Random Thoughts

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:33 am

I hate when people heat up lunch at 11:30. 11:30 is too early for lunch, but food smells make me hungry!

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:15 pm

I ate my lunch today at 11:15

And yes, oily, I prefer cashmere.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:37 pm

verbal gymnastics wrote:Was anyone excited about the news that The Police have reformed?

I'd be a lot more excited if their reunion tour consisted of the small clubs that are conducive to their sound rather than enormous arenas that they will no doubt sell out in a matter of minutes.

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:52 pm

you got that right. they didn't produce enough sound back in the day either and didn't have a reputation for putting on much or very long of a show. maybe that'll change. on a per capita basis they still made more sound than the cars. maybe they'll drag patti labelle out to help or something. i must admit to being interested in hearing stewart whack that snare again. and i thought andy looked fabulous, though i doubt we'll see much pogoing out of him.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:22 pm

Great drummer. They had some great songs, like King of Pain or Wrapped Around Your Finger or Bed's Too Big.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:11 pm

What is with the endless fascination with top ten lists? I don't get it how it is an inexhaustible source of threads...

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:24 pm

What is with the endless fascination with top ten lists? I don't get it how it is an inexhaustible source of threads...

1. Its a nice encapsulation of an artist
2. Its interesting to see other peoples view of an artists best/faves
3. It can provoke further discussion
4. Its fun to make a list of your faves, as your forced to think about what you like best.
5. You can see what great songs you are maybe missing out on.
6. It can remind you of songs you had forgotten all about.
7. Its nice to know that your not the only person in the world who thinks "xxxxx" by "yyyy" is ace!
8. It can lead to a personal reappraisal of an artist.
9. You can see if anyone else agrees with your list.
10. You can poke fun at the people who like "Blue Jean".

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:38 pm

miss buenos aires wrote:What is with the endless fascination with top ten lists? I don't get it how it is an inexhaustible source of threads...

They are very popular among the 'do YOU remember the good old days..?' brigade, I've noticed.

After a while I grew suspicious of them. I didn't feel like laying out my precious top ten Rolling Stones songs damnit!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:41 am

C'mon MBA. It isn't only a boy thing. Give us your top 10 of Pulp, or, um, Sleater Kinney.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:18 am

Mike Boom wrote:
1. Its a nice encapsulation of an artist
2. Its interesting to see other peoples view of an artists best/faves
3. It can provoke further discussion
4. Its fun to make a list of your faves, as your forced to think about what you like best.
5. You can see what great songs you are maybe missing out on.
6. It can remind you of songs you had forgotten all about.
7. Its nice to know that your not the only person in the world who thinks "xxxxx" by "yyyy" is ace!
8. It can lead to a personal reappraisal of an artist.
9. You can see if anyone else agrees with your list.
10. You can poke fun at the people who like "Blue Jean".

What he said. I've revisited 3 or 4 old favorites I'd long neglected because of these threads. I bought Ladies Of the Canyon from iTunes yesterday after thinking about my Joni Mitchell top 10, and have been happily immersed in it all day. What a fantastic record.

By the way, do you remember the good old days when we didn't have serious posts here about utter dreck like Guns 'n' Roses?

Post by **BlueChair** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:20 am

Word.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:28 am

is that really necessary?

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:50 pm

Mechanical Grace wrote:By the way, do you remember the good old days when we didn't have serious posts here about utter dreck like Guns 'n' Roses?

Dreck! Dreck! i'm crestfallen. you thrashed one of these snobs a couple years ago for trashing some mainstream performer saying something along the lines of you figured if tons of a recording were sold there had to be some talent, some worthiness there, even if it wasn't necessarily meaningful stuff that appealed to you. i've tried to think that way and even passed that little philosophy on. Dreck! i have no idea what boo is talking about and would have no interest in that stuff anymore, but there was some good basic rock and roll and talent in there. in fact, i maybe think november rain was a better stairway to heaven than stairway to heaven.

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:54 pm

Today is such a great day. The university is closed due to inclement weather (no work or school!), the rerun of Frasier this morning was the episode with Elvis, and I had cookies for breakfast. Yay!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:37 pm

I need to buy a snow blower! Just spent more than an hour shoveling out the driveway. Very heavy snow with lots of moisture. Nice for snowballs, not so great for my back.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:59 pm

I am one of the culprits who post to every Top 10 list that appears. Mike's Top 10 about to 10s rang some bells for me, but I still don't know why I love to post to them.

I am not sure if it makes me a member of a 'brigade' or not, I always thought that Brigade Rosse t-shirt that Joe Strummer wore looked cool. Til I found out who they were.
Or is it more like;
Some people might say my life is in a rut,
But Im quite happy with what I got
People might say that I should strive for more,
But Im so happy I cant see the point.
Somethings happening here today
A show of strength with your boys brigade and,
Im so happy and youre so kind

I have never thought of Guns And Roses as 'dreck'. I always considered them the village idiots of rock, sad clowns whose tailored rebellion, sloppy riffs and asinine lyrics always seemed designed to appeal to real and imagined 12 year olds.
This may make them a classic that I am not astute enough to notice. It may make them 'dreck'.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:48 am

I used to make my own top 10s as a kid of my favourite songs at the time. I was probably 12 or so. I remember Rock 'n' Roll With Me making it to no. 1. I think as a rule 8 out of the 10 tops were Bowie. I used to regard listening tothe top 40 on Sunday on the radio as a sacred activity. I would even write it out every week at one point. Top 10s are in my blood.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:16 am

Richard wrote: tailored rebellion, sloppy riffs and asinine lyrics... designed to appeal to real and imagined 12 year olds

Sounds like as good a contextual definition of 'dreck' as I could come up with! The guy's a racist, homophobic asshole, loves himself to pieces, and I think his music sucks outright. Just my opinion. And don't worry, most of us are unknowing members of one of Boo's self-proclaimed 'brigades.'

As for lists, I'm not usually a fan of ranking music, but as Mike wrote, it's really nice to see which songs other people treasure from particular artists, and it's prompted me revisit lots of good music.

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:10 am

Everything Guns and Roses do and play is like a bad second hand cartoon version of Led Zeppelin or the Stones etc.

What I dislike most about them is the way they take all the worst rock n roll cliche's and string them together to make something truly horrible. And Axl's voice is like a cat being slowly strangled.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:38 am

By the way, do you remember the good old days when we didn't have serious posts here about utter dreck like Guns 'n' Roses?

And don't worry, most of us are unknowing members of one of Boo's self-proclaimed 'brigades.'

I remember the good old days when every other post wasn't a personal attack. I got the impression from the Top Ten Elton thread that we weren't going to do this anymore.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:48 am

Moody and Oily, thank you each for standing up for sanity's sake.

Mechanical Grace wrote:blah blah
The guy's a racist, homophobic asshole
blah blah
Just my opinion.

Is it really? I doubt it. He's gone on record many times rebuking such ridiculous claims, and everybody who has ever tried to pin that stuff on him would know it. You would know it, as a fan of Elton John, seeing him perform with him at the Freddie Mercury tribute with to raise money for AIDS awareness. Not that you'd know much else about him. Anyway, no surprises... one comes to expect nothing much more than that sort of dishonesty from you. Pff..

I have never thought of Guns And Roses as 'dreck'. I always considered them the village idiots of rock, sad clowns whose tailored rebellion, sloppy riffs and asinine lyrics always seemed designed to appeal to real and imagined 12 year olds.
This may make them a classic that I am not astute enough to notice. It may make them 'dreck'.

They may well appeal to the 12 year old in me who couldn't care less about such classifications, you big grown-up you. And your point is...? Otis being in touch with his inner twelve year old and having entirely different tastes show just how ageist and absurd your theory is.

That attitutes of snobbery and insularity are assumed so easily here is really offputting. The Police reuniting now for a tour involves zero artistic merit and the shameless trawling of every available sentimental fool's dollar they can get while they can, is there anything more apalling?! Yet the idea of it is entertained here with tones of reverence for who-knows-what as if it's not. It's ironic then that Axl Rose or whoever is thoughtlessly pitied and put down while they are trying to come up with something great.

I'd welcome criticism of an act or something if someone offers reasons and so on, not just saying it's dreck, and would hope that more diversity of musical acts would be encouraged in a forum, rather than probably scared off with attitudes of mindless insularity that are allowed to dominate. It's gotten to where people regularly sort of apologize for their tastes, FFS!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:53 am

double dutchess wrote:Today is such a great day. The university is closed due to inclement weather (no work or school!), the rerun of Frasier this morning was the episode with Elvis, and I had cookies for breakfast. Yay!

Ah - the Frasier episode...Tie me kangaroo down sport. Elvis should ask Allen Toussaint to come up with an arrangement for the Crescent City Horns to play

As far as the Top 10 Lists go, I was going to post a facetious Top 10 Top 10 Lists. I can't generally be bothered with them. If you're not interested don't look!

And I wasn't fussed about The Police reforming. I quite liked a few of their songs but they didn't excite me enough to want to see them the first time round so I doubt I'll bother this time. There was only one three piece band that interested the young VG and there's more chance of Elvis reforming the Attractions than there is Paul Weller reforming The Jam. I'll probably just get loads of tickets for The Police and flog them on eBay (joke - honest).

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:10 am

Mike Boom wrote:Everything Guns and Roses do and play is like a bad second hand cartoon version of Led Zeppelin or the Stones etc.

What I dislike most about them is the way they take all the worst rock n roll cliche's and string them together to make something truly horrible. And Axl's voice is like a cat being slowly strangled.

I respect and can sort of understand your point of view, they may be a wild cartoony mutant beast sometimes (if a better one exists I'd like to know about it), but I like them anyway. I think they are often quite inventive in their arrangements and stylistically, actually. I'm not a big fan of everything they do though. Eg. a couple of their covers are pretty dodgy (although I've heard much better versions on bootlegs). I like the element of unpredictability about them live, they can suck at times (as many bands can), but then they pull off some brilliance. That said, a great deal of their better stuff the general public is unfamiliar with and it might surprise you, and I'm referring to what came from the old band, which has been over for over 10 years now.

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:43 am

Richard wrote:I have never thought of Guns And Roses as 'dreck'. I always considered them the village idiots of rock, sad clowns whose tailored rebellion, sloppy riffs and asinine lyrics always seemed designed to appeal to real and imagined 12 year olds.
This may make them a classic that I am not astute enough to notice. It may make them 'dreck'.

no no, i think Dick is on to something here. dreck it is! off we go to look for non-12 year old-oriented classic verse. here are some clues. ears open for stuff like "she's my little deuce coupe", "girl happy, girl girl happy","i can't get no girlie action (or girl reaction, you decide)", "de do do do, de da da da", "said shake, baby shake", "baby love, my baby love, been missin' ya, miss kissin' ya", and "she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah."

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:51 am

bambooneedle wrote:
Mechanical Grace wrote: The guy's a racist, homophobic asshole. Just my opinion.
Is it really? I doubt it.

Well, I wasn't going to say it was fact, but if you want to go that far, I won't argue.

In any case, a stage appearance or two don't mean shit stacked up against all his lyrics about faggots and niggers. Which do you think meant more to those white 12-year-old boys? Funny you'll forgive him that so quickly, whereas to you Cat Stevens, who's raised shitloads of money to actually help people and promote peace, is some obvious phoney.

Oh yeah, and his music sucks. In my opinion, obviously. I love ELO and lots of people think THEY suck. If you're a fan it shouldn't bother you terribly. I don't give a shit about the Police reunion and I don't think most of the people on this board do, either. If some do, fine. If you care about G'n'R, fine. But I think AR is an asshole and I think their music sucks.

As for personal attacks, I agree, but which attack was personal? Hard to say. I was reacting to a pissy and divisive comment that people who participated in top ten lists were a "do-you-remember-when brigade".
I really have no problem with posts or threads about G'N'R-- I love the insanity of this place-- I was just turning the accusation about do-you-remember back at its source.