#since jimmy's examples were all reactions to danger | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

surpriserose · 2 years

Text

Hey :) so i just typed a little essay for my book blog but it really...wasn't about the book I was reading at all so honestly I'm just gonna repost it by itself here since I have more followers here and I dont know i just need to get this out :)

Okay here we go, this post took a while to write because I needed to be angry enough at the current climate around LGBT issues in America and now unfortunately seems to be the perfect timing. I am going to put my thoughts under the cut because it's going to be very triggering including discussions of

transphobia/transmisogyny, hate crimes, homophobia, childhood sexual abuse and grooming, mentions of fascism

To start off with, at the time of writing on July 24th, monkey pox has gone from something people were murmuring about mostly in LGBT communities to a declared global health crisis. At the same time, with monkey pox now an issue for the general public to officially worry about, the framing of monkey pox as an STI from gay sex has hit the mainstream. This is completely inaccurate, and while I would encourage you to research this more rather than just reading one post by some random person on the internet, here are the facts as they stand. Monkey pox spreads though various forms of contact like most viruses some of which are touch, respiration, and contact with fluids, which yes, are basically impossible to avoid during any kind of sexual contact. It is also true that in most outbreaks so far gay and bisexual men have been the most impacted, which is why support for vaccines in the LGBT community is especially important right now. But this does not mean that this is exclusively a gay disease or even an STI. To say otherwise is not only homophobic and inaccurate but dangerous. However, conservatives and homophobes of all stripes have been quick to label monkey pox not as HIV/AIDS 2.0 but as gay cancer 2.0, back to all the blatant derision that entails.

I'm starting off with monkey pox because again as of writing we are at a very dangerous point as the outbreak spreads, not just of monkey pox, but of violent homophobia specifically about old homophobic ideas of increased promiscuity and the idea that gay men are pedophiles.

A few days ago, it was confirmed that the US has seen the first cases of reported monkey pox in children. The response by conservatives, predictably, has been:

Here is probably the clearest example of violent homophobia, in the legislature even, implicitly linking gay and bi men -- as they have been reported as the primary cases of monkey pox -- to pedophilia under the guise of "just asking questions."

Matt Walsh, noted self proclaimed fascist and transmisogynist linking gay and bi men to promiscuity and almost hyper sexuality, while also implying that gay and bi men have some form of "special privileges" in that you can't question their behavior. Also notice the mention of kids and education in this tweet.

Fox News radio contributor Jimmy Failla linking a spate of current homophobic attacks together, monkey pox, LGBT children's books, and "wokeness."

Here is the article the last two tweets were taken from which also includes an overview of the situation and reaction from conservative media. Again and again we see LGBT people and especially gay and bi men used as scapegoats and their suffering the targets of mockery and slander as a way to ignore the real danger a monkey pox outbreak presents. In the conservative and reactionary mindset, gay and bi men are already linked with disease, extreme promiscuity, and pedophilia and it has been that way since the 50s and again in the 80s and the early 00s, any time LGBT people and issues hit the mainstream media and become extremely visible homophobia and transphobia increases incredibly, which we see happening again now in multiple ways.

Especially now we see the presentation of LGBT people as a danger to children. This is only the beginning, as people have pointed out this rhetoric is likely to get worse as more children get infected with monkey pox once school resumes. Here we see how the deliberate ignorance of framing monkey pox as an exclusively gay STI is here to link one imagined sex crime panic to another. I am, of course, talking about the "groomer" rhetoric spread in large part by the account LibsofTikTok.

Some quick background information for those who haven't been following this specific thread of hate. While the homophobia and transphobia LibsofTikTok (I will use LTT for short) peddles is as old as dirt, this is an account that has inspired a particularly large backlash against the LGBT community in large part due to it's connection with Fox News and conservative politicians. LTT has been operating since the creator, Chaya Raichik, made the account in November of 2020. However, the account reached a peak in April of 2022 when an article by Taylor Lorenz was posted uncovering the creator and Raichik used the article as an excuse to cry doxxing despite her information being easily accessible enough and her notoriety warranting the article. At this point Raichik buddied up to Tucker Carlson so they could both decry the "violence" of the left while LTT was posting homophobic and transphobic violence every day under the guise of "just reposting TikToks of 'libs' owning themselves."

At the same time LTT has a habit of calling any LGBT person a "groomer." Specifically here I want to bring up LTT's pattern of posting videos and tweets of LGBT teachers and trying to get their followers to get them fired. These teachers have not done anything wrong, except in the eyes of conservatives where simply being out as gay or trans is a way of sexually "grooming" kids by exposing them to the concepts of...being gay and trans. LGBT people are presented as a danger simply for existing in proximity to children, and even more dangerous if they try and affirm LGBT children. Should monkey pox spread in schools due to the lack of urgency on the part of the Biden administration, LGBT teachers are going to be at even more risk for unlawful firing and hate crimes than they already are.

I mention hate crimes because LTT and other conservative media have not been shy towards spurring them on. Recently, there's been multiple instances of gay bars, drag shows (and especially Drag Queen storytime events), and libraries getting swarmed by angry parents, Proud Boys, and neo-nazis, often armed. They've been informed of these events by accounts like LTT posting about them and sensationalizing them with Raichik's groomer rhetoric. You may remember a picture spread on Twitter of children at a drag show at a nightclub in Texas, where people expressed horror at a sign that said "it's not gonna lick itself" in the background as a sign of deviant grooming and pedophilia. I don't want to undercut how serious the rhetoric around this event was, but as someone who just watched all of the Shrek movies recently... kids have heard worse. The real issue these people have is with children being exposed to drag and different ideas of gender, which they view as inherently sexual. Although there were some useful idiots who furthered transphobia with their mostly genuine hand wringing about an easily explained away innuendo, unwilling to see their part in spreading the trans panic further.

A quick note on all of these protests, although they're really violent intimidation against the LGBT community, is that the police have deliberately failed to step in in all of them and instead allowed these attacks to happen freely. The police have never and will never be on the side of the LGBT community as they are a tool of state repression and always have been. While Lawrence v. Texas is still the law of the land and sodomy is legal and gay bars are free to operate and book all the drag performers they, the police have no legal way to harass the LGBT community. Until laws legalizing sodomy were passed it was legal to entrap gay men by flirting with them until there was enough evidence there was conspiracy to commit sodomy and prosecute them. Some police departments even had whole squads dedicated to this "moral cleanup." And there is history of gender nonconforming and transgender people being hit especially hard by police raids on gay bars. With the police no longer able to intimidate the community under homophobic and transphobic laws, it's fallen on their comrades in the Proud Boys and other fascist groups to do it for them under the guise of reasonable concerns.

Because what it all comes down to is that "think of the children" has always been an excuse not to actually advocate for the welfare of children in any way from education to healthcare, but as a cheap way to start a moral panic on demand. Please, as much as you can, be aware of the climate LGBT people and especially gay/bi men and trans people are facing. These attacks have been very dark signs to me, and they should be for everyone, and they've been happening for a long, long time.

#transphobia #homophobia #ask to tag #homophobia is the worst disease #just btw if you didnt know

2 notes · View notes

brido · 2 years

Text

I Watched 14 Gallagher Specials in 2019 and These Are the Notes I Took.

An Uncensored Evening (1980).

Gallagher is 34-years-old here and has been doing comedy for 11 years.

On paper this is a fairly charming introduction to Gallagher. It has its moments (which I’ll get to), but I just keep thinking about how a lot of these jokes seem like first-year-in-comedy type bits. Or maybe that’s just me. So many things reminded me of things I tried to write my first year in comedy. Because yeah, Gallagher is a prop comic. Because that’s what you remember. But he’s mostly a joke machine here. I just can’t decide if his one-liners are under appreciated or if he uses his wordplay and observations the same way a magician or comedy hypnotist uses them.

Also, it’s 1980. So I don’t know if all of these are original Gallagher jokes, stolen jokes, street jokes, or what was considered ‘hack’ at the time. Just as an example, he does a bit about how women cary their purse if they have money in it vs. if they don’t. And when he says, “If it’s like this, that bitch ain’t got a dollar.” Like, he uses an affected voice and delivery for the punch line he never uses the rest of the hour. Like he got it off a black Comedy Store miker without permission. But I’m making a lot of assumptions. It just feels like anyone could tell these jokes since there’s no part of him in most of them. He has a joke about the wet spot. He makes fun of commercials. He has Polack jokes. He has a gay interior decorator voice. Mexicans in a car jokes. He basically says, “These are the things I think about while I’m getting high.” He does, “If I was in charge” jokes. And his crowd work goes over well, but it’s peak club hack. I just don’t know if it was in 1980.

There were jokes I liked. Getting Jehova’s Witnesses to deliver the mail made me laugh. He doesn’t comb his hair because, “Parallel hair? Who needs that?” Which almost sounded like Hedberg to me. I found his transexual joke really interesting, “What if there’s a female spirit trapped inside my body and I don’t know it because she’s a lesbian?” And he follows it up with saying his preference for female bicycles. “Does it seem reasonable to you that the one with the balls gets the one with the bar?” But again, what are the chances that Gallagher’s take on bicycles was original? I don’t know. There were glimpses into who this dude actually is. Like, I can tell he really hates Jimmy Carter. And while I probably wouldn’t agree with his politics, I kinda wanted him to go there instead of just dipping his toe in.

But I guess none of this is the point of Gallagher. He comes out on roller skates. He pulls a banana out of his pants. He tosses out candy bars. The point is the fun. And actually, the part where he pretended to almost fall down towards the end actually made me laugh pretty hard because of the tension he created by hitting on a woman in the front row. And honestly, the best part of this was the introduction of the watermelon. The crowd had never seen this shit before. So they had no idea what to expect. There’s a point when he’s basically taunting them with smashing it onto them if they don’t laugh at his jokes. And then he leaves it there as a reminder. I loved that. It added a layer of danger that had them giddy with anticipation. And then during this whole thing, his microphone cuts out and his riffs, plus the crowd’s reaction in support, is one of those magic moments that I’m so glad they kept in the final cut. Which also seems very ‘alt’ of them to do. Yeah, I guess I’m curious to see where he goes from here.

Mad As Hell. (1981).

Well, Gallagher is in a theater now. And someone must have given him the same notes I did from his first special because the whole thing is quasi-political, “if I was in charge” material. The one-liners are mostly gone. So is the watermelon. It’s like a deep-cut Carlin special without the gravitas or like, if “Weird” Al had reimagined Chris Rock’s “Bigger and Blacker”. I don’t know. The POV is more clear. But I am guessing it’s also entirely forgettable.

Let’s set aside the fact that this is his second hour in a year. And that he has another one coming later in the year. Or the same night (I’m not sure how it works yet). And that’s really fucking impressive. But this is still just applause-break comedy with the crutch of a bigger audience. He still hates smokers. And balding. And he still thinks money is worthless. There’s still a slight element of danger with the crowd. But this time it’s just graham crackers and spit liquor. I honestly don’t know why he’d move away from that unless it’s coming later in massive amounts.

Again, there were jokes that I liked. His chunk about traffic was pretty strong. I liked the line about left turns (”That’s your yellow, you paid for it with your green.”) He has a strong riff with the audience about what to call a car with a bathroom. His bit about gene splicing (in 1981, holy shit) and his cat is all pretty solid (”Why don’t they make a butt flavored cat food?”, “When’s the last time your cat brought you home a tuna?”, when he wipes his feet on the pre-flattened cat). But there’s still arguably-racist jokes about the Japanese, the Iranians, Mexicans and their cars, etc. And there’s still jokes I’m not sure if he actually wrote (”military intelligence”) or might not be the most original (”why does a man have nipples?”, getting charged more when a check bounces).

But the weirdest part comes at the end. And I say this knowing full well that he enters the stage singing, with a roller skate on one foot and a spring on the other, and that stage hands toss him hats or American flags at various times throughout the show. But Gallagher’s big Hannah Gadsby moment is a ‘save the whales’ poem complete with illustrations, one of which sprays water. It has nothing to do with the rest of the show. And Gallagher’s seemingly anti-union, dog-whistle-racist commentary seems at odds with such a cliche-hippy message. I have no real problem with it. But shit was weird. Like, maybe just smash some watermelons, man.

Two Real. (1981).

Okay. I stand corrected. This was incredible. I don’t even care if things didn’t necessarily work. Yes, there was still gay voice and his most anti-Mexican joke yet. But this was ambitious as fuck. The ‘stupid’ part of the show makes the first part (since this was the same night as ‘Mad as Hell’) almost come off as brilliant. It’s AM & FM by Carlin meets Steve Martin meets the Carnegie Hall show by Andy Kaufman. He’s got sketches with a female performer. More songs. More balloon animals. Even a song-and-dance act with a prosthetic woman on his back that I feel like would have murdered at the Lincoln Lodge in 2005. The sledge hammer is even bigger. He even has the watermelons perform in a trapeze act. And he still finds ways to sneak in commentary on Middle Eastern oil or says the network news ain’t real or whatever. I’m trying to picture a 35-year-old comic from my generation pulling this off now and I’m coming up completely empty. Maybe Vatterott. It’s just hard to believe this is the same guy from the year before.

Totally New (1982).

The name probably wasn’t meant to be ironic. But this is a lot of rehash from the first special. Actually, I think the watermelon routine is the exact same as the first special. But I just keep thinking about how the watermelon smashing is the only thing we currently remember about Gallagher, when so much of this is political in nature. The theme is essentially, “How do we beat the Japanese?” That comes with some pretty dicey commentary on Japanese people, themselves. The worst of which is when he asks a member of the audience what they did today to beat the Japanese. And when the man replies that he dug a ditch, Gallagher says, “And buried a Jap in it?” I mean, Jesus Christ. Even if that line was handed to him on a platter... yuck. And since his overall message reminds me of a nationalistic Trump campaign rally, it might be important to know that our president is only a month older than Gallagher. Take that for whatever it’s worth.

I guess I miss the fun of the last special and was hoping Gallagher was finding his groove. Maybe the dislocated elbow has something to do with it, but the same magic isn’t there. And the odd editing and misplaced laugh tracks also distracted me to the point that I had to assume some the jokes didn’t land when he did them live. I’m not even really sure if any stand out to me. There’s anti-union stuff. He does gay voice again and says “fairy” towards the end. There’s a point where he says, “I want you people to respect me for my mind,” and I thought, ‘that’s interesting’, but then he follows it up by saying, “See how dumb that sounds, girls?” So yeah. That’s what I’ll probably remember. I don’t know. The observational stuff wasn’t for me. He had a bit about women loving shoes. He sang a country song (!) that would definitely not be okay in the MeToo era. At times, some of the sight gags reminded me of something John Oliver would do towards the end of his show. But most of it felt like filler.

There’s a point where he takes a fuzzy bathroom mat and lid and pretends to be a baseball catcher, which is a pretty great sight gag. His spelling material was interesting, but lacked punch lines. And I liked when he talked about his daughter. Because maybe it was the only time we’ve really gotten to see the real guy behind all the mess. The title notwithstanding, I am ready for something from Gallagher that is totally new.

That’s Stupid (1982).

Hey gang. This was bad. And I’m not really clear what it was for. It’s the same jokes for the most part, but this time it’s done in a frantic and oddly-edited public-access-style monologue. There were lots of takes he should have re-shot. And I’m wondering if these were originally supposed to be digested in 5-minute chunks between shows. And maybe they threw them together into a special at a later time? And I almost skipped this because it’s not live. Then I remembered Drew Michael’s HBO special, which is essentially the same thing. So oddly enough, the two most avant-garde specials of 2018 (Drew and Hannah Gadsby) had already been done by Gallagher in 1981 and 1982. But I guess that’s what happens when you have 100 specials.

Just about the best thing I can say about this is that he looks like he’s having fun. He keeps going for a joke about a Japanese computer spitting out fortune cookies, which... no. He also complains about cab drivers not being from this country. Then again, I swear Seinfeld has the same fucking bit. And he has even more anti-gay jokes. Some of which appear while he’s shirtless with manikins, which seem like a fever dream. I guess I liked seeing his house in Malibu. He had two jokes I hadn’t heard yet that I liked (one about finding good parking spots for the gym and the other about how they should get the net out of the middle of tennis courts because it ruins the game). And the one genuinely funny moment, quick though it was, came when he talked to a blonde woman at the unemployment office who said a man exposed himself from behind a newspaper. And Gallagher asked if he was reading the want ads. It’s objectively funny. But yeah. This one should be avoided. But I guess his joke about E.T. is a kind reminder about just how long ago this actually got made.

Stuck in the Sixties (1983).

So there’s a theme of sorts, even though almost every joke was on “That’s Stupid.” Again, the editing is distractingly bad. I always think how expensive it must have been for him to just buy all these random things just to hold them up to the audience and say they’re stupid. But again, that still reminds me of John Oliver. There’s a long chunk about women’s nightgowns, and I have to admit that the sight gag of him pretending to go to the grocery store while saying, “This is a hideous problem,” made me laugh. I find it interesting that he said we shouldn’t have phone books, we should have computers. And that we should be able to dial people’s names. So he was right on those ones. But really, this is forgettable. And still, nothing gets a reaction like the Sledge-O-Matic. This one includes cottage cheese, so that’s fun. And the anti-Mexican, anti-Japanese stuff was barely noticeable. He says “rice-burnin’ cars” and he points at a guy in the crowd and identifies him as a Mexican. Other than that, it’s peace and love. But not much else.

The Maddest (1983).

Do I think this one is memorable? Yeah, because I remember it from when I was a kid. It’s the giant couch trampoline special. And I’ve noticed that Gallagher has developed a bit of swag over the last two specials. And why wouldn’t he? This crowd is with him on everything this time. And at the end, they know the Sledge-O-Matic is coming, a few people have brought protective sheets and these people WANT that watermelon. And they want that son of a bitch smashed. He’s definitely performing to fans. Finally.

I also might be changing my mind, in hindsight, about the “That’s Stupid” special. These last two specials have been packed with that same material. So it’s like he crammed every joke he performed into an hour and did them as fast as he could. “That’s Stupid” is jam packed. It’s two-other-specials worth of material. Which also means a lot of this stuff is repeats again. There’s also an outsized number of jokes I have to wonder, again, if they were written by Gallagher. Hot dog packages and hot dog buns have different numbers. 7-11 has locks, but it’s open 24 hours. And agin, I have to wonder if all of that is besides the point since he’s also entering on roller skates, driving around a school desk, having an Exorcist baby spit water and doing backflips on a fucking couch trampoline that he bought “with yer money.”

Again, I think his stuff about his baby daughter is probably the strongest. I liked the bit where he says Californians were pissed they couldn’t go any farther west so they built piers. And he has a men vs. women joke that’s eerily similar to Chris Rock’s from “Bigger and Blacker”, which came almost two decades later. Also, there’s some homophobia (he calls a hat ‘sissy’, he repeats a joke about sexual confusion in San Francisco). And I’m curious if his “busses taking kids to the wrong schools” line (another repeat) is anti-integration, which would be fucking flagrant.

Mostly I’m curious about all the repeat material. Like, what is the need for Gallagher and Showtime to put out multiple shows with the same jokes shuffled around? The sight gags are what’s new, which I guess answers the question about what was important. At one point we’re almost 55-minutes in, and Gallagher references being up there for an hour and a half. He’s done something like this before and it makes me wonder if he had a longer show they edited around or what. I guess I’m just confused as to why we keep getting two specials a year or whatever it is, just so another big sight gag can be introduced. Then again, I remembered the couch. But I couldn’t tell you a single joke. And I think it’s probably gonna stay that way.

Melon Crazy (1984).

The jokes are no longer the point. You could argue that they never were to begin with. But things have fully devolved into a big messy finale, new gadgets and sight gags and nothing else even matters. The people have brought their tarps from home. There’s a kid in a welding mask. And you’ve heard a vast majority of the jokes already. Nobody seems to mind. Part of me is surprised Showtime didn’t mind. But again, the jokes are no longer the point. If they were ever the point.

In fact, this time, Gallagher brings out Bill Kirchenbauer (Growing Pains, Just The Ten Of Us) to do 12 minutes of material and then another 5 minutes of riffing. But I guess, why do other people’s material when you can just get other people to do their own? And Kirchenbauer isn’t bad. He’s physical. He has props. He’s bald. Less charismatic, but more likable. I feel like I remember watching his set when I was a kid.

But we should probably talk about the sight gags. Gallagher comes out with a train-set hat shaped like a watermelon. He has a giant inflatable watermelon. He flies a small zeppelin (also a watermelon) over the audience, telling them he spends money on these things because they’re tax deductible. Now there’s a cleaning bucket for the Sledge-O-Matic. And the big closing piece is a Jackson Pollock-style painted map of the United States made with condiments and goop.

The bit is also a vehicle for more racist jokes about Mexicans. The crowds all seem to be in California. And they seem to laugh and applaud at the jokes. He uses guacamole to paint California. Then bean dip to indicate the southern border. It might have seemed more innocent if he hadn’t already had a joke about Californians wanting to annex Mexico because, “If you’re gonna live with the people you might as well get the real estate that goes with ‘em.” And he’s already told you (again) that he’s not thrilled about foreign cab drivers (”I don’t have anything against foreigners, but it ain’t no reason to give em a job,”). He also alludes to Chinese people in San Francisco, but it seemed more innocent without anti-Chinese shit earlier in the act.

Maybe none of this matters. Maybe it’s just a cadence, words to say while he does the thing they came to see. But as the credits roll, snippets of his act are repeated in audio form. Like, “Remember this one?” And yeah. I do. Because you’ve used it on four specials. Which, again, is probably besides the point.

Over Your Head (1984).

Hey, some new stuff. Or like, 70% anyway. This time Gallagher is in Texas. And he’s figured out new ways to fuck with the crowd. He’s got a bucket of water in a paper bag. When they think that’s done, he sprays them with a water gun as they scurry for their tarps. At the end, the stage has sprinklers, which is actually pretty genius. And I have to admit that I love when he gives the crowd a knowing look. About 13 minutes in, he does just that while saying, “You’re very correct to have your plastic up at this point.” Because, really, what’s the fun if everyone is ready for it?

This is almost a full-on variety show. He tap dances. Sharon Baird from The Mickey Mouse Club tap dances even better. Gallagher reads a poem about river pollution, while a blue screen shows videos to the home audience. He sings “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” while a zeppelin hovers over the crowd. It’s bigger than the one from the last special. Then the feed cuts to Gallagher flying an actual zeppelin somewhere. Presumably over a rainbow. All while wearing a top hat that turns into a rainbow. And it’s somehow all a message about air pollution. In Texas. In 1984.

So he definitely gets an A for ambition once again. Because as I typed that out, it started to dawn on me how insane that sounds on paper. Plus he’s got jokes about the Phoenicians, he’s got a mascot-like character of guy with his head up his ass. His fake daughter hangs off the rafters. And he has giant swim trunks he turns into a dress and a bull whip he bought at a 7-11. Maybe I’d be more impressed if I liked the stand-alone jokes. It’s really broad, for the most part. Women be shopping. Lots of pandering to Texas. Lots of facial mugging. But when the slop comes out everyone roars. By now I should give up on the ‘smart’ portion, accept the applause breaks, and embrace the stupidity.

The Bookkeeper (1985).

James Franco should totally play Gallagher in the movie. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m getting so annoyed at all the repeat material. Maybe because saying ‘14 specials’ is kinda misleading since it’s one or two specials, shifted around by theme or at random. The theme in this one is taxes. He doesn’t like paying them. And there are some funny lines in there. He breaks down whose seat payed for what and then says, “That’s why I love the balcony. You’re MY money.” And “Congress is the opposite of progress,” which I’m guessing there’s zero chance he wrote. But he also shoots a ball of money into the crowd with a cannon, so what’s the point of dissecting it?

And I could complain about his ‘men don’t stop to ask for directions’ bit. Or tell you that his material about masculine female athletes would be problematic in 2019. Or that he does a bit about women breaking a nail. Because he also has an invisible elephant climb up a ladder (complete with bending bars) and dive off a diving board into a pool, splashing water on the first few rows. He also has new mallets. He’s got a peeled watermelon. He’s got a giant big wheel. He’s got strobe lights. And it still hasn’t gotten old to me when he fakes out the crowd.

There were things I liked or found interesting. I honestly liked hearing him talk about Michael Jackson (”You sing about Billie Jean, I want to see the bitch,”) and Brooke Shields ("Her name even sounds like an anti-sexual device,”). It’s funny when he talks about all the ridiculous things he learned in school, which he pronounces SHULE. And the bit about the ‘W’ in ‘One’ and ‘Two’ is clever. And the commercial he saw for the suppository, where the woman saying, “Don’t take my world for it,” is just a nice way of saying, “Stick one up your ass.”

He’s spending a fuckload more times on the props though, and it shows. Even if there are multiple repeats, he’s always a step ahead of his audience in the splash zone. Just not sure if you can fault him if he’s giving the people what they want.

Overboard (1987).

Honestly, I think this might be Peak Gallagher. If this isn’t his pinnacle, I’d be shocked. The material is new (or like, 95%), and strong enough that an editing decision was made to just give a highlight reel of the Sledge-O-Matic starting at the 45-minute mark. He must have done over two hours by the looks of it. And he’s got the biggest stage yet, the biggest set yet and the biggest props yet. In other words, yeah, Overboard.

Let’s also get out of the way, that it’s also probably the most ‘problematic’ of the Gallagher specials if it were released in 2019. He’s got a ‘Fat Bitch on a Stick’, basically a heavyset woman on a pole that he holds over the audience and says, “She’ll poop on ya.” Which she then does. And I’m laughing as I type that. He throws the mannequin of an ugly Soviet/Russian woman in a pool. He hands vibrating watermelons to bikini models. He has bikini models. He says he doesn’t like women who look like men. And if they want to pump iron... it’s a dumbbell made of clothing irons. He says prison overcrowding causes homosexuality. But that might just be for his street joke punchline of “nowhere to put their stuff.” He says ‘sissy’ again, regarding the names of nuclear missiles. He has more jokes about the Japanese (”a race of very short people who are always bending in half”) and does an L/R pronunciation joke for the Toyota Corolla. There’s also Japanese tourist material. But the real ‘yikes’ stuff is about Arabs. TWA stands for ‘Travel With Arabs’, Delta stands for ‘Don’t Even Let Them Aboard’. He mistakes ‘Arab’ for ‘Muslim’ again later in the show. This is in 1987, mind you. And then the skinned watermelon at the end is Muammar Gaddafi, complete with a turban. It might be Bugs-Bunny-level racism, but still.

If we can get past that, this can be a fantastic spectacle full of fantastic spectacles. He has a giant car, designed to look like a boat. He has a seagull on a pole, which also shits on all the people in their raincoats. He swings on a rope over their heads, which looks fucking dangerous. He invented a beer gun. And a champagne gun. And a moose douche, which is so stupid, it’s hilarious. He has a muscle coat, which I wanted really bad as a kid. And at the end, his daughter (I assume) hits him in the face with a pie.

I think the biggest relief for me was that the material was new. I think we get to the 43-minute mark before he does verbatim jokes I’ve heard him do. Sure, some of the ‘new’ stuff seems lifted. He does the Greenland/Iceland bit. He does the “the cops didn’t have anything to go on” street joke. A new joke about men not asking for directions. But it’s also commentary on Iran-Contra, the presidents since LBJ, and after he ranted about spending money on other countries and giving back the Panama Canal, I swear Trump has seen this special. Especially when you see Trump splashing water. If he could hand vibrating watermelons to bikini babes at his rallies, you know he would.

In 1986, Showtime put out a special called, ‘The Messiest’, which was just clips from pervious specials. I joked to myself about how that’s basically what every Gallagher special was. Not this one. Maybe if five specials from now, he’s still splashing the crowd with a paddle while Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise” plays, but as of now, this one will be hard to top.

We Need a Hero (1992).

I can’t quite place my finger on it, but I feel like this isn’t the same fun-loving Gallagher from the 80′s. Maybe it’s because he seems obsessed with ‘getting’ the audience now. He makes fun of them when he fakes them out with water and slop. He tells them they look dumb when they duck. He never used to do that. Maybe it’s because they bring massive tarps now. But the ‘pies’ he makes at the end just gross the audience out. They grossed me out too. A soaked diaper with mustard and beer? That’s pretty fucking disgusting. So is watching him hand-mix baked beans and apple sauce for some reason. But I guess he stands in the audience while his infamous brother smashes shit this time to prove he can take it, but still. At this point, if you go to one of Gallagher’s shows, he’s fully intent on ruining whatever you were wearing. Hey honey, I got tickets to a full-on food fight tonight. Can’t wait to come home stinking like god-knows-what. This is the same guy who used to throw out candy bars and cookies.

Maybe it’s his age. Gallagher is 46 now. He’s got a shaved head, which is actually an upgrade, even though he looks like G. Gordon Liddy. And I can’t help but think he feels angrier or like he’s not having as much fun. At least until the whig comes off. Maybe he’s just seeing how far he can take things. All that being said, this is also Gallagher’s most topical special thus far. And it does have some truly great moments (which I’ll get to).

He’s got jokes about Pee-wee Herman, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker (”It’s too much to ask the preachers to do more than laypeople”, “I’m not a preacher ‘cause I already got your money”), Mike Tyson, George Bush (he said, “Read my lips” because he’s lying out his ass), Bill Clinton, Ross Perot, the Kennedys (they’re “drunk butts” from High-anus), Pete Rose, Madonna, Dr. Ruth, etc, etc, etc. Everything places us clearly in 1992. And I believe it’s 100% new stuff. There were lots of lines that made me laugh. “Soup isn’t food. Soup is what’s left over in the dishwasher after a good meal”, “A fair is where we all go to get cheated”, “Women can’t keep a secret but they can hold a fart”. And the problematic stuff might not be as noticeable. He doesn’t like men who wear an earring or women who look masculine. But that might just be a way for him to reveal his shaved head or the bikini top he made for his muscle suit. He has a “Black Or White” joke for Michael Jackson, but I’m guessing every comic at the time thought of that joke.

My favorite part is when he brings up Robert Morris, a 14-year-old boy, who is so perfectly dorky that he is probably a plant. Like, I rewound the part where he tries to speak into the microphone and gets sprayed with water three times. That shit killed me. Even thought I’m positive I’ve seen this before. I mean, Gallagher also sprays the kid with a fuckload of silly string, which could be considered mean. But he really walks a fine line between laughing AT this kid and still making it okay. This special is essentially topical jokes and passable relationship humor done by a guy who probably has the gravitas to not smash shit anymore. And maybe it’s making him resent them for making him.

Smashing Cheeseheads (1997).

I’m pretty sure this isn’t a Showtime special, but it almost looks like one, so why not? Gallagher sticks with the topical. He’s got jokes about OJ Simpson and Lorena Bobbitt. After his Mike Tyson joke, a graphic comes on the screen that says, “Two hours after this performance, Mike Tyson bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear.” He also thinks the kids should pull their damn pants up. He points out how different men and women are. Men go off to the garage, for example. So it’s definitely not hip. And the hair is back, so maybe that’s a statement on how he’s 51-years-old and he’s not changing. But I also think the career decline is the most evident here, even though the theater in Green Bay is full.

This is also the first special where Gallagher just flat-out calls something, ‘faggy’. He also says he’s gonna smash fruit cocktail for the homosexuals. Then he combines the fruit cocktail (aka ‘the queers’) with La Choy (for ‘the China people’) and calls it “a San Francisco treat.” We’re in Wisconsin, mind you, so who fucking knows why that would land. And the laughter seems pumped in for that line. The weirdest fucking thing to me is that, based on the montage at the end, there was a lot of editing done during the show. So he (or whoever edited this) left that joke in because they liked it. Crazy.

I’m guessing this is largely forgettable. The Sledge-O-Matic has devolved into blatant gross-out time. There’s pickle water in a Depends diaper. Peanut butter becomes a shit joke. Jelly is cum. He hits chocolate Pop Tarts into the crowd with a tennis racket and says they're bound to hurt somebody. So like, why do it then? Just about the most interesting thing for me was that this is the first time we see Gallagher actually purchasing groceries for his show. And he spends $253, which would be about $400 in 2019. It’s all fresh food, Gallagher reminds the audience earlier in the show. So if it hits you with your mouth open, just go ahead and chew. It’s also the first time I’ve seen him walk into the crowd with a fire hose and spray the back of the crowd and the balcony. So nobody is safe. And I’m sure if he found a way to splash his gross-ness on me while I watched it 22-years later, he would do that too.

Messin’ Up Texas (1998).

Wow. This is an absolute shitshow. I don’t even know what to say about what this has devolved into. Then again, the tastes in entertainment in the late 90′s and early 2000′s sure were going this way, but Jesus Christ. It’s almost entirely crowd work. A lot of it is downright mean. And then by the end, the stage is just a goddamn disaster. Again, there were parts I liked.

First of all, Gallagher’s nephew, Logan, is a hit with the crowd. Some of Gallagher’s interactions with the kid are a smidge inappropriate. But one of the parts I liked the most from We Need a Hero was when he’d have ‘adult’ lines go over the 14-year-old kid’s head while the crowd laughed. So I have to accept that a boy scooping butter out of a tub with his hands gets told he should be a gynecologist when he grows up. And that’s before a thinly-veiled joke about the kid masturbating in the shower. Real fucking borderline. But those were the good interactions.

Gallagher loves telling people they’re fat. That’s a new thing he’s doing. And one poor kid named Adam gets told his mom picked a Biblical name because she’s in motels so often and she picked up a Bible and turned to the first page. And that’s before he tells the kid he has a ‘faggy’ pocket on his pants. There’s more homophobic shit when he starts bringing up dudes from the crowd who have pocketknives to open paint cans. He starts insinuating one guy’s earring is gay. And he tells him people with rainbow bumper stickers deserve to be rear ended. I felt the worst for a girl with the last name Campbell. Gallagher calls her a dumb bitch in a way that felt like he was barely kidding. He hits her with one of his gross-out pies when she wasn’t expecting it. And then has her lift her shirt up to wipe it off, exposing her bra. I felt so uncomfortable. But she was a really good sport and got to smash watermelons at the end. Someone her age now would dash off the stage bawling and her tears would launch 1000 blogs. And these were all the parts where it felt like Gallagher was in control. Not so much later on.

Some of the audience members are not ready for prime time. One teenager is uncontrollable and starts grabbing random things off the stage. That stayed in the final edit, somehow. Gallagher also apparently blinds himself with one of the mustard splats and I felt like the wheels were coming off. There was a point a few specials back where I was sick of his material. Now I’m begging him to reel everything back in.

Sledge-O-Matic.com (2000).

This might be entirely skippable. It’s essentially the same set as the last two specials. Except it’s somehow even more homophobic. He says ‘faggy’ more often. He basically tells a 10-year-old boy he looks like his mom and picked a ‘faggy’ candy. He thinks pro wrestling is gay. Men with earrings look like homosexuals and piss off all the queers that come up to them. Lots of YIKES-type shit. He even manages to throw in a Mexican janitor joke. It’s a little much, to say the least. I guess I’m surprised he put this out. Except I guess he’s got a shaved head and a goatee again. Because he’s trying to look like Steve Austin. And maybe he just wants to sell a new shirt. And I suppose when he tells the little boy he can’t tell his gender, it does yield the line, “What? It’s just a head sticking out of a plastic bag. Looks like Jeffrey Dahmer’s garbage.” So... worth it?

The crowd just wants the smashing. When he’s trying to complain about modern society, he starts to lose them. He seriously tries to sneak in anti-religious jokes in the middle of this chaos where the audience has essentially become children and Hot Topic teenagers with their parents. There are a few other good lines. A guy walks in late with (presumably) a NASCAR jacket and Gallagher says, “You walk in late with Tide on your jacket. Go do another load and come back.” And when he talks about precautions against a lawsuit for things that happen during his show he says, “The things I want to do at night for fun sound real dumb at court in the morning.” In fairness, I guess he didn’t have too much further he could have gone after Overboard. But at this point, we’ve hit a wall.

Tropic of Gallagher (2007).

I can’t find the footage online and part of me is thrilled about that.

Gotham Comedy Live (2014); episode “Gallagher”.

This is listed under his comedy specials on his Wikipedia. It’s not. He’s just hosting a showcase-type show on AXS TV. And it’s part sad, part fascinating to watch. For one thing, he’s not smashing anything, so Gallagher is limited to his old one-liners, which come off really awkwardly and past their sell-by date. He also has a fucking Arab joke that somehow still made it onto the show in 2014. But it’s interesting in that, this is basically back to where we started in 1980. Except he’s not 34 and on roller skates. He’s 61 and he’s had 4 heart attacks. It’s also the first time I’ve seen him with a regular microphone. But goddamnit, Gallagher looks like he’s having fun and happy to be there. It’s charming in an old-guy type of way. And I’m just kinda happy to see that he’s not flinging gross shit at idiots. At least not for this one night in Manhattan.

1 note · View note

sumukhcomedy · 4 years

Text

The Luxury of Laughing at Donald Trump

I was in a video meeting at work a few weeks ago. The majority of the people in the meeting were white. As we are a company focused in on science, we were discussing COVID-19. At one point, someone brought up Donald Trump’s use and endorsement of hydroxychloroquine. A number of the people, including the person who said it, began chuckling. It’s one of those comments like any other in workplace meetings: a subtle mention that draws laughs among the group. But I didn’t laugh and I haven’t been laughing. The reason is now something that hopefully is becoming clear to white people. White people have the luxury of seeing Donald Trump as a joke (even the ones that support him). Black and brown people do not because his words and his policies are a danger to their livelihoods.

In the fall of 2016, just a couple weeks before the election, I tweeted and posted on Facebook, “It amazes me that a generation of stand-up comedians that mock hack material so embrace telling jokes about Trump on stage.” This came from a reaction to what I was seeing at live stand-up comedy shows and on social media. There were so many comedians (primarily white) referring to Trump as “orange” or blasting off on how much of an idiot he is, etc. The majority of what I was hearing was poor, unhelpful comedy and it’s of course magnified by the fact that most of these comedians were highly critical of such poor, unhelpful comedy of the past.

With Trump getting elected, the comedy at both a prominent, national level and on even the local stand-up comedy stages only enhanced. You had Saturday Night Live needing to do a weekly appearance from Alec Baldwin. The Daily Show of course has been a pinnacle of this type of comedy through numerous presidents. Its disciples like John Oliver, Samantha Bee, and Stephen Colbert continued this kind of news magazine comedy. Even Jimmy Kimmel, part of a world in late-night TV that never seemed to separate into factions related to politics, has now seemingly become the most hated celebrity to Trump supporters. For Hollywood, Trump became an easy and profitable target and maybe that is what Americans who consume comedy wanted and needed.

Personally, particularly when it ventures into political and social issues, I ask myself: is the comedy funny and is it actually changing anyone? I can’t speak to any type of data related to that so I’ll just leave that question out there for all of us to ponder.

With social media, we’ve been allowed a 24 hours a day, 7 days per week ability to blast Trump as we please. And, it’s even better because Trump is blasting us with plenty of content himself on the same platform. But, very early on, it was easy to see the Twitter accounts that got the most reaction and seemed to rely solely on their despising of Trump were white people. They were also white people who I don’t even know who they were. People like the Krassenstein brothers or Bryan Behar or now this guy, Adam Parkhomenko, who is managing to commodify Black Lives Matter protests with anti-Trump merchandise.

What’s my point? If this is truly a moment in which white people wish to get introspective about themselves, then they need to ask themselves if how they react to Trump has actually helped because Trump is the most dangerous to Black and Brown people. He certainly lacks decency but, for white people, he calls them “Sleepy Joe” or “Fake News” or even “Adam Schitt” but for Black people they are “thugs” and Mexican people are “rapists.” White people have the luxury to laugh off, scream at, and call the President names, but what are the real reciprocations for them by doing so? They won’t get universal health care?

As a comedian, this is awkward to write because I’m not saying at all to stop doing comedy about Trump. Nor am I saying that Black or Brown people on Twitter or on stage haven’t done the same behavior. What I’m trying to say is that Black or Brown people, when dealing with Trump or with any comedy content, have to take a step back to evaluate its impact for the greater good and for themselves. It doesn’t appear like white people consider that at all. Otherwise, why be so mad about Jeff Dunham’s puppets but then you yourself can’t pump the brakes a bit on calling Trump “orange” or doing an impression of him or calling him a fucking asshole or making merchandise about him? So, this is first a call to everyone to consider the kind of humor and anger that you put out there and what goal you wish to accomplish because your goal has an effect on Black and Brown lives.

What’s even worse is the effect of the audience which I mentioned at the start. So many white people look at Donald Trump not seriously at all and certainly not seriously enough for him being the President of the United States. He is being treated like a strange family member. His supporters shrug off his comments as “That’s just being him” or, worse, join in the laughter with his comments. The middle ground of the business world (like in the meeting I gave as an example) chuckle away his comments, not divulging any real feelings because that’s considered inappropriate in the workplace, meanwhile not realizing they are conveying the luxury of their status by chuckling. The white liberal so opposed and disgusted by Trump vents aggressively to the masses either for laughs or out of hopeless anger or for their own personal gain and ego. Meanwhile, Brown bodies have been lying in detention camps, Black bodies have been dying in front of the world on video, and the infiltration and acceptance of white supremacy into our eyes has been more present than it’s been since, well, people like Timothy McVeigh or Dylann Roof were killing Americans and being chalked up as just “evil.”

There can be great comedy done about this President. There has been great comedy done about him. You can of course laugh at that comedy. Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator is an excellent film so we can even laugh at someone like Hitler. But, understand, if it’s constant, if his words and actions are shoved to the side like they are with laughter, and if the people supposedly against him aren’t even producing good stuff, it’s not helpful. In fact, it’s maddening. I only ask that if you truly are thinking about how you behave and think as a white person, think too about what you say and create, think as well even about what you find entertaining and how you laugh.

Because, for years now, at least in my case, there’s been a reason I can’t laugh at Donald Trump. It’s because he’s killing us.

#donald trump #trump #comedy #stand up comedy #hack #snl #daily show #john oliver #samantha bee #stephen colbert #jimmy kimmel #black lives matter #blm #white people

1 note · View note

liskantope · 6 years

Text

“Can” vs. “can’t” feminism

At the American Democrat activism event I attended last week, several political clips of commentary and satire were prepared and shown, with the chosen finale being the recently viral song of otherwise-little-known artist Lynzy Lab called “A Scary Time”. I sat a bit uncomfortably in my chair, having avoided commenting on that choice of clip when it was being discussed in the email exchange beforehand. It occurred to me that my issues with the song reflect one of my main issues with modern feminist rhetoric which I’ve probably alluded to on this blog several times and was planning to write more of an effortpost about eventually. This song so perfectly illustrates it that I might as well do that effortpost now, I suppose.

Let me start with some disclaimers so as not to be misleading about my general position: I think that the song exhibits a very well-done form of satire that I respect to the point that I’m willing to overlook the uncharitable portrayal of men’s fears (because a little uncharitability is fair game in that type of satire, I think); I find the president’s “This is a scary time for men!” comment that inspired it to be asinine (at least using that precise phrasing in that context); and I’m all for women rising up and voting this November 6th in opposition to this asininity as the artist implores them to do at the end of the song.

However. [Long post to follow, loosely organized and written over several days.]

The other organizers of the event where this song was shown heaped lavish praise on it for “making such a good point”. And the thing is, I’d probably agree with them and see the song as completely unobjectionable -- or maybe a little hyperbolic, but what the heck, it’s satire -- if it weren’t for the context in which I place that feminist message among the general flavor of feminist messages I’m receiving on a daily basis that the other people there possibly aren’t. Age might have something to do with it; the other organizers are a generation older than me and I was clearly the youngest in the whole party. I make this speculation because I’ll be mentioning age and different generational perspectives later.

Anyway, without further preamble, what bothers me about this song, in the context with one of the general themes of today’s feminist rhetoric, is (to put it maybe overly bluntly) the particular way it portrays women are weak and/or even promotes weakness in women.

As far as I can tell, feminist rhetoric didn’t used to be this way. A generation ago, it was pretty much all about how women are strong and able and capable of doing anything a man can do. It was a “women can” type of feminism. This more modern type of feminism seems to be all about “women can’t”, as evidenced by a song written and sung by a woman who starts out every line with “I can’t”. Of course, this is an uncharitable way to look at it. There’s an obvious well-intentioned reason for all this I-can’t-ism*, which is that in order to get the message across about how serious a particular form of oppression is, it’s sometimes necessary to highlight how badly the victims are affected by it in a way that often boils down to them being unable (in some sense of the word) to do things that those with more privilege are able to do. But however noble the intentions behind the rhetoric are, I still have the right to be annoyed and worried about the consequences of taking it too far.

Since I consider the song such a useful example, I’m going to pick into some of the lyrics so as better to explain on a concrete level exactly my beef with all this.

If you want to quickly get to the main point of this post, feel free to skip this part. (Actually, I feel like the tone may detract from my real objective and am hesitant to leave it in. But aside from enjoying expressing the occasional snark, I’m curious to hear any responses/explanations from someone with some typical women’s experiences.)

Let me start by saying that a few of these lines, if not taken too literally (especially the “I can’t” part) seem probably valid, e.g. can’t go to the club just to dance with friends (if you don’t want to be hit on); can’t leave drinks unattended (at least in many bar/club scenes). Maybe some others are valid as well and I’m blinded from seeing that from male privilege, in some sense of that term. Certainly there are a couple of lines that just seem bizarre and make little sense to me, perhaps because I’m a man: “I can’t wear a mini skirt if it’s the only one I own” and “I can’t be wearing silk pajamas when I answer the door”.

The very first line similarly had me scratching my head: “I can’t walk to my car late at night while on the phone”, specifically the “on the phone” part. After thinking about it for a while, I realized it probably reflects a notion that one is safer from violent assaults when both hands are completely free to defend oneself. I’m not sure that this makes sense from a purely physical point of view (we’re talking about a small but heavy object that one can drop or throw at a moment’s notice), and I’m definitely skeptical that it makes sense when one considers that being on the phone makes it easier to call for help. In fact, I think the main reason I’m so confused is that I remember in my early days of walking outside late at night, in situations where I felt uncomfortable and worried for my safety, I remember my then-girlfriend suggesting to me that talking on the phone would make me safer; a potential assailant would be more worried about the consequences of attacking someone who might have a friend or family member on the other end of the line. I’m not sure that is entirely valid either. It’s just not clear to me what the safest approach is. But that song lyric suggests to me that, validly or not, at least since the time that my girlfriend was trying to help me stay safer over a decade ago, The Womanhood has come to the consensus that it’s unsafe to walk in the dark while on the phone and maybe my ex-girlfriend now knows this and if I were a woman I’d know it too?

Now let’s move on to what strikes me as the most preposterous line in the whole song: “I can’t use public transportation after 7pm”. Wait... what?? After the end of the political event where the video was shown, which was sometime past 10pm, I went home on the metro and -- lo and behold -- there were plenty of women on board. Sarcasm and overly-literal uncharitableness aside, suggesting that women have to face some intolerable risk or nuisance just by taking a bus or metro in the early evening seems like a reckless exaggeration. Maybe the artist just wanted a two-syllable number so that the line would scan better, but replacing that number by 10 or 11 wouldn’t affect the scanning that badly and in fact “past 11″ scans as well as “after 7″. Clearly, aiming for something that doesn’t sound ridiculously exaggerated (or that doesn’t scare girls inexperienced enough not to know how ridiculously exaggerated it is) was not one of Linzy Lab’s priorities.

(Just imagine if that line were really true, and the drastically restricted lifestyle a city woman would then be forced to have! If there were a legal 7pm curfew for women (the kind of thing some women within my radar hint they would like to see for men), that would practically amount to women being second-class citizens, and even without legality behind it they would still be right to feel that way in essence. Which I guess is precisely the sentiment the artist wanted to convey.)

One more line to pick apart before I move on. The final “I can’t” of the song is “I can’t ever speak earnestly about all these fears”. I’d be interested to know how everyone who endorses this line interprets it. As referring to not being able to speak out about one’s fears in some sort of uber-conservative bubble that routinely dismisses all concerns about women’s physical safety? How many Lynzy-Lab-type artists or American Democrats are stuck in that bubble? Again I suppose I wouldn’t know, but I can guess that most women with the fears expressed in the song speak earnestly about them on a regular basis with their woman friends and (this is important!) may well have gained some of those fears from other women or the general rhetoric in whatever left-wing circles they’ve hung around. And Lynzy Lab herself is performing an entire song earnestly expressing those fears in a YouTube video, one which immediately went viral and got her a performing spot on Jimmy Kimmel!

The way I feel about I-can’t-ism based on evidently exaggerated dangers boils down to this: when citing evidence to make a point (however valid or important), one should aim to convey the truth, exactly the truth, and nothing beyond the truth. (I suppose this is a variant on opposition to the “arguments are soldiers” mentality.)

Here are what I see as the main consequences of straying beyond the truth:

1) Possibly strengthened fervor of the cause (witness the effects of the president’s constant delusional fear-mongering).

(This is positive from the point of view of whatever cause one is fighting for, I suppose, but to the extent that the cause is based on claims that aren’t factual I’m not entirely in favor of it, and we’re going to be better equipped to go about actually fixing whatever the problem is if the fight to fix it is based on facts.)

2) An at-least-equal and opposite strengthened fervor in opposition to the cause. In particular, the more blatantly far from the truth the fearful rhetoric is, the more ammunition the opposition is given.

3) Overblown fears among the community one is trying to protect, and greater limitations because of those fears, especially among younger and less experienced members of that community. (I wonder how many more teenage girls just setting out into the world of being independent now have an idea that violent men are lurking around every corner and they mustn’t use public transportation past 7pm because they watched Linzy Lab’s song.)

4) Less strength in dealing with and worse reactions to everyday dangers or the ambient fear of them. I once discussed this a bit more at length.

I suppose (4) deserves a bit more delving into, in the context of Lynzy Lab’s song. One naïve way to criticize it is to point out (as I already pointed out in passing with some lines) that every one of the “I can’t” lines refers to something that women can do and in fact women do do... all the time! A defender of the song might reply, “Oh don’t be so pedantic and literal-minded! Obviously when someone in that context says, ‘I can’t X’, what they mean is ‘I can’t X without running the risk of suffering Y’.” But in my opinion, for questions of agency and ability it’s conducive of clearer thinking to start by taking “can’t” statements as literally as possible, because that sets us up for the above opposing point, which exposes that a potential question of the degree of risk and suffering has been obfuscated. “I can’t X” is essentially shorthand in many contexts for “Doing X puts me at an unacceptably high risk of an unacceptable level of suffering.”

And we should be able to consciously acknowledge that the amount of risk and the amount of suffering are tricky things to evaluate and might be up for debate. I’ve already focused on the amount of risk often being exaggerated or less clear than many activists make out that it is. Evaluating the amount of suffering as a result of various oppressive behaviors (e.g. catcalling, minor sexual assaults) is much more fraught with potentially insensitive and obnoxious discourse, and I just want to make clear that the type of reaction a woman (or anyone else) has to these things varies depending on the woman herself and an array of background circumstances** which are largely outside of her control and not her fault. But it might be helpful for women (and non-women) to see a possibility that they won’t necessarily suffer in the worst possible way from the range of horrible behavior they might face, that their degree of suffering depends on a lot of individual factors and if those are favorable might even be quite minimal.

My complaint isn’t that activists arguing for social change don’t always cite justification perfectly factually or that they might go a bit overboard in expressing their genuinely-held beliefs. It’s that pretty much nobody ever seems conscious of the risks in (1)-(4) above or at all mindful of a “don’t exaggerate” self-checking that should be present alongside “don’t downplay” and “don’t be timid and hesitant about telling it like it is”.

Is it really the case that feminism has evolved from focusing on “women can” a generation or to ago to the “women can’t” that seems prevalent today?

It’s hard for me to say, because while I’ve certainly noticed a change over the last 15 years, I wasn’t around for the feminism of the 60′s or even of the 80′s. I have to rely on the way I hear old-school feminism described by older people (it would also be nice if I read some feminist literature or followed some more layman-oriented discussions from those periods). I do often think back to something one of the middle-aged female professors in my old math department said to a group of us who were meeting to organize a department seminar to discuss diversity issues. I can’t remember her precise words or the context in which she brought this up, but to my best recollection it went something like this:

The whole time I was growing up and going to university and studying mathematics and engineering, it seemed like everyone was telling me all the ways I could be like a man. All I ever heard was “Women are as strong as men!” and “Women can learn and understand anything that a man can!” and “Women can do the same work that men can!” And then one day I woke up and had the sudden realization, “But wait a minute... I’m not a man! I’m a woman! Why should it be my goal at every turn to be more like a man?”

That speech touches on some other issues, and I don’t mean to shoehorn it too hard into the thesis of this post, but it’s an example of what I see as a “women can” mentality of women’s-lib-era (maybe second-wave?) feminism. Other anecdotes, along with the general way that older people in my life talk about women’s issues, suggest the same.

So why did feminism change from an emphasis on “women can” to “women can’t”?

One reasonable explanation that comes to mind is that the civil rights issues for women have themselves changed. (This would also apply to a similar evolution in the rhetoric for other social justice causes.) Sixty years ago, feminists were fighting for women to have legal rights to do things and societal acceptance of them doing those things. This lent itself to a message of “women can do everything men can do, don’t assume someone is incapable because she’s a woman”. Nowadays those rights have mostly been secured in the West, and the main grievance on the part of women is having to deal with various kinds of oppression (of a sort of that doesn’t involve society disallowing women to do something on the grounds that they’re incapable because of their gender). This can be overly-simplistically divided into opposition to reproductive rights (which has nothing to do with a perception that being female makes someone incapable of doing something, it’s just an oppressive restriction on what one is allowed to do and so we’re just left with “women can’t”), and having to deal with oppressive behavior (mostly in the department of sexual harassment/violence, which again leads to “women can’t”).

While that is part of it, I’m convinced that the evolution from “can” feminism to “can’t” feminism is part of a much more general movement being led by younger generations -- specifically, my generation of millennials and the generation just below mine -- which is tied in with the largely internet-driven de-stigmatization of mental illness, identity politics, preoccupation with labels, and other things. Those who have read other posts of mine probably have an idea of where this is going, and for me to fully explain where I make the connection would be another post in itself, but this is my theory about what drives the culture gap between generations as well the clash between old-school feminist rhetoric and the modern kind. It still makes sense to say, okay, why has this general change been brought about? I would posit that it’s a combination of what I suggested in the last paragraph, plus an increased understanding and culture of accommodation for emotional suffering and trauma which is naturally part of the arc of progress that carries us in the direction of Niceness, plus the usual dash of “rise of social media” thrown in. The result, in this case, is a somewhat ironic tendency for younger activists to characterize America as a much more terrifying place for women than older women who remember objectively scarier times do.

I don’t mean to fault “can’t” feminism entirely, of course. To some extent it makes sense, for reasons I already gestured at. But I do feel that if it’s dominating the rhetoric to the point that a woman’s song with two entire verses of lines starting with “I can’t” is representative of the discourse on gender oppression, then it might be time to revisit the roots of feminism as conveying the (I would think more empowering) message of how strong, capable, and independent women can be.

* I’m also in the habit of using a different term which is alluded to in the tags.

** I’ll be just obnoxious enough to suggest that one of these background circumstances is how much fear-inducing rhetoric one has been exposed to!

#feminism #Our Current president #2018 midterms #high vs. low agency #millennials on the internet #not as charitable as I could be

28 notes · View notes

harrisonstories · 6 years

Video

youtube

RTE Radio 2 Ireland - BP Fallon interview with George Harrison (18 Oct. 1987)

Photo by: Brian Roylance, Genesis Publications

This is an interview I’ve edited and uploaded to youtube because it’s quite long, and it was in two parts, so I’ve combined them together. You’ll notice at about 14:52 there’s a slight jump in the conversation which is where the second part begins.

I really love this interview. It’s one of - if not my favourite interview he ever did. I strongly suggest you give it a listen. Similarly to the Swedish Fan Club Tape, George is extremely calm and open, and Irish DJ BP Fallon asks refreshing questions. BP Fallon has himself had an interesting life, and at one point worked at Apple for Derek Taylor (You can also see him miming the bass in the Instant Karma Top of the Pops video). I’m guessing this related to why George felt relaxed. I hope you enjoy it.

Below I’ve included the written version of this interview by BP Fallon for The Sunday Tribune. It has some information not available in the audio (not sure if it simply wasn’t recorded, or if there’s another version which includes the full conversation):

"Sometimes it feels like another world, another life, some previous incarnation," George Harrison says. "I view it a bit through a haze but, y'know, people don't ever stop talking about it so it's hard to got too much distance between myself and The Beatles."

George Harrison doesn't mind that, not anymore. "I used to," he admits. "I used to not like it at all. I wanted to be free of it. Now I've learned to live with it. And also, don't forget, there was a period when The Beatles split up and there were all kind of court cases and bad vibes and stuff and that left a bad taste in the mouth for a while but after the years it's all cleared up, everybody's friends again."

He's sitting in a little office in the house owned by his company Handmade Films, just off Cadogan Square in Knightsbridge in London, a few streets behind Harrods. Fourty-four-years old this man is, he has a bit of a beard and his shortish hair is swept back and there are new lines on his face. He drinks coffee and smokes ciggies and when you sit talking to the geezer you can't help but feel warmth for him.

As one of John, Paul, George And Ringo, The Fab Four, as a member of the most popular, the most inventive, the most influential rock group of all time, he has gone through one of the strangest trips ever. They were Gods once, The Beatles. And sitting here now, George Harrison comes across as a normal bloke.

He was born in Liverpool, the fourth child of Harold and Louse Harrison. George's father was a bus driver - before that, he had been a ship's steward on the White Star Line for ten years and from one of his travels in America had returned with an old wind-up gramophone and records by bluesman and yodeller Jimmie Rodgers and country singer Hank Williams. Young George was smitten. He listened to skiffle, people like Lonnie Donegan and songs about the Rock Island Line. And then he heard Elvis Presley singing Hearbreak Hotel. "It came out of somebody's radio," George Harrison says, gazing out the window at the autumn light fading behind the trees, "and it lodged itself in the back of my head. It's been there ever since."

At the age of 13, for £3, he bought his first guitar. Two years later, Paul McCartney introduced George to his friend John Lennon (George - "this snotty-nosed kid" as Lennon recalled). George joined John and Paul in their skiffle group The Quarreymen. In 1962, when George was 19, John, Paul, George and their new drummer Ringo Starr made their first record together. It was a fresh-sounding bluesey pop record called Love Me Do and they now called themselves The Beatles.

They changed the world, these four Scouse moptops making new noises and singing about wanting to hold your hand and about walruses and about revolution and all you need is love.

And for eight years The Beatles were bigger than Jesus.

For a while, The Beatles - at very least by example - endorsed smoking dope and taking LSD. John, Paul and George were each busted at least once for breaking the cannabis laws. "A lot of the stuff that happened..." - and then George brings himself up to the present tense - that happens, it's just like when Prohibition was on. If they make a big deal about stuff it becomes bigger than it actually is. In moderation... you have to have moderation in everything. The worst drug of all is alcohol... it actually kills more people then heroin." He says he was fortunate as a kid to see a film about the trumpet player Chet Baker, about Baker's heroin addiction, "and that and maybe something else made me aware that this thing was just too much.

"Of course, the other things, the psychedelic drugs, are much different because they don't put your body in a stupour, they sort of..." and now he's laughing... "they sort of catapult you out into the universe. It's a totally different perspective." Then his voice is serious again. "These things obviously can be very dangerous too. I'd hate to have some right now because I don't think I could handle it. It just gives you too many things to think about all at once."

Love and peace went out the bathroom window when The Beatles split in 1970, with Paul McCartney publicly announcing he had left. George says he realised The Beatles weren't shaking a couple of years before that. "Everyone was just getting all uptight with each other. The new wives were coming in and, y'know, living under the piano and there was no privacy anymore for us as far as the group was concerned in what was normally the only privacy we ever had, the four of us when we got into a studio. And we'd just grown away from each other. One time or another every one of us left that group before we finally stopped."

George left during the making of what would be Let It Be. Ringo left another time "and went on holiday, and John was always wanting to leave and Paul too. You know, it was too much pressure and we'd been through those years. It was just too much.”

He emphasises that the remaining three Beatles are good pals, now. "Paul and I went through a shaky period but we're okay, now. All the old aggravations have passed a long time ago. There's no reason not to be friends."

By 1971 George Harrison was the most successful solo Beatle, with his triple album All Things Must Pass and the enormous hit My Sweet Lord. Four years later his single Ding Dong Ding Dong - a record even worse than McCartney's Mary Had A Little Lamb - was the first release by a solo Beatle to fail to enter the charts. Several years later a court ordered him to pay £260,000 damages for plagiarising the Chiffons' song he's So Fine with My Sweet Lord. That Harrison had modeled My Sweet Lord on another song, the gospel Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, was bad enough. That he had to pay the money to his former manager Allen Klein - "a looney who didn't take care of business" George describes him now- because Klein had scooped up the publishing of He's So Fine... that rubbed salt into the wound.

His career and also his marriage to his first wife Patti Boyd were in pieces. Patti had gone to live with George's close pal Eric Clapton, who had written Layla about his best friend's wife. George started drinking heavily, contracting a serious liver complaint that his friends feared might be the end of him.

George's chum Eric Idle had found it impossible to raise the necessary finance to make the Monty Python film Life Of Brian, so George chipped in with half the required money, £2,250,000. It turned out to be one of the best investments George had ever made, reaping a profit of more than £30,000,000. Since then, Harrison and his film company Handmade Films have scored with another Monty Python film The Meaning Of Life - banned in Ireland - and delivered films like Time Bandits and Mona Lisa as well as Shanghai Express, a disaster for its stars Sean Penn and Madonna and its producer Harrison. But what the heck. George isn't short of a few shekels.

In 1978, George married Olivia Trinidad Arias, a 27-year-old who had been born in Mexico and had been working as a secretary in A&M Records in Los Angeles. George's health had been desperate. He was fading away. Olivia contacted the Chinese acupuncturist Dr. Zion Yu and within weeks of treatment George had regained his energy and his spirit.

They have a nine-year-old son named Dhani - the Indian for wealthy - and the other day he asked his father to make him up a cassette of Chuck Berry songs. After George appeared at the Prince's Trust concert in London five months ago with Ringo, Eric Clapton and Elton John, Dhani came backstage. George had sung his own Beatle compositions While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes The Sun. "I asked him 'What did you think?' and he said 'Uh, you were alright Dad, but why didn't you do Chuck Berry songs like Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny Be Good and Rock'n'Roll Music?'"

He has a new LP out any day now, his first in five years. It's called Cloud Nine. "Have you heard the album?" he asks solicitously. "No? I'll see if someone's got a copy." George Harrison wanders off, and returns with a young woman who says "It's a bootleg I taped from the CD." George flips the cassette into the music system and spins it through, looking for a specific track. "I think you might like this one," he says in his dry Liverpudlian drawl, settling himself into another chair as he watches for reactions.

Ringo's drums with cellos straight from Lennon's I Am The Walrus lead into George singing with fondness for former Beatle times. It's a track that could fit on a Beatle record and it's called When We Was Fab. "Fab... but it's all over now baby blue" George sings, and at the end there's sitar sounds like George cosmicing out on Sgt. Pepper. It's... well, fab.

When John Lennon was murdered in 1980, George Harrison didn't suddenly lock himself away from the world in his Gothic mansion. Near the riverside town of Henley-On-Thames, this bizarre 70-roomed palace called Friar Park was remodeled a century ago by the eccentric Sir Frankie Crisp and is set in 33 acres of parkland with three lakes with secret stepping stones so one can appear to walk on water, underground caves linked by a river and a reproduction of the Alps that includes a perfect 100 foot high replica of the Matterhorn. George was already in hiding.

"I was already trying to hold onto some sort of privacy. I think everyone needs to have a bit of space, y'know. I mean, if you were just being mobbed and on the TV and that all your life you just turn into a loony, and long before John got shot I was already just digging in the garden, planting trees and just trying not to go on television, just having a bit of peace.

"But what it did, it affected me probably like anyone who loved John and who grew up with him and his music. And it was a very sad thing and, um, it didn't make me feel..." Harrison's voice trails off, and for a moment his eyes look away and he's lost in private thoughts. He looks back. " It made me wonder about ever gettin' into situations where there's fans, although at the time you can't blame fans for that. There's one loony in every crowd, I suppose. But I go on living normally. I don't panic unnecessarily."

There was talk that for Live Aid Paul, George, Ringo and Julian Lennon might let it Beatle together, but George dismisses any idea of reunions. "I don't think we'll play together. The Beatles certainly can't play again and I think it's best left as it is, y'know."

Long before Live Aid, George Harrison's Concerts For Bangladesh raised £45,000,000 for the starving. He didn't appear at Live Aid but says if he'd known more about it "maybe I would have done it but they did alright without me." George talks at length about the planet, his concerns about destruction. Last year he participated in an anti-nuclear rally in Trafalgar Square, and he's a member of the ecological organisation Greenpeace. "I love those people because they go out and actually do it. I mean, if it wasn't me that's the kind of thing I'd like to be, out there on a ship getting harpooned by Russians and Japanese."

At the turn of the Seventies, George became a benefactor to the Hare Krishna movement. He not only made records with them and talked about them publicly but also forked out a quarter of a million pounds to buy them a 15-room Elizabethan mansion with 17 acres of land.

Since then, George's friend His Divine Grace Guru Bhaktivechanta Swami, the leader and founder of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness, who was 77 when they met, has died. George feels that some of the remaining Krishnas have at times abused his patronage, and he cites letters from people who wrote saying that they were hassled at airports by devotees using Harrison's name.

Nevertheless, he still subscribes to "the Swami's ancient Vedic way of having God consciousness. The technique of chanting, just like the monks and Christians, they do it too really but it's just using beads and chanting these ancient mantras... they do have great affect. I wouldn't knock them at all. I am always a bit dubious about organisations and since the swami died it does seem to be chaotic, with all kinds of guys thinking they're the gurus. To me, it's not important to be a guru, it's more important just to be, to learn humility." And George still chants. "I've still got my bag of beads and they're really groovy now, all polished up."

Is he a happy chap? "Yeah, I'm okay. Sometimes I get depressed. It's a constant battle, isn't it? You have to consciously make an effort to be happy and considering everything, I've come along quite nicely. There's always room for improvement but, um, I have a laugh and I feel quite good about things." He believes in reincarnation. "The only reason we're actually in these bodies is to learn and develop love of God and liberate our souls from this round and round, the Memphis Blues." He reckons he'll come back again. "Well," he says laughing, "by the look of things I'll probably have to... but I'd like to give it a pass one of these incarnations!"

And, George Harrison, what would you like to be remembered for?

He pauses. "I don't know... I don't know." And then he smiles and looks you directly in the eyes and you see the face of a man still searching, still looking to extend his gentle vision for all time. He'd like to be remembered, he finally says, "just as somebody who's not bad, not that bad”...

"That'll do, yeah."

Fair play to you, George.

56 notes · View notes

artistictea · 6 years

Text

Fantasy AU FAQ and Details

Alright here it is! The post I’ll keep adding to for extra info you guys have been asking me plus some more silly facts I want to share. Ill try to divide this in sections so it’s easier to follow. I apologize for the wall of text in advance 8)

Setting -This AU takes place in a world where magic and supernatural being are the norm. There might’ve been humans once upon a time, but they don’t exist anymore. The closest thing to humans in this world are mages and clerics (who still fall in the category of white mages). -Money and jobs work just like in our world, but specific jobs favour specific species (for example, forest-related jobs are usually given to elves, fae, nymphs, etc. While sea work prioritizes sirens, leviathans, cecaelias, etc). Generalized jobs fit for all species (like the arts, cuisine, law, etc), are open to everyone. -My comics and drawings are centered at a time where the kids are attending college. For the sake of simplicity they all live on campus, and the school supports all the ecosystems the students need because Magic™ . -The dorms are divided based on ecosystems and what the students need to feel comfortable. If they don’t have a specific need, they can choose their dorms. (For example, Timmy is a siren, and he stays in the underwater dorm. Butters’ dorm is in a spot far from the sun’s reach, and Kenny’s dorm in the complete opposite; it’s high in the sky, filled with sunlight. I leave the dorm arrangements up to interpretation 8) (but my preference is to make characters who don’t have the opportunity to interact much in the series to room together, just because I find it hilarious and cute. Like Butters and Red, or Stan and Tweek) -The school provides the students with any products they might need to attend class comfortably. (Like sun protection creams and potions for Red and Butters, ice amulets for Nichole, hydrating potions for Timmy, etc) -The school is situated in a valley, and it’s close to a town the students frequent on their free time to chill or to buy supplies for their classes (think like South Park....but smaller. Tweek Bros is still a thing and it’s a moving store like Baba Yaga’s house, so as soon as Tweek went off to college, they moved the coffeeshop close to campus. What better place to put a coffeeshop than next to a school full of sleep-deprived students right-) Characters and Creatures (you can check the specific classification of each character here) -I leave age up to interpretation, but the kids look like they’re at least in their 20′s - Most of the kids come from same-species families, except for Clyde (Orc mom, Elven dad), Stan (Mage dad, Vetala mom, Mage sister) and Kenny (Shapeshifter dad, Grigori mom, Shapeshifter brother, Cherub sister). -Vampires and Werewolves are considered problematic creatures. They’re very frowned upon and considered dangerous, since there’s no cure for their bites. -There are two ways you can become either a Vampire or a Werewolf; from a bite, or from a curse. Curses can be broken and are the only case where you can go back to what you used to be before being transformed. If you suffer from a curse and bite someone, you can’t transform them. That can only be done by a pure werewolf or vampire. -Red and Scott were bitten (Red’s bite was consensual, Scott was bitten by a fanatic when he was very young), while Butters and Heidi were cursed (Heidi’s curse came from a reaction her nymph magic had with Cartman’s, while Butters was cursed by his own parents) -Tweek was the reason why Stripe #4 died. He took her with him for a flight and she fell without him noticing. That’s part of the reason why he has a hard time flying now (an anon pointed out that his twitching must make flying harder and..honestly that’s a great point. Sending you kisses anon) -I like to leave stuff like what they eat up to interpretation. But whatever it is, this world is prepared for it. So Red doesn’t need to hunt people or animals for blood or anything like that ;) -Everyone sleeps. The only difference is the time they need to feel completely energized. -An anon asked me about how people with wings and horns were able to sleep. It depends on the person but the most common way for winged people to sleep is to make a cocoon with their wings and sleep facing up, so as to avoid smushing. Another way is to sleep on your stomach. If you do end up sleeping in a bad position one night, there’s always painkillers. As for people with horns, there are special pillows for the most extreme cases, but it’s practically the same. (RIP in rest Token, your horns grow behind you and outwards. I’m so sorry) -(I’ve recieved three asks about Tweek’s jacket and I find this hilariously specific, ilu guys) There are two zippers that run from his shoulders, through the back hole, and down to his hips which he has to zip to get his jacket to go through his wings. Thank you Bebe for helping this mess of a child with his jacket. And yes, Craig definitely helped him zip everything the first few times, then he just got frustrated and enchanted the zippers to zip and unzip when Tweek asks them to. -You get to decide your magical specialization based on your affinity and preference (for example, Henrietta is a white mage, but prefers to use blood magic) -A Few Personal Headcanons -Jimmy is really good at vocal magic. He doesn’t quite know it yet, but his jokes and music are sometimes charged with positive energy which boosts happiness. -Clyde actually has to file his tusks from time to time, they can get pretty large. Also, having a dad who’s a dark elf gives his magic a boost. He’s great at dark magic. -Kenny tried to specialize his abilities to become a Grim Reaper, but death just...didn’t work for him -Token and Nichole have legendary fights because her ice magic sometimes expands through her and freezes Token’s plants and antlers..They’re working on it. -Butters was bullied for quite a lot of time, and somehow he felt like he deserved it because of his curse. After talking more with Red, this started to change; and Kenny taught him not to be afraid to fight back if things got ugly. -Cartman has a hard time controlling his emotions, which are directly connected to his elemental magic, and his most powerful attributeis fire. He actually had to enchant his clothes to become fireproof for all the times they caught on fire when he got angry. -Kyle and Heidi had an almost thing just like in canon back when she was a nymph, and he’s deeply saddened by her curse. He has a hard time being near her now. -Red dreams of becoming a successful scientist to find the cure for the vampire and werewolf bite. Not for herself, but for those who didn’t have a choice. -When Craig brought Stripe #4 from the dead and made a contract to make her his familiar, one of the requirements he set for her was to come back with wings, to help Tweek with his flying fears since we can’t fly himself. -Token gave Stan a magical plant which eats bad dreams for his birthday years ago, and he’s been taking care of it ever since. Surprisingly, it hasn’t died yet. Hes very proud of this fact. Of course, unknown to him, Kyle helps it along from time to time.

#south park #fantasy au #text #this took me so long #I kept thinking about scenarios instead of headcanons and facts #this is why I draw instead of write you guys #lol #I wanted to add a bit more but I think this is enough for a day #I'll keep adding to it #faq

240 notes · View notes

theteenagetrickster · 4 years

Text

'No Fiat five hundred techno!': why electronic popular music in Stopper is putting off|Music|The Guardian

"Messy in the greatest possible technique," mentions Cork developer Uncertainty of the epiphanic knowledge he invited 2015 at a storehouse go crazy in Estate Property, north London. "It was really loosened up feelings. Safety and security-- although I really did not find several-- were actually audio, and also there were massive sausages all night. I 'd never really professional just about anything like that in Ireland."

He was actually in London as a result of English developer NKC, one of the makers of the club sound understood as tough drum, then merely a Soundcloud tag. Doubt (real name Ollie McMorrow) and also nationals Tension (Dylan O'Mahony) and also Syn (Reneé Griffin) put together their own label, Flooding, a year after their challenging drum one night stand in Greater london. After finding out, trying out and dawdling along with close friends in Cork, all it took was actually NKC's rambunctious parties to liquify their aggregate obstacle.

Flooding and also an internet of other producers in their 20s coming from the small Irish south-coast city-- Numbertheory, Lighght, Ellll and Superfície-- are now bring in names on their own in International group songs circles, along with syncopated mutations of percussion-driven digital music. Although they are actually not all conveniently grouped all together, the common measure is a primal drum-laden noise where rhythms roll at breakneck velocity. The songs offers most of these youthful performers a sense of purpose and also identification-- regardless of whether most of all of them are actually leaving behind Ireland for a new beginning, amid the sanitising of young people society as developers desolated different venues, and also a raging housing problems, with increasing being homeless as well as the appearance of Dublin as being one of the globe's most expensive metropolitan areas to live in.

Stopper has broken new ground in Irish music prior to. In the 1980s, it was the extremely unlikely property to a vibrant reggae scene, the cello-brandishing post-punk ensemble Five Decrease to the Sea, and also Microdisney, the county's solution to Fleetwood Mac. Yet it was actually the nightclub Sir Henry's, established in the late 70s, that opened up several in the area to nightclub music, especially property. "Sir Henry's was ground absolutely no," points out Stopper property songs trailblazer Shane Johnson, who co-founded a night there certainly phoned Sweat that brought in global stars including Kerri Chandler, Cajmere and also Derrick May. "Certainly not merely for the club setting, but also for the neighborhood rock scene prior to it."

Structure on its legacy, Jimmy Horgan, that manages nearby report outlet Plugd along with Albert Twomey, has been a cornerstone of nonconforming popular music in Stopper, frequently holding the brand-new kind of producers upstairs in the establishment's real-time space, a site phoned the Roundy. "The man takes a genuine rate of interest in every kind of songs that's created and also played in the metropolitan area," producer James O'Connell, 25, who documents as Numbertheory, distinguishes me. "He's absolutely for the lifestyle."

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Actually coming from Dublin, Horgan is unassuming in his evaluation of the city's vivid percussive popular music setting: to him, it is actually the artists'unrelenting imagination that has created it all achievable."Most likely the first hint I got of this noise was when Superfície-- then going under the title Sexworker-- came by a few trials of his keep tracks of, perhaps back in 2013 or even 2014,"Horgan keeps in mind.

"Me as well as my coworker were actually blown away."Members of these youthful performers, normally in properties or even apartments, are where portion of this Stopper drum act were actually birthed. McMorrow, whose papa and also gramps were each drummers, points out:"Percussion has always been actually a big aspect of my lifestyle."And at 14, O'Mahony happened to love performers like Burial and labels like Warp as well as Hyperdub, as well as decided he might perform it, also, pirating manufacturing program, messing about with the functionalities, and also spending the last 2 years at college trying to make one thing"from another location decent". While participating in the same university course, O'Mahony met Griffin, who had actually been actually capturing as Syn, as well as would hang at her area after class. She presented all of them all, consisting of O'Connell, to a collection of brand new, eardrum-bursting sounds from labels including Her Records, Discolor to Mind, and Sidereal Aircraft. Superfície, a Brazilian-Irish manufacturer now located in Berlin, presented them kuduro, baile funk as well as batucada, while tensions of percussive popular music promoted through labels like Príncipe and Naafi, increased their perspectives even more. Lighght, Also Known As Eamon Ivri, simply discovered Flooding--

"a real inspiration "-- by means of Soundcloud, aimlessly as well as belatedly, prior to he ever before met all of them, despite their proximity as well as similar rate of interests. Flooding's first release, a fun nine-track collection, showed up in 2017, a year after they developed. They determined that they needed a center for "properly talking over tips as well as roaring keep tracks of as loud as feasible"and located a small, secluded storage facility area in a commercial status forgeting Cork's docklands. The duality in their music, between the all natural and also the technical, can partially be traced back to this factor. "There was a bare comparison between the industrial, grey and worn out storage facilities and the lovely scenery out on Stopper port,"mentions Doubt. Ellll, Berlin-based techno sorcerer Ellen Master, claims the internet and nearby hubs may not have actually been actually the

only reasons why Cork became a reproduction ground for unique group music." Stopper has been actually an incredibly house-focused metropolitan area, and also although I have actually never associated with that, percussive music happening out of the city in the final couple of years seems like a reaction to that perspective." Facebook Twitter Pinterest From the 1st seconds you push use a Flooding singular, or even a hypnotic Ellll release, or even a stormlike rave loosie coming from Lighght, you listen to dispute and also tumult. Percussion-wise, they draw coming from sounds from around the world. Listen to the drums as well as you could think about Latin The United States or even Africa. Sometimes local area concepts sneak in: Numbertheory featured an example of sean nós, an Irish tradition of haunting, melismatic vocal; Syn's track Coy featured a sample of the bodhrán, an Irish drum helped make along with goatskin; Lighght's great 2019 cd, Gore-Tex in the Nightclub, Balenciaga Amongst the Bushes, makes usage of the harp. Irishness exists, regardless of whether it is actually simply snooping. Cork is known lovingly as"the rebel area", the outcome of its long record of fierce protection and also obstinate frustration, primarily against British guideline. A caricature of Cork people in Irish society-- perma-vexed and also dangerously parochial, made famous abroad through firebrand footballer Roy Keane as well as popular culture phenomena including the TELEVISION series Youthful Wrongdoers-- apparently contains some honest truth." It is actually a saying, yet the entire revolutionist aesthetic that Cork has actually taken on actually molds the urban area. You observe murals of Che Guevara, recommendations to the Palestinian trigger,"says O'Connell, whose pummelling drums are typically alonged with sludgy heavy-metal themes.

Most of these musicians do not pinpoint with Cork's medical self-mythologising. "I really did not take pleasure in a lot of my young people, and invested a bunch of my opportunity as a teen in local consuming spots," mentions Syn, 25, whose mom has operated as a club DJ. "I always remember begrudging Cork coming from a young age as a result of the shortage of tasks for young people in the area past acquiring fucked up."

& Facebook

Twitter Pinterest DIY rushing was the only method onward in a tourism-oriented nation where, every number of months, an accommodation seems to change a crucial night life hub. The eventual members of Flooding tossed much of their personal events since, as they see it, commercialised locations prioritise step and also double-vodka invoices over the physical adventure. Today, Syn helps run a queer night gotten in touch with CXNT in the Roundy, where throbbing, untrendy types like hardgroove, gabber and also donk masquerade the norm. As O'Connell places it: "The significant clubs merely would like to listen to EDM and mundane, Heineken-sponsored, white-bread, Fiat 500 techno."

Even with their very own inventiveness, as well as the support of Plugd and also various other places, such as Kino and the Community Hall, producers are actually required to look elsewhere for options. The sounds being actually developed in Cork have been actually championed by performers and DJs in the financing, at Dublin Digital Broadcast-- a haven for Ireland's weirdest audios, where McMorrow still holds a month to month program phoned Hush-- as well as fantastic collectives including Nightclub Convenience.

Lots of proficient manufacturers and creatives possess, a minimum of semi-permanently, gone overseas. Certified mathematician O'Connell left just recently for Beijing, while Master and also Superfïcie have actually both relocated to Berlin. As it happens, McMorrow is actually busy prepping themself for a transfer to Glasgow when we communicate, an usual journey for Irish creatives in the last few years. Rental fees are actually lesser there, ailments for nightlife lifestyle are less suffocating, and also youngsters are, in his scenery, managed a lot better in Scotland than in his house nation.

"Unless you're intending on expending over half your standard earnings every month, you most likely won't have the capacity to find a location to stay in Cork," he regrets. "I would certainly really love nothing at all more than to become able to keep in Stopper, as well as perform what I love here, yet straight today it's only certainly not feasible."

Financial barriers have not stopped the energy of these musicians, nevertheless. "Whether it's a storehouse gathering along with 30 intoxicated people crammed into a dark, drab room paying attention to industrial remixes of Princess Superstar, or checking out the Roundy acquire become a topless sweatbox," O'Mahony points out of his long-lasting minds of the community-based micro-scene, "it is actually the important things that were created for, and through, people like our company that stand apart."

This content was originally published here.

0 notes

motoringlawyers-blog · 6 years

Text

Motoring Offences do not usually imply Heavy consequences

there are various laws and guidelines governing all components of motoring, and due to the multitudinous dangers related to driving, they may be rigorously enforced. consequences for contravening certain motoring legal guidelines are severe and may even bring about a jail sentence in some cases. There are, but, approaches and manner of circumnavigating the regulation to keep away from the total penalty for committing offences. 3 examples are outlined underneath:

Use of a cell cellphone even as riding

since December 2003 it has been a criminal offence to use a mobile phone even as riding unless operated via a fingers-free device. As this regulation has been in vicinity for greater than six years it's far now nearly universally stated and regular. that doesn't however prevent this law from being regularly contravened. although the law stipulates that it's miles an offence to make or receive a telecommunication motoring lawyers even as using a hand-held phone whilst using, there are rather grey areas in regards to the legality of using a cell smartphone in a way apart from to speak while driving: as exemplified within the Jimmy Carr case (in which his smartphone was legally used whilst using as a dictation tool!) There can frequently be uncertainty as to what amounts to a 'telecommunication' or whilst a phone is in reality 'hand held'. similarly other exceptions to the regulation exist in situations deemed 'emergencies'. until the driving force admits the offence, it's miles often difficult for the police to prove that the motorist turned into protecting a smartphone, rather than an iPod, a Bluetooth earpiece or, in a single latest case, a black pudding!

speeding

speed cameras are the bane of many a motorist's life. Their unscrupulous and unforgiving seize of these travelling mere single digit increments above the stipulated velocity restrict is responsible for the problem of more than one hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fines each year. pace cameras are validated to lessen the prevalence of accidents in many occasions and in addition assist to commonly save you motorists from exceeding velocity limits. Conversely, the procedure undertaken from the flash of the digicam via to the issuing of a penalty observe is quite convoluted and on a number of events widespread protocol is deviated from, therefore rendering the rate invalid if contested. There are round 50 different types of speed digital camera, such as radar and laser gadgets, and all have unique regulations regulating how they should be operated. A breach of these policies by means of the police can invalidate the rate studying.

Drink driving

stopping drink using has been a concern for the powers that be for decades. The dwindled reactions and awareness synonymous with inebriation were accountable for limitless injuries, casualties and deaths. as a consequence of the severity of the offence, the regulation is very strict on those located responsible and a using ban is a especially in all likelihood end to being found responsible. As with the case of motorists charged with speed digital camera offences, the manner involved for charging a motorist with drink riding offences is fraught with red tape. From inconsistencies at the a part of the charging officer, thru to loss of lucidity in results or the provision of proof, an preliminary charge of alcohol related motoring offences does not necessarily lead to a conviction.

0 notes

tune-collective · 7 years

Text

8 Times Bill O'Reilly Clashed With Hip-Hop

Bill O’Reilly got the boot from Fox News on Wednesday (April 19), after several accusations of sexual harassment from colleagues and former co-workers surfaced against him. The longtime Fox News anchor of The O’Reilly Factor — known for his controversial statements about Beyoncé and, basically, everything else — has also had a history of targeting hip-hop on-air.

Below, we revisit the 67-year-old pundit’s hot takes on hip-hop and most heated moments with both rappers and R&B acts.

John Legend

In March, O’Reilly called veteran MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell “unruly” on Twitter after being escorted from a press conference for asking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson a question about Chinese threats of retaliation for U.S. anti-missile defenses in South Korea during a photo opp with Ukranian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkinon.

“She’s not your granddaughter, Billy. She’s a seasoned journalist asking important questions. You should take notes,” John Legend tweeted to O’Reilly.

She’s not your granddaughter, Billy. She’s a seasoned journalist asking important questions. You should take notes. https://t.co/6RrISQgsEo

— John Legend (@johnlegend) March 9, 2017

Killer Mike

During a May 2015 appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, Killer Mike had some choice words about O’Reilly. Responding to O’Reilly’s claims about hip-hop affecting Christianity (more on this in a moment), the Run the Jewels MC said, “I like Bill O’Reilly the character, but I hate how white people take him so seriously. He’s more full of s— than an outhouse. I’m gonna go in a black club and see Bill O’Reilly with a stripper on his lap, I guarantee you that. He’s as fictional as those books he writes.”

Ludacris

O’Reilly disturbed the peace when he ripped through Ludacris and successfully had his Pepsi ad campaign pulled in 2002. “I’m calling for all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse and does all the things that hurt particularly the poor in our society,” the anchor said at the time.

Ludacris — who dedicated a line to O’Reilly on his song “Number One Spot” — addressed the fall of O’Reilly (as well as the recent Pepsi backlash) in an interview with Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club.

“The irony of it is crazy,” the Fate of the Furious star said. “It’s not my place to judge Bill O’Reilly the same way that he judged me. That’s how I feel about it. It’s a lot of maturity and a lot of growth. I’ve moved on past it. I’m thriving in life right now and all I can do is hope that Bill O’Reilly settles these issues and learns from whatever mistakes he may have made and also thrives. But it is definitely ironic that both Pepsi and Bill O’Reilly are both under fire right now.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKsAVMTp47Q

Jay Z and Jeezy

After Jay Z and Jeezy targeted George W. Bush at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2008 and performed their “My President” collaboration that triumphantly states “My president is black” on the hook, O’Reilly and radio talk show host Dennis Miller called the display “low-class.” The Snowman then slammed O’Reilly and Miller on the remix: “Bill O’Reilly, eat a d—, nice try/ You’re really being a racist a–hole in a nice tie/ And tell Dennis Miller his show suck anyway/ And I’d rather watch Jimmy Kimmel any day.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZS88qRu4eA

Beyoncé

There is no place reserved for O’Reilly in the BeyHive. Following the release of her self-titled album in 2014, O’Reilly targeted Beyoncé for promoting sex before marriage to young women within the black community, specifically with the steamy “Partition” video. He said that entertainers like Bey had an obligation to “protect children, not put out exploitive garbage that harms impressionable children.” Luckily, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons was on-hand and defended the singer by calling her material “art” and calling her “a brilliant artist.” Of course, O’Reilly wasn’t having it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kKZ2WBpEsM

Questlove

Last July, former first lady Michelle Obama delivered a poignant speech at the DNC about how slaves built the White House. O’Reilly’s reaction? Saying “slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.” Cue Questlove, who fired back at the Fox News host (without saying his name) in a lengthy post on Instagram.

“Slavery was inhumane. Slavery was sadistic. Slavery was uncomfortable. Slavery was unjust. Slavery was a nightmare. Slavery was a despicable act,” he began. “I dunno if that man’s (never say his name) point is to troll at any cost whatsoever but his entire existence is 5 steps backwards for any progress made in humanity. My dismay is the percentage of people who get their news from memes/headlines/& sources to whom they have 0 clue is feeding them false information.”

Slavery was inhumane. Slavery was sadistic. Slavery was uncomfortable. Slavery was unjust. Slavery was a nightmare. Slavery was a despicable act. Slavery is the pebble whose ripple in the river still resonates on and on and on and on. I’d like to think most of you have common sense. But there is nothing more dangerous than a man in a suit pretending to be a journalist giving revisionist history on the ugliness that was slavery. What’s so fun and lighthearted about being shackled? being separated from your loved ones? Being molested and raped HOURLY, being branded with hot iron? being property? being castrated? being flogged? being malnourished? living in high stress conditions? forced to lay in your own feces? being sold in a heartbeat? suppressing ANY emotion (with the surprising exception of singing it was illegal —lashes or death–to read, write, “talk back” or “sass”, cry (how many of you heard “you better NOT cry before I give you something to cry about!”), get angry, or even more surprising LAUGHING (a plantation barrel of water was always in proximity to dunk ones head in so one could express emotions and suppress the sound as to not alert your overseer of your “sassing”—deep history I just learned about laughing and the slave period—the first recorded song “The Laughing Song” was the defiant “F%^k Tha Police” of its day (also where the term “Barrel Of Laughs” gets its origin)—I’m getting beside the point. I dunno if that man’s (never say his name) point is to troll at any cost whatsoever but his entire existence is a 5 steps backwards for any progress made in humanity. My dismay is the percentage of people who get their news from memes/headlines/& sources to whom they have 0 clue is feeding them false information. Human Trafficking in any form from today’s underage prostitution, to the private Prison System we exercise here in the US, to the Holocaust to 500 years of Slavery–and all other examples I’ve not mentioned is INHUMANE & Evil. —watch where you get your information from and the company you keep people.

A post shared by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on Jul 27, 2016 at 10:26am PDT

Cam’ron and Damon Dash

Cam’ron and Damon Dash joined The O’Reilly Factor in 2003 to discuss the affects of hip-hop on America’s youth. While O’Reilly was supposed to be a moderator between the rap moguls and an elementary school teacher, who was claiming music like theirs was negatively influencing his students, the show’s host pretty much broke any illusion of impartiality as soon as he introduced Cam’ron as an artist who raps about “pimping and bitches, among other things.”

From there, it didn’t take long for things to fall apart during the nine minute segment. When O’Reilly consistently interrupts Cam’ron and Dash, the two eventually start to target him, with Cam’ron taunting him, “You mad… you mad… Where you get started Current Affair? I got dirt on you doggy!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oLGjhpY9jM

Hip-Hop in General

In 2015, O’Reilly blamed hip-hop for the decline of Christianity in the U.S. (yes, really). After a Pew Research study showed that the number of Americans who identify as Christian has dipped since 2007, the conservative talking head pointed the finger at hip-hop, saying, “There is no question that people of faith are being marginalized by a secular media and pernicious entertainment. The rap industry, for example, often glorifies depraved behavior. That sinks into the minds of some young people — the group that is most likely to reject religion.” Insert hashtag: #BoyBye.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.

https://tunecollective.com/2017/04/21/8-times-bill-oreilly-clashed-hip-hop/

#8 #bill #clashed #Hiphop #oreilly #Times

0 notes