Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Time to Stand Up to the Undermining Pundits c-lady, I appreciate all that you write, and hope that we can simply maintain a healthy degree of respectful disagreement about this. Still, I am very skeptical of, and leery of, all the unsubstantiated insinuations of racism. I think the point is less, as you assert, that Obama is being treated differently than Clinton/FDR, etc., than it is this: would these pundits, IN THIS CURRENT SITUATION, be behaving any differently were Obama a white man? Furthermore, is there any way of truly knowing this? My suspicion is that it would be the same (meaning she’d be getting the same treatment from the punditry), and the accusations of sexism would be flying around just as much as racism in articles such as this. If my suspicions are correct (and of course we can never know this), would that mean they are both racist AND sexist? Or would it mean that we were jumping to conclusions about those with whom we DISAGREE that we would be less likely to jump to with those we agree with? You know where I stand on this, and I don’t see much budging happening at this end. 🙂 But I appreciate where you’re coming from, truly. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 11, 2011 @ 2:58 am Done! 🙂 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 11, 2011 @ 2:04 am yep, and the cover of Abby Road proves that Paul really died, and was replaced by a look/sound-alike. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 6:01 pm According to the man himself (not that this should matter to Marion, of course), he voted for Al Gore in 2000. And that was the first time he voted Democrat. He’s 41 now, so he has voted twice for Republican candidates (Bush the Elder, Dole) and three times for Democrats (Gore, Kerry, Obama). » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 5:49 pm Marion, you continually beat the same drum, but let me assure you, you CAN’T actually get into the minds of those you disagree with. You can’t decide FOR them that they don’t like the president because a.) they are just plain garden variety racist, or This is what YOU think. You have no way whatsoever of knowing that this is what THEY think. Maher made some dumb jokes to the effect of b.) above, and you extrapolate from there to assume that it’s epidemic. Try this as a thought experiment: If EVERYONE you disagree with has an ulterior motive, then doesn’t that nearly indicate that EVERYONE with whom you AGREE also does? Otherwise, this would be quite a weird world. Then you could argue that people who like the president are kind of like “reverse racists” who are just so happy to have a black president that they really don’t care about his accomplishments, they just pay lip service to them. I doubt you would argue that. Therefore I would caution you against generalizations in principle, as they can always be turned around to bite you on the patootie. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 5:07 pm Friday Music Thread – Suffragette City I can’t think of a single reason why that would surprise me! 🙂 (btw, I accidentally thumbed you down….sorry….the “Reply” button and down thumber are a little too close for my butter fingers) » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 8, 2011 @ 8:42 pm Okay, it’s lip synched. But THESE sisters ain’t gonna take no shit. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 8, 2011 @ 8:23 pm Lily is funny! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 8, 2011 @ 5:47 pm VOTE NOW: PlanetPOV’s Top Posts of 2010! Hi, KT, thanks for that. I remember a quote by Henry Miller that is great, about agents, about “people who just hang around and take their cut”, which was really scathing. But I can never find it. Maybe it’s from this book. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 11, 2011 @ 4:52 pm Hi bito. Yes, okay; thanks for asking. I was on a train, that stopped. We were really jostled! I haven’t even checked the news yet to see how bad it was. Will do that now. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 11, 2011 @ 3:02 am Don’t call me Shirley! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 11, 2011 @ 2:03 am I totally understand. It’s pretty much a common way of responding to artists, writers, musicians, etc. I hear it all the time, too. “You should”. As if we ourselves have never thought of what the particular “should” is. If our society had a better balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and a more sane attitude toward “success” ad “achievement”, it would probably be a lot easier for us artists and creators. But things are just the way they are, and we do the best we can. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 5:31 pm most assuredly! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 4:39 pm I kind of force-feed some people. My brother, for example. He always has really insightful comments once he’s read them, but he doesn’t seek them out. I put my posts on FB, and I generally get a comment or two. I think sometimes you just have to put something right in front of somebody’s face and say, “Here, read this and tell me what you think”. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 10, 2011 @ 4:39 pm I readily concur! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 8, 2011 @ 6:55 am If I win anything, I’ll toast my success with a bottle of Drambuie. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 7, 2011 @ 9:25 pm Americans Can Lose Weight By Doing Nothing (Really!) WTH D CRHW M? » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 7, 2011 @ 6:24 am From the Muddy Banks of Rememberance Hey, cool! And that was probably Bowie’s most “grunge-y” album. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 7, 2011 @ 12:00 am Khirad, do you mean you are confused about me not getting into Nirvana so much even though I like The Clash? It’s just that I wasn’t as into music, in general, during that time when I was living on the West Coast. I had my old familiars for home, and then I heard new stuff on the radio. I had other things on my mind then, like raising the baby, then moving to Japan, working, studying. So I never really gave Nirvana a chance, just because music was not a major priority then. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 11:34 pm From Bowie, to Kurt » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 9:10 pm The Clash? Coolness, e-cat. “Death or Glory” is one of my all time favorite songs. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 9:08 pm A goose farting? I have no idea what that sounds like, but I’m guessing not Eddie Vedder! 🙂 Besides, like I said, his voice reminds me of the singer/guitarist of Mountain, Leslie West. Ditto the screaming, searing guitar leads. I’m surprised Vedder never mentions them as an influence, because he is never shy about naming, and covering, his idols. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 2:48 pm Hey, jkk! Hendrix was heading into prog rock. One of the most interesting tidbits of Not Making This Up rock trivia I have ever come across was that he was all set to hook up with Keith Emerson and company and form a supergroup called H.E.L.P. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 2:35 pm The key thing about that Neil Young quote is that it had absolutely nothing to do with suicide, or even death, per se. He could have easily sang it about Jim Morrison or Hendrix, as they were buddies, or at least acquaintances, of his. But he sang it about Johnny Rotten (NOT Sid Vicious). He was singing about the statement the Sex Pistols made, even though they didn’t really have anything (such as talent, vision, or even the ability to create a song that didn’t sound like all their OTHER songs) to sustain it. If you’re going to be a flash in the pan, make sure the cook cries “Owch!”, in other words. Neil Young, even at that time, knew the whole rock scene backwards, forwards and sideways. He helped create it, and he knew all its victims personally. That song didn’t contain the message Kurt Cobain was hearing when he, as you write, succumbed to a moment of despair. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 6, 2011 @ 2:34 am Nicely done, Khirad. Anyway, here’s to those whose flames burn only briefly! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 11:13 pm S’cuse Me While I Kiss The Sky The great cathedrals totally do it for me. Not just the spires, but the overall effect. The stained glass windows, the wood carvings and paintings and sculptures. They don’t necessarily instill in me a sense of the Divine (which I get from forests, particularly waterfalls), but they astound me with what they reveal about human genius and ingenuity. For example, the Sistine Chapel. Not only are the paintings extraordinary, but the whole thing had to be planned out beforehand. The exact dimensions of the layout had to be taken into account to make all those paintings fit. It just blows me away. And in Italian cities, you find things like that all over the place. The Uffizi, The Old University in Bologna. Like I wrote elsewhere, I wish those Italian Renaissance geniuses had designed EVERY city in the world! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 8:36 pm Hey, Kes, what, exactly, are you doing in there? » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 8:30 pm How totally cool that is, Patsy! If I’m ever in Chicago again, I’ll head straight over, BEFORE I have my deep dish pizza! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 8:29 pm Hey Kes, maybe “The Big Country” lousy singer David Byrne and “Fountainhead” lousy writer Ayn Rand should have just huddled up in a Soho loft and kept their opinions about life outside NYC to themselves! 🙂 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 4:46 pm I’m kind of a skyscraper geek. I love walking around Tokyo and gawking at the giant buildings. But I totally understand what you are saying, and largely agree. Like so many things, I have conflicting and unresolved views of them. My theme song, by the way, is “Both Sides Now”. 🙂 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 5, 2011 @ 9:44 amComments Posted By whatsthatsound
If Hillary Clinton had won, and our nation were basically in the same place it is now, would these pundits be saying anything different? And if so, would some people be accusing them of sexism, rather than racism?
b.) they are insecure racists who don’t want an AA president who is “more intelligent than them”, or
c.) they are clueless, underexposed racists who had hoped that this president would be more like a “gangsta” and go Medieval on his opponents.
Barracuda; Heart
I think sometimes people don’t understand how difficult it is to make it in these industries, and furthermore how many creative people just really don’t have what it takes to bang on doors, make the cold calls, accept the rejection letters, DO DO DO to get their work seen. And even if they do, that’s not a guarantee. It’s sad, in a way, when we recognize that for every Bob Dylan there are probably three dozen people just as talented that we’ve never heard of. For every Grisham, there are twenty writers that go well beyond him in ability. And for every Basquiat, there are literally THOUSANDS of more talented individuals who have put in their Ten Thousand Hours at their craft, but don’t benefit from the patronage of Warhol, etc.
And if I don’t win anything, I’ll drown my sorrows in a bottle of Drambuie.
The other guys carried on to become the E.L.P. that one either loves or loathes today.
But if that had happened, prog rock would have been very different, I imagine. With his love for fashion, and his amazing guitar, he couldn’t have avoided the funk scene, so he either would have blown past prog after a short stint with HELP, or the two genres would have bridged somehow.
Morrison was heading more and more into gruff blues. Janis probably couldn’t have sustained what she was doing. Pete Townshend could smash as many guitars as he wanted, but she only had ONE voice!
One thing’s for sure. None of those three would have produced something as weeny as “Someone’s Knocking at the Door” or “The Doggone Girl is Mine”.
I’m not quite a boomer; my music was Zeppelin, Skynyrd, The Who, Bowie, and then later The Clash, The Pretenders, The Talking Heads, and REM. I only got into alt rock at all because I was living in Oakland at the time and drove a lot into S.F., so I had it on my radio. I remember hearing “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam, and totally getting into it, but at the same time thinking it was nothing new. It sounded like Mountain, a band from my generation that never quite made it.
Nirvana, and Cobain’s significance, I have to admit, I just didn’t get. But then my generation didn’t really have anything comparable to Hendrix, Janis or Lennon and their tragic deaths. Keith Moon? A legend, yes, but hardly a poet. Ian Curtis, I suppose, but the great waves of mourning for him were mostly limited to the other side of the pond.
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