Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Okay, that was my bad, but there's still 'in which we live in' to contend with.

shrug emoji

speaking of Bowie, just yesterday I was reading something about his favorite books and realized I'd never spotted "Jean Genie" / Jean Genet before

That list he made near the end? I seem to remember people thinking it was too middlebrow but I kind of liked it.

Middlebrowie

Yeah his top 100 list. Genet's not even on the list, but his name comes up in the discussion of it in this book called Bowie's Bookshelf.

I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt on that and had it as “in which we’re living” not that that makes it much better.

― Alba, Wednesday, December 9, 2020 6:29 AM (three hours ago)

yeah i had "in which we're livin'" which seemed colloquially correct nuf

"Appellate Court" refers to "appeals." Just clicked the other day.

I should take this to the "Irrationally Angry" thread, but "If this ever-changing world in which we're living / makes you give in and cry..." is perfectly sensible and, as far as I can tell, grammatically correct.

I did recently learn that "House of Commons" means "House of Commoners"--not being British, my brain never made the connection between Lords and Commoners.

I'll bet the Commons chamber is drafty and has less majestic cloakrooms than the Lords.

Okay, that was my bad, but there's still 'in which we live in' to contend with.

― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, December 10, 2020 12:56 AM (sixteen hours ago)

shrug emoji

― Nhex, Thursday, December 10, 2020 1:13 AM (sixteen hours ago)

But if this ever changing world, in which we're living, makes you give in and cry, say "live and let die."

Nhex otm, this line is perfectly fine either as a lyric in a pop song or as an English sentence.

lol xpost

I'm gonna take the bait and say that line is fine grammatically, but clunky as a lyric. Still a good song.

clunky as a lyric

tbc this is also an excellent pop lyric:

Listen to those dancing feet
Close your eyes and let go
But it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
Bop shoo-wah
Bop shoo-wah
Bop shoo-wah

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Spinning all around the floor
Just like Rogers and Astaire who found love without a care
Stepping to our favorite tune, the good times always end too soon

Everybody's dancing lift your feet, have some fun
Come on everybody, get on your feet
Clap your hands I'M *SCREAMING*

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance
Everybody dance
Everybody dance
Everybody dance

Everybody dance
Everybody dance
Everybody dance
Everybody dance

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap you hands

Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Everybody dance, doo-do-doo-doo
Clap your hands, clap your hands

I had a student write a paper about that song once!

My favorite part of it is how the tone gets a little demanding when she sings "come on everybody, get on your feet."

Kinda hard to dance while doodooing

You enjoy music where the point seems to be a dude screaming about Satan.

(sorry neanderthal I get very protective of Chic. I once stopped seeing someone because they said they didn't like Chic)

I read Nile's book (which was great), but he keeps going on about his and Chic's philosophy of DHM - Deep Hidden Meaning. And I've never understood what the hell he was talking about.

For that song in particular, the student wrote about the way the spectres of Rogers and Astaire hang over the song-- they signify the good life, whiteness, refined sensibility, but also the hi-jacking of Black music to suit non-Black audience needs. In some ways, it is doing an interesting job of exhorting its Black audience to go for the good life, knowing full well it might be taken away or corrupted. (That was the student argument).

I think they were onto something. There are both obvious and less obvious critiques of whiteness in Chic's music, IMHO, but that particular line always struck me as weird.

Interesting. I do think that's a lot of heavy lifting for a single line to do, especially given that single line is functionally the *only* line in the song. I love Chic, but always kind of felt like at least part of them was sometimes taking the piss. You get these chop-monster rock guys (Nile always said how much he loved Kiss and Roxy Music, two of the whitest bands ever) sneakily beating the purportedly dumb dance guys at their own game after learning (or being taught, in Nile's case, iirc) how to adopt their chops to a different medium. Kind of reminds me of a band like Bad Brains, who were miles better, musically, than their peers in their chosen "primitive" medium.

now I have “Bad brains! These are the bad brains!” stuck in my head

lol

Maybe heavy lifting, but I guess as a poet, a single line doing that kind of work doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me.

Also, I often feel insane saying this, but I've never been able to get into Bad Brains-- whatever it is that other people hear hasn't clicked. And I grew up a punk kid!

lol table

see and I'm defensive (somewhat) of Bad Brains. well....I guess TO A POINT. their reign at the top was short like leprechauns

They burned bright but fast, like leprechauns.

you need to find your edge so you can lose your edge maaaan

^got that attitude

I always assumed the term "mug" used for a face came from the drinking vessel, and indeed it probably/possible does (old drinking mugs were apparently decorated with funny faces). And of course one verb definition of "to mug" is "to make a funny face." And *that* is where the term "mug shot" comes from. Not only were criminals getting their "mug" photographed, they were *also* notorious for making funny faces - mugging - to be less recognizable.

were they though

That Dr Jekyll's name was supposed to be pronounced "Jee-kill" instead of "Jek-ill".

https://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/jekyll

Letter to the Times, Nov. 28, 1980:

Sir,

Mr Roger Lancelyn Green (25 November) asks whether it is known how Robert Louis Stevenson intended the name of Dr Jekyll should be pronounced. Fortunately a reporter from the San Francisco Examiner, who interviewed Stevenson in his hotel bedroom in San Francisco on 7 June 1888, asked him that very question:

‘There has been considerable discussion, Mr Stevenson, as to the pronunciation or Dr Jekyll’s name. Which do you consider to be correct?’

Stevenson (described as propped up in bed ‘wearing a white woollen nightdress and a tired look’) replied: ‘By all means let the name be pronounced as though it spelt “Jee-kill”, not “Jek-ill”. Jekyll is a very good family name in England, and over there it is pronounced in the manner stated.’

Yours faithfully,

Ernest Mehew

I guess 'Hyde' is pronounced 'hide' like you'd expect, hope so

That's pretty interesting.

This article says that 'Jeck-ull' probably became standard because of the 1941 Spencer Tracy film version.

https://interestingliterature.com/2013/11/guest-blog-the-surprising-truth-behind-jekyll-and-hyde/

I've heard it pronounced Jee-kil before.

This changes everything

That's OK, it'll change back by tomorrow morning.

Dr Hee-kil and Mr Jive

they are a person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxxSIX3fmmo

“You’re putting me on,” etc.

that the uk has the third highest population in europe after russia (which i somehow don't think of as in europe given it's width) and germany.

it also has 11m more people in it than when i was in school and learnt these things.

all those immigrants innit

Most of Russia isn't in Europe but most of its population is.

> all those immigrants innit

dad, is that you?

At least one student a year will say 'look, it's Je/Kyll - like the French, I kill!' and think they've cracked the whole case wide open.

When the Roy=King discussion was going on upthread, I was thinking that Leroy then must be French for The King.

Violent J(ekyll)

Le roi is my mojo man

I thought Leroy was etymologically from The king. is it not then?