ASK ME ANYTHING

[Alex]

Have you or someone you know ever been the victim of an Irish gang-kicking? (I'm just seeing if there's enough representation in this demographic to explore forming a support group.)

I worked with a woman who on one night shift discovered her boyfriend had been kicked to death on an Orange Walk in Ireland. Would have been in 1998's marching season.

The Orange Order are such motherf**kers. In the interest of full disclosure, the IRA are even worse motherf**kers, and some of the British in the mix are possibly the biggest motherf**kers of all, except those misguided Americans in Boston and elsewhere who to this day give the IRA money, and therefore rank as not just motherf**kers but grandmaf**kers as well.

Growing up on the west coast of Scotland I found their repeated summer marches a pain in the arse. I am so glad they are only allowed a single march now (although I'd be even happier if that was removed). It celebrates a protestant victory, but the truth is there were more catholics fighting on the protestant side, than there were on the catholic side.

[ER]

Those giant drums they bang while they march are honestly a little cool, as is some of their symbolism, but that doesn't make up for those absurd little derby hats they put on while they're out singing about the Boyne and Oliver Cromwell and how Prods breed and Catholics bleed. Really, hate groups should make an effort to dress better than Orangemen do. Think how impressive Nazis looked. They set the hate-attire bar high. Would it kill Ulstermen to at least wear jackboots?

[Alex]

Bowler hats and jackboots would be an... interesting(?) look I guess.

[ER]

Is there a question you've always wanted to ask your someone but never have?

Like I've always wondered why my mom has so much artistic talent but has done virtually nothing with it. She took some ceramics classes at a college when I was younger and she worked at an art glass gallery that marketed Chihuly's works, and is amazing good at origami, but hasn't done much on her own despite being talented that way.

It seems it'd be a simple thing to ask but I've always held back like the topic was taboo. Like maybe the explanation would open some secret door to a dark place.

Perhaps I should finally satisfy my curiosity and ask her. Maybe for her 62nd birthday Sunday I should buy her a gift card to an arts supply store and say hey, have fun. Make something.

Know what I mean, though? You can go through life wondering something and never get around to asking.

[Alex]

Some times people just do something because they enjoy it, and commercializing that can destroy the fun element (when you have to do something to meet a deadline instead of relaxing). That would be my guess anyway.

[Allhallowsday]

...I've always wondered why my mom has so much artistic talent but has done virtually nothing with it...

Was your pious Grandmother your mom's mother? 

[RCMerchant]

Some times people just do something because they enjoy it, and commercializing that can destroy the fun element (when you have to do something to meet a deadline instead of relaxing). That would be my guess anyway.

Yes it is. I drew for the local paper, but never cared about being famous. I don't like to be around a lot of people- when I was young I lived in bars...but I wasn't really socializing, I was getting drunk.
I went to NYC, showed my work to Mattie Simmons at Heavy Metal (aka National Lampoon) and she said " I'll call you back." She was in a meeting, but when the man at the desk asked me why I  said                         
I was there it was to show Mattie my work. But when that guy was sifting trough my work, he said "Wait a minute." So I had a sitdown with Mattie.  But I left NYC like 2 days later. I f**ked that up bigtime.

[pacman000]

Usually, the US Copyright Office doesn't consider a website published unless you specifically say folks can download/save content.

Does that mean shows exclusively on streaming services are never, legally, published?

(I'm not a lawyer; this is not legal advise; get a lawyer for legal advise, etc.)

[Rev. Powell]

Usually, the US Copyright Office doesn't consider a website published unless you specifically say folks can download/save content.

Does that mean shows exclusively on streaming services are never, legally, published?

(I'm not a lawyer; this is not legal advise; get a lawyer for legal advise, etc.)

Do you have a source for " the US Copyright Office doesn't consider a website published unless you specifically say folks can download/save content"? That doesn't sound right at all. Generally copyright exists the moment a work of original authorship is fixed in a tangible medium (including when readable by a computer). At any rate, I'd argue "streaming" is downloading.

Additionally, the word "published" might be being used in a different sense that has nothing to do with copyright per se (i.e. it might have to do with registering copyrights, which is optional).

(I am a lawyer but this is not legal advice).

[pacman000]

Here: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf

" Publication
The fact that a work has been placed online or posted on a website does not necessarily mean that the work has been published. The Office considers a work published when copies of it are distrib- uted to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership if the copyright owner authorizes the end user to retain copies of the work. Merely displaying or performing a work online generally does not constitute publication. However, a work is considered published when the copyright owner offers to distribute copies of the work to a group of people for the purpose of further distributing the copies or publicly performing or displaying the work.
The key element of publication for an online work is that the copyright owner must authorize distribution. Just because an end user can technically reproduce a work does not necessarily mean that the work has been published. A copyright owner must have expressly or implicitly authorized users to make retainable copies of a work by downloading, printing, or other means for the work to be considered published."

I missed the word "implicitly," so you don't need to specifically say "download this" for an online work to be published. Still leaves me wondering, since end users can't keep copies of streamed shows.

Not sure how much it matters; the works are copyrighted if they're published or not, & they can't fall out of copyright due to some publishing error. Might've been a more significant question 50-60 years ago.

[ER]

What's something you haven't done that you want to do?

I'd like to have a lucid dream.

[indianasmith]

What's something you haven't done that you want to do?

I'd like to have a lucid dream.

Never worry about money.

[pacman000]

What's something you haven't done that you want to do?

That could have a thread!

[ER]

What's something you haven't done that you want to do?

That could have a thread!

Darn, good call.

[Alex]

What is the worst thing you've ever done to another human being?

Mine is treating them exactly the same way they treated me.