Hilda

Thanks for adding a new word to my vocabulary. It describes perfectly my reaction to most modern media. Shades of Ecclesiates 12:1.

Quondam vocal coach here. I helped singers whose native language wasn't English negotiate the lyrics I'd written for them. One of them was an action movie star who had never recorded a song before. He did remarkably well.

I had to read "To the Lighthouse" in grammar school. Our English Literature teacher said that he had the misfortune to sit behind Woolf in an Oxford lecture theatre. He said that her mind was definitely out of its iron cage. She was miles away, constantly stroking and patting her hair.

I'm in the minority of Foghat fans who think "Stone Blue" (1978) is their best album. Tons of great tracks on all their albums, but also a few duds. "Stone Blue" just rocks from beginning to end. Such a pity that I never got to see them live. 😢

My musical preferences haven’t changed in decades. If I feel like trying something new, I look for something in one of my favourite genres. Over the decades so many great artists have come and gone that there's always something new (for me) in each of those genres. No need for conditioning. 😃

First-hand accounts of historical events, either significant or mundane. People who experienced trench warfare in WWI. People who survived concentration camps. People who lived through catastrophes and economic depressions. I was born in listening mode.

I haven't logged in to academia.edu for at least two years. A colleague who was sick of journals taking longer and longer to review her papers decided to upload them to academia.edu, where she received a speedy and gratifying response. The platform isn't for me. Even less so with the T & C changes.

The cartoon is dated 1975. I don't recall ever seeing that ryakuji, but I do recall the pesky maru-moji that went viral at around that time. Yamane Kazuma did some amazing research on the source of the infection. 😀

When/Can is how I remember it. Apart from a couple of spells in administration, which I could have declined but didn't, my workload was manageable. So much has changed since then.

Has India experienced the same level of social media disinformation? So many languages, so many cultures, so much history.

When I retired I donated my book collection to a university library and never regretted my decision. Today I updated my bibliographical software and was reminded that most of the entries are no longer in my possession.

The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on.

Haven't we been down this road before? I recall similar studies in the '60s and '70s. Those were eventually traced back to the sugar industry.

You're making an outstanding contribution to Japanese language study with such excellent resources.

Thank you for that list. I listened to some of the bands and gave up when I found myself out of my comfort zone. The vocals were so distorted that I could catch neither the Japanese lyrics nor the occasional word or phrase that may (or may not) have been English.

Straight through from start to finish. I begin with an imagined scene, something like the first panel of a movie storyboard. In my mind the character in the scene begins to move, and so do my fingers on the keyboard. I go with the flow, wherever it takes me.

You lost me with "words are (not) metal". I didn't even know there was a metal scene in Japan. Could you point me to one or two representative artists? If I check out the lyrics maybe I'll get some idea of what's involved. Congratulations on your forthcoming book!

All of the images that you've posted, and that haven't been removed by Bluesky, are keepers. The ones from 1967 brought back happy memories. We didn't all dress like the models in the photos, but we did our best with cast-offs.

Of the thousands of rock albums I've bought over the years, the only ones to which I return consistently are those by The Doors. Other artists of that era get fewer and fewer plays. Conversely, not a day goes by without at least 30 mins. of Bach, especially his music for the keyboard or solo violin.

Who portrays ChatGPT as a playground for plagiarists? Lots of people using AI to generate dubious content, and often getting caught at it. Is ChatGPT the AI of choice for such behavior?

Thank you for not only the beautiful images, but the Model/Year/Photographer captions. Much appreciated!

The Buddhist temples on Mt Ikoma in Higashi-Osaka, perhaps. Or the Niji-no-matsubara coastline in Karatsu, Kyushu.

I have no idea what that means, but I'm intrigued. You have my full attention.

Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" crime novels are set in Oxford and many of the plots feature Oxford faculty and students. Academic rivalry makes for a compelling motive. No syllabus clues, though.

Not knowing either Belle & Sebastian or Morrisey, for melancholic lyrics I'd go back to Nick Drake — for a song or two. Any more than that and I get depressed.

Since signing up with BlueSky, I've spent several days trying to block the endless flood of cat and dog images that have nothing to do with the interests I've registered. I've managed to slow the flood but don't know how to block reposted pet images.

So you're left-handed?

As I went from typewriter, to word processor, to personal computer, I became fixated on matching the quality of published material. I gave up the struggle and now I'm deliriously happy with Markdown. If I want control over how the material will look online, I code in HTML + CSS. Life's much simpler.

Simply heartbreaking. I count myself fortunate to have enjoyed forty years of tenure with only one change of institution. Things are truly grim these days.

Same cast with the exception of the actor who played construction worker "Bogdan". Helen Mirren's Polish was far, far better than his.

I bought a copy of Revolver when it was first released, wore out the grooves with repeated plays, then forgot about it. Two days ago someone on an audio forum declared that Rubber Soul and Revolver were the best Beatles' albums. I made up my mind to revisit the latter . . . and read your post.