Current Culture: You are beautiful and perfect JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.
Person: I want to change my name, my gender, my looks, my identity.
Current Culture: We totally think that's awesome TOO!
Person: Good, but I wasn't asking your permission.
Current Culture: And you SHOULDN'T! Never let anybody tell you what or who YOU ARE! Only YOU KNOW! AND THAT IS SO PERFECT!!
Person: You can stop talking now.
Current Culture: Going to tell EVERYBODY JUST HOW ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUSLY PERFECT YOU ARE!!!!
COMEDY SKETCHBOOK
[Camera opens on two guys at Table 4 in the Zen & Tao Acoustic Café]
Guy 1: So I get that in real life I got everything, all the advantages: I'm a straight white male, American, Christian. But I'm also a bit of a masochist, so I needed a place where I can be vilified for being Christian, mistrusted for being male, and dismissed for being white.
Guy 2 So you got on Twitter.
Guy 1: I got on Twitter.
[Screen fades]
BJ's Brewhouse, Beryland TX
Went to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse after dropping off some jewelry to be repaired at the nearby Jarrod's. Friday night, 6:00pm, the place was already bustling. The obviously bored hostess told us it'd be a 20 minute wait. She was spot on about the time, but when we asked to change our seating from 2 to 3 (because we decided to ask our son to join us), she appeared tremendously irritated.
When she finally took us to be seated, she showed us a table. My wife asked if we could have a nearby booth. She slapped the menus down on the table and said, "I'll guess I'll see what I can do" and walked off. We sat.
After 5 minutes, she brought another family to the booth. I told my wife, "I suppose that's a 'no,' then."
The waiter was much more friendly, but that's because he had the glassy-eyed looked of the pleasantly stoned. He did seem a bit perplexed that we only were drinking water, though. We ordered the Avocado rolls and a soup, a burger, and Mediterranean tacos.
Avocado rolls: tortillas well-crisped, and yes there was definitely avocado, but they were mushy. Among us we determined that the unpleasantness came from lack of texture. Texture, not many understand, is an important element in food. Some more chunky tomatoes or carrot slices would help.
The burger was decent, although a bit on the greasy side. I was quite pleased with the Mediterranean tacos, even though the yogurt sauce was more like water than what you normally expect with your gyro-style dishes.
When our waiter came to bag our food, he was surprised when we asked for the check. He thought he'd already given it to us. He might do well to lay off the doobage until after his shift.
All in all, it was food. Decent price. Service a bit dicey, but frankly, that's about as good as it gets these days.
Billy: Russia just rolled into Ukraine today.
Joe: And so it begins.
Jim: Zelenskyy compared Putin to Hitler.
Bob: So Ukraine is Putin's Poland?
Billy: It's more like Putin's Czechoslovakia.
Joe: Poland is next.
Jim: So Poland will be Putin's Poland.
Bob: Exactly.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-britain-hoped-to-avoid-war-with-germany-in-the-1930s
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/
Womb (a Poem from the Dad Who Didn't Meet You Until After You Were Born)
I would have
liked to have met you
then,
my lips placed
against the walls
of your room,
hoping that you
could
hear my voice,
telling you
that,
when it comes time
to leave,
even though it
may be cold
where you are
going,
you will always
have my arms
to keep you
warm.
MR
2022-0223
NOTE: This is the second write of the poem, because I couldn't find the first write, so I jotted this one down to be used as the poem at the end of the Dead Kandinskys song "Everbody's Favrite Place"
Upon thinking about the upcoming birthday of one of my children, I realized that I had not been there for the development of any of the three of them while they were in utero, neither the two children I raised from grade school, nor my biological son.
A guy named "Dollar Bill" recently posed the question, "Is the album dead?"
He was lamenting the fact that musicians no longer seem to be producing music that is more than a simply a collection of singles, and the fact that he posted about Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" indicated to me that he saw the Album as an art form, which is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
So, I asked him if the last five years would be a decent time frame to explore to see if there were any albums out there ... and after spinning about 44 albums, I have found a few. Short reviews to follow, but in summary, from what I can tell, the music being produced today seems truly to consist of artists who are exploring their own genre, rather than expanding their talents into something truly original. And some genres have interesting ideas for theme albums, but their music sucks. I'll identify some of those.
I did find a few surprises however, and so without further ado, let's start with the top five albums of the 44 I've listened to in the last couple of days
The other day I heard on a local radio program an upcoming discussion about what exactly is journalism, now that there are so many people engaging in it. Can it be impartial? Is it merely a bunch of content creators? etc.
The question itself angered me, because this program was a local NEWS program.
So, after mulling it over for about a day, I have come up with the following distinction between different types of news, using a common and familiar headline:
FACT: Cop Shoots Man.
JOURNALISM: White Cop Shoots Unarmed Black Man.
LEFT WING SPIN: White Cop with History of Using Excessive Force Shoots Defenseless Black Man.
RIGHT WING SPIN: Decorated Police Officer Shoots Man with Long Criminal Record.
LEFT WING PROPAGANDA: Cops Out of Control! We must Defund the Police!
RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA: Crime Out of Control! Libs Want to Take Your Guns!
FAKE NEWS: [there is no description here because there is no such thing as Fake News. The term "Fake News" is a rhetorical device used by the Right to impugn Left Wing Spin, Journalism, and even Fact itself]
For me, I would only consider Fact, Journalism, and the Spins as "News"
Propaganda is not "News" - it merely masquerades as news. It probably is the true "Fake News" but I wouldn't want to give that term any more credence than it already has.
