Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
|
|
|
Missing in Action
|
You are logged in as Guest
|
|
Users viewing this topic: none
|
|
Login  | |
|
   
BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
|
 Missing in Action
|
|
|
Lately, I have noticed that some of the Foro's most interesting contributors have been missing in action. It seems to have started when Simon held the poll on what to do about the "Off Topic" section, as he (correctly) wanted to eliminate the personal attacks that sometimes resulted in unnecessary rudeness. And certain contributors' comments referred to "old men" occasionally dominating a thread. (Some of us are "elderly," but I don't think we dominated threads anymore than some of the younger members. We had something to say or add to a topic, and so we said it.)
By missing in action, I refer to Richard, Stephen, Ricardo (although Stephen and Ricardo still contribute from time to time), and my good friend in Tempe, AZ Miguel de Maria, who always had something prescient to say, whether the topic was flamenco or political-economy. Likewise, Ruphus, GuitarBuddha, and Aeolus are not heard from much anymore. Did the reference to "old men" turn you off (certainly not you, Miguel)? Can't we continue discussing "Off Topic," interesting issues without resorting to personal attacks and rude behavior? Of course we can, and we should. Or is everyone just laying low for a while?
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 15 2014 21:10:07
 |
|
estebanana
Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to BarkellWH)
|
|
|
I think I was the one who said "You're bunch of old men." but I was referring to the younger set who act like whiny farts without having had enough years of life kicking them in the teeth to have earned the grumpy clout.
I've cut back because I have too much work to do and typing hurts my back. I was riffing on something the other day about the typhoon that hit Japan and having a good time an someone said Oh look he's drunk again. It kind of bothered me. If I had been drunk I might have been funnier, or at least had more funnier typos.
Well I can be creative and be a writer or maker of things whether I'm drunk or sober, because l'm just creative about 120% of the time no matter what state I am in so it bothered me that someone would say ~look he's acting out like an ass again because he's DRUNK! It's like something my born again grandmother would say OH MY GOD he drunk!
My grandmother and my Great Aunt Polly used to play cribbage in the summer. It was usually hot in the low desert, so they would have a medicinal snort
to keep themselves cool. They poured from gallon jugs of Ernest & Julio Gallo into these heavy glass goblets filled with ice. I suppose because the water was mixed with wine an dit was hot that is was ok to drink. Great aunt Polly was not born again, and my grandmother pestered her about that. I remember the cribbage games and the watery wine and how my grandmother would get tipsy and start quoting the bible, which she knew very well.
She could quote scripture when she was sober and when she was drunk, just like I can be creative when I am sober or drunk. Although working with power tools and sharp hand tools when you are drunk is a bad idea and quoting scripture is much safer. So I tend to work when I am sober and write when I am sober, occasionally writing when I have had a drink or two. I never, well I can't think of any instance, but I never quote the bible. I would have to be really drunk in order to bring myself to do that.
I'm in hopes someone will say to me: "You're a disgusting lout when you write when you are drunk. " only so I can call back in Churchillian fashion "Yes, but I am creative and tomorrow I will be sober and creative and you will only be sober."
_____________________________
https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 16 2014 7:32:55
|
|
Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to BarkellWH)
|
|
|
Hotel staff that sips of guests´ bottles or picks occasional items like watches, etc., and on the other hands hotel guests who yet in the mosts exclusive lodgings have made the personel on check out looking for eventually swiped bathrobes, towels etc. ...
What times of lacking style, culture and integrity throughout. Disgusting.
-
I have been writing less, as Simon appeared to be disapproving "esoterics" as he calls it, and I wouldn´t want to irk him, not just for this being his place.
Personally I think that in a complex world OT is alright and not seldomly even inevitable to illuminate coherences or parallels; beside of the fact that it can be informative and entertaining. But admittedly, going astray can spoil threads as future resource for readers researching on a certain bit of info. ( Who then have to read through on how we preferably cook pasta carbonara or something. hehehe  >cough, ehm ...<
Coincidentally, I was about to post some OT related to photo technique yesterday, only that my first attempt at the technique failed. Might retry and sneaking it in the OT section today. 
Ruphus
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 16 2014 11:23:04
|
|
BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
|
|
|
quote:
I've been traveling for the last couple of months
Richard,
Are you in Bali? Have you visited Lombok? Lombok is interesting, although not as culturally rich as Bali (at least with regard to Bali's Hindu-Buddhist brand of the Hindu religion, which differs somewhat from that in India). And it is worth visiting Lombok, across the Lombok Strait from Bali, just to cross the Wallace Line, the imaginary line first described by Alfred Russell Wallace in the mid-19th century that separates Asian fauna from Austral fauna.
A very good book to read (still in print) is Wallace's work, "The Malay Archipelago," which describes his eight years living, traveling, and exploring the flora and fauna of Indonesia (the Malay Archipelago). In fact, Wallace had discovered and worked on the theory of evolution and natural selection, based on his observations and work in Indonesia, at the same time as Darwin. Both refined the theory contemporaneously (and separately), but Darwin published his first and thus got the credit for it. Nevertheless, Wallace was on to the same thing.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 16 2014 11:46:54
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to Ruphus)
|
|
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ruphus
Hotel staff that sips of guests´ bottles or picks occasional items like watches, etc., and on the other hands hotel guests who yet in the mosts exclusive lodgings have made the personel on check out looking for eventually swiped bathrobes, towels etc. ...
What times of lacking style, culture and integrity throughout. Disgusting.
Ruphus
The definition of theft varies from one culture to another. For example, in Micronesia it is very different from Europe and the USA. A constant source of friction where I lived was the "theft" of bicycles. There were no private cars, bus service was infrequent and sometimes unreliable. Marshallese people had to catch a ferry home to a different island, and it ran on an inflexible schedule. If you left your bicycle unlocked, you were likely at times to find it gone when you returned. But you could almost always find it parked in one of the racks at the harbor. To a Marshallese, this was a reasonable instance of borrowing, brought on by the necessity of catching the ferry. To most Americans it was theft, and provoked outrage.
In Bali, foreign spirits cost more than twice what they do in the USA, due to the high taxes imposed on them. A bottle of Glenfiddich costs more than a third of the monthly earnings of a relatively prosperous limousine driver I spoke with. He supports a wife, three children and shares the support of his parents with his brothers.
In Balinese culture, exposing someone to strong temptation is a sin. How else was the head room boy ever to know what single malt scotch tasted like, without taking an almost undetectable sample from an opened bottle, left out in the open for days at a time? I fear that he was severely disappointed, as I was at age fourteen when I decided to sample my father's Glenlivet and one of his Cuban Montecristos, both decidedly acquired tastes. The room boy was certainly in the wrong, but so was I, and the loss to an unimaginably rich American was infinitesimal.
If it was the crime of theft, in Balinese terms I shared some of the responsibility.
The staff at this hotel are very well trained in Western expectations, those who interact regularly with guests speak perfect English. Not only are they all friendly and polite in the inimitable southeast Asian way, they are thoughtful. I am not in the least apprehensive about leaving in the room thousands of dollars worth of camera gear, whose value they are sure to know, nor a guitar whose monetary value they probably don't know, and whose sentimental value I'm certain they don't know.
A bit of Scotch Tape for the scotch whisky saves us all from sin.
RNJ
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 16 2014 14:54:56
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to estebanana)
|
|
|
Stephen--
You may expect to see us in Japan some day, thanks to your kind invitation. We didn't make it to Nara on our previous trip. Nikko is also on my list. Maybe sometime when the weather is nicer in southern and central Japan?
Bill--
I am so in love with the cultural richness of Bali that I still have a wonderful time staying in Ubud, despite the touristization of southern Bali. I have never made it to Lombok, but my forays into East Java via car and driver as far as Yogyakarta have been fascinating. Prambanan and Borobudur are vastly impressive. A trip to Parang Tritis on the coast was a hoot. The half day ascent to Gunung Bromo and the morning visit to the vast caldera are unique experiences.
Larisa wanted to hit the beach, so on a trip to Seminyak I said, "Why don't we eat at Made's Warung in Kuta?" It was one of my favorites on my first trip to Bali twenty years ago. Then it was a small traditional building open to the street with maybe ten tables. This is my fifth time to return to Bali. Kuta was totally unrecognizable, utterly buried in shops ranging from fairly nice to tourist kitsch. The sidewalks were patrolled by dense brigades of sun-pinkened Aussies in singlets, shorts and flip-flops, accompanied by their sometimes pudgy wives and girlfriends. Made's now covers a city block with extensive parking and security guards to direct traffic, and an assortment of upscale boutiques in the sprawling courtyard. But the food was still excellent and the staff friendly and attentive.
The seafood warung at Jimbaran, with tables on the sand of the beach and the sound of gently breaking waves brought fond memories and an excellent dinner of grilled fish in chili sauce, huge prawns, clams, crabs, calamari and a variety of spicy dipping sauces. The kitchen and other facilities were housed in a more substantial building than the thatched shacks of twenty years ago, but it was still a bit funky, in a way that we enjoyed.
The strolling musicians were as variable as ever, but friendly and upbeat. When the ten-year old Aussie boy at the next table stood up and volunteered to sing they pitched right in. By the second verse, coached by the lead guitar, they had the tune down pretty well, and by the third verse they had a mostly workable set of chords and a bass line. I couldn't have done better.
RNJ
Time to uncork that whisky....
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 16 2014 15:02:34
|
|
Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
|
|
RE: Missing in Action (in reply to BarkellWH)
|
|
|
Or if being of a persistantly ignorant type, take notice that it shows in snotty comments.
Amazing, how an attitude that has hardly brought forward anything use- or helpful since thousands of years, now entirely served and stuffed through inventions and production of the pragmatic part of the world, nonetheless keeps claiming competence of judging what is "crap" and what matters and what not.
If the cheeky mindset would at least keep shut; but the intrinsic characteristic with ignorance being that it can´t size up itself for the life of it. Neither would it know what principles are when it sees them.
From there it does not even have the backbone of staying to its votive, taking off all the occident "BS" achievements and ride home in self-woven rags on a donkey. ( - Actually, better even on foot, as it should not deal with animals as the indifferent or cruel that it often is.)
Away from handy internet, engines or central heating, just like already away from logic and coherent being.
"Crap", true trash, is the unprincipled. If it only had the clue to know.
Ruphus
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jul. 21 2014 9:40:04
|
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Forum Software powered by ASP Playground Advanced Edition 2.0.5
Copyright © 2000 - 2003 ASPPlayground.NET |
0.078125 secs.
|
Printable Version
