one more entry and request re: lousy writing.Please tell me WHAT the following actually MEANS: her enunciation of the italian language was barren of regional influence and pitiless, as if each word were a butterfly she was shooting out of the air with a pistol.
I just paid good money to go hear a guy play a solo concert in my town. He has a Grammy in a somewhat esoteric genre, and is well-respected, if not an household name. It was very nice evening and money well spent.
20 years ago I used to pass him busking on the street. I always thought he was super fun, and admired his stage presence— he took no prisoners, and his persona was gleefully eccentric. But he couldn’t make a living playing music here, and even got harassed by the local cops who would frequently move him on.
Point being, I am now always alert to buskers. Joshua Bell did it as a stunt, but there is genius lurking amongst us.
Here's a seditious (or is it blasphemous ?) thought. In keeping with Gene's poll fetish, and assuming one or another of your royal Invitational short lists is short enough or otherwise fits within the prescribed confines of the Pool, how about we, your humble and faithful servants, offer up our choices from that list for weekly ink, from time to time. This would allow you each to grab a few more gulps of fresh air or personally show neighbors (and the local constabulary) that welfare checks are not necessary.
fine, fine, i must disagree with thinking that was a not horrible writing and imagery (honestly, reclaibratiing vibrancy? Come frigging on). So i dare this, from a weekly comlumn in a local paper: " However, in this region, it [Veritas Vita] may mean the many assets that portray our ability to think through positive elements that enable this region to verify its destiny of becoming major center for economic development with a life that thrives on talent, capability, human services, a place to be meaningful and independent as required. "
That reminds me of the language I've gotten in some Invitational joke contests. Happens when you're based in a town rife with bureaucrats. They TALK like that.
Re: "Okay, guys. We are down for the day." Gene may be gone, but both the Empress and Pat the Perfect will hang out for further homage, tomato splats, grammar questions, etc.
There were a lot of funny (or at least interesting) images that didn't get ink this week -- "noinks," the Losers call them. I invite Losers to share their favorite noinks in the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook. Use the hashtag #dalle in the text of your post so people can see them all on a search. The group is at facebook.com/groups/styleinvitational ; if you're signing up for the first time, tell the admins in the questions that you're coming from The Gene Pool.
On naming children...When my son was born, we decided to name him Bryan. With a "y" because we didn't want my slightly dyslexic mother sending cards and letters addressed to "Brain." The FIRST card she sent was addressed to....Byran.
I just received an urgent vocal phone call from the Czar, who informed me that the ink-holder picture was OBVIOUSLY Princess Valerie and how could I be so blind, so I clearly stand corrected.
She told me the daughter of an empress is supposed to be an archduchess. I’d also say family resemblance and the portrait could have been of a young empress prior to usurping the czar.
After getting nothing but server overload error messages from DALL-E on about 25 tries over a week's time, I finally gave up. I'm glad other people were able to get it to work. Just imagine what it would have looked like to get a picture of Stephen Sondheim breakdancing.
That's such a bummer. I heard from someone else who just got a blank screen. I'm sorry that happened; Gene and I both were able to produce images without incident (they weren't GOOD, but they existed), so we didn't anticipate that problem. We did get more than 400 images from more than 100 people. (I did anticipate problems sending them on our entry form, and some people did avail themselves of Plan B and email their pictures to me directly. )
one more entry and request re: lousy writing.Please tell me WHAT the following actually MEANS: her enunciation of the italian language was barren of regional influence and pitiless, as if each word were a butterfly she was shooting out of the air with a pistol.
I just paid good money to go hear a guy play a solo concert in my town. He has a Grammy in a somewhat esoteric genre, and is well-respected, if not an household name. It was very nice evening and money well spent.
20 years ago I used to pass him busking on the street. I always thought he was super fun, and admired his stage presence— he took no prisoners, and his persona was gleefully eccentric. But he couldn’t make a living playing music here, and even got harassed by the local cops who would frequently move him on.
Point being, I am now always alert to buskers. Joshua Bell did it as a stunt, but there is genius lurking amongst us.
Here's a seditious (or is it blasphemous ?) thought. In keeping with Gene's poll fetish, and assuming one or another of your royal Invitational short lists is short enough or otherwise fits within the prescribed confines of the Pool, how about we, your humble and faithful servants, offer up our choices from that list for weekly ink, from time to time. This would allow you each to grab a few more gulps of fresh air or personally show neighbors (and the local constabulary) that welfare checks are not necessary.
Pat, I still have friends who'd like to try out the Gene Pool for a month - can we get some invites for them??
I'm glad you still have friends, Lynne. I hope they'll STILL be your friends after taking you up on your suggestion.
Empress Grammar Scold on fire today. Mea culpa.
I will refer this to The Czar. One thing I don't know much about is how the subscriptions work.
Not a question; more of a thank you. It is considerate of you to offer up a crappy new contest right when I'm feeling the need to take a week off.
Is it possible to change my answer from 3 to 1 now that I've seen the results?
Jon Gearhart, Des Moines
Answer to what?
Sorry, the poll at the top.
I wasn't serious, anyway.
Good, because it says "haven't looked yet."
Yes, I know that. You should have included a follow-up poll at the end after seeing the results to see if the answers changed.
fine, fine, i must disagree with thinking that was a not horrible writing and imagery (honestly, reclaibratiing vibrancy? Come frigging on). So i dare this, from a weekly comlumn in a local paper: " However, in this region, it [Veritas Vita] may mean the many assets that portray our ability to think through positive elements that enable this region to verify its destiny of becoming major center for economic development with a life that thrives on talent, capability, human services, a place to be meaningful and independent as required. "
That reminds me of the language I've gotten in some Invitational joke contests. Happens when you're based in a town rife with bureaucrats. They TALK like that.
Re: "Okay, guys. We are down for the day." Gene may be gone, but both the Empress and Pat the Perfect will hang out for further homage, tomato splats, grammar questions, etc.
There were a lot of funny (or at least interesting) images that didn't get ink this week -- "noinks," the Losers call them. I invite Losers to share their favorite noinks in the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook. Use the hashtag #dalle in the text of your post so people can see them all on a search. The group is at facebook.com/groups/styleinvitational ; if you're signing up for the first time, tell the admins in the questions that you're coming from The Gene Pool.
On naming children...When my son was born, we decided to name him Bryan. With a "y" because we didn't want my slightly dyslexic mother sending cards and letters addressed to "Brain." The FIRST card she sent was addressed to....Byran.
One complication of the DALL-E contest was that the resulting images were more stunning and amazing than they were funny.
I don't know about you, but that picture of the woman holding the bottle of ink has cracked me up 27 times.
I kind of thought it also resembled the Archduchess Valerie.
I just received an urgent vocal phone call from the Czar, who informed me that the ink-holder picture was OBVIOUSLY Princess Valerie and how could I be so blind, so I clearly stand corrected.
She told me the daughter of an empress is supposed to be an archduchess. I’d also say family resemblance and the portrait could have been of a young empress prior to usurping the czar.
The one with the black curly hair? Maybe the one at the top of the page, without the weird eyeballs.
Or a portrait from the Haunted Mansion. A poison pen letter writer.
Same!
And I think the fact that they are mostly attractive adds to the humor!
After getting nothing but server overload error messages from DALL-E on about 25 tries over a week's time, I finally gave up. I'm glad other people were able to get it to work. Just imagine what it would have looked like to get a picture of Stephen Sondheim breakdancing.
That's such a bummer. I heard from someone else who just got a blank screen. I'm sorry that happened; Gene and I both were able to produce images without incident (they weren't GOOD, but they existed), so we didn't anticipate that problem. We did get more than 400 images from more than 100 people. (I did anticipate problems sending them on our entry form, and some people did avail themselves of Plan B and email their pictures to me directly. )
The idea that some people took a morning-after pill before emailing their pictures to you directly seems like a fairly random observation!
While they can, anyway.
I got Sondheim on the toilet, straining, like Elvis!