memer memer

posted by catherine / April 13, 2005 /

kriston and matt are doing a meme which is "invitation only," but i'm crashing the party because it looks like fun: List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over.

  • i am pretty sure i am going to get shot for this, but anything from radiohead post "kid a." hell, i'd even include "kid a" in there because "the bends" and "ok computer" are so mind-staggeringly brilliant that the bleeps and bloops and toneless muttering of the last three records sound like drivel tapped out on a mac recording program. which is exactly what they were! every time i'm in a conversation where someone is fawning over the mindbending awesomness and "advancing experimentalism" of "hail to the thief," i feel like i am trapped in a seriously unfunny nightmare where thom yorke has tied me to a chair and is forcing me to listen to him play a fisher-price electronic keyboard for hours on end.

  • somebody mentioned this in the comments over at matt's - garden state. i'm not trying to be pretentious (for once) but i didn't get the hubbub at all over this film. it was cute, sure, and i thought zach braff and natalie portman were pretty adorable, but it was all so obvious and right-out-film-school-y. the relationship with the father just needed to be cut from the film; the whole cleansing-screaming-in-the-rain scene was cliched; and it was just generally too precious. i mean i liked it, but...yeah.

  • desperate housewives. wtf? bad acting, bad plots, bad dialogue. felicity huffman is the only halfway bearable person on that show. where were all her fans when "sports night" was being canceled?

  • new york city. i know, i'm crazy. this is stupid of me, considering i've only been there a few times, but i can't stand the place. i really think that it says more about me than the city, though. but i just feel like every time i'm there it's raining, i'm lost, and a homeless man/potential rapist is stumbling towards me.

  • blogging. totally overrated.

  • Comments

    The thing about Garden State is that near as I can tell everyone feels this way. It's one of those "popular" movies that doesn't seem to have any actual fans. Instead, everyone went to go see it because "everyone" said it was so good, and then nobody actually thinks it's all that good.

    Posted by: Matthew Yglesias on April 13, 2005 02:24 PM

    oh, i don't know. i know several people who thought it was "movie of the year" quality.

    Posted by: catherine on April 13, 2005 02:25 PM

    Hey, who said you could use our elitist game? God, I wish they'd regulate the blogs already.

    Posted by: Kriston on April 13, 2005 02:41 PM

    hey, pass this game to me! i have nothing to write about.

    Posted by: Naomi on April 13, 2005 02:51 PM

    consider it passed!

    Posted by: catherine on April 13, 2005 03:29 PM

    Wow, it's crazy; right when I read the first line, I started thinking "New York City"... and there it was. Although I do rather like Garden State - I get the impression it's like "Singles" for people younger than me. And I don't hate recent Radiohead, but I'll tell you this: The Bends was the best rock record of the 90s.

    Now Interpol. THERE'S a band I don't get. I have a bet going with HaH and DCeiver that I can write and record an entire Interpol EP myself in a weekend. How hard can it be? You need a total of like five notes and one rhythmic motif...

    Posted by: PK on April 13, 2005 04:12 PM

    You're fucking kidding me right? I know Interpol is overated, but YOU write a whole album in one weekend that doesn't suck? Seriously. Stop it man. I can't breathe I'm laughing so hard.

    Posted by: aGuy on April 13, 2005 05:23 PM

    Jeez, aGuy. That's the POINT. It's a joke. I am saying the Interpol sucks, and I (or any reasonably capable musician) could pull that crap off in my sleep. And obviously, I won't exactly be shocked when people who LIKE Interpol (like the aforementioned friends) say, "That doesn't sound like Interpol, their droniness is a lot cooler than this," or whatever.

    Take a band I like - Radiohead, for example - and I think it would be pretty funny to hear what somebody who hates them would do if you gave them the challenge. I'm sure there'd be a lot of heavily processed sensitive warbling and random bleeps and blips and guitar pluggings and unpluggings - because I imagine that's what Radiohead-haters hear when they listen. Catherine could be the producer!

    What I hear when I listen to Interpol: Some guy who listened to too much Joy Division singing a boring melody in a 3- to 5-note range; guitars and basses all playing straight-8th-note patterns in some minor key, along with boring-ass drums doing the same thing; and inexplicably incompetent "backing vocals" that sound like somebody is getting in a shouting match just offstage. The only dynamics being provided by simply turning individual instruments "on" and "off", rather than by using any form of human expression. That sort of thing.

    Man. Jokes are a lot less funny when you need to explain them.

    Posted by: PK on April 14, 2005 07:53 AM

    Your joke wasn't funny because it was like a fat slobby guy making fun of a girl for being slighty overweight.

    In other words I feel that you are guilty of some of the same things in your music that you accuse Interpol of doing.

    I shouldn't have been so harsh. Your music doesn't totally suck ass. I was having a bad day and feeling mean.

    Posted by: aGuy on April 14, 2005 10:59 AM

    Any music can be parodied easily; it's basically the same thing a caricature artist does when he draws you. Take the 2-3 obvious features and exaggerate. It's a lot harder to do when you're being sincere. It would take me a LOT longer to write and record a proper PK album than to fake an Interpol one, because (to my ear) they don't care much about quality.

    I'm flattered that you think my music "doesn't totally suck", I guess. I hadn't even realized you had heard it. Seems pretty irrelevant to the discussion... but if you have any particular constructive criticisms, I'd love to hear them off-blog. Thanks.

    Posted by: PK on April 14, 2005 11:51 AM

    american idol -- game, set, and match. who wants to watch the worst talent show ever?

    Posted by: David on April 14, 2005 05:49 PM

    PK your music doesn't suck. I just need to stop posting when I'm in a bad mood. I'm going to be over here S'ing TFU.

    Posted by: aGuy on April 15, 2005 12:24 PM

    No hard feelings, aGuy. I just wish I was funnier! (And I was serious about emailing - not trying to be sarcastic or defensive. It's always interesting to hear what people have to say, whether or not I agree...)

    Posted by: PK on April 15, 2005 01:28 PM

    Yeah, INTERPOL, does suck. Shitty Joy Division knock of. HORRIBLE!

    Posted by: Ryan Stamen on October 10, 2005 05:12 PM

    God!..you are so stupid!...Why the fuck do you say Interpol is a Joy division rip off?...they've never even listened to Joy Division. Don't take your freakng anger out on Interpol..because Ian died...fuck you! Interpol is one of the best fuckign bands EVER!

    Posted by: nicole on February 15, 2006 09:31 PM

    nah, theyre right. its pretty much crap.

    Posted by: ebol on November 19, 2007 02:29 PM

    interpol sounds nothing like joy division.

    haha


    the lead singer isnt even a big fan so fuck off

    and go listen to interpol.

    Posted by: on January 14, 2008 04:29 PM

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