[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Welcome, fellow Seattleite! Can we interest you in a nice game of pub trivia?
[/QUOTE]
Nice for you maybe… Being only 20 I will most assuredly fail. :smack: The only pub I’ve ever been in was in London, and I just ate a burger. Unless something else is meant by pub trivia. I honestly have no idea. A proper introduction thread is forthcoming.
The elimination process could be more cruel than it is. For instance, when Chris Sligh was in jeopardy, I knew that after Ryan said, "You will not…
…find out until after the break," I knew he was in. Ryan has never gone so far as to toy with someone like that and then tell them they’re out. Likewise, when he asked Phil if he wanted to continue, I knew he was in as well, because “Sorry, you can’t” would have been over the line.
In other breaking news, analysts have determined that the sky is indeed blue.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
What’s wrong with crushing their dreams? Their dreams are completely narcissistic (in most cases) utterly delusional. It’s not like they have a dream to cure cancer or bring peace to the Middle East. They want to be famous. That’s always a dream worth crushing.
[/QUOTE]
Looks like you’ve been perusing the Demotivators.
Seriously: people ought to stop saying shit like “Nothing is impossible.” It simply isn’t true.
I much prefer the words written by a colleague’s struggling student: “Anything is impossible.”
[QUOTE=vivalostwages]
Looks like you’ve been perusing the Demotivators.
Seriously: people ought to stop saying shit like “Nothing is impossible.” It simply isn’t true.
I much prefer the words written by a colleague’s struggling student: “Anything is impossible.”
[/QUOTE]
People also need to stop spreading the lie that you should “believe in yourself.” If you have no talent then all the belief in the world means nothing. Also if people tell you “can’t” do something, they’re probably right, and you should listen to them.
[QUOTE=Aioua]
Nice for you maybe… Being only 20 I will most assuredly fail. :smack: The only pub I’ve ever been in was in London, and I just ate a burger. Unless something else is meant by pub trivia. I honestly have no idea. A proper introduction thread is forthcoming.
[/QUOTE]
Pfft. I’m 28. [When] I attend the pub trivia, I sit, stare, feel confused and shy; drink to get a little more confident, become too confident, and shout the answers out loud so that every team from the Old P to the Lockspot can hear.
You can’t possibly do worse than that. 
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
People also need to stop spreading the lie that you should “believe in yourself.” If you have no talent then all the belief in the world means nothing. Also if people tell you “can’t” do something, they’re probably right, and you should listen to them.
[/QUOTE]
Heh, well believing in yourself in general is cool, but believing you will be the next AI is pretty much ridiculous. I agree with you, and I think way too many people hear stuff like friends saying they are good, or they are the karaoke queen of the bar and so forth.
Most people can’t sing for shit, and if they want to go through the bullshit of AI, good luck, but be prepared to get shit and be told you can’t sing for shit. It’s not cruel, it’s life. They put themselves up for it.
Wow. I can’t believe how many actually seem to take pleasure at these people getting whacked on TV.
I disagree with the early shows. Those are fun. I think most do it as a joke. Those that don’t go just to tell Simon off. Yet he is always right.
One of the main points of the show is to laugh at the no talent losers. If not, why would Simon even be on the show? Why do some people want to be TV nannies?
These people freely go on the show knowing full well they might get fucked with on national TV. What’s the fucking problem? If it offends your delicate sensibilities, change the fucking channel.
Oh boo fucking hoo.
Yes. AI is cruel. It’s also not one 100th as cruel as the actual music business. Real singers have to suffer through years of rejection, mockery, poverty and heartbreak in return for a chance at stardom infinitely smaller than that of even the least of those self-centered little contestants. What AI offers is a shortcut to success which, frankly, few of them deserve.
I say let them suffer. Let them suffer more.
Damn good point, Alessan The AI winners and many of the runner ups get immediate album deals that most musicians/bands that make it big take years to achieve.
I’ve never watched so much as a second of any of these shows, but for some reason my Dad gave me Ben Elton’s Chart Throb for Xmas. I found it a good read. The basic take of the book is that the shows are rigged from one end to the other, which I’m certainly sceptical and cynical enough to believe wholeheartedly, but I lack the knowledge of even how the shows usually *appear * to enable a guess at whether Elton’s take is accurate.
I had been thinking for a while of starting a CS thread asking about it. I presume going by the consensus of posts above that Elton’s take on the shows is spot on. Correct?
[QUOTE=Bricker]
Ahem.
I Know all the lyrics to RENT.
[/QUOTE]
Sanjaya is Bricker?
Damn, how could I have been so blind… it all makes sense now. The hula dancing, the “interesting” hair choices, the Michael Jackson soundalike voice… all while posing as a lawyer.
[QUOTE=Aioua]
Nice for you maybe… Being only 20 I will most assuredly fail. :smack: The only pub I’ve ever been in was in London, and I just ate a burger. Unless something else is meant by pub trivia. I honestly have no idea. A proper introduction thread is forthcoming.
[/QUOTE]
I think you’ll find that what they actually mean is a trivia contest which is *held *in a pub. Not a trivia contest *about *pubs.
I hope, anyway! 
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
They could skip the 3rd show every week and list the polling results on the internet. I guess I am too sympathetic to people getting cut in public in a nasty manner.
[/QUOTE]
They can skip every show every week as far as I’m concerned.
[QUOTE=Alessan]
Oh boo fucking hoo.
Yes. AI is cruel. It’s also not one 100th as cruel as the actual music business. Real singers have to suffer through years of rejection, mockery, poverty and heartbreak in return for a chance at stardom infinitely smaller than that of even the least of those self-centered little contestants. What AI offers is a shortcut to success which, frankly, few of them deserve.
I say let them suffer. Let them suffer more.
[/QUOTE]
It’s just like auditioning for an acting role - the profession is wildly popular, there aren’t enough jobs and even people with talent will be frequently rejected.
Perhaps Simon Cowell could be more diplomatic, but then viewing figures would drop.
What startles me is that within 5 seconds you can tell if a contestant can’t actually sing, or is tone deaf or has no passion.
Why don’t these people visit a singing coach and ask their opinion first?
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon]
[When] I attend the pub trivia…
[/QUOTE]
Who are you again?
[QUOTE=Aioua]
(I always wondered what thread would finally make me register… this was not one I would have expected…)
[/QUOTE]
But… but… you registered in August, 2006.
======================
As for Idol, the cruelest part of the elmination process to me is toward the winners, not the losers. That last winner, poor schlub, is paired with the last loser. He is the only winner that, owing to civility, is not allowed to pump his fists and celebrate with a blissful wince and a proud “YES!”. Instead, he must feign (or actually feel) heartbroken on behalf of the loser.
That really sucks.
[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
The elimination process could be more cruel than it is. For instance, when Chris Sligh was in jeopardy, I knew that after Ryan said, "You will not…
…find out until after the break," I knew he was in. Ryan has never gone so far as to toy with someone like that and then tell them they’re out. Likewise, when he asked Phil if he wanted to continue, I knew he was in as well, because “Sorry, you can’t” would have been over the line.
[/QUOTE]
Besides, they always go through each contestant on every row. I don’t think Ryan has *ever * given the elimination speech to anyone but the last man standing, as it were. So if your row gets called up and your name is called out first, second, or anything but in the two last positions, you should know you’re automatically in. It’s always funny to me to watch the contestants acting like it’s the most surprising thing ever that they weren’t eliminated if their name is called out. I’m in Finland and I can already see you’re in.
[QUOTE=Alessan]
Oh boo fucking hoo.
Yes. AI is cruel. It’s also not one 100th as cruel as the actual music business. Real singers have to suffer through years of rejection, mockery, poverty and heartbreak in return for a chance at stardom infinitely smaller than that of even the least of those self-centered little contestants. What AI offers is a shortcut to success which, frankly, few of them deserve.
I say let them suffer. Let them suffer more.
[/QUOTE]
That’s the point I was going to make, as well. Nothing is crueler than the business of performing arts. You get judged constantly for physical attributes, which is a pretty rare thing in other professions, you are rejected out of hand time and time again…many people never make any kind of a success out of it. The worst thing about AI is that it’s literally a public humiliation…but these folks risk that voluntarily for the payback of an easy record contract. Seems fair to me.