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Sweet Papa Crimbo

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    Official Doctor Who discussion thread

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    I thought is was just a bit too much.

     

    Why is it the Doctor can NEVER sense another Time lord/lady? So out of the blue, we have the Master returning as the Mistress? Why not have the Rani show up? At least that would fit in with the continuity (never really been seriously posited as canon that a time lord/lady can regenerate into another sex). And, we get that the Brits don't believe in God. I mean, we really get it. We get it that you are all a bunch of open minded humanists. But this afterlife scenario was barking SILLY.

     

    Capaldi's take is pretty wonderful, but the relationship with Clara is a mighty FAIL.

     

    If things keep going in this vein, I can see myself finding another show to obsess on.

    Queen

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Decided to buy LIVE AT THE RAINBOW '74 on a whim.

    I had forgotten what a heavy band these guys before they became the Campy British Band of the 80's.

    They are definitely a band that could only have come out of Britain (and they were never as big in America as they were in the rest of the world).

    I fully remember listening to their albums up to Jazz and they were certainly a part of my formative musical years.

     


    name an essential record made by people over 50 years old (non-jazz format)

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    For me the Best Record of a Singing Songwriter of

    5 Decades is The Rising. as was pointed out above he was 51.The subject matter ( not an easy one) he met head on ; The Loss and Pain from 9/11 and as a writer he powerfully projected those elements of loss in the song You're Missing from the viewpoint of a Firefighters Wife that longs for her Hiusband. Not only did this help people understand and relate to those whom lost someone it also ( I believe ) affected his son Sam that just became a NJ Firefighter.

     

    The Rising was a remarkable record when it came out, and it still holds up fairly well.

    Not all the songs were written in response to 911, but it was as thematic a record as has ever been released.

    Compare Springsteen's musical response to Neil Young's (The Rising, You're Missing, Empty Sky vs.. Let's Roll)

    Good news for U2 fans..

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/13/stop-whining-free-u2-album-hate-bono

    On Tuesday, U2 surprised the world by giving their new album, Songs of Innocence, free to 500 million iTunes subscribers in 119 countries. As if by magic, it appeared in “purchased” lists in people’s iCloud accounts.

    Shortly thereafter, the whining began.

    Even the Guardian got in on the backlash: readers were offered 10 things to do with an unwanted U2 album, a list of five bands more deserving of such a deal and two lukewarm, rather patronising reviews of an album that had been “foisted … upon half-a-billion people”.

    “Foisted”? If you don’t like U2, don’t listen to them. If you think they’re sending you musical spam, delete it – just as you would offers of porn or diet pills or requests for financial aid from Nigeria. It only takes a twitch of the thumb. As with any gift, being given U2’s 13th studio album did not oblige you to accept it.

    Ask yourself: What if Beyoncé did this? (Not the surprise album thing, which she’s done, but the album-on-a-phone-for-free thing, like Jay-Z did.) While the world at large would be in raptures, those who found themselves less-than-religiously ecstatic about the possibility of a few bars of Queen Bey befouling their playlists – and we do exist – would just quietly delete the album, without incident.

    So why all the hate?

    Yes, musically (if not financially) U2 are not what they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Yes, too much anthemic, stadium-filling uplift-muzak has never been an unreservedly good thing. And yes, their frontman’s relentless campaigning can be … a little trying.

    But ask yourself: what is so terrible, so irredeemable, about anyone who wants to work to combat Aids and poverty, and to help people who need help the world over? We’ve all heard the joke in which Bono tells a crowd, “Every time I clap my hands, in Africa another child dies”, and someone shouts back: “Well stop fucking clapping then.” It’s one of the best jokes in music. But it’s just a joke, and if Bono had told a crowd that, while it would have been cloying and irritating … it would have been in total earnest.

    In the end, I find that hard to dislike.

    I like U2 and I like Bono. They – and to be fair to Larry, Adam and The Edge, we’re mostly talking about Bono – may be irritating but, ultimately, they are irritating for good. It’s the whole point.

    There’s also the music, of course. Some people are bound not to like it. I do (particularly Zooropa), but this isn’t really about drums, guitars and bass: it’s about envy and spite. People – particularly holier-than-thou people, which is decidedly ironic in these circumstances – don’t like U2 because they are enormously successful, because their tax affairs seem as hypocritical as those of any bunch of billionaires, and because their singer – rich beyond his wildest dreams and hanging out with princes, presidents and preachers – nonetheless won’t shut up about poor people.

    People who think Bono should get over himself, should get over themselves.

    Call it the Tony Blair test: I’m a Labour voter, and he still gives me consistently egregious reasons to regret that he ever won power. But if push came to shove, I’d still vote for him as a Labour PM, because he’s the least worst option. I’d certainly vote for Blair a thousand times before I voted for the heartless, bloated, conservative monstrosity that came after him – just like I’d buy (or accept graciously) thousands of U2 albums of diminishing quality before I bought one by Coldplay.

    Maybe I’m saying that Bono is a politician with the courage of his convictions, prepared to follow his gut at the cost of popularity or even basic decency – even though when Gordon Brown said that about Margaret Thatcher, it made me want to vomit. Nor does it help that a good number of Bono’s convictions, like Blair’s, are born of a deeply held Christian faith. Mine certainly aren’t.

    But ultimately, if I’m praising Bono and U2 for having the courage of their convictions, I should have the courage of mine. I like them, and I like them as much for their relentless moral crusading as for the way the grinding, accelerating opening of Zoo Station reminds me of being 13. (And no, I wasn’t the coolest 13-year-old in school.)

    If they ever want to give me an album again, I won’t complain.

     

    Politics 2014

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    Shit's about to get real here in Texas.

    Forget the Governor's race.

    There are possibly (not probably,  but possibly) 78 health care workers that were exposed to the Ebola virus.

    We have just seen the second HCW positively diagnosed with the disease...and she flew on an airliner from Cleveland to Texas Monday.

    There is the capacity to treat a grand total of 10 patients with the preferred isolation protocols...NATIONWIDE.

    Shit's about to get real.

    Now Reading in 2014

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    Well, I finally finished The Song of Ice and Fire books (at least the published ones). Whew. Took a while, but really really worth it. It is so good on so many different levels. Clever writing, unconventional structure, the world building, part mystery, part political thriller, part adventure, part fantasy/sci-fi, the monster in the margins, the cliche/trope smashing, the dynamic characters, both familiar and foreign at the same time, ... very very good. For those who have only seen the HBO show, let me recommend the books. You won't be disappointed.

    31IHYfHKEyL.jpg

     

    So...who do you think John Snow's real parents are?

    New U2 album "Songs of Innocence" available free on iTunes

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

     

    U2's new album gets a 5-star review in Rolling Stone
     
    I mean, I'm not gonna backlash and say that it sucks, because it doesn't. It's one of their better albums in a long time.
    But, instant classic?
    Album of the year?
    No.
     
    RS: still sucking corporate cock as eagerly as ever.

     

    Not to get political here, but if corporations have cocks, then they are people!  :headbonk

     

    Actually, I have no problem with calling it an instant classic. It certainly sounds energized and they sound as interested as they ever have.

    Politics 2014

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    The situation in the Levant is absolutely fucked. If we go after ISIS, it will entail taking out targets in Syria...which would greatly benefit the Butcher Asad.

     

    There are no easy answers. Would it have worked out differently if we had taken action to support the moderate opposition two years ago? Maybe. But that stinking ship has long since sailed.

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