This is the strangest #nba playoffs I can remember. For the last three rounds, the best looking team from the prior round has looked overmatched in their next series. Feels like Dallas is dancing as fast as they can to be down 10.
@mrcompletely They do look overmatched. (And I’m not saying that because I’m from Boston). I’m sure Dallas will readjust and take one of their home games. They’re too good to be swept.
For those in my TL who followed a discussion in which a Usenet era (c. 1989-91) document introducing modern Hermetic (as distinct from Jewish) Kabbalah in relatively accessible terms was discussed: unfortunately, the source found in that thread turns out to be incomplete. Fortunately, a further search revealed that the author set the text as an illustrated PDF and offered it as a free book in 2001. So here is a direct link to that PDF for Colin Low's Notes On Kabbalah. https://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/INDEXII/Notes%20on%20Kabbalah.pdf
Please do not reply to the above post to dispute any of the following:
spelling of Kabbalah
its relation to the original Hebrew Jewish corpus and practice
its value or validity
basically any other esoteric nerd shit
just fucking don't
seriously
For those who are interested in related topics, I can also recommend the Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast aka SHWEP. Well informed academic approach, non sensationalistic.
In my live #music collecting hobby there are two kinds of grails to chase: those that might exist but probably don't, and those I know exist but haven't circulated digitally in any of the many online communities I'm part of. It's immensely satisfying when one appears, and that's the case with this specific, superb but short live Meters set from 1975. I had this on cassette circa 1988-91, lost it to a light fingered party guest & have been searching since. 1/2 #funk
This is the OG Meters at their very best: one of the best live #funk bands in history before the dragon bit them. Solid recording, not perfect but clear and strong, and the performance level is absolutely straight fire. The few other shows from this era are either softer performances or worse recordings so even though it's short this immediately returns to its place as best in class. I knew it had to pop up eventually! Thanks to everyone involved including @bourgwick for setting up the tapes bot
okay here's my midweek hot-take-free #nba finals content for ya
there's every reason to think this should be a good close series. No outcome would shock me except a sweep either way.
Specifically, both teams have the players to guard the other team's best guys at least reasonably well (with the "no one stops Luka" caveat).
there's a clear expectation among analysts and hoops heads that the BOS strategy will be to focus on stopping Kyrie above all. So watch for that in game 1
@mrcompletely The Dallas team seems to like each other more. You could even see it towards the end of the regular season. Boston seems like a collection of individuals. And that coach is going to die by the math. Boston seems untested. Dallas beat 3 goid teams handily. There is a world where Dallas punks Boston and Boston can't answer.
@noirlover on top of all that, which I agree with - Boston has ZERO identity or personality as a team - this just feels to me on a gut level a bit like the 2011 mavs run where they came in super hot to the finals. It seems like Dallas should win games that are close at the end, so can Boston come into the endgames with big leads? I kinda doubt it
Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St from Swamp Dogg
Everyone who had this album on your 2024 bingo card collect your winnings. Mostly #acoustic, #bluegrass ish #roots#music, high energy playful and horny. Featuring Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Vernon Reid and more
Via G Money/Coast Range Lights, another group chat rec FTW
@mrcompletely i don't think it's screened outside festivals yet, but a friend was involved in this swamp dogg documentary & it's wonderful. worth keeping an eye out. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30835291/
I wasn't entirely sold on Kidd as a coach as recently as the start of the playoffs but in addition to holding the respect of his players - including Kyrie - he's done a nice job. I don't have a single critique really. They play smart, they lean into advantages, they get the most out of their role players. Good job by him.
@mrcompletely@brucy I like Horford, Holiday, and White. I went to Syracuse, so rooting for Oshae too. The J’s I’m indifferent to. My Celtics fan friends are cool. Many, many masshole Celtic fans are not. I’m jealous of their historical success, but I’ll get over that to root against Luka, Kyrie, (who are incredible) and Kidd (who beat his wife).
Y'all at this point anyone who claims they can accurately predict any non trivial thing is selling you something. No one knows shit. We're living in the Disinformation Singularity, every day is a tornado of chaos, and these mfers are out here saying they know how this or that will impact the election, or one of the wars, or Tesla stock prices, or ANY fucking thing at all?
Just do your best, ride the waves, try to paddle the right direction, and don't believe smoothly confident prognosticators
@caravan@mrcompletely I said this earlier this week, but folks forget how trash the East seemed compared to Western Conference teams all year. That was more my reasoning than an in-depth matchup analysis.
@Rosey@caravan seems pretty even overall assuming KP is good to go, so I give the edge in that matchup to the Mavs based on the "best player in the series wins" tie breaker but really the only outcome that would shock me is a sweep either way. No one can stop Luka but at least Boston has a platoon of the right size guys to get in his way plus the best defensive back court to tag team on Kyrie. But Dallas should be able to defend Boston's top guys too. Could really come down to nuances.
In honor of Bill #Walton I should share not just a pinnacle #GratefulDead jam, and not just one he attended on his home court of Pauley Pavilion at UCLA, but an uncompromisingly long ass jam, too long to embed, because that's what he would've dug the most. Cheers ya big freak
Playing In The Band > Uncle John's Band > Morning Dew > Uncle John's > Playing Reprise
(11.17.73) #music
@mangrovevalley I don't have a single favorite show but when I have to pick one, a show that smokes top to bottom and has a massive, highest level centerpiece jam, it's either that one or Philly 72
@mrcompletely I agree, the UCLA show is really special. An eventful 15-song first set w/Here Comes Sunshine in the second slot, followed by the big inventive jams in the back half—yes, that’s one of jewels of the pre-retirement era. 💀
I think the essence of Bill Walton was easy to understand: when you love something, love it with all your heart and passion, without reservation or worrying what anyone else thinks. I think he got everything out of his life that he could, left nothing on the table. To me that's a life well lived
I know it's cheap, simplistic, inaccurate, surface level analysis to say this is on Ant. But if Minnesota wants to win, isn't this still really kinda on Ant?
26 minutes for KAT? I know it was the Naz game but there were a bunch of possessions he should've been in there. Maybe including that last defensive possession. What's up with that rotation?
Speaking of that last defensive possession: what the hell? (also: lol)
@claude yeah so it was def funny to see him on skates because he's so long, he looked like a baby deer. But the play isn't his fault. Defending a wizard one on one on the perimeter isn't his thing, just as you say. My point is the team shouldn't have hung him out there like that. That's not his job
I know what you mean but DAL has only won by 4 points on aggregate over 2 games and would have lost the 2nd had Luka missed the last three pointer.
But it certainly feels like DAL can turn it on when they have to.
Most of the guys on VSIN will be feeling vindicated about their decision to back Wemby for DPOY - they were horrified when he didn't get it and he probably would have blocked that attempt.
@emarktaylor yeah the two teams are really closely matched. But when one closely matched team is executing in the endgame and the other isn't, it's decisive. Wolves can def turn it around but at this point it will take sustained next level excellence from Ant to do it.
I'm not usually a Rudy defender but i feel like it's time for people to let that go. Guarding Luka alone on the perimeter while he dances isn't what he won the award for. No one in the league can do it reliably so 🤷
While I def agree with the takes in the Deadcast that the pre-Fire versions of Scarlet Begonias from 1974 and 1976 are fantastic, I have two additional notes:
After that era the solo section within Scarlet was sometimes pushed to new heights, with surging, thrilling peaks (like Estimated Prophet in the same time frame).
The version right after the debut of Fire is, inexplicably, another standalone Scarlet, and it has one of the finest outro jams of all:
@drewphish for decades this only circulated with an absolutely brutal cut to a mediocre audience tape near the peak. Charlie circulated this upgrade without any real comment that it fixed one of the all time harshest tape cuts on record! A true delight.
Saw a couple good #movies this week. First up was the classic #Hitchcock adaptation of REBECCA, one of the all time great Gothic romance thrillers. We got to see a lovely print of it on the big screen at the iconic, beloved Hollywood Theater here in #Portland. It's an extremely subversive film for the era (1940!!), with brilliant #gender themes and brazen #queer subtext. Was presented as part of a queer film series and the crowd was brilliant - knowing and engaged but respectful. Superb
Art and artists really are strange. This film has a lot of really smart, thoughtful things to say about the relations between men and women, and the damage that power disparities cause. Yet we know about Hitchcock's treatment of women. Ain't that something.