buzzsawmonkey 3/30/2020 5:01:23 PM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/30/2020 5:03:52 PM

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Syrah 3/30/2020 5:04:42 PM

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I want to raise a toast, of some non-alcoholic beverage, for recovering addict and business hero, Mike Lindell of My Pillow.

Trump is a master troll and drives the left media crazy because he has had years of practice, and he enjoys it.

Lindell does it just by existing. 

Syrah 3/30/2020 5:46:13 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 3:

Mike Lindell + Whitehouse Press Corp = Pillow fight!

doppelganglander 3/30/2020 6:11:48 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 4:

I saw a boatload of tweets mocking him and all the other CEOs who talked about what their companies are doing to help. A lot of them said Trump was relying on corporations because the government response was a failure. How pathetic are you when you think nothing can or should be accomplished except by government intervention? My daughter and I were talking about it and we both hope this leads to a long-term increase in civic engagement and people looking out for their neighbors.

Syrah 3/30/2020 6:17:06 PM

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How does someone become a member of the elite of the elite, a member of the Whitehouse Press Corp, and not understand that the number of tests per capita in the US is a stupid comparison against other nations when the US has the highest number of tests completed of any nation, against small population nations like Italy and nations that lie about their numbers, like China?

Do those media clowns really believe that the general public is so stupid that they don’t understand the slight of hand game that the media hack is playing?

Syrah 3/30/2020 6:24:13 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 5:

I think that one of the most detrimental outcomes of World War Two was that it left an impression in many people’s minds that the government can act like a wartime government and force desirable things to happen by shear will and force.

it is a terrible misreading of how the US mobilized to fight the war, but it is how the propaganda described it.

too many people seem to be under the impression that government can do anything with the appropriate dictate or government directive. These same people (AKA Democrats) are outraged when government is not used to create or promote a paradise on earth.

JCM 3/30/2020 6:31:07 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 5:

To those pathetic twits.

Who do you think MAKES anything? Gov't?

You think Gov't makes tanks? Fighter planes, ventilators?

Gov't DOESN'T MAKE A DAMN THING!

Oy Vey

buzzsawmonkey 3/30/2020 6:32:31 PM

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In #6 Syrah said: Do those media clowns really believe that the general public is so stupid that they don’t understand the slight of hand game that the media hack is playing?

Yes.  And many of the general public don't.

Syrah 3/30/2020 6:35:52 PM

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One of the things I have found myself doing during this Wuhan Virus crisis is to explain to friends and family that the natural nature of the media is to talk crisis, outrage and maximum drama, for the simple and natural fact that exciting and interesting news sells more soap and pick-up trucks than boring “everything is ok” news stories.

i can sometimes get some understanding, but it is a sisyphean task to try to educate people against a constant exposure to Lenny Riefenstahl level of visual media (tv news) propaganda.  

Syrah 3/30/2020 6:38:09 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

in my darker moments, I fear that you are right. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 6:38:53 PM

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In #6 Syrah said: Do those media clowns really believe that the general public is so stupid that they don’t understand the slight of hand game that the media hack is playing?

The media believes the public is stupid, yes. After all, we voted for Trump.

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 6:40:45 PM

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In #7 Syrah said: I think that one of the most detrimental outcomes of World War Two was that it left an impression in many people’s minds that the government can act like a wartime government and force desirable things to happen by shear will and force.

Yet it was private industry that mobilized and produced vast numbers of weapons for the West to win WWII.

BTW, in WWI, the government nationalized the railroads. It didn't work. In WWII, they let the railroad companies run their businesses and it worked much better.

Syrah 3/30/2020 6:42:53 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 11:

clarifying here that I am not saying that the media are being nazi propagandists, but that Riefenstahl was a notable pioneer of the art of creating emotionally powerful visual propaganda. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 6:45:12 PM

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In #14 Syrah said: clarifying here that I am not saying that the media are being nazi propagandists, but that Riefenstahl was a notable pioneer of the art of creating emotionally powerful visual propaganda. 

Well, they fit the IHRA definition of anti-semitism in their coverage of Israel - but that doesn't bring them to Nazi level.

(They hold Israel to different standards than any other country)

Syrah 3/30/2020 7:00:01 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 15:

one of the euphonies of my young life that helped shape my political outlook was realizing how much my public schooling avoided discussing or explaining the actual economic ideology of Mussolini‘s fascist Italy or Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

there was also very little discussion of Marxist communism as well, which was a puzzle, since it made it hard to understand the world in the 70’s and early 80’s if these things were left unexplained. 

I had to go and look into these things on my own and without guidance, which would have been nice, but turned out to not be all that necessary, beyond a directive to do so.

I think it was a huge blessing to hav been raised in a family where we strictly observed the family tradition of everyone sitting at the dinner table for supper and father that had a natural knack for applying the Socratic method to what his five children were saying at the table.

 I think I learned far more about human condition at the supper table than in all the years I spent in school. 

doppelganglander 3/30/2020 7:00:49 PM

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Reply to JCM in 8:

The Left assumes corporations have the worst motives - they're greedy and dishonest, they exploit workers, and on and on. They also believe the government operates from the purest motives of helping people and ensuring the common good, equality, and puppies for everyone. Typical childish black and white, us/them thinking. By and large, I trust corporations more. All they want is my money, and they're willing to provide goods and services that I need in exchange. Government wants my money to give things to other people and do things that I often disapprove of. I don't object to paying taxes so the government can carry out its necessary functions, but I trust a straightforward business transaction more.

buzzsawmonkey 3/30/2020 7:10:40 PM

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In #17 doppelganglander said: Government wants my money to give things to other people

Democrats never saw a piece of property that they did not want to steal from its owner to give to someone else.  As someone involved in copyrights, I can attest to this.

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 7:33:17 PM

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In #16 Syrah said:  I think I learned far more about human condition at the supper table than in all the years I spent in school. 

Jukebox

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 7:34:26 PM

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In #18 buzzsawmonkey said: Democrats never saw a piece of property that they did not want to steal from its owner to give to someone else.  As someone involved in copyrights, I can attest to this.

You didn't build that. 

--Obama

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 7:40:53 PM

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In #16 Syrah said:  I think I learned far more about human condition at the supper table than in all the years I spent in school. 

When I think back on all the crap I learned in High School
Its a wonder I can think at all

Jukebox

Syrah 3/30/2020 7:41:17 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 19:

the movie/album had some resonance in my youth.

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 7:46:01 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 22:

We actually took our daughter as a toddler to the movie so we could see it.

She is now chief of psychology at a Maryland prison, so she turned out OK

Syrah 3/30/2020 7:55:00 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 21:

Kodachrome is one of my favorites. 

As an aside, one of the most fun discoveries I made in college was learning how magical and fun it was to shoot 120 color and black and white in old antique box cameras. “Fat negatives” were much more forgiving and offered a lot more opportunity for fanatical perfectionism in the dark room than 35mm. 35mm demanded perfection before the shutter was triggered as much as it did in the dark room. 120mm allowed for a lot of fudge before the shutter was triggered as long as you had some idea of what you were doing, and was really amazing if you gave it the same attention to detail that it was required to give to 35mm.  

A 6x7 or better yet a 6x9 negative was a real wonder to play with. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 7:58:18 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 24:

Now, no more Kodachrome. Nikon only makes digital cameras.

They took my Kodachrome away

Syrah 3/30/2020 8:01:17 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 25:

20 years ago, I boasted About having over $10,000.00 worth of camera and darkroom equipment. 

I might be able to get about $500.00 for the whole lot of it now.  

Syrah 3/30/2020 8:06:00 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 26:

maybe about $510,00 if I was real aggressive...

Occasional Reader 3/30/2020 8:09:38 PM

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Occasional Reader 3/30/2020 8:10:40 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 26:

wait six or seven years, it will be cool and in demand, just like vinyl records.

Syrah 3/30/2020 8:12:15 PM

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One of my best portraits  was of a little girl in a velvet dress, sitting in a overstuffed chair, holding her teddy bear, looking very sad.

Her little brother was supposed to be in the pictures but was throwing a terrible tantrum out of camera shot. I saw what was happening in the viewfinder with just the girl sitting alone, snapped the shot, and ended up with one of the best sales of the studio for that month. 

It was a wonderful picture. 

Occasional Reader 3/30/2020 8:16:04 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 8:17:24 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 26:

I have some old cameras - 1913 and 1920s Kodak expanding ones

I also have a Polaroid 250, the top of the line for consumer cameras in the early 1970's

All worth crap now

Syrah 3/30/2020 8:28:01 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 32:

but they were so good!

the problem I had with the expanding cameras is that the leather would often dry out and crack, creating light leaks. 

The box cameras were more solid.  The lenses were very limited, by their nature.  The older ones had by guess and by golly shutter speeds and single f-stops. Usually at 16 or 22. 

I like the instant of digital, but I think that something is lost from the care nd deliberation that film required.

Working in the studio, I tried to argue that film cost was cheap enough that we should err on the side of shooting too many negatives, but my old school, fashion photography trained mentors were fixated on how every shot should be thought through and made perfect every time.

i argued for serendipity.

the market changed.

everyone has a cellphone now days and very few people go to a professional studio anymore. 

Syrah 3/30/2020 8:35:43 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 33:

i am a contradiction.

i argue from the perfect planning standpoint of my mentors and for the openness to serendipity that digital allows. 

Both are good.

but knowing how much effort and care should go into a perfect picture makes the magic of serendipity easier to anticipate when it is about to happen.

Kosh's Shadow 3/30/2020 8:41:06 PM

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Reply to Syrah in 34: 

I once set up some equipment at a big computer company for a professional photographer to shoot. He took Polaroids to make sure everything was right and then took the pictures he'd use.

(I also was on a video of a flat-screen monitor somewhere around 1990. The monitor cost $25,000. I should find the old VHS and put it on youtube/)

@PBJ3 3/30/2020 10:51:36 PM

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