This Is Not A Democracy

As an aside, writing 'This' twenty times on a post is not a substitute for intelligent input.

Pete: austria. two meet and greet passes. taped behind the yellow lenny kravitz poster in the hall. finders, keepers.

Me: [spotting potential problem which will prevent Austrian kids from winning anything] Will people get into the hall before the M&G happens? People weren't allowed in to the entrance at Brighton before the M&G was over.

roflatusernames: icedmaple: stfu. pete: do this in canada! more specifically toronto. please thanks.

Pete: EDIT: Austria. since doors wont open in time for the meet and greet. the meet and greet passes are now under one of these rocks. youre close. trust me.

---


Seriously? What is that kid's problem?

If the M&G tickets are locked in the hall and the doors don't open until after the M&G has ended, how will they be any good to anyone? I can understand how Pete would make this mistake, because I doubt he's front of house before the show starts, too often, but what the fuck is wrong with pointing this out so the Austrian kids don't miss out on a chance?

Seriously?

That kid is on the forum (I stepped down as a mod, btw - I don't think I mentioned that - but Andy and I are still friends; everything's fine on that front) and clearly a total idiot.

It amuses me, though, that only two people - myself and someone else - thought that maybe the location would be a problem. Is the whole of bandom that stupid, or something? Jesus.

You know... so often lately I see people identifying themselves as a "Beautiful Mess" or "Hot Mess" or similar, derogatory terms. I see them refer to other people as a "hot mess" as if it's some kind of compliment.

And I really don't understand how that's a compliment.

For a start, a 'hot mess' just reminds me a of a steaming dog turd waiting for you to step in it. Secondly, yeah - it's nice to be hot, or beautiful, or whatever but... a mess? Seriously? Why would that be something to be proud of? Or pleased about?

Drug-addled, vodka-soaked, racoon-faced, scene "queens" (does that come from the fact they all look like drag queens?) are a mess in the same way roadkill is a mess. And equally unpleasant.

I am so very bored and bemused by the near-universal desire, online, to take pride in being a failure, or a bitch, or an arsehole, or a neurotic drama-magnet, or a 'mess'.

What the hell is wrong with everyone? Cheer the fuck up! Try to find something about yourself that's likeable and legitimately attractive (and don't waste your time with the "but there's nothing about me that's attractive! Wah wah wah!" bullshit, because you'll just be kidding yourself and irritating everyone else) and then embrace it. If you have nice hair, show it off. If you have pretty eyes, accentuate them. If you're a good, kind person, encourage others to get involved in your projects. If you're efficient and well-organised, help people who are less so.

Just, for the love of all that is rational: STOP PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING LESS THAN YOU ARE. Not least because most of you are probably putting on the self-deprecating bullshit because you think it's cool. It's not. It makes you look like goth wannabe twat. And that's never cool.

Have some goddamn self-respect and learn to like yourselves a little more, will you?

Is anyone else starting to find Ashley on FOE's posts more and more patronising and fake?

I know she's working for their management but Jesus Christ, we're not all kids.

So, last night, then.

MEH.

The 'secret show' for 150 people wasn't a secret show at all. It was a press party. The crowd was made up entirely of competition winners (less than 50 of them) some invited people and press. There was no more than 80 people there.

You couldn't buy tickets - although at one point they were going to give any left over wristbands to the people in the queue who didn't have tickets already.

The invites said to be there at 8.45pm. So people waited. And waited. And waited. And by the time a young Boardie, named Katie, and I had given up and gotten the 10.11pm train home, haterswannabeme texted Katie to say that at 10.50pm they were ONLY JUST letting people in.

I don't know yet whether she got in herself, but even if I'd won a pass it would have been impossible for me to get home after a forty-five minute show, which I'm guessing would have started after 11.15pm - the train left Victoria at 12.05pm.

Security told us that they had to soundcheck "again", at one point, which makes it sound like something went wrong somewhere...

On the positive side, we chatted to Diaz and gave Joe's card to Dave, the Production Manager, who was with him. I hope they remembered to pass it on.

It was all a bunch of bullshit and totally mis-represented gig-wise, though. That was NOT a secret gig as we know them. And the most galling part? We asked the competition winners behind us if they were fans and they shrugged and said, "Not really..."

Rolling Stone debunks some spin myths about Sarah Palin.

THE MYTH: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending." — Sarah Palin, convention speech

THE FACTS: As governor, sought travel reimbursement for 312 nights she spent in her own home.

“Knowing the right people has finally paid off. A reliable source told me today that Kanye West and Lil Wayne are going to appear on Fall Out Boy’s new album, Folie à Deux." via www.supjustin.com


If this is true, I will not be giving them a penny for this album.

What the fuck is wrong with a Fall Out Boy album just being Fall Out Boy? Yeah, they can pull off the odd cameo - Justin Pierre with a very subtle backing vocal; someone on guest keyboards, maybe - but why stuff like this?

I hate rap. I hate it, almost without exception. I'm not even exaggerating when I say it gives me headaches. I can't listen to a full GCH album, even. I do like Kanye, and I do like some of his songs. But they're his and I listen to them maybe one at a time, and rarely. When I listen to Fall Out Boy, it's Fall Out Boy I expect to hear. Not some kind of cabaret of artists artists from a genre I largely loathe.

I just honestly don't get why they'd do this. It was like bringing out Lupe Fiasco in the middle of their set at the Chicago HCT - more than half the crowd stood there looking bemused and clapped politely. He wasn't why they'd turned up, and after that waiting, they didn't particularly appreciate his set interrupting their show. It's likely to be the same with this album.

Before anyone REALLY PISSES ME OFF by saying it's "their album and [I] don't have to buy it" - I don't plan to, if this is what it's going to be. But I will be extremely disappointed because I've been waiting for this album as much as anyone else has. I don't expect them to carry on making the exact same album over and over, I even understand that they've grown up since they started making albums, but I'm sick of having hip hop forced into my record collection.

The thing is, Fall Out Boy are regarded as a rock or pop-punk band, and that is the genre that the majority of their fans will be into. Rock and hip hop may occasionally cross over - but they are not the same thing. If this turns into what amounts to a collaboration of FOB+assorted hip hop artists, I can really see them alienating a lot of fans. There will be some, of course, who will love whatever they put out because of the fact it's got 'Fall Out Boy' on the case - but those for us for whom the actual music is an issue that isn't necessarily nullified by who is making it, our favourite band basically abandoning the genre that made them isn't going to be okay.

I love these kids, and it's my loyalty to them and knowing that they can make some pretty awesome music, from the first three albums they put out, that stopped me giving up on them over Infinity on High, which was the biggest load of shit anyone in bandom has ever put out. fadefromblack and I used to spend hours talking about how it was just a bad album - a blip on the radar - but it seems like we were wrong.

If this really does happen, and they ruin their album by putting Lil Wayne or any other hip hop artist on there, I will have the same situation I had in the Harry Potter fandom: anything after the fourth book/album doesn't exist.

I'm so, so disappointed at the prospect. I was really looking forward to this album.

Does anyone else miss bands releasing real singles?

You remember the kind: you'd get all excited waiting for the release day, then you'd head down to the local record shop on your lunchbreak or after school/work, then you'd get home and actually put it in a CD player to listen.

And there would be B-sides! Actual B-sides! Other songs, not related to the album - not just remixes or cover versions - real, additional tracks from your favourite band. Bonus music for being dedicated enough to go and buy the singles.

Now, you get shitty, lower-quality versions on iTunes, no B-sides and you can't use it on more than a couple of formats. Yeah, they might be cheaper, but they're not tangible. When I buy something, I want to be able to hold it in my hand, y'know?

And what especially pisses me off is now Fall Out Boy are releasing their new album on iTunes track by track. Sure, there will be a CD on November 4th, but for those of us who prefer to do the ritual - the going to the shop, the peeling off the plastic and the reading the inlay booklet during that first listen; hearing the whole album in order, as it was planned to be heard - are fucked. Sure, we can wait for the new album to come out in the shops, but this is the internet age. This is the blog age, where people will be posting reviews within minutes of the tracks being made available. For anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled and want to discover the tracks in context by ourselves, it means avoiding the internet, or the comms where it would be likely to be discussed.

Yes, leaks happen; but with leaks, there is generally a divide between those who will wait for the official version, and those who will go ahead and download the music. If the music is made legally available ahead of time, presumably in an attempt to curb the leaks and promote interest, many more people will have access to it and will be discussing it openly, assuming everyone has heard it.

This may even be detrimental to the album sales (the single didn't even make the top twenty in Billboard's Hot 100, and in the Canadian chart has already dropped to #89 in its second week), because as soon as it is made available on iTunes, it can be decoded and leaked to the general public - which may result in lower album sales. Infinity on High was leaked a few days before it was due for release, but a strong moral section of the fanbase refused to download illegally and casual fans were unlikely to know with any great certainty where to access the leak. If more people have early access to the songs, they can be reposted more widely.

In a nutshell, I think this iTunes thing is a stupid idea and the more I see Pete promoting it, the more I want to shake him. People aren't buying the single because they already have it and there is no incentive to spend money on something they can get for free behind closed doors. To the best of my knowledge, the single doesn't have a CD release date (if it does, please tell me so I can go and buy it), and if that is a case there is nothing for fans who will have accessed the track already (almost all illegally, I'm fairly certain) to gain from spending money through Apple (who I dislike intensely anyway).

In fact, I resent being forced to give money to a company I dislike, just so I can hear music from my favourite band. I don't own an iPod, or an iPhone, I didn't even have iTunes installed until I wrote a review on it for HRE - I hadn't actually opened the programme since.

Why should I be dictated to about where to spend my money?

The more I think about this, the angrier I get.

Well done, icecreamhdaches - Pete posts an epic, personal blog, specifically saying, "please dont repost", so what do you do?

Yeah. How smart and respectful.

Morons.

Sceptics are such morons.

I cannot STAND people who think they're so smart that their opinion is clearly fact - especially when it comes to stuff I know a fuckload more about than they do.

Someone on little_details asked about the psychic bonds between twins, and kutsuwamushi told them, "If you don't want your story to contain any magic or supernatural phenomena, then no -- the second twin won't feel the pain of the first twin. That doesn't happen in the real world, although it's a popular topic for shows about the paranormal."

I promptly left just a few examples of anecdotes on a website for twins in which people who stand to gain absolutely nothing talk about their experiences - including instances where one twin has been injured and the other has developed bruises or a sympathy nosebleed.

Of course, some other wanker wades in with their, "People do it for attention/are hypochondriacs" argument, and the first person I responded to says, "There's no proof, therefore it's not real."

I'm sorry but NO. You cannot disprove something by absence of evidence. It doesn't work like that. And as someone who is psychic, gains nothing whatsoever from it, except perhaps the risk of ridicule, but has had proof of their 'skills' or whatever you want to call them, authenticated by people she has never met before and can never have known anything about, I can tell you categorically, that there are some things you just cannot explain. Not when you're the person they're happening to, the person witnessing them, or the person corroborating them.

I can't explain how I drew pictures of former residents of a house before I'd even stepped through the door, had precisely NO idea of the history of, and even inside found no images of (they were all in storage while the building was renovated). I have no idea how months before going - before I even knew the building existed or that I would ever go there - I managed to draw a picture of the building as it was a couple of hundred years before. I have no idea how I could name the previous residents of another building I'd never known existed. I have no idea how the man sitting next to me on the first day of my psychic development group could describe my living room, even though we'd never met - but I do know that it freaked him out so much he never showed up again.

I can't explain those things with normal science, therefore I have to assume that there's something else that we don't understand yet - rather than writing the whole thing off just because modern science doesn't have an answer. There are things we understand now that even decades ago people would have freaked out about. I pity the kind of idiots who are so closed minded that they 'know' something that cannot be disproved doesn't exist. Why would you close yourself off to that? Where is the harm in saying, "I don't know, but I don't believe"? Why does it have to be, "No, it doesn't exist because I haven't seen proof"?

Losers. I hope one day they spontaneously combust, which would be delightfully ironic, because they probably don't believe in that, either.