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csziggy

csziggy's Journal
csziggy's Journal
January 30, 2021

Randy Rainbow made his name satirising Trump - now what?

Randy Rainbow made his name satirising Trump - now what?
By Vincent Dowd
Arts correspondent, BBC News

Those with cause to lament Donald Trump's departure from the White House may include America's satirists - the people he gave comic material to almost daily. In those four years the videos of Randy Rainbow delighted countless followers with satire chiefly using the improbable medium of Broadway show tunes. But the curtain's not down yet.

Randy Rainbow - it's his real name - grew up outside New York City and at 10 moved with his family to south Florida. Returning to New York at 22 he was intent on a performing career.

"But I knew I was a pretty young 22," he recalls. "I'd been on stage as a kid and I thought I just had to grow into myself as a person before I began a career for real. To fill in I did jobs such as working in restaurants and behind the desk at production offices."

To fend off boredom he started writing a blog which picked up on trends in popular culture and especially in musical comedy. "That led me to YouTube and once I had some eyeballs on me I got a job providing content for the BroadwayWorld website," he says.

More: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55751804


So long as he can produce videos like the one below, he will have a place in US entertainment and political commentary.

January 25, 2021

Dang - just got a call from Rasmussen Report wanting me to take part in a poll

I was eager to be in their poll since they usually skew them and I wanted to see if my opinion messed up their attempt.

Unfortunately it was not to be. Something went wrong with their software and it was not taking my entries in their system.

Oh well, I will fuck with their polls some other day!

January 21, 2021

UPDATE - For those who were enthusing about the fashions at the inauguration

From post #3:

A better explanation - Pictures of the ladies in their oufits were arranged as a rainbow!

Michelle Obama in magenta, Lady Gaga in red, Amanda Gorman in yellow, Meena Harris (Kamala's niece) in green, Dr. Jill Biden in teal blue, Laura Bush in blue, Vice President Kamala Harris in purple, and ? in pink. They've cut off the pink wearing lady and I don't recognize the half face that is shown.

Most of the outfits are shown in this article: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/01/joe-biden-kamala-harris-inauguration-fashion


The McCall's & Simplicity Group on Facebook has a nice line up of the clothes - in a really nice color array:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10222523147061897&set=gm.1397612850583922

Sorry I can't post the image directly here, but it is lovely.

ETA - I just realized that it is a private group so the image may not be available to those not on Facebook and/or in the group. I'm sorry - since that is the case I do not feel comfortable copying the image and posting even if I could.
January 20, 2021

Dawn - Lincoln Project



Beautiful.
January 20, 2021

Need advice on polishing brass items

I have a bunch of smallish (under 8" tall) brass (and some other metals) statuettes that have been in storage for years. Most are just slightly tarnished but a few have some green and white corrosion. None are valuable, most were found at thrift shops or discount places.

I need advice on cleaning them up. I looked online and found three routes to polishing them.

First - Bar Keep's Friend, liquid version. The woman in the video I saw said was really easy to do using a soft cloth and it did look easy but I am not sure if she edited the video to cut out the hard parts.

Second - white vinegar, salt and aluminum foil. The acidity of the vinegar with salt allows some sort of electrolysis action with the foil. I tried that out tonight since I had those in the house. It worked, but it took a lot of scrubbing to get the black coating that the process leaves. My hands can't take that. In fact by the time I got to the fourth little horse I tested it on, I just couldn't finish so it's still a little tarnished. It did get the corrosion off.

Third - Dremel polishing pads with a polishing compound. I have a Dremel with some polishing pads but no polishing compound. I was real tempted to try the pads on the horse that I couldn't finish without using a polishing compound but was too tired to deal with it. None of the local stores carry the recommended polishing compound and I have on hold an Amazon order with polishing compound and a set of various sized and shaped polishing pads - my Dremel set only has flat, round ones. I'd have to invest about $25 to get both things.

I have maybe a couple of dozen brass horses, then some iron ones with minor rust and corrosion, so the Dremel is very tempting since it won't wear my hands out as much as hand polishing. Plus a couple are mounted on wooden bases so could not be dunked in the vinegar bath method and I am not sure I'd want to expose them to the Bar Keep's Friend.

Any other suggestions?

January 18, 2021

OMG! I'm surrounded!

There is a herd of eight deer surrounding the house! Sorry, no pics. If I tried to take them from inside, my camera would just focus on the screens. If I went outside, they'd run away.

It seems to be seven mature does and an immature buck with tiny little nubs where his antlers will be next fall. This just reinforces that I will have to plant stuff that the deer will not eat. This is important since I am transplanting plants around the house that we moved before the addition and will soon be buying plants to fill in the beds.

I consulted with a landscaper and he recommended herbs in the upper terrace - Since the young buck was grazing along the edges of the lower terrace, I'm worried that edibles will just entice the deer up to the top.

BTW, the cats are completely unimpressed and are ignoring the deer.

January 14, 2021

One of the US Capitol invaders was also at the Oregon Sate Capitol invasion

Right now I can't post screen shots, but he is at 2:16 in this video from the US Capitol:



In the video of the Oregon state representative letting in the rioters he can be seen at 3:13 with a good face shot at 4:21:



He needs to be identified!

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Hometown: Leon County, Florida
Member since: Tue Feb 12, 2008, 10:18 PM
Number of posts: 34,136
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