Alexander

Funny, I was just listening to Bobby this afternoon on the second James Brown's Funky People collection. RIP

??? She sings a very charming rendition of Tom Waits' "Midnight Lullabye" on "Hush." It's true that she hasn't a "great" voice, but it certainly serves its purpose on this number. She doesn't sing as a rule, at least not on that album, so I don't see why her voice is a factor...

Hey! I wrote that review! I agree completely. She's major. Check her out!

"Sever your leg please, sir. It's the greatest day!"

The new SB email about the "original Bubs" is really funny. Homestar: I miss Original Bubs! Marzipan: Uh, Homestar? Strongbad made all that up. Homestar: You can't make up eyesight that good! He could always see me...from over there! Original

Two reasons I LOVED "Superbad" (aside from the fact that it was just really funny): It actually has a GREAT message about underage drinking (for those who haven't seen the film, I won't spoil it, but I'll just say that getting girls drunk does NOT have the effect these guys imagine it will) and it's really a very sweet story about the kind of close friendships that geeky guys develop in high school (I say this speaking from the perspective of a geeky guy). The kind of guys portrayed in the film (smart, but kind of underachieving) tend to have one really close friendship which lasts a really long time. The idea of being separated by college is just as terrifying as it is depicted. The film is also note-perfect in depicting the way teenagers talk. It also downplays the role of social cliques. Sure, such things exist, but most movies depict cliques as being absolute: You're either a jock, a nerd, or a popular kid. There is no inbetween and absolutely NO social mobility. This is untrue, of course. Kids travel between the various social groups all the time. I also liked the fact that while there is a bully in the film, he's a very minor character and not the villian of the piece as is so often portrayed in such films.

This fake ID is SUPERBAD!!! mclovinlarge.bmp

I know that several schools in my area have banned the baggy-pants look, on the basis that it's easy to hide a firearm in baggy pants or under an oversized t-shirt (also banned). I don't know. As an educator, I certainly understand the need to keep kids safe, but I feel like African-Americans are being targeted here. Can you name a recent fashion trend started by white teens that's been banned (I know that white kids wear the baggy pants, but as a trend it came from the African-American community)? On the other hand, can you name a fashion trend started by white teens? I suppose the goth look would qualify as a white teen fashion trend. So, are schools and communities banning black nail polish?

Careful they don't get mold. The basement is very cool and very dry. Ideal, actually. As Tom Petty once said, "Store it in a cool, dry place!"

But then doesn't that ensure you are buying music you will never listen to? Not really. The CDs in the basement are on shelves, not in boxes or anything, so they are always accessable. And I make many, many trips every day down into the basement to get CDs to listen to (I do keep a pile of CDs next to the stereo that I am currently working my way through). I'm like Joe Bussard, who also famously keeps his records on shelves in the basement...

For me, at least, it is a matter of compulsion. Once I get a jones for a particular CD or artist, I literally cannot rest until I get what I'm after. I think about it all the time. I've even dreamt about it! It's nuts! A real sickness... Lately, I've moved my entire collection (3000 + CDs) down to the basement so that I'm at least not looking at them all the time. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind (it also has the added bonus that my wife doesn't have to look at them all the time either, and it's freed up tons of room).

The only way people are "held accountable" on a bulletin board is for other people to reply with their arguments or reproaches. That's what you do to clem, so in that sense you are "holding him responsible." I think you want more people to do the same--but unfortunately, none of us can control how anyone else posts. You want others to back you up against clem and do it publicly. If they don't, what are you going to do? What can you do? Again, my advice is--drop it. Ignore him. Let it go. Quite right, Tom. Very good advice. I thank you.

I'm just trying to force the issue into the open. I'm tired of Clem's crap, and especially the way he seems to get a free pass on it. Was this thread the best idea I've ever had? Probably not, and yet at least some people on the board do seem to agree with me and have said so in private posts. I don't want Clem banned, btw, just held accountable for the stuff he says. You know, the way I always end up being held accountable and all that. Also, can you think of the last "nasty, extremely insensitive" comment that I've "habitually" made? Because it seems to me that it's been quite a while. Like, six months or more, perhaps.

That's because he doesn't write in English. I call it faux literature. Anyway, I've had my run-ins as well. I guess we've made our truce too, but there's a basic dishonesty in much of what he posts. I am willing to eat my words here if I am proven or persuaded to admit wrong on that point. For example, if memory serves, I believe he is in his late 30s to early 40s, but he likes to come across as someone older. He likes to conflate name dropping with erudition. No, I do not support banning him at all. We've got to have the resident know-it-all asshole, I guess. I think he's OK. I don't care about his real age. I think he's the same age as all of us - he's learning stuff here (really), which makes us all pupils, so to speak. MG Well, it's part of the dishonesty. Now again, I'll eat my words if proven wrong, but he'll often write things such as: has been on this trip since the 8-26-71 Gaelic Park gig in the Bronx (i was little too young to hit the Fillmore shows before then) which suggests that he was already old enough (say 16 or so) to appreciate such a concert. Yet he was likely 4 or 5 years old in 1971. Now again: I'll be the first to apologize to Clem if I am proven wrong on this hypothesis, but if I am correct then this serves as a typical of example of his dishonesty while posting (he might be an honest guy in real life--who knows.) I hate to go into such detail about someone, but you guys are forcing my hand. Anyway, I can coexist with Clem on the board. I hope I'm wrong about the guy--really. "clem" is not a "real person". He's a persona created especially for this forum by a real person, and as such there is much "creative license" taken with much of what he says. You may or may not dig that kind of "creativity" in a forum such as this (I do, but hey, different strokes, ok?), but there's no true dishonesty at play. Again, that type of "layering" may or may not be to yours or anybody's liking, but it is what it is. Alexander, otoh, is somebody - a real person - who has shown little compunction (and at times even less remorse) about saying some truly blunt, crude, and offensive-in-the-eye-of-the-recipient things about people's religious & political beliefs & then offering facile apologies. I've defended him on occasion, feeling that he's just one of those guys who just doesn't always think before speaking, but seeing how spastic he's getting about clem's highly calculated shootdowns, I now think that he's a mentally deficient semi-human who's a threat to all with whom he comes into contact, and that he should be publically eviscerated in front of his family, who should then be forced to wash their faces in his blood and then consume his raw flesh while being sodomized by a team of Clydesdales. Messrs Swift, Berger, & Stern would all appreciate the suggestion, no doubt. On the other hand, Jim, I don't say "truly blunt, crude, and offensive-in-the-eye-of-the-recipient" in every single post, do I? Whereas Clem can't seem to go two posts without insulting SOMEONE (not always me). And if his shootdowns are really as calculated as all that, well it just makes it that much worse, doesn't it? I mean, my opinions and sense of humor may be offensive to some, but at least its honest. As to your own "modest proposal," what can I say? I can't argue that point, being a mentally deficient semi-human and all...

Well, it was meant to be ironic.

Funny, I've been absorbing Clem's abuse for years, and nobody objected then. Must be because he insists on calling me "Alfie."

Update: In the Beastie Boys thread, Clem has called me a racist. This is because I compared 50 Cent, who has done nothing in his career but trade on his nine gunshot wounds, to an ape. Meaning that he's big and dumb, not that he is big and dumb and black. I take extreme exception at being called a racist, although I do freely admit that as a white person I cannot help but have benefitted from a racist system, even without my knowing or indeed against my will. But I have never personally judged a person by the color of his skin. I know what is important, and that is how you treat your fellow man, not what he looks like (or what music he happens to listen to, CLEM).

I must confess that I stole the "ape" bit from one of my students. One of my African-American students. The full quotation was "Fiddy is an ape with rabbit teeth," but I thought it was a bit low, especially to the rabbits. Everyone here knows that I'm no bigot, so fuck Clem and the horse he rode in on.

They are that, but they are also full of a good deal of preening self-promotion as well as a general smack-down of anything he dislikes or disagrees with, which is my problem with him. He's entitled to his own opinions. He just won't acknowledge that I am equally entitled to mine.

"Modest Proposal" is a Jonathan Swift reference. Is that what you are referring to? Clem would be the Old Pretender. Heck, he can be the Young Pretender too! He pretends enough for everybody!

Completely disagree. Fiddy is an ape with no mic skills at all (he doesn't even attempt to dance or at least mug somewhat rhythmically in his videos. The best he can manage is a vauge lurch). Kanye, at the very least, made the famous statement "George Bush doesn't care about black people." In addition, I've enjoyed both of his albums and look forward to the new one. And I really don't give a shit what Clem has to say about that, so he can just shut the fuck up.

I regret that I have found it necessary to fight trolldom with trolldom.

Indeed. Let us all bask in the irony.

And he announces his superior tastes and understanding with such incandescent and witty prose! Indeed! I forgot to mention that part! See how inferior I am?

Jim, it has become apparent to me that with Clem around here, the rest of us have become completely superflous. His musical tastes and opinions are so far elevated above our own, so radiant in their absolute perfection, that there's clearly nothing left to discuss! Like Superman in the Justice League (who frankly could do the whole job all by himself, I mean come on. He's an alien with godlike powers. He really needs a guy dressed as a bat?), Clem makes the whole board and all of its deziens redundant. I would like to propose that you either completely disband the board, or at least set it up so that only Clem remains. What does he need with me, for example, who dwells in the lower reaches of poor musical taste? What does he need with anyone, for that matter, who might hold a single opinion contrary to his own? For those of us who remain not-Clem, and will never, ever overcome our fatal not-Clemitude, let us be shut away from the eyes of the world. Let us be shipped off to some leper colony to discuss our inferior interests until we die. Please, think it over.