One of the Alan Parsons' Project's biggest hits was "Eye in the Sky" (EitS), from the album by the same name. The Chicago Bulls use the intro to that song, "Sirius", as their theme music. (I really, really hope Parsons et al got a lot of money from that. But they probably didn't.) EitS had a bunch of good songs on it, and a bunch of "meh" songs.
One of my favorites was "Psychobabble", but right after that song came "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned".
The Project didn't really have a set ensemble of musicians. The main point behind it was Eric Woolfson writing songs and Alan Parsons doing all the engineering, and adding a few instrumental tracks; they got whoever they could to play instruments and sing.
There were "regulars", of course: Ian Bairnson (guitar), David Paton (bass), Stuart Elliot (percussion); and Parsons and Woolfson did all the keyboards. Chris Rainbow, John Miles, "Elmer Gantry", and "Mr. Laser Beam" did vocals among others...and Lenny Zakatek.
Zakatek sang "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned"; he sang "You Don't Believe" which was a pretty big hit for the band about a year or so later. In fact, he sang "Games People Play" which was also one of the big Project hits.
Lame joke part:
The lead in to the last chorus of the song (before "repeat and fade") are written thus:
Don't get fooled a second timeBut that's not what it sounds like to me; no. Instead, it sounds like Zakatek is singing, "Don't get food a second time".
Thought by now you'd learned
You're gonna get your fingers burned.
This led to me thinking of an audio sketch about the Lenny Zakatek Diet Plan where I'd ask a question, then play a line from the song as an answer, thus making a kind of "interview".
Me: Well! Lenny Zakatek is with us, here to tell us about his new diet plan. So, Lenny, you had a weight problem in the past, then? Why was that?
Lenny (singing): Ask me why, I don't know.
Me: I'm led to understand that your diet works by controlling portions, is that right? How do you do that?
Lenny (singing): Every move is sleight of hand
Me: So, Lenny, tell us how effective your diet plan is.
Lenny (singing): Now you see me, now you don't
Me: Well, so if you had to summarize your method in one sentence, what would it be?
Lenny (singing): Don't get fooled [food] a second time.
Me: And what if you do?
Lenny (singing): Thought by now you'd learned: you're gonna get your fingers burned.
Me: So there it is: negative reinforcement and portion control. Thanks, Lenny, for enlightening us.
...I didn't say it was high comedy. I said, in fact, that it was lame. I said so. Didn't you believe me?
That's why I never actually did anything with the idea.
* * *
This article is scary. It is scary because of this:
The big problem we face right now is the Treasury has moved more than half of our total debt into the very short end of the yield curve. It did this to minimize interest expense. But as a result, we'll have to "roll over" roughly $4 trillion in the next 30 months. That's in addition to funding another $3 trillion or so in additional annual deficits. It's an interesting question, whether or not we can actually do this. We cannot do it if China stops buying massive quantities of Treasury bonds.The economy must grow--really grow, not grow on paper--and grow a lot if we're to avoid a debt crisis and massive inflation.
And as March 29, China was a net seller of Treasury debt. If we can't fund our debts in the bond market, the Federal Reserve will be forced to monetize our deficits by buying Treasury bonds. If that happens, inflation will soar and the price of gold will double or triple almost overnight.
Problem is, the economy is not growing. GDP contracted two percent last year, unemployment is very high, and the government is enacting all kinds of policies and programs which are very unfriendly to business and economic growth.
Biden hopes the economy will take off and grow like gangbusters but it's not the way to bet, especially since ObamaCare has already caused significant pain for large corporations.
Biden says, "In the next couple of months we're going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month." I hope he's right; but I fear that his statement is childishly optimistic.
And Greece's debt is starting to cause problems in Europe.
The Chinese and the Russians really, really want to "help" Greece with their problem; but the sitting government in Greece knows what kind of strings will come attached to that "help". (All of them red.)
* * *
John McCain is up for reelection and I sincerely hope the voters of Arizona vote his ass out in the primary. We need to de-elect all the RINOs. All of them. The Republican party must learn on which side its bread is buttered; it's time--long past time!--for the GOP to return to being the conservative party, and not "Democrat Lite".
* * *
GOOD GOD, READ THIS. Read it all.
* * *
Consequences of Obama treating Israel like dirt:
Other powerful Democrats are ripping Obama for his actions.
Massive anti-Obama rally planned for Sunday. Jews are powerfully Democrat, particularly in New York City. But if Obama insists on kicking the dog at random, these Jews will stay home come election time.
That's why Schumer is ripping Obama a new one over this issue: his constituency is angry over it, and Schumer had better make a stink over it if he wants them to vote for him in November.
* * *
Apparently American tastes are going to change and we're all going to want small cars soon. Well, if Harvard and Obama and the Democrats get their way and put a huge new tax on gasoline, we won't be able to afford to drive anything else.
The article says, "2011 is slated to become the year of subcompact cars," and I want to know slated by whom? Who has made this decision, and by what legal authority can he make that decision?
Obama's raising of the CAFE standard to 35.5 MPG? Is that what we're talking about? Or is it the impending rise of gas prices to $4 per gallon again? (Thanks, Democrats.)
...it's now 2010. If we had started drilling in 2005, 2006, 2007, new production would be coming on-line now. Would we be facing $4 per gallon gas now if we had started drilling in 2007? Or 2008?
It does no good right now to start drilling, went the Democrat argument, so we might as well not bother. Drilling won't fix the immediate problem, so there's no point to starting.
And so, here we are in 2010, and gas is going right back up to $4 as quickly as it can manage. Only this time we're in a recession and unemployment is high, and the economy is struggling to recover. High energy prices are going to strangle it.
Thanks, Democrats.
* * *
Looking for pictures online of anime babes, I keep finding myself rejecting images, saying, "That's just not [character]. It looks like her, but it's not her."
I'm not talking about the style of the drawing, or not quite. Take Yuki Nagato for example: any image of her showing strong emotion is just not an image of Yuki Nagato from Haruhi, because Yuki Nagato doesn't ever show strong emotion. It's like John Wayne playing a drag queen: it fails on too many levels.
Then there are the images which incorporate all the right character design elements, but--again--aren't that character. I rejected about a thousand different pics of various charcters because while the drawing had the right hairstyle, colors, and clothing, it wasn't that character. (Of all the Fuuka Ayase pics I grabbed, about three of them were not drawn by Kiyohiko Azuma, because the other images just weren't Fuuka.)
Then, of course, there were the H images to which I have taken to assigning the label "peach panties". This NSFW picture of the cast of K-on! is an example of "peach panties" at work. I really, really do not like them. I discussed my problems with this sort of thing in this Fungus post. (There was one pic of Mio Akiyama that would have been smoking hawt if it hadn't been drawn that way. *sigh*)
So I've only amassed 89 images in my "Anime Babes" folder, newly created for the purpose of saving images of hawt anime babes, but I haven't exhausted my list of names to look for yet.
* * *
The Jalopy's "Check Engine" light (CEL) came on today. Finally.
...Mom needed smokes, so we went to Indiana to get her some cigarettes which are not taxed at a regressive and confiscatory rate. One of the roads of my usual route is being prepared for a skin coat of asphalt; the top layer had been flayed off, unevenly, so it was bumpy. And on the way back, I suddenly noticed that the CEL had illuminated.
Loose bulb? Possibly. I'm still fixing to drop the steering column, remove the instrument cluster, and replace all the bulbs. With LED bulbs if they don't cost too much.
Anyway, at my first opportunity I plugged the O2 sensor back in, and the CEL is now only illuminating during bulb test, when the ignition is switched on. So the computer thinks everything is hunky-dory and the car's performance is utterly unchanged.
* * *
I got Yotsuba&! volume 3-5 today. And proceeded to read 3 and 4, and LMAO at them. "Yotsuba and the Elephant" provided the biggest, longest laugh, and provided an important rule: "NO PUNCHING THE GOATS!" Words to live by.
...and when I was LMAO, I only had to cough a little bit. Hooraw.
Thanks for letting us know your cup size, Fuuka.