Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for September 18, 2009
Transcript:
Lucy: Um... o-o-o-kay... what's this all about? Danae: I came across some ancient disks in Gran'ma's attic and discovered long lost revelations of the meaning of life. Lucy: Cool... like what? Danae: Oh, like... ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on... Lucy: I don't understand it, but I kinda like it. Danae: Yeah, I think ambiguity is essential to absolute truth.
wndrwrthg about 15 years ago
“La. la, la, how life goes on”.
pouncingtiger about 15 years ago
As quoted from the “musical philosophers” J. Lennon and J. Paul McCartney.
Allen Rymer about 15 years ago
Danae has yet to figure out that life is what happens as you are trying to figure out Life.
LordDogmore about 15 years ago
(insert raspy breathing) “Search your feelings Danae, Captain Eddy is your grandfather, you know it to be true.” Plus that would go a long way toward explaining her story telling ablities.
thankyoudonnie about 15 years ago
Man, are they so far gone that records are in the attics of GRANDPARENTS now?
snetzler about 15 years ago
Brilliant last frame. “Ambiguity is essential to absolute truth” is very quotable: Can I borrow it please? The downside to comics being all in upper case is that you can’t distinguish between the truth and The Truth: In my experience, they mean very different things.
Hugh B. Hayve about 15 years ago
Wait till she gets to the whole “Paul is dead” thing, then her last line makes a lot more sense.
KingRat about 15 years ago
thankyoudonnie said, Man, are they so far gone that records are in the attics of GRANDPARENTS now?
there and in the flight cases of the best DJs in the world.
NoDuh about 15 years ago
Looks a lot like Peanuts and Lucy’s “the Psychiatrist is In”
tree_boar about 15 years ago
that’s the idea, NoDuh.
gtsagan about 15 years ago
Can’t wait to see what she does with “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road.”
carmy about 15 years ago
And if you want some fun - take Obladiblada.
GROG Premium Member about 15 years ago
I prefer the “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” song, but maybe now Grandma’s singing “Life’s Been Good”
Craigor about 15 years ago
Best music class I ever had was back in Junior High (I guess Middle School these days). First semester we learned all about the Beatles, 2nd semester was devoted to the Who. We dissected every album for all sorts of meanings … .
Guilden_NL about 15 years ago
Craigor, you make me feel old. I was in Middle School when they were topping the Hot 45’s charts.
Ermine Notyours about 15 years ago
Doesn’t she know that The Beatles: Rock Band just came out, in a format for equipment in this century? (Ah, records are good too.)
GROG Premium Member about 15 years ago
By far, not the best of the Beatles. It’s right up there with “We All Live In A Yellow Submarine.”
kfaatz925 about 15 years ago
Craigor, that sounds fabulous. Maybe I should try that with my junior highschoolers. (Who know more about the Beatles than I do - it gives me hope for modern youth. ;) )
lazygrazer about 15 years ago
Wait’ll she finds Flo’s “Mamas & Papas” collection. Gonna blow her little mind.
Just for the record, Mary (of Peter, Paul & Mary) just passed on.
Nighthawks Premium Member about 15 years ago
gregsagan, that was my thought….
no one will be watching us……….why don’t we do it in the road?
nothing ambiguous there!
yyyguy about 15 years ago
R.I.P Mary Travers
DevXIII about 15 years ago
Does Lucy know that Danae’s horning in on her turf?
penandra about 15 years ago
That song is going to be in my head all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
treered about 15 years ago
pouncingtiger said, about 10 hours ago
As quoted from the “musical philosophers” J. Lennon and J. Paul McCartney…
with a little help from their friends…
mikdeeps about 15 years ago
AL— Well put.
brewwitch about 15 years ago
She will be disappointed when she comes across the disc that tells her she “can’t always get what [she] wants.”
Ushindi about 15 years ago
thankyoudonnie…Yes, more or less. I have boxes and boxes of 33s, 45s, and even 78s - just stored away. Once in a great while, I’ll throw one on one of my turntables, just for old times’ sake, but CDs are so much simpler to use. Also, can’t just go down to the record store and get a new stereo cartridge anymore, and 78 RPM needles?
fritzoid Premium Member about 15 years ago
And, in the end, The love you take Is equal to the love you make.
The oddest thing about this strip is that, having found the disks, Danae would have had some way of listening to them. It’s possible Grandma has a turntable, but it’s probably in the attic with the LP’s…
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is a great song, but even it did not escape controversy back in the day. In England at that time, the National Front and other Right-Wing factions were outraged by the darkening of London, as immigrants (and Crown Subjects) from the East Indies and other colonial regions were settling in England. “Desmond” was a name that carried associations of Caribbean origins, and the song was taken to task for suggesting that a racial minority might find a happy and productive life, working a barrow in the marketplace with his children lending a hand.
And of course, after 9/11 this was one of the songs which radio broadcast syndicates (ClearChannel, I think?) put on the Do-Not-Playlist, because it suggested that, oh I don’t know, Life Goes On or something.
They’re almost ALL great songs. With only one or two exceptions, anything by the Beatles is better than just about anything by anyone else. (My exceptions are primarily “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Revolution Number 9”.)
WaitingMan about 15 years ago
The last surreal word of the lyric was left off: “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra.” Makes it even more confusing than most philosophers.
GROG Premium Member about 15 years ago
Ushindi
You won’t be able to find anything at Best Buy or other major electronics companies but you can buy that stuff online. I deal with a company from California that, among other things sells turntables and cartridges. I’m not sure about 78 RPM cartridges, though, but you might be able to find something if you look for it.
If you’re interested, I’ll dig up their web address. The used to be called Pro Stage Lighting & Sound if I recall correctly, but they recently changed their name. I bought a new turtable 6 months ago and I’m quite happy with it.
johnnydoc5 about 15 years ago
Wait ‘til she gets to the other side. How is she going to explain Revolution 9 and Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey?
jamadison4 about 15 years ago
Grasshopper is learning,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Trebor39 about 15 years ago
So I guess Danae found a turntable to play them on too. I wonder how she figured out how to use it.
DaveLowell Premium Member about 15 years ago
Don’t tell the philosophy teacher…
Varnes about 15 years ago
As a retired teacher who substitutes in middle school, I can tell you that the Beatles are by far the most mentioned band when kids are asked who their favorite one is. I love it. What are they thinking when they listen to them? Yeah, I know, spooky, huh?
Barbaratoo about 15 years ago
(Funny that I should pick this, too, since I also substitute teach.) I used “ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on…” on my FB page. While I wasn’t quite so nutty, Danae and Lucy could have been me as a kid.
Kosher71 about 15 years ago
I wonder , what she would make of White Rabbit , from Jefferson Airplane … ?
nonsequitous about 15 years ago
The last panel, “ambiguity in absolute truth,” confirms my long-held theory – Wiley Miller is either a Zen Master fixing us hot dogs and making each of us “one with everything,” or one of Ken Kesey’s original Merry Pranksters, or else he’s Lao Tsu.
” wonder , what she would make of White Rabbit , from Jefferson Airplane … ?” – Jim
Let me amend that list – or else he’s Lewis Carroll, and Danae is Alice, and is Carroll’s co-author in her autobiography.
I wonder what she’d make of the Mothers of Invention.
Call any vegetable And the chances are good That the vegetable will respond to you (yodeling) Rutaba-a-ga Rutaba-a-ga Rutabagaaaaa
nonsequitous about 15 years ago
“The last surreal word of the lyric was left off: “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra[h la la how the life goes on].” Makes it even more confusing than most philosophers.” – WaitingMan
Hawaiian surfer lingo for “brother”. See the movie “Blue Crush” where I first heard it, or http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brah, where I looked it up for confirmation.
Similar to “bro”, but that one is pronounced “bruh” by the brotha’s, actual or honorary. Gnome sane?
“Philosophers get confusing because they make you think too much.” – I said that “I said that.” – Bob Dylan said that
nonsequitous about 15 years ago
jack75287 said, about 13 hours ago – I wish I had all my old LP’s. I would get one of those ION turn tables the one that can convert all the songs to MP3.
Jack, is that a standalone unit? Because they make turntables with USB ports. So all you’d need is a cable and Windows drivers, and some kind of software, and you could store it on your HD in any format that the software would support.
I have an apple crate full of rare vinyls that I want to copy into digital format before they go dust unto dust on me – including the aforementioned Airplane album containing White Rabbit, and another Airplane album with Revolution and Wooden Ships, CSNY’s Four Way Street, James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine (he had hair!), an old rerecording of 78s of Western Swing recorded in the 20s and 30s, the stuff that Bob Wills grew up listening to (on clear vinyl).
I got Willie Nelson singing on various albums with everyone in the galaxy – Ray Charles, Roger Miller, Leon Russell, and more – I can’t remember who all, probably Pavaratti.
This is my prize, though. I have one of Willie’s first albums. The cover features him in a plaid sports coat, white shirt, tie and – wait for it – flat-top haircut. I want to go to Austin and have him sign it. I can picture his grin when he sees it.
Also, a copy of Lenny Bruce’s live club recordings How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Oh, yeah….
Ushindi about 15 years ago
BC13: Thanks - appreciate the reference, but actually I already have most of my albums digitized and listen to them on CDs. Using the turntables (I have 3 old ones - still work great, but only one plays 78s) is just something I do occasionally when I’m feeling nostalgic. You bought a new TT? Interesting…..
Ham_Gravy about 15 years ago
All you vinyl hoarders could do well with some eBay searching. There are turntables, and good ones at that, available for cheap. You might need a new drive belt for some of them, and possibly a new cartridge, but those are available online, as well. There are still small phono preamplifiers being made, to step up the turntable output to something a computer can deal with. ~~ The point of this more piecemeal approach is that you can get used equipment of much higher quality than a lot of the USB turntables being sold.