Hayley said stop marding

Belligerently Boorish Brit-rock Borelords Bemoan Booing Boosters of Bland Brit Balladry

Tom’s “One Week” vitriol felt more mean spirited. Today’s was filled with hate, but I sensed a little more good humor in there as well. The same way I enjoy going on a self-aware rant of how much I dislike Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.

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It’s ok that people feel differently about the same song. I actually thought that Tom would like the chorus of today’s song better than he did. I totally get his appreciating the instrumental track better than the normal one. I feel the same way about many hits, but more because the lyrics are too raunchy, not because they’re too wimpy.

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When we lived out in Idaho for a couple of years there (and in Oregon back in the 90s), we missed the lightning bugs that we grew up with in Indiana. We actually just saw our first few of the season here a couple of nights ago in Ohio. We met one lady from Idaho who was astounded when she visited the eastern US and saw fireflies for the first time. Up until then she had thought they were mythical creatures like fairies or unicorns!

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I don’t love “Fireflies”, but I really like it. The thought of embracing a swarm of bugs is unsettling, but the twee, lighthearted nature of the song’s topic is a completely welcome change at the #1 spot. And the music is pleasant. I actually love the bleeps and bloops that start the song and continue through it. It’s not perfect, but I’m happy to hear it anyday. And I’m sure that having children that liked it at the time only supports those feelings. I’ll give it an 8.

Somewhere, David Gilmour is just sitting in a chair, sipping his tea, and enjoying life.

All respect to Chrissie and the other brave women who stood up to not just a single rapist (and a culture that far too often brushes aside women’s traumatic experiences) but a whole damn cult with an enormous amount of resources. Seeing some semblance of justice won’t undo the traumatic experience, but she’s helped in some way to prevent further sexual violence from at least Masterson.

As somebody who’s worked with autistic folks for the past 20 years, the recent trend of late-in-life autism diagnoses are interesting. I think it might offer a way of reframing people’s perception of themselves that might offer some sense of peace. But then again getting a diagnosis in itself is kind further pathologizing neurodiversity. Well, anway, Sia saying something that’s both hard to parse and might rub some people the wrong way is pretty on-brand for the spectrum.

I’m glad someone is finally pointing out that he’s dressed as the fascist dictator from The Wall, not an SS officer. It seems like the entire media has somehow overlooked that this character has existed for 40+ years.

That said, I hate to have to defend Roger Waters because he seems like a dick.

Yeah, I knew Tom was going to savage this one, but I don’t care: I’ll take my watered-down Postal Service imitations where I can get them. And I give “Fireflies” credit for sounding absolutely nothing like the other songs that were topping the charts in this era. 8/10 for me.

Maybe the crowd just weren’t ready to rock yet – most professional acts politely enquire if the crowd is ready to rock, and only then proceed if there’s a mutual understanding. Sometimes you gotta ask a couple of times if you’re not sure if they can hear you, cupping one hand to your ear tend to work a charm. Surprised they’re that far up the bill if they don’t know the basics.

“When Britney sings “180 degrees, and I’m caught in between,” that doesn’t mean anything.” The sum of the internal angles of any triangle is 180 degrees so I think this works as a fairly clever threesome sexual positions joke. Max Martin being a low-key geometry nerd is about the least surprising thing I could imagine…