Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: Ten Thousand Maniacs, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I'm reminded that President Franklin D Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and it appears that threat of harm to America from [IS] now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.
That's quite the stinker, given that the US government eventually ended up paying $1.6 billion in reparations to 82,000 Japanese Americans (surviving internees and their heirs), along with a formal government apology that basically said 'sorry for being so racist'.
Still, that's a tomorrow problem, eh, Mr Bowers?
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I hope someone could point to another (less concerning reason) complainant Slater got better service from the police than complainant Brash?
They lost a tug-of-war contest with him (from 0:17)
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Up Front: How I Learned to Stop Worrying…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
We can make her an honourary bloke
See also: 'cool girl'.
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Polity: Political strategy and Canada’s NDP, in reply to Emma Hart,
So a whole bunch of my best friends are lefty Canadians. What they want is 'shot of Stephen Harper'.
Exactly. The elephant in the room that must never, ever be mentioned by political strategists is that governments lose elections at least as much and almost certainly more than oppositions win them. They'd love everyone to think that their political savvy enabled them to somehow capture the right combination of moonbeams, and they were able through raw skill and talent to focus these on the philosopher's stone in just the right way to turn lead into electoral gold. But I'm struggling* to think of a change of administration in recent years where the incumbent government weren't looking tired and punch-drunk going into the campaign. The opposition merely have to look halffway competent and not a complete shitshow.
*obviously, given the number of political wonks here, I'll shortly be taken to school with a detailed analysis of the results of the Swedish Federal elections of 2003 or whatever.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to philipmatthews,
Sometimes that violence might be fantasy or catharsis.
Was chatting to someone about this the other night . Vigilante and revenge fantasies are popular across culture's entire spectrum, pop or not. Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, The Punisher, Batman, Dirty Harry, the entire premise of 'Life on Mars'.....
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Hard News: Friday Music: The next Soundcloud?, in reply to nzlemming,
The agglomeration of copyright, trademarks and patents into a beast called "intellectual property" has worsened the situation, not bettered it.
How so? They're all completely independent rights, governed by different acts of parliament, different case law, etc..
An artist or organisation may well have involvement with two or more of them (most likely copyright, and possibly trademarks a distant second), but they don't actually overlap in any other way.
And Steve - you should be more careful what you invoke, because off we go.......
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Russell Brown,
The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' is an interesting example. If you saw the play the Big Day Out you may recall that when those lines came up in the chorus you could barely hear yourself think for teenage girls screaming them back. The words very clearly did not mean to them what they meant to outsiders.
Well, I'm no doubt in a minority, but I used to be a Prodigy fan back in the day (first half of the '90's, when they were blowing up. 'Music for the jilted generation' was a huge release that more or less completely captured both the rave and the indie kid market. 'Smack my bitch up' was released as a single a few years after that, in 1997). I'm now firmly in the 'ex-fan' camp, with 'smack my bitch up' having a lot to do with that (that, and the music getting lazy and shite).
I'm hardly the type to call for the fainting couch and the smelling salts at the first whiff of scandal, but something about the obvious pleasure they took in using that particular wording, and their half-hearted 'no, we didn't really mean it like that' defence, really put me off. The final nail in the coffin was Liam Howlett's 1999 solo mix release, which included the original 1988 track that they sampled: Ultramagnetic MCs 'give the drummer some', which included the full phrase 'smack my bitch up, like a pimp', which he cut and repeated and brought front and centre in the mix to really drive it home. Wasn't impressed.
I know word definitions change and have a certain contextual fluidity, but I guess I'm too old school to let that one slide.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Danielle,
boggles the mind
You need to be careful. That's how I ended up with a potato-shaped head.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Sacha,
Aspergers, then.
No. One thing I remember from the Chris Brown/Rhianna assault is the thousands of fans who were not only willing to turn a blind eye, but who were actively justifying his actions, and seeking to shout down and suppress dissenting voices. Similarly Veitch, alhough to a lesser extent. And, obviously, it's ongoing.
Basic human psychology: if you like someone, you're going to act in your own head to play down the bad and accentuate the good.
If, like me, you have a head like a potato and a bad case of resting bitchy face, and don't do particulaly well in high-pressure vocal situations (and can't afford the PR staff to front that shit for you), your dose of public sympathy is going to be far smaller.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Danielle,
It makes me wonder just what *would* be unforgivable in society’s eyes.
Not having an acceptable level of charm/charisma, and the secondary associated entertainment value that goes with that.
You can get away with an awful lot if you're silver-tongued and reasonably easy on the eye. Not so much if you're a semi-incoherent lardsack.