This seems like an appropriate video to accompany a weak employment report, but it’s been in my head since I watched the last episode of Low Winter Sun. That’s the AMC program that follows Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is a hard act to follow, and I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with Low Winter Sun, because it’s kind of all over the place, but I do have to admire a program that will spend a couple of minutes just playing this song and showing one of the main characters driving home. Open thread to discuss anything but the SS, Snowden and Syria.
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Seanly
If I can’t botch about CNN’s latest shiny pro-war ball then I got nothing. I should move to another part of the airport gate I guess.
mistermix
@Seanly: You can bitch about forced watching of CNN in fucking airports.
Amir Khalid
Have Americans ever had to rise for the national anthem at the movie theater? This has been happening at my local cineplex of late. Granted, we’re in the period between Merdeka (independence day, August 31) and Malaysia Day (the anniversary of Sabah and Sarawak joining the federation, September 16). But I gotta tell you, it’s weird to be told to stand for the national anthem before watching Kick-Ass 2.
Yatsuno
I might haz 1% raise next year. Yay me.
PeakVT
Scariest jobs* graph ever still rather scary. On top of that, we’re 9 million jobs below trend employment.
* The hockey stick graph is the scariest of all.
Mnemosyne
Somebody brought it up in the TV thread from a few days ago, but I really came to love Treme. It’s a very shaggy kind of show that meanders all over the place, but once you accept that it’s not going to follow the usual format (ie cops/lawyers/doctors) and give yourself over to just following these people through their lives, it’s a wonderful show.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
I haven’t. I think it’s annoying enough at sporting events.
Chyron HR
Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds concept album: Too pretentious or just pretentious enough?
Trollhattan
“The Border” turned the action dial up to 11 last night. An imperfect show in many ways but I’m kinda hooked, anyway.
Still, am quite weary of the psychopath genius murrrrderer always three steps ahead of everybody meme.
When do we get “Justified” back?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I knew I was gonna hate a car dealer I was soliciting for a small local sponsorship was probably an asshole when I saw the showroom flatscreen had Faux News blaring.
Indeed, he sat me down and mansplained to me how the only real way to raise funds was in person (WTF, as I sat across from him) then told me I’d need to follow up with his son, to whom I’d originally sent the sponsorship request.
Thanks to those here who’ve joined Team Bella Q at the Stigma Busting Stroll. I’m grateful and you’ll get a tax letter shortly from the affiliate’s director. World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10 (next Tuesday) and the theme is “Stigma: A Major Barrier for Suicide Prevention.” So I’m blegging for a cause here.
Trollhattan
@Yatsuno:
Finally got offa furloughs starting July, after having lost one to three days/month much of the previous five years. Gotcher economic stimulus right heah.
raven
@Amir Khalid: I did when I was in Taiwan on R&R. The put the Generalissimo on the screen and let it rip. Now ask me what the fuck I was doing in a movie on R&R?
PeakVT
The olds is working, and da utes ain’t. This is both a symptom and a problem.
J.Ty
Ooh, I’m severely underpaid and other Mr. J.Ty is unemployed. Just got turned down after a three-hour interview ate my Wednesday, too, so that’ll make the paycheck lighter this week, to boot. Anybody got techie/digital archiving/data management leads in San Francisco? Don’t laugh, it’s harder than it sounds.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: started watching Treme the first season or two, cause it did my heart good to recognize so many of the city landmarks I was missing since I moved to DFW.
raven
@Mnemosyne: Treme is badass, fuckers with no love of music, food and drama won’t get it. It no stupid ass vampire shit.
raven
@PeakVT: I’ll be happy to take a buy out and make way for some baby-san!
Trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Plus, we’re usually glued to the sticky floor and can’t move.
lamh36
you aint’ gotta worry about me saying anything about the Sx3, I’ve reached the point where I have no more fucks to give on any of those 3 subjects.
Anyway, read this and thought, damn…bout time, my second thought was…damn skinny bishes!
Bye, ultra-skinny models: Full-figured fashion show comes to New York
Butch
I got moved to part time with no guarantee of weekly hours. Two weeks ago I got to pay bills and buy groceries on a paycheck for 12 hours.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, I love that show. Apparently few others than you and I do, but I really enjoy it. Whereas I don’t understand what people see in stuff like Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy. Hateful people doing hateful things for the hell of it and with no redeeming social value is not my idea of entertainment. And I can’t see where there is anything interesting enough sociologically (like Mad Men or The Wire) about the subject matter they cover to make it worth investing your time in such awful people. It’s the same reason I never liked The Sopranos. Awful people doing awful things and nothing really profound to say other than people suck. Well, I already knew that. YMMV.
Steeplejack
@Butch:
This is very similar to the bullshit of the “strengthening” employment numbers. Good jobs were lost; the new jobs are all too often bad jobs.
geg6
@raven:
No stupid meth head shit either. I can’t believe people love that crappy Breaking Bad and don’t watch Treme.
ericblair
@Roger Moore:
The last line of the Star Spangled Banner is “GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES!”
raven
@geg6: It’s too slow , just like the Wire.
sorry, missed your other post
MazeDancer
Discovered TaskRabbit.com today. It’s an interesting company turning freelancing into a kind of ZipCar app. It was mentioned on DesignSponge.com. Because being a TaskRabbit is a new kind of day job.
In order to become a Task Rabbit – as the people who provide services are called – you sign up for an account, and then the company screens and background checks you. And then, once you’re an approved Task Rabbit you can bid on jobs, or accept jobs that are posted for an offered hourly wage.
The site says the Task jobs pay between $19 and $29 an hour. The jobs can be anything people need help getting done – running errands, grocery shopping, handy person fix-it stuff, organizing a closet, anything. There are also options for companies to hire Task Rabbits for skilled labor, and some of those jobs pay more.
The service is available in big cities.
In some ways it puts some control and dignity back into the temp-based economy. People can choose when and where and how they work. It also channels money from rich people in big cities back into the local economy. And helps retirees and artists. You don’t have to go look for work, the work is waiting for you on your SmartPhone. No applying, just click.
Be interesting to see how it works out.
Yatsuno
@Trollhattan: They cancelled the last two furlough days we had. This pissed my union off to no end, since the IRS is trying to get out of paying out performance awards for this year. The problem is they are contractually obligated to do so. It’s in court right now and it’s getting seriously ugly.
Thlayli
@Yatsuno:
Hey, that’s 1% more than we’ve gotten the last three years.
(Outing myself: I work for the same outfit that Yatsuno does.)
JCJ
@Amir Khalid:
You have to stand for the national anthem in movie theaters in Thailand. Never have in the US.
Roger Moore
@ericblair:
FTFY.
Trollhattan
@Yatsuno:
Swear to bog they should ditch all those corporate/organizational “values statements” and just imprint: “Beatings will continue until morale improves.” SOP for everyone outside Wall Street and K Street.
lojasmo
Minnesota’s MNsure rates were just announced. Lowest exchange rates in the nation.
Yatsuno
@Thlayli: I ain’t complaining, I’m just not holding my breath for it to happen. It has to get past the teatards first. And we’re the parasites that keep the economy ffrom truly taking off dontchaknow.
ericblair
@MazeDancer:
Licensing, insurance, and figuring out how extensive the background check is. Will see how it works after the first Taskrabbits get accused of stealing jewelry, fall off the roof, or start an electrical fire. It’s good if this helps bypass useless gatekeepers, but not so good if it’s bypassing essential business protections.
PsiFighter37
Days like yesterday and today remind me of why I love New York City in the falltime. Clear skies, zero humidity, temperatures in the 60s with a breeze – it’s like I brought SF weather back from Labor Day to the East Coast with me.
More birthday stuff with the fiancee tomorrow (including what is shaping up to be a rager of a night with late dinner + drinks), but aside from that, planning to take it easy and watch football on Sunday. Is it too early in the season to put my head in a paper bag when I do the J-E-T-S chant?
Comrade Scrutinizer
@PeakVT: Some of us old fuckers ain’t doing all that damned good either.
Amir Khalid
@JCJ:
Until a few days ago, we didn’t have to in Malaysia. At any rate we hadn’t had to since before I was old enough to be going to the movies.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ll watch those shows with awful people as the leads. But they do tend to get tiresome after a while and you want to see some reasonably normal people on TV, too.
Mary G
@lamh36: @MazeDancer: Two really interesting links, thanks. The full-figured designer’s show is being sponsored by a non-profit; maybe some day someone will figure out that there’s money to be made in sizes larger than they usually make.
Trollhattan
@lojasmo:
Wow, that’s great. And Minnesota isn’t an especially inexpensive place, either.
The Monopoly-and-gun family from the previous thread better sign up, stat!
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: Though I must admit it’s oddly appropriate.
DFH no.6
Also been trying to get into Low Winter Sun, but I don’t think I’ll make it.
The best part of the last show was this excellent Sufjan Stevens song (and appropriate, given the milieu and all).
Huge plot hole that Breaking Bad’s Gale as Inspector Whatever-His-Name-Is from Internal Affairs wouldn’t have already surmised who did the cop murder from the witness’s description of the crime and the police sketch of the two suspects he saw (which very closely resembles the two murdering cops everyone knows were the last to be with the dead cop). I would expect Gale to be much smarter than that (particularly when he’s hard after one of them).
On a more serious, non-SS note, I think we’ve entered a time when full employment (or anything close to it) in the developed world is not only no longer necessary, but highly unlikely to occur under our current economic system.
We can make all the stuff we need and want, and provide all the services, without having anywhere near every able-bodied adult in our civilization working a job.
That would be our number one problem going forward as a civilization (what do we do when we don’t need everyone to work?) if not for the much larger real number one problem of environmental despoilation/global warming, which will (in a couple generations at the most) render problems like economic performance and employment pretty goddamn moot.
Everyone will have a job then — fucking surviving.
On that cheery note…
LanceThruster
@raven:
And yet True Blood has a much better kick-ass intro theme!
Boo-yeah!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yatsuno: That’s right, takin’ money from the hard workin’ JOB CREATORS.
BTW: I’m rooting for your Cougs tomorrow.
raven
@LanceThruster: I’ll take your word for it. I did light HBO back up for the Boardwalk.
PeakVT
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Of course not. Nobody is doing well except the 1%.
MazeDancer
@ericblair:
Actually, I was more worried about the Task Rabbits getting hurt. Some creepy person hires them and thinks it’s “Task Rabbiits with Benefits.”
But much to my surprise, apparently, no murders or horrid attacks have occurred via Air B’n B. And people post pictures of themselves and their homes – and then host strangers – all of which feel like ads for thieves or worse. So, knock wood for everyone’s continued safety.
Mnemosyne
@MazeDancer:
I’ve never tried it myself, but I assume that Air B’n B folks get to ask for full payment up front. That probably cuts down on creeps and thieves since they would have to pony up several hundred dollars first.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
I can watch shows with awful characters, but it’s gotta give me something besides the awful people. That’s why I watch Mad Men and watched The Wire. Lots of awful people but also lots of underlying themes that have meaning. I watched two seasons of Breaking Bad because I kept thinking I was missing something that everyone else was getting. But no, just horrid people that you want to die en mass. I had the same experience with The Sopranos. Just hated everything about every character and no hidden meanings. Just hatefulness and violence, no redeeming any of them. I find stuff like that massively depressing, not entertaining at all. I’m so happy Breaking Bad is ending so people will quit talking about it.
lamh36
@LanceThruster: I’m more partial to Treme’s theme song, but then I’m a NOLA native and “buck-jumping” mardi zydeco music is ingrained in us at birth.
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: They could, but who would notice if you didn’t? They used to play “This is MYYYYYY Country!” between the previews and the feature when I was a kid in the 70s. But think that was just Air Force recruitment. I remember the Thunderbirds streaking across the screen, and not in the fun 70s streaking way.
ericblair
@Mnemosyne:
I’d expect we’re going to get more decisions like in NYC where AirBnB rentals are considered illegal hotels, because, um, they are. In most places, you rent out for less than 30 days on a regular basis, you’ve got a whole bunch of zoning, tax, and building code problems. Similar to online ride services which are illegal taxis. It’s not a problem on a small scale, and you avoid a ton of the licensing, taxes, infrastructure costs, and so on, but when it starts taking off expect the local jurisdictions to start getting interested.
WereBear
@geg6: I am very much enjoying watching The Sopranos (having come to it late, not having HBO at the time.)
These folks are offered redemption and opportunities to reform. They even quiver on the cusp of taking them… and yet, mostly, do not.
It’s violent, admittedly. Yet I remember a show called Apple’s Way, starring Ronny Cox before he became famous for playing villains, and he was always good, and at the end of the show the misunderstood bad people decided to be good too.
And that was worse. That was boring.
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
The people behind you. The people to your left and right. You yourself. Rising for the national anthem is ingrained in people pretty much everywhere. Not rising is illegal in many countries.
Mike in NC
@Amir Khalid: Last theater where I saw that happen was in Newport, RI about 25 years ago.
Mike in NC
@Trollhattan:
We gave up on that rotten show with Kevin Bacon after about 4-5 episodes.
bluefoot
@Chyron HR: Definitely pretentious, but the music and the artwork are both good enough to offset it to “just pretentious enough.” Amusingly, this album has come up in conversation several times in the last month. Is it music nostalgia month or something?
MikeJ
@Amir Khalid: At baseball games I don’t complain too much about the national anthem, no matter how stupid I think the tradition.
During the seventh inning stretch when they assault us with God Bless America I make a point of singing David Seville’s Witch Doctor.
Mike in NC
@MikeJ:
Always makes us want to re-watch “The Naked Gun” with the late great Leslie Nielsen.
PsiFighter37
@MikeJ: I hate the God Bless America during the 7th inning – they still do that at Yankee Stadium every game, and it’s really annoying. Mainly just reminds me of how much a Republican Steinbrenner was about all that shit.
shelly
What ‘SS’ is this?
lamh36
ok, so I read this book, right. It was about these 2 couples who fall in love. One couple is straight and one couple is gay.
So anyway, it’s your garden variety trashy chick-lit romance but the storyline about the gay couple was actually very interesting. The setting was the music industry. One of the guys was a big time young country singer and the other guy was a rock singer. The rock singer was openly gay, but the country singer was out at home among friends and close family.
So anyway, the country guy and the rocker guy fall in love, blah, blah, blah. So the country guy gets “outed” by a rival musician in the country music industry. The country dude not only loses his contract, his back up band, his endorsements, blah, blah, blah. Ultimately the story had the usual HEA that the chick-lit ususally does.
So anyway, that got me to thinking, I’m a big pop/r&b/hip-hop fan, so I think I know what would happen if say some big young cat in that industry comes out, I don’t think it would matter. A rapper, might be a little harder, but the whole Frank Ocean bit, makes me think, maybe it might be getter better with rappers…but I don’t nothing about country music.
So my question, people always talk about hip hop and LGBT issues, but what about country music? Does country music have the same attitude about it all as hip hop allegedly does? I mean, has there every been an out and proud big name gay male country music singer? And if not, would it matter if it’s an established star vs an younger star…?
Any country music fans wanna give me your take?
ETA: I’m not discounting women like KD Lang or Queen Latifah, although I”m taking them out of the equation because for whatever reasons, lesbians dont’ get the same reaction as gay males. Especially in the hyper-masculine edge to country and hip hop
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
Any song but “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch is sacrilege. And that includes modifying it to say some kind of food that they sell in the concessions stand rather than peanuts and cracker jack. I prefer saying “home team” over substituting the name of the actual home team, but I’m willing to turn a blind eye to that one.
MikeJ
@lamh36: A quick google tells me that Chely Wright and Steve Grand are each touted by different people as the first openly gay country music singers.
I’ve never heard of either one of them, so it probably didn’t help their careers. Of course I don’t follow Nashville’s nasal pop stars that closely.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I’ve always wondered, how did Macklemore go over in the hip-hop/rap world? Obviously, “Same Love” is a brilliant song, but he’s a white rapper chastising hip-hop for being homophobic, so I don’t know how well it was received. Obviously, Jennifer Hudson loved it or she wouldn’t have sung that song at the VMAs, but I did wonder.
I can’t answer the question about country music because any country music other than Johnny Cash makes me want to gouge out my eardrums despite being Whitey McWhiterson.
lamh36
@MikeJ: Yeah, the google is my friend.
But the question was is country music attitude when it comes to gay stars the same as the attitude that everyone attributes to hip hop music?
IDK, I can actually see on the horizon an gay male rapper making it in the rap game. But much like Obama and the Presidency, he has got to have MAD SKILLS, so much so that you cannot deny his MC skills or flow. For example, one of the biggest hip hop rappers in NOLA bounce is Big Freedia and he’s openly gay.
Outside looking it, I’m not sure if I could see a country music star doing the same?
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
I think of heavy metal as being pretty hard core, but Rob Halford doesn’t seem to have any problems being out. I suspect that it would help a lot if the musician coming out were well established, though.
kdaug
Caught a good chunk of LWS. It’s one of those “I see what you’re trying to do, but you need to improve on the execution” kind of things.
Although I think the blond bartender is smokin’.
gene108
Read through the health care / health insurance threads by the new FP’er.
One of the unique things about employer based healthcare is it gives incentives for employers to make sure you never, ever hire someone, who is sick.
I don’t mean this as a slight against employers. You compete against other firms, so for example if John Whorfin, Inc. can offer a plan, with lower deductibles and co-pays than John Bigboote, Inc. JWI has an advantage over JBI.
Or JWI deducts less per paycheck than JBI, because JWI has never had an employee need a heart operation, have a brain tumor removed, or whose wife delivered premature triplets*. Sure JBI has some guys with diabetes, high cholesterol and other chronic conditions, but no catastrophic claims that really can screw up your ability to get insurance.
So lets say you have Mr. Anderson looking for a job, but Mr. Anderson has cancer, which has gone into remission. Even though Mr. Anderson is a great fit for the job, you sure as hell do not want to offer him benefits, because he could screw your insurance premiums all to hell.
In short, our healthcare system has introduced life boat diplomacy into our hiring and firing decisions.
*In NJ fully insured plans have to cover fertility treatments and these treatments do occasionally result in triplets, who are often premature and can cause havoc in the insurability of small or medium sized firms.
P.S. Obamacare doubles down on employers having to provide coverage for employees, which is really at odds with an employers self-interest in the long run, because the chances of avoiding catastrophic claims is impossible, if you are in business long enough. Hopefully this law will be a transition to move off of employer based coverage, but considering how long it has taken to get this far in covering everyone, I am not holding my breath expecting anything else big being done anytime soon though.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: honestly, I don’t think people like it much. Not so much cause the song is bad, but the idea that he is “chastisizing” the community doesn’t sit well.
He is def considered more of a pop rapper rather than someone who is actually a part of the game, if ya no what I mean.
To be honest, the mold for “white rappers” who want loyal hip hop fanbase and who not trying to be the next “pop” rapper, would be either Eminem (yeah I know he had the homphobia issue too) or if you remember old school the Beatie Boyz. They def strayed from the hip hip game where they started, but the Beasties still hold a place in the hip hop quilt.
Macklemore is seen as a pop artist, and honestly, once the pop world is finished with him, he def won’t have a hip hop fan base to fall back on
MikeJ
@lamh36:
http://www.queerty.com/is-country-music-ready-for-an-openly-gay-star-20130712/
DFH no.6
@PsiFighter37: Came close to having guys around us start a fight with my grown son and myself at a D-Backs game right after the start of Dim Son’s Iraq War when we sat down during the two-minute hate of God Bless America in the 7th inning (stood up and sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” like always).
Had several get in our faces about it as we walked out after the game, too.
After that I just made sure I was up by concessions between the top and bottom of the 7th. Pretty sure they’ve stopped doing it now.
Haven’t gone to too many games in the meantime anyway since I’m not a Nat’l League fan (still, FSM help me, a Cleveland Indians fan decades after moving far away from the place whose best slogan is “We’re not Detroit!”).
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
That’s kind of what I was assuming. I listen to a lot more rock/pop so that’s why he’s on my radar. I was just curious to find out if he was considered a “real” rapper or just another dilettante.
Though you have to admit, when it comes to white pop music rappers, Macklemore is about 10,000 times more talented than, say, Vanilla Ice.
J R in WV
Our neighbors live about 100 yards up the hill on the ridge top. When they go to work, their 3 dogs come down to our house, where it isn’t so boring. Now I’m having trouble getting them to go home on schedule. What to do?
We won’t feed them, so eventually they will climb the hill, but the wait is hard for everyone.
I like dogs, but there are limits.
lamh36
@MikeJ: ah. ok. well then I guess I was kinda right about hip hop being a little more advanced than country music in some respects.
Frank Ocean has had the opposite of this woman’s story. I’m pretty sure his sales went up, he was on tour with hip hop’s biggest names, and got beaucoup Grammy noms and awards and such.
Yeah, there was some idiots who tried to make hay (Chris Brown dumb ass comes to mind), but there was no stomach for it, and basically died down.
Then again, I don’t think Frank Ocean is a good case. He thing was writing a about his first love who happened to be a man, but now I believe he dates women, so I guess that was more “acceptable” in the hip hop community
lojasmo
@Trollhattan:
We have a pretty effiicient health care system. In fact, IIRC, Obama touted the Mayo Clinic when pushing PPACA.
All our insurers are nonprofit, by law, as well.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: hell, that “rapping grandma” from back in da day was a better rapper than Vanilla Ice. Dude got in cause his producers stole a hit song and use it
beltane
@J R in WV: Try shouting “Go home!” in a mean voice. This works with our neighbor’s dog.
lojasmo
@Amir Khalid:
Not here! I used to rise but turn my back to the flag when I was an unruly high school student. Now, I just omit “under god” when reciting.
DFH no.6
@lamh36:Sorry, but I wouldn’t have much respect for any “community” who would dis Macklemore over “Same Love” cuz they felt “chastised” (boo-fucking-hoo and too damn close to home, apparently).
I expect that from rightwing religious assholes (but I repeat myself) who he directly chastised in the song. That’s who they are and they can fucking own it (and I figure they would, proudly).
Not “sitting well” with hip-hop folk, though? Too fucking bad for them. Makes them just as much assholes as the American Taliban.
Like fundamentalist black preachers who (quite rightly) feel persecuted and oppressed in our society due to their race, but then have no problem showing their own fucked-up bigotry toward homosexuals, they can go right ahead and fuck themselves far as I’m concerned.
lamh36
@DFH no.6: no one likes to be “chastized” by someone they are inviting into their homes.
Has nothing to do with “fundamentalist” Black preachers. More than anything, it’s the idea that hip hop people need to be chastened as if other genres of music aren’t as misogynistic, homophobic and ignorant.
Also more than anything, Macklemore is “dismissed” because in terms of actual MC skills, he isn’t any different than your garden variety kid who writes a socially conscious poem for school, and reads it aloud to the class.
Other than the subject matter, “Same Love” and “Thrift Shop” are throw away pop hits masquerading as hip hop.
Give me the Beasties, give me Eminem, give me 3rd Base (90s rapper), give me Cypress Hill…
It’s one thing to have mad MC skills, and it’s another thing to have bare minimal rhyming skills.
That is Macklemore.
piratedan
@gene108: that’s Big-boo-tay…..
lamh36
@lamh36: Also too, the question was asked what people thought of Macklemore’s and Same Love was mentioned, so my answer focused on that part.
The overall gist though is what I included in my bigger answer upthread.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
I think Vanilla Ice got a bad rap, with regards to his ability.
I think he’s more the victim of recording execs deciding they wanted a white rapper, found this 20 year old white rapper in Dallas and then set about creating what became Vanilla Ice by telling him, “hey, white boy here’s 7-figures, now do what we say”.
I’m not sure how good he’d have been, if allowed to do his own stuff because his reputation became so toxic due to the Vanilla Ice image that was created 24 years ago. I’m not sure how someone rebounds from that sort of stuff, because there’s a large set of folks who just became Vanilla Ice haters for how To The Extreme pushed rap to white suburban audiences, who had otherwise ignored the genre, by targeting teenie-boppers and tween-aged kids, especially white girls.
Felonius Monk
@DFH no.6:
A fellow traveler, how wonderful. Still an Indians fan, although I’ve lived in NY longer than I lived in Ohio. But when you grow up an Indians fan seeing the likes of Bob Feller and Larry Doby, you are hooked forever. And I can never, ever consider becoming a Yankees fan — it goes against my genetic code.
Keith G
@MikeJ: You asked me about Dirk Gently last night. I had turned the lights out by then.
Answer: No, but thanks for reminding me. I will look it up.
DFH no.6
@geg6: Didn’t get what everyone saw in Macbeth or Hamlet either, I take it.
That’s ok, you’re not alone in that, I’m sure.
But your first instinct about BB was correct – you are missing something that (just about) every critic and viewer is getting.
Doesn’t make you a bad person or anything, just not a particularly good judge of drama (doesn’t mean you’d have to “like” it – I don’t like Faulkner very much, for instance, but I get why he’s canonical American literature).
Viva BrisaVegas
@Amir Khalid:
Not being American I suppose this doesn’t count, but as a kid we had to rise for God Save the Queen at the pictures. They would play a short of the Queen reviewing the Horse Guards and everyone would stand, even us Republicans (as in anti-Monarchists). But that was 40 years ago.
Anyway, today I’m off the the polling booth to do my duty by my country and vote Labor, while waiting for the inevitable landslide to the Liberals tonight. Don’t let the name “Liberal” fool you, they are about as liberal as Darrell Issa on a mean day. In fact they’ve been taking Tea Party lessons for the last three years and Emperor Rupert has thrown everything he has behind them, and it has all worked.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
FWIW, I think most of the “chastising” in “Same Love” is aimed at the (mostly white) teenagers who would be buying the record. I doubt there are very many pastors who read (or write) YouTube comments or say “that’s so gay” in their everyday conversations.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: I actually agree with that. Macklemore is def making music that appeals to that demo and that’s fine. But in the grand scheme of things, there are so many good rappers with mad skills (lets forget about attitude issues and talk about MC skills alone) and in the eyes of those hard core hip hop fans, Mackelemore is really just a blip.
My “chastisizing” remark was maybe the wrong word, but it’s the one that came first to my mind
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: That is the way I interpreted it as well.
lojasmo
I love Maclemore. End of story. I do like beasties, em, et al, but Mac is a talented and very progressive artist..
lamh36
@lojasmo: look, I like Mackelmore. In fact that Thrift Store song was a good one. I even like “Same Love”.
But the idea that Mackelmore would win a Best Hip Hop Award over the likes of Drake, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar even Kanye West, is just absurd
I’m more inclined to think that the accolades were more because of the subject matter than the actual hip hop skills.
BTW, I mention the awards thing because the original question from Mnemosyne involved JHud and Macklemore singing Same Love together.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I’m assuming he’s more along the lines of, say, Linkin Park or another of those rock bands that was influenced by hip-hop and rap but don’t actually fit into the genre. I really like his stuff because I think his lyrics are funny and clever, but I could see that a fan of the genre wouldn’t really be interested.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: yeah, ya know I think it all started with Limp Bizkit, and somewhat with the Beasties when they came away from their classic “party” raps and got more into rock/electronica/political aspect of the later Beasties. I consider Linkin Park students of that Bizkit genre, who became masters over the teacher.
I consider them a rock band though more than hip hop.
MikeJ
BTW, for fans of old school, Ovation has a documentary on Darryl MacDaniels(DMC of Run DMC) on right now.
DFH no.6
@lamh36:No, I’m totally cool if Macklemore and his songs are “dismissed” by the hip-hop crowd because he’s a lousy rapper or his songs are lame or whatever (and being white certainly doesn’t help, Eminem and the Beastie Boys being major exceptions to the rule).
Nobody has to like his stuff or even give him the time of day.
But my point about “too fucking bad – makes you an asshole” if he’s dissed because his “chastisement” in “Same Love” hits too close to home stands.
No one “invited him into their house”. Any more than the (way younger than me) indie hipster music crowd I mostly hang with at concerts (cuz that’s the music I mostly get into these days) invited, I don’t know, Zola Jesus into our indie hipster “house”. I find that outlook frankly absurd.
And there is no music genre as misogynistic and homophobic as rap/hip-hop. Not even close. Not even country dreck.
Or maybe I’m just missing all the “bitches, ‘hos, and fags” in dream-pop (the lyrics are usually pretty hard to make out, that’s true).
lamh36
@MikeJ: classic.
I bought this Hip Hop Experience game for my Wii and I was sooo disappointed because “It’s Tricky” was not included as one of the songs. It’s on the X-box version.
Love Run-DMC. But my fav song has to be “Peter Piper”, it’s a big sample for alot of the NOLA song back when I was in high school. The party didn’t get started until they played it…lol
Omnes Omnibus
@DFH no.6: Did you know that Zola Jesus grew up in central Wisconsin? On a farm? That has always seemed weird to me.
Ahh says fywp
50 Shades movie? I want off this planet.
? Martin
@lamh36:
That’s the mistake. You can’t forget about those things, because those things are a real problem for hip-hop.
Omnes Omnibus
DVR alert: TCM is showing Metropolis in a few minutes.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: Followed by Things to Come, Escape from New York, and Brazil.
Must be dystopia night.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: Just in time an article about exactly what we were discussing.
From the Black Eyed Peas, to Macklemore, Rap Lightens Up
mk3872
169k new jobs now == WEAK job report, eh?
Sounds a lot like a rebranding of jobs growth baselines over the past several decades.
I`m sure once President Paul is sworn in, we`ll go back to saying anything in 6-digit monthly growth is good.
It`s really the difference between expectations set for a Den pres, which are always higher than a Repub prez.
mk3872
169k new jobs now == WEAK job report, eh?
Sounds a lot like a rebranding of jobs growth baselines over the past several decades.
I`m sure once President Paul is sworn in, we`ll go back to saying anything in 6-digit monthly growth is good.
It`s really the difference between expectations set for a Den pres, which are always higher than a Repub prez.
JordanRules
The thing I like about Mack is that he’s very aware of the drawbacks of being white in the broader circle of the hip-hop genre, but he’s also aware of the priviledge as well. There are things he can do and areas he can tap because he’s white and he knows it.
There are underground gay black rappers FWIW.
Hip-hop is still a baby genre and we have our issues, we’re growing old with it now and figuring things out just like every other genre finding it’s way. There are good people and bad people occupying the space just like every other sphere of life. If you find yourself feeling myopic or particularly turned off by the image of rap, remember where you get the majority of the images from. Oooogly booogly. When you find yourself surprised when you learn about another side of a rapper or something you consider more relatable…it’s damn near like O’reilly being surpised eating dinner at that Harlem restaurant with Rev Al. There’s so much more for us all to learn, trust.
Montysano
Speaking of Sufjan: after such a strong start, he’s kind of disappeared from the scene.
gogol's wife
@PsiFighter37:
By far the worst song Irving Berlin ever wrote. And that’s saying something. (He wrote some great songs as well, don’t get me wrong.)
Mino
If Obama comes back from G20 with a proposed climate agreement, I expect him to approve Keystone. He needs to get it over with, so butt-hurt Dems have time to recover and rationalize an environmental administration that approaches the heights of James Watt.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/09/06/pol-harper-canada-us-climate-change-strategy-letter-keystone.html
Chris
@DFH no.6:
I’m no big fan of “God Bless America,” but at least it’s no “Proud To Be An American.”
ETA: I had a weird experience going to a 4th of July concert on the National Mall a few years back with one liberal and two conservatives, where I was actually the only person who stood for the national anthem. Still not sure what that’s about. I’m not one to rebuke people if they don’t feel like standing, even for the anthem, but it was still fucking weird.
Tommy
@Mino: As a hippie liberal that hates the concept of Keystone, not thought that. But you might be spot on. Obama IMHO always has this little shiny thing to show me before he does something I don’t like.
sacrablue
@lamh36: It’s all one big damn joke to the fashion industry. Plus size models wear a size 12 and the average American woman is size 14. FSM help the rest of us, we will never have anyone better than Omar the Tentmaker.
burnspbesq
Huge night of World Cup qualifiers starts in a little over an hour with Mexico – Honduras. US – Costa Rica and Panama – Jamaica start at 10:00 Eastern.
We’ve never won a WCQ in San Jose, but we’re playing really well recently and the Ticos are giving up a big home-field advantage by playing at the new Estadio Nacional instead of at the Monster’s Cave.
If Mexico loses and Panama wins, El Tri will wake up tomorrow morning in fifth place in the group, looking at playing the US in Columbus on Tuesday night. That would be unprecedented. Amurka fuck yeah! And also too, Vamos Catrachos! Y viva Canaleros!
Roger Moore
@mk3872:
It is at least disappointing when we’re trying to bounce back from a recession. Combined with downward revisions to the previous months, it is a fairly weak report. We need to be generating a lot more jobs than that if we want to put a serious dent in the unemployment rate.
Tommy
@sacrablue: I am a fit dude. I have to often shop in the “junior” section of a store. I am 44. Let me say that again. I can’t as a 5’4 male, 128 pound, find cloths that fit me. I could drop a few pounds. Not skinny. Fit but not skinny.
I’d hate to think what it is like for a women to shop for cloths.Are they all supposed to be 5.9 and 110 pounds?
b-town
So anyone here know B. Dolan? I’m partial to Which Side Are You On, which I find a lot more palatable than “Same Love”. Then again I always thought “Which Side Were You On” would make a good sample.
JPL
@mk3872: One of the writers on Marketwatch did mention most of the jobs were full time jobs. The losses had to do with part time employees, which could be attributed to students returning to school. Full time jobs mean that businesses are not afraid of the great socialist program called Obamacare.
It wasn’t terrible news.
Steeplejack
@mk3872:
Not saying it’s Obama’s fault, but that is a pretty mediocre jobs report except in the context of the Great Recession from which we are (allegedly) emerging. The economy needs to add 90,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth, but we need to add about 250,000 every month for the rest of Obama’s administration just to get back to the “break-even” point of December 2007 (including population growth since then). So, yeah, 169,000 is pretty anemic.
Krugman had a pretty good post on this in his blog a few months back, but I can’t find it at the moment, so I’ll throw out this Zero Hedge link for the cite-hungry. It’s from April 2012, but it is reasonably in line with other stuff I have read.
The only way this fits into some “blame Obama” conspiracy theory is if you believe the equally ridiculous idea that he is some sort of black Superprez who wields fine-grained control over every aspect of the economy. There are a lot of factors that go into the employment situation, but presidentin’ is probably not even in the top five.
WereBear
Yes. SATSQ.
There are thriving outlets for womens’ clothes for, you know, actual women, but they are on the web. Stores loathe having actual sections for such folks any more.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Try to be male, 5’4″ and well heavier. Damn, I haven’t been 128 since college.
sacrablue
@Tommy: Apparently. A few manufacturers make larger sizes, but they are clueless in their patternmaking. Often, I believe they just draw a big outline around a size 10 pattern and cut from there. That would work if I were 6’3″, but that is not the case. I gave up years ago. The only option I have is to lose 70 lbs and have a couple of attached items reduced surgically. Then I could be fashionable. NOT gonna happen.
mk3872
@Steeplejack: What I found interesting was today’s common commentary on the report focused on new metrics like participation rate to make the news sound worse. WaPo`s Wonkblog, for instance, called it “terrible”.
But the participation rate has been in decline since 2000, yet you NEVER heard news coverage during W’s years of unemployment rates being skewed by participation rates!
It’s a supposed travesty that I imagine will disappear from coverage again under a GOP admin.