Wanna see play live Charlie Parker or Hank Mobley, this is your chance

[Van Basten II]

[Chuck Nessa]

Went with this guy a couple of times and it was worth it. I should let you know things are different the second time around.

[Tim McG]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

[kenny weir]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

Edited July 26, 2009 by kenny weir

[Tim McG]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

I imagine there are a few.

But when you consider that 60% of those currently residing in California are from someplace else [mostly snowbound states, Latin/Central America and Asia] the odds are better than even the guy who wrote this want ad isn't a native Californian.

Everyone wants to live here...including the various assortment of dingbats, weirdos and nutburgers.

It's just a wrongheaded image of California.

Edited July 26, 2009 by GoodSpeak

[kenny weir]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

I imagine there are a few.

But when you consider that 60% of those currently residing in California are from someplace else [mostly snowbound states, Latin/Central America and Asia] the odds are better than even the guy who wrote this want ad isn't a native Californian.

Everyone wants to live here...including the various assortment of dingbats, weirdos and nutburgers.

It's just a wrongheaded image of California.

Devil's Advocate: Couldn't it be argued, then, that those 60% constitute the real California?

I must say, I rally dig the range of evocative terms available for use in such a conversation: Nut cases, nutjobs, whackos, dingbats, weirdos, nutburgers, kooks.

Excellent! Any more?

Edited July 27, 2009 by kenny weir

[BruceH]

"Republicans"?

[Tim McG]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

I imagine there are a few.

But when you consider that 60% of those currently residing in California are from someplace else [mostly snowbound states, Latin/Central America and Asia] the odds are better than even the guy who wrote this want ad isn't a native Californian.

Everyone wants to live here...including the various assortment of dingbats, weirdos and nutburgers.

It's just a wrongheaded image of California.

Devil's Advocate: Couldn't it be argued, then, that those 60% constitute the real California?

Uh.

No.

The remaining 40% would constitute the real Californians. We were born and raised here. The rest moved here. Hence the decided difference.

I must say, I rally dig the range of evocative terms available for use in such a conversation: Nut cases, nutjobs, whackos, dingbats, weirdos, nutburgers, kooks.

Excellent! Any more?

Tons.

Loony-tune, whacked, dipshit, dork, ding-dong, wingnut, lost in space, out to lunch, deer in headlights, lights are on and nobody's home [or everybody's home], off your rocker, off your trolley, deadhead, one brick short of a load, one wave short of a flood, one fry short of a Happy Meal, one ant short of a picnic, airhead, slap happy, two active braincells, best argument in favor of abortion, cheese fell of his cracker, pinhead, dimwit,....I could go on.

Edited July 27, 2009 by GoodSpeak

[kenny weir]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

I imagine there are a few.

But when you consider that 60% of those currently residing in California are from someplace else [mostly snowbound states, Latin/Central America and Asia] the odds are better than even the guy who wrote this want ad isn't a native Californian.

Everyone wants to live here...including the various assortment of dingbats, weirdos and nutburgers.

It's just a wrongheaded image of California.

Devil's Advocate: Couldn't it be argued, then, that those 60% constitute the real California?

Uh.

No.

The remaining 40% would constitute the real Californians. We were born and raised here. The rest moved here. Hence the decided difference.

I must say, I rally dig the range of evocative terms available for use in such a conversation: Nut cases, nutjobs, whackos, dingbats, weirdos, nutburgers, kooks.

Excellent! Any more?

Tons.

Loony-tune, whacked, dipshit, dork, ding-dong, wingnut, lost in space, out to lunch, deer in headlights, lights are on and nobody's home [or everybody's home], off your rocker, off your trolley, deadhead, one brick short of a load, one wave short of a flood, one fry short of a Happy Meal, one ant short of a picnic, airhead, slap happy, two active braincells, best argument in favor of abortion, cheese fell of his cracker, pinhead, dimwit,....I could go on.

Yes, yes, I hear you. But - just for fun's sake - it could still be argued that if California is a state of migrants, then they are perhaps what California is all about. These days. I mean, no one these days would claim that the US, NZ and Australia are - respectively - really only Native Indian, Aboriginal and Maori, and that all their other citizens are mere blow ins.

As for the rest, and your splendid list, it reminds me of a wry comment from a former New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert "Piggy" Muldoon. Asked what he thought about the brain drain of talent across the Tasman Sea from NZ to Australia, he opined that it was lifting the IQ of both countries.

Kenny, Kiwi living in Oz. Also: A DeadHead, fully paid up.

Edited July 27, 2009 by kenny weir

[Tim McG]

Ugh.

I just wish all the nut cases would move out of California and back to where they came from...it makes us look bad.

Are there no homegrown Californian nutjobs at all, Goody?

I'm not sure where ground central for Australian and NZ whackos might be.

There are various hotspots for freaks, tree huggers, ferals and ageing hippies and so on, but nowhere here that has the same reputation as your fine state for kookiness, fair or not.

Melbourne's cross-culture, cross-gender, cross-everything overwhelming obsession for Australian Rules football is, objectively, pretty fucking screwy, that's for sure.

I imagine there are a few.

But when you consider that 60% of those currently residing in California are from someplace else [mostly snowbound states, Latin/Central America and Asia] the odds are better than even the guy who wrote this want ad isn't a native Californian.

Everyone wants to live here...including the various assortment of dingbats, weirdos and nutburgers.

It's just a wrongheaded image of California.

Devil's Advocate: Couldn't it be argued, then, that those 60% constitute the real California?

Uh.

No.

The remaining 40% would constitute the real Californians. We were born and raised here. The rest moved here. Hence the decided difference.

I must say, I rally dig the range of evocative terms available for use in such a conversation: Nut cases, nutjobs, whackos, dingbats, weirdos, nutburgers, kooks.

Excellent! Any more?

Tons.

Loony-tune, whacked, dipshit, dork, ding-dong, wingnut, lost in space, out to lunch, deer in headlights, lights are on and nobody's home [or everybody's home], off your rocker, off your trolley, deadhead, one brick short of a load, one wave short of a flood, one fry short of a Happy Meal, one ant short of a picnic, airhead, slap happy, two active braincells, best argument in favor of abortion, cheese fell of his cracker, pinhead, dimwit,....I could go on.

Yes, yes, I hear you. But - just for fun's sake - it could still be argued that if California is a state of migrants, then they are perhaps what California is all about. These days. I mean, no one these days would claim that the US, NZ and Australia are - respectively - really only Native Indian, Aboriginal and Maori, and that all their other citizens are mere blow ins.

As for the rest, and your splendid list, it reminds me of a wry comment from a former New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert "Piggy" Muldoon. Asked what he thought about the brain drain of talent across the Tasman Sea from NZ to Australia, he opined that it was lifting the IQ of both countries.

Kenny, Kiwi living in Oz. Also: A DeadHead, fully paid up.

I'm guessing the same argument could be made of New York, Texas or any of the other 50 United States.

BTW, a longtime friend of mine and his wife moved to New Zealand a year and a half ago. They love it so much I don't know that we'll ever see them back in California. I have to visit one day.

Would you sit down to a pint of good beer with me, Kenny? I'll buy.

Who knows, maybe HenryMc could join us.

[Jazzmoose]

I don't know about New Zealand, but I remember seriously considering going AWOL when I was in the Navy while in Bunbury, Australia. I never felt more at home any place in my life. To this day I wonder if I didn't make a mistake in not following through on that.

[kenny weir]

Would you sit down to a pint of good beer with me, Kenny? I'll buy.

Who knows, maybe HenryMc could join us.

For sure. I have only had one face-to-face encounter with a cyber buddy, and that's a few years back now. And as my once-regular American jaunts have become an impossibility ($$$$$$), I just have to wait for some you to get your sorry asses over here.

[Tim McG]

Would you sit down to a pint of good beer with me, Kenny? I'll buy.

Who knows, maybe HenryMc could join us.

For sure. I have only had one face-to-face encounter with a cyber buddy, and that's a few years back now. And as my once-regular American jaunts have become an impossibility ($$$$$$), I just have to wait for some you to get your sorry asses over here.

I have been fortunate enough to meet several cyberspace Jazz folks....Henry is one of them.

As soon as I am able [You have heard of our governator's budget cuts, yes? May take a few years.] I would love to make the trip Down Under.

Just don't offer me a vegimite sandwich, OK?

Edited July 28, 2009 by GoodSpeak

[Hardbopjazz]

Seriously, what if this person has figured out the space time conundrum? Someone want to say yes?

[RDK]

It's the nutjobs that make California so great and wonderfully diverse! Who wants to live in some boring part of the country where folks don't want to travel back in time?

[Tim McG]

It's the nutjobs that make California so great and wonderfully diverse! Who wants to live in some boring part of the country where folks don't want to travel back in time?

Well...I could do without them.

Edited July 28, 2009 by GoodSpeak

[Brad]

Well, did anyone respond?

[Dan Gould]

Seriously, what if this person has figured out the space time conundrum? Someone want to say yes?

Well, did anyone respond?

"I've only done this once"? Sounds like they haven't ironed all of the kinks yet, so I'll wait for trip number 10 ... or maybe #100.

Plus, what's this about payment after we get back? Why are we getting paid (and what are we doing while we're gone)?

Edited July 28, 2009 by Dan Gould

[kenny weir]

It's the nutjobs that make California so great and wonderfully diverse! Who wants to live in some boring part of the country where folks don't want to travel back in time?

I do love these sorts of scenarios, and they form the basis for quite a few of the fantasy/sf books I read.

Most pertinently, many years ago I read a sf short story in which the lead character had an obsession/love affair with the past. When, through some mumbo jumbo technology/magick the nature of which I completely forget, he finally was granted his wish to actually travel into the past, he had no control over the process. So he ended up in some pre-historic era in which the human-like residents were knuckle-draggers without even fire. A long way from that dude's favourite historic eras. And when he finally got to travel back to what he thought would be his own time zone, he ended up in a joint so far into the future that there was nothing but endless corridors of cold, white, humming computers.

"I've only done this once"? Sounds like they haven't ironed all of the kinks yet

I should let you know things are different the second time around.

Besides the guy's only done it once, but Chuck has done it at least twice, so there's a bit of a Twilight Zone buzz going on here anyhow.

[Brad]

Seriously, what if this person has figured out the space time conundrum? Someone want to say yes?

Well, did anyone respond?

"I've only done this once"? Sounds like they haven't ironed all of the kinks yet, so I'll wait for trip number 10 ... or maybe #100.

Plus, what's this about payment after we get back? Why are we getting paid (and what are we doing while we're gone)?

Dan,

I think they're counting on us not returning!

[kenny weir]

My time travel gigs of choice would be Louis Gottschalk, Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden, Charley Patton and Grateful Dead, circa 1968.

[Aggie87]

It's the nutjobs that make California so great and wonderfully diverse!

Here's one.

[Jazzmoose]

I made it to the vegetable trees...

[Adam]

It's the nutjobs that make California so great and wonderfully diverse! Who wants to live in some boring part of the country where folks don't want to travel back in time?

I do love these sorts of scenarios, and they form the basis for quite a few of the fantasy/sf books I read.

Most pertinently, many years ago I read a sf short story in which the lead character had an obsession/love affair with the past. When, through some mumbo jumbo technology/magick the nature of which I completely forget, he finally was granted his wish to actually travel into the past, he had no control over the process. So he ended up in some pre-historic era in which the human-like residents were knuckle-draggers without even fire. A long way from that dude's favourite historic eras. And when he finally got to travel back to what he thought would be his own time zone, he ended up in a joint so far into the future that there was nothing but endless corridors of cold, white, humming computers.

Isn't this H.G. Wells's The Time Machine?

I remember one by Bradbury where a hunter and a guide go back to hunt a dinosaur. The hunter steps off the proscribed path ever so slightly, they return to the present, and everything is changed, because he stepped on a butterfly when he stepped off the path. An SF classic, the title of which escapes me at the moment. Could "thunder" be part of the title?

[Aggie87]

I made it to the vegetable trees...

My favorite line is either:

"We should make a perfect pesticide for the crops. But um, and it's good for people and healthy, and keeps the crops preserved too because we need the food because it's food and stuff."

or:

"We can be rich in cotton and mining metals and silkworms and we can make things, we can make things - cars - the machine can make it for us."