My grand theory of how politics works
Jacob Weisberg, who is apparently working overtime to give Sarah Palin a lifetime’s worth of material for examples of liberal elitism, lashes out at the American public:
In trying to explain why our political paralysis seems to have gotten so much worse over the past year, analysts have rounded up a plausible collection of reasons including: President Obama’s tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, the blustering idiocracy of the cable-news stations, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for any important legislation. These are all large factors, to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.
Anybody who says you can’t have it both ways clearly hasn’t been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later, with the economy still deeply mired in recession, a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but opinion polls over the last year reflect something altogether more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, climate change, and a whole host of other major problems. Sixty percent of Americans want stricter regulations of financial institutions. But nearly the same proportion says we’re suffering from too much regulation on business. That kind of illogic—or, if you prefer, susceptibility to rhetorical manipulation—is what locks the status quo in place.
Weisberg is, of course, a man of superior judgment. That’s why he helped Bob Rubin write a self-serving autobiography informing us of Rubin’s measured method of probabilistic decision making that gave him exception wisdom in both the business and the political world. And look at how well that’s turned out for him!
Now, I’ve been known to fume and rant about the fickleness of the American voter. They basically want you to balance the budget while cutting taxes and keeping the military, Medicare and Social Security fully funded. That’s, like, insane and so forth and also impossible.
So, OK, the typical American voter won’t ever win awards for deep understanding of policy issues. But I also don’t think Americans are particularly ideological in the sense that most of them either read the Nation or the National Review. Rather, they vote based on a key metric that I like to call the “Is This Guy’s Shit Working for Me?” quotient.
Put it to you like this: FDR was economically farther to the left than just about any president in American history — hell, can you imagine what Glenn Beck would do if Obama ordered the confiscation of all privately held gold as FDR did?
And yet, the American voters elected him to a record four terms as their president. Why? Because his shit was working for them. He took steps through the Works Progress Administration and other initiatives to significantly lower the nation’s horrendous employment situation. He set up Social Security to help ease older workers into retirement to make room for younger workers. The Wagner Act helped make organizing unions easier, which in turn helped people negotiate for better wages.
In other words, he decided that the best course of action during the Depression was to directly help people. Obama and his team of economic wizards so far have settled for a strategy of doing just enough to ensure the economy doesn’t collapse and nothing else. To put it politely, most people are correctly concluding that this shit isn’t working for them. 10% unemployment and a whopping 16% U6 are catastrophically high numbers that are causing immense psychological damage to millions of families across the country. The American people may not be policy wonks, but they know when they’re getting the shaft.
UPDATE: Here’s some classic stuff from Rubin, sounding just like Lord Weisberg:
[T]he economic problems that he did acknowledge were blamed on just about everyone but the major U.S. financial players.
Rubin said part of the problem is that we need a “more educated electorate” to hold politicians accountable. Without that, the U.S. won’t be able to overcome long-term economic challenges, like the troubles surrounding social security and budget deficits, or the new problems created by globalization.
Actually, what we need are more educated elites who know how to run a company without crashing it into the ground.
In 1936 and in 1940 American voters asked themselves, “Am I better off than I was four years ago” and answered “HELL YES!” and re-elected FDR.
The fact is, the solution is simple. Cut taxes, socialism and regulations and let the free market work.
The average American voter may be stupid and uninformed and believe crazy shit, but I think there’s pretty much no evidence that if they were brilliant and obsessively informed and believe nothing but the most rational evidence that the policymaking establishment would be leading anything other than the billionaire bailout society economic model we’re leading now.
How would a perfectly reasoned and informed electorate have prevented Max Baucus from taking health care reform down into his dungeon with his special sub-sub-sub committee of 3 Republicans and 3 conservative Democrats (to avoid the Democratic majority on the Finance Committee he chairs) so that they could spend 74 days shittying up the bill for insurance and pharmaceutical interests while gaining zero Republican support and leading the Teatards mass a screaming incoherent rebellion against Obamahitlerstalin? (I mean, assuming you allow for the existence of Teatards in this reasoned electorate universe.)
Also, wishing that the electorate would be different in ways you prefer is probably not a great electoral strategy.
It’s a model John Kerry and the Democratic Party followed in 2004, including the ‘surely the voters are too mature to care about my reaction to being called a fake veteran traitor as long as I repeat enough times in a droning monotone voice that I served in Vietnam’ approach to wishing the electorate was like you wanted it to be.
You go to elections with the electorate you got, not with the electorate you might prefer you had.
It’s not just that. You’ve got a corporate media packed with concern trolls (see Carl Leubsdorf, Jr., David Broder, etc.) who had no problem with Bush and Cheney more than doubling the debt with their tax cuts and wars, but now are VERY CONCERNED about the deficit!
What makes this even more effective in poisoning the public debate is the widespread myth that they are part of ‘liberal-biased’ media.
~
Also, if you’d just stop all the spendin’, somehow things would turn around and jobs would appear and Washington would listen to the average voter and America would be the great country it was in 1740.
you work with the electorate you have, not the one you wish you had!
In the 1930s, the major news media was also dominated by the bosses and the business classes and reflected the views of their owners and their most elite leaders.
The difference is that back then, there were huge and widely read and listened to media sources backed by labor unions, socialist, farmers’ associations, and various and sundry ethnic groups and rabble rousers, not to mention the hugely significant African American press. Their subscription and reader and listener numbers were often higher than that of the major money media.
Now, you have the information vortex completely dominated by the major money media, with the emergence of internet / blog sources for that minority of people who give a shit.
Following the time honored sports trope “Go Big or Go Home”, FDR era democrats chose the former. Unfortunately, modern dems have apparently chosen the latter.
In FDR’s time, the Southern reactionary bloc were Democrats, and they were Democrats who were happy to back FDR’s policies as long as they brought BIG GUBMIT MUNEE into their states and as long as they didn’t dare make the negroes think they could get all uppity. (I.e., the reason FDR couldn’t touch general health care reform was that the segregationists [rightly] feared that such federal involvement would eventually make a white hospital have to admit blacks, etc.]
Now, the Southern treason bloc all became Republicans in the twenty year period after the passage of the Civil & Voting Rights acts and in the height of Reaganism.
The fact is, the solution is simple. Cut taxes, socialism and regulations and let the free market work.
Ah. so conservatism is like alcoholism.
When you’re dying of cirrhosis of the liver, the solution is to get drunk. got it.
(I know he’s a parody troll. But at this point, show me one who isn’t)
But at this point, show me one who isn’t
Original Troofus. Non-parodic, nonsensical, unfunny, dumb as a rock.
No, the problem with alcoholism is that you’ve got all these anti-drinking and anti-liquor sales regulations and all these liquor taxes.
If you would finally free up the liquor industry from all these anti-drinking propaganda Stalin campaigns and these oppressive regulations and all these liquor taxes, then people could afford more and better liquor.
And I’m pretty sure alcoholism is only caused by the bad liquor, so this would help fix the problem. And also Jesus.
By the way, yet another example of right wing, this time ‘libertarian’ bullshit argument that starts with the position that since people could act in a certain way, actual reality must mean that they like the way things are, we don’t need regulations, and we need to just fantasize that people might just happen to act the way we wish they would.
There. You see? Because people certainly have the capacity to disregard the likely wholesale corporate purchase of election-related advertising, this means that such corporate ad dominance have no effect because people could choose to disregard those ads.
Wishing makes it true! Libertard powers, activate! Form of, a loudmouth douchebag!
By the way, if you want to get angry about numbers, bear in mind that directly hiring all the 11,000,000 net job losses / jobs which needed to be created to keep up with population growth at $35K / year would cost $385,000,000.
You want to jumpstart the economy? Put every single jobless American to work for about half the Pentagon budget.
It’s also roughly the yearly average cost of the Bush Jr. upper class tax cuts.
So, there you go: we could have put every single non-jobbed American to work (and maybe spent a bit more for benefits) for about as much as the Bush Jr. tax cuts are costing us.
But, that would be Communist and Socialist and evil, so instead we’ll spend trillions of dollars on stuff not producing jobs.
That’s supposed to be $385 billion, not million. And yes, since the Bush Jr. tax cuts were estimated to have cost in federal revenue about $4 trillion over 10 years, do the maff.
Ah, so now I know who Matt Millen was taking advice from. I *knew* he couldn’t be so incompetent on his own!
The fact is, the drugs I’m taking really don’t control the voices in my head.
It’s not that people are stupid, though they are. It’s that people are gullible.
Actually, what we need are more educated elites who know how to run a company without crashing it into the ground.
Why is that mutually exclusive. Why can’t we have both more educated elites and a better-educated electorate? Not saying that if the Unwashed Masses took a handful of Dr. Fischbein’s Genius Generating Brain Enhancement Lozenges, all our problems would suddenly be solved; but at the same time, if people were better equipped to identify and reject the bullshit that gets piped to them daily — on the right and the left — then maybe those educated elites could actually get shit done.
I mean, if you’re wishing for rainbow ponies, you might as well wish for sparkly unicorns while you’re at it.
By the way, if you want to get angry about numbers, bear in mind that directly hiring all the 11,000,000 net job losses / jobs which needed to be created to keep up with population growth at $35K / year would cost $385,000,000[,000].
You want to jumpstart the economy? Put every single jobless American to work for about half the Pentagon budget.
We could give this a catchy name, like the PWA or WPA or WAP or something.
Oh God, Obama’s gonna have to start World War 5 in order to get re-elected isn’t he?
Starting wars and allowing terrorist attacks is only good for Republicans, dontcha know.
~
How would a perfectly reasoned and informed electorate have prevented Max Baucus from taking health care reform down into his dungeon with his special sub-sub-sub committee […]? – El Cid
A perfectly reasoned and informed electorate would have responded to such a stunt by kicking conservatives to the curb rather than electing more Republicans.
And Baucus would know that — so he wouldn’t be able to hide behind “the American people want a more centrist Senate”.
The real problem is not the general population but the fact that there is little to no regulation of the news media. To put it in rational choice terms; the vast majority of people spend their time maximising their utility by working, and therefore have little time or inclination to think about politics. So, there needs to be some division of labour – people who’s job is to keep everyone else informed so they don’t have to waste their time doing it themselves. Many people assume that this is already the case, these people watch pundits farting out of their faces on CNN, NBC or FOX and believe that their opinions are based in reality, when in fact they are not. If there was some kind of accountability or regulation in the media then the problem of a ‘dumb’ electorate would solve itself.
Oh, I don’t know, how much every year are spent on ads? That is really all the MSM is, isn’t it ads, and I mean the headline top of the fold alleged news stories.
So, if ads work, then everyday in everyway we are being sold a bill of goods. Why shouldn’t people believe it, if that’s all they hear?
I think both solutions would help a lot. We are a country full of relatively well educated, but still very dumb people. But then a lot of people put a lot of effort into keeping them dumb.
Hey, when it comes to American capitalism and the FREEMARKET, nothing succeeds more than massive, massive theft and collapse.
The wingnuts decry “elitism” when it comes to government – you can’t have educated, experienced experts running the government, because they’re elitist and convinced they know better than the people.
But the solution to the economy? Give all the power to the richest corporations and individuals and let them run the economy, because they know better than the people.
Cognitive dissonance is the life breath of these people.
Actually, to be more serious about it, the executives really didn’t have much of a personal financial incentive to run by the rules you’d prefer. Why work hard for a few million a year when you can run wild in a non-regulated casino economy grabbing as many tens or hundreds of millions or billions for as long as you can get away with it? And if things do crash into the ground, what do you suffer but maybe a bit of Congressional light-handed questioning and grousing by internet bloggers and a few published pundits?
a buddy who is otherwise fairly intelligent once told me that if he sees it on both Faux and CNN he thinks it’s probably true. (face palm)
I think the problem is that people too easily forgo long term interests for short term gain. I mean that’s just human nature. It’s not like corporations benefit from global warming catastrophe it’s just they’d rather make the shareholders happy now rather than avoid catastrophe later, which they wouldn’t even get credit for if it were to happen.
careful, guys. You know that this week’s talking point is condescension
I’ve completely re-thought this whole War Between the States thing and I’m now in favor of secession of the thirteen southernmost states of the Union from the Union.
To my Confederate brothers I say, good luck and write if you find work.
I say, and I rarely say this about fellow Georgians, EL CID FOR PREZNINT.
By the way, if you want to get angry about numbers, bear in mind that directly hiring all the 11,000,000 net job losses / jobs which needed to be created to keep up with population growth at $35K / year would cost $385,000,000.
At the time of TARP, when the noise machine was blaming the financial woes of all the financial institutions in all the world on all the black people who bought houses they couldn’t afford because of Fannie Mae, it took me roughly ten seconds to compute that for the trillion dollars proposed in the bailout, the government could have bought outright four million $250000 houses. That would have been enough to keep the house of cards upright, unless:
1) Barney Frank bought houses for a whole lot of penniless black families OR
2) We can bailout banks, but we can’t bailout people! That would be Socialism! OR
3) Maybe the problem wasn’t Barney Frank at all.
The wingnuts could have done the same computation of course, if mathematics didn’t have a liberal bias.
If only there was leadership. We don’t have leaders. We have panderers.
careful, guys. You know that this week’s talking point is condescension
Learning how to condescend irregular verbs always killed me in French class.
tag fail sad
message too short for wp
wp sad
Because people certainly have the capacity to disregard the likely wholesale corporate purchase of election-related advertising, this means that such corporate ad dominance have no effect because people could choose to disregard those ads.
I always love this line of reasoning.
There’s no need to regulate ads because people are completely rational and can choose their actions regardless of or even in spite of those ads. In other words, advertising does not actually change people’s behavior.
If this is true, then why is marketing and advertising such a huge chunk of the economy? Why are media conglomerates so driven by ratings, which drive the prices they can charge for advertising?
At some point, wouldn’t the free market cause ad prices to collapse, because no business ever saw direct return on investment for those ads? Wouldn’t the marketing firms–especially the “squishy” ones that deal in BS like “branding” and “image management”–go bankrupt and disappear?
Ads don’t work at all, but they are still in existence because…? Shut up? Is that why?
anybody know if the Palin speech is transcribed somewhere? I’m really really reluctant to actually listen to her talk.
N__B said,
February 7, 2010 at 20:41
tag fail sad
what, are you trying to steal actor’s self-pwnage crown?
Ads don’t work at all, but they are still in existence because….
….there’s a fuck of a lot of advertising executives telling us it does. Marketing research indicates that advertising is successful…. research done by those some advertising companies?
OK, SOME advertising works, certainly.
@dirty fucking hippy
The secession topic is inevitably dismissed by liberals with “but that would punish the poor, the working class, the middle class in the places that secede and we cannot allow that to happen.”
But if instead, we widen our view to include the GLOBE — and the vaster numbers of people of the nations that are inevitably “punished” by Conservative rule in America (and Dems who maintain the GOP’s status quo), then the situation is a bit more complicated.
Would Afghanistan and Iraq have happened if the South were no longer part of the Union? Maybe not. PROBABLY not. Unless Texas really wanted to start a war in the Middle East, which seems a bit unlikely.
The empire of the USSR came apart in a controlled fashion that did not lead to any kind of Armageddon. And the world is certainly the better for it.
Why not a “controlled independence movement” for several regions of the USA? This would allow conservatives/libertarians the “freedom” to pursue their Galt-land experiments without interference.
Would allow liberal regions to have health care and social safety nets without interference.
And would put a check on empire-building — as regions are going to be much less likely to engage in such costly behavior.
In a world-wide calculus, wouldn’t such a scheme allow for less human misery overall?
So why not? What’s the downside?
Stephen Sprueill:
Heh. DUH.
anybody know if the Palin speech is transcribed somewhere? I’m really really reluctant to actually listen to her talk.
Don’t know, but this pretty funny:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/06/palin-hand/
Damn you, Substance. Damn you to hell.
Don’t blame me, blame A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE ON THE THREAD!
Or, you know, nobody on this thread and some people in the last one.
The notes she had written are “Energy,” “[illegible],” Taxes,” and “Lift America’s spirits.” That’s some cheat sheet.
Yeah. The supposed savior of the Republican Party needs crib notes to remind her about Tax Cuts.
Your problem, Brad, is you don’t follow this premise:
to it’s logical conclusion.
Since most people don’t read at all, even though in many cases they don’t have an ideological axe to grind, they also don’t understand the problems, let alone have the ability to appropriately evaluate proposed solutions.
So, if somebody tells them that a government needs to ‘tighten it’s belt just like a family’ in bad economic times, they aren’t equipped to understand countercyclical fiscal responses and therefore sarah palin makes just as much sense to them, if not more, than barack obama.
When people don’t understand the issues at hand, they have no basis to either support one solution over another and they are terribly vulnerable to demagoguery…
mikey
Which also, when you think about it, sort of explains why they aren’t ideologues.
It’s kind of hard to be too invested in ideology when you don’t know what ‘socialism’ or ‘conservative’ actually mean…
mikey
@Temen: So why not? What’s the downside?
I can’t see one. Let those righteous, washed-in-the-Blood, Arab-hatin’ folk down South pay their own fucking way for a change. I’m sick of supporting their redneck asses with my tax money.
I have to agree with Mikey above. People need to both realize they are being shafted -and- a clear perception of the shaftee to reach any workable solution.
Take a look at Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the matter with Kansas” and, more recently, the situation at Colorado Springs and you’ll see that to large, influential tracts of the polity, that is very much not the case.
Meaning, the teabagger alliance, which is quickly morphing into the neorepublican base, will breezily walk through cracked streets with no cops, failing illumination, no garbage pickup, brown dead parks…and then blog furiously about how it would all be better if they only found and fired that last public worker making 40k a year and ruining -everything-.
The notes she had written are “Energy,” “[illegible],” Taxes,” and “Lift America’s spirits.” That’s some cheat sheet.
[Illegible] = Blow up the Ayrabs and Iraneystanians.
Or maybe deport all the brown coloreds.
One of those two, you betcha. Also.
~
The Ho was getting his kicks reading the Freepers when he saw this:
I swear I am not making this up.
Unless Texas really wanted to start a war in the Middle East, which seems a bit unlikely.
Once again, I am forced to dredge up the pinnacle of bad fiction: The Texas-Israeli War: 1999
so sick of hope and change, but luckily i gotta feeling SP’s gonna bring the exact opposite.
High-larious!! Sarah Palin – the candidate of despair and stagnation!
“Why can’t we have both more educated elites and a better-educated electorate?”
This is why:
“a buddy who is otherwise fairly intelligent once told me that if he sees it on both Faux and CNN he thinks it’s probably true. (face palm)”
One of the mistakes that people sometimes make is assuming that everyone gets their knowledge about the world in the same way as they do. Some people arrive at their world view by reading and comparing different sources and then reflecting and arriving at a somewhat rational conclusion. That class of people used to have both conservative and liberal members. Not so much any more.
The other group of people arrive at their views by looking to those in positions of authority for signs of what it is they should believe and then simply parrot those ideas. But they don’t pick just anyone to look to. That’s why they brand the media as liberal. Anyone who is “not us” must be other by definition. I occasionally run into folks like that on the left (liberal authoritarians) but there are more of them on the extreme right.
This is why having an educated electorate will only get you so far. Ok, so one solution is that you have a somewhat liberal elite who runs the show. We more or less had that until the Reagan revolution brought outsiders, fundamentalist evangelicals, into the political arena and it seems now like we are headed towards the other solution, an authoritarian state.
I think that at some point “liberals” (whoever that is) have to decide if they want to be in power or not and then be in power. You have to give people reasons for doing things they wouldn’t ordinarily choose to do. Sometimes that message has to be delivered with a thwack. Obama, it seems to me, wants to be professorial and remote. The problem with that is it depends on someone else, like the dean, being the heavy. Leading from the rear isn’t leading.
“So why not? What’s the downside?”
They have nuclear bombs. Most of our defense industry and military bases are in conservative, most likely to secede states. I suppose here in Minnesota we could chuck lutefisk at them or hope that like the Germans on the Russian front, too stupid to think of bringing a warm coat because the smile of baby Jebus will keep them warm.
So, OK, the typical American voter won’t ever win awards for deep understanding of policy issues. But I also don’t think Americans are particularly ideological in the sense that most of them either read the Nation or the National Review. Rather, they vote based on a key metric that I like to call the “Is This Guy’s Shit Working for Me?” quotient.
the average american is a feckless slackjawed brokedick moron with all the capacity for rational thought of a rabid squirrel in a burning crackhouse. in good times, the average american has the moral sensibility of an alley cat in a texas hailstorm and when times get tough that’s when the average american really turns into a full on cunt. you know this. you, brad, know this better than most of the people here. the fact that you, brad, are aware of this is why half your posts are full of comments nagging and scolding you for telling the truth about the precious “american people” a little too petulantly.
weisberg is a weasel who is so crooked that he has to screw himself in behind the podium in order to stand upright. he’s a special kind of asshole, there’s no denying that. but save me the happy horseshit, mon ami, about how the average american votes according to what “works” for them. what worked were top tax rates around 90% and a tired old man in the white house who knew the military well enough to know that that was all a pile of corporatist horseshit by the late 20th century, too and, in rare fits of honesty, who would say as much. go out and say that to the average american. say that what we really need are top tax rates at 90% and an old man in the white house with a healthy (and well-earned) contempt for the very military he also loved. i’ll wait. incidentally, i hear lemon juice and soda water can get that tar right out but the feathers are a real bitch to get out of your mouth anyway.
also, one additional fact, spare me the fucking “these guys are giving palin ammo” bullshit. it’s cool to call an asshole an asshole without having to bring in the scary monsters (and super creeps) of “american sensibility) and mooselini. they’re self-negating, homeboy. if there were any such thing as an american sense of right and wrong, if americans did vote according to “what worked” for them, we wouldn’t have palin in the first place.
ps i’m a big fan of your work usually.
They basically want you to balance the budget while cutting taxes and keeping the military, Medicare and Social Security fully funded. That’s, like, insane and so forth and also impossible.
Not if we had a medicare surcharge on capital gains, a Tobin tax on currency/stock transactions, an inheritance tax.
People do want defense spending cut – I didn’t hear any outcry regarding the cancellation of the f-22, and the perhaps impending cancellation of the f-35. We could you know, stop fighting wars in other countries. People are for that as well.
It is not impossible. We don’t need to balance the budget on the backs of working people and it is very possible – it would take courage and hard work, none of which is any of the leaders of the Democratic Party.
The former Confederate states do not have nuclear weapons. The Founding Fathers were smarter than that. However, there is the problem of Colorado and Nevada.
People do want defense spending cut – I didn’t hear any outcry regarding the cancellation of the f-22, and the perhaps impending cancellation of the f-35.
Or at least they’re not adamantly opposed to spending cuts, which is itself progress of a sort. That said, most of the money we *would* save is going to be spent on one war or another (Iran? Yemen?).
However, there is the problem of Colorado and Nevada.
Not to mention Montana. If Braddock Tarleton Washington ever gets his hands on WMDs then welcome to Thunderdome.
a godawful small affair said,
Got tired of Esther?
“The former Confederate states do not have nuclear weapons.”
There are no military bases in Texas or along the southern coast like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida or South Carolina? States like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Main, Vermont and Michigan do?
it should be clear that an advanced society cannot function properly as long as decisions are left in the hands of humans
By the way — things were perceived as going fairly well under Clinton. Why the (near) switch to electing Bush Jr. over Gore?
Confederate states do not have nuclear
those are nucular weapons
I think this guy Weisberg is right on the money. People do want contradictory things and seem to be guided by resentments they never bother to think through.
To say “Obama and his team of economic wizards so far have settled for a strategy of doing just enough to ensure the economy doesn’t collapse and nothing else” is disingenuous concern trolling. They haven’t “settled” for anything; they’re trying to overcome a unified bunch of shits who lie out their asses, all day every day.
Grow up, Brad.
70 comments on this post? Why do people always feed trolls? omg wtf
I’ll have to take your word for it about Weisberg’s (or, Lord Weisberg, as he is better known) other writing. But the quote you provided here seems like a pretty dead-on assessment of the American people’s susceptibility to manipulation.
I usually like your work but this post is a clunker. The American people as a rule have no idea what’s working for them and what’s not. They’ll basically do what they’re manipulated into doing, whether or not it’s in their best interest. The difference between middle-class American people and poor American people is that middle-class American people know what the word “equity” means. But when it comes down to it, the vast majority of Americans of whatever class have no clue whatsoever.
The fact is, real Americans know that only tax cuts, securing the boarders, ending multiculturalism, stopping media bias and liberals, and the free market will save our economy. Also, we need to turn back to God. We should add a few more “Under God” lines to the Pledge and say it several times a day to remind eleitists about the heartland and God’s role in prosperity and freedom..
Secure the boarders! I didn’t make all this casserole for them to have dinner at a restaurant!
Actually, what we need are more educated elitesI’m with Brad in believing that stupider voters are better.
However, I have to disagree with him when he says that people vote based upon “shit working for them” because it certainly doesn’t explain Ronald Reagan or George Bush getting re-elected.
Anybody can make a mistake the first time around. But to vote for someone like Reagan, GWBush, or, I’m afraid, Barack Obama, doesn’t show much sense.
Maybe I’m wrong and it would be better if voters were a little better informed.
We should add a few more “Under God” lines to the Pledge and say it several times a day to remind eleitists about the heartland and God’s role in prosperity and freedom..
What we ought to do is start saying the PLEDGE like FIVE times a day and saying God is Great more often. And the women folk ought to show their patriotism by wearing American Flag Patriot Burkas of Freedom and Patriotism. Or the Mossy Oak ones, either way.
May peace be upon you!
“And the women folk ought to show their patriotism by wearing American Flag Patriot Burkas of Freedom and Patriotism.”
Do… do you have a newsletter?
Seems to me that a lot of the population votes on the candidate that blows the right brand of smoke up their asses. Palin fans are exceptionally kinky that way.
The average American voter may not have sophisticated knowledge of financial markets, but they do not need it to know that they are being screwed. The financial market collapse was the dawn of a Greater Depression or it is an attempt to convert America into the “ownership society,” (fascism.) Like Katrina, one lets it be destroyed and then molds it into the model one’s selfish desires want to see realized.
Oh God, Obama’s gonna have to start World War 5 in order to get re-elected isn’t he?
&
Starting wars and allowing terrorist attacks is only good for Republicans, dontcha know.
~
See Sarah call for war.
If this is true, then why is marketing and advertising such a huge chunk of the economy? Why are media conglomerates so driven by ratings, which drive the prices they can charge for advertising?
Depends. If, for example, it’s a given that people want to drink flavored fructose water it is necessary to advertise, because the difference between Coke & Pepsi is negligible. Their ads, of course, are all about feeling good (Or being a “Pepper.”) because you drank one instead of the other, not the flavor differences.
(We can note that the desire to drink flavored fructose water probably comes from advertising in the first place.)
So you may choose P over C on impulse at the 7-Eleven because of the commercial. But you aren’t going to buy a car or other high-dollar item just because of a 30-sec. ad.
None of which gets to political/issue advertising. Nor will I.
As to question two, naturally they want the highest prices they can get.
Depends. If, for example, it’s a given that people want to drink flavored fructose water it is necessary to advertise, because the difference between Coke & Pepsi is negligible.
You know, I heard that Coca Cola spends more money than anybody in advertising, even though they are by far the world’s number one soft drink. I guess that’s how come they stay number one, huh Mr. McAllister?
You know, I heard that Coca Cola spends more money than anybody in advertising, even though they are by far the world’s number one soft drink.
That’s only because the union scale for polar bears is so high.
Slightly O/T: Warner Todd, the Barber’s Demon of Fleet Street informs us that you know who ELSE criticized people for reading notes off their hands?
http://www.publiusforum.com/2010/02/07/huffpost-makes-sarah-seem-like-a-genius/#more-10358
Fuck, forgot to switch back at 3:59.
Fuck, forgot to switch back at 3:59.
You keep making that face, it’ll stick that way.
It’s totally like that, but we have TV now.
Also, if you’d just stop all the spendin’, somehow things would turn around and jobs would appear and Washington would listen to the average voter and America would be the great country it was in 1740.
It certainly would be. Slaves, horse carts, and smallpox.
Okay, so I’m late to the party.
Also very telling: Warner seems determined to differentiate between “six million HUMAN BEINGS” and “three million gooks”.
Also very telling: Warner seems determined to differentiate between “six million HUMAN BEINGS” and “three million gooks”.
Somehow, I suspect that 1 “gook” = 2 “human beings” was not the point he was trying to make.
By the tag fail thing terrifies me. At any moment, I could p0wn myself with a
misplaced del tag or a rogue bold tag or a big tag or a font tagor god only knows —– AAAAAAHHHHH!!!! HELP! FECK!Well, they’ll riot in the Big Easy tonight, je suppose. Whatever’s left of the city they’ll probably burn down. sigh
Sadly, no. None of my tags came out right. I can’t even p0wn myself. Fuck it, I’m voting for Bush.
“FECK!”
Spengler Dampniche just used the F-word!
You. bit. off. more. than. you. can. chew.
Go fuck yourself.
The Saints won.
Real Americans are deeply saddened.
So is the New Orleans victory indicative of something something something because Obama was rooting for them?
How will the right spin it?
@g: ACORN. You have to ask?
Ah. I should have known.
Yay, Saints.
I loved that onside kick.
Come to think of it, I agreed totally w/ Weisberg, not knowing of his other affiliations, but what difference do they make? Everything he typed there was true, even if not the entire story. Don’t we really need educated elites (or at least the people in charge) who aren’t pigs at the trough?
After all, you’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, & in many cases you can rake in a few bucks noting how fucking lame & retarded they are.
oblate spheroids are the geometry of satan
The fact is, Peyton Manning represents real Heartland Values. The Colts are the Heartland’s team and will be taking over South Florida tomorrow, winning the Lombardi Trophy and then returning triumphantly to the Heartland.
The fact is, Peyton Manning represents real Heartland Values. The Colts are the Heartland’s team and will be taking over South Florida tomorrow, winning the Lombardi Trophy and then returning triumphantly to the Heartland.
Let this stand as the sports version of “Bookmark This, Liberals”.
Sorry, fans, but I threw the game rather than know I was responsible for Gary’s happiness.
How will the right spin it?
By trying to deny against all evidence that BHO truly is The One.
Hillary could never have performed such a miracle.
the term ‘gridiron’, of course, derives from the prescribed instrument of correction for heretics discovered participating in the perverted black magic ‘football’ ceremony
they later adapted it as a badge of honor much the way christians proudly wear replicas of the device used to cause the death of jesus of nazareth
Sorry, fans, but I threw the game rather than know I was responsible for Gary’s happiness.
S’okay. At least you didn’t have an ad that made the GoDaddy commercials look like “Hamlet”. Badoodle boodle somethingoranother.
Yuck. A friend’s mother just texted her from their place in New Orleans (Marengo Street) to say they can already hear police sirens off in the distance. 🙁 A sad nite.
Sorry, fans, but I threw the game rather than know I was responsible for Gary’s happiness.
It’s ok, Peyton. The envelope with unmarked bills from the White House should arrive to you in due time.
Soon to be the latest Breitbart/O’Keefe conspiracy du jour.
Ewwww, some sailor dude totes just frenched a lady. Get a room lol
Hot Popeye on Olive Oyl action.
Shut the fuck up, Esther. So it’s a sad night in New Orleans because their team won the superbowl. Can’t win for winning, huh?
Eat shit while you’re at it.
I hope Troy Bent (or whatever his wingnut name is) put his money where his mouth is and lost big.
Wiley, Esther is a fake. No one can accidently get that far under people’s skin.
The fact is, real Americans know that only tax cuts, securing the boarders, ending multiculturalism, stopping media bias and liberals, and the free market will save our economy
If the government and liberal media doesn’t make me charge taxes, the free market, Ashley’s Book of Knots and I can secure boarders for the salvation of the economy.
@wiley: Seconded. I also hope he tried to welch by ranting about “entitlement culture” all the way up to the first groin-punch.
Yes but remember that two point conversion wouldn’t of counted if it weren’t for evil liberal instant replay.
can secure boarders
channelling hester street
“and irving – where is the romanian border?”
“he’s in the park kissing my mother!”
I missed the game. Did the Saints score a rouge?
The fact that the Saints won the Superbowl means that New Orleans is suffering God’s wrath…er wait. That’s not I meant to say. Hold on…
Whatever. New Orleans still has too many sinners and Negroes.
Tim Tebow, Jesus-like, would have almost won the game for the Colts.
only tax cuts, securing the boarders,
is “gary ruppert” the same person as “merkin patriot”?????
Youth Wants To Know!
A fake what? It can go sincerely go fuck itself and eat shit.
the term ‘gridiron’, of course, derives from the prescribed instrument of correction for heretics discovered participating in the perverted black magic ‘football’ ceremony
Well, close: St Lawrence is the patron saint of football makers, and he was then passed on to the players by the Fourth Lateral Council.
What I’m saying is everything shes said since she got here has been hand tailored to piss us off. So it’s probably a good bet that she’s saying it with the intention of pissing you off. So your anger only feeds her.
You already know what I’m about to say.
St Lawrence is the patron saint of
and an excellent patron saint of blogificants for getting sarcastic with his roman torturers: “i’m well grilled on this side now – you’d better turn me over so i cook evenly!”
It’s not anger. It’s very straightforward and matter of fact. Whatever ridiculous things it imagines is not my problem. It can giggle til it farts with whatever joy it takes in imagining that it is somehow having a real impact by posing as a liberal for the purpose of pissing off liberals.
The guy they named the Seaway after?
(What the hell’s a “Sea — oh, forget it. That’s not even what I meant.
How will the right spin it?
It will be good news for John McCain.
What the hell’s a “Sea
you mean a henway
Screw the trolls. Brandi, Esther, and Gary Ruppert as well as all the others, can all go pound Black Beauty sand into their sensitive orifices.
What IS important, however, is: Were teh Who as bad as I thought, or was I that drunk?
What the hell’s a “Sea
A Quotesea? That’s a South African writer.
Warner Todd, the Barber’s Demon of Fleet Street informs us that you know who ELSE criticized people for reading notes off their hands?
Are they seriously still working the Teleprompter angle? After the Q&A at Republican Circle Time, they still think they can throw “can’t think on his feet” at Obama and make it stick?
What IS important, however, is: Were teh Who as bad as I thought, or was I that drunk?
Don’t you mean “half the Who”? Or, given the state of Townshend’s ears and Daltry’s brain, “42% of the Who”?
That’s a South African writer
not the movie about traffic with the post modern soundtrack by phil up glass?
How will the right spin it?
This is good news for the Colts.
not the movie about traffic with the post modern soundtrack by phil up glass?
No, the one with the classical septet soundtrack by see more glass.
You wish.
Well, that was an enjoyable game. And Esther, go fuck yourself with a rusty hammer.
I’m not clicking that link, no way. I got plenty of apples in the boat and I don’t need no fucking mangoes.
And Esther, go fuck yourself with a rusty hammer.
In what way have I vexed you, CA?
El Cid quoted a bit of Freedom Fonzi up at the top, but that whole segment on Moyer’s was pretty infuriating: I encourage everyone to watch it. Lessig was awesome as usual (an exception will be made when the revolution comes) but Gillespie was just an absolute dick.
Back on topic though: Americans are largely racist and anti-intellectual. Is it any surprise they vote against their interests? Change my mind.
Within ten seconds of hearing Roger Daltry, I thought, ‘Murray the nightclub singer’ then made my escape. They shouldn’t bring out boomer rock and rollers who sound like parodies of themselves. This generational thing is tense enough as it is.
At least we can all agree that The Who was terrible. I’ve personally been listening to old school stuff lately. That first album The Killers put out was phenomenal.
Einstein was on the beach looking for Sea Glass?
The Saints would never have won without that second-half onside kick, which was an unfair tactic like Pearl Harbor. Plus it used their kicker, and everyone knows kickers aren’t real football players because they kick soccer-style, and soccer is a foreigner sport even though they call it football which is unfair because it’s not football even though you play it with your feet. Also.
You wish
omygod
you are going to receive a very sharply worded letter from my therapist, mr substance, sir
“Sharp” and “goatse” go together like “mangoes” and “steeplejacks.”
Were teh Who as bad as I thought, or was I that drunk?
You were so drunk it made everyone think they were bad. I was stone sober and your extreme drunkitude made them shockingly bad even to me, halfway across the country from you!
Yes, the Who sucked, but did anyone expect anything else? These halftime shows where a formerly great artist plays an abbreviated greatest hits medley always suck, but Townsend especially looked like he was just phoning it in. And, yes, calling Daltrey and Townsend and a bunch of sidemen the Who is pretty sad and I wish they would have never continued touring after Keith moon died. But whatev…
By the way, is it just me, or was the controversial Tim Tebow ad a totally inoffensive piece of crap? No mention of abortion, forced or otherwise, and just a brief mention of how Timmy was Mrs. T’s “miracle” baby. Maybe Mrs. T decided that to stop pushing her lie about Filipino doctors advising her to have an abortion, in a country where any abortion is illegal and punishbale by jail time for doctors, nurses, and the pregnant woman, and they went with the feel-good spot instead of the piss-off-the-pro-choicers spot.
Daltry was pretty rough at the very start, but they pretty soon got into groove and did a real good show. And I was watching it alongside some pretty good musicians, who had seen the Who live in the big years, and none of them thought it sucked.
By the way, is it just me, or was the controversial Tim Tebow ad a totally inoffensive piece of crap?
That was B.S. from the beginning though. Someone somewhere talked about how at the time Tebow’s mom got knocked up in the Philippines doctors would basically have been taken out and shot if they had really “counseled in favour of abortion.”
Sorry, Rusty. no offense, I hope?
The plate of beans – perhaps you should avoid overthinking it.
An awful lot of people just vote the same way their parents do/did (“Father Knows Best” Syndrome) … & a great many just never bother to vote at all.
It ought to be glaringly obvious by now that America’s political system has a burned-out fusebox – & that noone in either party appears to have the stones to suggest fixing it when the dysfunctional status quo remains a one-way ticket to sweet PAC payola, free junkets & a future in corporate Hog Heaven.
Without major political & electoral reform, you can have a society of nothing but Rhodes Scholars, & after every election you’ll still wind up being the guest of honor at a shit-sandwich buffet. Most if not all the media poutrage being aimed at Obama is classic misdirection. Not even a smart driver can transform an Edsel into a Porsche.
Well, Cid, I changed the station pretty quickly, so I won’t deny that’s a possibility.
O.K. I’d try it again, El Cid, on your recommendation, if I ever really liked the Who in the first place; but I never really did. Caught the last half of the last quarter on live-feed and it was great watching that interception with the long run for the touchdown.
The ads were sucky and too numerous.
Within ten seconds of hearing Roger Daltry, I thought, ‘Murray the nightclub singer’ then made my escape. They shouldn’t bring out boomer rock and rollers who sound like parodies of themselves.
See, now here’s the thing. I’ve been watching a series on Sundance, Spectacle, hosted by elvis (not the fat dead one). He gets to chat and jam with musicians, and it seems to be people of his choice. He’s had on Levon Helm, Richard Thompson, Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Nick Lowe, among others. The last 2 weeks, he did eps with Bruce Springsteen.
Now, all these folks are of various ages, but many of them are of the daltrey/ Townshend vintage.
And they fuckin rock. In all senses of the term. Spit and energy and joy in playing music, being just as excited about it as they were when they were young.
The Remains Of The who didn’t have that. They should have come out with an unsigned punk band from Detroit, played “My Generation”, and fucked off the stage. Of course, with all the money and commercialism, that would never happen, but that’s the fuckin point, innit? I don’t begrudge them making some money, but you know, they didn’t write those songs to play in the super bowl….
i tried to listen to palin’s speech but her voice kept on removing plaque from my back molars
Loved the half time show, thought it was one of the best. Prince’s might have been better. Granted, halftime shows generally suck anyway. I thought it was great they did a killer light show instead just seeing how big of a multiracial crowd in bright colors they could stuff around the stage.
And I thought they were clearly loving it, even if Daltry’s voice had no range.
And putting on some anti authoritarian songs at a Superbowl was awesome. I wish they had ended the set with “Wake the fuck up, assholes!”
Does anyone actually watch the “halftime extravaganza”? That’s pure potty, beer run, guac-refill, phone-time. Ever since the infamous “wardrobe malfunction”, who have they booked? (I wiki’ed it):
2005: Paul McCartney
2006: Rolling Stones
2007: Prince
2008: Tom Petty
2009: Bruce Springsteen
2010: The Who*
Why not just give up on the idea of trying to stage an inoffensive mini-rock concert at a football game. Better yet, have the winner of a national marching-band competition perform. Whatever. Who gives a fuck? Those nachos aren’t going to refill themselves.
Well, sure, it wasn’t that brilliant and heartwarming Springsteen halftime, but it was a fucking HALFTIME show fer crissakes. Lighten up a little, What would it take to please you ass fucks?
It’s the Who. They started this crap before you were born. They are a legend. They OWN the music. You don’t like it? In twenty years pearl jam and radiohead will be doing this shit.
And if I wasn’t going to be dead by then, I’d be laughing my ass off at you jerks…
mikey
He’s had on Levon Helm, Richard Thompson, Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Nick Lowe, among others. The last 2 weeks, he did eps with Bruce Springsteen.
You think Sheryl Crow rocks? No offence but ROFL ROFL ROFL.
Those others are all good though. Strike Crow and replace with Elvis Costello and you’re in business.
It’s the Who. They started this crap before you were born.
I seem to remember laughing at my father because he was still listening to Glen Miller.
I’m shocked that the SuperBowl halftime show tends to be the venue of very well established, fairly vintage, dependable music acts. Given the bold cultural innovation on display in our major NFL events, you might expect younger, brasher, more experimental groups. Perhaps a jazz improv group might be a good next step given the sorts of sophisticated audiences turning out for these most Super of Bowls.
Or maybe, just maybe, somebody from the last two decades.
fairly vintage
more like earthly remnants
Or maybe, just maybe, somebody from the last two decades.
But then I wouldn’t get to relive my college days.
All shows should just be Animal Collective backed up by the New York Philharmonic
What would it take to please you ass fucks?
Going back in time 30 thirty years, having the foresight to buy Apple and Microsoft stock when they first went public, and having all the ecstasy that I could use for the next 30 years. Is that so much to ask?
One goatse on the thread already. I’M WILLING TO ADD ANOTHER.
All shows should just be Animal Collective backed up by the New York Philharmonic
I thought Animal Collective was cool the summer between 8th grade and freshman year.
I thought it was a pretty cool staging, and I wondered how much dough the brothers of the Miami IATSE local were getting to work the gig. That’s about it.
Roger Daltrey sucked and Townsend looked like he was faking it. it was sad, sad, sad. Listen to the actual lyrics and remember what the songs were once about and I am almost embarrassed for them. What fucking sell-outs, but ho-hum, no one cares.
Throw enough lasers and LEDs out there, and no one gives a shit.
My favorite comment on the halftime show said basically that The Who (or what’s left of them) playing the SB halftime show now is like Rudy Vallée playing one in the 70s.
For being of retirement age, they made a decent showing. Rock and roll is not, however, an old man’s game. Sorry, fellas.
Whenever it was, it was before I had heard of it.
Now if it was Zombie Elvis, I would gladly sit through the halftime show.
Braised Italian black kale with pancetta, served over pasta alongside roasted pork tenderloin with garlic. A little grana parmesan grated over the top. A glass of chardonnay.
What’re you having for dinner, mikey?
I did like the RAF insignia cymbals though.
Look on the bright side. At least it wasn’t Up With People for the 15th time.
I’M WILLING TO ADD ANOTHER.
I’ve got a bomb in my underwear and I’m not afraid to use it.
What’re you having for dinner, mikey?
You didn’t ask me, but I made a really nice beef stew, and baked fresh sourdough bread to dip in it. Yummy snowy day comfort food.
We need a new thread. Gavin plz. This has turned into McDonald’s vs a handful of dry seamonkeys awaiting the wet sponge. An exit bound conga line, like, in other words.
Hi mikey. Remember when this blog was razor-sharp and funny? Yeah, me neither.
Lighten up a little, What would it take to please you ass fucks?
lighten up a bit, man.
I’m just sayin that the SuperBowl halftime is a lousy venue for rock music, unless you are a music industry executive, it which case it sells the sugar water, apparently. none of them have been worth a shit, although I agree that watching the crew set up and break down the stage is awe inspiring.
It says something that the most exciting thing to be seen at a Super Bowl half time show was an unauthorized nipple.
It’s the Who. They started this crap before you were born. They are a legend. They OWN the music. Yes, they do, and no they didn’t start it before I was born, I am an old fart. But that doesn’t change the way I feel about what I watched.
In the 80’s, they brought the Clash on tour with them, and their fans hated it. Maybe they no longer need to have those kind of balls, but certainly the folk out there playing tonight didn’t.
I did kind of like some of Townshend’s guitar lines. But then, it’s Pete Frickin Townshend.
Oh, and apparently there was some football.
Even better idea: require that the halftime show feature local talent from the city or state hosting the game. Either an established act from the area or maybe run an “American Idol”-style competition to promote a new face. I remember in ‘06 it was disappointing to the residents of Detroit that, rather than featuring a homegrown “Motown” act, they decided to go with the Stones.
Or maybe you could feature 2 acts—one from each of the competitors’ homes. How cool would that be? Why just dust off some moldy “classic rock” chestnut?
Hey Miz. Yeah. You stuck it out, though, huh?
The other day I rebuilt my shit in Google Reader, and for shitz and grinz I dropped in this feed.
So. Dammit.
Entropy, I reckon…
mikey
Hey g. Hows Life in LA. Me? Oh, still unemployed. Life in the fast lane, y’know?
Super bowl. God help me, I’m a traditionalist. Made a pot of texas chili, a big bowl of guacamole and stuffed some Rellenos. Nothing else allowed, or even truly considered…
mikey
I thought the sound was pretty lame, but it’s tough to do in a superstadium.
Townshend did get off a good lick or two. When the fuck was Daltrey ever that good a “singer,” anyway?
everything changes, mikey….
How ’bout nuthin’, & halftime doesn’t run any longer than during a regular season game?
Hi mikey. Remember when this blog was razor-sharp and funny
didn’t you see N__B rip my heart out and feed it to me with a single line the other day?
I’m wearing a cup from now on, zall Imma sane.
But yeah, that Tintin asshole with his toilet photoshoops, that’s lame….
Super bowl. God help me, I’m a traditionalist. Made a pot of texas chili
slightly modded here, did a big pot of kick-ass jambalaya and took it to a friend’s house. Others provided many tasty treats, and the alcohol flowed. Talked shit, politics, children, pets, and gossip…..
And I hear there was a football game.
Attention. As a friend of mine said, the French Quarter is currently crazier than a pen full of liquored-up raccoons. I know what you’re thinking, but no, this is an exceptional amount of drunken whackiness. Good for ’em, I say.
@Esther: Replace Sheryl Crow with Elvis Costello on Elvis Costello’s show. Gotcha.
The mix was godawful. It had zero to do with being in a stadium. The live mix in the house is tough for that reason, but not the air feed. I don’t get how they can be so bad at it. Yeah, live-to-air is difficult, but really. I’ve done better seriously hung over at 9:00 Sunday morning. With worse bands. And no rehearsal. They have no excuse.
the French Quarter is currently crazier than a pen full of liquored-up raccoon
more wound up than a brace of 28-days-style zombies in a shopping mall…
I’ve done better seriously hung over at 9:00 Sunday morning.
I have a friend who used to mix a post-punk alt-pop band with a lead singer with wide, midd-ground vocals all over the whole mix, two guitars, bass, drums, and a three piece horn section, and he could mix that bunch in an outdoor festival, competing with three other nearby stages, and STILL end up ripping your face off with the snare hits.
He would have scared DEAD people if he mixed Townshend and Daltrey, in any venue.
@Esther: Replace Sheryl Crow with Elvis Costello on Elvis Costello’s show. Gotcha.
if trolls were susceptible to self-pwnage, it would be going home to refund dad’s college tuition payments right now….
@Esther: Replace Sheryl Crow with Elvis Costello on Elvis Costello’s show. Gotcha.
Never seen the show. I was just thinking out loud. Jeez. Uptight much, babe?
Also, the Tebow ad was incoherent and meaningless. Focus on Forcing Families is going to get more result from teh controversy than the ad.
But it is funny watching Jesus Tebow wash out of the Show. YOUR GOD HATES YOUR LITTLE BIBLEY EYE PATCHES, DUDE.
I haevn’t seen him play much but I do know that Tebow has consistant intangibles and he’ll succeed at whatsoever level he chooses to consider next.
A Joe Morgan joke? That’s timely. Do the one about how Gerald Ford falls down alot next plz.
Esther? Shut the fuck up.
Esther was better when she was center left grrrl. There’s no beat and too much autotune; I give her a 24 and she shouldn’t be invited back to next week’s show.
justme: You right. I was trying to be kind to the audio weenies & got confused. No excuse. Esp. when there was a close up of the drummer all over his cymbals & you couldn’t hear them …
So what, MzNicky hates us now too?
I blame myself.
So what, MzNicky hates us now too?
I blame myself.
pff. I only liked MzNicky for a period of eighteen seconds back when I was a frosh (that means ‘freshman’, heh) in highsc (that means ‘high school’, heh). clearly i’ve moved on to more intriguing, intellectually stimulating commenters, who I will not tell you about.
Dear fake me,
In point of fact, I was so totally never a frosh because it turns out they skipped me a grade. I was so much too awesome to ever be a freshman.
Oh, Ester, please let me be your secret friend. I’ll friend you on Facebook and follow you on Twitter and rate you high on eBay–promise. Just don’t ever leave Sadly, No!, ’cause we really, really need more retarded concern trolls here, and it would break all our hearts if you took your marbles and went home! To show how sincere I am, I am proposing a new contest for all the posters here to come up with your new nym (now that you’ve used up “Center Left Grrl” and “Ester”). I’ll start off with my suggestion:
“Steve”
Comment too short? blah, blah, blah, blah, blah—–
Bubba
You know, I’ve been thinking of starting a blog or at least a Twitter feed. I have a lot of important messages for the world.
Oh, yes, Esthsthsthsther! Twitter has definitely got to have been made for dip–sorry, “deep”–thinkers like you! I can’t wait to read your profound observations on the world rendered in 140-character, idiot abbreviations and emoticons. By all means, do jump in!
ya but what if i didn’t get any followers. how embarrassing would *that* be?
Actually I’d probably call my twitter feed “redwineandambien” like from that new John Mayer song.
Who’s Gerald Ford? Is he old or something?
M.B.
The cymbals are one of the hard parts, but still. Stage wash from the monitors can be a bitch, but they were probably all using in-ears anyway. These guys are supposed to be at the top of the food chain. It’s not like they don’t have a budget. I could take a guess as to what the fader-pushers got paid for this, but it would make me want to cut my wrists.
Oddly, the Grammys had the most horrible sound for years, up until quite recently. Well, maybe ten years or so, maybe not quite. I don’t remember exactly when it changed. They finally got sick of being embarrassed by their own business, and got serious about it. The mixes started to be much, much better. It would seem that hiring the right people makes a huge difference. Historically, with TV, you have video producers hiring the audio people as an afterthought, and as if they are largely interchangeable. It’s because the video stuff costs so much more. Good audio, however, can make a huge difference to the perception of a show. Bad audio can too.
Blargh.
Fred’s Epistle to the Teabaggers:
“I think maybe part of the reason you’re so angry is you keep demanding that you get screwed and then, not surprisingly, you keep getting screwed”
From that slacktivist link:
Yeah, but, you know, if the fedrul gubmit would just stop all da spendin’, then, somehow it’d fix this. And also cut the taxes. And, um, stop tryin’ ta push through an extreme agenda that the Amurka people don’t support.
Last year I saw The Who live at the Budokan in Tokyo. I thought they rocked but I probably wasn’t being too impartial. I didn’t get to see the game but halftime shows always suck so it’s probably better that way.
Well, maybe ten years or so, maybe not quite.
Perhaps the rise in “CD-quality” digital tee vee sound had something to do w/ that, like they realized they’d better get their crap together before the listeners/viewers all went digital & could hear just how lousy the sound was.
re: The Who
Having performed in large venues with many different acts over the years, I’ll let you in on a little secret. This performance was not what it seemed. My take:
The drums, Daltrey & Townshend’s vocals (save “the scream” from Fooled) and Townshend’s guitar were the only live parts of the performance. This is done for a myriad of reasons in these types of shows. Logistical expedience, consistency of performance and ease in mixing the house feed being foremost. One might be appalled to know this is an all too common practice in large venues and shocked to learn the acts which avail themselves of modern computer based live sound reinforcement. Another friend in the business describes it as “stadium karaoke”.
This is not to defend the practice nor critique the performance discussed. Merely providing information on how things are done, now days.
re: Voters
In my opinion, there can be no meaningful socio/political change as long as the TV’s work, McDonalds sells $1 double cheeseburgers and the majority of the population believes a creation myth. Sleight of hand remains the best form of propaganda. Also.
I listened to the SBowl on an HD feed with digital surround. The game sounded great. The half-time show, like most of those I’ve seen, sounded ‘meh’. Not awful, but not great a mix.
What would be the ‘contrarian’ / libertard view of SuperBowl entertainment?
I imagine they love it in the same rates as ‘normal people’, but they can also get off on all the money and contracts and freedom from coercion involved. Everyone out there is part of the bootstrapping, cash-orgy of free enterprise. (From the gladiators, to their owners, to the beer men hawking their shit in the commercials) That is, if I understand your question.
(Oh wait, just ignore all the ‘tax-incentives’ and other government subsidies that completely infect sports entertainment, e.g., stadiums, expansion teams, etc.)
Jennifer — You know I love all you guys, just can’t stand how the trolls have taken over. Plus like everywhere else I go, seems everybody’s all pissy and unhopey and non-changy but worstly not very funny anymore.
mikey, I just drop by every now and then to take a look around and see if there are any yucks goin’ on and saw that there you were.
Yucks, people! I need yucks!!
Yucks, people! I need yucks!!
Dry heaves aren’t an adequate substitute?
Maybe it’s just me, but some of the funniest things I’ve read on this site are in the comments sections prompted by trolls. Hell, sometimes I argue with what I know is a fake troll simply because I can’t berate anyone like that in real life and not feel like a jerk about it.
And it was sort of easier to be over the top and topically wacky when the entire fucking government is ran by a bunch of crazy drunk bee-stung warmonger faith healer robber baron nutbags, providing not just comic relief in the opposition but that desperate search for humor inspired by “Oh my god, this can’t really be happening…”
And me personally, I would love to be able to feel that we were actually going in the correct direction and overwhelmingly likely to continue, rather than doing much better but still driving about an inch from the precipice. That is what would really get me hopey-changey.
My New Political Theory:
Ahem: My new theory about American politics, and the American electorate, that is to say, my new theory, completely made by me, as part of my thoughts, in my head, is this: that the shape of the American polity, is that it is thin on the one end, rapidly fattens up in the middle, and then thins out again on the other side.
This is my theory, which is no one else’s, that is to say, mine.
(off camera, sotto voce “that’s a brontosaurus!“)
Never mind!
MzNicky – I don’t so much notice the trolls, even though I may be one of the worst troll baiter/feeders here. I enjoy this blog and the people who come here so much that the trolls just become kind of like detritus in an industrial wasteland seen only through the windows as we cruise through in a bitchin’ Camaro with kick-ass tunes blaring.
Or something like that.
(Don’t mention the zombie infestation Jennifer)
What would be the ‘contrarian’ / libertard view of SuperBowl entertainment?
To find out what Obama or Pelosi feels about it, then maintain the opposite as immmutable truth.
While I don’t mean to sound whiny (mainly since I fail at that), can we get some other stuff to read/laugh/talk about, then some minor sporting event that doesn’t really matter for anyone outside the small demographic that happens to watch it.
Jennifer — yeah, I’m there with the cruising through the industrial wasteland and the laughing and the tunes and stuff. I even enjoy the occasional troll-baiting as well as the next Sadly. To belabor the metaphor, I get all unhappy when the trolls/zombies (no offense, zrm!) hurl their repulsive maggoty bodies all over the windshield and vomit on the side windows so badly that we can’t see where we’re going. Then the windshield wipers get clogged up and everybody starts yelling, then here come even more trolls and shit, then you can’t even hear the music. Plus by then I’m not laughing anymore, so.
As this thread is dangling now, let me catch up with you a bit: The socialismist job is no longer going on? Did I pick that up correctly somewhere in a past thread?
MzNicky – nope, I got shit-canned from the job (though it wasn’t socialismist) in early December. Apparently for being “negative” where “negative” = “accurately stating the company’s employment practices”. Not to worry though – they owed me about $10K when they canned me, and they actually paid it because I think they were afraid to NOT pay it, and I spent December and January working part-time at a Hallmark store and putting together a business plan with a partner for a new school fundraising business. We started making calls the last week of January and now have 3 signed contracts in hand with commitments from about a dozen others to do fundraisers with us later this year. And this is after we’ve spent a total of 9 days making sales calls.
So it’s all good.
I’m off today because we had a surprise snow last night – it will all be melted off probably later today, but because the schools here close whenever a flake falls, there’s no one for us to call on today.
hurl their repulsive maggoty bodies all over the windshield and vomit on the side windows so badly that we can’t see where we’re going. Then the windshield wipers get clogged up and everybody starts yelling, then here come even more trolls and shit, then you can’t even hear the music.
That sounds suspiciously like the __B family vacations of the late 70s.
Mom?
Very likely. The trend in home theater systems and whatnot being a bit of a change from the 3″ speakers used to come with.
The Grammies used to sound like crap even on that, though, as did this halftime show.
can we get some other stuff to read/laugh/talk about, then some minor sporting event that doesn’t really matter for anyone outside the small demographic that happens to watch it
Opening ceremony is this Friday.
Y’know, it is a bit of a trade-off, but I’ll take a bit of an ebb in the humor factor for not having the country being run off a cliff at full steam. Gallows humor may be effective, but the prospect of retaining one’s neck is still appealing.
Of course, wound-out in third gear is only so much better than full steam, but I digress.
It’s also been pretty clear on that show in particular that band members were not hearing each other the way they should. Lotta timing errors and shaky vocals.
I don’t know what happened last night, but I woke up about an hour ago next to Esther.
Can we haz nu thred plz
I never saw that show either. Which “elvis” did you think “not the zombie one” could possibly refer to?
Thanks for playing.
Can we haz nu thred plz
I think we haven’t earned it.
Undoubtedly, the video guys were hiring the monitor engineers too.
trolls just become kind of like detritus in an industrial wasteland
I love you, Jennifer.
“I’m off today because we had a surprise snow last night – it will all be melted off probably later today, but because the schools here close whenever a flake falls, there’s no one for us to call on today.”
Nice. You don’t live in DC by any chance, do you?
Better yet, have the winner of a national marching-band competition perform.
OK, that I might watch.
Naw, I’m in Little Rock.
It’s coming down pretty good out there right now, but it’s also 33 degrees. What that means is they’ll probably call off school tomorrow too, when all the melty slushy stuff all over the roads today refreezes tonight.
The Grammies used to sound like crap even on that, though, as did this halftime show.
Hrm. I just attributed it to the fact that we were watching it on this old 12″ CRT TV that’s probably full of cat hair…but I guess not.
I suspect it’s a matter of economics. Yes, you COULD shell out a lot of cash to make the Who sound decent, but the extra investment doesn’t buy you anything useful, because:
1) nobody is going to stop listening to the Who or buying their albums because they sucked at halftime (sucking at halftime is now virtually de rigueur, and people just wave it off);
2) nobody is going to stop watching the Super Bowl because the Who sucked;
3) more important, nobody is going to stop watching the ads.
The trolls these days are weak and not bothersome, MzNicky. Not like the old days.
But the Proprietors rarely bring the banhammer (and heck, we haven’t had a good disemvowelling since forever) because of ideological purity; but if it starts to get out of hand, some brilliant soul has created a dancing badger killfile, with a complementary Logorrhea Filter, that irritates the HELL out of the more persistent ones, and is funny in its own way.
As far as not being funny, I’m afraid I can’t do much about that. Zombies tend to be more straight men.
TC, the Who could have insisted that they sound decent.
But at least Daltrey didn’t have to read the lyrics off his hand….
But at least Daltrey didn’t have to read the lyrics off his hand….
Inside-face eyelid tattoos?
I sense many of us are tired here from all the shenanigans. I think it was Jennifer, upstream, who was observing teh funny has been thin on the ground lately. And it has been noted that we need a troll to get things started sometimes. I gotta rant. Apologies in advance.
First, I have to remind certain nattering nabobs of nugatory that Sadly has more yocks or laffs per thread than the entire remainder of the internozzle combined, even at low tide. Not including the invisible sammich lolcat.
That said, the national scene is so unfunny these days it’s hard to find anything amusing about it. On the one hand we’re seeing the Great White Hope (Obammy) turn out to be an insider’s insider, completely unsuited to changing the system at all, and there’s nobody on his team willing to do anything to challenge this; on the other hand, the opposition is gearing up for a real takeover next time, only instead of one GW Bush, we have hundreds, like The Boys From Brazil except they’re not boys, they’re senators, congresspeople, treasury wonks, etc. etc.
In the Bush years there was this kind of carnival atmosphere — how low can we go? — and it got quite incredibly awful, but with a gleeful Hunter S. Thompson zing to it. I had fun, in a noose-around-the-neck, nothing-to-lose kind of way. It was sort of like during plague years in Europe. People feasting and reveling in the streets among the dead and dying.
But not really. In fact, despite all the horrors of the Bush junta, our lives didn’t change all that dramatically for the worse.
But now — under Obama, things are actually getting tangibly, inescapably bad. The wheels are finally coming off. Not because of him, but because he’s not taking the situation seriously enough to do what needs to be done, regardless of the political consequences to him personally (the same goes for anybody in gummint to the right of Al Franken). Meanwhile we’re all circling the metaphorical drain. That’s not funny. It’s merely horrible.
I had jury duty all last week, and probably 80% of the juror pool claimed economic hardship — and were allowed to leave. The rest of us were relying on the good graces of our employers, and none too easily. The courthouse itself — the Los Angeles Criminal Court, no less — is literally falling apart. They keep most of the lights off, they don’t maintain the place, and it’s woefully understaffed.
It was a murder trial — how can you expect a fair trial in a crumbling bunker full of people terrified they’re going to lose their jobs because of you?
So yeah, there’s not much to be funny about. I think that’s why the trolls provide some diversion. These are extraordinary times and there are no extraordinary leaders.
In the absence of genius, we’re forced to taunt idiots.
Inside-face eyelid tattoos?
that’s pretty tough.
I thought Martin Freeman did a pretty good job on drums. Kenney Jones left some big shoes to fill.
WP nommed a lovely comment I had full of wisdom and humor and life-changing advice…
But I can’t be arsed to re-create. Catching lightning and all.
So NOM YER BRANES, Word press. ZOM NOM NOM, is all.
that’s pretty tough.
How else do you think people pass the PE exam?
And by “people” I mean “dummies like me.”
I thought Martin Freeman did a pretty good job on drums.
I was wondering who that was. I am unfamiliar, what’s his b/g?
Rusty,
Funny, it looked like Nigel Tufnel to me.
Funny, it looked like Nigel Tufnel to me.
would have been great to see him explode.
TC, the Who could have insisted that they sound decent.
Sure, but I don’t think *they* much cared either, partially because of the factors mentioned above, but partially because I’m not sure Townshend and Daltrey are capable of caring about very much these days.
How else do you think people pass the PE exam?
walking upright?
I keed, I keed.
I am unfamiliar, what’s his b/g?
The Office (UK), Love Actually, and I think Shaun of the Dead.
Sure, but I don’t think *they* much cared either, partially because of the factors mentioned above, but partially because I’m not sure Townshend and Daltrey are capable of caring about very much these days.
Yeah, I was hoping that wasn’t the case, because like Mikey said, these guys WERE the real shit.
Made me wonder how much rehearsal time they bothered with. noise notwithstanding, I’ve seen bands that played in shit halls with crap PA, and still kicked ass because they were so clued in to each other, that they didn’t need monitors….
they used an ACTOR for the DRUMMER?
he should have exploded.
alright, you’re yanking my chain. It was Zak Starkey.
Zombie may be a LITTLE BIT hungover today.
they used an ACTOR for the DRUMMER?
he should have exploded.
Or self-pwned.
Made me wonder how much rehearsal time they bothered with. noise notwithstanding, I’ve seen bands that played in shit halls with crap PA, and still kicked ass because they were so clued in to each other, that they didn’t need monitors….
Yeah, I’m not sure about this. On the one hand, they’ve been playing this stuff for FORTY YEARS and should be able to riff off each other while semicomatose (because they’ve been doing *that* for forty years too). On the other hand, bad (or intermittent) monitoring can fuck up almost any musician, even experienced pros.
well, it was a medley, so it may have been a different format.
FORTY YEARS? We’re lucky they remembered their PANTS.
WP is upset that my comment was too SHORT? That’s not really the message you want to send, WP.
I’m not sure Townshend and Daltrey are capable of
caring abouthearing very much these days.We’re lucky they remembered their PANTS.
We could have been treated to POOP and PENIS at the halftime show!
considering their age, though, probably more POOP than PENIS.
And I sincerely hope that is the last time I mention Daltrey’s poop.
Jennifer — glad to hear all is well.
sheesh, N__B, shape up. MzNicky needs some yonks.
Favorite comment at Doghouse’s joint: “They should have gotten a Who cover band”
To be added: “considering the number of original members present, I think that qualified”
They should have chosen songs entirely from McVicar. That would have confused 99% of the audience and horrified the other 1%.
hey, Jennifer, don’t forget to tell MzN about yer BLOG!!
zrm, Palin’s palm cheat-sheet is pretty ripe for laffs. She even had a cross-out! In Sharpee®! I bet she’ll never get it washed off! har har! See? Whadda ya call an Alaskan palm pilot? An unsocialist retard teleprompter! haw haw. The clown circus isn’t over! The contards will always be with us.
They should have chosen songs entirely from McVicar. That would have confused 99% of the audience and horrified the other 1%.
now there you go.
i’m horrified by the knowledge that I got the reference.
i’m horrified by the knowledge that I got the reference.
I had it on vinyl but it disappeared some time ago…
Palin was gonna write more stuff down.
But she quit.
HAH! Stole that from drifty.
“Whadda ya call an Alaskan palm pilot? An unsocialist retard teleprompter”
So….Trig isn’t the only reason Sarah! gets pissed when people use the “R” word. How many “Rs” are in that family?
People try to put them d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my dad’s generation)
Just because they putter around (Talkin’ ’bout my dad’s generation)
Things they do look like m-mold (Talkin’ ’bout my dad’s generation)
They didn’t die before they got old (Talkin’ ’bout my dad’s generation)
This is my dad’s generation
This is my dad’s generation, baby
Teleprompters are for communists and Kenyans. Real Americans use cheat sheets.
Motivation for Liberals is hope for a better future. Unfortunately, hope can easily be discouraged. Conservative motivation is fear, bigotry and hate. These are easy to stoke. Democrats have done nothing to alter this dynamic.
Real Americans use cheat sheets.
the thing that gets me is she was so obvious about it. Any junior high-student, hell her KIDS, could do it better. A teacher will catch that one, everytime.
People trying to put them down (Talking ’bout my dad’s generation)
Death Panel Trucks are rollin’ around. (Talking ’bout my dad’s generation)
They’re hard to talk to, their hearing’s gone, (Talking ’bout my dad’s generation)
Or they’re screaming: Get off my goddamn lawn! (Talking ’bout my dad’s generation)
This is my dad’s generation
This is my dad’s generation, baby
Yesterday in IOKIYAAR news:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/shes-getting-it-by-digby-i-mentioned.html
WALLACE: OK. But Rush Limbaugh weighed in this week. And he said this:
“Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards.”
PALIN: He was satirical (ph) in that –
–
WALLACE: Wait a minute, let me finish.
PALIN: OK.
WALLACE: “I mean, these people, these liberal activists are quote, kooks.”
Should Rush Limbaugh apologize?
PALIN: They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh was using satire to bring attention to what this politically correct–
WALLACE: But he used the “R” word.
PALIN: Using satire. Name calling by anyone — I teach this to my children, you teach it to your children and your grandchildren, too.
Name calling by anyone, it’s just unnecessary. It just wastes time.
Let’s speak to the issues and —
WALLACE: But you know what some people are going to say, Governor, and have said. They say, look, when it’s her political adversary Rahm Emanuel, she’s going to call him out, he’s indecent, apologize. But when it’s a political friend like Rush Limbaugh, oh it’s satire.
PALIN: I didn’t hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with “F-ing retards.” And we did know that Rahm Emanuel, it’s been reported, did say that. That’s a big difference there.
But again, name calling, using language that is insensitive by anyone– male, female, Republican, Democrat, it’s unnecessary, it’s inappropriate and let’s all just grow up.
Ooops. Forgot the stutter.
So when the Rolling Stones do their Steel Wheels Wheelchair tour they’re gonna do “Hey, You, Get Off Of My Lawn?”
How does one satirize this?
Few people have the ability to contradict themselves in three sentences without whiplash.
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/06/bizarre_sex_habits_of_the_extreme_rightwing.php
Hey McCloud! Get off my ewe.
Few people have the ability to contradict themselves in three sentences without whiplash.
Super Sarah self-Power Pwnage!
“Grandma’s Little Helper”
“Shattered (hip)”
“You Can’t Always Get An Early Bird discount”
“Help Me Up”
“It’s Only Lawrence Welk (but I like it)”
“Mild Horses”
“Can’t Get No Laxative-action”
So when the Rolling Stones do their Steel Wheels Wheelchair tour they’re gonna do “Hey, You, Get Off Of My Lawn?”
And “Rollin’ Jack Flash.”
And “Sympathy for the Bedpan Attendant.”
And “Ruby Tuesday’s Senior Lunch Special.”
Aw, just jump right in…
Looch slower than zombee. Haz sad.
dammit Looch, I was LOOKING for a Jumpin Jack Flash one….
funny that we picked entirely different songs.
How about:
“Slumpin’ Jack Flash?”
You can have that one, ‘K?
I Can’t Get No Bowel Movement
“Tumbling Bingo”
“Going To The Bin-Go”
“19th Pacemaker Breakdown”
You know what creeps me out? Mick Jagger is 2½ years older than I am. He’s still prancing around being all rock’n’roll and I can barely totter around sometimes on my knee that swells up like a poisoned frog… Getting old ain’t for the faint of heart!
“Angioplasty”
“Can’t you hear me knockin’? (I gotta pee!)”
“Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heart attack)”
“Hardly Shuffle”
Everybody!
I Can’t Get No Bowel Movement
a-HEM.
Under Cover for the Night.
Let’s Spend The Night Resting.
“Waltzing In The Street”
Angie-oplasty
Have You Seen Your Grandchild Baby, Standing in the Shadows
Its only a Rockin’ Chair, But I Like It
Paint Your Hair Black
Shattered (Hip)
Time Is Not On My Side
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want (on the seniors’ menu)”
“Midnight Rambler (peed in the hallway again)”
“Just My Imagination ( Dementia? Who Me?)
“Bus Riding Man”
ZRM
Sorry, you were first with Shattered (Hip)
Brown Metamucil
Also zrm, I must admit that “Laxitive-Action” is better, also.
you also stole Angie-oplasty from Looch.
Now you must go and sit in the corner with WP and reflect on your transgressions.
“(My bathrobe’s) Torn and Frayed”
I have to admit that “Help Me Up” is making me giggle.
“Itch”
“Under My Bed Somewhere”
I remember the Stones’ Steel Wheelchairs tour in 1989.
“you also stole Angie-oplasty from Looch.”
I thought of them independently I swears
Yes Fade Away
Loss of Memory Motel
Let’s Spend The Night Together (Watching Weel-of-Fortune)
Getting old ain’t for the faint of heart!
No it’s not, Marion. And you have no one to blame but yourself for this list.
You started it.
Annnd..I think WP is on the Steel Wheels Tour now.
Slowww…
“Gimme Tax Shelter”
“You Gotta Move (so I can vacuum)”
“Anybody Seen My Glasses?”
“Waiting on a Friend (are you my friend?)”
And that will about wrap it up for news. Keith, what’s the weather tonight?
First off, FYWP with a rusty wire brush. How do you get a “Comment too short” error?
Ahem…”Wake Me Up”
“As Years Go By” (which the original title is sort of a pun on anway, but appropriate nevertheless)
Suggested title for the next Who album (should there be one): “Who’s Left?”
Casino Buffet Boogie
Senile on Main Street
Rip This Ligament
Break Your Hips
“Achy Fingers”
Falling Down Again
Can You Hear The Music (No.)
Loving Truss
Sole Survivor
Ventilator Blues
The Nurse Smiled Sweetly
Break Your Hips
(I WIsh I Could) Stop Breaking Down
Losing My Touch
(I keep losing the) Keys To Your Love
One suspects the only reason The Who were hired was to remind folks of CBS’s CSI franchise. Makes sense–a concert and an ad at the same time.
“Sympathy For the Diagnostician”
“Some Gums”
“Walker Jack Flash”
(My Hair Looks Like) Dandelion
Mother’s Little Helper (As If! They Never Call, They Never Write)
Gimme Morphine, Sister Shelter (remix)
Stupid Girl (She Steals and She Can’t Even Dust Properly)
You Can’t Ever Get What You Want
19th Nervous Falldown
Lady Pain
Heart of Crone
It’s All Over Now (And How)
Were they amazing? Nope. Was the sound terrible? Yep, as is every year’s toiletbowl. Am I making excuses because I like The Who? Of course! My actual, out-loud reaction at the time was: “Meh, not bad, considering.”
Perhaps that had something to do with me playing live with my 60-year-old dad’s band the night before for a large and appreciative crowd and us having the time of our lives. We weren’t perfect either, but we all had a blast.