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Open thread 11/4/21 — 58 Comments

  1. Wow! What is that??

    (Nice to be reminded that there is beauty in the world, which the neo-Puritans are doing their best to turn into a barren wasteland of finger-pointing karens and faux morality…
    https://freebeacon.com/culture/new-york-times-its-time-to-cancel-classic-rock/ )
    H/T Instapundit

    Key graf:
    ‘…[the author] urged listeners to scrap iconic artists and songs, including Don McLean’s “American Pie” and the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar,” if the artists have personal flaws or their lyrics are not sufficiently “inclusive” or “just.”…’

  2. Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus)? The trees have some catching up to do.

    (Well, if it *is* Burning Bush, my cursory reading suggests that some Puritans might well come for it with a backhoe.)

    A bit showy, that burning bush stunt. I prefer the Elijah Reprise… silence after the sound and fury. Makes for a better Oratorio highlight.

  3. Would you look at that Tranny Karen who is peddling that bile in the article Barry Meislin links!

    You probably shouldn’t look. Stick to the tree. The tree is growing on me.

  4. Agree. Stick to the tree—it’s those obnoxious “journalist” poseurs who should be scrapped, not the music they deride…

    (Though Wikipedia describes the “burning bush” as an invasive species whose origin is China. Hmmm.)

  5. Well didn’t they already cancel John Cleese a few times?

    Mind you, Cleese has an incredible talent for cancelling out zeroes by marrying the wrong women.

    First they came for the Jews… meh… then for the Minstrel Shows… hum… then for the Daughters of the Revolution.. won’t be missed… But Harmless Old Terry!!!

    Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and enlist that rabbit too.

  6. And speaking of “burning bushes”, John Durham miraculously pops up to smoke out Igor Danchenko, the “primary researcher behind the Steele Dossier”…

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/main-steele-dossier-researcher-arrested-in-durham-probe/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=25579417

    (Note that “researcher” should be in scare quotes, since most if not all of the “research” involved making stuff up…)

    Wonder when Garland will check his stop watch and say “time’s up”…

  7. I noticed that over the past week or so the 7 day moving average of daily covid cases seems to have risen from a low of 62k up to 74k and then plateaued in the neighborhood of around 71k. I imagine it has something to do with the arrival of colder weather in the northern areas of the country bringing more people into those poorly ventilated, low humidity indoor spaces that of course will greatly increase aerosol based transmission of viruses like covid. In other words, the expected seasonal increase is occurring. I guess we’ll have to see if it goes up more, or stays flat for awhile, or starts to decrease again after a time?

  8. Well, as far as I can tell, Cleese is very resilient, armed as he is with a battle-hardened sense of humor, so he should be OK.

    The only problem might be whether such armaments can defend against those whose idea of humor is dense stupidity and unbridled sadism…

  9. My trees are turning fast, and loosing leaves. I have a lot of work to do to get them up. But they are very beautiful. The work keeps me out of the house getting some fresh air and exercise.

  10. And it’s a “fuzzy” 2+2=5 for the Orwellian Democrats.
    ‘ “Fuzzy Math” – Democrats’ “Deficit-Neutral” Social-Spending Plan Could Cost Over $4 Trillion’
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fuzzy-math-democrats-deficit-neutral-social-spending-plan-could-cost-over-4-trillion
    Regarding the plan, Hillary Clinton was reported to have said, “If it goes above one or two trillion, what difference does it make how high it is?”
    While Nancy Pelosi was heard to mumble: “We have to pass the plan in order to know what’s in it. How else is it possible to really know that this thing is about?”
    With Obama chiming in: “We don’t have time to be wasting on reading this entire plan, this fake outrage that right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings. Just pass the freakin’ thing and then read it.”

    OTOH, Joe Manchin was far more cautious. He called the plan ‘ “budget gimmicks… and shell games…[noting that] the cost of this…deal is over $4.1 trillion and only $1.554 trillion is paid for.’

    With such caution, sanity and concern for his country it’s no wonder that Manchin’s the target of vicious and venomous attacks from members of his own party.

  11. Nonapod,

    We had lunch with a couple of friends from college the other day. He was a Math major and has a Ph.D. in economics along with his J.D. (He recently retired from being an attorney at a large financial company.) They’re both pretty sharp. And, I gotta say, their kids are all brilliant.

    Anyway … he likes numbers perhaps as much as PhysicsGuy does.

    He thinks COVID seems to have an eight to twelve week cycle between troughs. Just a SWAG was how he put it.

    That was between bragging on how adorable our – their – grandchildren are. ?

  12. Barry Meislin writes:

    “With such caution, sanity and concern for his country it’s no wonder that Manchin’s the target of vicious and venomous attacks from members of his own party.”

    Right on. Note, however, that he will very likely be re-elected if he chooses to run, while some 20+ Democrat lawmakers have announced they will not be running for re-election. Now if only we could convince AOC and her cabal of witches to step down. As if. . .

  13. OTOH, Joe Manchin was far more cautious. He called the plan ‘ “budget gimmicks… and shell games…[noting that] the cost of this…deal is over $4.1 trillion and only $1.554 trillion is paid for.’ — Barry M.

    Wow. It’s only one senator’s statement, but if there’s a substantial basis for it, it’s really appalling.

    The thing I wanted to add, which is old news for anyone who’s paid attention to congressional budgeting over 30+ years, is that even if the CBO says that 3.5 or 4.0 of the 4.1 trillion is paid for, those increased revenue numbers always end up being much lower in the test of time. Every Single Time. (Or almost)

    The CBO always does static scoring which has its pluses and minuses. A couple of the big minuses are that people will legally dodge the big tax increases and secondly, in spite of the claims, the plan will have a major depressive effect on the overall economy. Those effects are not included in static scoring.

  14. Durham, continued:
    “The Igor Danchenko Indictment: It was all a fraud.”
    https://technofog.substack.com/p/the-igor-danchenko-indictment?r=p9dtn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=

    Key grafs:
    “John Durham has another scalp. On November 3, 2021, Igor Danchenko – Christopher Steele’s primary subsource – was arrested by federal authorities.
    “Now we have his indictment. Danchenko has been charged with false statements to federal officials during his 2017 interviews with the FBI.
    “According to the indictment, Danchenko lied about his contacts with “Russians,” his travels to Russia, and the identity of his sources. (Those are just some of the lies.)…”
    H/T Ron Coleman twitter feed.

  15. Our burning bush variety is more red than pink. (Back to discussions about color.) But I do see varieties online which are just the shade in Neo’s photo.

  16. Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin:
    “Stunning Wisconsin audit evidence—‘Enough illegal votes to tip the election'”
    https://twitter.com/SebGorka/status/1456297688622944263
    https://conservativebrief.com/counted-53942/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=SG

    To be sure, the only “stunning” thing about this less-than-surprising “news” is if it will gain any traction…

    I hope that on this, I will in fact be stunned (i.e., more stunned than I usually am…).

  17. Some “juicy” gossip featuring the “most popular president and vice-president” in the entire history of the USA (hint: their respective teams apparently can’t stand one another):
    https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1456264490501099521

    + Bonus:
    A Russiagate-inspired “dig” at the NYT (but oh-so-well-deserved…)
    https://twitter.com/RealSLokhova/status/1456259232227991566
    H/T Ron Coleman twitter feed (for both).

    File under: Great Lord of Justice (but, um, when does Fiona Hill get her turn?)

  18. I keep hearing assurances that this latest Durham arrest is totally a big deal, for realsies. As Hawkeye said in Avengers: Endgame “Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope.”

  19. We have a lot of burning bushes here and they are very beautiful, but this is a Japanese maple.

  20. I know what you mean, but honestly, what else is there?

    He spent a lot of time getting his ducks all lined up. Now it’s time to see whether that thing called “domino theory” has legs.

    (Wonder which of those ducks is/are(?) currently sweating, i.e., if ducks can sweat…)

    File under: Gotta believe….

  21. Talking about ducks….
    https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1456291288240754692

    And it gets even better—Hillary Clinton better (though this is not really a surprise):
    https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1456321033334665227

    I guess if Hillary couldn’t be president, she could always try to destroy the country. (Never underestimate a woman beclowned?)

    And speaking of “black swans”:
    https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2021/10/31/North-Korea-tells-people-to-eat-black-swans-amid-crippling-food-crisis

  22. Would suggest just scrolling down the Hans Mahncke twitter feed.
    https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/
    e.g.:
    “So here’s where we’re at: Clinton advisor feeds story to Danchenko. Danchenko feeds story to Steele. Steele feeds story to Fusion. Fusion feeds story to media. Media accuses Trump of Russia collusion.”
    https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1456302663231057921

    And so, Hillary Clinton is definitely a duck. (Of course, if push came to shove, she could always pull the James Comey “Who? Moi? Honestly can’t remember a thing it’s all in the hazy distant past” defense, I suppose…)

    Anyway, ducks? There’s a whole raft of ’em. (And no, it’s not looking so good for Brother Marc—“The Pious”—Elias or any of the Perkins Coie/GPS “Dream Team”.)

    Of course the big question is, will they quack? (And if so, when?…)

  23. Well, this *is* an open thread, so… I assume that Neo’s collection of brilliant commenters are Jeopardy! watchers, and remember the series of guest hosts. A number of them were Dr. XYZLGB. Mayim Bialik, however, doesn’t get the honorific, despite a PhD in a tough field. Why?

  24. At Ace of Spades:

    Jodi Ernst has introduced the “FAUCI Act” — Fairness and Accountability in Underwriting Chinese Institutions Act” — to forbid the mad doctor, and the various mad doctors of the Gain-of-Function Deep State, from cooking up any new Omega Plagues in Communist China.

    Hilarious! Some Republicans did learn something from Trump!

  25. I know almost nothing about Sean Davis, except that whenever I see one of his tweets referenced on a blog I find him hilarious and super clever. I think I’ve seen him featured on a few, pundit shows also. Ace linked to his twitter thread on the Durham/Steele Dossier and I followed it. Davis has two measures of sheet music in his bio. https://twitter.com/seanmdav

    I don’t have a piano handy, but if my sight reading and “ear” are reading it right that would be the sound a hockey or baseball stadium organist plays when the crowd chants, “Let’s Go, (Hometeam)!!” In other words, a very stealthy, classy version of, “Let’s go, Brandon.”

    I assume twitter is blocking or suspending tweets featuring the text written out?

    Again, super clever guy. He looks like the type of guy no one would expect to have a great sense of humor, but if you talk to him you quickly piece together he’s the most clever guy in the room.

  26. @Rufus:

    Well spotted. My tastes run more toward In Your Face… but it’s a smart one!

    There’s actually an app for that. Well, several. Sheet Music Scanner seems to be one of the better efforts. Won’t catch the bottom stave because his mugshot throws it off.

  27. Ha! I know almost nothing about plants, can barely tell a rose from a tulip, but my first thought when I saw neo’s photo was, “Hmmm, looks like a Japanese Maple.” Then, all the experts chimed in with burning bush so I figured I was wrong, as usual.

  28. Funny thing is, first answer PictureThis plant ID app gave was Japanese Maple. But then it kept giving other random answers because not enough resolution in the pic to resolve leaf shape.

    I’m hopeless with identifying plants and rely on this very nifty AI app when out and about and some flowering thing takes my fancy.

    https://www.picturethisai.com/

  29. Zaphod:

    Is there a good app for finding a musical work based on a few bars?

    My mother used to play a piano piece from Chopin, I think, but I’ve never been able to locate it.

  30. Closet Z Man Fans Rejoice. More Cynicism from the Heart of Darkness:

    https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=25573

    “…That is the central lesson of Tuesday. Caring about which side wins has no more impact on the results than caring about the winner of a sports game. The dialectic of formal politics is about normalizing what is not normal or even conceived. One side proposes and the other side opposes. The synthesis of these two forces is always what both sides had in mind from the start. The point is to condition the mind of the people to accept whatever they have planned.

    That plan is the restoration of the old order prior to the unfortunate disruptions of the last five years. The great purge of populist politics is well under way. The Democrats are marginalizing and isolating their Bernie Sanders wing. The Republicans are about to purge their Donald Trump wing. This election and the midterms next year are the process for conditioning the voters on both sides to embrace it. If history is any guide, the bulk of the voters will be happy to obey.”

  31. @Huxley:

    Your lucky day. I have both an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy so can check both.

    Shazam built in to iOS 15. Can configure a button on Control Centre pull down pane. Apple owns Shazam now, hence the integration.

    Nothing that I can find built in to the Galaxy S21U, but Google Play Store has both Shazam and SoundHound. One of the top reviews for SoundHound has a guy talking about how he can just sing to it (poorly) and it finds the tune.

    The one thing I like about Android is that I can install a per-app outgoing firewall without jailbreaking it and then stop the HK Gov covid QR code scanning app from phoning home.

  32. Zaphod:

    I did dl a bunch of Chopin collections and dutifully browsed through every track.

    No joy. Mighta skipped past the passage.

    Maybe you know it: Da-da-da-da-dah-dah-dah.

    Thanks for the rec’s.

  33. @Huxley:

    I’m afraid that doesn’t narrow it down!

    You could troll through all of Liszt.. and maybe Czerny (piano students get a lot of him)

  34. Zaphod:

    It was a very nocturney Chopinish piano piece. I doubt Liszt and the only Czerny she had were exercises.

    She once backed a friend singing “Un bel dì vedremo” from Madame Butterfly in a performance at the local community college.

  35. Interesting book review:

    https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/04/stalins-war-a-new-history-of-world-war-ii-sean-mcmeekin/

    “If there is a villain in this book, it’s not Stalin, though McMeekin certainly has no love for him, but seems to regard Stalin’s ability to manipulate the Allies, never giving an inch or showing any reciprocity, mostly with a kind of detached horror. Rather, it is Roosevelt, with his satanic familiar Harry Hopkins, who, while probably not a Communist agent, acted in a way indistinguishable from one, consistently prioritizing Soviet interests over American ones. McMeekin quotes Roosevelt, “I just have a hunch that Stalin isn’t that kind of man. Harry [Hopkins] said he’s not and that he doesn’t want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I give him everything I can and ask for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” Most of the book is an explication of this theme.”

  36. @ huxley – “Maybe you know it: Da-da-da-da-dah-dah-dah.”
    I’m assuming you mean the da to be eighth notes and the dah to be quarters?

    Not an app, but a book that might help:
    A Dictionary of Musical Themes
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_Musical_Themes

    Prints the first 6-10 bars of the works of hundreds of composers.
    If you know who wrote it, and can hum the first few bars of a theme, and can read music, you can find the exact piece by scanning the entries. Large works have entries for each movement and theme.

    A little more of a hint as to the melodic line would be useful, as there is also a section that gives those, normalized to the key of C.
    Examples:
    G G G Eb F F = Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, 1st Movement 1st Theme
    C C C G A B C B = Bach, Eine Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott

    This might help, but it only had 2 of the 5 I tried in its database.
    http://bestclassicaltunes.com/DictionaryPiano.aspx

    Wikipedia suggested these but I haven’t looked at them yet.
    Websites employing the Barlow method[10] and the Parsons method[11] are available. Today audio files can be plugged into music recognition services such as Audiggle, Gracenote, Shazam and SoundHound.[12]
    (links in the Wiki post didn’t carry ove)
    Best Classical Tunes
    “Musipedia.org”. Archived from the original on 2017-03-07. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
    Lee, Simon. What is music recognition software and how does it work? Medium.com, 8 January 2019

  37. Zaphod, AesopFan:

    I took another trip through my Chopin. “Opus 9, No. 2 in E flat” sounds close and it is famous, so that may be it, though I don’t hear the exact phrase I remember.

    But the memory was from when I was 4 and maybe it morphed in my mind or my mother practiced it in an odd way.

  38. Here’s a shot at the notes from noodling around on a keyboard. Asterisk means long.

    G A B C D*
    G A B C D*
    D C C D C B*

    It could be in another key. The durations are probably more nuanced.

  39. huxley,

    If you’re pretty sure those notes sound right then I’d center on his G major and E minor works, more likely G major.

  40. huxley:

    I think I may know it, but to come up with the title will be hard. I’ll try later in the evening. I think it’s something the pianists in ballet class often used to play for plies. Is it somewhat slow in tempo? That would help.

  41. neo:

    Yes, somewhat slow tempo.

    I’d be grateful if you or anyone could get this. Itch, hard to scratch.

  42. This phrase is one of my earliest memories and the first music I was conscious of as music — or at least as I remember.

  43. @ huxley > Was that comment humor, or Humoresque?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JIt6AawwD8

    Seriously, my dictionary has 3 Chopin works that start with a scale-wise progression (in different keys), but none of them continue as you remembered; however, your sequence could be past the opening phrases. The rhythm also doesn’t match.
    I hope Neo comes through!

    Ballad III Opus 47 in Ab/Fm
    Concerto #1 in E minor Opus 11, Movement 2 theme 1
    Concerto #2 in F minor Opus 21, Movement 3 theme 1

  44. AesopFan:

    None of those, sadly. Definitely past the opening.

    I just spent an hour listening to snatches of Chopin in all the YouTubes featuring Chopin and Ballet. Now everything sounds like Chopin.

    Apparently Chopin and ballet go together like peanut butter and chocolate, if you like that sort of thing.

    I did get to see some good ballet.

  45. To complicate things further, could be a piano transcription. Or accompaniment. But best exhaust the Chopin lode before straying further afield.

    @Huxley: While you do that, your WhatsApp status ought to be one of:

    Gone Chopin.

    Chopin till I drop.

  46. Zaphod:

    Good shots!

    As a kid, I imagined his name as Chopping with a silent g. It seemed a requirement for all great classical composers to have names which would bafffle a nine year-old.

    Good old Bee-Tho-Ven, De-Bus-y and Batch!

  47. Chopin’s “Opus 64, No. 2” sounds like it’s about to break into my phrase, but never does.

    In ballet it was choreographed for “Les Sylphides,” a famous ballet going back to 1893, “cited as the first ballet to be simply about mood and dance.” (wiki)

    “Les Sylphides with Mikhail Barishnikov – American Ballet Theatre”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPbW2HpYGDs

    Quite lovely and I haven’t watched Baryshnikov much. I’m sure neo could say more.

    Check the 17:15 mark for where I think I’m going to hear what I remember, but don’t. My phrase is in 3/4 time, though so it might be part of a waltz.

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