Things You Just Don't Care About

i really really extremely do not care about the nordic saga that is america’s excruciatingly long and boring search for an opposition leader

― karmic blowback for dissing pip and jane baker (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, March 8, 2020 11:32 PM (two days ago)

Metaphors aside, I think n+1's editors nailed it in the front pages of a recent issue, which began thusly: "THE WORLD’S RICHEST COUNTRY with the highest rate of child poverty among OECD nations, the United States also enjoys the distinction of having the lowest voter turnout combined with the longest political campaign seasons." And continued:

The permanent campaign offers a spectacle of participation without the mechanisms of participation. Following a candidate and tweeting frenetically in their favor makes you feel like a supporter of not only a person but a worldview. But national campaigns are private affairs driven by money, consultants, and marketers. They drag on for years, and then continue virtually unabated while the candidate is installed in office (or preparing to run for office again). The conservative political scientist Hugh Heclo called the permanent campaign our “Anti-Constitution,” which “prescribes instant responsiveness to the continuous monitoring of the people’s mass opinions and mood. . . . The permanent campaign is not the way Americans do politics, but the way politics is done to them.” Under the spell of the permanent campaign, vocal supporters merely submit, voluntarily, to this “continuous monitoring.” To waste months of one’s life following the minutiae of a campaign is the experience of mass politics in our time.

Well that oughta make Almanac feel better.

n+1 otm

xp I am offering moral support for the position of "not following US elections," an option I wish I could avail myself of!

To waste months of one’s life following the minutiae of a campaign is the experience of mass politics in our time.

thanks for posting that bernard, it’s perfect

Whether Trump has coronavirus and if he is being tested properly

all the things people suddenly seem interested in due to CV19

youtube yoga? no
zoom parties? where was all this happy clappy solidarity when I was having a nervous breakdown lads
PE with joe wicks? fuck off

otmfm x infinity

Prince Charles and his mild cv19 symptoms.

fucking truth bomb. plz to add "drinking and watching a film together on twitch or whatever the fuck" to the list. let die in peace.

xp

let me die in peace

the olympics, cancelled or otherwise. oooh I've just beaten 2500 m record by an 8th of a millisecond.. how fucking riveting. No darts? what a bag of shite.

I like the modern pentathlon. Five sports which require a lifetime of training without much crossover, people falling off horses and missing their targets in rifle shooting, that's something I can relate to.

I really enjoy cycling, the sport anybody could win if they had enough drugs and time on their hands to pump their thighs up and down for 8 hours a day every day

Well we currently have the time...

Turns out Prince Charlie travelled from England to Scotland during lockdown on Monday with his fucking virus in his pocket and now I do care.

I like the bit in short track cycling where they have to balance on their bikes without going forwards

I would rather play video games than win an Olympic bicycling medal thanka

any and all livestreaming of musical performances

camaraderie very otm about pentathlon

Yeah PP I'm like, "you guys know there are already like a billion filmed musical performances out there"

If I wanted to watch people play guitars into a poor-quality video camera I would have already been doing that last month

But I probably will do some because all my musical friends are doing it and I am a sheep baa baa

Yeah, it's just a weird response. I mean, I get why people are doing it because people are scrambling to make lemonade form lemons, and good on them for doing so, but it's not like we're exactly starved for content. I mean, we can watch multi-camera angle videos of Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Black Flag, and the Grateful Dead in their prime, any time we want. Why would I want to watch my friends playing ukuleles in front of a webcam?

brb leaving a scathing review on this travesty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH-ycguHLBU

Why would I want to watch my friends playing ukuleles in front of a webcam?

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:36 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Scathing attack on beloved ilxor Neanderthal

Few things are as satisfying as watching overhyped British athletes falling flat on their arses, sometimes literally, in Olympic finals - the relays are especially delicious.

I mean, we can watch multi-camera angle videos of Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Black Flag, and the Grateful Dead in their prime, any time we want. Why would I want to watch my friends playing ukuleles in front of a webcam?

Couldn't you logically extend this argument to any musical creation? "I can listen to In a Silent Way and Bernstein's recording of Beethoven 5. Why should I listen to some noodlers on Bandcamp (or overproduced teenagers on the radio etc)?" People still go out to see live music in real time, or at least they were doing so; what other substitute is there rn? There are definitely some shit livestreams going on (although probably no less shit than what you'd find at a million open mics) but also really good artists doing this.

I get that for at some folks it's a path to a personal connection. Neanderthal is, indeed, a beloved ilxor, and I enjoyed his video!

I get the appeal of seeing my bandmates and local scene friends because I have personal connections with them.

Or a truly beloved artist doing something special and/or not the usual as a "hang in there" gesture, sure.

But a lot of the current new content is... not those

T/F: You have been the person in the corner of the party with a guitar

fewer irl parties = more e-parties

i have a 1950s book abt "the state of music now" which at one point argues that the wide availability of of high-quality high-fidelity professional classical music on LP means that the desire for amateur performance of every kind will seoon die (implied: this will be a bad thing, bcz it cuts music off from its needful roots = ppl who don't yet know how to make it properly trying it out in public)

in fact very nearly the exact opposite happened = an upsurge on a world-historical scale of self-taught musicians playing music of the quality they aspired to and enjoyed, at one another (it's called rock music)

https://i.imgur.com/Sp54ACv.png

I'd rather watch Ben Folds on Chatterbate than this.

Britney Spears reposting a meme with "re-destribute (sic) wealth" buried in the middle of it.

YMP, I think the deal is that a lot of the current content is other people's bandmates and friends, except that it's happening on platforms you have access to instead of homes and bars you wouldn't visit otherwise. Just a matter of knowing what to ignore, probably.

For the record, I enjoyed Neanderthal's video! Dude can sing.

Which thread was it on?

basically some of this stuff is friends cheering each other up and some of it is self-promoters gonna self-promote and nobody makes you watch any of it so let a thousand terrible ukulele gigs bloom, i can ignore them

tbf Neaderthal's uke is twee-free

Neanderthal counts as friends!

To sum up, I dont care whether a musician I wouldn't listen to anyway plays an online gig I won't listen to.

seems axiomatic really

the guys who just bust out and start playing weezer on acoustic guitars at parties are of course awful and they’re still awful when they preen on the internet

Neanderthal rules tho, obv <3

there was a special awful feeling when hearing a group of young men singing "say it ain't so" at the top of their lungs in the next room. at least, there was back when i was a younger man. not sure if that still happens. and i used to love that song!

Guys who turn up to house parties with a guitar and start playing wonderwall obviously need to be jailed indefinitely

I'm only ever around men in a group at work, and they mostly aren't young.

I love the NHS as much as the next britisher but 'clap for carers'? c'mon lads

fucking joke.

i have a 1950s book abt "the state of music now" which at one point argues that the wide availability of of high-quality high-fidelity professional classical music on LP means that the desire for amateur performance of every kind will seoon die (implied: this will be a bad thing, bcz it cuts music off from its needful roots = ppl who don't yet know how to make it properly trying it out in public)

in fact very nearly the exact opposite happened = an upsurge on a world-historical scale of self-taught musicians playing music of the quality they aspired to and enjoyed, at one another (it's called rock music)

― mark s, Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

What is the name of this book? I want it.

PE with joe wicks? fuck off

tbh I think Flavor Flav is back in the fold

I love the NHS as much as the next britisher but 'clap for carers'? c'mon lads

Worse things than the clap right now I'd imagine.