It sure feels like one to me.
I could take your word for it, but I prefer Dr Alexander Shulgin, the so-called father of ecstasy, speaking on MDMA:
Ecstacy is notoriously difficult to classify. In a strictly pharmaceutical sense, it’s a stimulant.
In high doses, though, it can be very psychedlic, in a subjective way. I mean, when you notice that radiant waves of divine goddess energy are coming off the hippie chick who’s crashed on your couch with every exhalation she makes, you’re having a hard time concentrating on a conversation about Jodorowski you’re having because the head of the girl you’re talking to is flickering like the flame of a candle in a strong draught, and the gestures she’s making are leaving rich purple and gold tracers in the air, well then, it’s a bit hard to find another adjective that really fits the experience.
Speaking of “psychedlic…” “These guys are from England, and who gives a shit?” Heh heh. Class.
To recap:
Bands I like reinforce my status as a connoisseur of cutting edge music, a musical visionary of unassailable taste.
Bands you like reinforce your status as a lame poseur who wouldn’t know a decent band if it came with a testimonial signed by Jimi Hendrix and Lou Reed.
And as for mutilated U2 songs, I think Take Me To the Clouds Above wins hands down (although it’s just an endless repeated sample). LMC vs U2? U2 is definitely the loser here.
My point was that being a lame poseur who wouldn’t know a decent band is REFLECTED in your musical “taste,” not the other way 'round. Upon reflection, I was being toop generous. I assumed there was some other reason people liked The White Stripes – it certainly wasn’t the moronic drumming and tedious blues riffs played through a blown-out amp, all of which has been done before by better bands (and perhaps the most similar effort was the Neil Young techno-experimentation engineered specifically to get a response from his autistic babies), so I presumed the fans liked the hipster affect, which IS very well done, what with the corporate-coopt of Indy Pop, overtones of incest (are they siblings? spouses? Only their mother(s) know for sure), red clothes and pseudo-l33t spelling on the album covers. It was unfair of me to presume that people simply can’t enjoy mind-numbing repitition with the occasional scream, that they weren’t merely saying “I like [whatever some media hack said where the 10 hottest bands this year]” but actually LISTENING to that as they tooled around boringville in their little car, singing along, thumping their hand on the steering wheel, and never once getting bored with the pure tedium of it. That wasn’t a complaint about the affect, which led to much confusion. My problem with the White Stripes is that they’re boring and over-rated, period.
As for the second bit, I have no illusion of being cool. I’m an overweight, short, and (I’m told) balding computer professional who sits in a cubicle and sometimes listens to Dolly Parton on his iPod. I don’t think that ANYTHING can make me cool, so I just listen to what interests me (on any level) and to hell with the rest, including the sycophantic press, fan clubs, message boards, peer acceptance, and music critics that fellate the music industry, all top ten lists, all awards shows, and the rest. I don’t consider myself a connoisseur, since I can barely spell it, but I do consider myself to have an unerring ability to know bullshit when I see it, read it, hear it, or see it on television.
My post was intended as comic relief, not a comment on a specific person, but all replies welcome as always.
Says it all, really. He’s a fanboy, of the intolerant "what I like is good, and there is no reason for anyone liking things that don’t appeal to me. He’s the sort of uninformed idiot who will argue that Joseph Campbell ripped off Star Wars, or says that anyone who likes Charmed over Buffy is wrong. I’ll bet he writes “Mary Sue” Buffy/Willow slashfic in which he converts them from their hot lesbo love.
Dude’s a clueless loser and is unworthy and incapable of having an informed, intelligent conversation about the performing arts. He can;t understand that artists have relative merits and that aesthetic appreciation is largely subjective, or that musical appreciation is largely a reflection of the sophistication of the listener. DtC can hear more in Jack White’s playing because he has a competent ear to hear with that Cricetus lacks.
Moreover, Cricetus’s obssession with “coolness” is telling. Nobody besides him cares what is cool or not; we enjoy what we enjoy, simple as that. But Cricetus has to let people know that he is not concerned with what’s cool, oh no, not he. He pays no attention to being thought cool by others. That will show those jerks who made fun of him in band camp!
I like the White Stripes; and if Cricetus doesn’t, eh, who cares?
On the “ecstasy” question, P.J. O’Rourke described it beast as “St. Joseph’s baby acid.” It doesn’t have the full-on trippy sensory effects of your true hallucinogenics, but X does have certain psychedelics, particularly on emotional openness. “Wow, I, like love you all, you know? Like, we’re all part of the same universe, so we’re all like particles of each other. Wow, I love you guys. Ohh I’m thirsty.”
You’re taking the word of the White House on drugs (I’ll also note than having psychedelic effects is not the same as being a psychedelic)? Next up, smoking pot destroys your life! :dubious:
As Larry said, MDMA is very difficult to classify. Some have attempted to coin a new term to categorise the drug as it does fit traditional descriptors. I merely took issue with the simple grouping of MDMA as another psychedlic. However, since I don’t really give a shit and can’t look up drug sites at work, I’m letting it go.
Lesbo slashfic. That’s pretty funny (no sarcasm). It would be funnier if I knew who Mary Sue was, I bet.
Heh. No, there’s no legitimate reason for liking The White Stripes. That’s probably wrong, but it’s more to the substance of my argument. I never said ANYTHING I didn’t like was wrong to like, I focused fully on one artist that seems to be treading a very thin line between minimalism and sham. If you focused on that band, and explained why they were good, instead of generalizing everything to talk about me and my shortcomings, it would have been a different conversation.
In the context of you writing lesbo slashfic, you would be the “Mary Sue.” (“Mary Sues” in slashfic are characters who are thinly veiled versions of the author)
I can do that. Now I just need to know who Willow is. I know who Buffy is. She slays vampires, right?
I should stick to shows I watch. How about Marge Simpson - Peggy Hill lesbo slash?
You should also stick to music you understand. In which case, you had better make sure you’ve got your Tivo set to record Sesame Street.
The Ernie-Bert slash market is way too competitive for that. But to dumb it down even more, I could write slash on the Fox NFC pregame show, with JB, Terry, Howie, and Jimmy. Imagine the romantic complications.
Okay, that was a good comeback. I deserved worse for the cheap shot.
It’s not like I didn’t have it comin’, though.
I don’t think there is a Pink Floyd album in existance that I don’t think is incredible. I didn’t see the Pulse movie, but I was AT THE CONCERT and those 3 hours rank in the top 50 hours of my life as far as sheer amazing enjoyment. Just because you didn’t like their later stuff doesn’t make it crap. I think that “Bike” is one of the greatest songs ever… as are “Hey You” and “Not Now John” and “High Hopes”. Different eras, different styles, ALL STILL GREAT MUSIC.
I just heard about (and then found and listened to) the Scissor Sisters cover and I thought it was hilarious. Totally fun stuff. Loved it.
Btw, if you want to hear an amazing Floyd cover, listen to the Tufts Beelzebubs do “Hey You” sometime.
[apologies for the bump of a somewhat old thread]
And I was hoping this whole debacle was long behind me.