I'm a pretty big fan of Tool, and Maynard (singer for Tool, APC, and Puscifer). Weird / eccentric, but very deep and meaningful. I've been waiting for a new Tool album for a long time, but this one from APC wasn't really on my radar in advance even though I like other albums of theirs also. Then these singles hit, and they grabbed me right away.

The full impact takes longer to absorb, for me at least, with Maynard's songs. Usually I don't pay much attention to lyrics, but he always puts a lot of depth and breadth in. I guess I might think that was pretentious with other bands/artists, but seems like he really enjoys hearing different listeners take away different messages without one/his being "correct".

Glad you enjoyed them also!

Lyrics from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/perfectcircle/talktalk.html:

You're waiting on miracles
We're bleeding out
Thoughts and prayers, adorable
Like cake in a crisis
We're bleeding out
While you deliberate
Bodies accumulate

Sit and talk like Jesus
Try walking like Jesus
Sit and talk like Jesus
Talk like Jesus
Talk, talk, talk, talk
Get the fuck out of my way

Don't be the problem, be the solution
Don't be the problem, be the solution
Don't be the problem, be the solution
Problem, problem, problem, problem

Faith without works is
Talk without works is
Faith without works is
Dead, dead, dead, dead

Sit and talk like Jesus
Try walking like Jesus
Sit and talk like Jesus
Try walking like Jesus

Try braving the rain
Try lifting the stone
Try extending a hand
Try walking your talk or get the fuck out of my way

Note Ali (Muhammad Ali), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Major Tom (David Bowie), Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), Prince, and Brady's Mom (? - Florence Henderson?), all recent celebrity deaths.

Lyrics from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/perfectcircle/solongandthanksforallthefish.html :

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On diets, lawyers, shrinks and apps
And flags, and plastic surgery
Now Willy Wonka, Major Tom
Ali and Leia have moved on
Signal the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Bravissimo, hip-hip hooray
For this fireworks display
Mind and body blown away
What a radiant crescendo

Ticker tape parade
Our hair and skin like
Like Marilyn Monroe
In an empty wind

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On politicians, fancy water
And guns, and plastic surgery
Like old Prince and Brady's mom
All the dolphins have moved on
Signaling the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Bravissimo, hip-hip hooray
What a glorious display
Melt our joyous hearts away
Under the mushroom cloud confetti

Hip-hip hooray
For this fireworks display
Mind and body blown away
What a radiant crescendo

Hip-hip hooray
Hip-hip hooray

Ticker tape parade
Our hair and skin like
Like Marilyn Monroe
In an empty wind

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On diets, lawyers, shrinks and apps
And flags, and plastic surgery
Now Willy Wonka, Major Tom
Ali and Leia have moved on
Signal the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Lyrics from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/perfectcircle/disillusioned.html :

(Dopamine, on dopamine...)

We have been overrun by our animal desire
Addicts of the immediate keep us obedient and unaware
Feeding this mutation, this Pavlovian despair

We've become disillusioned
So we run towards anything glimmering

Time to put the silicon obsession down
Take a look around, find a way in the silence
Lie supine away with your back to the ground
Dis- and re-connect to the resonance now
You were never an island

Unique voice among the many in this choir
Tuning into each other, lift all higher

(Dopamine, on dopamine...)

Willingly been re-wired by clever agents within
Looping our reflections, our obsessions draw us in
Fix and fixation, no sentience beyond

We've become disillusioned
So we dive like crows towards anything glittering

Time to put the silicon obsession down
Take a look around, find a way in the silence
Lie supine away with your back to the ground
Dis- and re-connect to the resonance now
You were never an island

Unique voice among the many in this choir
Tuning into each other, lift all higher

It'd only really be an average day of driving in Thailand if there was a few motorbikes or a pickup or two driving the wrong way against the flow of traffic in the far left lane there...

Very cool.

I sure would have thought that it would be a platform with hundreds of partially inset mouse/trackballs, rather than treadmills on axes 90 degrees apart. I mean ... sure, any 2D vector can be split into a sum of two orthogonal components. But with redundant inset trackballs you could get stuff like spot pivots that are much finer scale than the scale of the 2-3 inch wide secondary axis treads...

On the other hand, these guys actually have a working prototype, so they clearly thought things through and decided that the orthogonal treadmill solution was better. Rubber meats road trumps off-the-cuff theoretical any day!

QUICK! Photoshop the thumbnail to "Purrelli"!

Absolutely loved this movie when I finally got around to seeing it.

...Hmm, maybe I am too hipster for Fast and Furious.

Anything from his hockey movie Mystery Alaska? If they planned in advance to offer this stuff to Alaskan Blockbusters, that would have been a slam-dunk...

I'm completely with Maher on this one.

...But, perhaps to his dismay, this kinda also explains (notice the use of "explains" as opposed to "justifies") unacceptable further-back behavior, like having some degree of appreciation for Confederate soldiers and officers in the Civil War, slave ownership by founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, etc. It is possible to respect positive contributions of people in the past without being required to turn a blind eye to their faults, even if those faults would be utterly disqualifying today.

Quoth Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly:

@HenningKO --

Not that I want to defend them (the R's that publicly defend or at least refrain from going negative on Trump), but I think the end of the video pretty well explains their thought process.

They want to stay in office. If they oppose Trump *now*, they create a big problem for themselves in their primaries. Who likes Trump? Evangelicals. Who shows up and actually votes in primaries? Evangelicals. Many of these guys are in states so overwhelmingly red that as long as they are on the ballot in the general election, they are almost assured the victory. But go against Trump now, and it won't be their name next to that (R), it'll be some Evangelical appeaser that booted them out in the primary.

Is that a rather spineless and amoral line of reasoning? Yes. Is it notably lacking in the public service motivation that we would like our elected officials to have, and instead motivated entirely out of shamelessly corrupt self-promotion? Yes.

Is that sort of reasoning and motivation unique to Republicans? Hell no. You can't spell incumbent without getting "bent". I think we need term limits on all these fuckers.

Loved this whole story. After thinking about it for a while, I figured that Foster was probably going to get an NHL record for highest "career save percentage".

1) The contract that the emergency goalies sign makes them official NHL professional athletes for a day.
2) He came in and made 7 shots on 7 saves, a 100% save percentage.
3) Official player, official stats earned, yet extremely unlikely that he'll ever see another minute of ice time or shot against ... therefore, into the record books.

I looked at NHL stats page and a few other sources to try to figure out if that was correct, but everything I looked at limited "Career Save Percentage" stats to players with a high minimum number of games.

Then I saw this story:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/blackhawks-emergency-goalie-scott-foster-accountant-jets/

Confirms that YES, he'll be in the records books, but he'll be tied with 17 other guys all having a 100% save percentage (after having faced between 1-17 shots).

So even though he's tied with 17 other guys, dude is set for life for a story to tell his kids / grandkids / strangers in the bar:

"So yeah, I'm a former NHL goalie. Retired with a career save percentage better than Brodeur or Roy. Left the game literally at the top of the charts."


I think Patrick Kane and/or Jonathan Toews should give their salary from this one game to the guy since the contract he signed precludes the team from paying him... (both make $10.5 million for this season, so 1/82 of that would be a bit over $125k)

Hmm. 5.5 minutes of good info, making us think about tricky ways that online stuff gets us to click or pay attention to stuff that isn't good for us (the audience) but can benefit the creator/host.

And then there is a brief cut to black that doesn't obviously mark an endpoint, continued background music that doesn't mark the change, followed by a paid sponsorship shill for "hey, if you're worried about this shit, TOTES BUY THIS VPN DUDES" plus icons for "obviously you want some merch or to donate to my patreon!".

insert [I don't want to live on this planet anymore.jpg]

Maybe I'm just a cranky bastard in my old age.

A few of those didn't actually ring a bell in terms of having heard them before, and I knew the names of a few that I had heard:

(spoilers, I guess?)
1. I instantly knew that was the William Tell Overture, I would think a lot of people know that one?

2. Know the song, but didn't know the title without seeing it. But I'm sure that I've heard the title (Entry of the Gladiators) before.

3. Didn't know the song (or the title -- Liechtensteiner Polka).

4. Know the song, knew it was Strauss, didn't know it was "Fruhlingsstimmen". Gesundheit. As an aside, the stare plus the eyebrow action in this one is hilariously well-suited to the song.

5. Knew a variant of the song, didn't know it was "The British Grenadiers". Pretty sure I first heard this one as music in the old-school NES game "Pirates" by Sid Meier.

6. Knew the song, knew it was Chopin's "Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 35", also know that it is commonly referred to as "Marche Funebre" (although that title can be applied to other songs also). Dude also gets a lot of mileage out of the creepy stare at the camera on this one.

7. Don't think I've ever heard this one, didn't know the title (A Dog's Life).

8. Knew the song, knew it was by Strauss, didn't know the title (An Der Scthonen Blauen Donau).

9. Knew the song, knew it was the "Chicken Dance". I'd think that anyone that's ever been to a wedding pretty much has to know this one -- but maybe that's just a midwest US thing?

10. Eventually recognized the song, but not until he got a bit into it. Didn't know the title (Colonel Bogey March). Still think it should 'properly' be titled "Lisa, her teeth are big and green. Lisa, she smells like gasoline."

"I smell a G-rated children's film!"

Brilliant!