dotc's New Writeups

World domination (thing)

2002-06-19T18:33:11Z

World Domination, Kompressor in Action's first 'real' (non-demo) album was released in 2001, followed by Crush Television in 2002. Consisting mostly of intelligent and humourous (if garbled) lyrics over harsh Industrial beats (Kompressor's bio lists instruments used as being 'SYNTH, CRUSH, FEAR, DEATH'), World Domination is the sort of album one listens to initially just for laughs. Soon, though -- soon Kompressor takes control of your life.

World Domination is a solid album, at all times musically interesting. Fans of Einstürzende Neubauten, Ministry, KMFDM, Tool, and Nine Inch Nails especially should make a point to check it out.

Two of the songs included on this album were written for Song Fight (Midnight Rendezvous and…

2002-05-26T14:22:47Z

Billy Bishop Goes to War premiered at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in association with Tamahnous Theatre, November 3, 1978. John Gray directed and played the pianist/narrator and Eric Peterson played Billy Bishop (as well as a number of other characters). The play toured Canada, visiting virtually every major theatre and hit Broadway, opening at the Morosco Theatre May 29, 1980 and closing Jun 7, 1980 after seven previews and twelve performances. The musical has been revived upwards of 150 times, including a very well-received revival in 1998 by Canadian Stage starring the original cast). Regarding its success, Peterson said: …

2002-05-25T20:43:51Z

GRIDS, or 'Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome', was the name given to AIDS when it was first observed in the West in the early 1980s.

As the vast majority of cases were seen in homosexual and bisexual males, it was considered primarily a gay ailment ('gay cancer' and 'gay plague', although not considered polite, were used to refer to the epidemic). Early studies focused on the sexual and social behaviour of gay and bisexual men, and it was believed that the presence of some sort of infectious agent in semen, such as cytomegalovirus (a very common strain of herpes) or Epstein-Barr virus (the root cause of mono, also in the herpes family) transmitted through lesions in the anal mucosa caused the syndrome. Stimulants, such as butyl nitrate or amyl nitrate (aka 'poppers'or Rush) were also thought to interfere with ones' immune system and contribute to the…

2002-05-23T06:20:51Z

The phrase 'four-letter word' is a polite and inoffensive way to refer to swear / dirty words. From this, phrases like 'moving is a four-letter word' or, 'coming from you, "friend" is a four-letter word' have arisen to describe the distasteful.

Of George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words, 5 (fully 71.4%) of them are four letters long. Of his 2443 Filthy Words and Phrases, the most frequently encountered word/phrase length is in fact four letters (231 words or phrases, (roughly 9.5%)). Next is six letters (213), then seven (208). Note that the version of George Carlin's 2443 Filthy Words and Phrases used, transcribed by Patrick Arnold, consisted of only 2439 entries.

Finally, of the 27 very mild / mild / moderate / strong…

2002-04-12T15:27:35Z

'On the fritz' is an expression used to describe a mechanism or device (more frequently an appliance) which is behaving unexpectedly, unpredictably, or simply not at all. Typically, only items with components which can't easily be described on their own by a layman receive this label -- washing machines, televisions and microwaves are often described as on the fritz, while cars and yachts are not. The British / Australian equivalent is probably, 'on the blink'.

There have been a number of attempts to explain the origin of this phrase. Two are easy to fairly easily dismiss out of hand -- American poet and author John Ciardi wrote it was possible that 'fritz' may be an onomatopoeic reference to the 'pfzt' sound of a faulty connection / short circuit, while others felt that 'fritz' might be a…

2002-04-03T22:40:11Z

A type of breakfast, commonly served on an airplane, by a hotel or some other business / location which is not considered a food service establishment. Your typical continental breakfast consists of two or more of the following self-serve items:

fresh, whole fruit
juice (in individual containers)
small, individually portioned, non-potentially hazardous food products (doughnuts, bagels, or muffins, small boxes of cereal, etc.)
coffee or tea (usually dispensed from an urn or other closed-delivery system)

The above is very close to Florida's legal definition of continental breakfast. Why does Florida even have a legal definition, you ask? In order to allow a few types of businesses (specifically, lodging establishments) to serve breakfast without possessing food service licenses, this 'safe' breakfast was outlined.