bad_oyster's New Writeups

The quiet storm (thing)

2002-07-10T16:09:37Z

The Quiet Storm is a popular "urban radio" format created in 1975 by Cathy Hughes when she was general manager of WHUR in Washington, DC. The Quiet Storm features "smooth jazz" and romantic non-threatening soul/R&B. Countless radio stations in the U.S. now feature "Quiet Storm" shows at night, and several are all Quiet Storm all the time. Some stations call it music for "between the sheets". Luther Vandross is the king of the Quiet Storm. George Benson, Barry White, Smokey Robinson, and Sade are all Quiet Storm Hall of Famers, but more contemporary pop and R&B dominates the format in most markets (listen for the likes of Brian McKnight, Usher, and Maxwell). If you only like the "old school slow jams", it is increasingly easy to find stations playing only classic Quiet Storm.

Blelvis (person)

2002-06-13T20:06:37Z

Washington, DC street performer calling himself "Blelvis the Black Elvis." Claims to know the lyrics to every Elvis Presley song and will sing an Elvis song relevant to any topic you choose, preferably in exchange for a buck or two. He is difficult to stump and can almost always come up with an obscure lyric that relates to the topic or word you've chosen, even when you try to challenge him with something off-the-wall.

I speak of Blelvis in the present tense, but I haven't seen him since I moved away from DC in 1995 and cannot be certain that he still lives and performs. I used to see him most frequently around Adams Morgan. The first impression everyone had of Blelvis was that he was a bum or a drunk or both. He may have been those things, but respect his art and choose to remember him mainly as a street performer.

Deep Throat (thing)

2001-05-22T03:21:39Z

This 1972 porn film was probably the most popular of all time, and was unusual at the time for having a plot. That plot is pretty thin: Linda Lovelace's character has never had an orgasm. Her friend tries to help her out by involving her in an orgy, but Linda still doesn't climax. She goes to a doctor played by Harry Reems, who discovers that her clitoris is in the back of her throat. Performing oral sex on the well-endowed doctor finally gives her the mind-blowing orgasm she was looking for.

She's pretty happy for a while, but then her need for a lover with a certain length becomes a challenge (because her clitoris is way back in her throat -- I think the thing she keeps saying is "I need a man with 9 inches"). I won't spoil the end for you.

I think I'd only recommend watching Deep Throat for historical interest, and maybe a couple of laughs. I saw it many many years ago, and I think seeing it now, knowing what Linda Lovelace has said about the terrible experience of making it and other pornos, it would be difficult to enjoy.

Thurn and Taxis (idea)

2001-05-21T20:32:34Z

Of course it's possible that the historical evidence of the Thurn and Taxis postal monopoly, including the website and the museum referred to in blue_enzian's writeup, was fabricated, and planted everywhere a Pynchon reader might look for it, by agents of Thomas Pynchon and/or Pierce Inverarity. It's even easier to pull off this kind of historical hoax on the web, where anyone can make an official-looking site. And is it coincidence that there wouldn't even be an internet without Yoyodyne technology?

Never Ignore Chatterbox (idea)

2001-05-16T23:05:08Z

Another option is to keep the Chatterbox nodelet turned off altogether. I turned it off once I figured out a few things: I wasn't interested in 95% of the chatter; I had the option of removing it in my user Preferences; and disabling it might help reduce lag time and conserve overall E2 server/bandwidth resources. I have assumed that if it's important, someone will /msg me. (If you have removed the Chatterbox from your nodelets, a little alert appears in your nodelets column every time you have a personal /msg.)

Being as new as I am, maybe this is a mistake. It hadn't occurred to me that people may be commenting on my w/u's in the Chatterbox. I figured I was getting enough conditioning based on votes, chings (or mostly non-chings), and deletions.

I probably won't change my ways, and I'm probably not the only one who won't heed the advice of this node title. So I'd discourage everybody from assuming that all Other Users are paying close attention to the Chatterbox.