Open thread 12/28/23
Pointe shoes were only very lightly blocked back then, which gives a different look and technique entirely – the dancer merely poises, alighting for a moment:
Price herself was apparently the model for the statue of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.
This video, also from the early 1900s, illustrates the same thing about the pointe shoes. This dancer has a very strong jump:
It’s culturally great, and a good break from politics, to see these dance videos. Tho I remain sad that in the upcoming ball season, my torn Achilles Tendon won’t have healed enough for me to dance much. Nor even go sing karaoke.
Lots of pop videos include much easier to perform dance steps, often including not so easy break dancing.
I am very interested in how many, if any, Jewish prior Dem voters actually stop supporting Democrats in 2024. I’m sad about the wars, but glad that some of the blinders are off some of the people.
So happy Neo changed her mind a few decades ago. I know it’s hard to do.
Sorry to inject politics, but Haley stepped in it big time, and now trying to do damage control. When asked about the cause of the Civil War she started sounding like a state’s rights southerner from 1862. No mention at all as to slavery being the issue of “state’s rights”.
To be fair I read the transcript and also watched the video to check for missing context…I couldn’t find any. She’s been my 3rd choice behind RDS and Vivek, now I think Trump moves into her spot for me. As RDS tweeted, “Yikes!”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12906269/Nikki-Haley-slammed-refusing-slavery-primary-cause-Civil-War-tense-town-hall-forth-voter.html
Thank you once again. Besides the form, it’s always interesting to see the styles in vogue then.
RE: China and rekindling the Cultural Revolution 2.0 via the “Fengqiao Experience”
Ran across this interesting analysis of a recent statement from Xi and a high level meeting, seemingly an insignificant one—called by XI, which this apparently obscure Chinese analyst with relatively few subscribers at the Youtube channel, “Digging for China” thinks might signal that, in order to distract from the numerous disastrous economic developments in China, and growing dissatisfaction with the regime, XI is going to try to rekindle a mass mobilization campaign akin to the Cultural Revolution.
This analysis says that Xi’s endorsement of the “Fengqiao style working method” at this meeting is really a call for such a campaign–one of mass mobilization, total government surveillance and control, with individuals paying close attention to what others around them are doing and saying, and denunciations of those “deviating” from the Party line.
Such a campaign would direct people’s anger away from the regime as a target and to their fellow men as their target, also allowing them to express anger and to exercise power and dominance over others (as the CCP exercises over them i.e. it plays to the darker elements of human nature)—this since the “Fengqiao experience” refers to the location where the coercive techniques used in the Cultural Revolution were first developed and used.*
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEugmAQjk0
“…in order to distract…”
Hey, them’s “Biden”‘s Rules of Engagement.
(I’m sure “he”‘s pleased as punch to be able to help out his friends in need…)
Noticing complaints from sanctuary city politicians about immigrant overflow, and administration pretending to care.
I expect some action and propaganda regarding border security in the upcoming months so Biden can claim success in solving another problem “caused by Trump”.
Then, if a dem wins election, back to open borders.
Thanks for the videos. So is that what is called “demi-pointe”?
This is actually very graceful and expressive without going fully up. And when not on pointe the dancer’s foot seems more natural and graceful.
Will Qatar—that mega-sugar daddy and corrupter of all kinds of organizations, universities and governments—EVER run out of cash?
Or is it too filthy rich to fail? (What might “fail” even mean for Qatar…?)
The country certainly does have its fingers in a lot of pies.
It’s rather impressive, actually. And exciting. Life on the edge, so to speak.
This tour de force—might one call it the “Abraham Discords”?—should be rather interesting as it unwinds and unravels, crashes and burns…revealing what everyone suspected—no, make that KNEW—to be the case.
The only question is how much will be exposed. OTOH, I suspect that Qatar will merely continue to do what it does best: try to buy everyone and everything off.
(One would well assume that any feelings of shame or contrition are entirely off the table…)
“Qatar’s World Cup FIFA Bribe Documents Exposed”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/sports/articles/qatar-world-cup-fifa-bribe-documents-exposed-armin-rosen
Over at Fullbore Friday, CDR Salamander writes about the skipper of a LCi(G) who was killed covering for UDTs deployed from APDs at Iwo Jima. If any of this is confusing I’m working on a Naval history that converts all this into human.
Those videos eventually to me to this one:
https://youtu.be/T9RG4oIY2Yk?si=KXmp_Dw6Y1nZH0bK
I think the list maker is overly impressed with ballet. Some of those things aren’t really THAT difficult to DO, though to do them WELL is another story. Almost all of the break dancing moves are extremely difficult do — even to try to do them badly.
I think revoltade is much harder in the work of ballet than some of the moves listed. I know there are others. There are probably a ton of moves from Georgian dance that are pretty darn difficult to do.
I think my definition of “difficult to do” is different from the list maker’s — to me “difficult to do” involves the risk of injury if you do it wrong. If you do it badly, it just looks graceless, that, to me, doesn’t indicate a degree of difficulty, so much as indicates that the dancer is, well, graceless.
Its Important to write this down while it’s happening. Our children will ask as if everything was obvious at the time.
How could you let this happen?
We’ll weakly respond, they thought it was a good thing at the time
In case anyone is wondering I have no intention of dying peacefully in my bed. Historically it’s not normal. I’m tired.
My heart breaks as I hear to the Israelis who survived Oct 7 talk. Even now they refuse to believe how hate works.
Another profile in courage.
There’s a lot of good people out there.
‘ESPN told Sage Steele to stop talking about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, former anchor says;
‘ “Let’s stop living in this lie,” Steele said about the transgender swimmer.” ‘—
https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/espn-told-sage-steele-stop-talking-about-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-former
Key grafs:
‘ Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele said the sports network told her to quit discussing transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, but she disobeyed the order….
‘ “I made sure I sent off another tweet that night after I received that email, because, no, let’s stop living in this lie,” she also said.
‘ Steele said that many people are “afraid” to stand up to protect women’s sports, and “This is a hill I will die on, 100%.” …
‘…ESPN suspended Steele in October 2021 after she spoke against COVID-19 vaccine mandates…’
Steve57:
We must be watching different survivor interviews. The people I’ve listened to seem to understand full well what evil and hatred are, and use those words to describe the attitude of the Palestinians. Even if the survivors were formerly peace and/or 2-state activists, they understand the situation now and have changed their minds. They speak quite candidly about that.
Interesting Civil War trivia. Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware , one of the Union States, ie ” Northern States”, did not end slavery until the 13th Amendment was ratified, almost EIGHT MONTHS AFTER the civil war.
Abraham Lincoln’s ” Emancipation Proclamation” only applied to Confederate states, not the slave holding Union States.
Re: Price / Zambelli
What do I know but … I was struck by the seeming playfulness of both dancers. The smiles, head tilts and eye contact with the audience.
In a word, coquettish.
Good news: AI will be able to clean up tons of great old film footage into high-def, if we want it.
Deep Fakes to come? AI shows Lizzo en pointe.
Another Civil War factoid.
The infamous and widely celebrated ” Juneteenth ” , the date Texas slaves in Galveston heard about their freedom, occured on June 19, 1865.
Delaware, a Union State , did not free the last slaves for almost another six months until December 6, 1865, at the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Strange how that has been mostly purged from the collective consciousness. Strange, like so many other things. Facts don’t matter, only ” truth ” does.
(Actually I wonder how long before they heard about the 13 th Amendment in rural parts of Delaware? )
Sorry to inject politics, but Haley stepped in it big time, and now trying to do damage control.
She followed up her word salad answer by whining that the questioner was “a plant”.
First of all, no sh*t, lady. Second, so what? Your answer still sucked.
Then, today, I saw on Twitter that some kid in NH called her the current version of John Kerry, stating that he agreed with Gov. Crumbcake (RINO-NJ) that she is a flip-flopper. He actually used that word and then stuck the knife in with “you remember John Kerry?”
LOL; buh-bye, Nikki Sikhs.
Deep Fakes to come? AI shows Lizzo en pointe.
Ben David:
No, the term “demi-pointe” is reserved for being on the ball of the foot. In the videos, they are barely on pointe, but it is pointe in a nearly-unblocked shoe. Modern pointe shoes have more stiffening and support and provide a more secure base.
In recent years they’ve been making something called demi-pointe shoes, which is something else that didn’t exist when I was training (I certainly had never heard of them, anyway). But one doesn’t go on pointe in them.
To whom it may concern
Yes I’m addressing it correctly. The Jews and only the Jews have legal claim to the land. Definitely not the made up fictional people who comprise a fraction of supremacist Muslims who only made themselves up to crybaby themselves onto the pages of the NYT.
I often see online the question posed, “define woke.” By smug leftists who imagine this is a deal killer.
Woke is believing a lie that you know is a lie so you can feel good about your hatreds.
I will debate anyone anytime. Islam is evil. Muslims are not. I have nothing but contempt for Islam, primarily because Muslims are the first victims. I take it as a personal insult that so much of the world is enslaved
Whatever search engine you choose, search Bible, “ChatGPT” and “Trans” “affirming.”
Steve57: A lot of Kurds have been realizing it, from what I understand. After ISIS, many began converting to Zoroastrianism. One issue is that adds another mark on their collective backs since, according to Islam, apostates should be executed. Also, in the countries in which they are trapped in the Middle East, they cannot change their identity cards — one, because it is not legal to change it from Islam; and two, see my previous comment. I hope they all convert to Zoroastrianism. If the Yazidis accepted converts, that would be another great choice. (Some people refer to the change in religion to what one’s ancestors were as “reverting” as opposed to “converting.” I hope they all “revert.”)
That there’s so much more talk today about 1860 than about 2024 is one of the things that’s wrong with the country.
I imagine the same is true of the other border states, ie slave states that did not join the Confederacy – Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland. Maybe West Virginia that seceded from Virginia back to the Union during the war.
Thursday, Maine Secretary of State, Democrat Sheena Bellows, struck Trump off the state’s primary ballot for violating the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4206448/posts
Steve57:
Regarding your comment on Israeli’s: Never underestimate a humans ability to create their own reality.
The 1920 san remo accords as i understand it
In 1860, Lexington, Kentucky had slave-owning Unionists. So did Virginia, IIRC.
Someone else:
I am sometimes surprised that the conquered Berbers (Moors?), Vandals?, Egyptians, Persians, Baloch’s, Pashtun, Punjabi, Indian, and other S Asian and African Muslims don’t drop their adherence to a tribalistic Arabian ideology.
I guess they must think somehow they are the (eventual global) oppressors rather than the (previously) oppressed. But if the promulgation (in 750 to 950CE?) of the actual or official version of Islam and the Quran followed the conquering, then it just becomes an “official governmental pronouncement” and not strictly speaking an Arabian ideology? Even if the Earliest Quranic manuscripts were initially written in old (and evolving) Arabic, and intended to justify the prior raiding, conquest, and subsequent oppression of dhimmis.
Snow on Pine wrote at 10:28 AM:
I hope “Biden” doesn’t hear about this.
R2L – There may be more than we know.
I read somewhere else (on the internet, so it MUST be true!) that there are a lot of Iranians in Iran also embracing Zoroastrianism. Secretly. (Apostasy is a criminal offense in Iran.) It is made more attractive to them as the Shanameh, which recounts history of Persian kings, remains very popular among Iranians. It is still readable and understandable to most Persians. There really isn’t anything similar in a lot of other Moslem-subjugated cultures.
I think in a lot of Moslem countries, the plight of non-Moslems is so unattractive that it keeps disaffected Moslems in line. The Coptic Christians may have more of a tie to their Egyptian ancestors, but they are treated like dirt.