Althouse: At the Blue Café...

January 17, 2010

At the Blue Café...

... you can hit the wall.

26 comments:

bagoh20 said...: I could say something really geeky...no, not gonna do it.; 1/17/10, 10:50 AM
Anonymous said...: At the blue cafe, you can pixel any color you want as long as it's blue.; 1/17/10, 11:18 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: Blue blue the world is blue...; 1/17/10, 11:19 AM
Unknown said...: Looks like the Air Force version of MARPAT.; 1/17/10, 11:21 AM
john said...: Looks like you could play tetris on that wall.

Will Obama's campaign appearance for Coakley be broadcast outside of Mass? It would be interesting to watch, or to read someone's liveblog.; 1/17/10, 11:55 AM
HKatz said...: "Fragmentary Blue"

by Robert Frost

Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)--
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.; 1/17/10, 12:19 PM
Anonymous said...: That blue is digital... but digitally fragmented. Lots of little shades from gray to deep blue, all carefully arranged in a way that looks just a tad bit chaotic, but still clearly displays a overlay of artificial order. And what does it all add up to? Nothing! In the end it is just a blue wall, standing there, alone.

We Americans do not like obnoxious authority, you know.

Who are you?
Where do you come from?
Are you listening to me?
Whaddadya wanna do with your life?

I think Barack O. is saying something like that in a speech somewhere in the Bay State at this very moment!; 1/17/10, 1:14 PM
knox said...: We watched "Waterworld" the other night and it was actually pretty good, in a "Beastmaster" kind of way.; 1/17/10, 1:30 PM
Unknown said...: Saw a link on Insta to a NewsBusters item where Tucker Carlson told Katrina Vanden Heuvel enough already with the Teabagger nonsense.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/01/17/tucker-carlson-katrina-vanden-heuvel-stop-saying-teabaggers

Considering the Lefties are forever telling us how committed they are to homosexual rights, you would think that they'd be a little more solicitous of a term which could easily be construed as insulting to said homosexuals.

Besides, if it was ever funny (and it wasn't, really) or hip (and it wasn't, really), it isn't anymore.
It's just what it always was.

Stupid.; 1/17/10, 1:57 PM
vbspurs said...: John (lowercase) wrote:

Looks like you could play tetris on that wall.

OH! I bet you that was going to be bagoh20's geeky point. I thought the same thing about Tetris, myself.; 1/17/10, 2:04 PM
rhhardin said...: Ohio is redoing its lawns in a Holstein pattern today.; 1/17/10, 2:33 PM
Scott said...: "We watched "Waterworld" the other night and it was actually pretty good, in a "Beastmaster" kind of way."

Yeah, but the moral coda was stupid in a way that only Hollywood does stupid.

wv:drusine -- Druid bear?; 1/17/10, 2:40 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I find the tiling ordered, patterned (as if with a clone tool), and properly weighted. Somewhat representational, atmosphere at the top, water at the bottom.

It's also the perfect way to hide an elephant.; 1/17/10, 2:42 PM
ricpic said...: So much depends upon

A blue elephant

Merging with

And emerging from

A blue tiled wall.

--William Chipos Willahoy; 1/17/10, 3:05 PM
Scott said...: Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.

She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
"We'll meet again someday on the avenue,"
Tangled up in blue.

I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell.
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind,
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue.

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear.
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I's just about to do the same,
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, "Don't I know your name?"
I muttered somethin' underneath my breath,
She studied the lines on my face.
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
Tangled up in blue.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type."
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs,
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air.
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died.
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside.
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn,
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew,
Tangled up in blue.

So now I'm goin' back again,
I got to get to her somehow.
All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenter's wives.
Don't know how it all got started,
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.

--Bob Dylan (1974); 1/17/10, 3:15 PM
Balfegor said...: Is that a bathhouse? It looks kind of like it, with the blue and the tile. Only it's on the outside not the inside, so I guess not really.; 1/17/10, 3:24 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: 1. Compare this Instahack post to this bogus drum-beating from several years ago.

2. Here are links about one of Haiti's core problems. The same types of tools that helped bring that about are also hard at work in the U.S.; here they're tea partiers, libertarians, and conservatives on the take.; 1/17/10, 3:33 PM
Anonymous said...: That's one of those crazy optical illusions, isn't it? All of the tiles are actually the same color, right?

I Am Curious - Blue.

wv: delegip. When you fall a few delegates short of a nomination.; 1/17/10, 3:35 PM
vbspurs said...: Was I Am Curious - Blue the precursor or sequel to I Am Curious - Yellow (the better known film)?

Of the latter, it can be said that it became a mainstream sex film sensation -- the most famous story tied to it was that Jacqueline Kennedy was seen coming out of a Village cinemahouse, after having attended a showing, and she karate-chopped a papparazzo trying to take a photo of her.

Ron Galella would've flattened her.; 1/17/10, 5:41 PM
vbspurs said...: wv: Bundetor. Indeed! Ann's photo does remind me of a hideous modernist German tower.; 1/17/10, 5:41 PM
knox said...: Yeah, but the moral coda was stupid in a way that only Hollywood does stupid.

Oh, I didn't really notice. I mean, the whole movie was stupid, so... oh, nevermind.; 1/17/10, 6:04 PM
David said...: Speaking of hitting walls . . . .

Obama's in Mass.(e) at a rally for Ms. Martha. Hall holds 3000, attendance is 500-1000 people short of capacity.

I've said all along Coakley will win.

I've been wrong many times before.; 1/17/10, 6:04 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Its hot in Topica..; 1/17/10, 6:14 PM
vbspurs said...: Did you catch the Brown rally reportage via Insty? BEDLAM. Meanwhile, as David said, Coakley AND Obama couldn't fill up a hall.

And then there is this little nugget, which if true and correct, makes many of our hearts sing:

Senator Paul Kirk (D-MA) loses voting powers whatever happens after Tuesday

Sure they have reconciliation (and the nuclear option) but that would be a PR disaster for Barry and Co.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/17/10, 6:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If I hit the wall..

Wkpd In endurance sports, particularly cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by precipitous fatigue and loss of energy.

In the context of racial rhetoric if you hit a blue wall it means the police are not forthcoming with the details of an incident with racial overtones.

If you the wall in Boston it generally means a single but if you have speed it could mean a double; granted you don't start admiring your handy work and run hard from the batters box instead.

its hot in Topica

wv - resing; 1/17/10, 6:41 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Hey Vic you remember how Harry Reid blocked Governor Blago's appointment (to replace Obamas vacated seat) at the door of the senate?

Burris was not allowed in initially.

could they do that to Brown?

wv - oballypo - the triming of obamas senate; 1/17/10, 6:56 PM