Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[alanp]

Another vidrec, because why not. I love how respectful this video is, and at the same time it manages to be amazingly detailed.

Never realised just how ferocious North America can be. You always think of it as being the land of Big Macs and ice-cream...

[davent]

Never realised just how ferocious North America can be. You always think of it as being the land of Big Macs and ice-cream...

You forgot Walmart!
dave

[alanp]

This is probably a really stupid question, but the band named 'Live'... (always wondered about that... "I'm seeing the band Live tonight!" "Which band?" "Live!" "Well, of course it's live, what band is it?")

Is it pronounced live as in "Performing live tonight!", or as in "Live long and prosper" ?

[jimilee]

It's live as in performing live. I have 3 of their albums. Not sure what happened to them after that.


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[matmosphere]

It's live as in performing live. I have 3 of their albums. Not sure what happened to them after that.


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I'm not a fan, but I saw the singers name pop up on a marquee in town a few years back. At some point the band stopped being a band but that dude never stopped and still plays and has a following.

[EBK]

I saw the singer from Live once at a moderately crappy music festival.  He performed a handleful of the old songs to polite applause.  The lead singer of Fuel was also there, doing the same thing.  Whatever is left of Everclear was also there (the singer was very high/drunk and forgot the lyrics to one of his songs).  By contrast, Billy Idol performed at the end of the evening and rocked it.

[matmosphere]

I saw the singer from Live once at a moderately crappy music festival.  He performed a handleful of the old songs to polite applause.  The lead singer of Fuel was also there, doing the same thing.  Whatever is left of Everclear was also there (the singer was very high/drunk and forgot the lyrics to one of his songs).  By contrast, Billy Idol performed at the end of the evening and rocked it.

I saw Hum a few years back. I had high hopes but I can just never get into the whole we just got back together to play the old songs thing. I don't begrudge anybody for doing it, it's just not something I'd want to watch myself.

Although Billy Idol would be pretty cool to see. White Wedding is a far better song than anything by the other bands you mentioned in my opinion.

[somnif]

By contrast, Billy Idol performed at the end of the evening and rocked it.

Just as long as he avoids stuff from his Cyperpunk album. That was... not great.

[thesmokingman]

I saw Hum back when they were a thing ... easily the loudest band I'd seen at the time. still think they're criminally underrated

[lars]

I saw Hum a few years back. I had high hopes but I can just never get into the whole we just got back together to play the old songs thing.

You don't have to worry about that anymore (go to 25:22 for the song "the summoning", oh, man):

[jimilee]

The problem with these guys is they don't k ow how to do anything else. I was talking to a friend, who was a pro bass player with the likes of Billy Ray Cyrus, etc.... and felt fortunate he could do something else. He got out and now only does light gigs and sells pa type equipment for a company in Boca. He has spoken to other musician in his league who echoed the same sentiment, they can't really do anything else.


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[midwayfair]

I'm re-reading Robert Asprin's Myth series. They're satisfyingly consistently mediocre, in that I probably giggle about as often as I roll my eyes or yell at the book.

Anyway, there's a conversation in one of the books between the main character and narrator, Skeeve, and his mentor/partner, Aahz, where Aahz criticizes Skeeve for focusing on being "liked" and getting lost on focusing on trying to please people instead of doing what's right or required, and argues that if people don't like you, they can at least respect you.

So I had a discussion -- I dunno if it's exactly an argument -- but I complained about something and started a lengthy discussion with someone that was at least tangentially political. I thought that they misrepresented what I said, gave long and detailed responses, and concluded by saying that I thought it was a waste of both our lives to keep arguing such a minor point that doesn't affect both our lives. They wrote back that I was nitpicking and just being generally hostile when they were trying to be conscilliatory. So they probably think I'm a total asshat now, because it's im-frigging-possible to hold any meaningful conversation online: If you're thorough, then no one's taking a half hour to unpack what you said. If you're glib you not only can't explain your position but any point you do make is terse.

I mean, it's my fault, I've taken pretty extensive efforts to avoid any overtly political discussion since 2016, when I closed my FB account for the second (and final) time, because I couldn't post a picture of a kitten without my family members bickering in the comments.

So these were my thoughts after I sent first a kind of sarcastic "we're done here" response and then, 5 minutes later, an apology:

Maybe I should just scrub my post history of any other comments I've made in any thread that even touches on politics, whether my comment is political or not. That would keep me out of trouble.

I really wish there was a way to block someone. Should I block someone I don't disagree with but just don't want to continue a conversation with? (I can't block someone.)

I wish I had never started this conversation in the first place, and if I could go back in time, I wouldn't have engaged at all.

Now, I'm not super thrilled with this thought process. It means I don't stand by what I said, that I am inclined to just ignore something rather than even talk about it, and generally it's not super respectable. It's not the first set of thoughts I've had that don't paint me in a good light.

So then today, someone in the COVID thread here, when I complained that some recent comments were a bit inflammatory, said that America's just super polarized and it's nice to come to a place with smart people to get their opinions in a calm manner, but, man, nothing about those comments read like something I would have read on this forum 6 years ago, no matter how comparatively mild they are (I mean, I think if aliens had landed and their only material was the Madbean forum, they might not have been able to tell you who the president of the U.S. was 2008-2016), and I just wonder if I'm overly sensitive now or if other people are completely desensitized to it.

But really this is related to "wanting to be liked." Or at least in my case: I can't do anything with respect. And while I don't exactly care about being liked, I feel like it's almost impossible to discuss anything anymore without someone hating your guts, and really I'd just like to say something once in a while without feeling like I'm pissing half the people reading it off. I'm really sick of feeling like I might have to list my political view bonafides to say anything that isn't rabidly critical of certain government officials around most of my friends, or, as the case may be, criticize something as being blown out of proportion, misunderstood, or outright fabricated.

I really want to go back to a world where I can't tell you who my friends vote for, and I'm not under a constant microscrope by everyone, whether I agree with them or not. Maybe then we won't even have discussions where I feel like every minute I might say something that makes someone hate me for some micronuance.

And since most of the world is online only now, where nuance is too big an ask, everything's just worse. Disconnecting (except for work) would mean almost no outside world contact.

/

[juansolo]

By contrast, Billy Idol performed at the end of the evening and rocked it.

Just as long as he avoids stuff from his Cyperpunk album. That was... not great.

I really, really like that album... I think it's so very different to his usual stuff that people really didn't seem to gel with it.

[matmosphere]

By contrast, Billy Idol performed at the end of the evening and rocked it.

Just as long as he avoids stuff from his Cyperpunk album. That was... not great.

I really, really like that album... I think it's so very different to his usual stuff that people really didn't seem to gel with it.

I haven't heard probably since it came out but I remember thinking At the time it wasn't bad. I think artist always take a risk with stuff like that, that No mater how good it might be that it won't be accepted because it's so different.

[davent]

Another vidrec, because why not. I love how respectful this video is, and at the same time it manages to be amazingly detailed.

Never realised just how ferocious North America can be. You always think of it as being the land of Big Macs and ice-cream...

My wife grew up in a city Lake Superior, her family had a camp/cottage on the shores, shes says they'd get freaked out when the big storms hit because they thought bodies would be washing up, all they ever found was driftwood.

Favourite cover of a song about a big storm and sinking of a ship near where their cottage was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpiXS62EwyI
dave