Haw! I’d pay to see that.
Open Thread – Weekend 15 July 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 20 Jan 2025
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 Jan 2025
- Guest Post: Mem – The Ratchet Effect of Power-Price Increases
- Will the wind warriors become social outcasts?
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 Jan 2025
Sky News. Pauline Hanson didn’t miss the opportunity to say we should do the same. ‘Met with support’: Trump withdraws…
Surely she reads Newscorp stablemate Miranda Devine’s articles. Analiese cannot be this dumb.
For those needing a LOL, Carlton CEO has fallen on his pork sword.
No. This is my own take on it. Others may agree.
By 2028.
Difficult to square with the charter’s requirement for them to reflect “cultural diversity.”
A third of Australians live in regional Australia (and growing).
You go Gilas.
By 2028. Thanks Roger.
Milton, that’s a liberty quote!
So by Wednesday we will discover whether the No campaign have been paid to fail.
If they don’t call the scheme racist they are taking a dive.
Thanks BBS!
Tom – radio recommends – SEN Track. Their coverage of afternoon racing is worth a listen.
Yesterday, between the tips and raillery much faux indignation and outrage over which of the assembled pundits was responsible for the odour in the studio. They seem to have the right attitude to the frequent ‘please explain’ appointments with HR.
One of them, former jockey Sam Hyland, is a dead voice ringer for Albo. It’s uncanny.
“As Rowan Dean said this morning, it’s time to pull the plug.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. If we ever have another Coalition government, will they pull the plug? I reckon not. And a reminder, until recently we had nine years of a Coalition governments, and they did nothing to rein in or curb the ABC. In fact one of Morrison’s last acts, in January of 2022, was to toss more dosh at the organisation.
It doesn’t matter if people are switching off the ABC. Last week, on his blog, C.L made the very pertinent point that the more irrelevant the ABC becomes, the more toxic, dangerous, malevolent, spiteful, and hostile it becomes towards ordinary Australians, towards Christianity and churches, particularly the Catholic Church, towards our armed services and veterans, towards Israel and Jews, towards white men, towards the family and so on. The ABC loathes mainstream Australia, it’s now a progressive Marxist cabal that every day shoves its big middle finger to Australians.
To those who say “oh, just ignore it”, my response is that I’ll ignore it when it gets its last drop of money from the taxpayer. Until then, NO. And tell that to the following, whose lives the ABC has smeared, trashed, defamed and destroyed….
George Pell
Andrew Laming
Alan Tudge
Christian Porter
Bruce Lehrmann
SAS soldiers
Ben Roberts-Smith
Heston Russell
and there are more.
BB – I opted out for several reasons.
One: They wouldn’t give a decent trade in for my current conveyance, meaning I would have had to have sold it privately
Two: They were asking too much for the car in question
Three: I could have cashed in some of my four and half months’ leave, to help pay for it, but it would have been taxed at 49.5%
Four: Wasting money on cars is something I’ve outgrown
Five: My last BMW almost bankrupted me- European cars are hideously expensive to run and maintain, not to mention as an added bonus, notoriously unreliable
Six: Modern cars are rubbish. My current conveyance is gloriously low tech and a six speed manual – paddle shifting? Sacré bleu! 😡
However, having said that, we’re off to the Imperial next Saturday afternoon before heading back to Sydney to celebrate one of my best mate’s Sixtieth.
More if you count Asians from Melbourne towing caravans and erratically weaving their way along the roads between every shithole in Queensssland.
The other thing about digital stuff is you know numbers of eyeballs, ears and downloads to the individual listener and location. Could be an issue when you’re dropping a billion plus per annum.
I love band music, Tom. Because of the mining heritage, there’s a strong band tradition up this way. Another music tradition I like are the bag pipes. Although I doubt I could live too close to someone practicing them everyday!
(The Queen had a piper playing every morning – sooo Sir Walter Scott-ish!)
I love your passion, Rabz. You’re an ornament to the internet.
Long may you rule here!
Tom
Jul 16, 2023 4:52 PM
I always wanted to play piano, but I was too lazy.
Totally understandable, I was the same.
It takes special, possibly pathological commitment to excel at tinkling that unwieldy, 88-key monster.
As mentioned, the technical feats at the Comp were, in some cases, truly transcendental.
Flying fingers and arms, with obscene accuracy, while still maintaining musicality.
One of the competitors was talking to one of the Friends during one of the intervals, complaining that he missed his routine of practicing 7-8 hours a day, every day..
Now, THAT is commitment to one’s personal spiritual advancement.
No time for taking drugs, having tattoos or nose-rings, not even Tik-Tok videos.
Every one of these people are to be admired.
I was never in the market for one but reviews for the 4 cylinder AMG 63S are decidedly lukewarm. As they should be. German ricer.
Yes…yes, it does.
If it’s not loved it will go as budgetary constraints hit down the track.
It’s not Medicare.
“If it’s not loved it will go as budgetary constraints hit down the track.”
Nup, no government will touch the ABC, and it knows it.
Quite possibly.
But have you ever tried to master guitar?
At least on a piano it’s all laid out for you in linear fashion.
If I were a betting man I’d ask for odds.
Unfortunately, I think this is the cold, hard truth.
I would have said that once. Not any more.
Going up the neck is pretty linear?
Well that’s a shame sir.
The road from Albion Park to Bald Hill would have availed itself nicely to be punished by your purchase. Seaview Bridge onwards is just beautiful.
HBBear
There will be a flourishing sideline at the Calcutta scam farm selling randomised clicks on their products.
“ wow one in ten people globally tuned into LNL to hear phatty Addams scouring his own pubic regions for moist nuggets of socialism… again”
Nup, no government will touch the ABC, and it knows it.
I would have said that once. Not any more.
Well that’s true now but, as its irrelevance and malice become more and more obvious, things may change.
Six: Modern cars are rubbish. My current conveyance is gloriously low tech and a six speed manual
I’ve got a newish Korean six speed manual- absolutely beaut.
ABCcess gives our polliemuppetts a sense of importance.
Without it they would be deprived of the oxygen of publicity.
Neil Oliver: ‘The wellbeing of all children must be central to our civilisation’
ABCcess gives our polliemuppetts a sense of importance.
Without it they would be deprived of the oxygen of publicity.
that’s true- as someone here said the legacy meja and the unipary pollimuppetts feed off each other.
Or is the Imperial on that marvellous road?
Lawrence Hargreave drive?
Mmm…sort of, but you have to take into account that you have six strings (or more in soem cases) stretched across the fretboard, which doesn’t lend itself to linear progressions. Consequently, most guitarists limit themselves to boxes of notes rather than linear scale patterns.
Good comment.
Really bad answer. Try again.
Her late Majesty’s support for the instrument & the playing of it, was of invaluable assistance in advancing & growing the playing of the great highland bagpipe.
Any West Australian Cats know this shop?
BB, going southwards is the mere tail end. The drive through the Royal National is what it’s all about. Two lane blacktop, many many curves, natural surroundings including a canopy over a massive downward dip where you can feel the temperature drop noticeably, even in high summer. You exit the Royal National on a cliff’s edge over the Pacific, before turning left and descending towards Coalcliff.
My favourite Australian drive and it can all be achieved in an afternoon. Nothing else comes even remotely close.
You could add to your list, Cassie, the staff, parents and friends of Redfield College whom the ghastly Milligan so despicably defamed. To paraphrase CS Lewis, the politically correct (and their pseudo-Catholic quislings) sneer at purity and chastity and profess the shocked when they find in their midst the pedos their trendy moral relativism has encouraged.
And there would be many other victims of ABC vilification.
Redfield, by the way, is one of the most oversubscribed schools in Sydney. Parents will be flocking there.
Yes, why yes it is, Cats! 🙂
And some light relief from the ABC. A twenty-first century techno version of the Gadarene swine?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-16/hundreds-of-drones-plunge-into-yarra-river/102607576
They haven’t been too kind to Elbow recently.
The ABC would only ever be happy with a Green majority government.
The problem is that’s only 9-13% of the electorate.
Take out broadcasting – as they’re doing- and they’re rendering themselves irrelevant to any national discussion.
Indeed. Victory goes to those that turn up. The centre-right, sorry to say, largely doesn’t turn up. They continually rationalize inactivity. Even if we said Roger is right for argument’s sake, if the ABC was a centre-right institution on the way out, rather than doing nothing and just letting budgetary constraints accelerate its demise, the ALP/ Greens would be campaigning to kill it and calling in the PR, etc. to publicize their bravery as executioner.
Roger
Jul 16, 2023 6:28 PM
But have you ever tried to master guitar?
At least on a piano it’s all laid out for you in linear fashion.
That’s small comfort when you have to play 3-8 notes at the same time, imitating an orchestral score, with 3-part counterpoint, while maintaining dynamic fidelity to the composer’s written directions.
Just one of the examples on show at the Comp: Saint Saens’ Danse Macabre, written for orchestra, as transcribed by Liszt for solo piano, and “enhanced” by Vladimir Horowitz here..
I’ve yet to hear a guitar piece like this.
Precisely…because it would be too difficult.
Another reason for not buying the sporty beemer was I didn’t want to eat into my mortgage redraw after all the financial discipline* engaged in over the last three years.
A perfect confluence of collectivist crackpottery over that time did not help.
“Thou shalt not possess nice things”
*Alleged. The “Imelda Collection” however, has never been healthier. 🙂
Another music tradition I like are the bag pipes.
My dad loved them but he was initially Infantry and the Battalions used have their own Pipes & Drums platoons.
At one stage he particularly loved the massed pipes playing Amazing Grace, I remember it as a kid from time to time blaring out on the weekend from the stereo while we were running amok on the 1/4 acre block outside, when we had one of a few postings in Sydney. Funny was only that one too, I don’t remember any deaths in the family at the time and it was really the only time I remember it. I suppose I’ll never know why.
The Daily Tele is getting worse and worse. Amazing how half of society are now being excluded from existance, as defined by guys like Lachlan.
Fresh push to boost Voice vote
Uncovered: Will taxpayer dollars be spent on the Voice?
Yes campaigner attacks ‘negative’ voice headlines
Why electric cars are cheaper than ever
What total shite! Do they have a death wish?
That’s not my argument at all.
The ABC is Green-Left.
Dinner calls…
I subscribe to both the Daily Telegraph and the Oz. I find the Telegraph quite okay. In some ways, it’s better than the Oz.
Try the Bach lute suites. Not much like Saint Saens, but certainly complex.
Because life is way too short, Cats, here’s Miss Ellie showing off her magnifique bottomage 🙂
Bagpipes are awesome.
It’s A Long Way To The Shop If You Want A Sausage Roll (1975)
Might’ve made a mistake with the song title. Sue me.
Apologies if someone has already posted this:
Conservative Black Man DESTROYS Smug White Liberal
Driven past it heaps of times. Not many of the old Northbridge shops left.
Now that’s fresh.
Giles @ 6:55pm
that was magnificent!
What total shite! Do they have a death wish?
The current corporate fashion in the English speaking world is to insult and/or ignore your customers. Seems as far as the big four banks here are concerned there are no white guys in Australia.
Giles @ 6:55pm
that was magnificent!
yes it was
iirc Listz also adapted all Beethoven’s symphonies for the piano.
Ho ho.
Nobody tell Dot that there is an article on Quadrant identifying his beloved Irish as a bunch of stupid, vindictive communist fascists, who submit to anyone who will fund them and who call upon Catholic era supression to protect their elite.
“Deary smugness and infantile Anglophobia”.
Yep, that’s them.
“Unhinged, unhinged” he crys as he disappears across the bog calling for his hounds.
Oops, actually meant to link to Bon Scott and the dead cat under his armpit, not the wiki.
AC/DC – It’s A Long Way to the Top
Yes the lady friend who I was with never went further than Bald Hill. Still just one of the great roads in Australia.
Now this fell onto my desk, so I must share. How hot are the women here? Puts slags like Maddow into mucho shade.
DrBeauGan
Jul 16, 2023 7:05 PM
Try the Bach lute suites. Not much like Saint Saens, but certainly complex.
Er.. no, hardly any chords, no chromatic progressions, broken octaves, thirds, sixths, multiple-note harmonies in Bach’s music for strings.
Violin or cello sonatas-partitas are the closest thing to string Hell, but only because of the complex polyphony-counterpoint.
The only instrument more challenging than piano is the organ, where one has to play up to 2-part harmony on a pedal board, as well as up to 5 manuals (keyboards)
Many 19th C pianist composers transcribed various Bach organ Chorales, Preludes, Fantasias and Fugues for solo piano.
These transcriptions are fiendishly difficult but manage to faithfully reproduce Bach’s various voices and sounds.
Independent, multiple fingers super-essential.
I am not aware of anyone doing that on a string instrument, happy to have a link, learn and be proven wrong.
Carolyn’s fingers – a cover that rivals the original and that’s saying something …
I wasn’t saying it is centre-right but if it was centre-right the ALP-Greens would be in like Flynn twisting the knife not sitting in the corner watching it die slowly.
This may have been posted before. It doesn’t make happy reading.
The Globalists Are Making Really Big Moves Which Would Fundamentally Change How Our Society Operates
Sacré bleu! Heaven or las Vegas …
Bruce of Newcastle,
there was one other version of that song title we used to sing at school and in the pubs.
Not sure if I should post it, what with all the well-mannered, polite commenters here. 😀
re, Bagpipes. There is no sound more majestic than a skirl by a lone Piper atop a mountain and the sound roaring down into the valley below.
I have a fondness for the pipes.
Tucker in a long chat with Vivek Ramaswami
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0saW19A_k_Y
Sharp as tacks, both of ’em
miltonf
Jul 16, 2023 7:18 PM
iirc Listz also adapted all Beethoven’s symphonies for the piano.
He certainly did, as did some others (see IMSLP) eg. Pauer and Singer, often for piano & strings, piano 4 and 8-hands, to attempt to imitate the orchestral sound.
Liszt’s are absolute masterpieces, and super-faithful to the original Beethoven sound, hardly any 1-2 note melodic lines.
Bagpipes are awesome.
Strangling the cat/s?
6 RAR’s Battalian song/music is the Black Bear.
Pipes and Drums Major of 8/9 RAR told me years ago that 6 RAR can only only have enough brain power one word… ‘OI!!!’ 😉
Gas Car Cancellation Is Intended to End Private Transport (as many here have though for a long time. The evil old Kerry turd getas a mention.
I’m quite fond of bagpipes.
Mme Zulu, who was married to a Scotsman, cannot stand them….
Grrrr…
Bagpipes are awesome.
Strangling the cat/s?
6 RAR’s Battalian song/music is the Black Bear.
Pipes and Drums Major of 8/9 RAR told me years ago that 6 RAR only have enough brain power to remenber one word… ‘OI!!!’ ?
That reminds me..
There are a few piano 2 and 4-hand transcriptions of Mahler Symphonies, even the 8th and 9th, the peak of late 19th C orchestral writing.
The odd one for percussion ensemble, curiosities really.
But none for solo, or dual string instruments.
re, Bagpipes. There is no sound more majestic than a skirl by a lone Piper atop a mountain and the sound roaring down into the valley below.
Except the sound of a napalm run taking out the bastard.
It’s a long time since I heard the Listz piano versions of Beethoven’s symphonies. There were familiar but different if you know what I mean.
Sorry for the delay, I was busy looking for evidence that their 15% of the world population were cleaning up at boxing, marathon running, dressage, and …. T20 Cricket.
Ciri and Yennefer
Encountered my first pro voice sign in my local area today. Hardly surprising, given it’s a labor left rustedon electorate.
What is surprising is how long it took to show up, and it’s the only one I’ve seen bar the local MP’s office.
Not going to get my hopes up on it failing though.
Farmer Gez,
I can’t stop laughing!
The Quadrant article on PG Wodehouse concludes with this gem:
‘ Some Wodehouse jokes never found their way into the books, however. He offered a gem in a 1948 letter to fellow writer Guy Bolton. A clergyman is doing a crossword puzzle on a railway journey and is perplexed over his answer to 15 Across. He consults a colleague seated opposite:
“15 Across—‘Appertaining to the female sex’? Something–U–N–T?”
“Aunt!”
“Ah, yes, of course,” replies the clergyman. “I say, have you an eraser?”
Or go to church, couldn’t hurt.
That’s a really really bad answer, & grounds for Jihad.
Hey, Miss Personage – tell me something I don’t understand …
Gilas
Jul 16, 2023 6:22 PM
And when they do they get misinterpreted. Scott Adam’s former missus uploaded a piano piece to social media. I couldn’t identify which level she’s obtained but what she was playing she was playing very well. Most of the comments focused on her attire and the camera angle. 🙂
I was wondering when someone was going to suggest that for a Sunday morning.
This morning I managed delightful but too short walk with three old granddaughter examining frost on grass and hail damaged cars, then take away coffee, farmer’s market and finally a lovely solemn Latin mass.
Rabz
Jul 16, 2023 7:05 PM
But would a spicy BMW entice her to plant her magnifique bottomage in the passenger seat? 😀
For when you need to just rock out with a cherry red Gibbo while clad in a soviet grey Levi’s jacket and black tactical turtle neck …
NKP – a question that will never be answered in this life or the next, it would seem 😕
Bruce of Newcastle
Jul 16, 2023 7:09 PM
It may well be true heading southbound past Swanston Street onto St Kilda Road.
Duk
There’s absolutely no chance Chinese people would be any good in the higher weight levels of boxing, their bodies aren’t built for long distance and like the absence of competitive table tennis in the West, they demonstrate no interest in cricket, although I suspect there would be local teams in Hong Kong. I don’t know what you’re driving at with this crude, simplistic snarl.
You brought up how skilled they are at table tennis. I didn’t mean to imply in my comment regarding the driving difficulty that practically nobody in China has strong hand-eye coordination. Of course, some do, but in my opinion Asians do not generally possess this trait.
void the argument as it is, unless you have a counterargument that you can deliver.
Avoid.
Bluey @8:16
There was a bit of discussion about pro-inVoice signs going up last night on the Cat. My prediction is that in the suburbs there will be a statistically significant positive correlation between the density of such virtue signalling signs and median suburban house price.
JMH
And their rusted-on National Party support.
Nelson_Kidd-Players
Jul 16, 2023 8:21 PM
And when they do they get misinterpreted. Scott Adam’s former missus uploaded a piano piece to social media. I couldn’t identify which level she’s obtained but what she was playing she was playing very well. Most of the comments focused on her attire and the camera angle.
Haven’t seen the video, but there are several YT ones, directly aimed at pubescent young boys.
When you have no talent, better show some t.ts and b.m, preferably in a tight dress.
The lasses at the Comp were impeccably, modestly attired, with piano musicianship to kill for.
Yasuko Furumi here, playing the second Liszt Ballade…
Many commented on this performance. She didn’t make the Semis.. no idea why.
Movin’ on up, Cats! 🙂
One I should have added to Rabz’s video thread.
She’s got wheels on, on her feet…
Listen to John Williams play Albeniz Asturias at the Alhambra Palace. Written for piano is nothing special. Played on guitar is the finest piece of music ever.
Higher than the sun …
Slip inside this house …
Martha Argerich and Chailly conducting Rach 3 best piano and orchestra.
Thanks to tech, the vision is sharp and crisp from 1989.
Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Part 1 & 2 (1989) HD
– Zulu at 6.47pm.
The dinner suit hanging in the wardrobe at Casa Pedro was made by Marchesi about 7-8 years ago.
Excellent fit and quality, but rarely worn these days as black tie events are few and far between since retirement.
Last black tie night out was a Robbie Burns night at Perth’s Government House.
Stunning ballroom at .gov House , ladies beautifully dressed and sparkling with high end jewellery, many attentive waiters with a variety of drinks circulating, lots of barbaric Scots in kilts dancing reels, but the low spot of the evening was being served a disgusting plate of stewed offal, allegedly called “Haggis”.
Very civilised evening overall, only spotted two pollymuppets.
I’ve always found haggis quite edible, provided it’s washed down with enough good single malt.
And ensure you vaporise the bag, the piper, the lot, so there is no post mortem whining issuing from that horrid instrument.
He’ll be fine, as long as the employee is male.
GreyRanga
Jul 16, 2023 8:46 PM
Listen to John Williams play Albeniz Asturias at the Alhambra Palace. Written for piano is nothing special. Played on guitar is the finest piece of music ever.
It’s not a difficult piano piece, thus it’s not so flashy.
Try Albeniz’s Triana on the guitar instead…
An interesting aspect of learning to play a musical instrument, I believe, is what it seems to open up in terms of other abilities.
I am one of 8 siblings, from an average Irish Catholic background. We all started school with basic reading skills, all learned piano and music theory in primary school, most of us also took up stringed instruments at various ages. Some of us still play sessions at family gatherings in our 50/60/70s.
Having to learn to use each hand separately and simultaneously while also reading a language of notes, and processing all of it to produce a coherent result is one of the beauties of the human mind.
In several of us, including my own case, it seems to have also associated with a facility for languages and numbers. I read and speak most of the Latin romantic languages, and as a journalist I was a 120wpm shorthand writer (back when that mattered), mostly because Pittman and musical notation were just other forms of language to me, just like maths. My older brothers were much the same, but their professional lives are in physics and engineering, and they speak Asian languages. Down through the family there are variations.
It’s such a shame that the dumbing down of the West has discarded the expectation that young people should acquire these multiple skills as part of a well-rounded education in order to develop a flexible mind.
As for the ABCess, I was a regional journalist there for part of my career outside of print in the 1970/80s pre motherhood and a freelance life, and I loved it. It was such a world of public service rorts that I had not known about in my previous newspaper life, padding expenses, manipulating rosters, phoning it in on weekend shifts, even moonlighting for commercial radio. But the Journalists’ Code of Ethics was sacrosanct and religiously adhered to, even as Ashbolt was making his long march.
In our regional ABC area the local morning and afternoon radio content has been devolving this year into shared regional and state programs, and weekend content beyond Saturday morning is out of Sydney.
The only ABC radio I listen to now is overnight via the earplugs due to needing a bit of white noise. It’s heavy on quizzes and a small set of insomniacs and ABC addicts, but relatively harmless and apolitical.
Good fun.
Skip the songs you don’t like … that may be all of them for some. Does anybody know the name of the lady dancing with Mickey Rooney @46:50? Is that Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz?
Moreno J Mix Vol 04 – Moreno J Remixes (The Re-edited)
Just watched The Menu.
The best non action movie I’ve seen in a while.
Thursday, 13th July 2023, Fr Carl Ashton passed to God.
I never met him and had never been to his parish. I knew of him though from his friendship of a priest I knew well and also through my very good friend when she taught at his parish school.
In 2022, he celebrated a significant milestone, marking 60 years of selfless service to the Church. Reflecting on his lifelong dedication during a heartfelt interview in 2021, he expressed humility, stating, “I’ve astounded myself; it’s been such a long time. Yet, the purpose of my work has remained constant over the years – to bring the grace of God to souls and guide them towards spiritual salvation. That was my calling, and I hope I have fulfilled it throughout my years of service.”
Video
Of course the ABCess will get rid of regional radio. The politburo can’t have the workers talking to those fascist redneck scum outside the Balmain-Glebe and Carlton-Fitzroy goat’s cheese curtain.
Tucker Carlson Helps Cull the Republican Presidential Field
Even the NYT is now admitting that the UKR offensive has ‘paused’. Monty, you there?
Fair question.
I’d be crass enough to compare the speed with which La Brittany got her three million quid, with the plight of any ex – serviceman, battling Department of Veterans Affairs for years….
Asians, particularly, East Asians were and are pretty adept at martial arts. Mongolians were exceptional bowmen, as were Chinese, Japaenese and Koreans.
Who was the medic that diagnosed that?
Stinks of rotten.
Ha! I’ll post this before the weekend thread ends…
Notes on Bastille Day
For fun I wore the Tricolour today…red, white and blue. An “at sea” day, so after a late breakfast I spread my needlework out in the Queen’s Room and started stitching.
Not half an hour later, a waiter approached me (and many…many others). Apologies, apologies, the great room is to be closed to prepare for the Commodore’s exclusive party. A twinkle in my eye, I enquired if he had a handy wheelbarrow to transport all my stuff to another room. Fortunately he saw the joke – others were less than polite.
A thought struck…I could channel Mme Defarge* and swoop upon these decadent elites as they partied while the canaille searched for somewhere else to sit. A cutlass between my teeth, slouchy cap on my head, swooping down from the balconies at the end of a rope for sweet citoyenne revenge!
But no. Years of clips over the ears from Miss Pross for bad manners took their toll. I stitched in my room instead, gazing out at a rising sea and a horizon obscured by rain.
*the only Thérèse I’ll ever willingly identify with
It was the best of times…it was the worst of times…
Some humour for a Sunday night – A play on that Talking Heads song –
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=1bd437fe82&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r3099910050708093816&th=189572caebe98136&view=fimg&disp=thd&attbid=ANGjdJ8WvuNW9yHF8_8zM718FDoDPZuY6c1m_hF-lgRyQI9QMnnI7-Uw-upE6yjIDkBiDZEABPCAhvPwUJDCB0z1AMASjZsKfohGriI5Uyow6mO_GUPkcjJoxC3Yv0E&ats=2524608000000&sz=w2256-h1290
how the Chinese got so good at ping-pong
… true story
caveman
Jul 16, 2023 10:15 PM
“diagnosed as medically unfit for any form of employment”
Who was the medic that diagnosed that?
Stinks of rotten.
It wasn’t me. I was trying to raid the Reserve Bank. There’s a lot more than 3 million dollars there.
Scrolled back – that was from Gilas.
I love pipe organs! The Beloved’s best mate was a part time organist at our church – he belted out some magnificent stuff for our wedding. Pulled out all the stops. In Reykjavik, we visited the church shaped like a howitzer shell – another great instrument there. I bought a CD of the organ and choir singing Icelandic hymns to enjoy when I get home.
On the bagpipes – those magnificent b@stards! Only the Scots could get away with manly skirts and hideous, terrifying music that somehow persuades the listener to do something brave. Right now.
Tucker, love this guy.
Rach 3
I have relos related to him – none are musical.
I’ll post this in the new thread for those that are in bed. Nick takes some risks.
Indigo Traveller:
Walking the Crazy Streets of Mozambique (not safe)
As it’s the end of the day, and talking about the Scots, I’ll be a bit self indulgent and post some stuff from my diary ten days ago.
The Isle of Lewis is a fascinating place for many reasons. Home of Harris Tweed is the obvious one. For a textile nut, I was in seventh heaven handling the marvellous toasty fabric. Every thread individually dyed (once using only natural dyes from local plants, now some synthetic ones to give more vibrant colours), all hand loomed to traditional patterns, all produced on the island to very stringent specifications.
If you have a Harris Tweed coat, you will never need another. The fabric is exported to the US and Japan. It is extremely expensive. They use the little offcuts for crafts, naturally. Covering hip flasks, purses and handbags, hats and caps, hairy coos (pronounce that in a Scottish accent and you have the beast) for doorstops, little stuffed hearts on hangers. Nothing is wasted, for this is Scotland.
Less obvious but hugely important is the moor, the largest in Europe, a place to cut peat. And cut it they do, vast quantities of it. Naturally, government has poked its sticky, endlessly pernickety nose in and regulated the cutting. I suspect the locals have given these soft handed, pencil necked louts the middle finger.
Finally, the landscape. Every shade of slate and green with specks of white being tiny cottages. Tinier specks of white are the local sheep, who appear to be in a constant state of undress, their fleeces hanging like shawls as they discard them. And within the landscape is a wonder – a ring of standing stones with a double alignment. Not a burial site, it is believed to be a place of moon worship with its associated fertility rites. Lewis gneiss, gnarled, weathered, writhen into an almost organic form like a petrified tree – the stones are varied in size and thickness, some like upended tabletops. And unlike Stonehenge, you can walk right up to them.
To remember the site, I bought a piece of the gneiss polished into a pendant. No longer grey and drear, it is as speckled as a bird’s egg.
And here’s the postscript…
A postscript to Lewis.
Two things…first, the owner of Lewis Castle (more a castellated stately home) made his money out of the opium trade in China. The interior walls are decorated with poppies. His missus was a keen gardener, and the trees on the island are all imported, along with the soil to grow them in. Crofters were cleared off the land to make the garden.
It reminded me of the temptation of Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings – if he accepted the ring and took it up to wield its power, he could have the most wonderful garden in the world. Humbled, he rejected it for a small, homely plot, suitable for a family.
I prefer Sam’s choice.
Second, the tragedy of Stornaway. In 1919, a shipload of returning soldiers was shipwrecked just off the coast in sight of home. They had survived the Western Front only to die hours before being reunited with their loved ones. The great War Memorial on the island, which stands tall on a lonely hill, is inscribed with their names along with The Fallen. Over two hundred men perished.
Ian Miller
@ianmSC
Again, the FBI just a few days ago said they’re not in the business of “policing speech” after years of doing exactly that
And worse, journalists defend it and demand they be allowed to continue doing it
Andy Ngô
@MrAndyNgo
“No one is punished for lying. People are only punished for telling the truth.”
@TuckerCarlson speaks at the @TPUSA Action Conference in Palm Beach, Fla. #ACTCON2023
‘Yes’ Campaign War Room: Really, guys, you couldn’t wait ’till after the referendum?
Loving your travelogue, Calli. I hope you’re writing a hard copy, too? What a thing for a descendant to discover and decypher, hundreds of years from now in some foreign world!
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
An Israeli company has developed a new type of miniaturized suicide drones.
They enter apartments through open windows and doors.
Spin that one Cook, after you told the (admittedly pissweak) opposition in WA to butt out of it.
Another ‘talking point’ for Elbow in the morning.
On ping pong, and the relative mastery of Asians at it.
Apparently, and I have heard it said that Thai ladies are geniuses at this sort of thing.
42 minutes of Tucker dropping things to think about. Turning Point Action Conference.
(Can listen at double speed if you only have 21 minutes.)
https://twitter.com/ethan_harsell/status/1680384147888513025
From the Indigo clip.
75 years to pay the cost of that bridge back in the capital of Mozambique. That will not happen. You watch, the Chinese who built it will strong arm them and take ownership of their natural resources.
That’s a given.
So the Forrest chap really has been investing in renewable energy. They really are better than us. Well done Richie Rich.
Apparently a pamphlet will make all the difference in convincing the punter to vote Yes. Jade Gailberger in The Hun:
Righto. Evidently this pamphlet will contain 2000 word pieces on both the Yes and No propositions.
The Albo method. Brilliant.
Jade. You are making the No case indestructible here. Whatever the Yes case puts forward in its 2000 words, it will have to climb over this monumental travesty (dover’s link at 11.01):
Good luck with that. No – seriously, good luck.
Thanks Wali. I keep a little old fashioned note book and a “soft” diary on my iPad. The notebook is also useful for sketching things that take my fancy, like that Welsh stone dragon at the Black Boy Inn.
I’m off to the Cerberus heatwave…LOL! They were all fitting about it on the Beeb this morning. In Bergerac, it’s expected to reach a hideous 27 degrees C. What a joke. Also they had the Red Screen of Death over the map…same visual gaslighting as covid.
The BBC is wall to wall Climate Change and Ukraine. No other stories seem to get a run. It’s utterly ridiculous … basically the same as CNN’s four years of Trumpenating. I met som Americans from Florida who admire Trump. Funny thing though…their daughter forbid them her house over him. A well educated top tier lawyer but unable to differentiate between politics and family. I am coming around to a view that is often expressed here – women of a certain age are the problem, an enormous voting bloc of emotion and dependency. It’s toxic.
Knuckle Dragger
Jul 16, 2023 11:15 PM
EXCLUSIVE: Two major tree planting events were cancelled this weekend after an aboriginal corporation demanded two and a half million dollars, in return for it’s approval
Let’s see if that sh*t rag, the West Stokes continues carrying favour for Labor. Meanwhile the prick in Swinging Pig has a feet up and is out of the spotlight.
Literally 22 years ago the Progressive Left (e.g. cartoonist Tom Tomorrow) were referring to the Republicans as “the baby-eating aliens party”.
Oh how the tablasshnawbubbers have tumurmered.
KD,
the Thai Ladies you mentioned, are they the ones who play hands free ping pong? 😀
F#ck, I’ve had enough of this Cultural Heritage Voice sh*t. I’m going to burn whatever pussies are left in my friendship group after I burnt most of them trying to rein in my anger at the Batflu Reset Rollover.
Any politician with any fire in their belly and faith in their hearts should be able to stump a speech, off the cuff, and call out the emperoro with no clothes. What else do the WA libs and nats have to lose?
“I am appalled and outraged by these greedy, evil stunts.
Say what you will about the founding of Australia, but after 1788 the most advanced culture on earth met the most isolated, and the results were spectacularly successful. All my life, Australians and Aboriginal Australians have met with mutual admiration, curiousity and honesty, and the knowledge and practices are shown in countless places from Kununurra to Carbunup, in bush tucker and asian fusion cuisine, in Perth, in Parliament, in Professorships, in Police Liaison Officers, in public health, public housing, public transport, National Parks and music festivals- Aboriginal Australian culture is valued, promoted, respected, treasured.
But this act- (holds up 180 sheets of reflex printout for effect)- this Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act is poison. It stinks of corruption, of money, of absolute power. I don’t care if it’s been consulted and co-designed and workshopped, and I don’t care that it’s actually only just really updating the ’73 act, it stinks to high heaven and our civic discourse is already stained by its taint. It’s taking the full and equal citizenship of Australians and winnowing them by race, and showering power upon the chosen master race. It’s taking “indigenous knowledge”, crow-barring it away from the 230-year-old symbiosis with Enlightenment Science which was so essential to the safe European settlement of this continent, our Enlightenment Science which has fabulously rocketed Aboriginal Australians into the 21st Century world standards of health and wealth, our Enlightenment Science which has kept that knowledge alive and strengthened it against the humbug and hocus pocus which would drag us all back to the Dark Ages of superstition and division- it’s taking that partnership and pissing it up against a wall.
This evil act is deliberately creating a Hermetic and Mercantile Aboriginal Culture which has never existed before. It is not “aboriginal”- it is Marxist.
This act is spurning the centuries of honest efforts by diarists, journalists, students, professors, Aboriginal Studies departments, Elders- worse still than the spurious rejection, it’s buggering their bona fides over a barrel.
This act- is like the devil whispering into the ear of a happily married wife, and saying “your loving husband is a rich dumb scumbag and he takes you for granted- lock him out of the house, don’t speak to him, don’t let him ever see the kids again, you’ll never have to work or defend yourself as we bleed him for money”.
This act is permanent division, misery, encouraging lies and isolation in the service of nothing more than filthy lucre, and a ruling class with absolute power over the property and industry of lesser men.
This Act is the opposite of reconciliation.
This Act is Apartheid.”
…
I feel the same way about the Voice- it’s the deliberate rejection of the Enlightenment, asking us to vote for permanent Exceptionalism and the stagnation and misery that it will bring, for the benefit of a rareified stratum of egos. But I’m off to watch Djokovic put another pieve of a Grand Slam together, maybe that explains the angsty testosterone coming out.
Throwing, yes.
Catching?
Not so much.
Just lovely Calli.
Thanks.
Ooooh, popcorn time.
Green vs Blak.
Wally,
no words, 1,000s of up ticks.
Thanks Wally. Saw this story on the idiot box tonight. Hopefully ch7 fronts up to our former premier and asks him why before he pisses off to danistan.
The Oz is filled with related stories about the Forrest breakup. Shit happens, but why is Twiggy referred to as Dr. Forrest. Does an honorary degree now bestow this pretentious dill the title of Doctor?
Wimbeldon crowd are cheering between first and second serves.
Now I’m seriously angry.
He’s not a doctor?
Maybe I shouldn’t have let him do the prostate thingy.
It’s gonsky. It’s done. If the the polling is showing the sheila vote moving to the NO side of the ledger, the Squeal is finished.
I would have thought sheilas would have voted for it on balance, but no.
der
Pence never said to Tucker that American cities are not his concern. It’s fake context. Here’s the transcript.
Pence was answering the first part of Carlson’s question and “not his concern” was to do with Ukraine.
See here.
https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1679925762411905027/photo/1
Johannes Leak.
Mark Knight.
Mark Knight #2.
Peter Broelman.
Peter Brookes.
Michael Ramirez.
Michael Ramirez #2.
Tom Stiglich.
Chip Bok.
Al Goodwyn.
Ben Garrison.
It really is absurd.
I remember speaking to a gentleman in Genoa who said any building project in the Roman Empire footprint is fraught with the risk of stumbling on to significant archaeological remains.
In Zaragosa, Spain for example that was a problem for hotel builders in the 1980s who found the Roman Amphitheatre in their footprint.
But these Acts are simply going to encourage hostage taking and extortion.
The Aboriginal people didn’t build, they didnt bury their dead, outside of a fish trap, a midden or a cave painting there is nothing much to find and being living descendants Aboriginals should already know where their important stuff is.
Thanks Tom. Some good ones today.
Pence’s comments about MAGA are enough to disqualify him imo.
The BBC is wall to wall Climate Change and Ukraine.
when I was in China over a decade ago for work I preferred CCTV to the BBC. Sure it was CCP propaganda but it was interesting and informative. The BBC was lightweight tosh. The bLIAR BC in those days. The days of the BBC being a quality broadcaster are long long gone.
Quality leak today.
Thanks Tom.
EXCLUSIVE: Two major tree planting events were cancelled this weekend after an aboriginal corporation demanded two and a half million dollars, in return for it’s approval. @geofparry7 #7NEWS
Oh my.
How will the ABC spin this?
In Madrid
Our flight with Ryanair was uneventful – they’re just like Jetstar. Only 2.5 hours from Dublin to Madrid. Pleasant surprise to find taxi fares to the city are capped, and cheaper than Uber too. We are staying in a five-storey, old building with a balcony and shutters – typical of the many around central Madrid.
With no jetlag to worry about we hit the streets – to the local supermarket – but then to a Flamenco Centro Cultural performance in a small theatre. A guitarist: a male tenor singer, and a male and a female pair of dancers – a family perhaps. A very traditional performance of around an hour, with a lot of soulful songs, much stamping, tap dancing, “Ole!”, and a series of beautiful dresses paraded by the lady. It was fabulous, and very passionate.
Today we walked a fair bit of the city. First was the Plaza Mayor – a huge rectangular open area surrounded on all sides by the five story houses (262 balconies), with a statue of Phillip III on horseback in the centre. We also went to a famous Chocolate san Gines – was a line of people waiting outside; the biggest cathedral in the city, Royal Palace and the Prado art gallery – saw some Goya, Rubens, and Bosch paintings (there are free sessions available). Lunch at the 1906 “Iron market” where we tried tapas.
Madrid seems clean; interesting mix of buildings, with good preservation of the old, and a lot of fountains. Overall, very impressed so far. Lots of tourists. Streets “dead” in morning, but action until 11pm. Sunny, temperatures to 34 degrees so far.
I’ve never liked Pence. He’s a politician, and it shows. I’m not all that keen on deSantis for the same reason.
Unbelievable click-bait tripe promulgated in the Oz, the latter part of which is reproduced below.
Bergerac
Lobbed in at around 7pm. Our hotel is one of those funny, comfortable places regional France excels in. Always leave the “chain” places for the cities, if at all.
The “Charon” heatwave (sorry I got the stupid name wrong earlier) felt like a nice spring evening at home.
We’re right in the centre, the barricades still up from the Bastille Day celebrations. At the end of the street is a carrousel, towering over everything is the church. Pale stone and architecture, reminiscent of Haussmann’s Paris, prevails…but we didn’t walk far. A brasserie opposite the church provided an excellent, simple meal…and the local red, smooth as butter.
And just now I see the lovely Jane Burkin has died. When I was a teenager, I wanted to look just like her.
The BBC just shrieked at me that over 60,000 people in Europe DIED FROM HEAT last summer.
Despicable.
Sorry. Jane Birkin.
If at peace with itself means dead broke and garrotted by the new bureaucratic Leviathan this will create, but allowing a handful of affluent inner-city noodle-armers to feel warmer and glowier, then that statement is bang on.
Perhaps that’s the intent.
I’m already at peace with myself.
I do wish others would desist in projecting their inadequacies and guilt onto me. Go away.
As JC mentioned above, if this poll is broadly accurate (and I still don’t trust polls), da Voice is GONSKI or, it’s in real big trouble. The fact that the “yes” vote is collapsing in support among women should make Sleazy and his comrades shit in their pants.
From the Oz….
“The referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament has suffered a collapse in support among women voters and in the regions as the referendum heads toward defeat, with just 41 per cent of voters now saying they will vote yes.
For the first time, women are now more likely than men to vote no, a central change to core support based on gender.
The No vote in the regions has also blown out to 62 per cent, confirming a widening demographic split between city and bush.
It’s interesting, because the “yes” spruikers were again out in force on Saturday again in Sydney’s inner-east, and most of the spruikers are well-heeled older women.
Again I was approached by two women to “chat about da Voice”, but this time I wasn’t rude, I simply responded with brutal facts which wiped any smiles off their faces. I said what I said to the elderly couple at the bus stop last week, about how it’s unbelievably arrogant to wear t-shirts (and yes, the t-shirts are teal coloured) with the words “Wentworth votes yes”. But further, I remembered what my podiatrist said, and so I asked the women….
“Since it’s clearly a waste of time you spruiking around Wentworth, where you’ve already decided most people will vote “yes”, why don’t you go out to areas where the yes vote is struggling, areas such as Blacktown, Lakemba, Mt Druitt, Macquarie Fields, you know, the real Sydney?”
One of the women responded, her jaw drooping like she’d suddenly been afflicted with bells palsy…”but we live in Wentworth”.
To which I responded, laughingly, “Ah yes, so you are cowards”.
I then walked off.
I reiterate I wasn’t rude, but here’s the thing, every single time I am approached by one of these hypocritical Wentworth Allegra Spenda groupie Teal clowns, I’m going to politely shove their codswallop, their absolute effing bullshit, and their smug elitist Wentworth dog shit back in their faces.
P, it was mentioned at Mass yesterday at my parish which adjoins Fr Ashton’s. My late mother often went to his Masses, she lived between two parish churches so she went to both.
“And just now I see the lovely Jane Burkin has died. When I was a teenager, I wanted to look just like her.”
Oh no, how sad, she was the perfect 60s woman.
And I still want a Birkin bag!
“7NEWS Perth
@7NewsPerth
·
2h
EXCLUSIVE: Two major tree planting events were cancelled this weekend after an aboriginal corporation demanded two and a half million dollars, in return for it’s approval. @geofparry7 #7NEWS”
One thing is for sure, the NO vote for the Voice in WA and QLD is sealed. I reckon it’s on the nose here in NSW too.
“Wally Dalí
Jul 17, 2023 12:11 AM”
I can’t like your comment enough.
They never provide any details of how they arrived at that figure nor do they report how many people died from cold.
Are WA Liberals going to make hay out of these abuses? It would do them good to stir up trouble as much as they can and get their possible candidates make a name for themselves trying to protect society from unintended consequences. What needs to be emphasised over and over is that this law does nothing for the disadvantaged indigenes and hurts everybody else.
“Are WA Liberals going to make hay out of these abuses? “
You need to find “WA Liberals” first, and that’s probably harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
Old Lefty
Jul 16, 2023 9:39 PM
Of course the ABCess will get rid of regional radio. The politburo can’t have the workers talking to those fascist redneck scum outside the Balmain-Glebe and Carlton-Fitzroy goat’s cheese curtain.
A quality quote and too the point.
Somewhere in this wide brown land, there is a bloke eternally grateful that he dodged not a bullet, but a 155mm artillery shell screaming in at over 500 metres per second (the Tele):
Sixty. Thousand. Dollars. There’s no mention of what the groom may have wanted, but that might just be the editing. Maybe.
Right. Someone else’s fault. The post in question:
Call me cynical, but I reckon this entitled mole’s ex and his family played her along, hoping for just this result. ‘Sure. Go your hardest. We’ll give you $3K to manacle yourself to anyone but somebody from this family, no worries.’
Unsurprisingly:
Ahahahahaaaaaaaa.
Suddenly, more people backed out, including the…maid of honour. My best friend since childhood. My second family. I was so shocked and tearful.” Her MoH also advised the bride-to-be that she needed to stick to a smaller budget as she was asking for way too much.
Shocked. Shocked! And tearful, you bastards.
Oh my wordy lordy. There’s not a single word anywhere, by the way, in this vacuous mole’s tirade about what the groom may have wanted for his – you know – wedding day.
Dear Stupid Gold-Digger Who Wanted To Extort Cash From Not Just Your Future Husband But All Your Friends And Family:
As if this sort of behaviour would have stopped the morning after the ‘Kardashian for a day’ wedding.
Piss off, and take your botox and eyelash extensions and texta-drawn eyebrows with you.
Minor blockquote fail above.
Caused by shaking with laughter while posting.
Thoughts and prayers, please.
but Susan quickly shut down that idea, saying she wanted to be “a Kardashian” for the day and have a luxurious ceremony and reception.
What a f*cking retard.
As if this sort of behaviour would have stopped the morning after the ‘Kardashian for a day’ wedding.
As I learned during the planning of my ill fated wedding, the behaviours seen there are what you can expect on an ongoing basis.
It isn’t “just a stressful time” as many told me.
It is the true self being revealed.
No real man has anything to do with planning a wedding. You just get told when and where, then on the day have a few beers beforehand and front up and go through the ceremony. In reality the wedding is about the bride, she’s the hero of the day and the man is just arm candy. My wife is wonderful and I love her dearly but I refused to have anything to do with the wedding and she liked that.
TE book the English language tour of the barefoot Carmelite monastery if you can, it’s tucked in behind El Court Ingles/the Chocolate and Churros place you went to.
I don’t know if you can book online but if you can’t get there very early.
Also Los Galayos for suckling pig, just off Plaza Mayor.
Or the little place opposite it for one of those famous sandwiches.
Las Descalzas Reales
Why?
“Johannes Leak.”
Leak nails it. To the women I spoke to on Saturday, Marrickville IS the west.