Author: Don
Trony?
It’s been a few months since I last posted anything Pony-related, so here’s the inevitable crossover.
Punctuation matters.
Has humanity declined?
The last Winfield post …
… maybe.
This is a slide show of the pictures I took at the Walnut Valley Festival. You might notice a lot of photos of Roger and Tricia. That’s partly because you were likely to hear good music when they were around. They are whom you hear in the video.
Stormy Bacon Monday
But can you find “meaningful brain activity” in Washington?
In excitement of Sing Like a Pirate and Talk Like Chester A. Arthur Day, it was easy to forget that this is also the week in which the year’s Ig Nobel prizes were announced. A couple of the highlights:
NEUROSCIENCE PRIZE: Craig Bennett, Abigail Baird, Michael Miller, and George Wolford [USA], for demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere — even in a dead salmon.
LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.
The complete list is here.
So much for my quiet evening
There is a loud party at the business across the alley, with twenty or thirty young louts and loutesses lounging about, a PA system, and very dull music played very loudly. It’s going to be a long night. Please excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.
Cultural notes
The Yale English department is a good example. In the directory for tenured and tenure-track faculty, “Marxist literary theory” is listed by five professors among their fields of interest, “gender and sexuality” by nine, and “colonial and postcolonial” by 11, or a quarter of the 44 professors. In the graduate student directory, however, the numbers for those subjects are one, three, and a fat goose egg. That’s quite a statistical drop-off, considering that grad students outnumber professors nearly two to one. The topics favored instead by these future scholars are Romanticism (six), Victorian literature (five), Milton (seven), and, oddly enough, religious literature (also seven). Honorable mentions include “Biblical exegesis,” “conversion narratives,” and “Middle English devotional, visionary, and anchoritic writing”— they’re not just reading the Bible, they’re reading monks.
I can’t get on Facebook without seeing people mocking various religions. However, the adherents of these faiths aren’t rioting, burning, or killing anyone — nor would they be tolerated if they did. However, the message we’re sending is that rioting works. The Islamists riot, and our government (and its media waterbearers) cheerfully throw the speakers who give offense under the bus. Apparently, the Mormons aren’t smashing enough windows or setting enough fires.
And Robbo.
Fish music
Roger Netherton, a young friend of mine, placed second this year in the old-time fiddle contest at Winfield Friday. He celebrated by heading over to Carp Camp, where he led the assembled eccentrics in a couple of tunes. Here’s the first. It starts off with Roger alone.
There are more pictures of carp people below the fold.
Mystery revealed
The gizmo in yesterday’s post is a Stroh violin. This is what it sounds like:
The fiddler is Jill Woodhouse, of the Beautiful Music Violin Shop in Lawrence, Kansas.
Winfield 2012
Warning, and a mystery instrument
It will probably take me several days to go through all my Winfield pictures and recordings. Until then, here’s a minor project for you: identify this object:
Let’s sing
(Via Jane.)
*****
Here’s what was wrong with Moyashimon Returns: it didn’t stink. There was no kiviak, no hongeohoe, no surströmming, nothing pungent at all, not even cheese, just bland grape juice.
*****
I’m off to Winfield. See you all next week.
Miscellany
What’s so funny?
“Research” has determined the ten funniest movies of all time. Meh. There are a few minor omissions, such as anything from the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy, Ealing Studios, Mel Brooks or Woody Allen, or movies such as Local Hero or The Wrong Box. Most films on the list I have no desire whatsoever to see.
I’m not that much of a moviegoer, so I can’t authoritatively list the true ten funniest movies ever made. Instead, I present some of my favorite comic movie scenes, only one of which is from a listed movie.
Don’t cross your eyes …
… parallel (“side by side”) viewing works best, at least for me. You can change the stereo mode by clicking on the “3D” button. (These may be more listenable with the sound muted.)
(Via man with black hat.)
Back to school Hell
Excel began her saga by getting hit by a truck. If the Great Will of the Macrocosm had not intervened, her story might have been something like Hells. Here are some screen captures from the first third of the movie. (It will probably be a week or two before I watch the rest of it. Right now, I’m getting ready for Winfield.)
Rule 5
An eyecatch from Kuuchuu Buranko, a.k.a. Die seltsamen Methoden des Dr. Irabu, or Trapeze.
(I’ve been watching a lot of Kenji Nakamura lately.)
Great faces of anime
Sasuke Furata (Hyouge Mono).
On a unrelated note, Dave Barry is now subjecting himself to the Democratic convention. Meanwhile, the Fringe Party is holding its convention in Irv’s Bar and Grill. You can follow the proceedings at Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.