Monday: Hili dialogue and talk story with Pi

42 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue and talk story with Pi”

1. It was watched by over a billion viewers

   Yes, I don’t believe that. The World’s population was only about four billion at the time. I don’t believe a quarter of them had access to a television set, never mind were actually watching Elvis.

   Wikipedia says: “this would appear to be pure hype, originally speculated by Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker in 1972. The total population of the countries which took the show live certainly didn’t add up to over 1 billion”.

   1. Actually they were referring to the numbers at the Trump inaugural. Reported by Trump.

      More accurate numbers – today approx. 34,000 teachers go on strike in LA. That covers about 640,000 students.

      1. The expressways and surfing beaches will be crowded.

   2. Some watched it twice?

      1. I thought it was about the live broadcast. Some people must have been watching it on more than one telly.

2. I must admit, my first take on the Swedish weatherman (viewing a small image on a phone) was that he had a shirt showing electrified areolas…then I saw the cat after zooming in.

3. Those look like bullocks not cows!

   1. Nothing funnier than a herd of bullocks pretending not to be sneaking up on you when you turn your back.

   2. PS – I thought it is Hawai’i now rather than Hawaii?

4. That comparison of Airplane and Zero Hour is amazing!

   1. +1! I can’t believe I didn’t know this about one of my favorite movies.

      1. Shirley, you jest! 🙂

         1. I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

            1. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

   2. I have known that Airplane! was a remake of Zero Hour! for years. It’s why I have a copy of Zero Hour!. If you have a copy of Airplane! with the director’s commentary I highly recommend listening to it. It’s almost as funny as the movie and you learn all kinds of cool things like how it was inspired by Zero Hour!.

   3. Now I want to see Zero Hour.

   4. I’ve known about it for a while. I’ve even seen a video exactly like the one posted here before (don’t know if it’s the same one).

      Somehow I don’t think the lines:

      “Cream?”

      “No I take my coffee black… like my men”

      are in the original.

   5. I saw neither, but they make a clear case.
      Didn’t we see how Disney’s cartoon films were ‘inspired’ by other films? Recently on WEIT? (can’t find it now)

5. … in case you’re an Elvis fan (I’m not) …

   As I may have mentioned here before, I have deeply ambivalent feelings about Elvis, an attraction-repulsion syndrome of sorts (the same as I have about certain other musical stars of days past, notably Frank Sinatra).

   I find much to admire in their music (and even in some of their personal qualities), but find much else in their behavior (and even in some of the more decadent aspects of their music) completely repugnant.

   1. I must say, Frank was a better actor by far than Elvis but then so was everyone else.

      1. Yep. Elvis made some godawful, meretricious movies (all of ’em, in fact, except for King Creole).

         The world would be a better place had the King stayed in Memphis and continued making records with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, instead of running off to Hollywood with “Colonel” Tom Parker.

         1. Oh well. I think he has made more money dead than alive. Only in America.

   2. I’m not as ambivalent about Elvis. He is an idiom, music and personality, that I just don’t get at all. Whenever I see any musical performance I am always left thinking “is he kidding? Is this real life?” It seems pure kitsch, the music doesn’t even seem catchy and it barely even registers as “music” to me.

      I get the physical charisma thing when he was young, but I’ll apparently never understand the appeal of his “music.”

      1. I feel the same way about Elvis. I also feel that way about the Beatles and most of Metalica’s stuff. I understand that culturally and historically they were significant, but at the end of the day, I’m not going to sit there and listen to their music for entertainment value alone, which is my criteria.

      2. The best Elvis on tv was his 1968 comeback special, and the best part of that was Elvis on guitar, sitting in a circle with his band, playing some old blues — “unplugged” avant la lettre.

         And the best writing about Elvis was done on the occasion of his death by the rock critic par excellence Lester Bangs in The Village Voice.

         If you have an interest in understanding something of Elvis’s appeal, watch and read those.

         1. Spot on Ken, though I think the best writing about Elvis was Greil Marcus’s “Presliad,” from his book “Mystery Train.” And Elvis made a few good movies besides King Creole, like Jailhouse Rock, Follow That Dream, Flaming Star, Viva Las Vegas, and That’s the Way It Is (though that’s actually a concert film).

            Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special is one of the best performances in all of rock’n’roll, and much greater than his Aloha special.

            I’m sorry for those unable to enjoy Elvis’s music, especially when I recall the artistry and bliss of “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “That’s All Right Mama,” “Mystery Train,” “If I Can Dream,” “Suspicious Minds,” “How Great Thou Art,” “That’s Someone You’ll Never Forget,” and dozens and dozens of other songs.

            1. Whether you appreciate Elvis or not, you probably like some of the artists that he influenced.

               “When I heard [Heartbreak Hotel], it was the end for me. […] Once I heard it and got into it, that was life, there was no other thing. I thought of nothing else but rock ‘n’ roll”- John Lennon

               “When I first heard Elvis’ voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.” – Bob Dylan

         2. Thanks Ken.

            That clip of Elvis you posted only re-enforces my bafflement.

            I’m a music fanatic and omnivore in my tastes. However there seems to be a very narrow band of North American music that just won’t click with me and Elvis (and “down on my luck blues”) seems to hit it on the button. As soon as Elvis started that tired riff…my brain checked out. No doubt it was at some point in history fresh, but there is probably no riff I dislike more in terms of the sheer mind-numbing boredom it causes me.

            I tried to stay with the clip, but the decision between continuing to listen and walking out into traffic was becoming harder and harder.

            Ah well, we aren’t made to understand everything. 😉

            1. I pretty much agree on Elvis. Never moved me other than to turn the channel. But, I think he hit it big, with his rich male voice and stage wiggle and wavy hair, with the teenyboppers back then. They are now grandmothers with old white bucks still in the closet.

6. This guy is weird but skillful …

   Is he available for children’s birthday parties? 🙂

   1. Wasn’t that the same guy of the ‘Christmas Surprise’?

7. Well! Albert S. is a little rough on the kitties.

   1. Yeah, he’s just as ham-fisted with his cats as he is with his Bach!

8. What’s a “theologian organist”? There’s a joke in there somewhere but I can’t come up with it.

   1. Someone who pulls out all the stops to stop up all the holes in the logic?

9. That FNCK cup is priceless!

   1. 14.90€, actually.
      I can’t see anything about where it’s made but somewhere where Latin characters are not the norm would be a high probability. Unless, of course, the picture is a fake.

10. I think we are way overdue for another Human Be-In.

11. I love the lynx’s vocalizations and the cows.
    I’m reminded of that moving movie about Temple Grandin.

    1. That Temple Grandin movie was really, really good. A rare balance between science and personal interest story. Even the superimposed graphs and diagrams were done well.

       1. I’m going to see it!!

12. As a kid my father and I tried to create the tallest possible Jenga tower by simply making +s with the blocks by hand. We did not succeed. We then noticed that they are not measured precisely enough to do what we tried – there are 1-2 mm variations between blocks on various dimensions and hence (even assuming constant density) suggests ever so slight differences in centers of mass.

    My dad and I always had fun thinking through toys in addition to playing with them. 🙂 (We also reverse engineered Monopoly and a few other things.)

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