Disqus - Latest Comments for Frymaster

Re: Pawsox sold to group that plans to move the team to Providence

Frymaster — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 15:24:24 -0000

Having money means you've already executed against a plan. Waiting until you have money to develop a visionary plan is self-defeating. Which is Pawtucket in a nutshell.

Re: Pawsox sold to group that plans to move the team to Providence

Frymaster — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 10:41:15 -0000

Many Pawtucket watchers saw this coming and for the reasons mentioned. The Pawsox experience never went beyond the parking lot, and the city never mustered the wherewithal to keep fans in the area.

A community leader once tried to rally the city behind the idea of building a stadium in the giant parking lot opposite city hall or another disused property in the downtown area. Everybody just laughed at him. Which is Pawtucket in a nutshell.

Bottom line: cities that lack vision and smart planning stand to lose what little they have to cities that do.

Re: Classical music: difficult, dangerous, disturbing. Young people stay away!

Frymaster — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:49:13 -0000

On greying audiences, consider this. A person who is, say, 50 was born in 1964 and raised on 70s TV shows. Go find an episode of the US cop show Mannix and listen to the score; it's largely 12-tone. The new audience that orchestras are seeking is largely bored by common practice period "masters", while the truly ancient people who comprise the orchestras' donor bases positively freak out at Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice. I have seen this with my own eyes in Boston's Symphony Hall. It's a demographic death spiral.

In contrast, look at what Mr. Spano is doing in Atlanta. Living composers are moving to freaking GEORGIA, USA in hopes of getting performed by a major orchestra. (Spano conducted that concert in Boston, BTW.)

The idea that art music ended in 1890 is what's killing orchestras, not the Charleston or Taylor Swift.

Re: Classical music: difficult, dangerous, disturbing. Young people stay away!

Frymaster — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:27:14 -0000

Everybody in the comments ('cept @DivaShell) and the author himself gets +1 towards their Get Off My Lawn badge.

First and worst, you all seem to equate "classical music" with common practice period...Bach through Mahler. After that, nobody every wrote music for the orchestra, chamber (er...chambre) orchestra or any type of small ensemble. If they had, that music'd prolly scare the crap outta @Mario's kitteh's. As well it should.

Also, Eruption is closer to retirement than it is to birth. Eruption could buy its own beer in the US, like, 15 years ago. I'm sure that there's a type of teenage female that still goes for metal, but truly modern "popular" music is hella far Eddie and Dave's LA flash and/or the corporate dreck that Simon Whatshisname is looking to steal, er...represent. One show I mixed recently had an act that called for 3 channels of concert harp (mic, transducer and transducer into stomp boxes into tiny amp into another mic) AND another act with a drum kit that included bicycle wheel in the style of Frank Zappa's mid-60s performance on the Steve Allen show.

In this scene, it is de rigueur to play string bass. Literally, there was a string bass on a stand and this newly-met young lady was being taught the basics right before my eyes. Everybody plays multiple instruments...onstage and maybe in the same song. If you play "an" instrument, you ain't ish.

This is the modern world, one dominated by radical capitalism. It's irrational to expect a music predicated on artistic expression ever to be as popular as a music predicated on corporate profits. It's not that art music no longer exists; you just don't know about it, Grandpa.

It really doesn't matter what instrument your kids choose to play. The problem is, they're watching X Factor by choice.

Re: Taveras promote Dermody, hires Hull

Frymaster — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:26:09 -0000

Thank you, Scott.

Re: Taveras promote Dermody, hires Hull

Frymaster — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 23:40:02 -0000

I got 2 up mods, Scott. Wadda you got?

Re: Taveras promote Dermody, hires Hull

Frymaster — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:36:26 -0000

That description of RI Future is not very accurate. Liberal? Well, we prefer the term progressive as you may know. But "organized labor backed" is completely untrue. In fact, you should either prove that with evidence or redact it.

Granted, people in organized labor like what we write, and we like a lot of the people in the labor movement. Yes, some labor people write or have written in the past. But that is VERY different from the financial support you imply above.

To the main topic, though, Brian is really smart and will be yet another Taveras appointment that will have a meaningful impact.

Re: The Decline of the Suburban Office Park

Frymaster — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:50:07 -0000

A former client had an office in a park in Norwalk, CT (yeah...that one) that had a spur line train stop directly across a small river from the multi-building complex. But they never thought to build a pedestrian bridge and it was over a mile on inhospitable roads if you tried to walk it.

Re: US Political Dysfunction and Capitalism’s Withdrawal

Frymaster — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:52:11 -0000

I wonder what you think, Prof. Wolff, of the concept of 'peak capitalism', in which the ever-shrinking globe is starting to run out of cheap labor. I recently worked at a company that was in-sourcing manufacturing back to the US from China, where labor shortages on the coast are driving wages higher. As these second- and third-wave capitalist economies start to buy up their own goods, where can the companies expand to find cheaper labor? South Carolina is Germany's China; Burma is Kuwait's China, etc. Eventually, you run out of countries.

Plus, energy costs are a secular input that has exploded, decreasing the labor component in the cost equation. And it makes the costs of relocation that much higher as well.

Capitalists predicate their system on continuous expansion - the definition of an open system. The earth and its people are quite finite. So, long story short: are we in the opening phases of capitalism reaching its limits and being forced into the constraints of a closed system.

Not for nuthin', but I hope so.

Re: Ted Cruz should resign from the Senate and run for president

Frymaster — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 09:48:52 -0000

Is there a line on Cruz resigning? An over/under? It seems like he's on the Jim DeMint / Sarah Palin track: make a name for yourself in elected office then drop out and just be a celebrity.

My over/under in 1/1/14.

Re: Lightning strike kills 1, injures 2

Frymaster — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:27:07 -0000

Such a shame. The safest place would have been in the tractor or trailer. When lightning strikes a metal object, the current flows around the exterior surface.

See the sidebar (upper right) in this article.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:48:35 -0000

I don't follow. Where is this post? The one at the top that makes a factual assertion? The one with the "possibly this but almost certainly that"? Is that the one with the hyperbolic rhetoric?

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:45:39 -0000

And please pass it on. I am actively seeking descendants of slaves from Ellison Capers's plantations and also from Daniel Dupre's Euchaw and Palmetto plantations.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:26:36 -0000

"So, what white people have now has _nothing_ to do with their own actions. There accomplishments are _only_ because of the "special status and protection"."

Emphasis I added calls out the flattened, black-and-white, cartoonish rhetoric Righty uses. It's all or nothing; there is no in between.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:24:32 -0000

Right on!

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:03:25 -0000

This, Righty. This is why.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:01:09 -0000

Come on, Righty. Take the bait.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:58:46 -0000

I do.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:58:08 -0000

I'd like to thank EiB for giving me the chance to publicize this amazing organization focused on reconciling descendants of slaves and descendants of enslavers. If you start out looking for descendants of people your ancestors enslaved, you very quickly realize that you're looking for you blood relatives. cf, Jefferson/Hemmings

Coming to the Table

http://comingtothetable.org/

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:49:28 -0000

Righty, did you delete your own comment?

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:46:33 -0000

I'll take it! [/virtual h5]

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:10:33 -0000

Come on, Righty. Take the bait.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:09:29 -0000

Just FYI...I down-mod'd my comment cuz I accidentally up-mod'd it.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:07:58 -0000

It's classic American fare - Reactionary Stew with a side of Condescension.

Re: Limbaugh: "If Any Race Of People Should Not Have Guilt About Slavery, Its Caucasians"

Frymaster — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 13:58:01 -0000

See...that. It's not exactly the way _YOU_ think of white people.