May 2010 archive

There are an awful lot of Strausses in German music (and I include Austrian in that category though purists would say I probably shouldn’t).  Johann Strauss was a very successful Viennese band leader and composer who was instrumental in the development of the Waltz, a sexually revolutionary dance where couples actually danced in a (gasp) closed position.

Being such a dangerous degenerate he was of course wildly popular and toured with his band all over Europe and even performed at Queen Victoria’s coronation.

Like most successful Rock Stars the last thing he wanted was for his own (legitimate) family to follow in his footsteps of constant adulation and debauchery so for his sons he selected the professions of military and foreign service, and banking,

After he acknowledged his libertine ways by recognizing one of his illegitimate daughters, his wife divorced him and Junior, the banker, was free to take up his own musical career for which his father never forgave him.

While never quite as popular during his father’s lifetime as his Dad, Junior was quite popular indeed and soon had a band of his own.  When there was a revolution in Vienna in 1848 Junior sided with the Revolutionaries while Dad supported the Monarchy.  Junior was arrested for playing The Marseillaise in public, no doubt as part of his father’s Paris-Walzer which used the theme because Junior frequently performed Dad’s music.

Senior died the year after that and Junior took over his band.  When, after 4 years of constant touring, he took a little mental vacation, he recruited his brothers to run the band while he was resting.

Junior eventually eclipsed his father in fame and composed and performed constantly until his death at the turn of the century.  He was so influential that Hitler, rather than admit Junior’s Jewish heritage, had his birth records stolen and famously declared, “I decide who is Jewish.”

See, he was a deciderer too.

Any way tonight’s piece is Weiner Blut Op. 354, posted by TheWickedNorth.

website for Saturday’s Deepwater Horizon Response Press Conference

http://www.dvidshub.net/?scrip…

5/15/2010 video by your govt and Lt Scott Sagisi of JPASE

This is the government’s version of what’s going on with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Saturday.  

The following is a partial transcript.  Everyone was speaking very quickly today, where they were repeating phrases that didn’t add much meaning, I left it out, a few phrases are transposed in order.  Salazar starts out strong like somebody had a Come to Geebus talk with him, tries to sound like Winston Churchill before his Dunkirk of the Tar Balls, then reverts to mumbles.  Adm. Landry is concise, and by God, if a Tarball breaches her boom deployment she’s gonna have they Navy and Coast Guard rendition that thing so fast it’s never going to know what hit it.  BP’s Suttles.  I think everybody would like to smack Suttles by now, but are holding back.   He did acknowledge Mother Nature was cutting them a break, which was interesting.  

Crossposted at Daily Kos

‘Saturday Night Live’ … the mere mention of the show brings a smile to so many faces.  The talented cast members.  The memorable sketches.  The unforgettable characters.  SNL holds a special place in our hearts and lives.  And has done so since its inaugural season in 1975.  

What is SNL’s appeal and what accounts for its enduring success?  The Washington Post‘s TV critic Tom Shales wrote this in 2002 in a book about SNL

Bill Murray (left) and Jane Curtin on ‘Weekend Update’

:: ::

The success of ‘Saturday Night Live’ sparked a renaissance in topical, satirical, and political humor; launched the careers of innumerable new talents; hugely expanded the parameters of what was ‘acceptable’ material on the air; and helped bestow upon the comedy elite the hip-mythic status that rock stars had long enjoyed.

When a unit of the Ohio National Guard wheeled and aimed at Kent State students on May 4, 1970, they fired an estimated 61-67 shots.

Fast forward ten days.

At five minutes after midnight on May 15, local police and state highway cops ordered out by Governor John Bell Williams opened a barrage of at least 460 rounds, mainly from shotguns, at Black students gathered in front of a women’s dorm at Jackson State College in Mississippi.  

Cross-posted at DailyKos and Firefly-Dreaming.

Some flower photographers claim that bright sunny days are not good for capturing flowers. Some go out with reflectors, diffusers and big honking strobe lights on sunny days to get that perfect shot. For me it’s a game, go out and find that flower at that moment that the bright sunshine works to the advantage of the observer.

Thursday was a glorious blue sky day wedged between two that were murky and dim, so I took both my trusty Cannon G-10 and Nikon Coolpix P90 to the New York Botanical Garden to find a flower where the strong direct sunlight was just right.

Spending the entire day looking for that perfect flower I thought that perhaps now I can articulate what I’ve learned about flower photography so far. I’m not meaning to blow my own horn but I’ve been running that play for a while now and I’ve developed a few skills in composition and dramatic effect.  

I got a little too involved it this diary. That’s why it’s a day late.  

Two weeks after Nixon’s 1970 invasion of Cambodia triggered the first and only national student strike this country had ever seen, battles continued to rage on campuses the length and breadth of the country.

Take the University of Maryland at College Park. Striking students and faculty had pretty much shut the place down during the early days of May. In fact, as the fourth installment of this series pointed out, thousands of them also invaded and shut down US Route 1, then the main artery between Baltimore and Washington.

Day after day, students poured onto Route 1, blocking it and the state cops mobilized to clear it. Day after day, the pigs attacked the campus, arresting scores, teargassing dorms and frats to the point where they were uninhabitable. and administering savage beatdowns as the students fled. This repression on top of rage at the Kent State murders swelled the ranks of protesters and keep the struggle hot.

The university was shut down by the strike but the administration hadn’t opted for the cancel-finals-and-pass-everybody trick being used at other schools, so the clashes continued. They peaked on May 14, 40 years ago tonight.

One grad who returned to campus to build the strike recalls http://www.route-one.org/facul…

There was a lot of teargas the night of May 14. I didn’t quite understand the campus politics, but a faculty vote had gone badly and several thousand students headed for Route One in protest.

Governor Mandel had mobilized the National Guard who moved on to campus after students were driven off of Route One. It was ironic, because we all knew that the reason many people joined the Guard was because they didn’t want to fight in the unpopular Viet Nam War. I was sorry to see them. They were probably even sorrier being there.

The exchanges of teargas bombs and rocks were the fiercest I had ever seen. People were determined to hold on to their piece of liberated Maryland even in the face of a military occupation. National Guard Commander Warfield’s helicopter flew overhead and added a further surreal menace to the whole scene.

We grouped on the hill in front of the Chapel. It was dark and hard to see how many people were holding out, but it seemed like thousands. The crowd ebbed and flowed depending on how many teargas bombs were fired by the National Guard and police from the base of the hill near Route 1.

That night, amid extensive trashing and the U of M Administration building very nearly went up in flames. The country’s campuses were still on fire with struggle!