THIS IS NOT A TEST
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mjp
Founding member
Music marketing, or: how to buy the same song 15 times - THIS IS NOT A TEST #47
http://thisisnotatest.com/music-marketing-or-how-to-buy-the-same-song-15-times-this-is-not-a-test-47
We've all done it, bought a song - or an entire album - that we already have. Do you blame technology or marketing? While we ponder that we'll also ponder getting your arm chopped off in big piece of farm equipment, chance, luck, chaos, the Pope, opinions, monkey meat, The Beatles, The Monkees, Victrolas, 8-tracks, leaving your cassettes in a hot car, cynical attempts to separate you from your money, remastering, plastic apples, Blink 182, 180 gram vinyl, Thanksgiving dinner at your parents house, skinny jeans and the shithole that is Stitcher.
http://thisisnotatest.com/music-marketing-or-how-to-buy-the-same-song-15-times-this-is-not-a-test-47
We've all done it, bought a song - or an entire album - that we already have. Do you blame technology or marketing? While we ponder that we'll also ponder getting your arm chopped off in big piece of farm equipment, chance, luck, chaos, the Pope, opinions, monkey meat, The Beatles, The Monkees, Victrolas, 8-tracks, leaving your cassettes in a hot car, cynical attempts to separate you from your money, remastering, plastic apples, Blink 182, 180 gram vinyl, Thanksgiving dinner at your parents house, skinny jeans and the shithole that is Stitcher.
mjp
Founding member
Well, you can go back to Stitcher now if you'd like.
I told them I wanted to remove my show because the sound was no good and they said, "If you'll consider staying we can stream it directly..." So I said, sure, and they clicked whatever they have to click over there and now it streams directly, in full living color.
They still haven't updated the feed, so the latest episodes aren't there yet, but I'm working on that.
- - -
And now they said that the feed is updating, so the latest episodes should be up there soon.
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mjp
Founding member
Art vs. commerce, or: sell yourself for fun and profit! THIS IS NOT A TEST #48
http://thisisnotatest.com/art-vs-commerce-or-sell-yourself-for-fun-and-profit-this-is-not-a-test-48
Art vs. commerce - as Bukowski wrote in Barfly, "Ah, the eternal question! The eternal answer? I don't know." But not knowing the answer to a question has never prevented me from doing this before. I'll talk about a lot of other things I don't have any answers for too, like terrorism in Paris, forcing creativity, making things difficult on yourself, compromise, naivete, smog, humans, reading fees, business being business, art galleries, balloon animals, trying not to look foolish, hammer and nails, auction houses, a hundred hipsters sweating, self-preservation, racism, peace, love and more Bukowski.
http://thisisnotatest.com/art-vs-commerce-or-sell-yourself-for-fun-and-profit-this-is-not-a-test-48
Art vs. commerce - as Bukowski wrote in Barfly, "Ah, the eternal question! The eternal answer? I don't know." But not knowing the answer to a question has never prevented me from doing this before. I'll talk about a lot of other things I don't have any answers for too, like terrorism in Paris, forcing creativity, making things difficult on yourself, compromise, naivete, smog, humans, reading fees, business being business, art galleries, balloon animals, trying not to look foolish, hammer and nails, auction houses, a hundred hipsters sweating, self-preservation, racism, peace, love and more Bukowski.
mjp
Founding member
How's your health (insurance)? THIS IS NOT A TEST #49
http://thisisnotatest.com/hows-your-health-insurance-this-is-not-a-test-49
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Okay, but what do I need to eat to keep the insurance company away? Also, maps, taking a shower, Richie Havens, rabbit holes, incompetent doctors, the condition known as "Heisenblatt shoulder," living on the high side of normal, treadmills, torturing people and measuring how their bodies react, colonoscopies, forgetting how to walk, insurance, insurance and more insurance, magic mathematics, good insurance vs. bad insurance, half a car, the safe in my closet, La-Z-Boy recliners, puritans, Vulcans, Mr. Rogers and Carol Burnett.
http://thisisnotatest.com/hows-your-health-insurance-this-is-not-a-test-49
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Okay, but what do I need to eat to keep the insurance company away? Also, maps, taking a shower, Richie Havens, rabbit holes, incompetent doctors, the condition known as "Heisenblatt shoulder," living on the high side of normal, treadmills, torturing people and measuring how their bodies react, colonoscopies, forgetting how to walk, insurance, insurance and more insurance, magic mathematics, good insurance vs. bad insurance, half a car, the safe in my closet, La-Z-Boy recliners, puritans, Vulcans, Mr. Rogers and Carol Burnett.
We have the NHS in the UK so we don't need all that medical insurance crap, however the NHS is being undermined and destroyed by the current government. We're heading towards that good old "Got no money? Fuck you" policy that everyone knows and loves. This government's answer to unemployment seems to be to kill the unemployed, well it's a solution, and it gets the all important unemployment numbers down. Why treat the sick unemployed when it's cheaper to just kill them through brutal economic policy?
We live in such strange times, we should be more civilised, we should have this society thing sown up, but it's as vicious and unforgiving as ever. The only thing the poor are guilty of is being born in a certain place, to certain people. We're stitched up from our first breath, then we go through the education system, chewed up, swallowed and digested and then shit out into the working class toilet bowl, some of us manage to climb out, but it's not easy.
We live in such strange times, we should be more civilised, we should have this society thing sown up, but it's as vicious and unforgiving as ever. The only thing the poor are guilty of is being born in a certain place, to certain people. We're stitched up from our first breath, then we go through the education system, chewed up, swallowed and digested and then shit out into the working class toilet bowl, some of us manage to climb out, but it's not easy.
mjp
Founding member
Billionaires, mass shootings and other tidbits for your leisure time perusal - THIS IS NOT A TEST #50
http://thisisnotatest.com/billionai...ur-leisure-time-perusal-this-is-not-a-test-50
Including thrilling tales of riding bikes up the side of mountains, financing the Napoleonic Wars, "monetizing" every human, sending the nanny to CVS in a chauffeur driven Bentley, Mork from Ork, the last can of beans in Pasadena, mental illness, speaking to the unborn, sashaying in the halls of Congress, marking the passage of time, Pizza Hut, Steely Dan and United States Savings Bonds.
http://thisisnotatest.com/billionai...ur-leisure-time-perusal-this-is-not-a-test-50
Including thrilling tales of riding bikes up the side of mountains, financing the Napoleonic Wars, "monetizing" every human, sending the nanny to CVS in a chauffeur driven Bentley, Mork from Ork, the last can of beans in Pasadena, mental illness, speaking to the unborn, sashaying in the halls of Congress, marking the passage of time, Pizza Hut, Steely Dan and United States Savings Bonds.
Skygazer
And in the end...
With the San Bernadino killings "Was there mental illness", it's a predictable default position, but I think the problem is the guns.You could take the statistics for gun fatalities of a given year or decade - the numbers commited by the mentally ill will be very small, perhaps single figures. In the community you are more at risk from sane people - albeit with a history perhaps, of domestic/substance abuse,economic stress etc.) The mentally ill are more often the victims of crime. Mass shootings are so rare statistically, prevent people with a psychiatric history owning a gun certainly, but it is hard to build common evidence or predictability as to who is going to do it. Of late it's been male, aggrieved white men. As to whether religious extremism is a form of mental illness - who knows.
mjp
Founding member
There have been 353 in the U.S. this year. More than one a day.
It absolutely is.
You're considered mentally ill if you walk down the street talking to people who aren't there. They'll call you delusional and lock you up "for your own safety" (but really so no one has to deal you).
What's the difference between that and really believing that talking to someone who isn't there (i.e. praying) will keep you safe or cure your cancer or psoriasis? There is no difference.
mjp
Founding member
Guns and ammunition aren't available at every drug store here (though it's funny to think of how people outside of this country see it), but they are available in plenty of other places.
The problem with gun control is if they instituted it tomorrow - in fact if they stopped manufacturing guns and ammunition everywhere on earth tomorrow - there are enough guns and ammunition already out there to keep killing people for hundreds of years, so I'm not sure the genie can be put back into the bottle. And for what it's worth you could have said the same thing 50 years ago, meaning we could have stopped making guns and ammo then, but we'd still have these murders. If you take care of a gun it will last forever.
The only way to stop people from shooting each other would be to go door to door in every house in America and turn them inside out looking for guns and ammunition to confiscate. That couldn't happen because we have a constitution that prevents that kind of thing, and even if they changed the constitution to make it legal, the government couldn't carry it out. It would be logistically impossible. Not to mention people would work around it ("Okay, they've been to my place, you can store all your guns here, it's safe now...").
The solution, as I might have alluded to in the podcast thing, is to help people get their minds right so they don't want to shoot everyone they see. But we aren't about to do that either, so here we are.
The problem with gun control is if they instituted it tomorrow - in fact if they stopped manufacturing guns and ammunition everywhere on earth tomorrow - there are enough guns and ammunition already out there to keep killing people for hundreds of years, so I'm not sure the genie can be put back into the bottle. And for what it's worth you could have said the same thing 50 years ago, meaning we could have stopped making guns and ammo then, but we'd still have these murders. If you take care of a gun it will last forever.
The only way to stop people from shooting each other would be to go door to door in every house in America and turn them inside out looking for guns and ammunition to confiscate. That couldn't happen because we have a constitution that prevents that kind of thing, and even if they changed the constitution to make it legal, the government couldn't carry it out. It would be logistically impossible. Not to mention people would work around it ("Okay, they've been to my place, you can store all your guns here, it's safe now...").
The solution, as I might have alluded to in the podcast thing, is to help people get their minds right so they don't want to shoot everyone they see. But we aren't about to do that either, so here we are.
Skygazer
And in the end...
That it has become so frequent over there? isn't that enough to say, you need to change the law and ban the private ownership of automatic weapons and handguns.I get the point about being awash in them and the illegal ownership,but it's a start. The U.S government were willing to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment banning alcohol because of its harmful effect (not a good point really, seeing as how that went) but why can't the same God fearing people get all riled up about this? possibly because they're too busy licking their guns in the privacy of their cupboard.
I do believe Satan made you say that, are you suggesting praying is talking into a . . . void, the vast emtiness of space, all for nothing? but where else can you go to ask for a pestilence to befall thy neighbour, whilst coveting his wife a bit and getting absolved of responsibility.
mjp
Founding member
They do get riled up about it. Not in the way you mean though. Any time there is talk of gun control, the NRA tells its adherents that THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING FOR YOUR GUNS! And the jungle telegraph lights up with defiant hillbillies screaming about prying their guns from their "cold, dead hands."
Ignorant irrationality aside, no modern country is going to amend their societal rules to allow the state to walk in to the citizens homes and take whatever they find offensive. We already have that in some places and it doesn't really make for a peaceful society, does it. Given the choice between a random lunatic possibly shooting you or your own government possibly shooting you, most people will opt for the random lunatic. Though if you ask a lot of black Americans they'll say they are already equally at danger from both sides of that scenario.
This is our culture, and if people really didn't like it they'd do something about it. But we don't, so draw your own conclusions. Gun owners here are not going to get behind a push to eliminate guns so that the country will eventually, maybe not have any gun violence hundreds of years from now. We're not that forward thinking as a whole, and the gun owners among us - at least the NRA, freedom, Confederate-flag-on-the-truck, cold-dead-hands types - even less so.
Having said all that, I grew up around guns and I have guns, so I'm not impartial. If "they" came for the guns, mine would just be well hidden. I'm not going to give up my edge, you see. Which I'm sure is a common feeling.
You can send my U.S. savings bond to the address you have on file.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Johannes
Founding member
I always feel Europe is to quick and arrogant branding the US as a bunch of bullet-horny Cowboys sleeping with loaded guns under their pillows. It' supposed to be tough and well regulated here to get a license for carrying handguns but I know (or either knew) some people who are allowed to legally buy and carry guns and rifles who really make me wonder how well these regulations are working around here.
That being said, pictures like this
are really hard to process for the Western-European mind. Because anybody who poses like this around here is simply regarded as mad, crazy, completely ballaballa and rather outright dangerous, really. You simply want to get away from people like this.
At least if you are not (like) these people yourself.
That being said, pictures like this
are really hard to process for the Western-European mind. Because anybody who poses like this around here is simply regarded as mad, crazy, completely ballaballa and rather outright dangerous, really. You simply want to get away from people like this.
At least if you are not (like) these people yourself.
mjp
Founding member
I would be wary of anyone wearing a red satin t-shirt, but the guns don't scare me.
You might not be surprised to learn that the blond woman in the middle there also believes that cancer is "a fungus" that can be cured with salt water. She's a Nevada politician. You may also not be surprised to learn that most people in Nevada are bat-shit crazy.
You might be surprised to learn that most Americans feel the same way when they see a picture like that.
You might not be surprised to learn that the blond woman in the middle there also believes that cancer is "a fungus" that can be cured with salt water. She's a Nevada politician. You may also not be surprised to learn that most people in Nevada are bat-shit crazy.
Skygazer
And in the end...
There lies the problem, because shouldn't a modern society evolve and change the rules to be relevant and safe.The Second Amendment, drawn from the old english common law/ Bill of Rights gives the right to bear arms. But we have a modern police force and military, the need for individuals to be armed and ready to fight - whoever, isn't there, but they just like it, so it's a stalemate. But in those old laws, there is the right for government to disarm the population, especially so, when it becomes a public safety issue. Australia did it, in response to a mass shooting.
What is the scariest thing looking at the U.S from outside, is the power that the Gun Lobby has, we get plenty of images of right wing extremists waving their guns around and chanting about their rights, but also reports that the majority of Americans are in favour of the right to keep guns, but they also want to see stricter regulation and change on assault/automatic weapons, not about taking all guns away.In rural areas here to, people have a different attitude to guns and a lot keep them for hunting.
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You're right! How can these irresponsible adults leave the poor babies unarmed!
Johannes
Founding member
I knew that Michele Fiore is a politician, I saw that picture in an article about her. I didn't know the stuff about cancer and salt water. Jesus.
You can find this kind of crazy (and much worse) in European politicians as well, of course. And you don't even have to go back to famous historical examples. But funny enough, would they pose with guns like this in todays media I belive there would be debates if you shouldn't get the children out of there or something, like this really has gone too far now.
There simply is no cultural narrative or however you want to call it, for pictures like this around here.
You got male conservative right-wing politicians posing as great hunters over their shot animals all right, nobody gets excited about that and they got a huge, rich and most powerful lobby and an endless list of supporters. But would they hand their kids some guns and pose like this, their sanity would seriously be doubted.
Then too, as you said: maybe there really isn't much difference in this regard between Europe and the US at all.
Not anymore, no. I'll try to avoid their christmas dinners.
You can find this kind of crazy (and much worse) in European politicians as well, of course. And you don't even have to go back to famous historical examples. But funny enough, would they pose with guns like this in todays media I belive there would be debates if you shouldn't get the children out of there or something, like this really has gone too far now.
There simply is no cultural narrative or however you want to call it, for pictures like this around here.
You got male conservative right-wing politicians posing as great hunters over their shot animals all right, nobody gets excited about that and they got a huge, rich and most powerful lobby and an endless list of supporters. But would they hand their kids some guns and pose like this, their sanity would seriously be doubted.
Then too, as you said: maybe there really isn't much difference in this regard between Europe and the US at all.
Not anymore, no. I'll try to avoid their christmas dinners.
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mjp
Founding member
Maybe you should give up - THIS IS NOT A TEST #51
http://thisisnotatest.com/maybe-you-should-give-up-this-is-not-a-test-51
Let's talk about when it's time to give up. And while we're at it we may as well talk about professional hand models, deep tissue massage, the counterculture, Oprah, the rising tide that raises all boats, how lazy poets are, sure fire money-making schemes, a better way to store sweaters, Sumi-e painting, Japanese hammers, bible class, how GOD HATES FAGS, monkeys disassembling atomic bombs, lord Vishnu, doing nothing, the circle of life, shedding hair, tattoo parlors and even a Chirpwatch update for old time's sake. Now how much would you pay?
http://thisisnotatest.com/maybe-you-should-give-up-this-is-not-a-test-51
Let's talk about when it's time to give up. And while we're at it we may as well talk about professional hand models, deep tissue massage, the counterculture, Oprah, the rising tide that raises all boats, how lazy poets are, sure fire money-making schemes, a better way to store sweaters, Sumi-e painting, Japanese hammers, bible class, how GOD HATES FAGS, monkeys disassembling atomic bombs, lord Vishnu, doing nothing, the circle of life, shedding hair, tattoo parlors and even a Chirpwatch update for old time's sake. Now how much would you pay?
Hosh
hoshomccreesh.com
Ah, Chirpwatch...oh how I adore it!
Please please please record some of it, for the show, for history's sake!
The longer this goes, the more convinced I am that you should contact all the battery companies around and get them to pay for a LIVE-STREAMED (co-hosted by Bill Murray) sweepstakes like camera-crew that descends on the neighbor's house once it goes quiet to determine exactly which name brand battery is designed to last that long before chirping its last chirp!
I'd also like a count-up deal on the webpage like you'd see for "smoking deaths this year" or "days without a day lost to injury, maiming, or death" like you'd see at a lumber yard.
Please please please record some of it, for the show, for history's sake!
The longer this goes, the more convinced I am that you should contact all the battery companies around and get them to pay for a LIVE-STREAMED (co-hosted by Bill Murray) sweepstakes like camera-crew that descends on the neighbor's house once it goes quiet to determine exactly which name brand battery is designed to last that long before chirping its last chirp!
I'd also like a count-up deal on the webpage like you'd see for "smoking deaths this year" or "days without a day lost to injury, maiming, or death" like you'd see at a lumber yard.