Joe “Court Jester” Biden is at it Again – Ladies, Get A Shotgun

Joe’s at it again. His job as Court Jester is sealed bythis video where he advises Women to get a 12 Ga. Double-Barrel Shotgun for protection. The Jester’s advise is two shots anywherewill scare a bad guy away. Watch this:

Pre-Election Inspiration And Reminder

As the polls have begun opening across this great land and our efforts to oust the anti-American, anti-Constitutional, anti-Christian Socialist tyrant see fruition (or not), I thought some inspirational music with a reminder should be in order.

Bristol Palin And #DWTS All-Stars

Bristol Palin got voted off Dancing With the Stars, All-Stars season. I had hoped she could continue further, but I am not surprised she is done after getting to Week Four.

Bristol was better than half the celebrities during her regular season on DWTS, but she was not third best. While I was rooting for her to win it all, she was not third best. There were more than two better than her. But she was better than half of the ones there.

Bristol was also better than two of the All-Stars, one of which still remains. Even so, she lasted longer than her dancing talent alone could carry her in an All-Star season. Wow, can those celebrities dance! I love it! And I loved watching Bristol out there on the dance floor, too.

But the point is Bristol outperformed her ability level. And there’s a reason for that. Oh, the hateful, criminal, terroristic Left can blame it all on the TEA Party, but that’s not the reason. The reason for Bristol’s success on Dancing With The Stars is the hate-filled, criminal, terroristic Left were being hate-filled, criminal and terroristic. That’s the reason. And the TEA Party came to her rescue against the criminal, hate-filled, terroristic Left. That’s it. That’s why Bristol Palin — who is a far better dancer than I ever will be, and a better dancer than many of her opponents — lasted longer than talent alone could take her.

When you hate-filled criminals and terrorists on the Left force a celebrity TV show to provide extra security because you’re sending death threats to a now-22 year old woman, wishing her dead, sending white powder in envelopes to her, what do you expect normal human beings to do? You’re blame right we pushed back against your satanic evil and your criminal actions! We came to the rescue of an innocent young lady you sought to terrorize!

You sphincters on the Left can only blame yourselves for the wild success Bristol is having, despite all your criminal actions. Actually, because of your criminal actions.

Where Are The Artists?

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of folks lamenting how modern art (especially Modern Art) doesn’t have anything to compare to, oh, the great cathedrals of Europe—according to some, doesn’t even have a decently sized mural.  Usually comes with a lot of talk of how soul-killing Walmart and their sort are, but not always.

Besides the obvious opportunity to plug folks like Tim Jones, I think they’re simply not looking right.

 

Depending on your taste in music, you might want to mute this.  Depends on how closely you want to watch.  Either way, maximize this video, and pay attention to things like the flow of the cloth vs fur vs hair, and even how the Asura’s ears move.  Notice the background detail, from a game that was still in testing and development at the time.  Notice the way that light makes a difference.

Guild Wars 2 isn’t a top-of-the-line game, although it is fairly new and well designed.

There’s a part of the game where players go around looking for "vistas"– when you reach the vista point, you activate it, and see… well:

 

The person that made this video had their settings up a bit high, you can tell from the slight hesitations in the visual flow, but look at the detail, and how lovely most of them are.

We still have artists, lots of them.  And they’re being paid for their work.  It’s just not displayed in the form of buildings, or windows, or even on walls; it’s more likely to show up on your computer’s wallpaper.

Blogging Meme

I’d like to know – if you blog for other reasons versus blogging intentionally to build a platform for your writing/your apostolate/your cat – and I am not saying that it’s bad to try to boost blog traffic:

1. If that’s not your primary focus, what enjoyment do you derive from blogging?

2. Do you consider yourself to be a “successful” blogger? In what sense?

3. If you could choose between having a post shared 500 times, or having one of your Internet Idols send you an email to say “I really enjoyed your post,” which would you choose?

From over at Darwin Catholic’s place, shared from a gal trying to figure out why we’d do this for no pay. *grin*  Other authors might want to respond, as well; not sure if the guy has backlinks turned on.

1) Well, I find blogging is a social outlet. I’m much better at typing than I am at talking, and it’s much harder to browbeat me online when I can bring out facts and evidence from objective sources at a moment’s notice.  It’s a place to say things worth saying, and that I just want to say.

2) I don’t think about it.  I wish that I remembered to write more often, I wish that I could sway folks better, I wish that I thought of great lines that I think of days later, I wish that I could develop some of the posts that I think of.  (Part of the addictive nature of Ricochet is that I can pop on for an instant, write a response, and leave.)

3) Definitely a nice email.  I have had emails from online idols—or comments, or “hey, read this!” type links!—and I have had posts shared.  One is pure pleasure, the other just makes it easier for trolls to find you.

Hvad har dig, der er ny?

Or something …

I don’t know. I feel alright. Pretty good in fact. So what am I doing putting this up for?

See I was exploring the odd corners of the Internet and dragging a line through YouTube for jazz tunes, when one link led to another – as so often is the case – and I came across this image of a little Euro-Nebbish (alright so I’m not an expert in Yiddish) looking guy and a woman who I took to be a late 1960′s Nashville Grand Old Opry star.

 

Was Gotta Fertig Gnew

 

Well, it turns out that the guy is a Belgian harmonica and guitar player who had a brush with fame in the US at one point, and that the woman is Danish. Toots Thielemans on that most annoying of instruments, the harmonica, and a quite good singer whose name  sounds something like Brigitte or Bridget Lustig.

Fertig Gnewww!
So what’s the point? Other than that she does have mighty big hair piled atop of a very attractive face?

If  you are willing,  give a listen (that’s  Nashville inspired talk) to her speaking voice, and then contrast it with her  singing accent.

I don’t think that even a dialects expert could be certain that this woman was not an American. And, if you tolerate Samba flavored early 1960′s pop music well, you might want to watch the video for a little longer than it takes to do only that.

 

 

 

 

Oh,  what I was looking for, which I think I may have already placed in a comments section. Well, you won’t want to miss it.  John Coltrane, Germany, 1960.

March Madness, 2012 Edition — The Elite Eight

The Elite Eight is set, and boy was I wrong. This is why I’m not a sportscaster. Well, one of the reasons, anyway. It’s why I don’t enter any sports pools (other than the fact they are mostly “wink and nod” illegal). I’m not very good at it.

I predicted Ohio State would beat Cincinnati by 6. Ohio State lost a 12-point lead and trailed Cincinnati before getting their blue-collar work ethic back and winning going away, by 15.

I predicted North Carolina would rest their starters around mid-way through the second half against Ohio, and win in a laugher. Ohio took North Carolina into overtime before succumbing.

I predicted Xavier would beat Baylor in overtime. Baylor won by 5 in regulation.

I predicted North Carolina State would beat Kansas on a final shot. Kansas beat NC State by 3.

I predicted Kentucky would beat Indiana by 4. Kentucky won by 12.

I predicted Syracuse would be the most likely 1 seed to fall, and gave Wisconsin even odds of accomplishing it. Syracuse won by a single point. Not a bad prediction on its own, but…

I predicted meatchicken state would beat Louisville (my declared weakest 4 seed in the Sweet 16) by 8. Louisville won by 13.

I predicted Florida would beat Marquette by double digits. Florida won by … 10. (Hurray, me.)

So, my Elite Eight predictions. And this time, no victory margins.

1 Kentucky beats 3 Baylor.
7 Florida beats 4 Louisville.
2 Ohio State beats 1 Syracuse.
2 Kansas beats 1 North Carolina.

That would leave 2 SEC teams, a Big Ten team, and a Big Twelve team.

Pop vs Popular

This is spoiler-free, for two reasons: one, I haven’t seen an episode of Mad Men, and two, I don’t want to spend an hour trying to figure out episodes and times for story points in NCIS.

From Ricochet guest writer, Richard Rushfield.

Next March, AMC’s Mad Men will return to the airwaves after a year and a half absence. It’s return will be treated as the most significant cultural event of the year. Its stars will blanket the covers of our glossy magazines. Articles will be written in the New York Times and our most elite literary journals dissecting the show’s meaning. Banana Republic will promote its high end Mad Men line.

Mad Men at its height was watched by 2.9 million viewers. In contrast, CBS’ military police procedural drama NCIS last week was seen by 19.7 million viewers. As far as I can tell, NCIS has never been featured on the cover of any major American magazine apart from TV Guide and one issue of Inland Empire, the magazine of California’s suburban Riverside and San Bernadino counties.

First, let me say– as polished and stylish as the guys in Mad Men look, let alone the lovely lady, I gotta prefer Gibbs and co. It’s nice to hear that there’s a decent number of my fellow Americans who are likewise getting their dose. ;^)

This is not to say that NCIS is more deserving of a magazine cover than Mad Men, or that ratings numbers alone should determine what gets coverage and critical attention and what gets ignored. With its layered, morally ambiguous plotting and characters, Mad Men no doubt provides much richer fields for critical inquiry than the straightforward crime of the week NCIS.

I’d say that NCIS is more deserving of a cover. There’s no shortage of writers who lived through the sixties– there’s a definite shortage of those who can write modern military stories and get it right often enough to be enjoyable. (My biggest complaint is on technology, for crying out loud, not military.)

Then again, I also think that NCIS is a lot more worthy of consideration than he’s giving them credit for. Mad Men is, from the promotional stuff, pretentiously ‘deep.’ It’s got a great big sign hanging over it with flashing neon lettering saying “I AM SERIOUS AND DEEP. DEEPLY SERIOUS.”

NCIS, on the other hand– Elf borrowed the entire series up to season six from a coworker, and I’m constantly surprised at how good it is.  If you pay attention– or if you’re watching two or three episodes in order, two or three times a week– they are amazing.  At least once a week– usually once an evening– while we were burning through the series, I’d suddenly get hit over the head with things they’d been hinting at for weeks.  The relationships between the characters, especially, are very well done.

I hate being manipulated by a show, and I know enough about narrative structure, musical tricks and basic production to catch on to the things that shows usually do as shortcuts.  Can’t count the number of times Elf has ordered me to stop thinking and enjoy something.

NCIS not only doesn’t lean on those shortcuts, it generally uses them correctly as intensifiers when they’ve already laid the story-and-acting ground, or to give a misleading impression that heightens the payoff.  (Misleading, not false.  There is a difference.)

Unlike the umpty-bazillion police shows, I generally can’t tell you who will be the bad guy in the first five minutes of an episode of NCIS, and if I can there’s a good reason for it.  (Such as that the characters know it, too, or they’re the bad guy for totally different reasons than I assumed.)

Probably part of NCIS’ success is due to their lack of pretension.  Just like actual military folks I know, they are serious, silly, noble, immoral, utter jerks and have hearts of gold at different times with different motivations.  Some things strain credibility from an outside point– like Abby’s antics– but reality does that, if you are introduced to a situation with no background.  Failure to realize that is part of why so many workplaces are soulless; new boss comes in and destroys any character that a places had.  (I’ll agree that the repeated failure of new powers to succeed in wiping out the awesome characteristics of the NCIS workplace is a bit unlikely, but there’s got to be some wish fulfillment here.)