anyway fuck talking about john lennon. he sucks compared to carole king and lauro nyro and joni mitchell anyway, lol get fucked john
2 Likes
in other news i got some benzo action going on so i’m less deranged for the mo
xanax is a benzo right? idk man. i tend not to use it even when i clearly should RIP
2 Likes
i really need to go to the doctor and the oral surgeon to get my wisdom teeth out but i have exceptional inabilities to do these things. it’s just one of those things where i need little help but i really don’t have a way to get that help? like i need almost child-like guidance and assistance with sometimes very basic tasks or else like
my health is probably VERY bad and it contribute to how bad i’ve felt but my doctor has not answered or gotten back to me so i probably need to find a new PCP and it’s like. bruh. i can’t… navigate what’s need to make that happen. so then i feel guilty that i’m lucky to have health insurance but i only use it for mental health stuff and not like… fucking regular health stuff got dam
1 Like
i really need to do some things that i don’t know how to do and i’m feeling worse than usual. sheeeeeit
1 Like
ì think saying simple things about a better world being possible is the most important thing an artist qua artist can do
1 Like
At the risk of relitigating a lot of this, I feel the need to maybe clarify a bit better where I was coming from with this stuff. Please bear with me! 
I wasn’t trying to suggest that expressing the possibility of a better world was a pointless thing for anyone to do. But I also think it is maybe a bit inaccurate to suggest that this is the most important thing a person can do…
I think people would be best served by both sharing the message and doing the actual groundwork to make that a reality, whether that means organising, financial aid to communities most in need, further education and political strategy, etc.
People’s individual circumstances are going to be different. Just to use someone in this very thread as an example, @meauxdal has expressed all the issues they’re having with getting their medical needs met. I wouldn’t dare to suggest that while they’re struggling so much they make it a priority above all their other needs to organize or get politically involved in some major way. If they find they eventually have the time to do that without neglecting their other personal concerns then that’s great! But all this to say that I’m not trying to hold everybody to some unreasonably high standard.
I think I was maybe foolish to center my criticism solely on John Lennon as my issue extends far beyond him. I was frustrated by a certain class of people, sometimes artists, who are afforded a unique position of power and privilege but choose instead to operate like it’s business as usual. Am I trying to say they’re “bad people” for doing this or make some kind of purely moral judgement? No. I think I’m just trying to express a frustration and criticism of their actions to illustrate what they could do instead to better serve themselves and everybody else. I don’t know these people as individuals, I don’t claim to know everything about them, maybe it was wrong to pretend like I know more about Lennon than I actually do. Maybe there were other struggles he faced that made what I suggested exceedingly difficult and I’m failing to see that. If that’s the case, then fair enough!
But I think ultimately I was just trying to express a frustration with things on a structural level and how certain individuals would be better served to directly address that head on rather than just provide messaging around it. Sorry if Lennon was the wrong person to use as an example for this, maybe that was a poor choice on my part! Think I just was using him as a launching pad to try and discuss a broader issue. Sorry for the rant! Just hate the feeling that what I was trying express could be misunderstood as saying “never express your want for a better world ever”…
Hopefully that clarifies things a bit?
1 Like
sorry i know i use obnoxious turns of phrase, but there’s a reason i said “artist qua artist” and not person!! of course there are a lot more effective ways to make a change than doing art!
2 Likes
you need never apologize to me for earnestly expressing your thoughts. i also would like to clarify that i have used the topic as a soapbox to rant about various little grievances i have with various public figures who have failed to understand the song, and because i’m not 100% capable of staying entirely on-topic i digress to various inane degrees. i say a lot of things against what’s effectively a strawman within the context of our discussion here, because i’m bringing my response to outside context without bringing the context itself in.
i usually try to at least present some decent version of the argument at hand but y’know i also like to dunk sometimes lol.
this is another digression! but… i think it’s good to be able to dunk and then able to come back later and be like, actually i’ve learned something new. for me personally, sometimes trying to dunk on something is the fastest way to learn way the fuck more about it than you expected to.
this happened with me and the band ‘the who’ earlier in this thread. i really had a mediocre opinion of that band until very recently and it was mostly because i felt compelled to “defend” or at least discuss the dunkery i opened this thread with. the more i dug into it, the more i dug out little biases and filled in important context.
i can clarify that i do not think you think e.g.
expressing the possibility of a better world was a pointless thing for anyone to do
or
never express your want for a better world ever
i do think some public figures thought and think that, and a great many more at least operate under the presumption that someone who tries too hard, too earnestly, too publicly must be brought down a peg. the song somehow reliably brings this concept to the forefront very quickly, it engenders some kind of conforming enforcement. i think that’s part of the fascinating nature of it. it becomes a sort of mirror that reveals something about the person observing it.
i don’t really mean to implicate you, strangelilfella, in any negative way or manner. i hope i can reasonably address some of your points emphatically while not impugning you, which was not and is not and almost certainly won’t ever be my intent.
2 Likes
Appreciate the clarification from both of you!
I think sometimes I get this instinctual worry after criticising something that people will just automatically assume I’m being a “hater” and then I immediately go on the defensive trying to emphasise that I am not in fact doing that… It’s a bit of a bad habit of mine, haha!
2 Likes
i’m not like a big steven wilson fan or anything but this is an excellent interview. he’s very personable
elle what is your fave holdsworth record, i have somehow never asked you this
1 Like
as i recall i’m quite fond of 16 men of tain, but it’s been a hot minute since i jumped in. good excuse to revisit the discography i think
no one asked for an idle tierlist of random popular music. too bad
for me:
- chappell roan
- remi wolf
- tierra whack
- bad bunny
- sza
- kendrick lamar
- lana del rey
- miley cyrus
positive:
- sabrina carpenter
- charli xcx
billie tier:
- billie eilish
morgan tier:
- morgan wallen
somewhat positive:
- japanese breakfast
- dua lipa
- harry styles
- doechii
- lady gaga
- ariana grande
- tate mcrae
ok:
- olivia rodrigo
- lawrence
- taylor swift
negative:
- gracie abrams
- beabadoobee
- laufey
not for me:
- ed sheeran
- alex warren
- lorde
You don’t like Royals? I’ve no idea what Lorde’s done since then but that’s a pretty cool song I think
utterly despise that song and every other song i’ve heard from her, correct
3 Likes
i’d have to turn that around and ask (despite it being a hyper-popular song globally) what the fuck do you hear in that that makes you say “pretty cool”
to me, that song has
a boring, irritating melody
exceptionally boring harmonic language even for pop music
actively terrible, condescending lyrics
it’s not even worth remarking on rhythmically, there’s nothing to note whatsoever
3 Likes
the only bones i’ll throw lorde’s otherwise intolerable song are
a) the harmonies on the chorus are good
b) the prosody of “let me live that fantasy” is very satisfying
yeah basically! i also like that it’s relatively minimal productionwise
2 Likes
i regret not paying more attention to mastodon while brent hinds was alive (rest in peace). the more i learn about him the more it hurts, there’s something so compelling about him
2 Likes
i think part of why i dislike it so much (aside from the lyrics) is it’s so fucking catchy but there’s nothing to hold on to. it’s like the worst form of disposable pop for me in that i can’t get it out of my head but i also can’t extract anything useful from it
the minimal production stuff just sounds like atlanta hip hop from 2000s so i guess that didn’t strike me
2 Likes