"Use other words please."

Where did I use 'scribes'? I dread to think.

Glitch is better than squirm at least. I'm too fond of 'glacial' by half.

Not that I'm about to read them all to find out, but you get the idea...

Revolutionary: I believe I was always already aware that this was a technical word, deployed by advertising agencies, to let you know that yr favourite supermarket product now came in packaging no longer cuboid, but TETRAHEDRAL! Yay.

Stunning: No it isn't. It's mildly amusing/surprising/diverting.

Ethereal: As noted over on Indie-a-Genre, this is now a corporate genre-name, acc. Tower records (i.e. like Reggae).

i was thinking of this before the thread was posted, but now i've gone and forgotten all of them and, even worse, i've probably even used those examples in recent writing.

pretentious: salvageable, actually, provided we can make the old big world use it as unalloyed praise

But yeah, sorry.

Sorry? since when did converting to glum stalinism just as your first work becomes a cause celebre (Aragon) or just attacking everyone who ever helped or admired you in print, and refusing lucrative commissions from all the major french newspapers (Breton) constitute a hack dimension? perhaps you're getting mixed up with Salvador Dali?

But •assiduous• curators of their own gallery-of-the-future post-revolution reps: which I just seriously wanna get up between sometimes, and bugger about with. I tht of including Dali, but it wd have taken the heat off the others.

x0x0

I'm not sure what annoys me more: that it has become an ugly shorthand for 'anally retentive', or that it's only used in such a limited 'slag off' way, compared with the original Freudian sense. I'm not an expert on Freud, but I seem to recall an anally retentive character being about much more than alphabetising your CD collection and making lists.

"myth" as in "the rock myth" - was about to use it in the Depeche/League thread and suddenly thought HOLD ON.

too easy and vague by half

(Kid vs scientist: who'd want to be anything else anyway?)

Dinosaurs rooled! For 70 million years!! Badly designed? To get rid of them, the cosmos had to hurl a rock the size of Birmingham — at Mexico!!!

Also (somewhat related, tho not somewhat rock-related): "FAT CATS"

I'm sorry, excuse me, just HOW is this headline shortcut going to help stir up class rage against capitalism?

Cats are great, fat cats are bigger, thus better QED.

Might as well call 'em Honey Bunnies or Wonky Donkeys...

"Chameleon" (Tanya made this point once but she nicked it off me or Pete) - David Bowie a rock chameleon i.e. ever-changing, unpredictable BUT chameleons blend into the background, so it's more like Soup Dragons-y bandwagon jumping AND the only colours they can do are various shades of dull green yellow and brown so 'unpredictable' is a bit off too.

(And this word is doubly evil if used in the same sentence as "punk rock")

Like, yeah, I can even *say* it with a nice French Canadian accent. Where did that stupid expression come from ?

Post Schmaltz should be used more often.

my absolute least favorite is when musicians who are perpetual side players or have played with a lot of different bands are described as "promiscuous"

forgot what thread i'd opened and was struggling to tie that description to "Get Closer" by Seals and Crofts

From the 'pitchfork is dumb' thread, this exchange made me let out an involuntary guffaw:

I am in favor of descriptions that describe the actual sounds, especially if they have points of reference — I’ve found old albums or bands to listen to that I hadn’t heard after reading a review of a new one I liked.

The reviewer should not, however, say that a song sounds “like artists X and Y had a baby”

― untuned mass damper (mh), Thursday, August 15, 2019 6:34 PM bookmarkflaglink

what if the baby took acid tho

― Οὖτις, Thursday, August 15, 2019 6:36 PM bookmarkflaglink

in the last few months I've been seeing people misuse (intentionally or unintentionally) "gaslighting" to mean a variety of things that are very far removed from gaslighting. People seem to be using it as shorthand for "you are disagreeing with me on this thing and I think you are a moron for having an opinion that is so obviously wrong". It's been misused that way on ILX on a few rare occasions. It was misused that way by butthurt Star Wars fans who were upset that John Boyega had the audacity to say that Reylo made no sense as a shipping. I saw two people arguing today about a festival lineup and one of the two accused the other of gaslighting because they suggested that the only reason they didn't like the lineup was because they were elitist and narrow-minded (???).

a lot of it seems to be thin-skinned people who can't bear to have their worldview challenged and weaponize it in an attempt to shut down the debate. it's frustrating because though we're a long way from it, like "fake news", it's a word that can easily be stripped of its meaning fast if certain bad actors repurpose it.

“butthurt” is probably also a good word to avoid ;)

it's been imprinted within me after years of ILXing, old habits die hard.

trolling = disagreeing now, losing any sense of meaning it may have had

psychedelic

Still better than 'on acid'.

Also i hate "OCD" used as shorthand for "I'm very tidy and don't like clutter".

I have mild OCD and yea that ain't it.

I really fucking hate the word "monetize" but it will be a useful indicator of who should be first in line for the gulags, so maybe I'll have to put up with it for a while.

I sort of wish there was a better word for what people really mean when they say "nature," i.e. bucolic settings, outdoor space, greenery, fresh air. None of this is necessarily "nature." People even refer to farms as "nature" when they are very far from natural. "Nature" is often miserable and something to be escaped. A lawn with a small patch of woods behind it is as man-made as the house overlooking it.

otm, i'm always trying to get architecture students to be more precise about this. pretty much everybody wants their building to "connect with the nature" but what exactly that means to you, and how you're going to do it architecturally, is a space of ten thousand possibilities.

and, like, why it's supposed to be a good thing!

“project”

It’s an album or an EP. Why did this new term take hold?

Maybe someone told them “Use other words please.”

No fan/listener would say it — “Have you heard (artist)’s new ‘project’?” So why do artists use it?

i would have asked the same thing about the word 'artists' tbh

make a certain sense from the artist’s pov tho - these days who knows in what form(at) the stuff you’re working on will see the light of day: mixtape? album? EP? or god forbid, only a few scattered singles or buzztracks?

whereas the fan/listener only sees the end product

plus projects are cool of course

isn't 'project' used to refer to it when its in its embryonic state, just to suggest that they're in the process of assembling the album/EP?

seems p harmless to me.

Nah, it’s used for the finished product: https://nypost.com/2020/08/07/victoria-monet-jaguar-interview-album-project/

i saw some great artists last night at brownie's. man, some really good performances. i can't wait to hear the new projects they're working on.

I blame Alan Parsons

make a certain sense from the artist’s pov tho - these days who knows in what form(at) the stuff you’re working on will see the light of day: mixtape? album? EP?

this is otm

The line btw “mixtape” and “album” seems to have become blurred, but that’s another story.

I was thinking about how people often start a follow-on sentence with ‘Indeed...’ when they’re writing but rarely when speaking. I’m not a fan, but indeed, it’s often a useful way to show your workings out

It makes sense with the likes of Ty Segall or Ethan Miller, who lead a few different bands at any given time. But for a specific release, no.

I say "Indeed" in face to face conversations all the time. It's a very useful word.

I don’t say “indeed” (in speech or writing) — though sometimes I do try to write using my “speaking voice,” and the language ends up sounding impoverished. Hemingway I’m not, I guess.

OK, I laughed at it here. I guess she uses the term b/c it’s more than an EP, but less than an album?

https://i.imgur.com/vKnc67w_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

"classically trained"

I feel like "self-taught"/"autodidact" is the inverted equivalent of this. Brought to mind by:

His mother Susan Collier is a violinist, conductor, and professor at the Royal Academy of Music's Junior Academy.[8] Collier's maternal grandfather, Derek Collier, was a violinist who also taught at the Royal Academy and performed with orchestras around the world. Collier says, "We sing Bach chorales together as family – it's just so much fun."[7]...

Collier attended Mill Hill County High School in north London and The Purcell School for Young Musicians in Bushey, Hertfordshire.[11] He briefly studied jazz piano at the Royal Academy.[12]... Collier received the ABRSM Gold Medal for the highest mark in the country for his grade eight singing result in 2008.[14]...

Collier is a self-declared autodidact.

“jabs”
“shots in arms”

luv 2 see it happening; but cringe when I encounter those words, for some reason

It’s either that or ‘microchipped’.

How do u feel about "fauci ouchie"

lol, the worst

I mean they literally are "shots" so I don't get the second one, unless it's just the "in arms" part you object to

Yeah, maybe there’s something kind of dehumanizing about it? It feels sort of like a military-style figure of speech (akin to “boots on the ground”)... guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with that—a military campaign metaphor is not inapt here—I don’t know why it bugs me. I’d be fine with just “shots.”

pump n dump

sorry

I think "shots in arms" is public health jargon. It does sound kind of militaristic, but it's the way doctors think.

Yeah it would refer to vaccine doses actually deployed in disease control, as opposed to available reserves.
“Jab” is twee English public school slang and I wince every time I hear it.

I suppose you can only say “administered vaccines” so many times (especially in a short communication that already uses the words “vaccine supply,” “vaccinated,” and “vaccinators”).

it’s akin to “bums on seats” which is even more unpleasant

Yea who sits that way. I sit on my head

“tirelessly”

^still don’t like this one

"loosies" (for unreleased songs)

Thought it meant singleton cigarettes for sale in a bodega.

Ok boomer

ok fine, I've only ever heard "loosies" used that way in one place (an ad for a podcast). But that term is absolutely what makes the ad annoying. morrisp OTM.