Tag: Reblogged

Lazy Sunday CCX: MAGAWeek2023 Posts

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Well, another MAGAWeek is in the books.  It was a star-spangled affair, with biographies of four important historical figures (one of recent vintage, the others from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).  $5 and up subscribers also got three bonus editions of Sunday Doodles (here, here, and here).

Of course, to get access to my four detailed biographies—as well as all past MAGAWeek posts—it’s just $1 a month.  One measly buck!  As of the time of this writing, there are 429 posts on my SubscribeStar page, over half of which are available for just $1 a month.  At $5 a month, it comes out to one cent per post as of right now, and I’m adding new content every single week (with rare exceptions).

Even at just $1 a month, and assume (conservatively) that you only get access to half of the posts (about 215 posts), it works out to just $0.0047 per post—less than a half-cent per post!

At $12 a year—the price of a single, one-topping large pizza—you can a.) support your favorite chubby content creator and b.) gain access to an ever-growing library of long-form essays.  For $60 a year—what most of us pay for Internet access for one month—you get everything—doodles (which often contain additional commentary), bonus doodles, bonus posts, exclusive election coverage posts, etc., etc.

Thanks to those who have donated and subscribed in the past.  Please help spread the word!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^65,536: Happy Birthday, America!

The Portly Politico8 Comments

On Tuesday, American celebrated its 247th birthday.  We’re now just three years away from the “Bisesquicentennial,” or whatever the word is for “250th.”  That’s going to be a big one, for sure.

Since last year’s Independence Day post, things seem about the same.  The culture war rages on, but everything feels like it’s in a weird sort of stasis.  Yes, Trump has been indicted on (pardon the expression) trumped up charges.  Yes, Tucker got the boot from Fox News.  But even those events—which are major turning points—don’t feel all that consequential.  I mean, they are, but in a world where we’re constantly passing through one looking glass after another, crossing one Rubicon after the other, even the momentous has become mundane.

It probably doesn’t help that we all know the Trump indictments are a political witch hunt and are utterly meaningless in any legal sense, and that we all knew Fox News was going to defenestrate The Tuck sooner or later.  That doesn’t diminish the importance of those events, but they’re not exactly shocking, either.  Persecution of popular and effective figures on the Right is now just part of the new normal.

Such is the danger of the banality of evil—we come to suffer them, while still sufferable, because the alternative could be worse.  Jefferson wrote as much in the Declaration of Independence (emphasis added):

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Of course, these evils are far less sufferable than the tyranny the American colonists faced in 1776—and which they were already fighting against, starting with Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Indeed, the colonists were pushing back as early as 1765 and the Stamp Act Crisis; Lexington and Concord were just when Americans were shooting at the British (they started shooting at us in 1770 at the Boston Massacre).

Today, we have hundreds of Americans held indefinitely without trial because they moseyed through the Capitol Building with a police escort serving as tour guides.  Never mind that Leftists and myriad other groups have “stormed” the Capitol Building on multiple occasions, also disrupting the government’s business; they’re the beautiful people, right?

Perhaps it would do us well to reflect upon the Spirit of 1776.

With that, here is “TBT^256: Happy Birthday, America!“:

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Lazy Sunday CCIX: Original Music, Part II

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

By the time you’re reading this post, I should be about an hour or so into a long drive to Indianapolis, where I’ll be visiting my older brother for a week.  We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll vomit—well, probably not those last two, unless I overindulge on the chicken sausage dogs he picked up for the Fourth of July.

In the spirit of keeping Lazy Sunday lazy, here are three more pieces of original music from Open Mic Adventures, the series that keeps on giving:

  • “Open Mic Adventures XXVIII: ‘Song of the Bigfoot’” – “Song of the Bigfoot” is designed to be a simple étude (a “study”) for acoustic guitar to help students learn the notes on the B and E strings.  It also teaches note durations, with quarter, half, dotted half, and whole notes.  I like the slightly mysterious sound of this simple piece.  Listener consensus says that the guitar version better captures the mystery of the piece, and I agree, but I like the more robust piano version, too.
  • “Open Mic Adventures XXX: ‘Chorale for a Sleepy Wednesday’” – I composed “Chorale for a Sleepy Wednesday” during one of my planning periods.  I thought it would make a fun sightreading exercise for my Middle School Music Ensemble, and eventually I’ll upload their full recording of this piece (audio only).  When I write chorales, I tend to do so as a music theory exercise, so it was fun to see my more astute student-musicians notice some of the stepwise motion in this little piece.
  • “Open Mic Adventures XXXI: ‘Carousel’” – I wrote “Carousel” as a Haydn-esque little gigue or dance in 3/4 time.  My Middle School Music Ensemble students nominated two possible names, “Carousel” and “Ambata,” and “Carousel” won the day.  I promised the student who proposed “Ambata” that I would composed that piece, and I still need to do so.  I already have a good sense for what it will sound like in my head.

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^2: Fighting Back Against Critical Race Theory

The Portly Politico6 Comments

Apologies for the delay, folks; I had this post scheduled for PM instead of AM. Oops! —TPP

For all the insufferableness of “Pride” and its gyrating acolytes, America’s original pagan deity was, and will always be, race.  There will come a time—and it’s already manifesting—when Americans will turn on LGBTQIA2+etc. movements with a vengeance.  At a certain point, there’s only so much pederasty a people can take.

But race is a far more intractable problem.  It is the dark (no pun intended) elder god come back to wreak havoc on Americans.  In exchange for cheap cotton and cloth in the 1800s, we now pay a thousand invisible taxes in tribute to appease this insatiable monster.

Gavin McInnes argues that we’re living in a “black theocracy,” at least in a cultural sense.  The gatekeepers of popular culture can’t seem to resist recasting traditionally European characters—like Anne Boleyn!—as ebony goddesses who somehow held twenty-first-century sensibilities in Tudor England.  We’ve all seen the endless television commercials that seem suspiciously absent of anyone with a drop of European ancestry.

Contrast that with Night of the Living Dead (1968).  The main character in that film, Ben, is played by Duane Jones, a black actor and university professor.  George Romero cast Jones for the part not because he was trying to “make history” (although in 1968 it actually was rare and controversial to cast a black man as the lead in a film), but because Jones was simply the best man for the job.  Jones himself backs up this assertion—it was never about race; he’s just a great actor.

I remember seeing Night of the Living Dead sometime in high school.  It was one of the most powerful films I’d seen up to that point in my life—terrifying, yes, but also dramatic, with such a disastrous (in a good way) ending.  I was on the edge of my seat.  Not once did I think, “oh, man, they cast a black dude for diversity points.”  I’m sure I recognized that Jones was black, but it did nothing to enhance or detract from the story—he simply was; in this case, he was Ben  He was perfect for that role.

Interesting and original black characters are great.  Black Panther (2018) was way overrated, but it wasn’t terrible; the late Chadwick Boseman was impressive in the title role.  Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018) was a clever way to introduce an “ethnic” variant on Spider-Man that didn’t simply steal an existing intellectual property.  Who else but Sidney Poitier could pull off Mark Thackeray in To Sir, with Love (1967)?

The examples are endless.  It’s possible to write compelling black characters without turning (to use the most recent outrage) Ariel into a washed-out black girl with eyes on either side of her head.

But who am I?  I’m an evil, white, cisgender man.  Let this articulate black gentleman explain it:

I’ll stop here before I end up in the breadline.

With that, here is 23 June 2022’s “TBT: Fighting Back Against Critical Race Theory“:

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Lazy Sunday CCVIII: Original Music, Part I

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Ah, the glorious summer.  I can already feel it slipping through my Vienna sausage fingers like the grains of sand in an hour glass, or the metaphorical sandbags I’m desperately stacking up against the inexorable tide of the new school year.  I love teaching, but having mornings free to write and the like is glorious.

One perk of summer is that I can actually get out to open mic nights again.  I’ve missed playing live, and I want to find sustainable ways to play during the school year.  It’s difficult, though:  I typically don’t get in from an open mic until 10 PM.  That’s doable during the summer months, but during the school year, I’m usually zonked out by 9 or 9:30 PM, not hanging out with hipsters in some coffee shop.

Regardless, here are some recent posts featuring original pieces, two of which are open mic performances:

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^2: Reclaim the Rainbow

The Portly Politico4 Comments

In our age of identity politics, where every individual’s personal peccadilloes are deemed a political statement and therefore there is, ironically, no division between the individual and the state, we are forced to celebrate “pride,” one of the Seven Deadly Sins.  Apparently, partaking in casual buggery with one’s demiqueer otherkin is cause for public celebrations and live sex acts performed before children.

That said, all the “Pride Month” foolishness seems more toned down this year.  There’s no doubt it’s still there, sashaying its glittery sinfulness through corporate America, but the rainbow is more muted.  Readers have probably heard how Target shuffled its Pride displays in Southern locations away from the fronts of stores after backlash from kid’s clothing with wiener-tucking abilities.  Anecdotally, while strolling through PetSmart, I saw one tiny display of “Pride” dog toys in the far back portion of the store.  Modern dog owners are already kind of weirdos (gulp!) who seem like they’d be into any alternative lifestyle, so even here in the South, it seems like PetSmart could get away with more flamboyant displays.  Instead, they’re sticking to what they do best—selling overpriced pet supplies.

The backlash seems to be from the increasingly overt efforts to force “Pride” onto children.  When it was just adults being forced to watch two men make out on television, or vague proclamations that “love is love,” we might wince, but it was hard to get over the (disingenuous and flawed) argument that “it’s just consenting adults; we’re just raising awareness.”

Now that there’s the clear grooming of children going on—an active effort to indoctrinate and seduce children into highly inappropriate and unnatural sexual relationships with adults—people are finally waking up.  The quest for homosexual “rights” was nothing but a Trojan condom horse to prey upon the vulnerable and the innocent.

Thirty years ago, it was, “we just want to come out of the shadows.”

Twenty years ago, it was, “we just want to get married, too.”

Ten years ago, it was, “we want to become another gender.”

Now it’s “we want to force your child to become a gender, then we want to have sex with it.”

Sin surely sends us down a slippery slope.

With that, here is “TBT: Reclaim the Rainbow“:

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Lazy Sunday CCVII: Stories

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

This blog loves the arts, but especially the short story as a form.  The short story is incredibly versatile, and can explore many of the themes of a novel without the time commitment.  Often, less is more.

This Sunday, I thought I’d look back at three genres of short stories:  ghost stories, Southern fiction, and science fiction:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT: Happy Birthday, Murphy!

The Portly Politico7 Comments

My sweet, bossy, chunky, lazy dog, Murphy, turns ten today!  She is a bull terrier, a notoriously stubborn yet loyal breed.  Here’s a picture of her from a few days ago:

Murphy 2023

I adopted Murphy in 2021 from the Bull Terrier Rescue Mission after her original owner turned her over to a North Carolina animal shelter.  What a terrible thing to be abandoned after eight years!

But his callous decision was Murph’s gain—I hope!—and mine.  We immediately took to each other, and while she loves many people, she’s always most excited when she sees me.

She is a good dog, and I consider myself fortunate to have her as my first.  Other than her innate orneriness, extreme stubbornness, and tireless neediness, she’s perfect.  Those might all sounds like criticisms, but they’re just part of what make her so special.

I love you, Murphy!

With that, here is 15 June 2022’s “Happy Birthday, Murphy!“:

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Lazy Sunday CCVI: Intergalactic Nonsense

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

I’ve been writing (and singing!) a lot about space lately.  My interest in the topic is steadfast, though the highlighting of it here on the blog ebbs and flows.  I also will hasten to add that I’m not much for the technical details of space exploration and colonization, and I suspect that many of our scientific observations about space are, at best, educated guesses.  Rather, I adore the idea of humanity stretching its fragile fingers into the firmament.

This recent focus also coincides with the re-release of several of my old instrumental albums into the digital space.  To save a few bucks (“quid” to my English readers), I released Electrock Music (2006) and Electrock II: Space Rock (2007) into a digital double LP (twelve tracks each, twenty-four tracks total):

Start with “Launch” to begin a musicologist’s tour throughout our Solar System.

To take an abbreviated tour of our Solar System—with a major emphasis on Saturn—keep reading:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT: Touring the Solar System in Rural Maine

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I’ve been on an outer space kick lately, especially with all my posts about Saturn.  As such, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to look back at this little post from 2019—one of my favorites!

Surprisingly, I’d never bothered to reblog this one in the nearly four years since it was first published.  It’s about a model Solar System in the State of Maine, The Maine Solar System Model (the website for which has gotten a facelift since 2019).  It’s been on my traveling “to do list” ever since I learned about it on Quora.

With that, here is 24 September 2019’s “Touring the Solar System in Rural Maine“:

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