INFERNO! Update #8

Art, History, Reblog,

THANK YOU    THANK YOU    THANK YOU

Someone donated $100 (Anonymous) to the gofundme site for Inferno! The Cocoanut Grove Fire after my post. Thank you so very much.

Additional updates:

Both my sister and I have been in contact with James Prince.

  

James told us that he wants Goody Goodelle to have a bigger part in the play when he presents it in Boston near the original Cocoanut Grove lounge. I have agreed to scan photos of mom (and I) when I was young to include in the lobby to show that she went on to have a happy life after the fire. My sister will be digitizing some of mom’s old records to also play in the lobby. Who knows, depending on the level of hassle, we might even put them up on iTunes (no promises). 

This has all turned out to be very exciting and unexpected for my sister and I. 

I wish mom were alive to see it, although maybe not as I am sure that the memories were painful.

INFERNO! Fire at the Cocoanut Grove

Art, History, News, Social Issues, , , , , ,

Last month on the 73rd anniversary of the Coconut Grove fire I reblogged a post about my mom, Goody Goodelle, who saw the fire start and with clear thinking was one of the very few people to get out alive. In the comments section of the original post, James Prince of The Core Theater in Richardson, TX (near Dallas) reached out to me for more information on Goody.
  

 
The Core Theatre is taking “Inferno! Fire at the Cocoanut Grove” to Boston. They need your help to get there. More information is available on their Go Fund Me page. Be sure to watch the video.

So I contacted my sister and in an even stranger turn of events she replied

“So, I saw that his theatre is in Richardson, TX. That’s where Jan’s niece, Susan, and her family live. So I sent Susan an FB message and asked if she’d heard of his theater. She tells me he goes to her church and she knows him and that he is very talented. As Susan said in her message back to me . . . mind blown. I will keep you posted.”

I don’t ask for much (OK I ask for a lot at least as far as the Mrs is concerned), but please take a look at the Go Fund Me page and contribute what you can if you find value in the project.

Thanks,

cb

 

https://thecoretheatre.org

https://www.gofundme.com/CocoanutGrove

Cocoanut Grove – 1942

Goody Goodelle

One millimeter

Apple, Essay, Opinion, Rant, Review, Technology, , , , , ,

[begin rant]

One fucking millimeter. There I said it … millimeter … or if you prefer millimetre.

iPhone 6s   The only thing that’s changed is everything

No … not everything.

My old iPhone 5s died. OK so it didn’t really die, but the female charging port on the phone got damaged from accidentally ripping the charging cord out of the phone … one … too … many … times. Getting the phone to charge involved just the right amount of ceremonial incantations, fiddling with the Lightning connector, and careful positioning of the iPhone and cord. On the Monday before my birthday the phone died and would not charge. So I ordered a new iPhone 6s Plus, which as luck would have it arrived on said birthday. (Happy Birthday to me, etc., etc, etc.)

I love everything about it … except …

Sir Jonathan Paul Ive, can I call you Jony?

So Jony, the whole world knows how fucking brilliant you are. There, I did it again … brilliant. Yes, you … are … brilliant. You’ve even been knighted for brilliance, for Christ’s sake.

You are brilliant … and you are obsessed. Obsessed with industrial design. Obsessed with elegance. Obsessed with perfection. You are also obsessed with thinness. Obsessed.

But when does obsession cloud judgement? When does the obsession for thinness negate superb industrial design?


One fucking millimeter. If you had made the iPhone 6 series one millimeter thicker, the camera lens would be flush with the case … like the iPhone 5 … and EVERY other iPhone before it. No one … and I do mean no one … would have noticed or cared if the iPhone 6 series was one millimeter thicker.

What could you do with an extra one millimeter of thickness? Make the case a tad thicker and stronger. Make the battery thicker and add a few extra minutes of run time. Who knows? Who cares?

The important thing is that one millimeter is the difference between a smooth backside and one with an ugly zit that keeps the phone from laying solidly on on flat surface without rocking. One millimeter means not worrying about scratching fine old wooden finishes. One millimeter is the difference between obsession and … perfection.

Any chance of fixing this in the iPhone 7?

[end rant]

Please … STOP BLOGGING

Art, Blogging, Cats, Essay, Fiction, Humor, Opinion, Photography, Rant, Reading, Relationships, Social Issues, , ,

 

I … can’t … keep … up

Seriously, stop blogging. Just for a day or two. 

Please …

How did it get this bad?

It started simply enough. I decided to automatically follow anyone who liked or commented on any one of my posts. Then to make sure that I read them, I went to “Blogs I Follow” and made sure I got an email notification for every new post. I figured that anyone who liked or commented on one of my posts was a like-minded spirit and would be interesting to follow. More or less this turned out to be a correct assumption.

Others turned out not so much. Some had long, rambling (boring) tl;dr posts that I just couldn’t wade through. Some posted every minute of every day and flooded my email with posts. Some posted on topics that were of absolutely no interest to me. So for these I went back to “Blogs I Follow” and turned off email notification.

Now I was down to the blogs that were interesting. Your blogs. Your stories. Your cats. Your photos. Your news. Your ideas. Your humor. Your successes. Your fears. Your emotions. All of it good. All of it interesting.

  

Even as I write this, the email counter ratchets upward. Notifications are coming in faster than I can delete them. But I can’t just delete them. I have to look at them in order to delete them and then I read them and then I click on the link and go to the post and then I read the comments and by the time I’m done more notifications have come in. Even worse I may decide to reblog one. By the time I’m done, yet more notifications are in my mailbox.

  

I originally started this blog a few years ago as a venue for writing Fiction and autobiographical history. Then I started adding cat photos. Then reblogs of interesting posts and videos. Now I can’t even keep up with the blogs I follow.

 

 
(help…)
  

(please …)

  

Eduardo sighted in the Bahamas

Cats, Fiction, Humor, Photography, Reblog, , ,

Eduardo, that suave and sophisticated Company Man, has been spied (excuse the pun) in the Bahamas. 

What has he been doing since he was last being seen frequenting a New Mexico brothel … who can say? What brings him to the haunt of that other famous Company Man whose name must be withheld for security reasons Bond, James Bond … business or pleasure?

When interviewed for this story, a local barkeep admitted to serving a patron fitting Eduardo’s description, but said he did not catch his name. “He was cool, that one. Cold blooded. Bit of a spook if you ask me. Wanted his martini shaken, not stirred, with a twist of cricket. His eyes kept darting around as if he was expecting trouble, then without as much as a by your leave, he flicked out his tongue and caught a fly in mid-air. Threw up up a bit in my mouth, I did. Not much of a talker. Left me a good tip though. He’s  welcome back any time.”

  
Photo Credit Tom von Kapherr
http://catsatthebar.org/2015/12/04/birds-turtles-and-a-geko/

The Deadly Artistic Tightrope of the Peacock…Spider

Reblog

Some color for a drab pre-winter day …

Wayne's avatarferrebeekeeper

We are entering the Yule season, the darkest time of year here in the northern world.  Of course we have Christmas and Kwanza and Saturnalia to distract ourselves from the endless cold gloom, but it is still a bit early to write about those topics.  I need something colorful and splendid…perhaps from the other hemisphere where everything is beautiful late spring majesty.  Behold the stupendous color and masterful dance of the peacock…spider.  I feel this jaunty little spider is a perfect spirit animal for artists.

Male Peacock Spider (Maratus volans) via Jurgen Otto / Flickr Male Peacock Spider (Maratus volans) via Jurgen Otto / Flickr

The peacock spider (Maratus Volans) is a small jumping spider which lives in parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania. The spider lives like almost all spiders—by capturing and eating tiny invertebrates, while avoiding hungry predators long enough to mate.  However unlike most spiders, the male peacock spider is…

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Leviticans

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[Why do so] many fundamentalists spend so much time in Leviticus and so little time in the New Testament, and I think that’s a remarkably cogent question. Indeed, it is so cogent that I would like to make the suggestion that there is an entire class of self-identified “Christians” who are not Christian at all, in the sense that they don’t follow the actual teachings of Christ in any meaningful way. Rather these people nod toward Christ in a cursory fashion on their way to spend time in the bloodier books of the Bible (which tend to be found in the Old Testament), using the text selectively as a support for their own hates and prejudices, using the Bible as a cudgel rather than a door. That being the case, I suggest we stop calling these people Christians and start calling them something that befits their faith, inclinations and enthusiasms.

I say we call them Leviticans, after Leviticus, the third book of the Old Testament, famous for its rules, and also the home of the passages most likely to be thrown out by Leviticans to justify their intolerance (including, in recent days, against gays and lesbians — Leviticus Chapter 18, Verse 22: “Thou shalt not not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination”).

To suggest that a Christian is actually a Levitican is not to say he or she is false in faith — rather, it is to suggest that their faith is elsewhere in the Bible, in the parts that are easy to understand: The rules, the regulations, all the things that are clear cut about what you can do and what you can’t do to be right with God. Rules are far easier to follow than Christ’s actual path, which needs humility and sacrifice and the ability to forgive, love and cherish even those who you oppose and who oppose and hate you. Any idiot can follow rules; indeed, there’s a good argument to made that idiots can only follow rules. This is why Leviticans love Leviticus (and other pentateuchal and Old Testament books): Chock full of rules. And you can believe in rules. That’s why they’re rules.

Source: Leviticans  ~ John Scalzi, Whatever

Cocoanut Grove – 1942

About, Essay, History, Reblog, Relationships, , , ,

Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the Cocoanut Grove Fire.

It seems fitting to repost this … (very long post, but I hope you will read it to the end)

– – –

Originally posted December 2, 2012

So Ye Olde Kid Sister (YOKS) calls me up this morning to wish me Happy Birthday and informs me that they renamed the street in front of the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub from Shawmut Street Extension to Cocoanut Grove Lane.

 
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/28/site-cocoanut-grove-blaze-marked-with-named-street/hgRkzDdIIaHery666wCguO/story.html

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/30/years-later-bay-village-alley-renamed-remembrance-cocoanut-grove-nightclub-fire/DjYFsLe3BbGEkxOIePp04O/story.html

In my mind I thought yeah that’s right, I am going to post a blog entry on … November 28 … oh ‘sh1+’. Well with the Mrs in hospital the week before Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving holiday (where I did all the cooking), I suppose you can forgive me for not getting this out on time.

– – –

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoanut_Grove_fire

The Cocoanut Grove was Boston’s premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s. On November 28, 1942, this club was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in history, killing 492 people (which was 32 more than the building’s authorized capacity) and injuring hundreds more. The enormity of the tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced the events of World War II in newspaper headlines. It led to a reform of safety standards and codes across the country, and major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of burn victims.

It was the second-deadliest single-building fire in American history; only the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago had a higher death toll, of 602.

Official reports state that the fire started at about 10:15 p.m. in the dark, intimate Melody Lounge downstairs. A young pianist and singer, Goody Goodelle, was performing on a revolving stage, surrounded by artificial palm trees. It was believed that a young man, possibly a soldier, had removed a light bulb in order to give himself privacy while kissing his date. Stanley Tomaszewski—a 16-year-old busboy—was instructed to put the light back on by retightening the bulb. As he attempted to tighten the light bulb in its socket, the bulb fell from his hand. In the dimly-lit lounge, Tomaszewski, unable to see the socket, lit a match to illuminate the area, found the socket, extinguished the match, and replaced the bulb. Almost immediately, patrons saw something ignite in the canopy of artificial palm fronds draped above the tables (although the official report doubts the connection between the match and the subsequent fire).

Continue reading Cocoanut Grove – 1942 →

Autocorrect

Reblog

See also https://contrafactual.com/2015/11/13/dictation-2/

Dawn D. McKenzie's avatarDawn's Nights

Right, I needed some fun, a friend of mine posted some screenshots on FB and I decided I’d share a few here.

With this one, I’m wondering… what was Emily’s finger doing in Julian’s buckle in the first place, huh?!

The next one is one I’d seen already… still funny 🙂

I quite like this one, because it’s true, we need to keep our focus on the important things, right?

To think that they fondled for the first time… how did they get a kid in the first place, hey? But the auto erect… nice touch!

As for the next one… as I told a blogger friend this morning, to each their own 😉

But, all of these really beg the question: how did these words get into their dictionary?

Do you now understand why I switched my auto correct off? It gave the weirdest results when I was still…

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Bitter Pushover Black Friday Giftures

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Love these Friday Giftures

bensbitterblog's avatarBen's Bitter Blog

You realize that Black Friday is a crazy day filled with lunatics pushing each other out of the way for products that they are using to push their old stuff out of the way right? You know what else Black Friday is? It is the December holidays pushing Thanksgiving out of the way.  As soon as the turducken is digested, the Decembers are already pushing the Bitter Thanksgiving out of the way.  So in honor of pushy holidays, the Black Friday Giftures are about pushing people, places, things and holidays around.

This has been pushed…

lskdjf…by something that was kind of a cheetah.

Somebodies need for a job…

sfdf…has pushed him to find the right circles to run around in.

Somebody is getting …

sdfdf…a Happy Birthday Party pushed on them.

This pushy dog…

Df…should know not to mess with a guys food.

This bird was trying to get to…

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Wrestling with Worry

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Current events prompt me to reblog this …

cb's avatarContrafactual

[Author’s note: This post is a continuation of the Welcome to the Future series of essays. If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<]
Wrestling with Worry

I would really like to be able to say, “I vividly remember the night I couldn’t take it any more,” but I can’t. What I do remember is that it was during high school, I was really worried about something, and I was walking over to my best friend’s house thrashing it out in my mind. I was going over and over all of the various scenarios for the outcome of whatever it was I was dreading, and trying to formulate an action plan for each and every contingency. I remember stopping dead in my tracks and thinking … “[expletive deleted] Every time I plan for an outcome it ALWAYS turns out different…

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Cheers To the Passionate

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I will add Elon Musk to your list.

Kally's avatarMiddleMe

This is an all time favourite video of mine especially when I am feeling disappointed and let down, uninspired, watching this would perk me right up. Yes, I might be misunderstood and labeled sometimes but so are the following passionate people who gave their all to their creations. Today, let me share some of the greatest passionate people in the world and hope that their passion, determination and commitment will rub off you too.

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Thank you, Robin Williams for all the laughter and joy you have brought into our homes and our hearts. Even when you are suffering from depression, you did not just quit but you push on to bring the last bit of giggle into us. For that, I thank you.

CXORkNLR5WIY2uJ17Wn2uQ%3D%3D%2F7917047769453523840

Thank you, Michael J Fox for giving us superb performance and using your status to create awareness for your illness, Parkinson Disease. I believe a lot of…

View original post 588 more words

Syrian Refugees, Security Debates, Fear Mongering and General Stupidity

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Norm 3.0's avatarNorm 3.0

Note: I know this post is a little out of character for me. I don’t rant or use foul language often and I generally try to avoid political topics. So no worries; I won’t be insulted if you decide to bounce right now and go read someone else. I promise to be back to posting pretty pictures tomorrow.

The ridiculous amount of verbal diarrhea I’ve heard and read in the last week or so about the Syrian refugee crisis, in the both the mainstream media and on social media has left me pissed. I’m livid and I need to let it out.

Have we really all forgotten here in Canada and the U.S. that we are an entire continent of immigrants?

Remember, unless you have native aboriginal blood coursing through your veins, you (or your ancestors) came from somewhere else.

Over the past few centuries North America has become home…

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Bloggers Unite for Peace

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See also:

http://infinitefreetime.com/2015/11/18/in-which-i-tell-you-how-your-religion-works/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/11/14/paris/

Uncle Spike's avatarUncle Spike's Adventures

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke

Here are some ways to add your support to this message of peace:

1) Publish the following statement on your own blog
2) Post a link to Twitter and/or Facebook
3) Reblog this post or any post that replicates this statement
4) Request to be added to the signatory list below by adding a comment or mailing uncle.spikes.adventures1@gmail.com 

.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~
~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

We are normal, everyday hard-working people with a common hobby, blogging. We hail from far and wide. We reside in different lands, on different continents. We speak different languages, eat different foods, and are of varying ages, professions…

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Let’s pretend you are Black: Ty’Qwonne Blacksten (Part one) of short series

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Reblogging Part One … if you want to read the rest then “follow” the Eddie Star Blog

eddiestarofficial's avatarEddie Star Blog

What the F**k is this about! Who is Ty’Qwonne Blacksten?

Yes, you are imagining you look like this and your name is Ty’Qwonne Blacksten… Any coincidences are completely incidental, For fictional purposes only.

Let’s pretend you were born Ty’qwonne Blacksten. You just so happened to be black in a middle-to-lower class income household. You are 17 years old, do not commit any crimes. You like playing video games, smoking weed and flirting with girls. You are not in a gang – though your neighborhood is gang-infested – and you attend the local public high school. You have no tattoos, no idea what you wanna be when you grow up, you just are enjoying your youth. You stay with your mom and grandmother. Your father is not home because he isn’t a good father. He is in jail because he was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

The Backstory…

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iOS 9 Keyboard

Apple, Essay, News, Technology, , , ,

When iOS 9 came out for iPad and iPhone, the default appearance of the keyboard changed. The Mrs is visually challenged and did not like the new look of the keyboard. She wanted the old one back. The difference is that the old keyboard displayed CAPITAL LETTERS all of the time. The new one displays either lowercase or UPPERCASE depending on whether or not the shift key was depressed.

OLD KEYBOARD

 

 
New Keyboard 

 

Although not obvious it is possible to revert to the old keyboard default as follows:

Settings > General > Accessibility > Keyboard > Show Lowercase Keys 

Toggle Show Lowecase Keys off

 
Let me know in the comments below if this was useful to you …