Another very long day. Nothing left in the tank. Here’s a Colter Wall tune.
Category: Music Reviews
All music reviews
A Fake Post from the Far North
It’s the middle of the night here in an outpost of the brotherhood.
In honor of Brian Wilson I’ll attach this version of Sloop John B and call it a night. Tomorrow I’ll do better.
Update:
Ed Brault
I enjoy the Kingston Trio’s rendition.
The ZMan has Died
Probably the most eloquent and witty voice on the Dissident Right is no more. Reports on X by authoritative sources say that the ZMan passed away last night of “natural causes.”
Of course, his most skeptical fans will wonder if the cause was completely natural. But I will certainly miss his writing and podcasts. He had one of the greatest speaking voices on the conservative side of the aisle (or “great divide” as he called it). And his knowledge of political and sociological affairs was impressive.
Although I differed from him on some of the conclusions he drew from his facts I had to admit he was well versed on the mechanisms that had created the dysfunction that he reported on in his posts.
He has a legion of devoted readers who commented religiously on his site and who will be hard pressed to find a new home to replace his haven.
Rest in peace ZMan.
Update:
Comment by ArthurinCali:
Sad news, especially how sudden it was. Zman was one of the inspirations to me to try my hand at writing. His analysis and podcast will be greatly missed by many of us.
Dunwich Slips Into Permanent Dumb
Dunwich is a strange place. Although most humans here appear to be sentient, they’re not. Many of them continue to breath and move and even talk without even the tiniest shred of gray matter.
First Selectman Cthulhu called a town meeting last night and tried to explain why they should finally vote to accept the 2025/2026 budget during this third referendum. But regardless of how many citizens he ate, they would not agree to a budget. Finally after he was developing acid reflux, he asked them why they would not agree. Their spokeswoman was a vapid forty-something who stood her ground and said, “Why do we need a budget?”
Cthulhu was so flabbergasted by this lack of understanding that he dropped the six Whatleys he was about to swallow and just broke down and wept. Finally he composed himself and just walked off right through the south wall of town hall and hasn’t been seen since.
In his absence I took it upon myself to explain to this rube just how government worked. I explained that a budget allowed us a framework for stealing the public’s money and also provide a basis for increasing this theft on a yearly basis. This actually worked and she thanked me for the clarity of my explanation.
Seriously, this question was actually raised at a town meeting, “Why do we need a budget?” I think the millennials have reached that point where maintaining a viable civilization is very doubtful
Reverse Engineering an Ending
I’ve been trying to figure out how to end my book. Today I’ve been reading the last third of the book to see if I can force an exit strategy into the story. The good news is I’m enjoying the narrative. It’s almost as if someone else wrote it. So that’s good. The bad news it’s taking a while to figure out a satisfying ending that leaves all the major characters with a satisfying “landing.”
But I’m glad I’ve re-engaged with the writing on a more robust schedule. I think the story is well written so it gives me motivation to get the darned thing out there. Onward and upward.
So, has Trump really ended the Iran/Israeli War? Well, here’s hoping.
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
Today is the first day of the new OCF editorial regime. I’ve noticed over the last year that the quality of my posts has been inconsistent. And I believe the reason for this problem is that sometimes I’m covering old ground again. I’ve said about all there is to say about some of the political issues of the day and I’m just banging the drum, so to speak.
And this is not a good thing to be doing. In addition, I really need to finish my book and get it published and see if fiction writing is something I want to do. So these two separate situations point me to a change in the way I run my website. I’ll continue to post the photo and quote of the day, same as always. As far as a daily post, I’ll put something up but if I don’t have a topic that’s truly crying out to be covered then I’ll put something else up. Maybe some photos that I like or a link to a song or a video that caught my attention. This will free up more of my time for fiction writing and it will prevent me repeating myself and boring the readers.
I think this is a good idea and I expect it to improve the site significantly. Anyway, I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.
Minnesota Madness
The same people who gave us the George Floyd Summer of Thugs have returned with the Vance Boelter False Flag Insurrection. There is something seriously wrong with the people living in Minnesota. This guy Boelter previously served on Minnesota’s Governor’s Workforce Development Board, appointed by Governor Mark Dayton in 2016 and reappointed by Tim Walz in 2019. There are even claims that Boelter’s wife, Jennifer Boelter, worked as an intern for Tim Walz in 2010 when he was a Congressman.
Either this guy Boelter is trying to start a civil war or the people in Minnesota are just so randomly crazy that anyone is just as likely to be an advisor to the governor or a homicidal maniac or both. By tomorrow we’ll probably find out that Boelter has come out in favor of Palestine and the people of Minnesota have made him governor by acclamation.
So, somehow this guy gets access to a look-alike unmarked police cruiser, a police uniform and equipment (gun, taser, body armor) and goes on a killing spree; whacking high-ranking legislators and their families on a whim? I’m sorry. Minnesotans are just too crazy and stupid to be allowed to walk around loose. The whole state should be turned into a low-temperature nut house where Somalis and Scandinavians can torture each other in adjoining padded rooms between bouts of shock therapy and whole-body ice water immersion.
But none of this is a surprise. Tim Walz is a weird creepy man who should never have been elected dog catcher never mind the governor of a state. Every time he talks in front of an audience every other sentence is a misstatement or gibberish. The fact that Kamala Harris chose him as her vice-presidential running mate is proof that he’s a drooling idiot. She didn’t dare pick anyone with even normal intelligence for fear of making herself appear even stupider.
It remains to be seen just how close the relationship is between Walz and Boelter. If it turns out there’s a close connection then God help Walz. He’ll be fed to the wolves by his own party. They’ll probably impeach him and boot him out of the governor’s mansion.
And you know what? It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. After how he fanned the fires of the Geroge Floyd riots and caused untold damage to the people caught up in the violence and all the damage done afterward by the coddling of criminals, it would be poetic justice if he was kicked to the curb by his own people.
And even if he survives, the dysfunctional politics of Minnesota will continue to plague the people who vote for the race baiters and hypocrites there and lead to the psychopaths like Boelter who go slowly crazy in the cold and then erupt into madness and wipe out the very people they depend on for political favors and perks. Well, bad things come in threes. First LA erupts into chaos. Now Minnesota unleashes a mass murderer. What’s next? New York City sinks into the ocean? Stay tuned.
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 01JUN2025 – Future of Entertainment
There was a concept a while back of Narrowcasting (as opposed to broadcasting) where you would aim for certain smaller markets via directed media like the internet. To some degree we see this happening with youtube and tiktok. The monetization would be direct from the consumers and perhaps via pre subscription schemes.
It seems that Hollywood got the narrow part but not the monetezation part. In an analogy to the misquote of Pauline Kael they don’t know anyone that voted for Donald Trump. Their audience is boomers who grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s and are nostalgic for their college days and the protests against the Establishment. The boomers have not processed that they are now the Man. Meanwhile, Hollywood keeps churning out $200-400 million blockbusters aimed at that tiny (perhaps 5-20%) market demographic. Hollywood depends on the old 80s-2000s mix of movie theater, marketing of merchandise and resales for income. The thing is their little stunt of 2020 killed the theater, the Merch was for kids (or perhaps grand kids) which the boomers do not have, and residuals on the various streaming platforms residuals are bupkus compared to VHS/DVD sales. The big Studios are like the last of the dinosaurs standing around in a swamp in Louisiana on the day of the KT boundary impact saying “Hey Ralph whats that pretty light in the south it isn’t sunrise yet…” They’re dead they just haven’t figured it out yet, and the mammals are crouching in a variety of holes trying not to be eaten.
Comment by photog: I guess I’m waiting for the mammals. It’s a lonely vigil but, “Ya gotta keep da faith.”
reply by Tregonsee:
Indeed Photog I’m rooting for the mammals too. Like the Mammals of the Tertiary (now called Paleogene) it may take a while for the producers to get organized. In publishing the transition seems well under way. Most Authors of more plot based SciFi either are at Baen or publish independently. Even giant authors like Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Way of Kings, etc.) are tending to eschew the big 5 publishing houses.
Music has been going to self publishing too. What it takes to have a GOOD studio is probably 2 orders of magnitude
Part of it is that for visual SciFi even though special effects are easier than 20-40 years ago (e.g. I’ve heard tell of a copy of the Death Star run in star Wars done totally with effect in CGI in a couple days that is VERY close to the original that took weeks in physical models) it still takes time and money. You still need actors and good ones are expensive unless you’re doing something they want to take a chance on. And even doing minimal sets things get expensive fast, and acting to things and characters that aren’t there on green screen is really hard to pull off believably even for first rate actors. The other part is that the current media seems to fight these efforts tooth and nail.
All that said there are signs things are improving. A movie called Flow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(2024_film) about a black cat and an odd bunch of animals in a post apocalyptic world got the 2024 Golden Globe and Oscar for long form animation. This was published by a 6 person group out of Latvia. I love animation and even though the premise is straight up green nude eel catastrophe the story and animation rival the best of Classic Disney or Studio Ghibli
Apropos of Nuthin’ – Music – Loreena McKennitt – The Lady of Shalott (2004)
This is a poem by Tennyson that a Keltic singer adapted and here someone has dramatized it. That might even be the singer portraying the eponymous lady..
A little dramatic and fanciful but not bad.
Seeing Things as They Really Are
The stoic Epictetus is supposed to have said, “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.” When I read up on what Epictetus thought was within our control it’s pretty small. All that’s under our control is our thoughts and opinions. Even our actions are constrained by the external world. So, this freedom he speaks of is internal.
It doesn’t seem to be much. But I guess if you live in a world where there is one Nero and a hundred million Romans without any real freedom you have to take what’s available. And who knows, some of the good emperors were stoics. At least Marcus Aurelius has been presented to us through his writings as one. Maybe he was.
Then what about our world? We brag that we are a free people. And compared to the Roman Empire I guess we are freer. But when I think of the direction, we are headed it’s not that much better and in fact because of the efficiency of our technology maybe eventually we will be more thoroughly enslaved than my ancient forebears on the Italian peninsula. In that case maybe I should consider the wisdom of Epictetus and his world view.
This all came up because I saw a quote that said something like, “Hopelessness is freedom.” I took it to mean that hoping for things that won’t happen is wasting your life. That the better way is to take the situation as you find it and work around it to accomplish what is possible.
This makes sense to me. I waited decades for things to go the way I wanted them to go and it only ever got worse. That’s because I thought that other people believed what I did. I thought that George W. Bush was a “conservative.” Well, maybe he was, by his definition. But reality wasn’t the same for him and me.
Now, Donald Trump seems more like what I hoped for. But Donald Trump isn’t the Emperor of America. He’s not even the boss. He’s just someone trying hard to fix things. I wouldn’t exactly equate him to Marcus Aurelius. I don’t think anyone who spent any time with Stormy Daniels could be considered a stoic. I don’t think he’d even qualify as an epicurean. He’s a well-meaning man trying to fix things by plugging holes in a collapsing dam. Will he succeed, even temporarily? It’s really hard to say.
Stretching the Roman Empire analogy way beyond recognition, the Goths are already over the Rhine and the legions are undermanned and poorly trained. So, things look pretty bad.
Maybe it is time to start looking within to see what can be done to make the best of a bad situation. The stoic viewpoint was an important part of the Christian philosophy that allowed something to survive the wreck of the Western Roman Empire. The Christians couldn’t become legionnaires and defeat the barbarians. But they could become monks and form a nucleus of knowledge and civilization to help the common people survive the chaos of the dark ages.
Maybe we will see something similar. Any help that is going to come in the future might have to come from ourselves. I’m not sure I’d express it as, “Hopelessness is freedom.” Maybe a better way to say it is. “The truth shall set you free.” Facing reality is the best way to make progress. See things for how they really are and you are less likely to be disappointed in how things turn out. Do I feel freer now? Maybe.