Menefreghista

Something you gotta do every 20 years or so (that is the old one on the way out).

Wow. Now  I am agreeing with Sean Parker.  From The Verge:

Parker says the social networking site exploits human psychological vulnerabilities through a validation feedback loop that gets people to constantly post to get even more likes and comments. […] In other words, using Facebook is like junk food: you get instant gratification when you post for likes and comments. It’s quick and easy but has little substance.

Tried to watch the documentary Chasing Trane about John Coltrane on PBS Independent Lens last night, but fell asleep before it even started.  But it is out there on the PBS app, so I am watching it now.  Great stuff.

Mr. Koi in the backyard pond.  One problem with this blog (compared to Facebook) is the way pictures automatically get inserted when you put in an external link.  Pictures are a bit harder here, especially with my tablet.  I usually resize the pics later upstairs when I have a mouse.  And I know how everyone likes pictures.  Facebook knows for sure.

Back to music.  Spending my extra hour today hanging out drinking coffee and listening to old music.  Maybe the passing of Fats Domino, or the Austin City limits show last week (they inducted Roy Orbison, Roseanne Cash and the Neville Brothers into the ACL hall of fame) has me listening to old 1950 music.  I stumbled across a playlist on Spotify called 1950s hits (300) with a bunch (300?) old songs, and I was surprised that I knew maybe 90% of them.

It made me realize that my earliest music memories, and some later ones too, were the music of my parents.  Stuff on the radio that they listened to that was always on in the background.  Some of it familiar, like Elvis and Frank Sinatra, but lots of it songs I know all the words to, but maybe haven’t heard or even thought of since I was a child.  Doris Day is on now with Tony Bennett Stranger in Paradise next.    Frankie Lane, Vic Damon’s and Ertha Kitt are on the way.

From the Texas Tribune.  Yes, they just happened to be Russian.  What sort of  mischief is being caused by others, with goals we might not even understand?  Yet another reason I am not interested in anything remotely political coming from Facebook.

A Russian Facebook page organized a protest in Texas. A different Russian page launched the counterprotest.

An article from the Baffler that explores the long connection between the modern American Conservative movement and, well, dishonesty.  This article is back from the days when Mitt Romney was running for president (Nov. 2012).  Not that actual political conservatism has any inherent connection with dishonesty, it is just that the goals of modern American conservatives, living in modern America, seem to do better when objective reality can be ignored.  Worth a read if you find some of the statements from our conservative leaders especially disturbing.  Nothing new here, really.

The Long Con

A good article from the BBC (thanks again, Yadu). I remember at the end of the Cold War wondering with friends what would happen to unity in the US without the existential threat of nuclear Armageddon.  Also the lid that was kept on the powerful, of those seeking power.  We saw the collapse first in the Soviet Union and cheered at the splintered politics, substance abuse, falling life expectancy and rising oligarchy of our former enemy, not realizing we were just two steps behind them.

The time when America stopped being great

So, the Las Vegas shooter was losing lots of money.  The casinos knew this immediately. All of this is just part of the cost of doing business, when your business is preying on human weakness.

Las Vegas shooter had been losing money for two years and ‘was going in the wrong direction,’ sheriff says

Been listening to BBC 6 Music lately.  Didn’t know BBC went past 5 (Thanks Yadu).  Ran into two nice podcasts today:

‘Nobody wanted to touch us’ – 40 Years of ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’

and

The Fats Domino Story (5 parts total)