The New And Improved Fashion Board

Instead of throwing myself headlong into the new cool music that I know must be out there (and which people like nonononono and Flower are probably spinning away to right now with cool little white bud earphones in place) I have been recycling -- going through the collection and seeing what still works.

Based on a couple of posts here and elsewhere about how Tom Waits is someone who critics like but is mostly unlistened-to by real people, I dug out Swordfishtrombones, which had been gathering dust for a while. I had drifted back to the Heart Attack and Vine and prior albums when I listened to him at all.

Now I am not defending the whole album (you have to be in a very particular mood to listen to "Underground" and "Shore Leave" and a few other tracks there), but for some reason "Johnsburg, Illinois" has been ringing around my head now for days. A perfect little tune that could use a better singer. You can listen to it here, I think.

[notcasesensitive]

Apparently has the deBeers folks worried. It is getting excellent Oscar buzz too. Maybe that will be the one movie I actually go to see in a theater this year (better go soon, this year is almost over!).

[patentparanyc]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Apparently has the deBeers folks worried. It is getting excellent Oscar buzz too. Maybe that will be the one movie I actually go to see in a theater this year (better go soon, this year is almost over!).

the deBeers store freaks me out. I remember when it first opened and all the celebreskanks were like "duh, why are they protesting?" ewwwf. Every time I walk by there I get the chills.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally posted by ironweed
Instead of throwing myself headlong into the new cool music that I know must be out there (and which people like nonononono and Flower are probably spinning away to right now with cool little white bud earphones in place) I have been recycling -- going through the collection and seeing what still works.

Based on a couple of posts here and elsewhere about how Tom Waits is someone who critics like but is mostly unlistened-to by real people, I dug out Swordfishtrombones, which had been gathering dust for a while. I had drifted back to the Heart Attack and Vine and prior albums when I listened to him at all.

Now I am not defending the whole album (you have to be in a very particular mood to listen to "Underground" and "Shore Leave" and a few other tracks there), but for some reason "Johnsburg, Illinois" has been ringing around my head now for days. A perfect little tune that could use a better singer. You can listen to it here, I think.

Swordfishtrombones is a great album. There is no need to defend it. It is not for everyone, but I don't want to listen to Fergie.

Speaking of the uber-cool, I have been listening to the DJ Earworm mash ups that Manfred linked the other day. The guy is a twisted genius. He can take snippets of five, ten, more songs that I (mostly) do not like and meld them seemlessly into an entirely new song that I do not like.

Well, O.K., the Scissors Sisters/Beatles/Aretha Franklin/George Michael mash up is a guilty pleasure.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Apparently has the deBeers folks worried. It is getting excellent Oscar buzz too. Maybe that will be the one movie I actually go to see in a theater this year (better go soon, this year is almost over!).

What, you're not going to go see Mel Gibson's gorefest?

My favorite part of the review this morning on NPR (cribbed from the same reviewer's LA Times piece):

Gibson unblushingly intends "Apocalypto" as a clarion call warning modern man to watch his step or risk following the Mayas into decline and near-extinction. To this end he opens the story with a famous quote from historian Will Durant about the fall of Rome: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

This is all well and good, but the reality of "Apocalypto" is that this film is in fact Exhibit A of the rot from within that Gibson is worried about. If our society is in moral peril, the amount of stomach-turning violence that we think is just fine to put on screen is by any sane measure a major aspect of that decline. Mel, no one in your entourage is going to tell you this, but you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. A big part.

Dear god, Turan hated the violence even more in the LA Times piece than on NPR: "Despite a genuine talent for taking us to another time and place, a gift that under other circumstances would be worth experiencing, Gibson has made a movie that can be confidently recommended only to viewers who have a concentration camp commandant's tolerance for repugnant savagery."

[J. Fred Muggs]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
What, you're not going to go see Mel Gibson's gorefest?

My favorite part of the review this morning on NPR (cribbed from the same reviewer's LA Times piece):

Dear god, Turan hated the violence even more in the LA Times piece than on NPR: "Despite a genuine talent for taking us to another time and place, a gift that under other circumstances would be worth experiencing, Gibson has made a movie that can be confidently recommended only to viewers who have a concentration camp commandant's tolerance for repugnant savagery."

That is so sweet. He made a movie that his dad and Arnold's dad can enjoy together.

[patentparanyc]

Engagement ring arrives 2 hours after receiving word of fiancee's death in Iraq. Poor woman. How awful.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-402300c.html

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by ironweed
Instead of throwing myself headlong into the new cool music that I know must be out there (and which people like nonononono and Flower are probably spinning away to right now with cool little white bud earphones in place) I have been recycling -- going through the collection and seeing what still works.

If you're looking back with that mix of nostalgia and that certain something else that's not occuring to me at the moment, might I suggest watching The Battle of the Bands. (YouTube)

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
What, you're not going to go see Mel Gibson's gorefest?

From the Slate review:

"Here is a partial list of the indignities to which the human body is subjected in Mel Gibson's Mayan epic Apocalypto (Buena Vista): being impaled on a trap made of animal bones. Being forced to ingest tapir testicles. Being tricked into rubbing a caustic agent on one's own genitals while the whole village watches and laughs. Seeing one's father have his throat slit. Getting one's heart cut out in a sacrificial ritual. Having one's head subsequently chopped off and thrown down the stairs of a pyramid. Having one's face chewed off by a panther.

The above catalog of harm only begins to hint at the dulling and eventually comic frequency of physical violence in Apocalypto, which progresses as a series of static set pieces that are little more than narrative pretexts for graphically imagined anguish."

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
From the Slate review:

"Here is a partial list of the indignities to which the human body is subjected in Mel Gibson's Mayan epic Apocalypto (Buena Vista): being impaled on a trap made of animal bones. Being forced to ingest tapir testicles. Being tricked into rubbing a caustic agent on one's own genitals while the whole village watches and laughs. Seeing one's father have his throat slit. Getting one's heart cut out in a sacrificial ritual. Having one's head subsequently chopped off and thrown down the stairs of a pyramid. Having one's face chewed off by a panther.

The above catalog of harm only begins to hint at the dulling and eventually comic frequency of physical violence in Apocalypto, which progresses as a series of static set pieces that are little more than narrative pretexts for graphically imagined anguish."

I read that too. What is wrong with him?

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I read that too. What is wrong with him?

Maybe he wants to host a new edition of Fear Factor: Kick It Up A Notch.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I read that too. What is wrong with him?

I have no idea, but I like this refrence to him in a review of The Nativity Story.

If "Passion of the Christ" resides at one end of the Jesus movie spectrum, "The Nativity Story" is firmly planted at the other. Where the former was a journey through Mel Gibson’s sadomasochistic rat’s nest of a mind, the latter is like one of those pastoral Massengill commercials.

[On second thought, associating the Virgin Mary with disposable douches is probably not the image we should be shooting for. Make it one of those Downy fabric softener ads.]

I think that every new piece of information about the twisted nature of Mel Gibson's mind leads one to the conclusion that South Park episode is closer documentary than satire. Kind of like King of the Hill.

[dtb]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
This is a good line, very snarky, but I admit when I am wrong pretty frequently. I'm not terribly stubborn, I care a lot about the opinions of people I respect, and if somebody calls me on shit, I usually admit when they have a point.

Well, thanks, though I think your first line was at least as sarcastic as what I said to you. It is interesting that you only have a problem with inside references when you are not in on the reference. It is true that I do not think it is very big of you to admit a "mistake" (in quotes because I don't believe it is a mistake to make references to things/people that you may know in real life) that you continually engaged in when you were more of a regular poster.

I hope you don't expect that I am obliged to say you have a point here, because I don't think you do. People make references to things they do and others don't know about. Big deal. Each person who participates regularly on here is in on some references, and out on others. Who cares?

Each inside-joke-complainer here has admitted to engaging in the conduct she is complaining about. So you're not in on every reference. BFD.

Originally posted by robustpuppy
Moreover, your implication that I make a lot of inside jokes, if that was indeed your implication, is inaccurate. I have made many, I am sure, including ROTFLMAO, but as a general matter, they are rarely about off-board things that are directed to a small number of my people. Usually they are of the type fringey described, based on things that have happened on the board. I'm certainly not faultless in this regard, but I generally try to refrain from making the types of inside jokes that would make people ask, "Why doesn't she just IM that?" So, I'm probably in the 50th percentile, if not higher, for inside jokes, but in the 5th percentile, if not lower, for inside jokes of the "this happened the last time we got together" variety. That isn't hard since I don't socialize off the board much.

What I hear you saying here is "I don't make inside jokes, except for when I do." I still don't understand what the harm of making an inside reference is, and I don't think I've heard an explanation other than "It's annoying." Hardly a standard for altering behavior.

Originally posted by robustpuppy
I don't want to be hypocrite (even though, as Jack says, there are worse things one can be). I have to say it was hard to write this post without saying a lot of things that could have been interpreted as inside jokes, but it's hard being nicey-nice.

Even this is an inside reference. So are you annoyed by yourself now?

Rather than expecting the world to conform its behavior to what you* find acceptable (unless someone is causing you personal harm), it seems that it's probably easier to make your peace with the fact that you're not going to be in on every inside reference. There are worse tragedies.

*"You" in this paragraph meaning generic "you", not robustpuppy, you.

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
I read that too. What is wrong with him?

Maybe he has a secret desire to be a Wahhabist, since some of that sounds like common Saudi police work.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Maybe he has a secret desire to be a Wahhabist, since some of that sounds like common Saudi police work.

Like the tapir-testicles thing, right?