Decius wrote:
] Vile wrote:
] ] Get out of the house more often. Stop reading the news so
] ] damn much.
]
] This is what I don't get about you. One minute you are spewing
] insipid garbage all over the site like a 12 year old whose
] pissed off at his dad and needs attention.

[THat is a popular saying among computer weenies. They love the number 12 and the needs attention thing. Personally, I would love to call you and refute your posts, face to face, but I do not have your phone number. I need no attention among the ten or so regular denizens of memestreams. You simply incense me, usually. There have been posts of yours that do not get under my skin. I read those and choose not to respond. Clarified?]

The next minute you
] send something reasonably well considered which I presume you
] expect to be taken seriously.

[was that the thing I wrote about lara roxx's asshole?]

Why should I listen to anything
] that you have to say?

[You shouldn't. I have never spoken anything out loud to you. You should read it because you may learn to think outside your box by entertaining a different viewpoint for once. Then maybe you can relax in your times and not sound so old and pissy. That is all.]

I certainly don't expect you to listen
] to me.

[You have never spoken to me, but I read this shit, now don't I?

I expect you to take this reply and throw it back in my
] face.

[My arm is not so good.]
]
] ] Anyway, you downloaders have destroyed the ability
] ] of decent underground artists to rise.
]
] You sure do make a lot of assumptions. You ought to careful
] about that. I'm sure you know a lot of wanna be computer
] weenies back home.

[All I know is rattle, so I suppose you are calling him a computer weenie. You seem like one too.]

I'm sure they download music. I'm sure you
] think that because the people on this site are technical that
] we're just like the wanna be computer weenies that you know.
] You're wrong. You don't know anyone like me.

[How can you accuse me of being presumptuous, and then go on to presume so much about me? I know plenty of assholes like you. They bore me. Thank god I exist to provide a counter-balance to those with sticks up their asses and monitors glued to their eyes.]
]
] No, I don't download music.
]
] No, I don't think downloading music has anything to do with
] the ability of underground artists to rise.

[Think again! My point was made clear regarding this manner and I am correct. Although I could go point for point with you over the next paragraph, I won't. My point was made crystal clear and I am correct in my findings. Sorry.]

Thats the sort of
] attitude usually expressed by people who are accustomed to the
] old world of broadcast media technology and haven't spent an
] iota of time thinking about how things evolve.

[The broadcast media technology still rules. Your way is embryonic and refuses to grow into a useful tool. Although your ivory tower seems to subscribe, not even everyone in america has a TV set yet, let alone internet access. Live a little and explore something that is not java or html. The world is a suprising place, and yes, most folks still watch MTV, or FOX. Far less utilize memestreams or news.google.com]
]
] Artists do not "rise from the underground" by their bootstraps
] selling CDs. They get signed. They get financed. They get
] promoted. They get signed because they are marketable and
] because they were in the right place at the right time.

[The right place at the right time? HAHA! I don't want to get into record label policies and procedures with you. Let's blame walmart then. You should like that better. The downloading didn't help. Why market a product that slackers will simply steal?]
]
] Downloaders cannot and do not prevent something that never
] actually happens, and never did happen. Nor are they
] responsible for the economic situation that record companies
] face. Thats a gross oversimplification that the media managers
] have sold themselves because its a lot easier to face then the
] truth. The truth is that music does not play the same role in
] our lives that it used to, because we have a wider array of
] entertainment options available to us. And thats part of the
] reason that it has sucked so much recently.

[assuming your OPINION is wrong, then music doesn't suck any more than it ever did. I don't see the difference between Nirvana and Britney and Christina, cept britney can dance and christina can sing. Oh, that's right, Kurt could play power chords! Silly me!]
]
] ] Terrorism as a concept for america to deal with was big in
] the
] ] late 70's and stayed that way until Sept. 11th caused most
] of
] ] the nation to feel that we should do something about it.
]
] So you don't think the country is more partisan then it used
] to be?

[Read a history book sometime. No. We have definitely been more partisan. You remember, we once had this civil war thingee. We had the era of good feelings, vietnam, the democratic convention riots of 68, and the Reagan Era. I am not even going to go into the Jackson presidency, with the formation of our first third party (extra credit if you can name it.) Shit, seven years ago, they impeached the president! We have always been partisan. Maybe moreso in the past. After all, they got the Dems to vote in the patriot act and the iraq war. This was not accomplished through political stonewalling. It was accomplished through non-partisan hoodwinking of the public. Do you really still believe there is a difference between our two corporate-owned political parties? Or are you too concerned with the corporate-owned olympics? One of these things is more alarming. But if I want to be popular in this click I should say "Vote Kerry" and wait for the applause.]

You don't think people are maybe just a little more
] focused on Terrorism then they were in the early 90's?

[Yes, because Clinton isn't blinding people to his true intent. The Oklahoma City bombings made us become paranoid, all this decade has done is make us think of arabs as terrorists instead of white-trash. Clinton tried to pass the same patriot act back in 1995.]

I think
] they are. I think we tried to ignore it before. Tired to shove
] it out of our heads and paid attention to our own lives. Now
] we can't do that anymore, and that has had a huge effect on
] who we are.

[Speak for yourself. You didn't work in NYC when the planes hit. Hell, I even called out of work. They haven't hit us since and the Anthrax guy was most likely one of our own. Terrorism is best left ignored. FUck it. There's too many of us anyway.]
]
] ] (You have Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age, Farenheit
] ] 911, the Michael Jackson trial, etc. Sorry if you don't dig
]
] ] it, but it seems like you are simply going through a midlife
]
] ] crisis.)
]
] I'm not saying there aren't some interesting things out there.
] I like Denali, for example. I'm saying its not adding up to a
] whole.

[The nineties didn't either. They simply appealed to YOU more.]

I think Jaron Lanier said it better then me:
]
] http://www.advanced.org/jaron/spooky.html
]
] ] ] 2. Marketing killed the human spirit - The new music sucks
]
] ] ] because its too marketed.
] ] (and Nirvana wasn't, Pearljam wasn't? Gimme a break.)
] ]
] ] Too much a product and not a
] ] ] statement.
] ]
] ] (and Nirvana had what message? Eh? Buy our shit?)
]
] Man, you can always tell a wannabe punk when he can't tell the
] difference between music that means something and music that
] is the product of a committee, so he assumes that anything
] thats popular is the product of a committee and anything thats
] not popular is art.

[What a stupid statement on your part. I am not a punk, for one. Nor am I unable to tell the difference between music that means something and music that is the product of a committee. I simply offer to you that Nirvana meant NOTHING to some. Britney means SOMETHING to others. Its called OPINION. It is a product of personal taste. If your tastes are not being met, then get up from the fucking computer, get a job in A&R and bring us stuff that has meaning.]

Its bullshit. Sometimes art gets signed.
] Sometimes your friend's band really does just suck.
]
] Now, Nirvana certainly had a couple of songs that were written
] by or heavily influenced by their producers. Those songs were
] not particularly popular. People weren't into them because
] "Love Buzz." Nirvana also had a few songs that were from the
] gut. And thats why people listened to them.

[Nirvana were tools. Corporate Tools! Sorry. They were. Bleach sucked and they played the game. Butch Vig made them sound good. Albini made them sound shitty again! Either way, they were the flavor of a season and then they were gone. We aren't talking about a Bob Marley here. Cobain was a questionable talent. He was a face and an image. Little girls liked him and losers identified with him. The Jocks simply liked loud shit that they were seeing on MTV and they were supposed to like. I believe I was listening to the Dead Milkmen at that point anyway and found Nirvana a bit pretentious. This is a bad band to get started with me on. I hate them and always have.]
]
] ] (and pseudo-intellectual dimestore pundits. Sorry, dude,
] ] George Will even has you beat on the social commentary
] here.)
]
] He certainly does, but you don't get it. I'm not a pundit. I
] don't work for anyone. Its not about having pundits to tell
] you want to think. Its about having your own thoughts. You
] don't seem to like that. You seem to prefer a world
] uncluttered by all these bloggers and their stupid opinions.

[Bingo.]

] You want the opinion making left to the professionals. Sort
] of, Hamiltonian, I guess. I prefer to make up my own mind, and
] I prefer to discuss it with my friends.

[I watch O'Reilley Factor and Michael Moore's films and I make up my own mind. I don't read over the local grade school's "current events" homework for social studies. Maybe one day they will be good enough to appear somewhere with credentials that will interest me in their opinion.]
]
] ] (Uh, so what? You either like a band or you don't. What
] they
] ] do after making the music you like has nothing to do with
] the
] ] songs themselves. and I think you should validate the point
]
] ] you are making with an example or two. I have no trouble
] ] believing that Dave Grohl likes writing music and
] entertaining
] ] people. I have no trouble believing that Michael Moore
] hates
] ] the president. They may endorse products for extra cash,
] but
] ] so what? )
]
] You cross a line where its not about what you're doing
] anymore. Sometimes art gets signed. But institutions like the
] Olympics don't have the backbone to keep from getting
] corrupted by the money.

[Sports is a waste of ones time anyway, as I see it. So I will not forge too deeply into this.]
]
] ] (A simple old saying may enlighten you: "Nostalgia is the
] ] symptom of a dying culture."
]
] Nostalgia is the symptom of being stuck in a rut. I don't want
] to be nostalgic. I'm just having trouble finding something new
] to get into.

[Sorry dude. Looks like you stopped growing. One life process down, five to go!]
]
] ] To quote suicidal tendencies "90 percent of life is
] ] what you make of it, so if life sucks, then you suck.)
]
] You might have something there. You explained what Jeremy
] wouldn't. And thats why I decided to reply to this email.

[Color me honored!]

RE: What is this decade all about?