Backtalk: A Medium Place
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Good morning!
Hey! I remembered! What are you howling about this fine Wednesday?
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Tuesday Evening Open Thread
Tuesday (not Haiku) Poetry
If you should go,
I’ll say I’m waiting for the moon,
Turning my gaze
Toward the eastern
Evening sky.
-SaigyΕ
Tuesday Morning OT
Patiently sitting here behind my walls...awaiting the day when I can sing this...
Good morning, Balkers. What’s up with you today?
When I was I younger I thought all of this stuff was just corny bullshit. Now I realize it is the only thing that matters.
Dog who couldn’t move from the neck down now loves to run on the beach with her dog siblings π pic.twitter.com/TFzN1yu5KO
— The Dodo (@dodo) March 29, 2021
Monday, March 29, 2021
Monday Evening Open Thread
Good evening, Balkers. It is action stations here at Casa Finch. The plumber is coming tomorrow, to fix my leaky faucet and, hopefully, to attend to the mysterious drip that is coming from the toilet tank. This is stressing me out no end: not just the leaks but the thought of having to deal with the plumber. I am adept enough at hanging my own pictures and putting up my own shelves, but plumbing and electricals I leave solely to the professionals. But coping with the professionals puts me in a state of acute anxiety, largely because Casa Finch, having been constructed somewhere between the late '20s and early '30s, has very antiquated fixtures and nothing is standard and nothing ever goes as planned. I hope tomorrow's plumber is going to be okay with the revelation that the water shutoff for the bathroom is actually under the kitchen sink and is extremely difficult to access. I am also in a cleaning frenzy so I do not acquire too much shame in the eyes of the plumber. The bathroom has been deep-cleaned but there is only so much I can do about the kitchen, which he will have to see when going in pursuit of the water shutoff. He'll just have to close his eyes to the squalor and focus on the plumbing.
What do you hate doing around the house? Let me know in the comments.
And, just for amusement's sake, here is a story about a beaver than invaded a Toronto subway station.
Hungry for more?
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Every week we gather together to learn more about each other’s opinions and views on a particular topic. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we differ. That’s okay! It’s what Parley Vous Mondays are all about.
Monday am open thread
π° Good morning. ☀️ It’s another beeyootiful Monday morning out there. π± Rise and shine, Balkers. πΌ
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Bunday evening OT
I've never heard of simnel cake, but I'm intrigued.
French toast fans avoiding leavened bread will enjoy matzo brei.
Meanwhile in Iceland, their volcano is doing its thing. Earlier today it was snowing.
Alice and I have had a quiet rainy day of chores and chilling. She's playing it cool, despite her excitement for the Easter long weekend. π°
The Photo Gallery
They don’t need to be taken with a fancy camera or works of art. Share any SFW photos you’ve taken with even the poorest of potatoes. Of course we love to see that arty stuff too.
Sunday Morning Open Thread
In stark contrast to this little guy, I'm sorely lacking in energy and motivation this morning.
Agility.
— Rex ChapmanππΌ (@RexChapman) March 23, 2021
Just wait for the weave-poles... pic.twitter.com/5jn0uxPE8P
How about you?
Saturday, March 27, 2021
#WeWontGoBack - OT
"If you think this is just about Black voters, if this is happening in the state Capitol in Georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state capitol near you.”."
- Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, D-GA
(on Rachel Maddow last night)
"It means that these sons of slave masters are afraid that their power may be slipping... they're in fear of the power that the people have, and they're responding in classic fashion by doing everything they can to suppress"
@VicMensa reacts to the arrest of Rep. Cannon in GA last night on The Beat with Ari Melber
I will be back with the text number Senator Jon Ossoff gave Reverend Al on Politics Nation if you want to help the organizers on the ground in Georgia. If someone else has it, please drop it in the comments.
I will be back with the text number Senator Jon Ossoff gave Reverend Al on Politics Nation if you want to help the organizers on the ground in Georgia. If someone else has it, please drop it in the comments.
Spread it Saturday
Anything fun planned? It's our turn to put the clocks forward this weekend. I'm trying out the local cinema's movie meal deal - Spirited Away on DVD, a Japanese-style chicken noodle dish, desert and a beer.
Friday, March 26, 2021
"Welcome to Canada, folks! On your left you'll see the rock band Rush soaring majestically over our many lakes and rivers." -kyoku1982 (2 years ago)
Friday Evening Post
Good evening.
Image via Sardonicus.
Are you ready to unwind for the weekend? Of course you are, but how will you do so?
* * *
Fur Face Friday
Hello, people, and welcome to the last Fur Face Friday of the first quarter of 2021. I know, right? What even? Last week Hannibal featured some cute critters with a Spring in their step. Let’s see what kind of cute is in bloom for today.
Some of us may be ready for winter to be over, but this bun Longtime Lurker found might have a different opinion. Or at least need a different outfit.
Friday Morning Open Thread
It's Friday.
— gelflingπ« (@seinfeIdwatcher) March 17, 2021
What's going on? Any plans beyond getting through the day.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Blaurgh!Talk
Thursday Morning Open Thread!
Happy Thursday to everyone! It's going to be my Friday so I'm actually feeling pretty good about this one.
Today in history.
- 1634: Lord Baltimore founds Maryland as a Catholic colony.
- 1655: Puritans win a military victory in the colony of Maryland over Catholic forces and imprison Governor Stone
- 1776: The Continental Congress gives a medal to General George Washington.
- 1942: Aretha Franklin is born
- 1954: RCA starts manufacturing it's first color TV sets
- 1965: Martin Luther King Jr leads a protest to the state capital in Montgomery, Ala. 25,000 people are in the march.
- 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono stage their bed-in for peace.
- 1970: The Concorde makes it's first supersonic flight.
So how's the weather in your neck of the woods? Want to complain about work? Want to complain about something else? Want to brag? Just feel like checking in? Fire below.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
TalkyTime For Wednesday Evening
We might as well give up and run If we let 'em take our God and Guns!
There was a time we ain't forgot
You could rest all night with your doors unlocked
But there ain't nobody safe no more so
You say your prayers and you
THANK THE LORD
Tuesday Evening Jibberjabber
Good Morning ☀️ π±πΈπΏπΌ☘️πΊπ·
Hullo, everyone. Another glorious(?) Tuesday awaits us. I know we’re all really excited to get up and get on with our days.
Monday, March 22, 2021
Monday Evening Open Thread
Not feeling it tonight, Balkers. Am feeling a little under the weather, though it can't be covid as I haven't been anywhere. And it's not the post-vaccine blues as I am still weeks and weeks away from being eligible for my shot. Anyway, distract me with your stories. Give me the lowdown on the downlow in the comments.
And you believed that?!
Hiya, Balkers! It’s time for another installment of Parley Vous Mondays. Each week, here is a place to sound off on whatever topic we’re discussing with your own particular opinion.
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Sunday Evening again!
I've been watching the livestream of the volcano in Iceland, and it's very soothing. It's a slow eruption, so no big explosions, just slow moving, glowing lava. It was really pretty in the evening when the sky was all purply blue.
You can see some "before" photos here, along with links to more volcano webcams.
I got a number of things done this weekend, yet somehow the things I still need to do have multiplied. How does this happen? It was absolutely gorgeous this afternoon, so I was doing yard work wearing a t-shirt and jeans- no jacket! No hat! Or mitts! Woo hoo! I considered setting up the bbq, but I know spring is just toying with us.
Here is some Spring nonsense. See you in the comments!
The Photo Gallery
It’s your weekly Photo Gallery! Come on in, take a look at what people have been up to over the past week and share some of your own photos.
They don’t need to be taken with a fancy camera or works of art. Share any SFW photos you’ve taken with even the poorest of potatoes. Of course we love to see that arty stuff too.
Sunday Morning Open Thread
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Viewing Art and Doing Art Help Us ReImagine and Create New Ways to Do Stuff - OT
Jacob Marrel - Tulip with Two Leaves - Morgan Library Drawings Collection from OpenCulture
… so that the way “things have always been done” (which, if the fragmented attention span finds a sec to focus once in the past few weeks / five years / lifetime, hasn't exactly worked out for everyone) doesn't always have to be the way things STAY.
Looking at and experimenting with different stuff helps stretch our brains so that (unlike SOME people) we're not afraid to ask questions like “What if we did it THIS way instead of THAT way …?”
I just survived one of Amos Machanic's Horton Technique Master Classes & got some oxygen so the tone here might be slightly different than it would have been, lol.
At the same time there are a couple of pieces coming up I wanted to highlight that even though they're not exactly lighthearted do still remind us of the necessity to train the eye and the mind to be able to see things from more than one POV, so that we can all progress together.
Of course, me being me, I have a tendency to notice what's missing, even from some grand display – what's NOT there is what was deliberately omitted by the curators and gatekeepers. I like these flowers because tulip season is on its way, but it didn't escape my attention that whoever put together this massive Morgan Library collection included no Jacob Lawrence, and that a search on “south asian” doesn't turn up anything representative (I will frankly share I was afraid to put in a nationality-identifying descriptor like Chinese or Korean for fear of what would show up).
Jacob Marrel - Tulip with Three Leaves - Morgan Library Drawings Collection from OpenCulture
I know we also have a batch of talent in our communities. If you feel so moved on this Equinox weekend, please share your new drawings, photographs, videos, music, or other creations.
:-)
