Ants In Your Plants of 1939

I understand and wish to continue

2023-05-23T11:01:00.000-04:00

These last few months I have been kicking around the idea of starting back on the blogging train. It hasn’t been much of an idea, but nevertheless, it’s been in the air.

Then the other day I got an alert from my friends at Blogger:

Hello,
As you may know, our Community Guidelines (https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy) describe the boundaries for what we allow-- and don't allow-- on Blogger. Your post titled "Lester Bangs, birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom" was flagged to us for review. This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content; the post is visible at http://hisdorkmaterials.blogspot.com/2012/01/lester-bangs-birthday-party-cheesecake.html. Your blog readers must acknowledge the warning before being able to read the post/blog.
We apply warning messages to posts that contain sensitive content. If you are interested in having the status reviewed, please update the content to adhere to Blogger's Community Guidelines. Once the content is updated, you may republish it at [redacted] This will trigger a review of the post.
For more information, please review the following resources:
Terms of Service: https://www.blogger.com/go/terms
Blogger Community Guidelines: https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Hoo..kay.

Even though that was an eleven year old post, I could remember from the title in the web address what the post was about. It was about the Michael Stipe and Peter Buck from REM having diarrhea. At least that was my recollection.

So backing up to the start of the story, there’s this:

The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right

That’s a chunk of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” which is one of those songs that my generation’s cohort was required to attempt and mostly fail to memorize (“yabba dab dabba dab, LEONARD BERNSTEIN”). Now, at the time it seemed obvious that “jellybean, boom” was a reference to Ronald Reagan, who enjoyed jellybeans and was going to blow us all up. But no…

The story that I recall coming across was that Stipe and Buck drove all the way from Atlanta to New York without stopping to eat so they could be at a Birthday Party (I think, for Lester Bangs, but at the very least he was there). They arrived ravenous, thinking that there would be a lot of food to eat, but discovered that there was nothing but birthday cheesecake and jelly beans, which wasn’t what their bodies needed.

So…

The blogger algorithm sat on that for over ten years and just now decided to flag it? Over gastrointestinal distress? I spent a few days just sitting on that until I decided to go look at the post, because hey, I’d already been thinking about cracking the bloggy thing.

Now - the post itself was just a quote from the book I was reading at the time, which was a biography of Bangs. I actually left out the part where they got sick (so did I misremember it, or decide to leave it out? I don’t have the book anymore, so this means a trip to the library at least.)

But I did leave in the bit where Bangs calls Peter Buck a terribly unpleasant word. Mystery solved!

So after a bit of consideration, I’m just going to leave that post behind the wall of naughty shame. So if you are interested you have to get past the prompt.

But “lack of trigger” warning: No mention of sick.

++++

And hello everyone!

And worse... I've lost Latvia!

2015-01-05T18:02:00.001-05:00

Sitting in my post queue like a sad broken promise was the most recent post that I had been working on.

I put it here in full:

Two interesting things from the blog stats that I see this fine morning.
1) I have not posted an entry for eleven months.
2) My readership has increased by something like thirteen times since the days when I was posting somewhat regularly.
I don't have an easy explanation for either of those things. Actually, the second thing seems to be a combination of search engine robot jiggery-pokery, and an astonishing uptick in readership from Latvia. (Hello, Latvians!) The first thing is on me entirely, and the explanation isn't easy due to me not intending to give it to the internet. (Sorry, Latvians!)

I see that this post was dated Aug 19, 2013. And I have now had a quick scan of my (such as it is) readership. I have lost whatever traction I once had in Latvia. Sorry, Latvians!

Creeeeeeek Flutter Flutter cough

2015-01-05T17:47:00.002-05:00

And this room is where I kept my blog! Look at it sitting there all lonely.

You know... A bit of solvent and some polish, we might be able to get this thing going again. What do you think, kids? Take her for a spin?

Roundabout

2013-08-19T10:24:00.001-04:00

About a week ago I had a looksee at this poor neglected hallway of my internet presence and was astonished to notice that it had been close to a year since the last post on here. So I thought it would be amusing to wait the week and have the next post show up exactly a year later. Give or take twelve hours.

Hello everyone. What's new?

Dressing up the laptop

2012-08-19T23:53:00.003-04:00

Pretty spiffy, I gotta say.

2012-08-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

I had a moment to watch Boxing coverage and heard one of the commenters say (and I am trying to remember the wording exactly):

"A boxer should always be cognizant of the location of the other boxer's fists."

I love that. I am going to use that as my new motto.

2012-08-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

For about 18 hours the other day I was under the impression that a group of badminton players had been lighting matches and throwing them at people. Sort of like an angry street gang or something.

Learning the truth has come as sort of a letdown.

For no reason, a quote I found.

2012-06-26T22:25:00.001-04:00

"A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused." --Nigel Short

Don't worry, they can't see you. Just take your time.

2012-02-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

The latest in computer aided literary studies - Brian Joseph Davis is taking descriptions of fictional characters from their source texts and running them through software designed for law enforcement composite sketching.

I have just realized that Cate Blanchett really should play Emma Bovary (number four in the lineup, there).

Trailer Parking

2012-02-02T12:09:00.001-05:00

A couple of films that are coming out:

The trailer for the new Wes Anderson film looks exactly like a trailer for a new Wes Anderson film. Make of that what you will:

Under African Skies is a documentary marking the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon's Graceland album. When the album came out, I was a bit conflicted about the politics of it (I got the impression that Simon was in some ways deliberately exploitive of the situation, and in other ways an odd combination of defensive and naive). I purchased the thing nevertheless and think it does hold up as a good album - but I am quite interested in how it is looked back on.

Great moments in fictional bears

2012-01-30T12:30:00.003-05:00

Coming at me sideways from Tardis Eruditorum:

That said, this basic aesthetic of 2000 AD is perhaps better summarized by the strip that replaced Flesh - a sixteen issue job that is rarely mentioned as one of the absolute classics of 2000 AD, despite being absolutely fantastic in every regard. I am speaking, of course, of Shako. Shako tells the story of a particularly homicidal polar bear who has swallowed some vital military hardware and is being chased by government agents. It is, in practice, nothing more than sixteen short strips of a polar bear violently slaughtering people in improbable and needlessly imaginative ways. Though really, little needs to be said about Shako beyond its tagline: Shako! The Only Bear on the CIA Death List!

And so a quick google later and I find a spiffy overview here:

The Americans are goal-orientated and tech-savvy but fail to accommodate the difficulties and nuances of the environment in which they are battling. Could Shako be the first Vietnam analogy involving a polar bear? Perhaps. Meanwhile The Russians are blinded by unthinking subservience to dogma and the need to best the Americans. Initially they don’t know why the polar bear is of note they only know that the Yanks want it so they capture it and take it aboard their Whaling ship cum KGB spy ship. This turns out quite badly. In fact, so disputed does the bemused bear become that a nuclear interaction is only narrowly avoided. Could Shako be the first Cuban Missile crisis analogy involving a polar bear? Perhaps.

Finally a panel that I imagine has been grabbed and repurposed by many before me, but is irresistible so here it is:

wild Up - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (Andrew Bird cove...

2012-01-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

This could be fun.

2012-01-25T14:25:00.000-05:00

Legal thriller looms as Sherlock takes his caseload to New York

The part that caught my eye:

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, said: "We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn't resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying."

As the "unusual" and thus "protectable" elements of the current BBC series includes "modern settings and characters" as well as the use of laptops and smartphones, I think that we ought to get ready for a rumble.

I also am willing to wager that whatever legal wrangling happens, it will be far more interesting and entertaining than the American version is in any way likely to be.

I am not the Walrus, I am not the Boss

2012-01-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Static

2012-01-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

I've found that having the "dynamic view" as a default for the blog has caused the links to individual posts to stop working. So I am back to the old school template.

If you miss the dynamic view, you can turn it back on manually by hitting this link.

Leaping from my old notebook:

2012-01-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

This was something that I overheard and wrote down verbatim. I have no idea where or when I heard it, but I am guessing it was a couple of years ago and perhaps on the subway.

"So he had a stack of three chickens and they were just folded epicly. So I said 'dude, these chickens are epic! Can you do lambs?' and he was like 'later dude.'"

I add value to my iPhone

2012-01-12T15:17:00.002-05:00

Lifehacker has informed me about Urge. This is an iPhone app to help you keep track of all the little bits of savings that you can get by, say, not getting that second cup of coffee.

The way it works is this: every time you don't spend money, you open up the app and tell it how much the thing you didn't purchase costs. The app then keeps track of how much money you have saved.

It costs two bucks. I have not purchased it. Thus I have saved two bucks.

I imagine that proponents of the app will argue that the potential savings that would come from using the app would be more than two bucks.

I respond by not purchasing a 300 foot yacht. I have now saved another $150,000,000. This brings my savings to $150,000,002. What a good day! I think I will knock off early.

I am still not adding value to the internet!

2012-01-12T14:14:00.002-05:00

Just trying something.

No worries.

From a random page of my private journal:

2012-01-12T14:10:00.002-05:00

11:41pm. Went out for mexican food. Slow waiter. Guys at the table next to us couldn't get a grip on Mexican food "it's all like onions and peppers and tortillas. They want us to starve." Then they noticed that there were burgers on the menu and cheered right up.

-8/31/09

I am not adding value to the internet

2012-01-12T09:16:00.002-05:00

Something is not working quite right so I am just putting up a post to test something.

And how are you doing, the internet?

Globe Theatre, you have your remit!

2012-01-11T11:25:00.001-05:00

It used to be thought that the “bear’ was a man in costume. But scholars have now focused on the fact that two polar bear cubs were brought back from the waters off Greenland in 1609, that they were turned over to Philip Henslowe’s bear collection (hard by the Globe theater), and that polar bears show up in three productions of the 1610-1611 theatrical season….Polar bears become fierce at pubescence and were relegated to bear baiting, but the cubs were apparently still trainable in their young state.”

via

Every time it rains, it rains...Rain!

2012-01-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

Lester Bangs, birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom

2012-01-09T10:15:00.001-05:00

[in spring 1980] Peter Buck and Michael Stipe planned to start a band of their own, and they drove to New York following their friends in Pylon to check out the scene. They were hungry, they barely had the gas money to get back home, and they were disappointed that Moline had nothing to eat but cheesecake and jelly beans.
"I had read all of Lester Bangs's stuff in Creem and thought he was the greatest thing in the world." Buck said fifteen years later. "Now here we were at this party, filling up on birthday cake and jelly beans. Lester was standing there, and every time someone walked by--it was like a mantra--he'd have something to say to them. He called me a rotten cocksucker. . . . I was like: 'That's Lester Bangs! That's so cool!'"

--DeRogatis: Let it Blurt pp 189-90

"This camera adds a touch of 1984 to any social network."

2011-12-14T10:33:00.000-05:00

Announcement: The Hipstamatic D-Series - bringing analog back, one exposure at a time:

Greetings Dynamic Readers!

2011-12-11T16:12:00.001-05:00

I've just activated Dynamic View to the blog. I've been holding off on it because it makes the side link stuff go away.

I'm thinking about how to accomodate this.

In the meantime: Here is a picture of a keyboard. These dynamic views encourage the visuals, you see.