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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

I liked Pride so much better when it was one day celebrated by grass-roots organizations than a whole month ballyhooed by major corporations with rainbow-hued consumer goods, and with hypocritical expressions of solidarity from politicians and cops.
–  “June is Tweeting Out All Over

One…aspect of my neuroatypicality…[is] that…[I] spend [a lot of] time composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
–  “The Music in the Numbers

Unfortunately, societies’ tendency to self-lobotomize into stagnation and decay is something that will almost certainly never be solved.
–  “The Eternal Frontier

The only moral form of warfare is War of Assassins, in which the only combatants and the only legitimate targets are the rulers, their henchmen, and their agents.  –  “War of Assassins

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They were having a pancake and sushi luncheon.

I was not familiar with Ibrahim’s work, but I quite liked this piece Jesse Walker selected to accompany his obituary.  The other links above the video were provided by IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, Mike Siegel, T. Greg Doucette, Radley Balko, Missy Mariposa, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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There were two clients who basically were paying for ChatGPT…to argue against itself.  –  Rob Freund

My friend Chester Brown, the well-known comic book artist, plays Merlin in this video from Sook-Yin Lee‘s new album.  The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker and Dan Savage; IncarcerNation; The Onion; Mike Masnick; Ryan Marino; and IncarcerNation again (x2).

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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You don’t fucking hate them enough.  –  “Officer” Michael Kennedy

I’ve always counted Warner Brothers’ Merrie Melodies as the first music videos (short films intended to market a song), but I recently discovered this video, which pushes the mark back almost as far as it can go, to barely after the advent of sound movies.  This is a sequence from King of Jazz (1930), a two-strip technicolor feature which is apparently a compilation of such videos; this is an abridged arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and I’ve recently added the disc to my Amazon wishlist because I’d love to see the whole thing.  The links above the video were provided by Shiv Ramdas; Nun Ya; IncarcerNation; Radley Balko; Popehat; C.J. Ciaramella; Jesse Walker and Franklin Harris, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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I had about six Coors Light at the VFW.  –  Tammy Robinkoff

This improvisation by saxophone great Sonny Rollins was provided, along with his obituary, by Jesse Walker; the other links above the video were provided by Radley Balko; Mike Masnick; Nun Ya; Popehat; Mike Siegel; Asawin Suebsaeng and Sean, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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The naive believe that “child predators” are creepy dudes who hang out at playgrounds; in reality, they are largely people in positions of authority over their preferred targets.  –  “Follow Your Bliss (#1242)

The more fantastical a world, the more important it is that it doesn’t contradict itself if an audience is to accept it.  –  “The Buffyverse, Part Two

This is a day for sexual outlaws, not well-behaved “workers”; it is a day to celebrate the triumphs of criminalized human beings against a society that would rather we didn’t exist.
–  “Whores’ Day 2024

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Before today, I cannot think of a single time when a Bing search result was more valuable than the Google equivalent.  –  Russell Brandom

When I saw this essay from C.J. Ciaramella two months ago, I was immediately reminded of a different Australian nun who was also an early ’70s pop star, because this one got very heavy play on New Orleans Top 40 stations in 1974; it also made its way into the guitar masses which were popular at the time.  The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Ryan Marino, Walter Olson, Violet Blue, and IncarcerNation (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the early ’80s…I was much too young…to really feel in my gut what it meant to remember [being in love] across a gulf of decades.  –
So Long Ago, So Clear

Trying to use [social media] without muting is like trying to have a garden without weeding.  –  “Maytweets

Journalism that doesn’t at least occasionally offend the government isn’t real journalism.  –  “Yes, They’re Still Tweets

My emotions are often insidious, slippery things, which is why I often used to refer to the “snakes in my head”.
–  “Thirty Years Gone

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Approving a project that will consume water and energy at this scale is irresponsible and dangerous.  –  Franque Bains

This week’s video is a recently-discovered shellac master pressing of “Cross Road Blues” by Robert John­son, who died mysteriously in 1938 before his career even got properly started, yet still influenced the young blues-inspired guitarists of the Sixties.  The video was provided by Brooke Magnanti, and the links above it by Mike Siegel, Shiv Ramdas, Kevin Wilson, Reason, IncarcerNation, and Nun Ya (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Old-style criminals ran their criminal activities as businesses; techies run their businesses as criminal enterprises.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-18T07:51:15.991Z

These things look like the wearer's head shrunk, which makes them a perfect visual metaphor for chatbot usage.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-21T03:54:52.643Z

"She swindled him out of the $40,000 he spent on her…"Make up you minds; either he spent it or she swindled him. Buyer's remorse does not a "swindle" make.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T03:32:42.585Z

In my youth, nobody used a word any harsher than "eccentric" to describe old ladies who refused to drive economy cars, insisted big tube radios sounded better than transistor radios, or was unimpressed with cinema special-effects spectacles.I hope to be afforded the same courtesy.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T17:07:28.260Z

Not crushing enough.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-24T17:45:48.193Z

"Sam Altman, the head (in the nautical sense) of OpenAI…"Please proceed.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-25T17:29:34.342Z

A sophomoric twit proposes a stupid thought experiment involving button-pushing. If more than 50% of people on social media respond, other sophomoric twits will continue to propose stupid thought experiments, but if less than 50% respond the fad will die. Do you participate?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T16:31:10.502Z

I'm sick to death of hearing this nonsense about "girl dads" and "boy moms". How about just being parents who actually CARE about their children, regardless of gender? And I don't mean "help them achieve arbitrary standards of success" or "keep them physically 'safe' at the cost of personal growth".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T17:44:27.936Z

I do not keep cursed objects in my home, and furthermore as a wise old crone who lives near a damp, creepy forest I advise y'all not to keep them in your homes, either.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T18:01:27.631Z

Dude looks like he just got a facefull of Joker toxin.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-30T03:59:39.099Z

A housecat is much smaller than a human, and absolutely cannot win in a fight with a determined human. But it doesn't need to; all it NEEDS to do is make grabbing it so painful and bloody that the human decides grabbing it isn't worthwhile.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-30T18:23:30.477Z

The Bluesky autocensor has labeled this "explicit or potentially disturbing". If you're disturbed by the Three Stooges' cartoon violence, I suggest you just mute or block me now, because it isn't going to get any better for you.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T18:04:59.499Z

I stopped considering myself a Christian about 50 years ago, and I am still nauseated by the level of blasphemy constantly pouring out of Gomorrah-on-the-Potomac.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-02T02:52:58.126Z

I propose we change the name from the Department of Justice to the Department of Vengeance, so as to more accurately describe its activities. If a hypothetical future regime somehow changes that in a way that will make abuse much harder*, we can consider changing it back.*This will never happen.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-03T17:54:28.666Z

Millennials and Gen Xers may recognize this song as the main title of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". But what Polaris didn't dare tell Nickelodeon, for fear of losing the gig, is that the song is about the Kent State massacre. The titular "Sandy" is Sandra Lee Scheuer.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-04T16:59:54.865Z

It's true, I was there.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T04:03:23.278Z

A lot of people (ESPECIALLY in cities like Portland or Seattle) use the term "anarchist" as a synonym for "hooligan", when in actuality they're closer to antonyms. True anarchists have their own moral code which they firmly adhere to, for reasons which should be obvious.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T16:45:46.775Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-09T04:45:27.463Z

So the antecedent of "you" here is…countries? Or is he saying all "not stupid" countries should shoot at an individual, such as a US local cop, who shoots at me, Maggie McNeill? Or does he mean there should be a grand free-for-all in which all national militaries avenge all individual shootings?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-09T17:26:29.171Z

"it is context window buffers""I thought a string of instructions could be my friend""Mensa"{insert "I am very smart" meme}

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T17:19:05.355Z

This looks worse than "Reptilicus".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-12T17:34:06.980Z

My favorite subgenre of country is philosophical country, epitomized by songs written by Jimmy Webb.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T16:47:24.314Z

Roughly 1/3 of US voters are authoritarian.Roughly 1/3 are liberal.And the remaining 1/3 are spineless reeds who will bend with the political winds.The entire history of US politics, from the founding generation until now, is the struggle to capture the middle third.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T17:45:43.395Z

He also announced future initiatives to fight saline bags, stints, dental chairs, and MRI machines, but he's leaving the fights against vaccines and antibiotics to his buddy Frankennedy.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-16T17:31:42.572Z

 

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