Comments on: How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago

How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago

Navelgazer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:52:33 -0800

Louis C.K. gives us all a little dose of perspective.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:01:16 -0800

Hilarious.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:04:14 -0800

That is the best thing I've seen in ages, I am quite sick of listening to relatively well off people whine that they aren't going to have all the money and things they expected they would.

By: clearly

clearly — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:09:18 -0800

I tried to watch it, but the bullshit pop-up youtube player wouldn't load. not a non-contributing zero. v

By: lattiboy

lattiboy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:10:31 -0800

I was JUST about to post this. When he says, "Give it a second! It's going to SPACE!" I about shat myself. He has been my favorite comedian for some time. His last Showtime special was so funny I hurt my cheeks for about a week.

By: amuseDetachment

amuseDetachment — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:11:15 -0800

I believe it's technically called white whine.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:18:47 -0800

Why does he expect people to appreciate the comfort & convenience afforded to them if they haven't endured the lack thereof? He was (jokingly) recounting the effort of dialing on a rotary phone or having to visit the bank for cash. Well, someone much older could just as well lament about C.K.'s comforts by pointing to a time before widespread telephones or electricity or trustworthy banks or any number of technological/structural improvements.

By: lattiboy

lattiboy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:19:02 -0800

The most tasteless, shocking, and hilarious bit about deer you will ever hear. Completely NSFW!

By: Dagobert

Dagobert — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:38:22 -0800

I too weep at the Culture of Immediacy that has spawned in people today.

By: ignignokt

ignignokt — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:46:43 -0800

Man, I did use rotary phones a few times as a kid. And I totally hated high numbers and zeroes. Gyan has a point, but it's still funny.

By: GooseOnTheLoose

GooseOnTheLoose — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:01:55 -0800

Gyan, he also calls his daughter an asshole. Constantly. Comedy would be pretty difficult if you were never allowed to leave the realm of reason and rationality. Cool timing, on the link, though. I was out at dinner with some friends tonight and a couple started that bickering in front of friends thing that couples do but, "oh we really aren't like this," but they do it EVERY time you all go out. Anyway, I broke up some of the awkwardness by bringing up the Louis CK joke about his views on gay people, and of course God hates them because God cursed man with women, to have to endure their constant bitching and needing and controlling, etc and gay people looked back to God and just went, "nah...no thanks. We'll just fuck each other."

By: stammer

stammer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:04:29 -0800

The problem with this kind of position is that when society collapses the people who'll be traveling from town to town with their pots and pans strapped on their mule are not the ones who are currently watching mid-flight YouTube. The people who will be forcibly reacquainted with good old-fashioned migrant labour and early death are the ones who are right now catching the junkie terror bus to their 15-hour shift at the shit factory. Put it another way. Those guys who complain about their cell phones taking more than fifteen nanoseconds to reach the Mars colony are not the same guys who say "everything is terrible"; they're the guys who thinks that the American way is awesome, the guys who are worried that the current Marxist President might be about to blow their hard-earned iPhone money on some weirdo "volcano monitoring" scheme, and the guys who agree with Santelli that the pain of the economic collapse should be forced on those who "drink the water".

By: Hat Maui

Hat Maui — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:27:03 -0800

that was pretty meh. i like louis, but it seemed to me this tune was played with lots of knee-jerk andy rooney sour notes.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:39:18 -0800

No one ever try to make things better cuz they could be worse so shut up thanks!

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:58:41 -0800

"The people who will be forcibly reacquainted with good old-fashioned migrant labour and early death are the ones who are right now catching the junkie terror bus to their 15-hour shift at the shit factory." Having worked 15-hours shifts at a shit factory, I can assure you that we bitched about our cell-phones constantly. Maybe not airplane flights, but definitely our cars as well.

By: bokeh

bokeh — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:28:04 -0800

Human "progress" is measured by the removal of inconvenience. Obviously, as the great inconveniences are swept under the carpet, we are left with the more numerous crumbs of the inconvenience cake, which are scattered around the fringes of our daily lives. That's why people with less seem to complain less - they only have the large things to complain about, and what's the point of complaining about them as they are simply the prevalent fact of life, and they are too busy growing their food or dealing with their sewage to be worring about it. I'm not making a judgement about it either way, but whatever side of the fence you're on, the grass isn't greener on the other side. It's just a different shade. "they're the guys who thinks that the American way is awesome" I think we're all in awe at the moment, right enough.

By: bokeh

bokeh — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:35:06 -0800

"No one ever try to make things better cuz they could be worse so shut up thanks!" I think the point is that there are more important things to be worrying about than the relative trivialities inherent in our current level of technical advancement, and the person that does worry about those things should get their head out of their iPhone and have a look around at the world.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:39:01 -0800

Awe as in "Awe wow!" or awe as in "Awe shit!" The stupidest part of all this 'progress' is that so much of it is there just for the being of it; it's like kudzu progress. Rampant and overwhelming but mostly of all one, not really very useful, variety. Divorcing want from need is the most critical thing vast swaths of the populous has lost track of. I find this (in myself and those around me) both terrifically unsettling and fascinating.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:49:07 -0800

Bah. This from the guy that yelled at my kids to party hard?

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:12:39 -0800

I've pretty much applied his airplane thinking to the postal service for years now -- every time somebody gripes about the latest rate hike, I'm can't help but think "yeah, but for $0.54 (Canadian), somebody is going to carry this postcard all the way to British Columbia and give it to somebody." No one ever try to make things better cuz they could be worse so shut up thanks! I don't think saying "be amazed and grateful at and about what surrounds you" is the same thing as saying "let's stop progress." It's just saying "complain less, appreciate more." To follow his anecdote, sour grapes about intermittent high-speed Internet access on an airplane does nothing to solve the problem; you can be amazed and gratified that it's even a possibility without denying yourself the right or motivation to improve the service.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:17:32 -0800

So I'm alone in appreciating how amazing things are and being more or less happy?

By: Cantdosleepy

Cantdosleepy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:46:30 -0800

I'm with you, DU. Thanks for the FPP. He speaks some sense here. Things are pretty amazing. We're pretty lucky. My bus being diverted of a morning isn't as much of a big deal as it felt yesterday. I should try harder to appreciate things more. I can see a pigeon out of the window. He seems cool.

By: Faze

Faze — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:11:55 -0800

I'm in DU and CK's side. I work in healthcare, and hear constant complaints. But when you think about it, there's no reason there HAS to be hospitals. There's no reason why we HAVE to treat all these people sitting in the Emergency Department. There's no reason why people HAVE to go through three years of medical school, two years of residency, and six years of fellowship training for the privilege of treating your rectal cancer. There's no reason why a nurse should go for a year of extra training to learn how to treat infections of the stoma for your external, excrement-collecting appliance. Somehow, it all happens, though. You get sick, a man opens your chest, fixes your heart with his own gloved fingers, and closes it up again, and two weeks later, you're complaining about the hospital food, or that you had a snippy nurse. Sheesh.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:24:19 -0800

My bus being diverted of a morning isn't as much of a big deal as it felt yesterday. I should try harder to appreciate things more. I can see a pigeon out of the window. He seems cool. Did you just post that from a bus? Friggin' amazing.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:52:18 -0800

I should amend or expand on my "more or less happy" remark. That doesn't mean I don't see flaws in things, even fundamental paradigm problems, or try to fix them. I'm just not made miserable by them and I'm not blind to all the good stuff that exists.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:53:44 -0800

OK, we're all ungrateful twunts. You go, Louis C.K., whoever you are. Good propaganda to help us get through the hard years to come. But people's expectations naturally change with circumstances. Before people figured out how to catch and tame and ride horses (rather than just eat them), they had to walk everywhere, or maybe float if there was a river nearby. Then suddenly huge animals were carrying people everywhere and, I bet, people were soon complaining about how slow and stupid their horses were, how other people's horses were stronger and faster, and how horrible it was that they have to feed and water and house and groom their horses. This sort of thing is so noticeable now only because changes come so frequently: Trains, cars, and planes. Steam, internal combustion, jet. Hydro, coal, atomic, solar. Anesthetics and antibiotics. Amputation, transplantation, and regeneration. Electric, electronic, quantum. The little fuckers are going to demand spookier and spookier actions at greater and greater distances and I would be an old crank if I told them to be grateful for what they've got (and to stop and smell the roses, and then explained how roses used to grow outside and you'd just happen upon them and they had a pleasant fragrance if you put your nose to them).

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:14:53 -0800

Too much fucking perspective.

By: orme

orme — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:26:59 -0800

"and what's with these Metafilter people? Are they actually going to analyze the stupid comedy routine that I did on a late night tv show? It was a joke! They're all like blah, blah , blah he really is right, you know, and blah, blah he is so wrong and doesn't know what he's saying! I'm just doing a comedy routine you bunch of weirdos!" *not a real Louis C.K. quote*

By: condour75

condour75 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:31:26 -0800

The "space" line, though technically untrue unless you're using a satellite phone, was definitely a high point. I'm glad this clip is so viral right now; it's a perfect antidote to years of comic-sans strewn it-was-better-in-the-old-days-kids-weren't-allergic-to-peanut-butter forwards.

By: hellojed

hellojed — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:35:16 -0800

the ones who are right now catching the junkie terror bus to their 15-hour shift at the shit factory. You, my friend, may have a future in contemporary fiction.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:54:56 -0800

This was a little light-hearted poke at the culture of immediate gratification and impatience that we have cultivated. I think we'd all do well to smell the roses a bit more, and remember: This guy is a comedian. He is not setting labor policy, he is not in charge of maintaining communications satellites, he is not educating the next generation of civil engineers. His job is to make people laugh, and one of the best ways to do this is to poke fun at our foibles. Now let us pray: O Internet, give us this day our daily beans. Your favorite beans suck. Amen.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:01:57 -0800

This link has been everywhere lately, but this is all old material. Way to get my hopes up, Internet.

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:11:19 -0800

Hilarious.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:18:27 -0800

I was JUST about to post this. When he says, "Give it a second! It's going to SPACE!" Except it's not, cellphones don't use satellites, they use towers on the ground (although eventually the radio waves will get to space, just as the radio waves generated by a landlines phone would leak through the cables and eventually get to space as well) Secondly, I think the reason people complain about airplanes is that they're so much worse then they used to be. Interestingly, this has a lot to do with government regulation: In the past, airplane rates were regulated and the rates were kept artificially high. This meant the only way airlines could compete was on service, and so the service was really good. You got free food and drinks, etc. Once price competition came to the fore, those things disappeared for the most part. And of course after 9/11 airplane security got even more annoying. And there's a generational component as well, new travelers might not be used to the amenities on previous flights, but they know other people dislike flying now and so they think more about how annoying it is, rather then how awesome it is. Plus the 9/11 related lameness. But as far as the "nobody's happy" thing, well, is it possible there's a selection bias going on? I mean this is an angry, ranty guy (at least when he's in front of a TV camera) maybe he hangs out with people who are similar to him? I'm sure you could find people who are mostly happy. It's a bit like Rick Warren saying he's "never met a happy atheist", well, maybe he pisses them off with arrogant B.S. like that they won't seem happy most of the time. There's also the issue of decline. People are more sensitive to changes in their lives then they are to baseline awesomeness. So if things are getting better they'll be happy. If things are getting worse they'll be unhappy. I also found the inter-generational sniping a little annoying. He was born in 1967, I guess that makes him "Gen-X", so at least he's not a baby boomer.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:21:51 -0800

Louis C.K. is one of my favorites... Hal9k: I'm pretty sure you are thinking of Andrew W.K. of "Get Wet" fame. Now that guy is a wanker.

By: Killick

Killick — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:31:14 -0800

Bugs in a Bowl, by David Budbill: Han Shan, that great and crazy, wonder-filled Chinese poet of a thousand years ago, said: We're just like bugs in a bowl. All day going around never leaving their bowl. I say, That's right! Every day climbing up the steep sides, sliding back. Over and over again. Around and around. Up and back down. Sit in the bottom of the bowl, head in your hands, cry, moan, feel sorry for yourself. Or. Look around. See your fellow bugs. Walk around. Say, Hey, how you doin'? Say, Nice Bowl!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:34:21 -0800

Man, I got him beat: rotary phone - on a party line. Our ring was the ring and a half.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:36:07 -0800

oh, for pete's sake, people weren't happy back then, either Human "progress" is measured by the removal of inconvenience. which is why we have to wait longer to talk to a human being when we call a business, drive longer to get to work, wait longer to get on an airplane, ring up our own groceries at the check out lane and call tow trucks to change tires because the lugnuts are too damned tight i'm not convinced that overall our times are more convenient and get off my damn lawn

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:36:26 -0800

For all the ingrates that our modern era has produced, I'd still ike to think that progress is more than just the removal of inconvenience. Progress raises literacy rates and produces more doctors and engineers. Progress eradicated polio and smallpox, and will likely eradicate measles in our lifetime. Progress sent a human to the moon and will, in a matter of generations, make space travel an (excuse the pun) mundane thing. Progress will bring about Star Trek; the iPhone is just a distraction. I feel that the folks who anticipate and secretly wish (as I once did) for revolution, decline, and the forced reversion to agrarian society have sort of lost sight of the bigger picture.

By: nosila

nosila — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:38:19 -0800

...I bet, people were soon complaining about how slow and stupid their horses were, how other people's horses were stronger and faster, and how horrible it was that they have to feed and water and house and groom their horses. I don't know about this. You could be right, of course, but I wouldn't assume that this is true. Just because everyone we know is a whiner doesn't mean that people have always been whiners. Anyone ever been anyplace where they still use horses and donkeys for transportation or as pack animals? Do people whine about their burros?

By: condour75

condour75 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:02:23 -0800

I remember a question marginal revolution a few years back. I'm probably butchering it, but I think the gist was, would you rather be middle class today or a millionaire 100 years ago? I know I'd rather be in the middle class today. Polio free, with google and slankets for all.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:02:45 -0800

Secondly, I think the reason people complain about airplanes is that they're so much worse then they used to be.

Perhaps, yes, they used to be better. But they used to be so expensive that your average person couldn't afford to fly. I flew once before I was 25--it just wasn't something that anyone other than rich folks thought about doing. Nowadays, if the drive is over 5 hours or so, I start looking up flights (on the internet, no less). So, yeah, airplanes are, indeed, worse then they used to be, for rich people.

By: JoeXIII007

JoeXIII007 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:05:18 -0800

What an awesome thing to wake up to this morning... I cannot help but smile. =)

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:42:53 -0800

I think we'd all do well to smell the roses a bit more I think there's an app for that.

By: I Foody

I Foody — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:49:23 -0800

Now I feel bad about calling Pooty Tang a stupid scatter shot waste of time when really I should have been marvelling at the fact that I can see giant pictures of things that never happened and hear noises that produced by vibrating little magnets the same was other magnets vibrated.

By: kolophon

kolophon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:02:25 -0800

The situation I get reminded that we live in better times is at the dentist. When a highly trained professional takes care of my teeth with as little pain for me as possible, I'm trying to be truly thankful and amazed of human progress and achievement. Comparing the inconvenience one suffers there to getting the wrong tooth pulled out with a rusty nipper by the local blacksmith always helps.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:03:15 -0800

I think there's an app for that. Yea but it doesn't work on Linux, pffft.

By: setanor

setanor — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:16:21 -0800

And what of those who do appreciate how we've evolved as a society? Who are reverent towards our technological advances and excited about the future? Who are happy and ready and optimistic? Swept under the rug of sweeping generalizations, as always. I've put in the thought, thanks, and I don't want your fucking donkey pots. If you think "everyone" needs that, start with yourself.

By: lazaruslong

lazaruslong — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:41:39 -0800

Love that man. Check out Louis CK and Ricky Gervais, scared shitless and still funny on a turbulent private plane ride.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:46:23 -0800

would you rather be middle class today or a millionaire 100 years ago? We still have a middle class?

By: quin

quin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:49:29 -0800

I've had a similar conversation with a fairly young coworker, who was complaining about how some of our customers "just didn't get it" when it came to technology. In an effort to explain how fast things have changed. I took out my cell phone and commented that with it, I can watch videos, browse the internet, listen to music, and see where both I and my wife are on a map, as well as doing something as mundane as making a call. I then pointed to the rotary phone I keep on my desk and said, that is what I was using just 25 years ago. Of course, from his perspective, that was more than an entire lifetime, so I guess it's all a matter of where you are standing when the changes come.

By: everichon

everichon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:13:32 -0800

There you go, bringing class into it again.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:17:13 -0800

It was nice of Louis CK to bring his lawn all the way to the Conan O'Brian show's studio just to shoo the kids these days off it.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:25:11 -0800

But I'll still never forgive him for Pootie Tang.

By: ALB209

ALB209 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:41:56 -0800

I often wonder if people in general would be more social without smart phones. The time they spend fiddling around on the internet while waiting in line for a coffee could be spent talking to others in line. Instead of distracting ourselves with healthy social experimentation, we are now spending more and more time on the same web sites and peering into our friends lives through facebook.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:48:46 -0800

Okay, but I still think people who complain about their iPhones need to take a telegraph lesson or two.

By: everichon

everichon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:57:34 -0800

The time they spend fiddling around on the internet while waiting in line for a coffee could be spent talking to others in line. No. Extrovert!

By: jcruelty

jcruelty — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:58:05 -0800

Louis CK is hilarious. Just rented his special ("Used Up") - highly recommend. I like when he's talking about his daughters' nonstop babbling. "She's a 5 year old. Literally nothing she has to tell me could possibly matter."

By: IvoShandor

IvoShandor — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:06:21 -0800

Old clip is old.

By: gompa

gompa — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:14:02 -0800

The problem with this kind of position is that he's a comedian not a talking head on CNN and he pricked one of those unthinking assumptions that makes some people want to explain about the plight of the noble proles down at the shit factory or how actually people have always reacted to change in somewhat ungrateful ways or how this guy's one of those get-off-my-lawn guys because no one's made that trenchant observation around here in like ten minutes, whereas the same assumption pricking makes some of us laugh in recognition and delight BECAUSE HE'S A FUCKING COMEDIAN. Thanks for the link, Navelgazer, I needed that kinda refreshing faceslap this morning . . .

By: ethnomethodologist

ethnomethodologist — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:19:34 -0800

Secondly, I think the reason people complain about airplanes is that they're so much worse then they used to be. Are you fucking insane? People used to SMOKE on airplanes. Add seatback entertainment and that's game, set and match. I won't even bring up PRICE because somebody else has.

By: patr1ck

patr1ck — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:53:02 -0800

HOLY SHIT I AM POSTING THIS COMMENT FROM A BUS

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:08:08 -0800

Are you fucking insane? People used to SMOKE on airplanes. That's right, and combined with martinis, oh, flying was sweeeeet.

By: 2or3whiskeysodas

2or3whiskeysodas — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:09:21 -0800

Who here finds this world distracting? Who here finds this world a bore? Who here thinks we're all play acting And that the show's piss poor? I, for one, am dazzled, I don't care if dazzled blind. Rapt, enraptured, captured By every little thing I find. --Les Savy Fav, Crawling Can Be Beautiful

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:15:34 -0800

This one had me cackling like I was on powerful drugs. This man is excellent.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:20:44 -0800

My dad's work number had FIVE nines in it. I swear, by the time we finished dialing he was home for dinner. *rimshot* Seriously, though, my parents had a rotary phone in their house until they moved a couple of years ago, and I can't believe one of my brothers didn't "rescue" it. And get-offa-my-lawn remarks aside, progress really is freakin' amazing. That yellow line on the TV on NFL games? Portable computers that fit in an envelope? (Hell, portable computers that are portable?) South American roses sold the day after they're picked, in a grocery store, for like ten bucks? Digital cameras, and home laser printers for $100, and picture frames on your wall that get new photos through the aether? Those 3D "printers"? Medical imaging that can see past what you ate for lunch and on into your heart? Direct-to-plate commercial printing that skips the messy film & proof stage? On-demand photo books from Lulu? What is it you people want? The marvelous James Lileks recently wrote, "The downside of everything getting better is that people forget the virtues of just good enough." Sheesh. (OK, OK, there's also pollution, frightening auto-immune disorders, flesh-eating bacteria, prions, sock feet at the airport, no chicken-or-beef choice on planes, pervasive surveillance, exploding Space Shuttles, etc., etc. But still, man, it's all pretty amazing.)

By: empath

empath — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:44:18 -0800

Holy crap you people could overthink a plate of beans.

By: stammer

stammer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:45:17 -0800

I'm in DU and CK's side. I work in healthcare, and hear constant complaints. Do you work for money or for props? If the former, I guess that's how society expresses its gratitude. But when you think about it, there's no reason there HAS to be hospitals. There's no reason why we HAVE to treat all these people sitting in the Emergency Department. Because the capacity exists to do so, the overwhelming majority of people think it should be done, and so a social arrangement has been reached whereby those who do it are rewarded with money. There's no reason why a nurse should go for a year of extra training to learn how to treat infections of the stoma for your external, excrement-collecting appliance. Because that's how the social division of labour works. There's no reason why someone should spend twenty years picking fruit so you can buy it for dessert on a whim; why don't you go thank him? Perhaps you hear "constant complains" because if healthcare is delivered wrong people can have their lives ruined or ended. Who really expects constant adulation because they work for a living?

By: empath

empath — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:45:29 -0800

That yellow line on the TV on NFL games I still think that's a miracle of modern technology. I don't know how people could watch football without it.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:03:26 -0800

I was talking with my boss once about what we do on long flights -- I sometimes work, sometimes read, sometimes watch the inflight video, sometimes listen to music but mostly just look out the window. The tops of clouds. What would Leonardo or Benjamin Franklin or Aristotle given to have seen the tops of clouds?

By: schroedinger

schroedinger — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:24:46 -0800

Put it another way. Those guys who complain about their cell phones taking more than fifteen nanoseconds to reach the Mars colony are not the same guys who say "everything is terrible"; they're the guys who thinks that the American way is awesome, the guys who are worried that the current Marxist President might be about to blow their hard-earned iPhone money on some weirdo "volcano monitoring" scheme, and the guys who agree with Santelli that the pain of the economic collapse should be forced on those who "drink the water". What? You really think this? I see that kind of bitching from all angles, hipster, liberal, prep, and conservative alike. Sorry dude, but you can't blame everything on rich rednecks.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:54:38 -0800

The next person who disses pootie tang is gonna catch the sepatown side of my belt.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:57:48 -0800

Sorry, man, but Pootie Tang was fucking terrible.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:43:38 -0800

dersins, you're a baddy daddy lamatai tabby chai!

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:14:10 -0800

These are the days of miracle and wonder This is the long distance call The way the camera follows us in slo-mo The way we look to us all The way we look to a distant constellation That's dying in a corner of the sky These are the days of miracle and wonder And don't cry baby, don't cry --the boy in the bubble, paul simon, graceland

By: quin

quin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:43:45 -0800

So this thread inspired me to go and seek out some of his full shows; I've basically spent the better part of this evening watching them back to back, and the experience has given me the desire to offer up this piece of advice; if you decide you want to dedicate some quality time seeing his works, particularly if you haven't seen them before... Stretch. Make sure you are good and loose before you go into it, because I, no shit, pulled something from laughing too hard.