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Paul Wesley

Certifiably Surly
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    1977
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Everything posted by Paul Wesley

  1. Me: Data from lobbyists should be viewed with some skepticism. Criminals should be prosecuted. Slorch: “Fairy tales with massive plot holes!!!!”
  2. 1. Definitely not what I said 2. You’re quoting “data” from a lobbying group who advances corporate interests. They have an agenda. 3. I tried to make this point clear, but despite my caveats, it only took a few minutes to be misquoted: in a nuanced issue, multiple things can be true at once. We don’t have to choose one or the other. For example: a). Mark Furman is a perjurer and a dishonest cop who dropped N-bombs on a daily basis. b). OJ is a murderer. Both true. In this case: a). The NRF is a lobbying group that represents billions (?trillions) of dollars of private corporate interests, and their data should always be viewed with that in mind. b). Property crimes should be prosecuted and punished.
  3. (I haven't read to the bottom of the thread yet, so apologies if someone already made this point) When I was a kid, one of the refrains of the corporations was that their ability to conduct business was under assault from frivolous lawsuits. The narrative was everywhere. The "hot coffee" victim was a national punchline. Every late night comedy show monologue for half a decade, "Look at this stupid reckless person who did something stupid and was stupid and is now trying to get money. Outrageous!" Except that when you look at the facts of that case decades later, you have to admit that the company (McDonald's) was doing something reckless -- handing people boiling hot coffee/water in a little paper cup with a marginally secured lid -- and numerous people had already been injured, and the company knew that, but the company kept doing it despite their awareness of those earlier cases. Anyway, this whole "PEOPLE ARE STEALING EVERYTHING FROM US!" from the retailers... that feels like an eerily similar corporations-as-victims claim, and I'm going to apply a small bit of skepticism when they present their alleged data. I think this latest round of corporate propaganda is even more powerful because we've got actual videos of actual criminals doing brazen smash-and-grabs*, and this lines up perfectly with other ecosystems of thinly-veiled racism and "lawless cities!" propaganda. *since nuance is dead, let me say that for sure that those property crimes very much need to be punished
  4. The Hole in the Wall episode with Don Henley is one of Austin's finest legends, IMO. The RS article references it with this link: https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2014-06-20/don-henley-must-die/
  5. Sure, I’ll concede that’s true. But you’d have to also agree that it’s the other kind of “terrible” that we’re actually subjected to on a regular basis. You aren’t getting the Shaggs in elevators, dental waiting rooms, commercial breaks, etc.
  6. I hear you, but there are different kinds of "bad." There's "bad" like no musical talent at all (Shaggs), and "bad" like really talented people creating commerce that tries to pass itself off as art (pandering). (edit) Arguably, there's another kind of bad, which is adopting some kind of silly affectation and using some sort of pressure/trick to get everyone to agree that the action has artistic merit.
  7. I feel like the Doors are one of those stages-of-life bands. Sort of like discovering Kerouac or Hunter S Thompson, there's a point in life where the Doors *seem* to be rebellious or counter-culture in a way that appeals to a youthful brain. And only later do you get more breadth and depth of experience that allows you to accurately reclassify those artists according to their actual artistic merit (read: "meh"). For the Doors specifically, reading "No One Here Gets Out Alive" and considering Morrison to be a genius -- that time period will coincide with the one where you're still a gawky virgin, but you carry that same condom in your wallet for an entire fucking year. Someone should start a "bands you outgrow" thread.
  8. If Swift mobilized 20 or 30k of otherwise non-participating voters in each of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin-- it would be massive.
  9. Looked like that 2nd down throw-away went out of bounds a few yards short of the line of scrimmage. Maybe it's not ruled the same way as a punt(?)
  10. I had never heard this Led Zeppelin legend - linking to the podcast website, but it's on all the streaming services. It's episode #4 in this Allan Cross-narrated series: https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/uncharted-crime-and-mayhem-in-the-music-industry-podcast/
  11. In the 90’s, I got an American Express card in the mail. An hour or so later, I set out for California with my buddy in his Isuzu Trooper. Skipped school for a week. Slept on the floor of a frat house library in Tempe (don’t know which one…my buddy told them he was in that frat in Austin). Drank a lot. Hung out on the beaches of San Diego for four or five days. One day, we set out for LA because he knew these twins from his time at Texas Tech. I was awakened the next morning by a pretty big earthquake. The girls had (somehow) left for work, and I thought my buddy had come into the bedroom I was in and was shaking the bed to mess with me. Then I realized that I was in the room alone. I went running out to the living room at the exact moment he ran out of his own bedroom, and with the walls still rattling, we popped open a couple beers to celebrate. “Earthquake! Whooooo! Earthquake!” Anyway, on the road from San Diego, we listened to “LA Woman” by Billy Idol over and over again. And it kicks the shit out of the original. When we got home, I had to sell my car to pay the Amex bill. Had to walk everywhere for the rest of the year. In the words of Max Fischer: “You know what? It was worth it.”
  12. “Wichita Lineman” is a fucking terrible song. Stupid lyrics. Melody that meanders aimlessly. Compelling like a dirt sandwich. Totally fucking pointless and without merit. I guess the record company decided Glenn was handsome and marketable and so they paid off the radio stations to play this banal and insipid piece of shit. Sorry if you got tricked. Yes, I resurrected this thread to say that. I’ve needed to get it off my chest for decades.
  13. Joe Pug is thoughtful and engaging. His "Working Songwriter" podcast has some really good guests and conversations. I sometimes wish they'd talk more about the mechanics of writing songs, but I understand that there's a finite public appetite for talking about the best chord progressions for building tension, or about the glorious uncertainty of the major 7 chord. His latest episode is a good one - a conversation with Bob Schneider. This episode has some observations from each of them that I found really relatable. You songwriter dudes will like it. If you don't care about his own housekeeping topics, you can skip the first five minutes. https://theworkingsongwriter.com/episodes-1/2024/1/2/episode-234-bob-schneider
  14. *rainbow* was the operative word there. It was the US flag with rainbow colors instead of red, white, and blue.
  15. I was on a Texas beach a few years back, and there was a business selling flags out of this big tent. Basically, you could buy *your* version of the American flag. Many had some kind of "Trump won" sewn onto it. They also had the LGBTQ rainbow version of the American flag (13 stripes and 50 stars). It was one of those moments where I just thought, "We're going to have a civil war, aren't we?" I hate all the adulterations of our flag. It's all just very sad to me. I really hate the Blue Lives Matter flag, especially when I see it displayed by members of law enforcement or veterans - all of whom took, you know, an oath and shit to uphold the laws of the flag they've abandoned.
  16. Jackson Arnold needs to practice his tackling.
  17. It's a simple question, Nikki. Just say "slavery" and we'll move on.
  18. 100% this. Even more than that, it's only 24 months since the Aggies signed a historically great class at the moment that Texas was coming off an embarrassing 5-7 season that including a home loss to Kansas. To think that we're leaving the Big 12 with scoreboard on all the left-behinds, winning the conference, in the playoffs, signing our own monster class... and like you said, they paid out an insane amount of money for a ho-hum hire, an incomplete staff, and an recruiting class that's unraveled. Nobody could have imagined how violently the wheel of fortune turned for both programs. Edit to add: we're also about to put a shit ton of guys in the NFL. Who would have thought that *we* would be successfully selling "come here and maximize your NFL draft potential" only 24 months after 5-7?
  19. Yeah, if Georgia had won, it would have been the four undefeated conference champions, and we'd be out. It's really crazy what the Bama win over Georgia meant for the Texas program. Had Georgia won the SEC, we'd be looking at a meaningless bowl, we'd have a TON of opt-outs, we'd be bitching about how the entire season slipped away on a last-second loss just like 2008. Instead, we're killing it on the recruiting trail, and we might have the best all-around sales pitch in the nation right now - a playoff team, NIL money, first-class academics, moving to the SEC, a coaching staff that's about to put a shit ton of guys into the NFL, etc.
  20. This. He starts each broadcast with calm, flowery, scripted praise for Texas. But if the game is tight in the 4Q, he excitedly reacts in an anti-Texas way to every single important play (score, spot of the ball, possession of the ball, penalty, etc).
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