"Pink Flamingoes" and the History of America

There are few things which document America's history and behavior more than its perversions, few people who manifest such perversions as comprehensively as Divine, and only one with an interest to film The Filthiest Person Alive thus giving us the celluloid portrait of America in the movie "Pink Flamingoes." (WIKI:  Pink Flamingos)

Although Waters' movies were often described as 'filth,' the following type of material is also considered filthy, at least by some, in America.

- Jaime Pressly

We're frequently advised this sort of display is filth.  Therefore, the Rockhouse heartily endorses John Waters' efforts to make a total mockery of anything which tries to make that beautiful woman look dirty.  John Waters is the one who coined the expression, "I'm glad I was born a Catholic since sex will always be dirty."

Censor:  you know that image will provoke the Intellectualites and you will probably get banned for it!

Probably so but Facebook needs to be provoked when Mark Zuckerberg is nothing more than an uncultured and avaricious destroyer of art.

Censor:  so is most of Washington so why pick on him?

Because he made a business out of it and pretends it's something else.

Censor:  so did Washington!


I couldn't hack it with "Pink Flamingoes" since some aspects of my mores became rather more mainstream than any civilized person might have hoped and I have not screened the movie.  There are some acts of depravity in the movie which, even if simulated, are more than my white middle-class background could feature and accommodate.

Most of the plasticized 'I Think I Might Be Gay' starlets of the modern time would likely have wound up the butt of Waters' jokes.  When they try so desperately to be controversial, it just begs for mockery.

Divine:  the answer is to be yourself especially when that self has a fancy for coprophilia

You're one sick fuck, lady, or, well, whatever you are.


Cincinnati:  you're just replaying the Simon Leis / Larry Flynt obscenity trials in which Simon Leis got his fascist ass humiliated and Cincinnati became a laughingstock

Nope, in fact, I'm not since the specific consideration at that time was obscenity but filth isn't precisely the same thing.  The portrait of Ms Pressly above isn't obscene in any way and yet there are some (many?) who would call it filthy.

Censor:  we really don't need to review again how the Puritans were really bad people with twisted ideas about humanity in general and sex in particular?

Nope, this isn't about Puritans being bad people but rather it's about modern bad people using the Puritans as excuses to continue that behavior today.


Thank you, John Waters, as someone has to put those prigs up against the wall and you seem to have enjoyed thoroughly every opportunity to do that.  (WIKI:  John Waters)


Update:  even today, "Pink Flamingoes" scares people.  Quite remarkable.

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Drifting - some maniacal driving in London in an incredibly powerful Mustang

Obama - he's bugged more telephones than anyone in the history of the world

Steve Martin - about a real-time translation device which you use like an earpod

What's Hot

When Your Shirt - science on turning unusual objects into intelligent FM transmitters

Some Exceptional - rally drivers running way out past the edge

Yosemite Sam - when I say whoa, I mean WHOA!

Hillary Clinton - it doesn't seem that trout will ever go away

Sabine Schmitz - exceptionally dangerous and good-looking woman with a catchy sense of humor

Germany - Deutschland is about to start a national weed service and it will go live in 2019

"After Dark" Live in 2008 | Tito & Tarantula

Tito & Tarantula get one jammin' groove happening and I didn't even know about this band until I checked the credits for "Desperado" the other day.  (Ithaka:  "Back to the House (that Love Built)" Live | Tito Larriva & Tarantula)




There's no need for any kind of an editorial on that one except, dayum, this was another show I should not have missed.

Ticketron:  you went to many concerts!

Yah but I didn't go to this one, see.

Sabine Schmitz | Exciting Women in Fast Cars

Sabine Schmitz starts out as the li'l blondie girl but take a ride with her.




Good-looking woman with formidable skills.  Definitely dangerous.

I didn't know anything about her but discovered she is part of the "Top Gear" program from BBC so there's an excellent reason to watch.  (WIKI:  Sabine Schmitz)

And she nailed Jeremy Clarkson.

In December 2004, Schmitz gained further recognition in the United Kingdom after appearing in the BBC television show Top Gear with presenter Jeremy Clarkson.  After Clarkson (under her tutelage) set a lap time of 9 minutes 59 seconds around the Nürburgring in a Jaguar S-Type diesel (Season 5, Episode 5), she castigated his best lap with the comment "I tell you something, I do that lap time in a van."

She did a lap in the Jaguar S-Type, and set a time of 9 minutes 12 seconds, beating him by 47 seconds.  When trying to film Schmitz as she drove the S-Type, the film team were unable to keep up, therefore utilising Jaguar test driver Wolfgang Schubauer to drive the Jaguar S-Type R chase car. Schmitz drove a Ford Transit diesel van in an attempt to beat Clarkson's time set in the Jaguar S-Type diesel.  Her final time with the Transit was 10 minutes and 8 seconds (Series 6, Episode 7).

- WIKI


Here's another set and with a whole lot of traffic on the track now.



Definite wild woman.

Germany to Launch Domestic Weed Growing Service by 2019

Inasmuch as that's just about the finest service a government can provide, the Rockhouse is highly supportive of Germany's intentions.  This is not legalization of recreational ganja but it's going national for legalization of medical marijuana.  (RT:  Germany plans to launch domestic weed growing industry by 2019)

© A. Held / www.globallookpress.com

Nice picture of a leaf from a marijuana plant but surely those stoners at a newspaper should be aware we have no interest in the leaves and only want the buds.


The German government has set up a “cannabis agency” that will be tasked with overseeing the import and cultivation of cannabis in the country after Berlin legalized the use of medical marijuana at the start of the year.

Distribution and control of medical marijuana will now be regulated by a special marijuana agency created by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), AP reported.

- RT

Well, this is prime time, isn't it.


The approach in Germany is the reverse of the hands-off approach in America and the state is deeply-involved.

Besides distributing marijuana imported from the Netherlands and Canada, the agency will also oversee the cultivation, storage, and the distribution of the recreational drug in Germany. Berlin plans to have a domestic cannabis-growing program up and running by 2019 and will shortly solicit bids from EU companies to run the cultivation process at home.

- RT

Wolfgang:  Wann ist es erlaubt zu spielen (when is it legal for playing)

Bald, Wolfie; bald.  (Soon, soon)


Germany will likely lead European legalization since it's only a short jump from legalizing medical marijuana to legalizing it for recreational use as well.  The UK will likely legalize it last since we won't be pushed around by those bloody Germans.

It will still turn out ok in UK because they will be able to legalize it once they get a real government again.


The Netherlands couldn't quite convince Germany even after ganja has been legal there for years but it's trafficked all over the EU these days and it comes in from the East as well because controls are less rigid in Czechoslovakia, for example.

It's senseless for politicians to ignore the political reality that a great many of the congregants are stoners and there's no way to control it.

Perry Mason:  legalize it.  I want to get back to real criminals instead of these damn stoners who are constantly telling me I really missed it because I never saw the Grateful Dead in-concert.

Um, hate to break it to you, man ... but you really missed it.

When Your Shirt Becomes an FM Radio Station | Science

The science hasn't been getting me flying around the room lately but this one is most unusual since it takes intelligent clothing out to somewhere else.  Whether it's anywhere you really want to go remains to be seen.  (SD:  Singing posters and talking shirts: Engineers turn objects into FM stations)

The FM backscattering system encodes audio or data on top of a regular FM broadcast but uses an unoccupied frequency in the FM radio band to send that information to a smartphone or car radio receiver.

Credit: University of Washington


Going further, imagine you go for a run, and your shirt can sense your perspiration and send data on your vital signs directly to your phone.

- SD

Imagine how many times you have yearned for that.


A new technique pioneered by University of Washington engineers makes these "smart" posters and clothing a reality by allowing them to communicate directly with your car's radio or your smartphone. For instance, bus stop billboards could send digital content about local attractions. A street sign could broadcast the name of an intersection or notice that it is safe to cross a street, improving accessibility for the disabled. In addition, clothing with integrated sensors could monitor vital signs and send them to a phone.

- SD

There's a great deal in the article how about how the researchers have used an unallocated segment of the FM radio band to send their signals and, in effect, they ride piggyback on an existing FM radio broadcast but do not disturb it.


The research is largely a Proof of Concept insofar as they have shown their technique with FM can be used for data transmission but they haven't dealt with whatever type of unit would do the transmission from the billboard or the shirt.  However, they have shown a cellphone can pick up the signal from up to sixty feet away so that's already more than Bluetooth.


Watson:  what about when your date is also wearing an intelligent shirt and it starts sending data to your intelligent shirt?

You have it, Watson.  People will be able to go on shirt dates.  Computers can read your thoughts and understand them plus sensors detect your physical condition so you two could sit there and you wouldn't have to say a word to the bird ... your shirt will do it.

Watson:  your shirt can tell you if it thinks it's compatible with her shirt!

Yes, it's the future, Watson.


How about some psycho helter skelter sci fi since we will design bracelets for axe murderers and they will broadcast at all times on an open channel so all know he is nearby.

Judge Wapner:  he will just cut it off

These new models are designed differently.  Any change to the composite triggers a reaction and the bracelet will explode but look at the bright side:  it may only blow off a leg.

Here's the beauty part since our smart wearable for axe murderers knows his heart rate, etc so it will know when he is amped up for some murderin'.  Then it starts transmitting alerts and you better run, you better hide.

Judge Wapner:  why should I care how he behaves when the axe murderer is in jail?

Because he won't be in jail, Judge.  Now that we have the Intelligent Civility Bracelet, we will let him out and if he misbehaves then the bracelet will explode since it will know.  He will learn or get recycled.  Simple.

Judge Wapner:  I see

Yosemite Sam Knows How to Deal with Donald Trump

"When I say whoa, I mean WHOA!" - Yosemite Sam




Novitiate:  I should hit him on the head with the butt of a long gun to get him to whoa and I should hit him in the ass when I want him to go?

Exactly.


Donald Trump's ideas have no more relevance to the modern world than automotive inner tubes and I know some of you remember those.  It's been quite a while, hasn't it.

Novitiate:  Donald Trump is the political equivalent of eight-track tape?

You may make it yet, Young Sprout.


The dream world for these Republicans is pre-FDR when there wasn't much in the way of public benefits, there no were no unions, and pensions didn't exist.  It's more accurate to say Trump's the political equivalent of a Victrola.

It may be true that such programs can be eliminated and yet people will live better but it's bullshit to even talk about such hypotheticals while also spending half a trillion a year on the military and the intention to spend more.

Novitiate:  hit him on the head to make him whoa?

Go for it.


It may well be true in the pure environment that the economy would work just fine without such programs.  However, if Republicans will really be purists, the income tax didn't start until the Twentieth century and they will want to throw out the Federal Reserve Bank system as well.  Right now it looks like sometimes they want to play 78 rpm records on their Victrolas and also they want to play CDs on it so that lot is looking mighty confused.

Note:  I'm not forgetting children working in coal mines so I have no reason to believe life without federal protection, at least in matters such as that, would be better.  It definitely wasn't the last time.

"When I say whoa, I mean WHOA!" - Yosemite Sam

"Malagueña" - Live in Morongo Casino 12/13/2013 | Charo

It's hard to take Charo seriously when she does that 'cuchi cuchi' stuff but then she starts to play.




Charo has been performing for an amazingly long time but you sure couldn't tell it by looking at her.  I believe I first saw her when my parents were watching "The Tonight Show" and still she's going strong.  Most impressive.

Drifting Hard in London with Ken Block & Matt LeBlanc | Top Gear

Ken Block goes tooling around London and leaves a great deal of smoke in his path.  Ordinarily this would just be grandstanding for a TV show ... but ...



Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to present you with an extended cut of a very special film: Matt LeBlanc on a tour of London with Ken Block and his Hoonicorn Mustang. Turn it up very, very loud, sit back, and enjoy...

Taken from Top Gear: Series 23

- YouTube

This is another gearhead toss-up since the Mustang, I guess, is still a rear-wheel drive vehicle and yet this Hoonicorn vehicle with Ken Block driving was burning rubber from wheel spin on all four of them.  How is that even possible without four-wheel drive.  Replace the entire drive train?

Note:  I've seen now that the drive train is heavily-modified and the car has well over 800 hp.


Also a gearhead question is how can any kind of drift racing even work when all that wheel spin should melt the tires down to the rims in only a few laps.


Then there's the mechanism for gear shifting for intrigue and amusement.  Paddle shifters make sense with one of each side of the steering wheel for up and down but the levers used in this car's shifter mechanism work in some arcane way and what the hell does the red button do?


I probably wouldn't have stayed with the video all the way through but I was curious just how tricked out that vehicle really is.  Probably the only thing still stock on it is the Mustang emblem.

Ken Block is apparently some kind of gymkhana racer and I still don't really know what Gymkhana racing really looks like so ...




This looks like the next level of drag racing and I don't like the crashing and banging of a densely-packed course but the other vehicles should be on the same track with me so this is a little weird to my taste.

The style is unusual relative to road racing where you would never get away with driving like this.  There's got to be some measure of drift with Formula 1 cars but it's so subtle it's tough to see.  Even so, they will burn up their tires in not so many laps.

The precision of the driving is the biggest draw and whether it takes more or less for any given racing discipline probably doesn't matter much when the consequence of failure is the same.  For my taste, it's got to be Formula 1 but it's still an amazement to see this style since they bring a whole lot of stylin' to racing.

Some Exceptional Clippage of Rally Drivers Going All Out

Be warned as there are some crashes in this one and that violates the principle that we're not in it for the crashes but, for this type of driving, it's astounding that all of them don't crash.


Stirling Moss spoke of ten/tenths driving and this has got to be it.  There are times in a track race when you can take it easy a bit such as when you're going up the straight.  For rally racing, they never get any slack like that.

This is just about as maniacal as road racing can get and the trust between the driver and the navigator is something I mentioned previously but think of that li'l love muffin sitting next to you ... would you take his or her advice about going over a blind hill at one fifty kph.

God:  don't lie.  I'm watching you.





One of the things which surprises me in these videos is how many hang about on the outsides of corners since that's the most likely place a car will go if it spins off the track.  It looks almost as dangerous to attend one of these races as to drive in one.


For the Old School aspect, the other surprise is most of these smaller vehicles probably use front-wheel drive but we of the Old School know four-wheel drifting from rear-wheel drive so grokking how these racers do it may be distant.

For example, with power from the rear in the middle of the corner, the front inside wheel may lift.  This may be the wrong gearhead terminology but the torque distribution and the flexing of the vehicle would be radically different with power from the front.

No doubt some of you gofasters have tried it both ways but I've only been sideways as in far sideways once with a front-wheel drive vehicle and I can't say it was the best of experiences but it was definitely thrilling.  One more degree of spin and the car would have gone around but that would have been unfortunate when there was only one lane for this side of the overpass and there was another corner in the opposite direction immediately in front of me.

Ed:  drive or die. Ha ha!

Roger that.

Note:  that was a Chrysler Sebring.  She was pretty but I sure didn't trust that bitch.


This part really doesn't fit anywhere else but I notice with many street vehicles whether regular ones or ultrafast, they often have adhesion problems.  Many times they may be driving straight and yet the car starts to wander; it ends up in what's effectively a four-wheel speed wobble and it crashes.  That usually comes from driving too fast for conditions but you see the rally drivers and the conditions they drive.

It makes me think the street tires aren't getting it done.  Maybe that's from making tires so long-lasting now.  Unknown and that's just a hare-brain idea but the problem seems quite common.

Hillary Clinton and Her Whining Are Not Gone Yet

Woeful, misunderstood Hillary Clinton said she would take no-one to a desert island and isn't it a tragedy to think of how she could spend her eighty million dollars or more when she's alone on a desert island.

Oh, by the way, darlin' ... we'll (sob) miss you.  (HeatStreet:  Does Hillary Clinton Feel Betrayed? She Says She’d Bring ‘No One’ to a Desert Island)


In a rare appearance in public, Hillary Clinton visited Harvard University on Friday and made comments suggesting she may be disappointed with her aides and friends, saying she’d bring “no one” to a deserted island even if she could.

The former presidential candidate appeared at a private Harvard event with a small number of students and was later interviewed about her time as the Secretary of State. During the visit, Clinton was asked which three “non-relatives” she’d bring to a deserted island, according to people attending the event.

“No one,” Clinton replied, raising concerns of what’s left of her close relationship with Huma Abedin and other fellow travelers.

- HS

O'Reilly:  did you detect any humility in her?

I'll be looking for humility from Clinton about the same time I look for it from you, Billy Boy.


There's not an iota from Clinton about any personal accountability for her failure although the article didn't mention whether she would take husband, Bill, to the desert island.  It's not clear why she would need him anymore since he's not politically useful anymore and she's already made bank on the game.

That bitter harridan can't leave fast enough since she stopped wanting to buy the world a Coke very damn fast.  Here at the Rockhouse, we, as in the collective we rather than the journo we, have lost everything and you wanna know who we will take to a desert island?

Ed:  no!

I'm telling you anyway.  We're taking fucking everyone to that island, man.

Ed:  what about the Coke?

We're broke but we have more fun.  Coconuts will have to do.


It's Politics According to People Magazine and how are you feeling today.  No, really, you can let it out.  You can 'open up' to me and tell me about your fears that you may never be able to train your tallywhacker to hang to the left instead of the right.

Men of the World:  don't open up.  Please!  Stick to vehicle maintenance or they will start pushing Prozac on you.  Prozac is more commonly known as being one of the drugs regarded affectionately as 'pecker wreckers' (i.e. SSRI mood drugs).


With much more opening up, we're going to need wading boots and gas masks.  We have people opening up on a hundred channels every minute of the day and every single one of them talks at the same time.

Sennheiser:  noise-canceling headphones.  That's your answer.

OK, then.  We need wading boots, gas masks, and Sennheiser headphones and we will be all set.

Sennheiser:  with those headphones, you can make it just like you're on a desert island

So long as it's not the same desert island as the Hillies and the Billies, that will be just fine.

Ed:  I thought you were taking everyone?

Well, everyone except them ... and maybe a few others.  No-one in Washington should wait for a call.

When Syntho Beef Becomes Not Such a Bad Idea

The notion of synthetic beef often conjures up images of Soylent Green with the question of what the hell do they put into this stuff.  In the movie, "Soylent Green," the stuff they put in it was recycled humans but we have not reached that stage as yet.


The problem with cows is it takes a lot of vegetable food to make one.  After the cow is big enough then we eat it so the inevitable question from the ecologists is why didn't you eat what the cow eats and leave the damn cow alone.  There are tremendous savings from doing that in terms of growing enough food to keep everyone fed.

"Cattle are very inefficient animals in converting vegetable proteins into animal proteins. We lose actually a lot of food by giving it to animals as an intermediate," one of the team, Mark Post from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, told Dominique Schwartz at ABC News.  "At an environmental scale in methane and other greenhouse gases exhaust, it is also for the environment not a very healthy system.  I do think that in 20, 30 years from now, we will have a viable industry producing alternative beef."

- Science Alert:  Cost of Lab-Grown Burger Patty Drops From $325,000 to $11.36

Note:  the original article includes a picture of a burger but we're assuming you have already seen one.


Ed:  is this another damn Coming of the Robots story?

Well, they're not just coming, they're already here and the syntho beef is as well.  In fact, syntho beef has been around for years but it's still not at all cost-competive even after the astounding reduction in production costs already.  A pound of lower fat hamburger at Wal-Mart is seven or eight dollars while the synthobeef is well over twice that but the brainiacs will overcome that aspect.

Note:  my price on Wal-Mart burger may be off since I rarely buy meat but that has nothing to do with vegetarianism.  That meat and potatoes food protocol just doesn't do it for me.


Using this type of logic, it won't be a matter of 'let them eat cake' but rather 'let them eat burgers' since there will a much better use of resources throughout the domesticated food chain and more people will get fed.

Ed:  are you telling me we should all eat products synthesized from soy beans.  The Jetsons future won't bring us bubble cars but at least it did bring us Tofu?

Try not to get so extreme or you'll blow a heart valve, Mac.  Nothing is either / or about this and the discussion isn't about vegetarianism in general.  The Rockhouse interest is strictly in terms of how will there be enough food to feed everyone in the world.  Cows have no immediate plans to go extinct and will still be there too.


Ed:  this will really make life a mess for the Bundy family since they raise cattle!

Maybe if the Bundy family hadn't been raping federal land to feed their cattle, there might be a little more sympathy.

Ed:  the premise is the Bundy family would have never done that to the federal land if the use of resources throughout the food chain gets managed better?

Maybe I'll keep you around, Watson.  I won't have to write anything because you're already there.