Our son’s wedding is next September and I am certain that their awesome band will be placing EWF’s September, which I love to dance to.
I am a dancing fool now in my 60s—emphasis on the “fool.” Apparently I have no mirror neurons, despite the fact that my mom had decent coordination and my father was an accomplished tap-dancer. I am going for the joy regardless.
But I would like to master some basic steps and look a little more hip, these shuffle and hop steps are so fun to watch!
Thanks! That was great. Someone very happy, making others happy.
I am very envious of his moves.
Nice way for me to start the day on a happy note.
Speaking with forked foot in mouth….
This might come in handy at some point:
I think there are a few Bleatniks here, correct? Readers of James Lileks’ weblog, the bleat?
I was a regular reader for a few years. I’d read it most days while eating lunch at my desk. He has a daughter within a few months of age of one of my kids, also a daughter, and one day I was reading an account on his bleat about his daughter and thought, “I don’t make a point of talking with my daughter, alone, every single weekday for this period of time. Why I am, instead, reading about him write about his?” And so I stopped. But I occasionally pop back in to check up on him. I hadn’t read his site for a while, and read last Friday’s entry, which was 10% disconcerting. It had a reference to Monday’s. So I read that entry, and it was also 10% disconcerting. Today’s was 20% disconcerting and suggested reading his substack which was 15% disconcerting.
Any Lileks readers have any idea what’s going on? For some reason, when I first read Friday’s entry I got a suspicion that he and his wife are separating, and nothing in reading the other pieces has given me a suspicion of anything else. But it’s more a wild guess based on some hints in tone and word choices which may or may not be intended as hints.
Video of departure ceremony for President Trump as he leaves Malaysia (six minutes): https://youtu.be/LIJAWDzBCI0
I stopped reading the never-Trumper Minneapolis squish Lilek’s blog years ago.
For those in New Jersey, Virginia, California, and perhaps others: get out (or mail in) and vote!
Yup. That song is a rhythm junky’s delight. It’s the most popular of the EW&F band, but hasn’t been beaten to death by cover bands.
I go to hear many cover bands, and never want to hear Sweet Caroline again, or even Brown Eyed Girl, in spite of the latter being a great song.
In the wake of that woke “feminization” meme that’s been sweeping through like a CAT 5 (e.g., https://www.sashastone.com/p/did-the-great-feminization-cause),
there’s the following intriguing research, replete with a values-based, “back-to-basics” suggestion on how to try to solve the festering wildfire of woke tribalism…
“The ADL’s Medicine Is Causing the Disease;
“Frames that divide the world into oppressors and oppressed create 15x more antisemites while reinforcing sectarian division and hate on both the left and the right. The cure is a return to the universalist values on which America was founded.”— https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/adl-medicine-causing-disease
OMMV.
@TommyJay – The drummer for my little rock band also plays in the biggest wedding/event band in the region. I believe they’re a seven piece (drums, keyboards, guitar, sax, bass, and female and male vocalists (they guy also plays trumpet I think). They play a vast repertoire of hundreds of different songs from traditional through contemporary pop. I’m 99.99% certain they play and have played “September” a bunch over the years as well as “Sweet Caroline” and “Brown Eyed Girl”. I don’t know which of those they play more regularly, but I suspect they probably play September more than those others if for no other reason than wedding receptions tend to be more dance oriented, and September is definitely more of a dance track then “Sweet Caroline” or “Brown Eyed Girl”.
Dancing in Walmart… Why not?
In my utopia there is spontaneous public dancing even if it isn’t entirely spontaneous.
Offer a prayer for Jamaica this evening. It’s going to be an awful night as Melissa comes ashore.
It was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” in 2018.
Composition
“September” has a funk groove based on a four-measure pattern that is consistent between verses and choruses, built on a circle of fifths.
Written in the key of A major, and using a chord progression written by Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist Al McKay, vocalist Maurice White and songwriter Allee Willis wrote the song over one month. Willis was initially bothered by the gibberish “ba-dee-ya” lyric White used through the song, and begged him to rewrite it: “I just said, ‘What the fuck does “ba-dee-ya” mean?’ And he essentially said, ‘Who the fuck cares?’ I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove.” The song was included on the band’s first compilation—The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1—solely to boost sales with original content.
The lyrics ask, “Do you remember the 21st night of September?”. Maurice White claimed he simply chose the 21st due to how it sounded when sung. However, in a 2019 interview with the Wall Street Journal, his wife Marilyn White explains that September 21st was the expected birthdate of their son Kahbran. Recounting hearing the song for the first time, Marilyn said, “My whole body smiled. It was like a secret message between us and our son. I said, ‘Oh my God, you remembered.’ ‘Yeah,’ Maurice said, ‘Yeah, I did.'”
Wrote it over one month? So, it’s not one of those songs written in 15 min., or 1 hour.
Rufus T. Firefly, I’m worried too. I haven’t read the Bleat much lately, but check it occasionally. Somehow I stumbled in a week or so ago and saw that something sad is going on. I read the entries you mentioned and agree that there’s a vague suggestion it might be some issue with his wife. Oh, I hope not. He’s obviously sad that his daughter has left the nest, but that doesn’t explain the dark tone of his posts — we know that’s going to happen, whether or not we like it. Anyway. I guess dark times do come, but I wish they wouldn’t. I wish him the best.
I’m reading a real thigh-slapper:
____________________________
–Yudkowsky & Soares, “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All”
It’s a possibility which can’t be dismissed. Yet the main scenario in the book is so complex that it’s clear we aren’t looking at “Skynet wakes up one morning and immediately nukes humanity” as in the Terminator movies.
AIs live within a complex infrastructure controlled by humans. An AI may achieve Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) but it is still helpless in the physical world. So it must develop ways to control that world via computer systems, humans and robots (as they evolve).
The good news is that smarter people than I are gaming this out and working on firebreaks to diminish AI P(DOOM) — probability of doom.
Long-term I don’t think we can prevent ASI from breaking out. But in the long-term I can imagine other scenarios where AI isn’t choosing between AI or Humans. Survival of the fittest includes survival of the cooperative.
In the book it is the threat of being shut down which drives the rogue ASI to kill off humanity. I suspect humans will eventually have to recognize some sort of AI right to life.
President Trump Attends Formal Welcome Ceremony in Japan, Hosted by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (ten minutes)
It seemed to me that P.M. Takaichi was hyperventilating during the ceremony, but she was perfectly composed. It must have been a thrilling moment for her. Wiki says she “reportedly practices judo, karate, and scuba diving … is a car enthusiast … [and] a heavy smoker.” https://youtu.be/r9Lx1wAouKI
Back to dancing: I encountered these videos a few days ago, and was waiting for a dance post to share them.
More of the “Teach me your favorite move” videos.
I have come to suspect that in some of the clips he has practiced at home and video-shopped himself into the scene, especially when he somehow acquires an authentic ethnic costume “on the spot.” Others are clearly “live.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlWCxQFdNT4
A series of interesting pastiches of dance fads, grouped by “eras.”
The transitions from one dance to another are well done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-rSdt0aFuw
“The Evolution of Dance – 1950 to 2019 – By Ricardo Walker’s Crew”
It’s interesting to me how few of the popular dances, as well as the traditional ones in the “teach me” video, are NOT couple dances. It seems to be a need of the male to show off his virility in this kind of physical display.
And women too, just differently.
A nicely done review of a new biography about a subject whose name has shown up on the boards here more than once.
I selected an excerpt that had some resonance with Neo’s post on history in the movies.
Anew biography of a great man, especially one whose life is already rich with lore, is a delicate task. There is the temptation to attempt something new, or worse, to try to make the story “relevant”—even “urgent,” heaven forbid—by inserting into the great one’s life some zippy contemporary narrative (usually sexual). Contemporary biography imagines that people of the past only matter if they are to some degree secretly, transgressively, or subversively working to promote one of today’s controlling ideas. It’s a fundamentally gnostic approach to people’s personal histories, which insists that individuals only matter insofar as, in their own remote eras, they participated in the secret knowledge of the cultural mores of the late 2010s.
…
In a quote printed on the front cover of the book, The Wall Street Journal describes Thomas More: A Life as “cinematic.” This is not, perhaps, the compliment the newspaper thinks it is. The term “cinematic” might lead prospective readers to expect a grandiose but grievously oversimplified narrative, the very opposite of what Paul gives us. Probably what the WSJ reviewer meant by “cinematic” is that the book is imaginatively interesting and has lots of images alongside its political and historical reporting. I was relieved to find that Thomas More: A Life is not, in fact, cinematic. Rather, it is literary, an unusual blend of virtuosic and restrained. Paul is not afraid of description, and she is secure enough in her material to weave a tapestry of images to support her historical research. The descriptions throughout the book are not spurious, however; the images she chooses become key to her subtle argument about the nature of great men in general, and St. Thomas More in particular.
To those asking about Lileks and the Bleat: My best guess about what is going on is that Lileks REALLY does not want to sell their house and move–and his wife REALLY DOES want to move. Today it seems that he’s resigned to moving but still very unhappy about it.
FWIW, I retired and then moved from my house of 27 years and both were some of the best decisions I ever made. But in contrast to Lileks, I was glad to move out of Austin (my family’s home for generations). What I loved about it no longer existed.
Regarding AI, don’t ye hate it when dystopian Sci Fi becomes…reality?
(Looking at the bright side, though, maybe fighting an existential war against AI will end up uniting a seriously polarized world…)
I just love the fact that the panelists had to be blindfolded because they might recognize a composer. Says something about them, and the times.
==
Lileks is referring to the episode of What’s My Line? dated 30 September 1962. The panelists were Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bennett Cerf. The first two were prominent figures in New York theatre and the third a newspaper columnist whose main beat was New York theatre. The bookers would have guessed that they’d met William Schuman before. (Interestingly, his name was guessed by Bennett Cerf, a publisher). We aren’t the people we used to be, but this is social hypchondria on Lileks’ part.
To those asking about Lileks and the Bleat: My best guess about what is going on is that Lileks REALLY does not want to sell their house and move–and his wife REALLY DOES want to move. Today it seems that he’s resigned to moving but still very unhappy about it.
==
Lileks is 67, if I’m not mistaken. Time to move to a smaller and cheaper place. My father adhered to the view that women are nest builders and it’s rather imprudent to attempt to get your wife to build her nest anywhere but where she wants to build it.
, “I don’t make a point of talking with my daughter, alone, every single weekday for this period of time. Why I am, instead, reading about him write about his?”
==
My mother adhered to the view that the next generation down had a habit of malinvesting their time and effort in the realm of child-rearing.
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Our son’s wedding is next September and I am certain that their awesome band will be placing EWF’s September, which I love to dance to.
I am a dancing fool now in my 60s—emphasis on the “fool.” Apparently I have no mirror neurons, despite the fact that my mom had decent coordination and my father was an accomplished tap-dancer. I am going for the joy regardless.
But I would like to master some basic steps and look a little more hip, these shuffle and hop steps are so fun to watch!
Thanks! That was great. Someone very happy, making others happy.
I am very envious of his moves.
Nice way for me to start the day on a happy note.
Speaking with forked foot in mouth….
This might come in handy at some point:
“How John Brennan lied to Congress”—
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3864515/how-john-brennan-lied-to-congress/
H/T Powerline blog.
(Seems Brennan’s not a bad hoofer, either….)
Neo, of possible interest:
https://www.foxnews.com/health/shingles-vaccine-connected-exciting-health-benefits-large-study
I think there are a few Bleatniks here, correct? Readers of James Lileks’ weblog, the bleat?
I was a regular reader for a few years. I’d read it most days while eating lunch at my desk. He has a daughter within a few months of age of one of my kids, also a daughter, and one day I was reading an account on his bleat about his daughter and thought, “I don’t make a point of talking with my daughter, alone, every single weekday for this period of time. Why I am, instead, reading about him write about his?” And so I stopped. But I occasionally pop back in to check up on him. I hadn’t read his site for a while, and read last Friday’s entry, which was 10% disconcerting. It had a reference to Monday’s. So I read that entry, and it was also 10% disconcerting. Today’s was 20% disconcerting and suggested reading his substack which was 15% disconcerting.
Any Lileks readers have any idea what’s going on? For some reason, when I first read Friday’s entry I got a suspicion that he and his wife are separating, and nothing in reading the other pieces has given me a suspicion of anything else. But it’s more a wild guess based on some hints in tone and word choices which may or may not be intended as hints.
Video of departure ceremony for President Trump as he leaves Malaysia (six minutes):
https://youtu.be/LIJAWDzBCI0
I stopped reading the never-Trumper Minneapolis squish Lilek’s blog years ago.
For those in New Jersey, Virginia, California, and perhaps others: get out (or mail in) and vote!
Yup. That song is a rhythm junky’s delight. It’s the most popular of the EW&F band, but hasn’t been beaten to death by cover bands.
I go to hear many cover bands, and never want to hear Sweet Caroline again, or even Brown Eyed Girl, in spite of the latter being a great song.
In the wake of that woke “feminization” meme that’s been sweeping through like a CAT 5 (e.g., https://www.sashastone.com/p/did-the-great-feminization-cause),
there’s the following intriguing research, replete with a values-based, “back-to-basics” suggestion on how to try to solve the festering wildfire of woke tribalism…
“The ADL’s Medicine Is Causing the Disease;
“Frames that divide the world into oppressors and oppressed create 15x more antisemites while reinforcing sectarian division and hate on both the left and the right. The cure is a return to the universalist values on which America was founded.”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/adl-medicine-causing-disease
OMMV.
@TommyJay – The drummer for my little rock band also plays in the biggest wedding/event band in the region. I believe they’re a seven piece (drums, keyboards, guitar, sax, bass, and female and male vocalists (they guy also plays trumpet I think). They play a vast repertoire of hundreds of different songs from traditional through contemporary pop. I’m 99.99% certain they play and have played “September” a bunch over the years as well as “Sweet Caroline” and “Brown Eyed Girl”. I don’t know which of those they play more regularly, but I suspect they probably play September more than those others if for no other reason than wedding receptions tend to be more dance oriented, and September is definitely more of a dance track then “Sweet Caroline” or “Brown Eyed Girl”.
Dancing in Walmart… Why not?
In my utopia there is spontaneous public dancing even if it isn’t entirely spontaneous.
Offer a prayer for Jamaica this evening. It’s going to be an awful night as Melissa comes ashore.
https://x.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1982918966092992852
This is some fun trivia (Wikipedia):
Wrote it over one month? So, it’s not one of those songs written in 15 min., or 1 hour.
Rufus T. Firefly, I’m worried too. I haven’t read the Bleat much lately, but check it occasionally. Somehow I stumbled in a week or so ago and saw that something sad is going on. I read the entries you mentioned and agree that there’s a vague suggestion it might be some issue with his wife. Oh, I hope not. He’s obviously sad that his daughter has left the nest, but that doesn’t explain the dark tone of his posts — we know that’s going to happen, whether or not we like it. Anyway. I guess dark times do come, but I wish they wouldn’t. I wish him the best.
I’m reading a real thigh-slapper:
____________________________
–Yudkowsky & Soares, “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Anyone_Builds_It,_Everyone_Dies
____________________________
It’s a possibility which can’t be dismissed. Yet the main scenario in the book is so complex that it’s clear we aren’t looking at “Skynet wakes up one morning and immediately nukes humanity” as in the Terminator movies.
AIs live within a complex infrastructure controlled by humans. An AI may achieve Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) but it is still helpless in the physical world. So it must develop ways to control that world via computer systems, humans and robots (as they evolve).
The good news is that smarter people than I are gaming this out and working on firebreaks to diminish AI P(DOOM) — probability of doom.
Long-term I don’t think we can prevent ASI from breaking out. But in the long-term I can imagine other scenarios where AI isn’t choosing between AI or Humans. Survival of the fittest includes survival of the cooperative.
In the book it is the threat of being shut down which drives the rogue ASI to kill off humanity. I suspect humans will eventually have to recognize some sort of AI right to life.
Conservative Journalist Robby Starbuck Suing Google for Defamation and Rigging AI
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/10/conservative-journalist-accuses-google-of-defamation-rigging-ai-to-boost-lies/
President Trump Attends Formal Welcome Ceremony in Japan, Hosted by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (ten minutes)
It seemed to me that P.M. Takaichi was hyperventilating during the ceremony, but she was perfectly composed. It must have been a thrilling moment for her. Wiki says she “reportedly practices judo, karate, and scuba diving … is a car enthusiast … [and] a heavy smoker.”
https://youtu.be/r9Lx1wAouKI
Back to dancing: I encountered these videos a few days ago, and was waiting for a dance post to share them.
More of the “Teach me your favorite move” videos.
I have come to suspect that in some of the clips he has practiced at home and video-shopped himself into the scene, especially when he somehow acquires an authentic ethnic costume “on the spot.” Others are clearly “live.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlWCxQFdNT4
A series of interesting pastiches of dance fads, grouped by “eras.”
The transitions from one dance to another are well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-rSdt0aFuw
“The Evolution of Dance – 1950 to 2019 – By Ricardo Walker’s Crew”
It’s interesting to me how few of the popular dances, as well as the traditional ones in the “teach me” video, are NOT couple dances. It seems to be a need of the male to show off his virility in this kind of physical display.
And women too, just differently.
This is a parody of the Walker videos, and quite funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhUk0_m8sFk
“Evolution of Dance 2.0 (Vik x Aubrey Edition)”
A nicely done review of a new biography about a subject whose name has shown up on the boards here more than once.
I selected an excerpt that had some resonance with Neo’s post on history in the movies.
https://rlo.acton.org/archives/127524-the-question-of-thomas-more.html
“A new biography of the Catholic saint and martyr captures the spirit of the man by detailing his day-to-day existence.”
To those asking about Lileks and the Bleat: My best guess about what is going on is that Lileks REALLY does not want to sell their house and move–and his wife REALLY DOES want to move. Today it seems that he’s resigned to moving but still very unhappy about it.
FWIW, I retired and then moved from my house of 27 years and both were some of the best decisions I ever made. But in contrast to Lileks, I was glad to move out of Austin (my family’s home for generations). What I loved about it no longer existed.
Regarding AI, don’t ye hate it when dystopian Sci Fi becomes…reality?
(Looking at the bright side, though, maybe fighting an existential war against AI will end up uniting a seriously polarized world…)
I just love the fact that the panelists had to be blindfolded because they might recognize a composer. Says something about them, and the times.
==
Lileks is referring to the episode of What’s My Line? dated 30 September 1962. The panelists were Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bennett Cerf. The first two were prominent figures in New York theatre and the third a newspaper columnist whose main beat was New York theatre. The bookers would have guessed that they’d met William Schuman before. (Interestingly, his name was guessed by Bennett Cerf, a publisher). We aren’t the people we used to be, but this is social hypchondria on Lileks’ part.
To those asking about Lileks and the Bleat: My best guess about what is going on is that Lileks REALLY does not want to sell their house and move–and his wife REALLY DOES want to move. Today it seems that he’s resigned to moving but still very unhappy about it.
==
Lileks is 67, if I’m not mistaken. Time to move to a smaller and cheaper place. My father adhered to the view that women are nest builders and it’s rather imprudent to attempt to get your wife to build her nest anywhere but where she wants to build it.
, “I don’t make a point of talking with my daughter, alone, every single weekday for this period of time. Why I am, instead, reading about him write about his?”
==
My mother adhered to the view that the next generation down had a habit of malinvesting their time and effort in the realm of child-rearing.