Open Thread — Sunday Times Edition

Happy Easter!

This was a very good edition. I’d have to link to too much stuff so instead I’ll say go read it all.

It was so good I almost–almost–opened the “Sunday Styles” section. I didn’t however. Oh, and the new Ethicist still sucks.


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19 responses to “Open Thread — Sunday Times Edition”

  1. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Ouch JMP. Stop being such a meanie!

    FTR: Wasn’t whining, merely stating a fact held by many other readers of BFD.

  2. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Because it’s somewhat difficult to find: some vid of the late Ploy in action here:
    http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2011/04/26/rip-poly-styrene/

    JMP

  3. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Whining? Yes, indeed.

  4. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    “There’s been too many as usual.”

    Your posts?

    Yes.

  5. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Poly Styrene is also gone. The singer, not the plastic. The obligatory Brit but lovely classical obit via the Indy:

    “Poly Styrene: Singer who blazed a trail for punk’s feminist revolutionaries

    As a dumpy, frumpy, almost willfully unsexual girl from Brixton, with braces on her teeth, Poly Styrene was a perfect candidate to find herself through punk; turning this persona on its head into an art form, she became one of the movement’s principal female figures, her song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” a feminist rallying cry.

    Born Marianne Elliott-Said, she was brought up by her mother, a Scottish-Irish legal secretary; her father was a dispossessed Somali aristocrat. Running away from home at the age of 15, she spent that summer at assorted music festivals, living, like a number of later punk faces, a peripatetic hippie existence”.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/poly-styrene-singer-who-blazed-a-trail-for-punkrsquos-feminist-revolutionaries-2275032.html

    JMP

  6. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Next up, Phoebe Snow:

    Again from the LA Times:

    “Phoebe Snow dies at 60; singer of 1970s hit ‘Poetry Man’
    Phoebe Snow received wide acclaim for her self-titled album, which showed off her multi-octave range and musical versatility. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in January 2010.”

    http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-phoebe-snow-20110427,0,5216521.story

    A lovely, dedicated & deeply talented woman who left the music scene to take care of her severely disabled daughter Valerie, who predeceased her in 2007. Despite her own health troubles, she was on something of a comeback, and was last seen in Ga. @ a PP event. She was a big supporter of Choice & Health Care Reform, precisely because of her life’s struggles.

    JMP

  7. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    OK then, on to the Obits. There’s been too many as usual.

    “Hazel Dickens dies at 75; bluegrass pioneer and social activist
    Hazel Dickens, raised in poverty in the West Virginia coal country, formed a popular singing duo with Alice Gerrard before continuing as a solo artist. She was a lifelong advocate for miners, the poor and women, causes that infused her music”.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hazel-dickens-20110427,0,326644.story

    More from the LA Times: “Dickens “was writing country songs about women’s concerns long before anyone else in Nashville was doing it,” country music historian Bill Malone told the Washington Post in 2001. Irwin said Dickens was “concerned for social justice for all. Some people tried to classify her as a feminist, but she always thought she was a humanist.”

    Her music was featured in “Harlan County, USA,” Barbara Kopple’s 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about Kentucky coal miners. She also appeared and sang in “Matewan,” John Sayles’ 1987 film about labor organizing in a mining town.

    “I’ve never lost my sympathy for working people,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002. “I’ve always said that if I have a religion, it’s the working-class experience and what I feel for working-class people.”

    She was & is just irreplaceable, and there never was anyone like her. She was Bluegrass’ & Country’s own ‘Mother Jones’.
    JMP

  8. EGaluszka Avatar

    This is pretty good.

  9. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Real Simple here, Even Eds might work it: Where Did My Tax Dollars Go?

    http://www.wheredidmytaxdollarsgo.com/

    JMP

  10. EGaluszka Avatar

    It’s time for Democrats to take control of the public safety issue, starting with transportation.

    http://www.peanutpost.com/2011/04/infrastructure-and-public-safety/

  11. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    You know I’ve got to relate it to the topic for the week too. Hence the obvious need for ‘Open Threads’. But hey, it pays, and there’s generally less whining overall & no censorship (so far). JMP

  12. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    You know, you do have your own blog.

  13. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Attn. Gov. Deal, Fla wants to deal on the water wars, We Win!
    http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/22/2180947/governor-to-epa-water-guidelines.html

    If as Gov. Scott now claims the Feds & EPA have no authority or say here, what’s the remaining problem? Hypocrisy maybe?

    JMP

  14. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    You don’t like my hard-hitting, A+ analysis provided in the OP? :confused:

  15. Trevor Southerland Avatar
    Trevor Southerland

    Between the two of you, this may win the award for post of the year.

  16. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    My take on Cong Paul Ryan’s absurdly dangerous budget:
    http://cartersville.patch.com/articles/government-shut-down-to-repeal-medicare

    JMP

  17. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    ‘They all played Ragtime’, but they didn’t always. Consider the first musical computers. Some versions of player pianos available by the 1900’s were quite sophisticated. Colon Nancarrow was likely the last (reasonably) well known composer writing exclusively for player piano. Rolled his own piano rolls.

    Looking at the roll he did to honor fellow composer Ligeti, you can see a bit of the process, and the tape he used to cover up some of the holes by way of corrections. Almost like the IBM ‘punch cards’ of yore. And yes, for Nancarrow there were no ‘Easy Pieces.’ His best known works had many pianos playing in sequence. All using different piano rolls.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geMNtYb-_N0

    JMP

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