Random thoughts...

[Tocky]

Wax museum right across the street as you sit on the hotel veranda. Kind of a nexus of streets there. Ah. That's how you spell that. Tussaud.

[Tocky]

This is the gangster museum there. It's interesting as history but I'm not a gangster fan (though who am I to speak against vices). It's not so much that they break the law but they exploited weakness like all gangs do. They gain their livelihood on the backs of the working poor mostly. But at least in those days they did violence mostly against each other and seemed to be able to hit less three year olds doing so. Still, I'll never be able to admire them or think of pulling a trigger as any sort of strength.



This vault was actually a door.


This is the switchboard Capone used to bet on Oaklawn horse races. He would see who won and call Chicago before word could get back to bet on the winner. Cheaters never win? Well... maybe not in the end.


Lots of night clubs here.


They shipped alcohol in mineral water bottles with the labels on upside down to designate.


A few of the minors who became majors here.


He had a system to never throw a seven. I wish Rena had paid attention to what it was. Not that I shoot craps, I did in my youth for the experience, but as a rule I don't gamble.


We learned after everyone had left that our host was the son of a gangster. Since he didn't volunteer I didn't ask who. I wish I had but then I have to respect his silence on it.

[Tocky]

We lucked up on there being a Ren Faire there on the very weekend we arrived.

We helped him on with his pack. I think he was smuggling gold bricks.



This show just started right as we came in and she was an excellent fire dancer and he was the most hilarious magician I've ever seen.

















That's enough for now but this guy was constantly saying all the dangerous things he was going to do and then saying... but first! Excellent patter. More to come but it's late and I have to not fall asleep driving tomorrow.

[Tocky]

What's that?



A volunteer!



A long one.



But first! A dance number.



Careful on those betweeeeeen the leg chains!



Can he do it? But first! Look at this picture for no reason!



Was there a doubt?



Take a bow and exit through the gift shop. Wait... how did he get back in chains?

[Tocky]

Other pictures there.





This guy could make two whips sound like a machine gun. I wish I had gotten a better action shot.



These guys (and a girl) beat the holy shit out of each other. The licks hit hard and loud.

[Harvester]

What a disaster in and around Kentucky with all those tornadoes! Take care guys/gals over there.

[Tocky]

Kentucky got the worst of it. Tennessee had a few rough spots. Four dead there. Nothing like the over seventy in Kentucky though. Renz is safe as none went that far to the east. No serious damage here. We have to live with tornadoes here like California does the earth quakes. Global warming is causing tornado season to last into winter though. We used to go to storm shelters back when we had kids at home but now we just sleep through it.

[Tocky]

Ye olde lords and ladies-

Notice how the women notice a camera immediately? On approach even.







The owner tried to help by pulling the dog away but I insisted the dog made the shot.



She knew how beautiful she was.



Why is it thou dost capture my image only when I dost eat?





Princess needs a nap. A moment that needed capturing. I posted all of these on the Ren Faire site so hopefully those there could download the memories.

[Cipheron]

Not sure where to put this, we don't have a conspiracy theory dump thread. Should we?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59703523.amp

Necklaces and accessories claiming to "protect" people from 5G mobile networks have been found to be radioactive.
...
The products identified included an "Energy Armor" sleeping mask, bracelet and necklace.

A bracelet for children, branded Magnetix Wellness, was also found to be emitting radiation.

According to other articles, the items contain thorium among other things.

[zombe]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59703523.amp
According to other articles, the items contain thorium among other things.

I wonder if this is the origin of the story (Feb 2020). They do a deepdive on thous things. Fascinating batshittery.

[Thor]

ttlg's commchat calmly deconstructed in 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCHRYMe66g

[Tocky]

ttlg's commchat calmly deconstructed in 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCHRYMe66g

In absolutely no way whatsoever. Just because you lose an argument does not mean the other side are Bolsheviks or whatever other straw man you wish to throw up. He starts out calling people things which he does not support with fact and ends with saying people are scornful of him because of his beliefs. Ever think maybe it's the unsupported argument he started out with in the first place? No? Not a clue? Can't figure that one out? You see, when you are wrong and you name call without evidence, nobody is going to like you. Of course people are scornful of unsupported statements. It's hilarious to think anyone should listen to you when you start with a scornful lie about them and end with umbrage that others are scornful of you. Can you not see the hypocrisy? I don't even consider myself left and it insults my sense of what is right and true that he takes the high ground while pulling the low ground up with him.

[Briareos H]

I'm not seeing a deconstruction but 3 minutes of non-sequiturs. Here is, in order, the list of statements he makes about things other than his own self:

1. the whole point of being a trotskyist is to have no morals
2. being a trotskyist means that ends justify the means
3. morality in politics is dangerous
4. morality is becoming more subjective
5. most politicians force people to do what they don't want to do
6. most modern laws aim at preventing people from raising their own children and women from staying at home
7. the left think they are inherently moral and that others are immoral
8. you cannot debate against someone who despises you
9. facts and reason fly out of the window when debating the left

Not only do I not hear anything logically connecting or argumenting for these statements, let alone verifiable sources, but I think most of them may be demonstrably false? This is truly the shittiest facts & logic I've ever seen used in an attempt to defend facts & logic vs. feelings.

[faetal]

ttlg's commchat calmly deconstructed in 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCHRYMe66g

"I may not have any good arguments, but I sure do know how to post a YouTube link which I like the sound of"

[Jason Moyer]

I agree that we should be able to have civil discourse over political topics like capital punishment without things getting personal or either side staking a claim to a moral high ground. I don't think that applies to most of the actual things that the left and right disagree on anymore, as there is a clear right and wrong when you're dealing with something like genetic minorities having human rights and equal protection under the law, or the idea that thousands of years of scientific progress are intellectually equivalent to the random ponderings of the confidently ignorant. You can't have civil discourse with people who are openly hateful and who are oblivious to most of their worldview consisting of false equivalencies.

[Aja]

ttlg's commchat calmly deconstructed in 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCHRYMe66g

I hate this so much because it's the kind of nonsense that spurs on conservatives despite not being anything approaching a coherent argument. Ironically he's doing exactly what he accuses the left of, appealing to emotion and in this case the mythical Common Sense without providing any evidence or reasoning.

And now YouTube has registered it as a click on my account, so I'm going to be filtering out garbage recommendations for months, like the one time I clicked on a Jordan Peterson lecture.

[rachel]

Not if you scrub it from your YT history (which I did) (from mine I mean xD)

[Harvester]

Did you guys know that this is Christopher Hitchens' brother? He and Christopher have held public discussions about religion in the past. I've read a book by him (Peter), called "The Rage Against God". I have no desire to discuss that book in detail*, but it's very conservative with some added homophobia to boot, but it's more coherent and not as rambling as whatever he's trying to say here. I can't distill a coherent argument out of this mess.

* I have a demanding job and neither the time or the energy for the sort of discussions on religion I used to partake in, and I also find them too emotionally taxing, especially when I can't look my discussion partners in the eye and people start getting personal.

[rachel]

Thanks for the info, Harvester. I was curious about whether they were related but hadn't gotten around to checking it out.

[Tocky]

Back to lighthearted fare. I was passing by a little arts section in Walmart when I noticed the sketch pads. I haven't lifted a finger for anything artistic since maybe forty years so I thought what the heck. At first I did a little thing that came to mind about a cowboy ambushing an Indian who was himself being ambushed by another Indian and it was awful. I had lost my touch completely. I was having to find perspective and distance and proportion all over again. Cartoonish really. Then I did a little thing and another little thing and I was getting a bit better each time. Then I decided to try my hand at drawing my wife. I thought, hey that kind of does look like her so I kept at it. It's a process of picking away. Adjusting this and that. Does the chin need to be shorter? Do the eyes need to come down more? I got close. I can't stop picking at it though.

This is my wife ready for a night on the town in her heyday. She is always on the verge of saying something so I hope I managed to capture that.

[IMG][/IMG]

I think I got her mostly right. But even now I'm seeing things to fix. A line to smooth here. A shading to correct there.

[Tocky]

Maybe I'm going to be an artist again. Maybe.

[IMG][/IMG]

My true self.

[Tocky]

Okay now I remember. Art is tedious. Still... kinda fun.

I make background.

[bjack]

You be you Tocky and all the best to you and yours. Frustration of creativity unreleased can be an issue, to say the least. An artist without an outlet in tantamount to a dormant volcano. May your creativity be positive and fruitful. Don't overthink your craft. You are talented.

[Tocky]

Hey, I appreciate that. I wasn't sure I still had it. I used to doodle on everything in school and then I just quit. Now I can't remember why. Thanks for the well wishes. The same back at you. It's good to see you about, bjack, whether you wish me well or wish me hell. Well is better.

[demagogue]

I'm sure I've been influenced by the approach Japanese have towards arts, but I've found the main job or value of art is the pleasure of getting caught up in the flow of it. Especially I've realized the most valuable part is actually the practice, not the finished product. Or the best part of the product is just that it validates how much practice you put into the thing. If it's beautiful that's just a bonus.

But I think the practice works best, I mean in terms of getting into the flow, if it's regular and disciplined. Not the "you can do better than this" shaming kind of discipline, but the part where you're clearing your mind and doing mindless repetitions of technique in a kind of zen flow. But it's not directionless; it's still following a path that's designed to improve your technique bit by bit towards some ideal. That's what really gets you into a flow.

For me doing jazz piano that means scales, voicings & harmony, rhythm, memorizing tunes, etc.
For art I imagine the trick is keeping a notebook and being disciplined about drawing. But it reminds me when I took a calligraphy class, we spent a lot of time at the start just learning how to make a single horizontal line, and you can't move on until you've got that down, and so on down each technique. I figured if I took up drawing, I'd do it like that. Spend a day on each technique like outlining figures, different ways of doing shading, etc.

Everybody should have their own way in matters of art and taste, of course. I just recommend the disciplined road because I love the feeling of being in the flow of an art, and think that some other people may also get into it like I did.