Althouse: At the Pink Ice Café...

January 9, 2013

At the Pink Ice Café...

... be cool.

15 comments:

Clyde said...: BBWAA goes Gandalf, says "You shall not pass!"

Nobody elected to Baseball HOF this year. Bonds and Clemens in the high 30%s. Biggio falls 39 votes short.; 1/9/13, 1:31 PM
chickelit said...: Pink eyes see foam; 1/9/13, 1:31 PM
Tim said...: "Nobody elected to Baseball HOF this year. Bonds and Clemens in the high 30%s. Biggio falls 39 votes short."

Yes.

Not sure what I think about this.

Bonds and Clemens most assuredly would have gone in had they not cheated, but they did.

And, given they played against other cheaters, their cheating isn't really comparable to Pete Rose's cheating.

So, how long does one punish cheaters?; 1/9/13, 1:36 PM
ricpic said...: Those over-the-top colors? Some days God gets up and feels hammy.; 1/9/13, 1:38 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: Madison must be preposterously cold during the winter, situated as it is between two lakes. The cold wind has to be awful.

Of course, who am I to speak. My house is at 1000 feet in the mountains and 1/4 mile from a lake.

Thank God, my new wood pellet stove really pumps out the heat.; 1/9/13, 1:47 PM
Wince said...: Has anyone seen the documentary movie "Project Nim"?

It's about a Columbia U professor who decided back in the 1970s to try to teach (actually, get others to teach) a baby chimp sign language in NYC.

Ostensibly, it's a documentary about a chimp in captivity and his interactions with humans.

But watching the film I realized it actually was a fascinating study of liberalism, particularly in academia.

Poor planning, wishful thinking, scientific and academic misconduct, sexual harassment, self absorbtion... all on display.

Culminating in one of the liberals having almost half her face ripped off.

The chimp, named Nim (for Nim "Chimpsky") goes through all kinds of transitions, and mistreatments in adulthood, including one somewhat happy period where he just seemed to hang-out with hippies smoking weed and drinking beer.

I highly commend this to Althouse to post on. I saw it on HBO this week.

Here's the trailer: Project Nim

There are other short video clips if you search "Project Nim" on YouTube.; 1/9/13, 2:00 PM
Clyde said...: I was thinking about the new David Bowie video, "Where Are We Now?" which already has around 2 million hits since it surfaced on YouTube yesterday. The video is surreal and has a wintry feel to it, with its bleak black-and-white Berlin footage in the background, and seems like a logical progression from songs like "Changes" and "Heroes."

I was thinking last night about how there might be types of music that fall into four broad seasons of life. Perhaps that's too simplistic, but bear with me.

Spring music is the music of childhood and the teen years. It's poppy and exuberant, but not serious, songs of puppy love, etc. Examples would be almost anything by the Beach Boys, early Beatles (before Revolver), pretty much anything by a singer whose poster ends up on a tween girl's bedroom wall. A more recent example might be Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." It tends to look to the future, telling how wonderful things will be when we grow up.

Summmer music is more mature but still not grown up, songs for the 20s and 30s. It's songs about partying and sex, with some love thrown in. It's about living in the moment and having a good time. It doesn't look to the future or the past. College radio, hard rock like Van Halen, etc.

Autumn music is more serious and responsible; some would say staid and sedate, music for the 40s and 50s. It's nowhere near as loud, and it doesn't stay up all night drinking and screwing because it knows it has to get up in the morning, go to work and pay the bills. A lot of country music falls into this category. Think Toby Keith's "I'm Not As Good As I Once Was", for example. Autumn music has felt the first chill of mortality and starts thinking about the good old days; it's not a kid any more.

Winter music is the music of the 60s and 70s, and it's mostly full-blown nostalgia. Songs like Frank Sinatra's "It Was A Very Good Year," etc. And I think that's where this new Bowie song falls.

You don't have to be an old man to sing an old man's song, of course. Billy Joel was 24 when he did "Piano Man," for instance.; 1/9/13, 2:05 PM
Almost Ali said...: Cool.; 1/9/13, 2:25 PM
Fritz said...: Pretty; but you can keep the ice up there on Mendota.; 1/9/13, 2:36 PM
edutcher said...: Those colors often moved me to verse when I was a pedestrian.; 1/9/13, 2:54 PM
Tibore said...: Let's see if we can talk Meade into joining the Polar Bear Club and taking a dip in Lake Mendota. :D; 1/9/13, 3:06 PM
suestew said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/9/13, 3:20 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Actually, it's warm here this week and ice is melting.; 1/9/13, 3:31 PM
Charlie Currie said...: Cool
What is cool...besides the temperature.
And, what is Hot.
If something is hot right now, can it be cool also.
Hipsters try to be cool, act like they're cool, certainly think they're cool. I like hipsters, there are plenty in my neighborhood. But I don't think they're cool...I think maybe they're hot, right now.
When Kerouac was cool, jazz was cool...then it became modern, progressive, Latin and hot.
I still think Kerouac and Coltrane and Davis and Parker are cool.
Sometimes I see things, or hear things, or read things, and say that's cool. But, it just means I like them/it...not that they're actually cool.
How do we describe something now that's cool and give it the same meaning as something that was cool when cool was cool.

I use to say...Be cool...now I say...

Cheers; 1/9/13, 5:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: Fitzgerald's sentences in Gatsby analyzed have re-awakened my appreciation for writers lately.

The writer of Catch-22, Joseph Heller, still excites me.; 1/9/13, 6:39 PM