Uncouth Reflections

Vulgar or Not?

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Everybody sing!

Posted in Humor, Music | Tagged humor, video | 2 Comments

Quote Du Jour

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

From an excellent essay by traditionalist conservative Jim Kalb:

What allows the managerial liberal regime to function are habits of loyalty and sacrifice, and understandings of natural goods and purposes, which it continually undermines and cannot justify or explain.

Related

Jim’s very rich website is here.
Back at my old blog I did a long q&a with Jim: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. He’s very smart and many of his views are startling — please give the interview a try.
I loved Jim’s first book. Haven’t finished his second one yet but I’m crazy about it so far.

Posted in Philosophy and Religion, Politics and Economics | Tagged Conservatism, Jim Kalb, politics, quotes | 5 Comments

Perspective

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Epaminondas

epiminondas writes:

Perspective

Now how cool is this? You’re looking at a celestial scene that is located about 8,000 light years distance from earth within our own galaxy. But keep looking. See that big star in the lower central area of the big blob of cosmic dust? From one side of that hollowed out “niche” to the other is a distance of TEN light years. That big star in the middle has simply eaten out that hollow space over the eons. The distance between that star and the surrounding cosmic dust is about FIVE light years. That’s a greater distance than that which lies between our sun and its closest neighboring star, Alpha Centauri. Your task, Mr. Phelps, should you choose to accept this assignment, is to wrap your brain around that fact. This message will self-destruct in about a billion years.

Posted in Personal reflections, Photography | Tagged astronomy | 2 Comments

The Beach Boys’ First Album: Surfin’ Safari

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Sax von Stroheim

Sax von Stroheim writes:

This is the New Journalism: they are reporters; they are actors. They catalog the rituals of Early 1960’s Southern California Teenage Life; they tell us where it’s at: “At Rincon they’re walking the nose.”

And because it is still that specific, still that tied down to that time and place and people, it can still speak its mysteries to us now: “Any time the surf is up/The time is right.”

And they sing about four speed dual quad posi-traction and make whatever that is seem as important as true love:

As they sing, this time and place and people are in the process of being mythicized, but they haven’t yet frozen into the cheap myth of nostalgia. This is all still happening in the present tense:

Plus, they bring the jokes:

Posted in Music, Performers | Tagged albums, Music, music criticism, Southern California Teenage Life, The Beach Boys | 4 Comments

You Can Buy Anything in New York City

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Wandering around the streets of NYC often leaves me marveling at the variety of what’s available for purchase. Just yesterday I enjoyed a visit to Sakaya, a store in the East Village that sells nothing but sake.

Couldn’t resist the siren call and treated myself to a high-end bottle of unfiltered sake. It was delicious: far more complex (in texture as well as flavor) than what I usually wind up drinking at sushi joints.

Posted in Shopping, The Good Life | Tagged cocktails, New York City, photography, sake, shopping, the good life | 6 Comments

Virtual Art Gallery Du Jour

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

I love these seascapes by the 19th century Russian-Armenian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. They make want to pick up a Forester or O’Brian novel.

Click on the images to enlarge.

American Shipping off the Rock of Gibraltar

Posted in Art | Tagged Academic art, C.S. Forester, Ivan Aivazovsky, painting, Patrick O'Brian, seascapes | 10 Comments

A Movie Idea

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

Someone should write a movie satire about a world-famous novelist, a prince of the academic set, who gets writer’s block and tries to cure it by authoring trashy romance novels under a pseudonym. As he’s accepting honorary degrees and delivering oh-so-high-falutin’ speeches, he’s dreaming up scenarios for his unexpectedly successful trash series, all of which have covers painted by his neighbor, a former hippy who used to live in a geodesic dome and claims to be the world’s foremost painter of black-velvet jaguars. When his agent tells him he needs to tour in support of the erotica books, he and the hippy neighbor stock up on ‘shrooms and set out across the country, hitting out-of-the-way sex shops and other places that sell dildos. (There are almost no bookstores around these days, after all.) They meet some crazy people, have some nutty adventures (it’s a road movie!), and the writer finds himself questioning his assumptions about life, writing, and anal beads.

I’m not sure how it ends, but Paul Mazursky should come out of retirement to direct.