I admit it. This blog is NOT consistent. What it is keeps changing.
Right now, it's pretty much a place where I keep photos, videos, and links to websites that interest me.
Before that, I wrote a few blogs myself and still do once in a blue moon. But most of the stuff before the links are just reprints of articles I found interesting.
Email me at OlderMusicGeek(at)yahoo(dot)com.
ABOUT ME
Just your typical middle-aged divorced father (of a teenage daughter)/music fanatic/local bands supporter/nerd-geek-dork/smartass/movie lover/tv watcher/book reader/former comicbook collector/science fiction fan/slob/science buff/casual philosopher/spirituality peruser/ponytail wearer/world traveler/big Lipstick Homicide fan/huge Violent Femmes fan/Sigourney Weaver crusher/rabid Journey hater/liberal/mostly straight former cross dresser from Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A.
Women are seated with a book at a table, filmed in austere black and white against a black background. They have chosen what to read and how to dress. When the camera begins recording, they introduce themselves, and begin reading. Under the table, outside of the subject's control, an unseen assistant distracts them with a vibrator. The subjects stop reading when they're too distracted or fatigued to continue, at which point they restate their name, and what they've just read. The pieces vary in length based on the response time of the subjects.
Since time immemorial, as far back as anyone can remember, from the dawn of the cave dwellers, a particular group has been picked on and mistreated by the mighty and the popular.
This group has been known by many names - “geeks”, “dorks”, “spazzes”, “losers”... and most notably “nerds”.
But in ONE school, this arrangement is changing! In one school, ONE girl is standing up and saying “No more!”
This is THE story of that girl!
Okay, my daughter isn't heroic as all that... although his friends might disagree. But has seemed to change the way that at least her friends at school are treated.
And what got me started thinking so much about my daughter and “her nerds” was the song below...
I, myself, could relate to this song quite well. I'd been on both sides of the equation, picked on and ignored, as well as ignoring others who were picked on. I'm not proud of that, but I'd be a liar if I told you otherwise.
But my daughter... now there's a completely different story. Although she picked up my compassion, she fortunately also picked up her mother's feistiness and confidence.
And one time when I was listening to this song, I imagined what it would be like if my daughter was the main character of this tale.
Things would be different from the start, I can tell you that!
That first day after the bicycle race, which my daughter would do her damnedest to win, she would go up to that James and say, “Hi, I'm J---. You're going to be my new best friend. What's your name?” It seems like she does this to almost every new nerd that joins her school. Like she's the school's nerd-welcoming committee.
And if the guy wondered what was going on and who the heck she was, she'd just say, “I told you! I'm J---, and you're going to be my new best friend.”
And if the guy should protest and say he doesn't need a new friend or something, she would inform him that's “Too bad!”
Come lunch the first day, James would find himself suddenly surrounded by my daughter and her friends, who she refers to as “my nerds”. My daughter would play master of ceremonies introducing the new nerd to the rest of the group.
Do they know that she calls them “my nerds”? Apparently so. Have they complained about being called that? My daughter told me they did. Her response? “Too bad!”
If James and my daughter went for a walk like they did in the song, she would probably talk with him about being from a divorced home.
But if he tried to tell her that her music was junk, she would most definitely put him in his place.
And soon as he brought up The Sex Pistols... oh boy!
She'd rip into him about how he listens to that old awful crap her dad does! And probably ask him with a sneer if he listens to Violent Femmes and Devo too. And then she'd tell him about how there is new music out there! And that teenagers should be listening to their own music, not their parents'!
Have to admit my daughter has a point on teenagers who listen to their parents' music and nothing from their generation. That's just wrong and kind of sad!
Now, if three guys started picking on James, this would definitely turn out differently!
As my daughter explained: “One guy would find himself himself pushed to the ground. Another would find his face slammed into a locker. And the third would find himself with his arm twisted very far behind him.” Then after a pause, and with a bit pride, “All things I have done to people who have picked on my nerds!”
I should say here that my daughter is not a big girl. She gets some of her stature from her petite, five foot tall mother. But then her mother doesn't take crap from anyone either!
My daughter is apparently known as “the psycho girl who hangs out with the nerds”. And most bullies, it seems, have learned not to mess with her friends.
I will freely admit that I am quite proud of my daughter, The Great Protector Of Nerds. She has the confidence and looks to be part of the popular crowd, but is unwilling to make the compromises. “They're boring! All they talk about are boys, clothes and their hair! Ugh!” Instead she hangs out with the group that willingly accepts all her quirks and eccentricities. And they get a good return investment for letting her in there! Not that she'd give them a choice!
Anyway, I always felt that Javelin Boot's song, "History", would be the perfect theme song if they ever made a tv show of Zinn's book. So I present this video as a tribute to him.
WARNING: This video makes generous use of profanity!
Mark Day on being Scottish on St Patrick's day and explaining saints and St. Patrick.... WARNING: This one contains religious views some will find offensive.
Well, today's date is 3/14, and you know what that means: That's right, math nerds, it's Pi Day! And the 20th anniversary of the first Pi Day, at that!
So what are you waiting for? Straighten that pocket protectors and start celebrating the number that never ends. If you're at a loss for ideas, John Tierney of the New York Timesoffers a few celebration suggestions on his science blog, TierneyLab. Our favourite among them, of course, involves eating:
1) Enjoy a piece of pie precisely at the Pi Second, 1:59:26 p.m. (3/14/1:59:26)
Granted, those of us in the Eastern time zone may have missed the boat on this one, but for those of you in B.C. and the Prairies, grab a fork; you've still got time.
Here are a few items from that page. - OlderMusicGeek
Pi-kus - haikus about pi...
Endless digits, yet No guarantee your pie will Yield another slice - ?
A circumference divide by diameter irrational pi. - Paul D
Mnemonics where the number of characters in each word gives you a digit of pi. The first word has 3 characters, the second word has 1 character, the third has 4 characters and so on...
Man, I know, I sense, struggles to deduce life’s end. Silly endeavor. - http://wordways.com/articles/WKPIKU.pdf
Egg, a beer, a steak decorates my shower floor. I’ve drunk overmuch. - http://wordways.com/articles/WKPIKU.pdf
It’s a bird, a plane, appearing in cloudy skies-- It’s brave Superman! - http://wordways.com/articles/WKPIKU.pdf
A Pi limerick....
Now there is an ancient Greek letter, And I think no other is better. It isn't too tall, It might look very small, But its digits, they go on forever. - http://www.kathimitchell.com/piceleb.html
Another conversation overheard in a virtual world. - OlderMusicGeek
woman#1 goes to put the kettle on man#1: white no sugar please ruby woman#2: i'll take a tea - (in fake british accent) ta woman#1: alrighty woman#2: no milk please woman#1 takes notes man#1: :p man#1: DO NOT diss the tea woman#1: #3, tea? woman#3: yes please woman#1 wanders downstairs woman#2: she's british - she'll kill you for dissing tea! man#2: tea should be a national sport man#1: it is man#1: and we win woman#4: How do you play tea? man#1: drinking it all the time woman#3: we just do Cat man#2: is there full contact tackling? man#1: its a very slow paced sport woman#3: because we are magical woman#2: points for not spilling woman#4 imagines an emergency room full of scalded avatars... woman#3: you get a bonus if you sip is with a snooty air man#1: i'll win at that man#2: haha woman#2: make sure that pinky is out woman#4: Pinkies up? woman#4: LOL man#2: the jersey is fancy victorian wear woman#2: backs straight man#2: and monocle woman#2: and don't drop your "biscuit" in your tea like hyacinth's neighbor on keeping up appearances :) man#2: hahaha woman#4: Ohh I miss that show... *frown* man#2: for overtime, it's who can make it to the vicar's house the fastest?
This is from a blog by Robin Hilton of the internet program, Our Songs Considered, on NPR's internet site. I didn't care for most of the videos, but some of you who are a little younger than me might appreciate it. - I'm in my mid-40's. - And those of you quite a bit younger than me might find this humorous. - OlderMusicGeek
VHS, MTV OMG by Robin Hilton
My head is sloshing with a thick glop of sentimentality.
This past weekend I was visiting my brother who still lives in the small town where we grew up. It's always a bit of a nostalgia trip going home again, but on this visit he produced an old VHS tape with a video we'd made when we were in high school in the early 1980s. It was just a bunch of dumb kids goofing off, but it made me a little dizzy seeing all the mullets and how young we were.
Then this morning I come in to work and Bob drops me a link for this remarkable and hilarious video of a 1983 MTV broadcast. It's three hours long, complete with commercials from the time. The news updates are particularly priceless, like "Loverboy tour dates announced."
I wonder if this resonates at all with anyone under the age of say, 25.
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