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Paul Wesley

Certifiably Surly
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    2001
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Everything posted by Paul Wesley

  1. It wasn't until I got old enough to travel around the country a bit that I realized that every state had their own version of white trash rednecks.
  2. One of the comedians on the last Sarah Silverman tour did a bit based on this. He was doing some crowd work, and asked a woman in the audience if she had any books at home that she bought but hadn't read yet. Then told her, "Throw them away! If you didn't read them in May of 2020, then YOU ARE NEVER READING THEM."
  3. Good analysis. They had to take something very boring (someone protested) and reeeeeaally misrepresent it in order to manufacture a story where the scary left threatens the law-abiding right... even though nothing like that happened. "Unrest Sweeps America!!!!!" It reminded me of this story which is just covered in bullshit from start to finish: https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/nj-mom-forced-vaccine-family-wedding-er Actual story: Previously vaccine-denying woman CHOSE to get vaccine in order to go into New York City and attend a dress fitting. She got the expected side effects (headache). She went to ER as if this were an emergency, where I promise you the staff rolled their fucking eyes as they sent her home. And now she's fine and also far less likely to die from covid. That's it. That's the entire (non-) story. Fox story: Woman with high degree of medical training (bullshit) conferred with her doctor who agreed with her not to take vaccine (bullshit), but forced to take it by oppressive laws (bullshit), got "blazing headache" (snowflake bullshit) and high blood pressure (article strongly implies vaccine caused lifelong hypertension, which is complete bullshit), all described in the first paragraph as "medical emergency she never imagined" (you never imagined getting a headache from a vaccine? And you are somehow held up as a person with advanced medical expertise? bullshit). And then concluded with editorializing "mandates are bad," which is NOT supported by the story AT ALL. Also, let's put a picture up of a woman in a wedding dress, smiling after enduring this unimaginable horror (bullshit). If you consumed no news at all, you'd be better informed than if you drink down this manufactured-outrage nonsense.
  4. DellSeton hospital on lockdown
  5. It just kills me to read all the knuckleheads referencing Chris Simms as though Simms was a bust. Simms was 26-6 as a starter... which is #5 in all-time wins at Texas. Simms is literally up there on the list with Vince Young, Colt McCoy, and Bobby Layne. Without the Simms commitment and the momentum that it brought to our program, we likely don't subsequently land a bunch of the guys who won two Rose Bowls and a national championship. I know it's folly to speak truth into a deafening hurricane of stupidity... but it is just SO FUCKING STUPID to mock the signing of Chris Simms.
  6. I have been saying the same. Simms never won the natty here, but his commitment was HUGE in Texas separating itself from the recruiting pack.... there were a LOT of dominoes over the next few years that did win a title.
  7. Nile approves.
  8. Every time I see Trump Jr. in the news - and every time I see this thread bumped to the top - I think that it must have been really unfortunate and sad for him to have been the child of a morally bankrupt malignant narcissist. My father was just the opposite of his father in every way. My dad was quiet, decent, kind, and always attentive and supportive to his children. My father followed the teachings of his faith, he showed wisdom, and he never took advantage of people. If you were too frail to mow your yard, or if you accidentally left your wallet in a restaurant, or if your car was broken down in a remote area - you would definitely have wanted my father there, because he would cut your grass, he would go out of his way to give your wallet back, and he would stop and make sure you were okay. Anyway, my default attitude toward Jr has always been pity... but then I read the story below the headline, or I watch the Twitter video, and there's just no denying - whether by nature or by nurture - he's really just such a piece of shit.
  9. Yeah, that's definitely a top-10 album for me too. It begins and ends with two of the iconic album-rock tracks of all time, and the middle is all pretty solid. I don't think you could be a disaffected, brooding teenager* feeling like you don't fit in, and not be moved by "Behind Blue Eyes." (*or disaffected young adult, middle-aged dude, or old man). I was in London a few years ago, and thought, "wouldn't it be cool to see a show at Royal Albert Hall while I'm here?" So I started looking into my options, and it turned out I could see The Who play "Tommy" in its entirety. Sat on the 6th or 7th row. Keith Moon is to me - by far - the most entertaining drummer to watch live, and one of the most unique. He just played with such joyful abandon. He's not going to lock in to some kick-snare pattern for four minutes. He's going to semi-randomly beat the living shit out of the entire kit for four minutes, and yet it somehow doesn't seem like overplaying... seems just perfect for the song. And then pair that with Entwistle's super-human fingers... that's a lot of energy going into those songs. In 1999, I begged my Austin friends to go to Las Vegas to see The Who play the little club inside Hard Rock Casino. Just could not get any takers. If I had been able to talk anyone into it, they'd have been pissed, because we'd have paid a lot for scalped tickets, and Entwistle died there on the night before the show. Isolated bass track. First chorus hits around 2:30.
  10. (bigbend's was better, I know)
  11. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-06-10/jennifer-lopez-shakira-halftime-documentary-super-bowl BY NARDINE SAADSTAFF WRITER JUNE 10, 2022 10:31 AM PT Jennifer Lopez was not happy that the NFL made her and Shakira co-headliners at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show, according to footage from her upcoming Netflix documentary. The “Waiting for Tonight” singer debuted “Halftime” at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Thursday, and a scene in the doc, which reflects on her multi-hyphenate career, shows her agitated by the limited amount of time each superstar was allotted for the widely broadcast performance. “We have six f— minutes,” Lopez, 52, tells music director Kim Burse, according to Entertainment Weekly. “We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left. But, there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance f— revue. We have to sing our message.” Lopez then says it was “the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl.” Sharing Lopez’s sentiments, her longtime manager, Benny Medina, also appears in the documentary to take aim at the NFL. “Typically, you have one headliner at a Super Bowl. That headliner constructs a show, and, should they choose to have other guests, that’s their choice,” Medina says. “It was an insult to say you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done.” In a scene with “She Wolf” singer Shakira earlier in the documentary, the two singers try to map out the show. Lopez suggests that they each get half of the 12 minutes allotted — with the ability to tack on “an extra minute or two” — rather than weaving together their performances as the organizers originally intended. “If it was going to be a double headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes,” Lopez says in the doc. “That’s what they should’ve f— done.” “Halftime” begins streaming Tuesday on Netflix.
  12. "Degenerates?" Those guys said they were in *praise* bands.
  13. I think this is one of the possibilities when I said I couldn't tell if the bullshit was a "well-organized and nefarious plan" (i.e. disinformation) or just stupidity. Good post, btw.
  14. I think his post is a perfect example of how throwing disingenuous shit all over everything prevents actual intelligent debate or meaningful progress. I'm being honest here when I say that I can't tell if it's a well-organized and nefarious plan to destroy much-needed legislation, or if people are really that stupid. The last time (depressingly, 14 years ago) we made any real effort to fix the catastrophically broken healthcare system that is 19.7 percent of our economy, we got to "Obama's Death Panels!" pretty fucking quickly. Same ridiculous bullshit.
  15. Best TV theme song ever, IMO (I think we had a thread on that). It's got everything... grooving drums and bass, funk guitars, wah pedals, horns... then you get those Hollywood strings playing 16th-notes at 1:12(!)...holy smokes... all written, arranged, performed, and engineered by pros (to a tape machine). They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
  16. Love the Daft Punk and the "Wall"-era MJ. They definitely pulled out all the disco stops for this song, including Star Wars pew-pew laser noises.
  17. Agreed.
  18. If you’re 20-30 years old now, it would be hard to get your head around how totally pervasive disco culture became. The clothes, the lights, disco balls, the dancing shows on TV - it was unavoidable. Radio stations changed formats or went bankrupt. The Stones made a disco song, Barbara Streisand released an (awful) disco record, KISS made a disco song, Sesame Street had disco music, there were disco variety shows on network TV… If you walked through a department store, the clothes were everywhere- the clothes were strongly related to the music. And unlike today, when things go viral and are gone in a week, the disco stuff went on for *years*. The BeeGees documentary has a really great segment where the scene goes back and forth between the band on jumbo jets and limousines and fighting through throngs of fans - versus the “blow up disco” promotion in Chicago that turned into a riot. The band had no idea how sudden and powerful the backlash against them was about to be.
  19. Man, The Bee Gees and KISS - what a weird and wonderful musical time to grow up. I remember being 7- or 8-years old, riding home from school in mom's Ford LTD with its a.m. radio, and its vinyl seats that got blistering hot in the summer sun. We pulled up to a stoplight - I remember *exactly* where - beside a young guy in a Pinto, and he had a bumper sticker that said, "Disco Sucks. Rock and Roll is Still Number One" - or something very close to that. And I remember thinking that anyone who would put such a confrontational sticker on their car must be a sociopath (though I didn't have that term in my vocabulary)... and besides that, what kind of a monster doesn't love disco? Also, I'm out of rep or I would have given it to every post on this thread.
  20. More Bernie and Niles. Writing lyrics wasn't their strong suit, however. Pugilist Will Smith exploited this hook a lot more effectively in "Jiggy." It's silly but it's undeniably hooky. Sampled a thousand times, including the track that gave hiphop its name. Pure genius. I think this one is a masterclass in songwriting - I cannot think of a song that does a better job of building and releasing tension with its chord changes. The IV chord falling to a minor IV, the way you don't get a root chord until the chorus, the way the vocal in the pre chorus starts on a dissonant note that resolves within each measure... it's sublime. The bridge is just kind of unfortunate.
  21. I feel like that track is the exact moment that disco morphed into EDM. You really hear and feel it in the synth bass and the hi hat upbeats. Good thread, btw. I think it's unfair and perverse that disco - mostly made by some really talented musicians with great hooks/vocals/percussionists/string arrangements/etc. - had a 5- or 6- year run, and now the entire genre is considered a punchline. And EDM, which I would argue requires FAR less skill and imagination (dragging loops into software platforms) is going strong after four decades.
  22. I think his Eagles shows were several years back. I only know about Dolan because someone from NY told me stories going around among the musicians that Dolan hired. When Tbone mentioned millionaires buying gigs, I got really excited to share the City Winery clip, but it’s gone. I suppose someone could have made a scene just to embarrass him, but it came off as a sincere music fan who paid $$$ at a reputable listening room, and got beaten down until finally, between songs, in a desperate and exasperated voice, “Please give us our money back.” (Murmuring, staff goes over to talk to patrons standing up to leave) “You have a terrible singing voice!” (More murmuring) ”Hey! Do you guys like Johnny Cash?”
  23. A candidate's willingness to overturn democracy is now the singular de facto litmus test for the Republican Party. I actually expected far worse election-day shenanigans from them in 2020. I thought the arms-carrying overthrow of elections would occur on smaller precinct levels, but they saved them for the inauguration. Our country is in trouble.
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