Random Rants From Random Users

[TRON.dll]

Resonance Cascade.............

[Avi]

Some of you may have heard the song "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock recently. He basically took the music from Sweet Home Alabama, changes the lyrics to something about singing Sweet Home Alabama "All Summer Long", and next thing you know it's all over the radio.

The main station that plays this song in New Orleans is a local country music station (which I am forced to listen to periodically at my job due to my co-workers' love of bad music). Before this song came out, the station has never...and I repeat, NEVER...played the original version of Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama (even though it is the same music as Kid Rock's version which they play every half hour). The radio station also had yet to play a single Kid Rock song, since Kid Rock began his career as a white rapper that sometimes screams heavy metal songs..and today's country music people generally hate that kind of stuff.

So, the logic of people that program the country music station goes like this:

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" = Not country music.

Anything by Kid Rock = Not country music.

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" + Kid Rock = country music.

I explained this to my co-workers, and their answer was "But it's a good song." My question was not about whether or not the song is any good, but the logic behind it being played on that particular station. Their rebuttal? "But it's a good song."

Let's see...Elvis Presley has a lot of good songs, but you never hear him on a country station. Some might even say that Celine Dion has a good song or two (I'd never say that, but some might), but you will never hear her on a country station either. This type of muddy logic is widely accepted with fans of today's country music. You'll never hear any of Toby Keith's fans talking about how he's making the same album over and over...they'll just keep buying them anyway. After all, that's good ol' Toby! Yee haw!

At this point, I have to remind myself that I discussing logic with people that country music is a cutting edge form of entertainment. To them, Led Zeppelin is too loud, J.S. Bach is too boring, and Charles Mingus...well, they just don't get it. I am at odds in this discussion, fighting an uphill battle that might not have a point to it after all. I have to ask myself "What am I going to achieve by winning this debate? Can I even really win this? Do I want to win this?" Nine times out of ten, when I prove myself to a co-worker they just talk s#*t about me behind my back afterwards about how I think I'm smarter than everyone here.

So, here's what I did:

In the morning, I came in and changed the radio dial to the classic rock station before we opened up. When the sounds of Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" came pouring out of the store's overhead speaker system at precisely 8 AM, everyone turned and looked at me. I said "Don't worry, it's just Kid Rock doing another country song". And for about five seconds, they all got quiet and stopped to listen to see if it was him singing. If it was, they would have accepted it and gone about their day, talking about that new Kid Rock song. After all, if their favorite country station played it, it must be a good song? Right?

And for the record, I am a big fan of Johnny Cash, the original Hank Williams and his grandson Hank III, George Jones, and quite a few others that are actually considered "country". What you hear on country music stations today is rock guitars, synthesized orchestras, digitized drums, all sung over with a slight country twang in their voice. Sorry, that doesn't cut it.

[Daddyo]

Don't forget Marty Robbins... Maybe the station feels the original alabama tune is more rock so doesnt get played, then laid back yokel music. And the people you work with are laid back yokels - yeeehawww

[data_ghost]

mmmph? wah? what is this 'country' music you speak of? before the abolishment of the 'country' in 1889 in England by a toff in London, the only music in the country was the sound of livestock mooing and causing foul smells.

music on radio stations is no better over here. due to the horror of shows such as xfactor (american idol -ish), our radio music is going through a phase of crap-amateur-synthetic-pop music. i can't even bear to turn a radio off without the fear of having that reflex which makes me through it out of a window.

Cross-atlantic satiric rant over.

[Avi]

mmmph? wah? what is this 'country' music you speak of? before the abolishment of the 'country' in 1889 in England by a toff in London, the only music in the country was the sound of livestock mooing and causing foul smells.

Keep your Brit history semantics on your side of the lake, buddy. Over here, "country" means that you wear cowboy boots, a ten gallon hat, a checkered button-down shirt, and possibly a handlebar moustache. It means that you drive an old pickup truck with a shotgun hanging on the gun rack in the rear window and a dog in the passenger seat, and about a hundred empty beer cans in the back of the truck bed.

Whoops! That's what "country" USED to mean! Back in the "good ol' days".

Today, it means you shop at Abercrombie & Fitch and consume fruit-flavored alcoholic drinks that end in "-tini". It means that you have no individuality and just follow the herd like braindead livestock.

[TRON.dll]

So, the logic of people that program the country music station goes like this:

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" = Not country music.

Anything by Kid Rock = Not country music.

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" + Kid Rock = country music.

Negative plus a negative equals a positive.

Seventh grade mathematics, lol.

EDIT: Whoops, I got an "F" up there, meant to say times, not plus, lol.

[SweatyPyro]

O man, it's got a to be a real pain in the ass arguing something to people these days....it's just like yelling at a wall now. Durrrr?!

Anyways, We had a sort of Upperclassmen meeting/assembly in high school the other day, with a group of students from a nearby college for their Save Darfur organization. When their president asked how many of us knew what Darfur was, the amount of hands raised was sad. Complete and total sadness. I doubt that 40% of us there raised our hands. Even if you knew what it was and didn't raise hands, the general output of that moment was heartbreaking, to say the least.

I think I might consider a way to fund raise for the National Save Darfur Organization, though it might be iffy.

[data_ghost]

May I revive this topic, at least temporarily?

Thank you,
I recently found a comedian unknown in England called Bill Maher. I'm sure you have heard of him. He hosts a 'edgier' version of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on HBO, so it's got swearing and more extreme views. For a while, I found him refreshing. He cut through the bullshit even better than Stewart did, because he was not held back by network TV's stupid censorship. He once said "In America, there are two political parties. There is a centre-right party, the Democrats, and the completely F@$K'ng crazy party."

I liked that.

But then I found out about his slightly more obnoxious views: he is a MILITANT atheist, much like Richard Dawkins but without the self-restraint. I applaud atheism, even if I am religious myself (Muslim), because they see things through science and think logically and rationally. I like that. But to then think that he is right and all theists wrong is just behaving like some of the most extremist factions of any religion, the people who he says that he deplores.

And then the really monstrous part.
In order to maintain his 'edgy' and politically incorrect reputation he takes a controversial (but popular) view that no American would dare oppose. That all Muslims are crazy nutjobs that want to kill people, oppress women, anti-Semitic, homophobic etc etc.

Now, rather archaically, American schools don't teach world religions. So it goes without saying that most Americans will only learn about other religions, such as Islam, through the media (Fox News springs to mind), and through shared unfounded and untrue prejudices. Thus, most Americans (including Maher) simply cannot differentiate between the extremist Muslims (a tiny minority) and the majority of Muslims, that are peaceful, and anti-terrorist.

It's because of this lack of understanding, I think, that is the problem. I am Muslim but was born in a liberal secular country that has a 99% Muslim population. The country's laws are liberal enough, in fact, that it is attempting to gain membership of the EU. I am a liberal Muslim, and that is not an oxymoron. And Bill Maher needs to form his opinions carefully, considering that he reaches out and influences millions of people across American.

Perhaps, Bill, considering that you support 'Project Reason', you could use reason yourself when criticising 1 billion Muslims for the actions and views of only around about 1,000 of those people?

[cryogen4000]

I have nothing to complain/rant about things could be a lot worse and they are for a lot of unfortunate people in this world///so! smile enjoy the time you have and good health! and get on with things

Smile.jpg

[data_ghost]

Catharsis paves the road to happiness. Rant away, kids!

Can I also say, that I've come across some of my older posts on here and they have been painfully horrid to read. I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt. So I apologise and thank you all for putting up with me before.

[Avi]

Write that ten times on the blackboard.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

I sound like an annoying illiterate 4-year old cunt.

Very good. Now, you can go play kickball.