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The following images are from 2021 and can be seen on the following website, which also credits the artists and locations:
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Wednesday, August 31, 2022
UNSAFE, Part 1
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“Unsafe For Morons But Safe For Everyone Else”: Examples Of Architecture And Design That Don’t Prioritize Safety
From Bored Panda at:
Photos, headings and reader comments from the above site . . .
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Mural On The Back Of Acme Incorporated
Reader Comments:
Wyle E. Coyote must love this place.
That's what this need as the cherry on the cake for this. Paint road runner at the other end of the tunnel.
Mip mip!
Wait tell somebody tries to drive through it!
If it's here in the US then you know damn well someone tried
This is called Tunnel Vision and is located in Columbia SC. The artist is Blue Sky.
Yes, I am from there and have seen it hundreds of times. It is famous.
Acme Paint!
Needs a - This Way To The Cheapest Brothel In Town - sign.
The two real crash barriers either side absolutely make this.
To be fair, it does look inviting
It's the entrance to Toon Town!
"OKAY I GET IT HONEY, but I swear I only tried bc I saw this annoying half breed ostrich say beep beep then ran right through. I thought it was like Diagon Alley, ya know?"
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You Don't Need To Be Drunk Anymore
My eyes are screwed up enough as it is.
With astigmatism? I'd need a guide dog
I hope the person who made this decision has to walk down this street every day.
Maybe the one who bullied him for having glasses lives there.
I had to look really hard to realize that it wasn't a blurred photo and I have perfect vision! That's amazing, but I still can't stand it which makes it even cooler!
Somehow I love and hate this
Once I throw up on this, at least there will be some differentiation
Migraine!!
I think, I just had vertigo.😵💫
Oh lord, why would they do this?
Imagining the council planner rubbing his hands with psychopathic glee.
pixel art from hell
That's just meanspirited.... Just looking at the picture made me cross eyed. Trying to walk would be a mess
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Stairs
Dude, i'm blind from my left eye which means i have no depth perception, which causes me vertigo, in sum, i would probably die of broken neck syndrome on these stairs....
I have 20/20 vision and no vertigo problems, yet my corpse would be at the bottom of those stairs cushioning your fall.
Those aren't stairs. Those are really tall rock ladders.
Stairway to heaven
BP please give us details about these photos. Pandas are curious creatures.
Mt. Huashan, China
I can’t even go further than the first rung on a ladder. Just like when I was a kid and friends went on the roller coaster….I’ll stay here and hold your bags.
Same. I was the official purse holder in my teen years.
Do these stairs honestly go full 90 degrees? I mean, how do you even...?
I wouldn't go up those steps purely because a slight mis-step could be fatal. Never mind the other people you might take out on your way down. Anything that requires perfection from a human being is a big nope from me.
Hmmm... I would like to see the handicap accessiblity.
THAT is a ladder
The secret way into Mordor
Not so much stairs as vertical grooves in the wall made to look like stairs.
My knees gave out just looking at the picture
imagine going down these…..
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This Staircase
Forget about walking on them while drunk, I couldn't do it if I was sober.
I'm a very peaceful soul but I could honestly give this designer the biggest dope-slap ever🤯
Cool little basement hole to fall to your doom.
More of an art installation, than anything practical. Looks cool though. 🤔
This is actually cool. I'd try to climb it, but I'd probably stay glued to the railing. That red line is a railing, right? :)))
Not until you get to the 4th step
I'll stay downstairs, thank you
There is no way these are legal. They're an accident waiting to happen.
Aside from being a lawsuit waiting to happen, these stairs are just straight up ugly.
I fell down these stairs just looking at em.
Some people have way too much time on their hands.
This might shorten their time then
Has the Code Inspector and/or the Fire Marshall seen this? I bet NOT! And then, there's your house insurance representative.....
Life, you were kinda nice whilst you lasted
This is a suicide task 😂
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Construction Of The Hindenburg- Yes, Those Are Ladders
Did they make these ladders specifically for this?
I would say yes.
So, what you’re saying is that it was a death trap from the onset?
Not really, it was built with Helium in mind. But the US refused to sell it. So they had to use Hydrogen. It made 63 safe flights. Although it was a disaster, the majority of passengers and crew survived. Zeppelins were quite succesful, but planes were faster and better.
Exceptionally long ladders on wheeled carts...What could go wrong?
"You'll spend the first and last hour of your shift climbing up and then down the ladder."
me, gets all the way to the top, finds out I forgot the one tool I need
Yes and no multiple companies made these ladders for different things but they all had to have regular adjustments in order to keep up with the projects those suckers were not adjustable..
For the workers, being told about those ladders probably went down like a lead ze... I'll get my coat
Looked the same when it exploded. Could’ve saved some effort just leaving it like this
Regardless of the disaster that occurred, those airships were an impressive feat of engineering.
(Look closely, you will see workers at the tops of the ladders)
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These Obstacles Are Almost Invisible On The Bike Lane
Yikes
A little yellow paint on the bumps would make a world of difference
My guess is those bumps were suppose to
(1) stop cars driving on bicycle lane
(2) make bike lane safer for bicycles.
Looking at top right corner and how much they are blending in with background. Those bumps are failing at both tasks.
Plus there's a car in it.
That's me in the truck with my bike on the back... Avoiding my last bike ride.
What obstacles?
"These Obstacles Are Almost Invisible On The Bike Lane" - these black marks on them just prove it
Well you're darn well gonna stay in your own lane after the first time...
They're almost invisible to me, had to do a double take!
Of all the things on this list, this is the absolute worst. Maybe the worst I've ever seen.
That is just pure evil.
Why??
BINGO! Caught one of these while driving a girl home from the student association in uni. Bike wheel broken, leg gashed, and I couldn't for the life of me work out what had just happened.
They could not afford a paint other than white?
And yet there is still a moron driving in the bike lane.
Does anybody know what purpose those things serve?!
Is that why that truck is there? To pick up and take broken bikes to the shop?
Do Not Forget The Helmet. And shin guards. And shoulder pads. And face mask. And bandages and mercurochrome.
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More to come
Monday, August 29, 2022
MISCELLANY
Sent to me by Paul B, thanks Paul . . .
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And some more thoughts about the Devil . . .
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QUOTE FOR THE DAY
You take the trouble to construct a civilization... to build a society based on the principles of... principle. You make government and art and realize they are, must be, the same. You bring things to the saddest point, where there is something to lose. Then, all at once, through all the music... through the sensible sounds of building... attempting, comes the Dies Irae.
And what is it? What does the trumpet sound?
Up yours!
- George, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
READER WRITES: HOT AUGUST NIGHT
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Byter and friend Steve M sent me an email following his receipt of the post on The Moonlight Sonata. Obviously a fifth of Beethoven wasn’t Steve’s cup of tea (How is that for a wonderful mixed metaphor?) because Steve wrote:
50th Anniversary Otto – any chance of a celebratory post for one of the most significant albums in modern music history? Playing it now! Brilliant!
A thought: If Neil Diamond had been living in Australia when he made it, would it have been called “Cold August Night”, because it has been bloody cold here.
Anyway, Stevie boy, here you are . . .
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- Hot August Night is a 1972 live double album by Neil Diamond.
- The album is a recording of a Diamond concert on August 24, 1972, one of ten sold-out concerts that Diamond performed that month at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
- This also marked the first album released by the newly formed MCA Records (a merging of the Uni, Kapp, and Decca labels).
- Hot August Night is one of the biggest selling albums of all time in Australia, where it spent 29 weeks at number 1 on the album charts during 1973 and 1974. This makes it equal 5th for the most weeks at number 1, tying with Delta Goodrem's 2003 album Innocent Eyes.
- Hot August Night was the number one charting album in Australia for the 1970s, entering the Australian album charts in late 1972 and still charting in the top 20 in 1976. It was the number 1 album of 1973 and the number 3 album of 1974.[5] It re-entered the Australian top 10 in 1982, then had another chart run in 1991-92 peaking at number 21
- Diamond later released three live "sequel" albums, Hot August Night II (1987), Hot August Night/NYC (2009), and Hot August Night III (2018), as well as the Love at the Greek live album, issued in 1977.
- In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, music critic Lester Bangs called Hot August Night a "fine presentation of the entire spectrum" of Diamond's work and praised its music as "great, pretentious, goofy pop" with a melodramatic, "hymn-like feeling".
- In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Hot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in full glory.”
- Some of the best known tracks:
Cherry Cherry
Sweet Caroline
Red Red Wine
Song Sung Blue
Crackin’ Rose
I Am, I Said
- By the way:
"Crackling Rosé" is the name of an inexpensive sparkling wine once produced by Andres Wines of British Columbia, Canada, which was popular among the indigenous population. One story suggests that Diamond heard a story about a native Canadian tribe while doing an interview in Toronto, Canada—the tribe had more men than women, so the lonely men of the tribe would sit around the fire and drink their wine together—which inspired him to write the song.
- "Hot August night" is also the opening lyric to Diamond's 1969 single "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show":
Hot August night
And the leaves hanging down
And the grass on the ground smellin' sweet
Move up the road to the outside of town
And the sound of that good gospel beat
- Hot August Night remains considered one of the greatest epic live albums of all time.
- On September 7, 2011, in a message on Twitter, the 70-year-old Diamond announced his engagement to the 41-year-old Katie McNeil. Diamond said that his 2014 album Melody Road was fueled by their relationship, explaining:
There's no better inspiration or motivation for work than being in love. It's what you dream of as a creative person. I was able to complete this album—start it, write it and complete it—under the spell of love, and I think it shows somehow.
- The couple married in front of family and close friends in Los Angeles in 2012. In addition to serving as Diamond's manager, McNeil produced the documentary Neil Diamond: Hot August Nights NYC.
- In January 2018, Diamond announced that he would stop touring after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
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Steve:
Peter Byrne is doing a series of shows in August - November recreating the Hot August Night album with a 30 piece orchestra. See:
There are September dates in Campbelltown, Bankstown and Dee Why:
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Neil Diamond gets inspiration for a song . . .
Saturday, August 27, 2022
MUSIC SPOT:MOONLIGHT SONATA
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Hear and see it played (3 movements) by Valentina Lisitsa by clicking on:
Version by Lola and Hauser, piano and cello:
Lionel Yu, remix:
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Beethoven (1770-1827) completed the Moonlight Sonata in 1801 when he was in his early thirties. It was then called Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, subtitled by Beethoven Sonata quasi una fantasia, translated as "sonata in the manner of a fantasy".
The reference to fantasy reminds listeners that the piece, although technically a sonata, is suggestive of a free-flowing, improvised fantasia, a musical composition with roots in improvisation. The fantasia, like the impromptu, seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form.
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Beethoven did not call his composition the Moonlight Sonata, that did not happen until after his death. The name Moonlight Sonata (“Mondscheinsonate” in German) was given by the poet Ludwig Rellstab in the 1832 when he likened the first movement to "a boat passing the wild scenery of Lake Lucerne in the moonlight."
Ludwig Rellstab
It became known by that name long after and later in the nineteenth century, the sonata was universally known by that name.
Lake Lucerne
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According to Edwin Fischer, in a library in Vienna he found notes written by Beethoven, supporting the theory that the first movement was inspired by Mozart’s Don Giovanni‘s murder scene. If so, the first movement is a death scene.
Some critics have objected to the subjective, romantic nature of the title "Moonlight", which has at times been called "a misleading approach to a movement with almost the character of a funeral march" and "absurd".
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Beethoven dedicated this work to his 16 years old student, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.
Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.
Beethoven was in love with her, but their romance eventually did not come to fruition.
The dedication was not Beethoven's original intention, and he did not have Guicciardi in mind when writing the Moonlight Sonata. Thayer, in his Life of Beethoven, states that the work Beethoven originally intended to dedicate to Guicciardi was the Rondo in G, Op. 51 No. 2, but this had to be dedicated to Countess Lichnowsky. So he cast around at the last moment for a piece to dedicate to Guicciardi.
It is believed that the countess was also in love with Beethoven and that he asked her to marry him but that her father said no.
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This piano sonata has a unique atmosphere, something never heard before. It has a mesmerizing and heartbroken mood, at the same time. Another interesting fact is that Beethoven prescribed to play the whole first movement with the sustain pedal down, so harmonies can overlap, fading into each other. This is something a modern piano cannot do; today it is up to the interpretation of the player.
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The Moonlight Sonata has three movements.
Contrary to customs at the time, the first movement is a slow movement.
Franz Liszt said about the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata thar the second movement is a little flower between two abysses, referring to the first and last movement as two towering pieces of music.
According to Charles Rosen, the first movement is too delicate for modern instruments and the last is too massive for the contemporary. The first movement has an unspeakable mystery and tragedy, which finally results in rage and fury in the last movement.
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Although this was still the classical period, this sonata is a romantic composition. So much emotional rhetoric, so contrasting movements were not typical in classical music.
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Beethoven was not deaf when he composed this sonata in 1801.
He had, however, had symptoms in his ears since 1798, meaning that his hearing at this stage was not perfect either.
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Beethoven considered the sonata to be inferior to many of his other works for piano, its popularity exasperated the composer, who remarked to Carl Czerny, "Surely I've written better things."
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John Lennon got the idea for the Beatles track "Because," when he heard Yoko Ono playing "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano, he asked her to play it backwards and came up with "Because" based on what he heard.
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A reader comment at Songfacts:
Everybody knows the famous first movement, but for me the crowning glory of the work is the “last” movement. It is this absolutely amazing, fiery, passionate storm, which practically strains the piano to the breaking point (how much more so on the early pianos that Beethoven had!). A must-hear, it is absolutely kick-ass!
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Other reader comments:
I think this is the most beautiful piece of music Beethoven has ever written. This is beautiful. So much emotion and thought while listening to this. Amazing:)
Incredibly moving, notwithstanding Beethoven's own opinion of this piece.
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