Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Stevo985]

15 hours ago, Jimzk5 said:

Boxing, well not boxing exactly but people who know knob all about boxing saying "I think frampton will knock him out in the seventh" and that sort of rubbish.

That used to be me until I lost a rather large bet with my mate on the Hatton vs Pacquiao fight and realised I knew absolutely jack shit about boxing

 

I still say that shit, but I caveat it with "I know nothing about boxing and that is a complete guess"

[MakemineVanilla]

On 2/26/2016 at 18:38, Xela said:

Kesha.

We don't know how true her claim is but you can't just publicly claim your manager has raped you without any charges being brought against him

But you can though, because there are no consequences for the accuser(s), even when, as it has been shown with the Jian Ghomeshi case, the accusers lie and collude with each other.

If a group of women are willing to do this out of sheer spite, we can't be surprised when a woman makes accusations through the media to get out of a contract. 

[Genie]

Why doesn't she just record 6 albums of nursery rhymes and just say there you go, take it or leave it?

[mjmooney]

28 minutes ago, Genie said:

Why doesn't she just record 6 albums of nursery rhymes and just say there you go, take it or leave it?

Quote

The “revenge recordings” of Van Morrison provide a fascinating test case of the limits of authenticity in pop music—how inauthentic and desultory can a gifted musician’s performance be and still retain musical value, if such it does?

The two years after the release of “Brown Eyed Girl” in June 1967 was a heady period for Van Morrison. He suddenly had a smash hit on his hands, reaching #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, his scorned New York record producer Bert Berns died, and he jumped from Berns’ Bang Records to Warner Brothers, for whofm he would record and release his masterpiece, Astral Weeks. After the death of Berns on December 30, 1967, Morrison found himself in a contract dispute with Berns’ widow Ilene; among other things, Morrison was barred from performing on stage or recording in the New York area. Morrison was already annoyed because he had had no say in the release of Blowin’ your Mind! in September 1967 and had only found out about it when a friend called to say that he had purchased it in a store.

As part of the process of switching from Bang to Warner Bros., Morrison had to deliver an album to Bang, and he did so in a single session (almost certainly), although nobody seems to have documented what date that session was. They appear on a compilation with the year 1967 named in the title (New York Sessions ‘67), and his biographer Clinton Heylin asserts that they were recorded in 1969. Given that Astral Weeks was released in late 1968, I find it exceedingly likely that the songs were recorded in early to mid-1968 at the latest. 

These tracks have made the rounds before—it was WFMU that brought them to my attention, way back in 2005. The titles make for an amusing read: “Ring Worm,” “Chickee Coo,” “You Say France and I Whistle,” “The Big Royalty Check,” and “Want a Danish?” certainly don’t sound like usual album fare. The longest of the songs clocks in at 1:36, and the shortest at at tidy 53 seconds. The whole thing—consisting of 31 songs—lasts just 35 minutes, and it would take a foolhardy gambler indeed to wager that the recording session took even five minutes longer than that.

You can feel the heat of Morrison’s contempt for the poppy fare he’d been pressured to produce for Berns—the first few songs directly reference “Twist and Shout,” with titles like “Shake and Roll” and “Stomp and Scream,” and a later one, “La Mambo,” is some kind of debased version of “La Bamba.” (Of course, at the same time, this could also signify some unconscious adoration or respect for the some of the foundational recordings of rock and roll.) Lyrically, there’s frequent mention of two phrases “funky Broadway” and “Sock it to me, baby,” although there are others as well. Several songs go in for some abuse of a random fellow named “George,” including “Here Comes Dumb George,” “Dum Dum George,” “Hold On George,” and “Goodbye George.” Me, I’d rather get to know the eponymous female of “Shake It Mable.” “Blow in Your Nose” is obviously a cutting reference to his first album for Berns, Blowin’ your Mind!—as is, I suppose, “Nose in Your Blow.”

Clinton Heylin in Can You Feel the Silence?: Van Morrison: A New Biography points out that “Thirty Two” contains a pretty withering condemnation of Berns’ production style: 
 

[Morrison] would later parody what he viewed as Berns’s tendency to over-produce in one of the ‘revenge’ songs recorded to get out of the Bang contract … mockingly chanting, ‘Yeah, we’ll get a guitar … we’ll get three guitars / No!, No!!, we’ll get four guitars / and we’ll get Herbie Lovelle to play drums / and we’ll do the sha-, sha-la-la bit.’

 
The lyrics to “Dum Dum George” are pretty direct as well:
 

This here’s the story about dumb, dumb George,
Who came up to Boston one sunny afternoon.
He drove up from New York City,
And he was freaky,
And he wanted to record me,
And I said, “George, you’re dumb.”
And he said, “I know. Why do you think I make so much money?
I wanna do a record that’ll make number one.”
Dumb, dumb.

 
It has been asserted that these tracks, variously called the “revenge songs” or the “contractual obligation album” are “devoid of any substance or originality or artistic merit,” but that’s very far from clear to me. Clearly Morrison felt that they were worthless, there’s little disputing that. And they obviously show very little variation. But in terms of sheer musical merit, they’re not bad at all—they’re funny, which is always a blessing, and Morrison’s urgent guitar strumming and rich voice are highly pleasurable to listen to. Morrison’s anger also makes for an interesting listen. Of course, we get almost none of Morrison’s vocal range and he sounds utterly bored by the songs, which matters. I still think they make fairly good tracks to put on at a party.

These tracks have appeared on a few different compilations, including the aforementioned New York Sessions ‘67, The Complete Bang Sessions, and the aptly titled Payin’ Dues.

THE ‘REVENGE RECORDINGS’: HOW VAN MORRISON GOT OUT OF A SHITTY CONTRACT

[rodders0223]

Ordering some astro boots off the sports direct. Go to checkout, they automatically add in a £1 catalogue and then when I select pick up from store they still charge the cost of delivery....at £4.99!

Whereas if you order with Burton or Next you can collect from the store for free.

Suck my dick Mike Ashley you fat rocket polisher.

[Brumerican]

On 26/02/2016 at 20:23, TrinityRoadSteps said:

Lets all do the Tomahawk chop 

Let's not brah !!

f***  FSU

Gooooooo Gators !!!

Edited March 1, 2016 by Brumerican

[dAVe80]

Two or three Liverpool 'fans' at work, who seem to be totally uncaring about losing the League Cup final yesterday. Not even a flicker of a bite, when the Man United 'fans' got stuck into them this morning. Obviously non of them went to the match, or I'd wager any match this season, or any other season come to think of it. What's the point of being that kind of fan? In a way I suppose I quite envy the lack of an emotial connection. It would have certainly made this season a heck of a lot easier. 

[villa4europe]

That's one of the things I'd say about Man City fans, at least they haven't lost their desire to win stuff, I've seen Utd and arsenal fans at Wembley station before me who left on the final whistle, not even stayed to watch their team lift a cup, none of this Mickey Mouse cup bollocks either, can imagine city fans had a great day yesterday

[Xela]

On 26/02/2016 at 20:07, maqroll said:

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians (dodgy name itself) aren't catching much flak at all. Their official logo is this racist atrocity-

 

 

This image is always used as a reference to why the Indians name and logo is wrong and it certainly proves the point

[Xela]

The BBC's sycophantic report on Chris Rock's Oscar performance. Seems to me they are trying a little bit too hard to praise it. The amount of fawning is reminiscent of teenage girls at a Bieber concert!

[dAVe80]

4 minutes ago, Xela said:

The BBC's sycophantic report on Chris Rock's Oscar performance. Seems to me they are trying a little bit too hard to praise it. The amount of fawning is reminiscent of teenage girls at a Bieber concert!

Not seen the BBC's reporting of it, but like Chris Rock a lot, and think he's a funny guy. From the bits I saw of his opening monologue, it seemed pretty amusing. 

[Xela]

He is a funny guy and I like him but my God, I think the BBC reporter ejaculated five times while writing the report! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35684489

Quote

Chris Rock put in the performance of his life as host of the 88th Academy Awards - and transformed what had threatened to be the most controversial of ceremonies into one of the very best.

The #OscarsSoWhite controversy that dominated the build-up to the Oscars - which focused on the fact that all 20 nominees in the acting categories were white - led to leading black figures in Hollywood, including director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, boycotting the event, while Rock himself faced calls to step down as host.

But rather than shy away from it, Rock used #OscarsSoWhite as the basis for some superbly satirical routines.

In fact he - and, to their credit, the awards producers - made the controversy the dominant theme, while managing to avoid it overshadowing the prize-giving or overly humiliating the A-list audience.

It was a stunningly deft work, and arguably something that no other host could have pulled off.

The tone was set by an astonishing 15-minute opening monologue that was simply thrilling to watch, not only in terms of its stagecraft and confidence, but also the sheer quality of the material.

There was no way Rock was going to try and avoid or play down what had been happening. He began by welcoming people to the "white People's Choice awards" before saying that "if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job… you would be watching [2015 host] Neil Patrick Harris right now."

As he continued, his targets got wider - and his points sharper.

He sought to put context around the controversy, arguing that, given this is the 88th Oscars, "this whole non-black nominees thing happened at least 71 times" but that black people did not protest before because they were "too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer".

'Sorority racist'

"When your grandmother's swinging from a tree it's really hard to care about best documentary foreign short," he added.

He was scathing about Jada Pinkett-Smith boycotting the ceremony - "Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna's panties. I wasn't invited" and her husband's lack of appearance on the nominee list for Concussion, saying: "It's not fair... I get it. It's also not fair that Will was paid $20m for Wild Wild West."

But he took on the wider context of racism in American society beyond the Dolby Theater - saying that the In Memoriam montage would just show black people that were shot by the police on the way to the movies.

Finally, he addressed head-on the question of whether Hollywood itself is racist, branding it "sorority racist".

Its people, including those in the audience, were "the nicest people on Earth", he said - but they were still not hiring black people. Their attitude, he said, was "We like you Ronda. But you're not Kappa."

The arguments made in the monologue defined the rest of the show - something that was particularly noticeable in the pre-recorded material.

Various black actors - Whoopi Goldberg; Tracy Morgan - were inserted into scenes from the best picture nominees, for example, to see how it would have changed them; the alteration to The Martian saw Rock himself simply left on Mars.

Rock also went to Compton to ask black movie fans there what they thought about films like Trumbo, Brooklyn, Bridge Of Spies or The Big Short - to be met with baffled looks.

"Are these movies from London?" asked one. It highlighted the gulf between what the Oscars reward and what certain audiences are actually enjoying.

It was not always successful. Actress-turned-Fox News pundit Stacey Dash's appearance - she came on to say "happy Black History Month" - was baffling to most in the audience, and led to a spontaneous mushrooming of online explainer pieces.

Meanwhile Rock's daughters going into the audience to sell cookies to the A-listers was sweet, if a little baffling.

But, as he did when first hosting in 2005, Rock kept things moving along at a real clip. This was a stripped-down show that romped along, with far fewer montages than usual and far more good gags.

They did not all come from Rock either. Kevin Hart's part was so impressive that he looks a genuine contender to be a future host, while Louis CK was on superb form, doing a hilarious routine around, of all things, best documentary short: "This Oscar is going home in a Honda Civic."

By the time Rock was saying Black Lives Matter in his goodbyes, this was already cemented as one of the very best ceremonies of recent years.

The Oscars had no idea when picking Rock that he would have faced such a challenge. But by sheer luck, they turned out to have booked possibly the only person in the world who could have made it work - and that's precisely what he did.

 

[villa4europe]

"up now on BBC, lessons on the fleetingness of fame for the young kardashians in the people vs OJ Simpson"

its a show about a former pro athlete murdering his wife and one of the biggest televised court cases in history...i hate that the show has to name drop them in every episode but BBC using it to plug the show? **** off

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

when people confuse Frankenstein with the monster.

[Mark Albrighton]

8 minutes ago, CarewsEyebrowDesigner said:

when people confuse Frankenstein with the monster.

 

[Stevo985]

Things aren't looking too good for my old man.

He's gone downhill big time the past few weeks.

[Mark Albrighton]

17 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Things aren't looking too good for my old man.

He's gone downhill big time the past few weeks.

That's terrible, I'm really sorry to hear that Stevo. Wish I could offer you something more than that.

My thoughts are with you, your Dad and your family. 

[tonyh29]

On 29 February 2016 at 18:40, dAVe80 said:

Not seen the BBC's reporting of it, but like Chris Rock a lot, and think he's a funny guy. From the bits I saw of his opening monologue, it seemed pretty amusing. 

I only really know Chris Rock from that film he did with Anthony Hopkins where he played his dead brother ... Which I enjoyed even if the critics didn't 

 

but I thought his oscar speech was rather pants  , not as cringe worthy as the Gervais awards speeches but still rather poor

but if the bookies are taking bets you might as well stake your mortgage that nests years best actor award will go to a black man 

[tonyh29]

On 29 February 2016 at 21:02, villa4europe said:

its a show about a former pro athlete murdering his wife ....

Surely It isn't as he didn't murder her according to a jury ?

[villa4europe]

That's what Johnny Cochran wants you to believe...

It's getting really good reviews and I don't think it's going to hold back, I doubt it'll ever put its cock on the block and say he definitely killed her but they are building up to him getting off had pretty much nothing to do with the crime and everything to do with bad police work, the media circus surrounding the trial and the racial tension of the time