Posts by Peter Darlington

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  • Hard News: Parties, seriousness and the…,

    In truth, Dylan was, harder than anyone, working against the pop thing; promoting traditionalism; an anathema to the infantilism and narcissism of pop.

    Yeh but my argument was kinda *for* the whole pop thing and Dylan was just the perfect ammunition for the beardies who wanted to intellectualise popular music, leading to your Lennon & McCartney unpleasantness etc... The greatest lyric ever, IMO, is 'A wop bop a loo bop, a wop bam boom'. That said everything you need to know about pop music and after that, we might as well have given up putting words in tunes and just used the voice as an extra instrument. Or skipped 3 decades and gone straight to House. Imagine if 'Voodoo Ray' was released in 1962, immediately making Dylan and The Beatles and everyone else completely redundant. That would've been cool.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Parties, seriousness and the…,

    Everybody leaves Usenet.

    Pffft, the greatest football discussion group ever is on Usenet. I can't imagine a Web that could ever replace it.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Parties, seriousness and the…,

    So true. All that does is peg him as out of touch. I can understand his point, I suppose, but it just looks like another 47-year-old guy who doesn't understand "the kids". I'm 34 and I don't understand the kids either, but I at least understand the minor revolutions of pop culture, such as Simon mentions above (all of which were widely hailed as rubbish by then-47-year-olds) enough to realise that his central premise is headed for a fall.

    Meh, it all started going wrong with the rise of the singer-songwriter. Before that, popular music was young and dumb. Ugly guys who couldn't sing wrote lyrics. Beautiful young men and women with no brains sang the tunes. Life was good. Then came Dylan, damn his word and melody combining hide@1!

    Sure, all the minor revolutions Simon refers to were all about trying to fix the Dylan problem. But it never works, the genie was out of the bag, and 40 years later we have Bono.

    We've only got ourselves to blame.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Parties, seriousness and the…,

    Innovation has rarely, if ever, come from the majors.And the branding is usually little more than urban plagiarism.

    Bono?.....for fux sake......

    Heh, right on.

    He might've got away with it if he hadn't mentioned Bono.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Unusual Democracy,

    establish severe penalties for anyone who calls him/herself a streaker but who is not showing us their wobbly/jangly bits.

    Heh, jangly bits, I like that.

    Hints at a certain amount of metal embellishment.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The A-Word,

    i had the umm... "privilege" of attending an extremely wealthy high school in texas. there were a lot of good people in there, but some of the wealthiest kids were complete assholes.

    pretty much the same kinds of characters you get at any nzl college, but with this particular arrogance that goes with extreme wealth.

    You read any James Lee Burke books, Che? He writes really well but all his books are pretty much a carbon copy of a handful of themes. And this is exactly one of them. Super rich, arrogant and corrupt rich families in Texas and Louisiana who fell superior to the less fortunate around them, and above the law.

    He is an English Professor at the University of South Texas so I suspect he's writing from experience.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Dancing the DMCA,

    She's a greenie!

    Gah, it's a corporate meme, pushed out by MFE I think? Loads of our staff use it too.

    Heh, I chuckle every time I see it on the bottom of screeds of unclaimed email printing beside various workgroup printers in the organisation. Think of the trees!

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Part 15: The money shot,

    Oh. Yeah. Not the best way to thank your host, was it? Still, at least we weren't playing with a hard ball ...

    Heh, good job, I think you might've killed me. I guess it's that old adage about the best way to clear a close in field!

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Part 15: The money shot,

    My kids are never going to be cut out for organised team sports, but we've spent plenty of time playing cricket and frisbee in the park.

    I still have fond memories of young Jimmy amassing a decent score in our back yard a few years ago. He had a decent eye on him and knew when to nick a run.

    And he didn't black my eye with a straight drive unlike you Mr B!

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Things we needed to hear,

    About 3 years ago we got some hardware nicked out of the storeroom at work. As the section manager I had to go to the local police station and make a statement to the detective in charge of the case.

    I was led up to the 2nd floor of the Nelson police station to the detectives offices and was surprised to see a titty calendar on the wall. Man, I cannot remember the last time I saw one of those outside of a garage workshop. On anther wall was a black and white photo of someone's face (it may have been one of the detectives) with the word 'Faggot!" scrawled next to it in permanent marker.

    I was surprised at how clichéd it all was. The guys themselves seemed OK, but it wasn't a confidence-raising exercise in terms of their attitudes to women and gay people.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

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