I just want to applaud you all for keeping the secret that The Wire is crap, and singing its praises in a way that would make the Duke and the King proud.
Because it is.
Crap.
I hate people excoriating things they don’t like, and saying it’s some sort of social aberation. That bugs the shit out of me.
Also, Dan Brown is an untalented hack, who tells the same fucking story over and over again. It’s annoying.
How’s this for cultural heresy? All things Harry Potter - books, films, what have you - are for children. They are written at a reading level gauged for young adults (adolescents to mid-teenagers) and adults really ought to find books that are suited to their age-range and deal with more sophisticated subjects than preadolescent wizards.
And I know this’ll really make some folk’s blood boil, but -
Ulysses by James Joyce is a GREAT BOOK. It’s a true achievement in the history of literature. While it is dense, it IS comprehensible, so long as the reader bothers to expend some mental energy. In fact, it’s complexity is it’s chief quality - it challenges the reader to think, and wonder about the connectedness between seemingly random episodes rather than spell everything out & dumb every thing down. While I enjoy a good brainless popcorn thriller as much as the next person, people who dismiss this book as unreadable are simply intellectually lazy.
No shit. It’s soap opera for English majors: he-said-she-said, he-drank-she-drank, lather-rinse-repeat, as talky as a stage play and with even less action.
Well, I consider it to be a sport, and an intermittently watchable one (at pennant and Series time). What it is NOT is some holy transcendent metaphor for all that is greta about America. It only got that reputation because of its popularity among a generation of young white urban nerds who grew up to become cultural arbiters and leading lights of literature.
Beat poetry and beat novels. Unreadable crap written by royally fucked-up people without a clue. Well, OK, I guess Kerouac had a clue, but I still can’t get into his stuff.
Henry Miller. In his day, he was probably revolutionary because of his language, but I tried, I fucking tried to read Tropic of Cancer, and couldn’t get past the first 50 pages. It was just too surreal and dull. How do you make sex dull, for crying out loud? I guess if you’ve had as much sex as Henry Miller, it probably is kind of dull.
The cry “Think of the chillldrennn! Won’t sombody PLEEEEZ think of the CHIL-DREN???”
should be considered an admission of defeat in any argument. You can no longer defend your argument on its merit and must shield yourself with children.
Seriously Christians. What the heck is wrong with you people? Jews and Muslims too. *Children *have imaginary friends. It has ceased to be funny, please grow up and join the 21st century. You’re worshiping a left over Babylonian storm god who wasn’t even as cool as Zeus.
Four words…
The Nineteenth Fucking Century!!!
I hate it!!! All of it, including:
The Napoleonic wars, Pax Britania the whole Unification shit with both Germany and Italy, the Fucking Industrial revolution, the Wild west in America, The War of 1812, the American Civil war, the Crimean War, Metternich, the revolutions of 1848, the building of Railroads, the theory of Evolution, the the god damned Confederation of Canada, the Fucking Romantic era, the Naval race, Iron clads, steam power, Dickens, Twain, Shelley, Byron, Davids insipid paintings, Wellington, Victoria, Lincoln, Robert AE Lee, Blucher, Bismark, Bell, Morse, Joseph Smith, Jr., Brigham Youngung, Dixie, the Gatling gun, Rifling, the Boer War, the Boxer rebellion, the end of the wig fashion, hoop skirts, Top hats, Bowlers, Derbies, Stetsons, spats, Straw hats, Theatre, War photography, The Pony Express, Wireless communication, telegraphs, Balloons, Worlds fairs, the Franco Prussian War, Wild west shows, Custer, The little big horn, the ghost dance, the formation of French Indochina, Wounded knee, broken treaties, Gold rush, The Irish Potato famine, the Belgium Congo, Wordsworth, Jane Austin, Napoleon III, Garabaldi, Tchaikovsky the end of the Holy Roman empire, the decline of the Ottoman empire, the congress of Vienna, the Opium wars, the Quing Dynasty, the Meiji Restoration, Marx, Poe, The birth of Mormonism, The death of the last Shogun, and the God damned the Victorian era.
These things really piss me off.
Most worthless Century Ever!
There is a load off my chest
I drink coffee black. Starbucks is terrible. It has a burnt crappy taste. I try it every year or so and wind up pouring it out.
I remember a prior sacred cow thread where it was stated that the Monkees were the superior band.
I agree 
Poetry. It does nothing for me. Sometimes I wonder whether everyone else is just pretending to understand and appreciate it.
The Emperor has no clothes!
Bands that are supposed to be so amazing but really are lame: cf. Radiohead. Wilco. The White Stripes. Arcade Fire.
Video games. One of my students said today, half in jest, “XBox Live is ruining my life!” People waiting in line overnight for a video game system? People not sleeping and staying home from work/school to play it? Complete waste of time.
St. Patrick’s Day-- why do you need this excuse to drink on a weekday? As if you really care about St. Patrick driving the “snakes” out of Ireland. No, I’m not wearing green. I’m American, not Irish, and so are you. Go drink some green beer… elsewhere.
Can’t believe I have the privilege of putting this in first (unless I missed it):
“Star Trek”. Really pretty crappy. The only good episodes used ideas that were decades old in written science fiction. Clunky, overwrought drama mixed with crappy, sometimes laughably bad sci-fi. That also goes for the innumerable forms in which the show was continued in later years, thanks to the endless efforts of halfwit fans who wouldn’t let it rest in peace.
[QUOTE=Darth Sensitive/Hypothetical Poster]
OMG! Lennon and McCartney are the best song writers evar! Don’t change up the melody to fit your voice. You can’t alter the orchestration to act like their harmonies!
WTF! You did an UPTEMPO version!!!111!!! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!
How dare you not love listening to them! All other music pales in comparison!
I <3 the Beatles. I have all their posters and I watch them every time they come on Ed Sullivan! John + Paul + George + Ringo + Me = Twu Wuv Forever!
[QUOTE]
As you may or may not know, I am the youngest poster on the SDMB. Many people in my age group are obsessed, and by “obsessed” i mean “would take a bullet for” The Jonas Brothers. I HATE the Jonas Brothers. Many people I know say things along the lines of the quote (of course, changing Beatles references to Jonas Brothers) above when I say that I :eek: :eek: don’t like them.
[QUOTE=Darth Sensitive/Hypothetical Poster]
I threw in a Hannah Montana / Ed Sullivan comparison in there because I see the same kind of devotion.
One may have more staying power, but it makes me GAH!
Haa! That’s funny as hell.
I will admit that I thought Titanic was a good movie. It just was…I know cornball when I see it, and that movie had it in spades. But, it was still good.
I wonder if the folks that hate poetry are not being bogged down with overly wordy poetry? The first poem I ever loved, I learned as a kid. The one about meeting a man on the stair that wasn’t there? It was simple, yet interesting…and more than a little creepy.
Kurt Vonnegut was one of the dullest, most pompous authors I’ve ever read.
I’m surprised that the original Star Trek lasted a single full season, let alone three of them.
Let’s see; what catharsis do I need today?
- Keith Richards - just retire already, you animated piece of human jerky.
- I’m 41 years old, and I love pop/Top 40 music.
- I hate live theatre.
- I hate musicals. Damned near all of them. They make me say, “Oh, God, they’re singing again.”
- “Citizen Kane” is BORING. There, I said it.
- Shakespeare is also boring.
- Thanking God at awards shows. Can we just have that as understood and move on from there?
- I like Keanu Reeves as an actor. I think he’s played his career beautifully by never taking on more than he could handle, and making the most of his pretty, pretty face.
The comic book series Preacher.
That whole thing annoyed the fuck out of me. hey, we’re on an important mission to find God… let’s stop in this bar for half a TPB and I’ll tell you about the time I met Bill Hicks.
Also, Noel Fielding? Noel Fielding is an asshole. Noel Fielding isn’t funny. Noel Fielding is about as funny as getting a light thrashing with a shovel.
I second (or tenth) the Beatles. It was George Martin who had the talent and their manager who basically used payola to get them on the charts.
Rock music is a business, very rarely an art.