Pink Floyd has such a clean, smooth, polished sound. It’s not manufactured, it’s very artistic, but it’s open and very full.
The Grateful Dead I’ll never get. Someone said upthread the you needed weed to enjoy Pink Floyd. That is not true of Floyd, for me, but it has to be true of the Dead. I’d probably need something a lot more powerful to make it through a whole concert.
God yes (I’m not a woman though.) I read all my kids books when they were in school. That one in particular made me go WTF. The story is fine I guess, for short sci-fi, but why on Earth would they make children read that?
Not SciFi, “The Handmaid’s Tale” is (blurg, ecch, gag) "speculative fiction". :rolleyes:
And it’s crap.
I agree. I’m into sci-fi and fantasy specifically because it lets me get away from this sort of bullshit. I read idealistic feminist speculative fiction, where being a woman (or a lesbian) isn’t treated like some kind of curse.
That’s amazing. So, she was never right about anything, ever?:eek:
I can handle maybe 2 songs, they seem great for about that time frame and then it’s just overbearing noise. (and I like only about 4 songs total)
Scorsese ditto, as evidenced by his latest gratuitous Wall st. Wolf movie
South Park and Family Guy for TV. I’m not easily offended, I just wish I could find some humor in these shows.
Quentin Tarantino films as well as the Godfather films. I love good movies, but the extreme violence genre and the mob have never been appealing. I guess I should toss the Sopranos in there too.
George Gershwin for classical music. I’d rather listen to rap, and I hate rap.
I’ve never liked Phish/Grateful Dead/Dave Matthews. Boring music for college kids who refuse to grow up.
William Shakespeare.
Alright, he might have coined a few phrases in his time but generations of schoolchildren have had to suffer ever since…
Bag o’ shite…
Yeah, I know, I read one of his plays- all it was was bunches of famous quotes all strung together…:dubious:
Chagall
This thread seems to have morphed - it is more “here’s artists I don’t like” not “I don’t get them” - subtle but important. I feel like I “get” the Grateful Dead, and choose not to like them. I don’t feel like I get the Modern Artist Cy Twombley where I could even comment if I like him or not. I see his stuff and think 
Well, I guess it depends on how broadly or subtly you want to define “get.” My choices of Mozart or the Grateful Dead or Warhol might be better expressed as artists I think I understand, but I don’t like. However, I also do think that even though I think I understand them, I feel like I must be missing something, so I don’t truly “get” them, because I’m missing some sort of experience or background to make me really “get” it, or that I’m judging it by the wrong set of standards. Perhaps I am over-thinking it.
In cases of artists that I completely have no clue on that I can’t understand on any level, I’m having difficulty thinking of any.
I post on another board that’s mostly women, and I found out very quickly that I need to keep this opinion about that book to myself. Most of the other women on it say, “But what if that happened here?” They absolutely worship this story, like it’s the mother of an autistic child or something.
IT’S.NOT.GOING.TO.HAPPEN.HERE.
:smack:
These women also totally overlook that the main character’s husband was married when she met him, and went through a messy 2-year divorce before she could marry him. :dubious:
3rd for Rothko, and I’ve seen his stuff in person.
Grateful Dead might sound OK if you are drunk or stoned. Otherwise nothing special.
Well, part of it is the artist’s reputation relative to your belief in how much you “get” them. With the Grateful Dead, I, personally, don’t feel there is anything I am missing - I get 'em and don’t think they are very good. With Mozart, say, he is held up SO high in musician’s circles I would be more inclined to be open to saying “there must be something I don’t get with him…”
With artists, I feel like I “get” Renoir; I just don’t think he is near the same level as many of his contemporaries. With, say, sculptor Richard Serra and his Corner Splashings - where he splashed molten metal into a room corner, allowed it to cool, and then detached it and flipped it over - my basic feeling is “dude, whatever” but he is so damn respected in…respectable ways 
and I like some of his works, that I am a bit more willing to say maybe I just don’t get it…
I agree, but I suppose I just waffle about this stuff a lot more than some people and don’t have the courage of my convictions. In the case of the Dead, I really do kind of feel like I’m missing something (and I don’t think it’s just drugs). But I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I do have an epiphanic moment where suddenly it all “clicks,” as that’s happened to me with music I’ve hated or been indifferent to in the past. Or when other people talk about art that I love, claiming to “get” it, and then I hear their criticism of it where it’s painfully obvious to me that they don’t really “get” it. (And this is stuff I’ve done a lot of, as well, myself). So, with my experiences, it’s kind of hard for me to come down strongly with my opinion, and I just assume that there is something I’m missing. This makes me a terrible critic, of course.
Two points:
- with the Dead, I’ve come to believe that there is a “sense of community” about the band and the fans that it provides a level of joy I don’t tap into.
- there’s a big difference taking some absolute stand: The Dead are Bad vs. framing things from the standpoint of “look, they aren’t for me - I can articulate why, clearly, but won’t do so here…” type of responses…
Well, sure. They don’t “do it” for me, but, like I said, I suspect there is something I am missing, as while the Dead aren’t my bag, I do enjoy Phish (and used to be quite into them) and other jam bands (moreso I used to enjoy them, although I still like Phish from time to time), so it seems like I should like the Dead, but I don’t, never have, and don’t know why.
Really? I would assume you don’t like their technical and musical sloppiness. Say what you will about jam bands like DMB or Phish, but those guys are excellent musicians (I just wish Phish got a real vocalist - yuk). Not my cuppa, but I get how they are good. The GD were okay at best - a lot of slop, not the good kind, and the drugs muddled things for long stretches of their existence. So I get stuck on that; but I am totally open to the fact that folks dig the community and the risks taken to create an experience. Given your discussions of piano and theory…
This isn’t an “outlier” opinion at all. I’ve spent most of my life in or around the classical music community, and the consensus is that West Side Story is a masterpiece, Candide and Wonderful Town are pretty good, and the rest of it ranges from “meh” to awful. His “serious” compositions were performed and recorded because he was a celebrity. You rarely hear of orchestras performing his symphonies now that he’s dead.