I have had with lissener. The man is a pompous jackass who threadshits all over perfectly good threads and a psychopath who seems to get off on hijacking a thread towards himself and then getting pissed when people call him on his shit.
Well I’m calling you on your shit.
Although maybe our intrepid 45 year old video store clerk can find solace in the arms of all the celebrities he supposedly knows. From lissener’s own posts, in the last week he has claimed to know:
Henry Rollins
David Foster Wallace
Billy Idol (who he’s seen naked)
Lena Lovich
The Romantics
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Sherman Alexie
David Sedaris
James McManus
JG Ballard
Alan Ginsberg
Kathy Acker
Laurie Anderson
Larry McMurtry
Kaye Gibbons
Sue Miller
Ethan Canin
Donna Tart
Oh, and looking over his posts, he’s also “an artist who’s had experience with pretty much every medium imaginable” and he’s “worked in various arts-related situations for [his] entire adult life.”
Whatever dude, whatever makes your life have meaning. But I’m sick of it and I’m sure I’m not alone. You used to be an interesting poster, but between all the threadshitting and weird celebrity name dropping, I think the years of the hard video clerk life have made you snap.
I don’t care who he claims to know or anything like that. Maybe he does know them. Who can really say? The only thing that has irked me about his posts (well, not really his posts, more like his opinion) in the past is the fact that sometimes it seems he holds a certain opinion about something and anyone who disagrees or thinks different/otherwise is either:
A. Stupid
B. Wrong
C. Worthy of being looked down upon/having respect lost
D. Possibly all three
He’s sort of the DtC of movies (I.E. DtC is to controversial views as lissener is to movies).
Other than that, I have no problem with the guy. Oh, nor DtC.
I’m just barely clever enough that I can puzzle my way through why people might be rubbed the wrong way by lissener, but this is a flaccid complaint. I don’t see why it would be so strange that he’d met those people. And if he’s got experience with them, then others might possibly find that experience relevant to the threads, yes?
If you’re reaction to him is “whatever”, then why start a pit thread? “Whatever” is the sort of word you softly mutter as you shake your head and then page down to another poster who interests you. It’s generally not the sort of powerhouse emotion conducive to powerful rants. It leaves you with no material, so you’re got nothing but tacky bullshit like the jabs at his job. I’m not even sure what you’re upset about. That he knows some celebrities? That he tries his hand in multiple artistic mediums?
I mean, really, you’re pitting lissener, and this is the best you can do?
I’ve often thought he was arrogant and stubborn, not uncommon traits amongst the members of the SDMB, but I don’t know if you can call him a liar just because you doubt he met famous people.
Him lecturing me about all of the famous people he knows is just the latest in a long line of lissener bullshit.
The fact that he’s so dismissive of everyone else while being so high on himself is infuriating. Lately, that’s taken the form of him name dropping some celebrity as a personal acquiatence whenever someone questions his jackassery.
It’s such a kneejerk comeback (“Why are you getting mad at what I said? I actually know this person!”), it doesn’t seem real.
Oh god, another moronic thread to pile on lissener.
So people are only supposed to say nice things about celebrities? This was about Henry Rollins and lissener had anecdotal experience that Rollins WAS in fact gay. That was not out of place in that thread, though perhaps the comment on Rollins’s personality was.
You’re being a dick. First, you’re making it sound like a fleeting meeting is the same as being friends. He never claimed to “know” most of the people you name, but the ones he does know, believe me, he does know.
I can personally attest to his long-time friendship with David Sedaris, and his knowing Donna Tartt (note spelling) via mutual friends, and I have no doubt about the others. I could personally attest to a hell of a lot more, but either he hasn’t mentioned them (you think he’s named-dropped? Ha!), they’re people he hasn’t named himself for specific reasons (like his cousin, who you would know by sight if not by name), or they’re people you’ve probably never heard of (Holly Cole, Iris DeMent, Jane Siberry, Sheila Chandra, and many more). I can attest to those because lissener was with me when I interviewed them for my radio show.
I think you’re the jerk here. You don’t believe that someone who works in a video store has a family and a past and several life experiences that would put him into contact with famous people. Or at least you want him, but noone else on the Dope, to shut up about knowing or having met them.
Blow it out your ass, I copied the spelling from lissener’s own posts.
What I’d like is for lissener to stop being a pussy whenever someone challenges one of his moronic rants about entertainment. What I’d like is for lissener to stop threadshitting in every thread in Cafe Society. What I’d like is to have a conversation about movies that doesn’t include the great lissener waltzing in and telling me how stupid I am for not realizing that he knows more about film than Roger Ebert.
Basically, I want lissener to act like an adult. He is 45 isn’t he?
Again, you dumbassed airhead, I copied the spelling from lissener’s own posts. Bitch at him. And take Happy Rhodes with you, because your hand is no doubt stuck in her pants.
What I’d like is for you idiots to put him on ignore and quit whining about him. Stars will fly out of my ass before that happens. You people get a kick out of RLO (Recreational lissener outrage)
I’ll bet I know hundreds, if not thousands, of people you’ve probably never heard of. In just a few minutes I’m going to meet a woman I’d be pretty sure no one here has heard of. What do I win?
Isn’t the pit the place to complain about other posters? I don’t notice you in pit threads focused on other posters complaining about “you idiots” - why is that?
Is it possible that the most reasonable solution is for one person to behave differently, rather than the dozens that have been irritated by that one person?
Of all the things to pit lissener for, this is really pretty lame. Yeah, he’s a pompous ass when it comes to movies, but he gets pitted because he says he’s met a few celebrities (he didn’t claim to hang out with them on a daily basis, just that he’s met them), most of which are not exactly well known or famous names? It’s not like he claimed to be best friends with George Clooney & Brad Pitt. Most of the people you listed I have never even heard of before and certainly would not recognize on site. I’ve met/run across/know a lot of famous people through my volunteer work in theatre (no I won’t list them, & you probably wouldn’t know them either unless you were familiar with Broadway) so no I don’t find it hard to believe that lissener has met some famous people over the years.
You know, I’ve met a lot of famous people (for various values of “famous”) and know a couple well enough that they remember my birthday. I have a large extended family, we live scattered all across the country, and we work in an assortment of professions that bring us in contact with a lot of people. A couple of my relatives through blood or marriage work in specifically entertainment-related fields (from local DJ to Actual Famous Actor), others in arts or literature.
Even without that level of “insider” connection, famous people are pretty much standard-issue humans, who’ve gone to school, had other jobs, have homes and kids and neighbors, do charity work, etc. It’s not that rare to know them. One of my friends ended up becoming good friends with Steve Guttenberg, a friendship that started when he called her company to help with a problem he had with his central air.
I’m a self-employed 43-year-old who has never lived more than 50 miles from my birthplace, was a stay-at-home Mom for 13 years and don’t actually get out much even now. So - I find it not at all doubtful that lissener might know lots of famous people.
Hsub W Egroeg on the SDMB: “I have been a politician and business owner all my life and I know a lot of politicians and business people.”
Justin Bailey: “Whatever dude. Do you realize how unlikely that all is? Jeez. What am I, gullible? Yeah, right, a guy who’s worked in politics. AND he happens to know politicians. What are the odds?”
snerk
That’s the funniest shit I’ve read all day. Idle Thoughts is right when he says
I think we all do that to some degree, but some people go a little overboard. I like all kinds of things that actually aren’t very good (The O. C., Footloose, etc) but that doesn’t make me stupid, or deserving of derision, nor does it necessitate someone “correcting” my opinion.
That said, I can think of far more obnoxious activities, such as replying to a post with only a single smiley. (I mean, come on, would you ever just respond with “LOL!” Didn’t think so.)
Worse than that, however, is taking pot-shots at Lissener’s job. He obviously enjoys his job, and isn’t living on welfare, so who cares? I find it extremely tactless to use this as a point against him.
I mean, we can’t all be hot-shit librarians, covered in glory, like you, Justin Bailey. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the little people in your much-envied rise to the top!
(Not a potshot at librarians. I love you guys.)
It’s not that hard to meet writers and obscure musicians. Go to book signings, hang out at the club after the show, and you’ll meet all sorts of very minor celebrities.