By 2009, when this Sunday A&J first appeared, video games had advanced well beyond what Ludwig is playing, but yours truly still was stuck in Atariland. But after all, he is a cat, and I’m an old man, so cut us some slack. I actually owned an early Atari game console and enjoyed it very much. My glory days, though, coincided with the dawn of computerized arcade games, such as “Space Invaders.” I remember a buddy and I were playing Space Invaders at a two-man, sit-down game console in an establishment called “The Cherokee Inn” in Jackson, Mississippi, one evening in the early ’80s. The Cherokee Inn was, well… they would call in a “pub” in England. Someone who had gotten a head start elsewhere pulled into the parking lot and failed to stop quite in time. There was a loud “wham,” and the plywood wall next to our gaming table buckled inward. If the driver had been going much faster, you might not be reading this, but, unperturbed, we kept playing.
Playful as a Kitten
By Jimmy Johnson
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273 responses to “Playful as a Kitten”
Jackie: “No one often speaks the language they sing in. Especially opera.”
That’s true here, and maybe the UK and such. Many Eur. nations generally translate into the local tongue, which most local singers speak. When I was in Germany, ’52-’53, I attended a performance of ‘Der barbiere von Seviglia’ [if I remember the spelling] in Munchen or Frankfurt. Nicely done.
Peace, emb
You know what always just irritated me so much ? People translating great opera into English, like a musical comedy or maybe worse, running stupid English electronic subtitles on a flashing sign over the proscenium arch. Who the heck cares what the plot is anyway? Most are ridiculous just read your program if it matters!
It’s all about the music and the emotion conveyed by the voice.
Now I have confirmed everyone’s belief, I am an eletist snob! Who also loves rock, funk, soul, Tejano, blues and almost anything except rap and bubblegum teen boy bands,
Love Jackie
Sorry, don’t see Sea Speller, but here is a website that lets you play old video games online with your pc: http://game-oldies.com/
Personally, I still think David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing The Little Drummer Boy is an odd match.
Not sure if you would call this classic rock, or rock classic. Either way, it’s very good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4igIQ2TOASg
Mark:
Didn’t know re Bowie, Crosby, and The Little Drummer Boy , but thanks for the warning.
Jackie: “Who the heck cares what the plot is anyway? Most are ridiculous just read your program if it matters!” Amen.
What strikes me about opera and musical plots is their basic similarities and, often, shallowness. I’ve ranted re that here before. Physical prettiness, of females especially, is paramount, even in my favorite Savoy operas. [What’s great about them is Sullivan’s delightful music and Gilbert’s insight into Victorian Britain’s idiosyncrasies.] And its opposites, physical plainness or extreme ugliness. Quiet beauty of the person is better, lasts longer, but may make poor box office. As opined here before, Julie Andrews would not have made poor box office in Warner Bros.’ My Fair Lady. Sad.
Peace, emb
Agreed EMB, on all points including Julie Andrews, nothing wonderful about lip syncing Eliza Dolittle for the look. By the way, I worked on first amateur production of My Fair Lady as stage manager assistant and we used the Beeton costumes from Broadway. I am so sorry I ever gave up playing with stage productions. Costumes were beautiful but not in good shape after we were loaned them. One of my Monroe acquaintances had taken off for the big city, New York, and used the family money to become a producer. So, we got cool plays and use of costumes, etc. from his productions and friends as well.
I especially loved Miss Andrews in Victor Victoria which I thought one of her best movies. I am trying for the life of me to remember what I saw her perform live in? Saw Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins live in one of his many incarnations of it, had to fly to New Orleans to see it, it didn’t come to Houston. Went to dinner and a show, flew home. Had a baby sitter with girls.
Love, Jackie
Jackie, hearing Rex Harrison live as Professor Higgins must have been marvellous. I used to play the original cast recording of the broadway show over and over — vinyl of course. The album has a very nifty and clever picture on it — it’s by Hershfield (spelling questionable.)
I love Broadway performances, even as road tours. I saw Rex Harrison more than once, I think once in Mousetrap or something like it? A murder mystery. Saw Yul Brenner sweeping around the stage as the King, Robert Goulet as Lancelot, Liza Minelli in Caberet, stage managed a college production with the great Bob Fosse as guest choreograph director (and he danced solo), saw Harve Presnell and those beautiful long legs, list just goes on and on. Sometimes in audience, most often, for a few precious years on stage and back stage in college and community theater. That rich ex-pat Monroe exile called in lots of favors. A cat I rescued went on to Broadway and Greenwich Village with a young director. Richard Simmons slow danced with his head on my chest (and I am short) as a fat drama student freshman. It was all just a hoot.
Needless to say, marrying Mike I gave it all up, he didn’t like my associates nor the long, late hours or the interesting crowd we were. He was just too strait. My first role in college was in Oscar Wilde’s ‘Importance of Being Earnest” where I sat on the lap of and kissed a lovely, handsome gay drama major who later became an ambassador to Russia. I suspect Sand knows him? Love, Jackie
😉
Good morning Villagers…
And a very happy belated birthday to Indy Mindy!!!! And where has she been? I hope she has not been gobbled up by some corporate pac man.
Ah, Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong were two of my son’s favorites when he was just a wittle guy. Now it’s Destiny…some online game. Video games have come a long way.
Ian sprayed for weeds yesterday using some week killer called “Power Line’….are ya ready for the price tag? $550 for a two and a half gallon jug…just add water and some Round Up and you’ve got some week killer. The Power Line stuff is supposed to go for the roots. The Corp suggested the brand. Think I’ll check it out online…gotta be a better deal out there.
GR 😉 thank you for being confident in me…but, there is some disturbance in my ‘Force’…and thank you for A Whiter Shade of Pale….I remember dancing to that song at ‘sockhops’….remember those days?
Jackie, that is too funny about Richard Simmons. But there is something about him that just drives me nuts…like his clothes! And that hair!!!
Ya’ll have a blessed day…
today’s grin:
http://cheezburger.com/6615688704
Check out the markings on this kitteh….is it an ocelot?
http://cheezburger.com/8485861376
Thank you all for the birthday wishes. No rum, sadly. Have to be ready for promo change AND truck today… at 6a. Maybe Friday
And Mindy waits for her truck in five minutes and I sit here in dark in my office? With two annoying cats who want breakfast and will settle for little cans of dog food. Raining steadily, I think I am going back to bed! Love, Jackie
I remember my first nephew playing Pong when he was just a toddler; that’s the first of that ilk I recall. I’ve never played them, with one stunning exception: the original Sims, which I enjoyed very, very much. Oh my gosh, it was having the best dollhouse ever! I did not get Sims 2, but I do have Sims 3 now. I enjoy it, but not as much as the very first Sims.
Denise in Michigan, I never got started on the Sims, but there is one called Tropico I had a lot of fun with. You are playing the part of the leader of a small Caribbean island nation. You have to balance out mining, farming, building schools and churches, etc to bring in income and still keep the populace happy enough not to throw you out of office. It’s a real challenge.
Good morning Debbe. The little kitty might be a Bengal, which have been bred out of both domestic and wild cats to get one which looks wild but is domesticated.
Thanks for today’s charmer, JJ. The bikini has become an almost tweener in beachware for the feminine set.
my game was Burger Time. I still have my Atari2600, with Starpath Supercharger, Intellivision with Intellivoice adapter, and Colecovision which has the arcade exact looking Burger Time. Q-Bert was a good one too. .. ..stage shows – after the series ended – Jack Klugman and Tony Randall toured in the Odd Couple, saw it at the fancy Jones Hall in Houston, “Oscar” flung some pickle chips into the audience.
GR6, you may be infected based on previous postings were you have commented on popup ads. http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8557843/google-adware-survey-ad-injectors-security-malware
Debbe:
Looks to me like a standard domestic cat, same sp. as the Old World wild cat, Felis catus. Ocelots are in a different genus, restricted to the New World, I think, and the spots are quite different:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocelot#Taxonomy
I doubt they can interbreed, but will check.
Peace, emb
Debbe: Apparently someone has successfully cross-bred ocelots, genus Leopardus, with domestic cats, Felis sylvestris* catus [brought my taxonomy up-to-date], but there was no info / the hybrids’ fertility. I’d expect them to be sterile or nearly so.
Don’t know if the terms are still used, but in the ’50s at U. Mich., we referred to “lumpers” and “splitters.” Cat taxonomy, in my lifetime, seems to have gone from one extreme to another. When I was a kid [= nerd; I knew about this in JHS], many taxonomists put all cats except cheetahs [genus Acinonyx*], from lions to tabbies, into one genus, Felis. Now the family Felidae comprises many genera, maybe more than is useful.
Taxonomy, by itself, is more art than science, up to a point. To be valid, a scientific classification should be consistent with phylogeny as best we understand it#. E.g., early on, hippos, rhinos, and elephants were placed in one order, the Pachydermata, because of their thick skins [used this example here some time ago]. On the basis of anatomy, the fossil record, and now DNA analysis, we now realize hippos belong in the Artiodactyla* [cloven-hoofed mammals and their kin], rhinos with tapirs and horses in the Perissodactyla*, and elephants + their extinct relatives in their own order, the Proboscidea*.
#There are at least two valid scientific positions on what “consistent with phylogeny” implies for classification and nomenclature, but that headache should be ignored here. Currently, I’m in a minority, but not a minority of one.
I expect current felid taxonomy is internally consistent with phylogeny, but maybe the family has been split into more genera than needed. However, I’m not a professional taxonomist; some may have quite sound reasons for the current set-up.
Peace, emb
Thanks, sand, but I’m reasonably sure that what I was getting were just ordinary ads coming from some overly money-grubbing, low-life, scuzz-ball, scum-sucking sites, such as gocomics.com. Not that I really minded, of course. 🙂
Actually, I finally got sick enough of it enough to try Adblocker Plus again. ABP did not cause the problems I encountered the first time I installed it and seems to have solved my popup ad problem. (Happily, no more $35 jockey shorts ads, but sadly no more tiny bikini panties in a rainbow of colors or eye-poppingly illustrated push-up bra ads, either.)
No 6:00 AM truck, nor (so far) rain for me this morning, but both Lady Mindy and Jackie have my sympathy. I could get both tomorrow.
Re Breaking Cat News, the premise is good and it can be funny but, like a news item on a local station, the beginning usually doesn’t seem to know how it’s going to end and may, in fact, have nothing to do with it. It would probably improve it to shorten it by half. Ghost, don’t go there.
Debbe, here is what I was talking about; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_cat
The spots an the kitty are just a variation of Tabby.
Stripes, Spots, and a Wavy pattern,
our Skeezix has stripes on top and spots underneath.
Subject: It’s Good to Know these Things
10. According to Albert Einstein, if honey bees were to disappear from earth, humans would be dead within 4 years.
Now Albert was a genius but not a Botanist – There are many plants that do not rely on bees.
On the other hand diet might get monotonous. Many on Earth would go hungry.
On an other hand if all insects were to disappear we would have a real problem.
emb: Your ideas?