, it’s easy. Over on the right are the UKIP and the BNP and that lot, over on the left are Labour and that lot. Being quite bookended by the right and left are the conservatives, who are known as The Conservatives.
What’s come to mind is that the same sort of counting can be done in the U.S., albeit one has to look at the also quite noted conservatives, as opposed to the mere right or mere left.
Do indeed start with the Blue Dog Democrats, the Main Street Partnership, The New Democrat Coalition, and The Tuesday Group, and count the number of members. If some related group of conservatives also turns up, count them as well—noting, of course, that yes, refrain from counting some individual more than once.
Once you’ve got that list, count the rest. If someone is not included in that list of conservatives, and is Republican, list that whomever as being right wing, rather than conservative. In turn, working from the list, if someone is not included in that list of conservatives, and is Democrat, likewise count that whomever as being left wing, rather than conservative.
I don’t know what numbers will turn up in the resulting map of these three distinctly different groups—and tonight, for one, I have to finish recombobulating a pair of computers—-but just the sheer demonstration of See A, See B, See C, is not going to just vanish with some extremist who only wants to proclaim Noooooo!!!!!! Nooooo!!!!!! Noooooooo!!!!!!

Sequence of note. Do click to the end.
[ Added: ]
Now with a post of its own. Comments that-a-way, please.

Do you have a Lost and Found ? Someone appears to have dropped this.

UKIP are somewhat socially conservative, but veered leftwards economically, seemingly the better to appeal to The North. God knows where they currently stand.