sonicshoulder
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Posts posted by sonicshoulder
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I am amazed how many people in my life(red and blue) genuinely believe "their" party has their best interests in mind. These are peoples whos opinions I respect on most matters but when it comes to politics are so irrational and completely unable to think independently. I lost faith in the entire system years ago. I know some people think this is a cop out and not voting is wasting your vote but supporting people you don't trust or like to me is worse. In my life I have voted "for" a president just once...that was Obama's first term. All of my other presidential votes in my lifetime were my tiny effort to do my part to prevent someone from getting office. I live in a red region...I overhear more ignorant, baseless, regurgitated "Don't tread on me" bullshit than I would wish on my worst enemy. I bite my tongue anymore because whenever I speak up someone immediately replies with "well you guys" implying I am a far left liberal. The middle ground is gone. Conservatives hate everyone and liberals feel obligated to like everyone(accept conservatives). I feel like far less of a pawn by being disengaged. Being out of the loop has salvaged my time, stress levels and relationships with friends and families. This is the most politics I've talked in a couple years and its only because its solicited and somewhat anonymous. The timing of this thread is uncanny. By coincidence I watched 10 minutes of the national news last night for the first time in months. It goes from Mitch the Glitch McConnel literally having a stroke at the podium and being paraded back out minutes later to finish a speech to whatever the hell Hunter and Joe have going on. Impeach the old guy, impeach the new guy, impeach the next guy....you sue me, I'll sue you. I don't think it will ever get better. I've told my kids don't believe a thing they say.
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This may go down imo as the best Wilco setlist in history! Sounds and looks like an amazing time.
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Scientist for years have studied to no avail the uncontrollable human urge to "whooo hooo" when Jeff says "They all come from New York city" during New Madrid. Pretty sure those two ladies the other night were indeed NOT from New York city.
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22 minutes ago, Chez said:
We finished it on Sunday. Agree - it's entertaining. notwithstanding the fact that almost all the characters are unlikable.
Interesting observation that I hadn't made but is definitely true. Each little sub-story is so good and then they all tie together very intricately. My wife came in late to the show and I didn't really even know where to start in telling her what was going on.
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"The White Lotus"...multiple thumbs up
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"Paris, Texas". Had never seen it but it is referenced in songs by two of my favorite artists so I needed to see what it was all about.
"Val" on Amazon. A documentary on Val Kilmer by Val Kilmer. He has been documenting his own life since childhood on home videos and compiled them for this film. Very interesting imo
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Can we just go ahead and change the name of this thread to "What Chez is listening to today?". He is the Lou Gehrig of Now Playing.
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Play my curmudgeon card here and just ask in what world does Jay-Z belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Why not Taylor Swift next, or Randy Travis, or Skrillex? Is Eddie Vedder eligible for the Country Music Hall of Fame? Now, get off my lawn.
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I've watched Do The Right Thing twice in the last month. It's a modern masterpiece. Beyond the just ridiculously talented (mostly young) cast the story is eerily relevant and the set is just really colorful and vibrant. It is a visually pleasing movie (or joint as Spike would say) with great characters and performances.
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On 4/20/2021 at 4:07 PM, Mr. Heartbreak said:
The whole "Florida is weird" narrative is pretty played out. I've seen comedians like Bill Maher (and have heard favorites like Marc Maron) talk about how weird it is here, as they always seem to find the most bizarre news story that supports their misapprehension that Florida is a lot like Mississippi or Alabama. It isn't.
I've lived here for over 25 years, and it's absolutely beautiful. My wife and I live in a gated community in a safe, highly desirable neighborhood. We're a 45-minute drive from beaches that have been consistently rated among the best in America. Whenever I see one of those memes of someone wanting to cut FL off the continent and let it float out to sea, I find it pretty ironic. We don't have fires, floods, earthquakes, or mud slides where I live, and my county hasn't been hit with a hurricane this century.
Here's are a few weird news stories a little closer to home.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/04/20/california-woman-admits-pandemic-fraud-using-senators-name/
https://www.kusi.com/silver-strand-coronado-beaches-closed-after-sewage-contamination/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/opinion/california-san-francisco-schools.html
As a proud Kentuckian I have to say I feel your pain. If we make the news it usually not flattering and we are popular punchlines for most jokes relating to illiteracy, obesity and incest. Being said I absolutely love my state and all of its unique areas. We have some of the best scenery in the world, its cheap and people for the most part really look out for each other. I've actually been asked numerous times by visitors or transplants "why is everyone so nice?"...like its offending them that everyone is so nice!!!
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December- Page McConnell and Trey Anastasio
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We were raised by my mother...female vocals filled the air constantly from our Emerson turntable. Carole King, Carly Simon , Linda Ronstadt and David Gates to name a few.
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Despite being maybe the "hardest" job in the world its actually quite difficult to leave the Presidency with a bad legacy. You will almost always have 45-55% of the population alive during your term that will defend you simply on the basis of party lines. His behavior throughout his term was certainly not acceptable to me personally but I'm sure plenty of die hard republicans would have thought fondly of him for years to come and defended his actions as what he (they feel) was best for the country at the time. I honestly think he could have lost gracefully and in a decade a good majority of Republicans would look back on his term fondly. I think that since election day he has managed to soil what was left of that legacy and beyond. It would be hard to take anybody seriously who defended him from Wednesday November 4th on.
Also, Lindsay Graham's performance last night was memorizing. I almost believed him as sincere. Daniel Day Lewis, Lindsay Graham, Joaquin Phoenix, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks....five best living actors today.
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On 11/20/2020 at 2:25 PM, chuckrh said:
This has been non-stop for me since the day it came out. There are many times throughout you forget this is a live performance.
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For old times sake...
AM
BT
ST
YHF
AGIB
SBS
W(TA)
TWL
SW
S
OTJ
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Back up vocals on New Madrid? Ken Coomer (aka Matt Berninger)??
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Blood Meridian....sheesh.
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No trolling assumed. I think in many cases teachers are afraid to speak out. A few years ago, a colleague and I were admonished for contacting school board members who were also parents of students of ours at the time for not following the proper chain of command protocols. Unfortunately, many superintendents treat school boards as rubber stamps for their initiatives rather than the elected reprsentatives they are.
There are no easy decision here, so good luck! I know that many parents, including me, have depended upon school to provide daycare. We can't deny the economic reality that many parents depend upon that. Our district surveys showed that being 100% back in the building was the least popular choice among staff, but that's about where we are. We will have a number of families opt for virtual learning, but based on survey results, I think it will end up being less than 20%.
Ideally, we would do some sort of every other day rotation, but our governor has all but eliminated that. My biggest concern is my specific project-based learning program. I co-teach a hybrid social studies/language arts class. We're double-blocked so typically have about 60 students in a double classroom. My co-teacher and love this program, but not during a pandemic. We'll have 60 kids and us sharing the same air for 90 minutes at a time. Further, kids are ALWAYS in groups. Small tables of 4 facing each other about about 2-3'. Granted, coverings will be required, but hard to enforce. The district could, with the flip of a switch a mimial expenditure put our program on hold for a year, put a curtain where a wall used to be to give us 2 separate classrooms, and allow us to NOT group students constantly. There are so many other concerns: Absences are hard when always doing collaborative learning, switching to virtual and trying to mainaint project-based, collaborative learning, worrying about increased online bullying and harassment and decreased engagement in this virtual collaborative environment. And I'm just scratching the surface.
I've said enough. I truly applaud you serving on a school board. Please listen intently to the voices of the teachers. Seek them out if you feel like you're not hearing them through official channels.
We are a smaller independent district in an urban neighborhood. Approx 800 students K-12, essentially one connected building taking up about a city block, no bus service...very, very close knit community. Working class community where if there are two parents they are both working most likely. We pushed our start date out to August 26 and the superintendent rightfully so imo felt it important to establish a baseline plan early and get it to the families and then modify it accordingly in mid-August if necessary. Desks are 6' apart, lunch is to be served and eaten in the class rooms, masks are required, water fountains turned off etc. That plan is to have Mon-Thur 1/2 day on campus 1/2 day virtual. Friday is 100% virtual for all students. This gives us 72 hours each week for sanitization and the buildings sit empty Fri-Sun. It also brings each student into the school four days a week which is the safest and most structured environment for many of our students. Families are given the option of mornings or afternoons and students from the same family are all automatically put into the same time slot to ease logistics on the parents. Each student will be given a meal at school and one to take home. We are trying to work out some auxiliary spaces for primary students who would be going home to an empty house. It is a horrible situation. Teachers and students need to be safe...parents need to work...employers need their employees on site. There is no silver bullet and unfortunately we live in the era of constant social media scrutiny so no decision will appease everyone. Another interesting angle is the students that are cancelling or going virtual are losing student and students equal money for schools. Many of the parochial schools feel obligated to open because their parents are paying thousand of dollars for that education and paying that money to do the teaching yourself at your house isn't going over well.
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Today, I am freaking out about returning to my teaching position. Both because of what my governor (Kim Reynolds, Iowa) has done and how my local district is shaping things. I feel like I'm going to be spending 40-50 hours/week in a huge fucking petri dish. I just hope I'm one of the lucky 50 year olds who has a mild reaction.
So I am curious because I am on the school board here in our district and while it isn't our responsibility to create the model for this school year we do have to approve it. I have been talking to a lot of parents and teachers....I also have three kids in the district and while there are obviously tons of concerns being voiced there are very few if not any solutions or even recommendations being offered. We did do a district wide survey around a month ago with about an 80% response rate which I thought was pretty good. Roughly 75% of that 80% both parents and staff were in favor of coming back to in person instruction with safety standards in place(masks, temp checks, sanitization etc). I believe if they did this survey today those numbers would be less in favor of in person instruction. It is obviously a very fluid situation but unfortunately these superintendents need to make a call now and give teachers, students and staff as much time to prepare as possible for increased child care or informing their employer among other variables. As a teacher do you think there is a happy medium between a quality education(keeping in mind the primary grades) and a safe environment? Btw I am totally not trolling here. I think our decision makers are struggling to get honest feedback from teachers because they don't want to be the squeaky wheel.
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They just added a show from July 31 2002 and it is quickly becoming my favorite bootleg. I'll use the description "perfectly perfect pre-perfect Wilco". Jeff is covering a lot of ground on guitar. It sounds like the recording rig is either in Mikeal's piano or at sometimes tied around John's neck...either way two great locations to record from. There are some very quirky versions of some now live show standards. Jeff still has his young, cigarette voice. Lots of fun and very raw by today's standards for their live shows. Check it out.
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I agree with all you said except I can’t wait to go back to work and school in the sense that homeschooling an working together at the same time is logistically difficult but I had to laugh at your movie line. I have a 4 and 7 year old and we have been watching a lot of movies from the 80’s and 90’s and wow are they inappropriate! Saw kindergarten cop last week and the language, violence and inappropriate scenes are way more then I remembered , same you back to the future.
I put Goonies on several years ago thinking it was Swiss Family Robinson or something and looked at my wife like "should they be watching this??"
In general though I feel like my blood pressure has dropped since the quarantine despite the fact I'll probably gain 40 pounds and could contract a deadly illness just by looking at my neighbor across the fence. One day we'll all look back and say "things are too crazy, why can't we just go back to the good old days during the quarantine".
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I have to say in all honesty the quarantine is like a full reset for my family...in a good way. First of all I am married with three kids ages 14,12, and 7. I work around 50 hours a week and take work calls all day and night even when I'm off, on vacation or during weekends. My wife owns and operates a hair salon she bought at age 20 with a few employees and a receptionist. Kids play several sports a piece. This time of year it is very common for us on a Saturday to have 3 soccer games and a baseball game to cover. Needless to say we are at a very busy stage of our life. So for the first time in a long time not only do we not have any obligations but we are being told to stay put ..and if you do go out everything is closed so there is no where to go. I am seeing my kids more, they are hanging with each other together more, we're playing board games and watching movies. I can only speak for my wife and myself but we welcome another few weeks of quarantine. I think the silver lining out of this pandemic for a lot of people may be slowing down, look around, enjoy the people next to you from now on. If you are a parent and run around like most of us do these days this quarantine is an excellent opportunity to slow your kids down, see what they are up to, cook some stuff together, watch some 80's movies together, play Monopoly, clean out the basement...whatever.
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We busted out the board games as a family for the first time in a long time. After having to sell Atlantic Ave, Ventnor Ave and Marvin Gardens to my cheating 14 year old daughter we moved to a more civilized round of Clue. The kids had never played it....then we watched the movie which is free on Amazon. Great movie. Also, musical side note.... the host of the party, John Boddy is played by Lee Ving from Fear. Odd casting call.
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Pearl Jam postponed the spring tour this morning due to some kind of flu or virus or something.
Band of Horses
in Someone Else's Song
Posted
Is there really not a Band of Horses thread in here somewhere? I'm a big fan. Saw them the other night for maybe the 8th or 10th time. They never disappoint. Ben is an incredible front man. Genuinely very grateful and interactive. Total "guitar band" that I think get overlooked in that regard. Tons of sound live. Aside from "Mirage Rock" all of their albums rate very close for me...tough to pick a favorite. If there is already a Band of Horses thread in here please forgive me...if there is already a Band of Horses thread in here and I started or commented in it please ridicule me.