Somewhere in the vast wasteland of a comments section he's got over there -- perhaps showing his frustration that his readers can't riff like mine -- he succumbs to self-pity:
Did you see those things she said about me?Aw. Poor boy.
She’s got snakes in her head, man.Classic gynophobia.
I think she did a little too much of that LDS stuff. Back in the hippie days.Yes, it was me and the Mormons all the time back then. I don't know how I ever came down from that.
Glenn Greenwald said to me at YKos that my snubbing Ann Althouse on election night was the single interesting thing in her otherwise bleak Wisconsin landscape of a life and that everything she says and does toward me reflects the fact that she will never, ever, ever forgive me for not liking her and finding her interesting.Glenn Greenwald and TRex had a big conversation about me at YearlyKos? That's so surreal.
By the way, whatever you think about me, you should be careful about insulting Wisconsin. As you lefty politicos allow your contempt for the heartland to ooze out, you should remember that some of these states are swing states you're going to need to pretend to care about. And the people here are fierce.
So now she’s stalking me.Oh, the hell! He's in Georgia. He's in Georgia, insulting Wisconsin? Well, now, it's a war between the states!
Did you watch that video? Jesus. I started to wonder if she’s going to come down here to Georgia and try to boil one of my pets.
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I grew up in D and the way I found this site was because I was bored and surfing one day. There was a person by the name of Althouse there and my friend Fred wrote a song about him on the lines of a Steve Miller song. Wisconsin was a great place to grow up. Like Tom and Huck.
Re: "Yes, it was me and the Mormons all the time back then. I don't know how I ever came down from that."
That's why I love this blog.
Trex's 333 comments to his post are the most soporofic juvenilia around. And people fight over being the first to post? Why exactly? His own post lacked any wit at all, including the name mockery, which is usually better left to the masters of the craft, sixth graders in detention.
Lucy in the diamonds, with sky?
The commenters over there are like trademark dave, without the class and wit.
"Lucy in the diamonds, with sky?"
Can anyone Photoshop Lucille Ball and Marlon Brando (as Sky Masterson) buried up to their necks in a pile of diamons? I would be very grateful!
Feel free to imagine the dialogue between Greenwald and TRex.
A phone rings:
Glenn: Hello?
TRex: I'm doin' some LDS, man.
Glenn: Grow up.
Click: Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Somewhere in the vast wasteland of a comments section he's got over there -- perhaps showing his frustration that his readers can't riff like mine
In terms of comments, what is a 'riff' and is it different than a 'lick'?
a "riff" is a variation on a theme, and a "lick": is an original improvisation.
LDS- I thought he was talking about some kind of derangement syndrome but the Mormons make more sense...
I can't see you going down to Georgia, unless you are really the devil, and then you might boil some eggs and make deviled eggs.
I'm slow but this is all making sense.
In terms of comments, what is a 'riff' and is it different than a 'lick'?
These are both jazz terms that have leaked to a certain extent into the vocabulary of other music and performance in general. 'Riff' can be either a verb or noun, and means improvisation: "That's a great riff!" or "He's riffing on that tune." In blogging terms, it refers to the ability of bloggers or commenters to write good, quick responses or extensions to posts or comments. It's very similar to a good jazz player's ability to take what the previous player has done and expand on it or run with it.
The intelligent and versatile Althouse commentariat are among the best I've seen at doing this. There was a discussion here a while back about this. Kev has some more, too.
A 'lick' generally means an identifiable short musical gesture that may be incorporated into a longer improvisation. It's come to mean almost any pre-existing passage. "You've got some great licks, man!" or "That's a hard lick," referring to almost any short passage, jazz or classical or whatever.
In blogging terms, a 'lick' would be one of a writer's characteristic gestures. Some people have favored words or phrases that might be recognizable, just as you might recognize a jazz or rock player by his or her favorite licks. Unfortunately for the blog world, the people who use the same 'licks' so that they are all too familiar tend to be trolls. A writer may have a bag of rhetorical tricks, but it should never be obvious when one is pulled out and set in place.
Sorry for another comment, but in response to Gahrie, I'd say that his definition of 'lick' as an original improvisation is correct as far as it goes. My understanding has been, though, that it has the implication of something worked out to one degree or another in advance. In jazz, it's a characteristic gesture, original or difficult as it may be. In classical music, we use 'lick' to mean pretty much any short passage for a single instrument, often something difficult.
I haven't looked these terms up in a dictionary. I'm a musician, so you're getting them as I understand them.
So (keeping up with the Midwestern references), Ann's original improvization on Cecile Sarkozy could be called a French Lick?
Glenn Greenwald said to me at YKos that my snubbing Ann Althouse on election night...
I suspect, Ann, that you provoked a lot of these kinds of conversations between nebbish males back in the day. At prom. At high school graduation. At the law school freshman social. All along the way you breezed along and inadvertently revealed how each particular boy/man handles their insecurities.
Sure the events change but there's the ego at work, turning the rejection into superiority.
They want the love of the popular girl who'd gladly be friends (just friends!) if they would only have a sense of humor and make her laugh. Because the popular boys she likes don't always make her laugh, and she does need to laugh. She's like to laugh with them. That's the best. But, she'll laugh at them if no other way. Not because she's mean, but because they take themselves ever so seriously.
And she'll never get angry at them, not like she did at little Billy Clinton who promised so much and then turned out to be a cad.
But it's hard for the unpopular guy to be just friends. Sometimes too hard.
If only they could escape from the vortex, they might find peace.
Just a note: I take it that the "LDS" thing is a geeky reference to the movie Star Trek IV, where Kirk, having traveled back in time with the rest of the Enterprise to 20th century Earth, tries to be "down with the Earth lingo" and explain Spock's odd behavior by saying he "did too much LDS in the 60s."
If everybody already knew that, please ignore this comment.
Paul Zrimsek: I believe it's pronounced leek.
And then, there we are, back into onions again.
[Awesome blossom. Extra awesome, please.]
theo... it is likely that you will be ridiculed to your face if you ever use the words 'riff' or 'lick' around any serious musicians when speaking of music
I suppose calling them "Daddy-o" is out too? Killjoy.
Hnkn--I saw that movie in Provo, Utah and needless to say that line got a great response.
Althouse was the one who snubbed everyone on Election Night, as she shunned all the after-parties, and she remained on the periphery the whole night.
The other Bloggers expected her to table-hop and mingle, but she mainly just kept to herself.
Not exactly the way to project an outgoing, vivacious image.
Back to Charm School: When you are in a social situation you can't expect other people to come to you.
The Queen, immobile, holding Court, on the throne, as her subjects seek audience with her. It seems that's what Althouse was doing.
And then the ultimate slap in the face: Althouse wouldn't go to the after-parties because she was too good for them.
Georgia's too hot and doesn't have enough beer and cheese.
Next the idiot will propose a border war between GA & WI.
I don't know about being too good for the after-parties, Maxine. Could it be she and others were just tired at the end of a long day. By the way, you're a blogger -- shouldn't you have been there?
I seem to recall Althouse having an engaging humor-filled conversation with Nick Gillespie toward the end of that evening. And I don't remember her waiting for him to come to her. Are you sure you are accurately reporting on that evening?
Meade: Althouse tired?
On Election Night, Althouse surveyed the landscape, took a look around, and figured she was out of her element.
She went into it thinking she'd be in-the-arena, in the thick of things.....only to discover that CNN lured the Bloggers there to make fools out of all of 'em.
I knew it was a set-up early on. I was the one who told her not to go in the first place.
But, as long as you are there, you might as well work it---schmooze, table-hop, mingle etc... which she did not.
We never saw Althouse running from table to table chatting everyone up.
Poor social etiquette. Maybe she needs to go to more parties.
Snakes in the head?
I saw an anime once where a woman had snakes come out of her thing, but never anything in the head.
eh... why would anyone want to hang out with a bunch of bloggers?
Paddy O. said...
They want the love of the popular girl who'd gladly be friends (just friends!) if they would only have a sense of humor and make her laugh. Because the popular boys she likes don't always make her laugh, and she does need to laugh. She's like to laugh with them. That's the best.
But, she'll laugh at them if no other way. Not because she's mean, but because they take themselves ever so seriously.
Perfectly said.
As for escaping the vortex... what they also fail to understand is that the most dangerous place to try to stand is just outside the vortex.
That's where the forces are most lethal. Back to Paddy's prom analogy: The girl is standing there waiting to be asked to dance. Sure you're a dual left-footed dweeb without rhythm. Take her hand and lead her onto the floor. No matter how much a klutz you are, don't worry - it's not about you. Let the girl dance. Smile, be yourself, and you're safe - you're totally in the vortex.
But hang out just off the floor with the other losers, too afraid to get close to her whirling, spinning, churning powers and, well... there you are.
Maxine: She smoozed. She mingled.
For crying out loud, get off the little lady's cloud.
So she didn't hippity hop to every damn celebrity blogger's table. She's a glider... a floater. She moves through the fair...
She ain't some desperate boot lickin' table hopp'n ho.
"." : I basically agree. "Riff" and "lick" are antique terms among musicians, and are not used as they might have been, say, pre-1950. Those words have entered general usage. They've "leaked" out of the musical world. They started as part of old hipster speech, to be counted among such terms as "daddy-o," "clue you in," "big eyes," etc.
However, "lick" is still used among serious musicians, especially wind players, in an amusing or ironic sense. "That's a pretty hard lick" might be said of some tricky piccolo passage in the Shostakovich 4th, but only by those players who have a bit of a sense of humor.
How do I know? I am a former professional flutist who manages a department at one of the well-known Boston flute makers. I interact with "serious" musicians all the time. In fact, I heard that use of "lick" from the principal flute in a major American orchestra just five days ago at the National Flute Association convention in Albuquerque. I heard it used by a well-known New York freelancer the next day. "Play that lick again. I want to hear the intervals better." I've heard it used in similar ways by perhaps a half dozen of the top flutists in the world, not to mention my less influential friends.
So far, musicians seem grateful to play on my instruments, and none have ridiculed me to my face just yet. I'll let you know when it happens.
I am sorry but he made fun of Wisconsin as a vast wasteland while living in Georgia of all places? State Wars definitely.
I have traveled throughout Wisconsin and Georgia and definitely say Wisconsin is much less of a vast wasteland than Georgia. Yes northern Wisconsin is somewhat desolate but it has beautiful lakes while most of all of Georgia is just plain nasty.
Madison is lovely this time of year and Macon is the pits every time of the year.
I am sorry but only people living on the east coast and west coast have the right to go off on other states. Were entitled because we are fabulous. Someone from Georgia, even HOTLANTA, has no right going off on Americas Dairyland.
I am sorry but only people living on the east coast and west coast have the right to go off on other states.
There are other states? Besides California? Really?
flute, huh... eh... ok theo
Watch it Paddy O. We respect California just make sure you respect the east coast. Although Modesto is kind of nasty.
Paddy O.: It's surprising, but true.
On the other hand, when I moved to the Boston area, an old townie of Yankee persuasion said to me shortly after I arrived, "California? I heah it's a nice place, but it's so fah from the United States."
Aztlán, anyone?
Theo--you're pretty dead-on about lick vs. riff (and thanks for the plug!).
Another way to differentiate between the two is that a riff could be played in pretty much the same way over a varying chord progression--think old big-band tunes like "Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Night Train" or "In the Mood." A lick would more likely be used in a single situation and might be varied quite a bit, depending on the chord changes.
"theo... it is likely that you will be ridiculed to your face if you ever use the words 'riff' or 'lick' around any serious musicians when speaking of music"
I'm trying to decide if "." is a classical snob or is just trying to be argumentative here. As a jazz musician, I use the term "lick" all the time ("riff" not quite as much, unless I'm playing repertory music). I certainly hope you're not saying that jazz music is anything less than "serious," since college jazz degrees have been offered since 1947 (at my alma mater, the University of North Texas). I promise you, we're very serious about what we do.
Hey, Kev, I'm a classical snob! ;-)
Sorry, that last comment double-posted, even though it gave me an error message the first time.
One more comment re the early days of the jazz studies degree (which was called "dance band" at first, so as not to offend anyone) at my alma mater:
When Leon Breeden, the professor who brought the UNT (then North Texas State) jazz program to prominence, first arrived on campus, he got quite a bit of hate mail from people who said he was "going to go to hell for teaching that sinful jazz music." (Read that in your best televangelist voice for maximum effect.)He pondered that for a while, and then he decided that, well, even if that were true, the people who were writing the letters would go to hell way before he did, just for being so judgmental of others. Touché!
This has been a great detour for this thread...
Hey, Kev, I'm a classical snob! ;-)
Heh. Not a chance, Theo. Anyone who's shown as much appreciation for jazz as you have on this blog is not the type of person I'm talking about; I'd bet big bucks that jazz and "serious music" are not mutually exclusive events for you, which was the vibe I got from what "." said.
(I'm glad I found this thread! Two weeks from now, I'll be up to my ears in teaching again.)
a snob, perhaps... argumentative, antagonistic... perhaps.
i've been playing jazz for more than 20 years.
my skin just crawls when i hear somebody use words like riff or lick in a 'serious' manner. it just makes me feel uneasy.. like, when some one refers to a musical group as a combo... ...it just sounds a bit.. *ahem* square
Follow in your book as we learn our next three words in Hep Cat Talk:
"Riff"
"Lick"
"Irony"
I'm a classical snob, too, and hear "riff" and "lick" all the time.
Well, maybe not "snob", since most of the classical players I know don't limit themselves to classical, but even the ones that did weren't squaresville, man. They were hip to this Daddy-O.
eh... i can't think of a clever way of pointing-out that you guys are the type of nerds that i am talking about... i suppose this thought hasn't crossed your minds...
it just makes me feel uneasy.. like, when some one refers to a musical group as a combo... ...it just sounds a bit.. *ahem* square
I teach two college jazz combos; they're listed as that in the course catalogue as well. What would be the un-square term for that...small group?
I guess we're just not cool enough, huh, Kev? Okay, Mr. Dot. You're cool. We're squares. Got that.
Keep cool fool, like a fish in the pool
That's the golden rule at the Hipster school
* * * * * * *
No talking points is my new rule.
Let's forget how cool we are about music and bring this full circle to the original topic. I'm going to see if I can summarize TRex's remarks in Hipster Talk, ca. 1950:
All you cats hip to the word that Althouse is on, like, some pretty square kicks? I don't wanna drag her under, but she's, like, off the track. She's like so nowhere, if she round-tripped, she wouldn't know where to come back.
And she's got, like, big eyes, too. Big eyes for my scene. Can you, like, dig what I'm putting down? She's a clipster who, like, brings herself.
She's a good for nothing mop, that Althouse.
TRex's video was rather clever, but he should have stopped there.
The whole "Althouse is stalking me, and has snakes in her head", was very lame.
And the video confirms my intial impression. TRex is gay. Very, very gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Couple of shots to be fired...
We have better beer in Wisconsin
We have Brett Favre in Wisconsin - I heard he was in Georgia once - not sure what happened there?
Georgia even uses our Packers logo on their college helmets - you are welcome, Georgia!
Did I mention the great beer?
On Wisconsin! Forward! Roll out the barrel!
The idea of any kind of comparison between GA & WI had never occurred to me. As it happens, I've lived next door to both states, in IL & AL. Y'know, y'all, those two states are more alike than not.
They each have one largish city, with a baseball team & a symphony.
They are both larger than most people realize, and both abut large bodies of water.
They each have a hinterland with regional junk food - brats & BBQ.
One has beer & the other has 'shine.
Both are good places to hunt & fish. Each worships at the shrine of the Great God Football.
The weather is about half bad in both locations, albeit at different times of the year.
Now, I know there are some differences, but it strikes me that it's kind of like the same pattern executed in different colors.
I'm in Georgia. Just give me the word & I'll hunt him down for you & open up the proverbial can of whoop a$$. I'll even close my eyes in the process so I'll at least work up a sweat.
Maybe.
He is a left wing radical, after all....their manliness is as renowned as their successful careers.
Update: just saw his video....wouldn't work up any sort of sweat working over that panty waist.
(obligatory "of course it's all just a joke" reference, so as to ensure that no one's delicate sensibilities are infringed. Especially girly men, ya know)
Well, as someone coming into the conversation without knowing what the hell is going on but seeing enough to call a balloon knot what it is...
There is a need to add another dimension to the "politics is a replacement for religion" meme. I would propse to add "politics is a way to re-live junior high school on the 'mean girls' side instead of the 'loser' side" theory.
Chrees:
That's excellent!
Tell me you'll start commenting here regularly, please?
I mean that seriously.
To be upfront and honest, I thought TRex's "vlog" was very funny. Also, I hadn't thought of Buster Poindexter in quite a long, long while.
If I didn't know better, I might think that skeins of performance art were being cooperatively interwoven into entertainment for us all (and, of course, for the benefit of the bloggers involved).
Perish the thought (yet fancy that!)!!
Poor kitty....
"I hadn't thought of Buster Poindexter in quite a long, long while."
I thought of Philip Seymour Hoffman... at the "Boogie Nights" stage.
Anyway, I agree that his post was done well enough that it was worth linking to and engaging with. Unlike that moron who impersonated me on Facebook.
I had a small post up in defense of Georgia, although not an attack on Wisconsin. You may find the comments to the post amusing; the post itself, I hope, will convince you to leave my home out of the war. I doubt it means as much to Trex as it does to me in any case; but perhaps he's a quiet patriot.
Althouse: Checked back on this comments section just now.
I thought of Philip Seymour Hoffman... at the "Boogie Nights" stage.
Ohmigosh. Yes. That too.
Given the thought of all the referenced characters smushing their way through my head as I sleep, maybe I'll just stay awake a couple of more hours. And not, like last night, hang out listening to the New York Dolls.
Yow.
***
Glad you made it East safely and are settling in nicely, btw.
"theo... it is likely that you will be ridiculed to your face if you ever use the words 'riff' or 'lick' around any serious musicians when speaking of music"
I'll have to try this one out on my parents, their circle of colleagues and friends amassed over decades, and also my brother and husband.
LMAO.
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