Hear me roar

[OP ED]

left of center and drifting slowly.

for the record, i'm not certain i know any austrailian comedians, famous ones anyhow, of whatever gender. so i cannot speak to that issue.

tragedy is more my thing, really.

(need more stand-down-tragedians)

[Joe Hillshoist]

Like Mineta, or whatever his name was?

I dunno if we need any more of those.

[brainpanhandler]

No point getting worked up over things, is there?

No, no point in getting hysterical if one does not have a uterus available for removal.

Even if we accept that the nuclear family is about as natural as fibre-glass, the internet or non-poisonous walnuts, it is still an advance from any putative polygamous prehistory.

That frigid bitch Athena spurning Hephaestus

I live in a town with a very tall church spire, with a clock on it.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives

Days of Our Lives was my mother's favorite soap opera. Watching this triggers a melancholia that I felt even then when I was but 4 or 5 years old, although what the source of that feeling was then I don't know as it could not possibly have been my sense of my own mortality.

That's possibly one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me.

Yes, well, let's not get overly chummy just yet.

Maybe the psychotherapist I was forced to go to that time, otherwise not.

Forced? If it is not too personal for you to relate, I really would like to know how and why you were forced to see a psychotherapist.

On the other hand I have no women on my mp3 player.

To Love Somebody

[blanc]

Last night I heard the screaming
Loud voices behind the wall
Another sleepless night for me
It won't do no good to call
The police Always come late
If they come at all

And when they arrive
They say they can't interfere
With domestic affairs
Between a man and his wife
And as they walk out the door
The tears well up in her eyes

Last night I heard the screaming
Then a silence that chilled my soul
I prayed that I was dreaming
When I saw the ambulance in the road
And the policeman said
"I'm here to keep the peace
Will the crowd disperse
I think we all could use some sleep"

[Joe Hillshoist]

[url=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XzD4JRnWHpE] You say you're a man, you understand, but you don't.
You should lend her a helping hand, but you won't.

Cause I'm a man, I don't understand, but I try.
She always does what I command, while she cries.

And why should we do what we do and sleep at night.
The crazy things we put her through, it isn't right.

It isn't right.

So my brother don't hurt her anymore.
She's got her law, you've got yours.
And she's sick and tired of walking into doors.

Her gentle spirit her sacred way and her smile may not be here,
She may disappear in a little while.

Sister moon, sister girl and given birth.
Mother nature, mother of pearl and mother earth.

Sweet mother earth.

So my brother don't hurt her anymore.
She's got her law, you've got yours.
And she's sick and tired of walking into doors.[/url]

[Stephen Morgan]

Yes, but do you like the Kinks?

I ask, in part, because I won't have time for more than a yes/no question until much later. However, I also actually do wonder. Hey! You know what? If you want to, you may consider this nagging! Shrill nagging!

Hi cuddles.

Traditionally my response to nagging would be to ignore it. Or I could do the opposite of what I'm being asked to do, for spite's sake.

I like the Levellers, the Mull Historical Society, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Jake Thackray, Housemartins, Squeeze, the Divine Comedy and various others. The Kinks, however, were somewhat before my time.

OP ED:

stand-down-tragedians

That brings me back to Sir William Topaz McGonagall, Poet and Tragedian.

brainpanhandler

No, no point in getting hysterical if one does not have a uterus available for removal.

My thoughts approximately. Best to be philosophical about things.

Days of Our Lives was my mother's favorite soap opera. Watching this triggers a melancholia that I felt even then when I was but 4 or 5 years old, although what the source of that feeling was then I don't know as it could not possibly have been my sense of my own mortality.

You think youngsters aren't conscious of death? I think they aren't aware of the possibility of an afterlife, due to their underdeveloped intellects. Therefore they are disproportionately terrified by the idea of mortality.

Yes, well, let's not get overly chummy just yet.

Stop saying nice things about me then.

Forced? If it is not too personal for you to relate, I really would like to know how and why you were forced to see a psychotherapist.

Not so much forced as coerced. This was when I was a bit younger and extremely unfond of school, so I therefore made a habit of kicking the habit of school-going. Unfortunately the local authorities weren't pleased about this, and they were quite insistent on the psychological treatment. Quite common apparently, I later encountered someone at the New Deal course (which I was again coerced into attending) who claimed to have acted towards her in a sexually agressive manner and been banned from ever returning. I contented myself with simply never returning. The dire threats of the education welfare officer were groundless, incidentally.

Now THIS is a song:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCFwD3GcUg

[barracuda]

This was when I was a bit younger and extremely unfond of school, so I therefore made a habit of kicking the habit of school-going. Unfortunately the local authorities weren't pleased about this, and they were quite insistent on the blah blah. Quite common apparently, I later encountered someone at the New Deal course (which I was again coerced into attending) who claimed to have acted towards her in a sexually agressive manner and been blah blah. I contented myself with simply never returning. The dire threats of the blah, blah, blah...

Enthralling.



Do go on.

[IanEye]

Stephen, perhaps you'd like this song:

Close your legs, open your mind
Leave those compliments well behind
Dig a little deeper into yourself
And you may find

Come over here just sit right down
Needn't comb your hair, needn't pout or frown
I hear you've turned our young men
Into dribbling clowns

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?
36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

Make their day and go ahead
Remove your clothes lie on their bed
Just a last gasp chance or an outside bet
To the easily led

And before you do just what you do
Here one thought for you to chew
The men who run the business that you sell
They screw you too

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?
36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

You're just another 365 night stand
But you're so handy, you're so handy
You cheapen and you nasty every woman in this land
But you're so handy, you're so handy

Your pictures hanging pretty on the squaddies walls
You're stephens, andys, you're ians, you're pauls
Your bodys throught of fondly in the rugby mauls
But you want more

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

36d so what (d) so what
Is that all that you've got?

He was trying to save his job
He was trying to save his job.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36D


apologies if this song has been mentioned, i am a little behind on this thread....

[brainpanhandler]

Yes, well, let's not get overly chummy just yet.

Stop saying nice things about me then.

My mother always told me that if I didn't have anything nice to say then I shouldn't say anything at all, which might go a long way toward explaining why I was so quiet and introverted as a child.

No, no point in getting hysterical if one does not have a uterus available for removal.

My thoughts approximately. Best to be philosophical about things.

http://tinyurl.com/4ukg4

You think youngsters aren't conscious of death? I think they aren't aware of the possibility of an afterlife, due to their underdeveloped intellects. Therefore they are disproportionately terrified by the idea of mortality.

The phrase, "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives", almost certainly did not put me in a contemplative mood about my own impending death at the age of 4 or 5. It was probably the cello that did it.

[Stephen Morgan]

Enthralling.

Do go on.

Answering what was asked, barry.

IanEye

Stephen, perhaps you'd like this song:

Not my favourite Beautiful South song, honestly. Not bad, though.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Joe Hillshoist

There have been good female comedians in Australia non stop since the 80s.

I blame Thatcher, mate.

Joe Hillshoist

There's only about 2 or 3 funny American stand ups in history, and one of them is dead.

No way. There's loads of funny, self-aware, ironic and intelligent American stand-ups. Over here, we call them "Canadians".

[b}Stephen Morgan}:
Women [b]and Australians can't do stand up comedy.

Provably false. Australian comedians can be funny, so long as they're impersonating Scottish comedians.


http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=G0rZDBBl_H8

blanc

then it wandered into the thought that women's roles were taken by men in elizabethan theatre, and hence to the unkindly snip.

[b] Stephen Morgan[b] One of the main, but now mostly forgotten, sources of the elusive Shakespearean humour was the dainty women played by gruff men. Castrati need not apply.

Shakespeare's humour is definitely elusive. Malvolio's crossed garters... what a hoot! We just don't get it nowadays. Shakespeare and his sense of humour... it's controversial... if he hadn't been so good at tragedy I never would've believed he was funny. But he must've been, I suppose.

is anyone else wondering if SM is fictive btw? another dreamsend type alterego sent to flush out lurking mcp's, a created character fast becoming charicature?

His opinions seem real enough to me, but that is no guarantee (might be evidence of him doing his fictive job well, but I doubt it).

He happens to disagree with the general consensus here on the feminist movement, sometimes in florid and possibly hurtful language, but that doesn't make him a liar or a stooge or a made up character. People just have different views on things. I agree with some of his views - there does seem to be a move to denigrate men, particularly the working class, as a group, beyond what has been done already by having us cast as the breadwinners, defenders of the homeland, simpleton beasts of burden, hewers of coal and forgers of steel, honest laughing souls, or vindictive beasts, etc. But I don't think it's anything worth moaning about.

Feminism never put me anywhere that capitalism or communism wouldn't've put me too. It never had the power to put me anywhere.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

...Shawn Colvin, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Patsy Cline, Aimee Mann, Buffy St. Marie, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, .....prime.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

[quote="compared2what?"]
It's way off-topic, but have you ever read Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (purportedly with the assistance from Philip Larkin)? It's a great, great angry novel, as well as a very funny one, and, oh, man, is it hostile to women, among other things. I love it and read it about once a year. I think you'd like it very much. But I can't figure out how to explain why I think so without major spoilers.[/quote="compared2what?"]

I know that wasn't addressed to me, but it's like a Gary-McKinnon-style honeytrap designed for my tastes. Amis (pere et fils - I like saying that) and Larkin! Bloody hell.

I admit, I still haven't read Lucky Jim.... but have you read "Stanley and the Women" and "Jake's Thing"? Kingsley's twin swansongs, in a way, though he wrote other (better) books later. Those two are disgracefully direct, though. And brilliant. Amis was nothing if not honest about men and women - or about how certain men feel about certain women - and Larkin was nothing if not dishonest about the lot of it. Were you joking about Larkin's excessively interesting life, by the way? He weren't exactly James Bond.

He was better than that. You'll like this, I reckon, if you haven't seen it already:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QugmT1SEIcg


And Martin Amis is great as well (I've met him - he openly despised me, which was everything I'd hoped for). I still read "Money" at least once a year.

My three favourite writers have all been accused, and continue to be accused, of mysogyny (and racism), and with good reason, and it bothers me a bit - but not much.

Having sweetened the pill, can I quote the final paragraph of "Jake's Thing", which I can agree with a percentage of (just as I can agree with a percentage of Stephen Morgan's opinions). It's good writing, anyway:

"Jake did a quick run-through of women in his mind, not of the ones he had known or dealt with in the past few months or years so much as all of them; their concern with the surface of things, with objects and appearances, with their surroundings and how they looked and sounded in them, with seeming to be better and to be right while getting everything wrong, their automatic assumption of the role of injured party in any clash of wills, their certainty that a view is the more credible and useful for the fact that they hold it, their use of misunderstanding and misrepresentation as weapons of debate, their selective sensitivity to tones of voice, their unawareness of the difference in themselves between sincerity and insincerity, their interest in importance (together with noticeable inability to discriminate in that sphere), their fondness for general conversation and directionless discussion, their pre-emption of the major share of feeling, their exaggerated estimate of their own plausibility, their never listening and lots of other things like that, all according to him."


My emphasis. I had forgotten how vitriolic that bit turned out, but reading it back it could be applied to Republicans and, well, men as well. "Novelist Talks About Human Condition!" The critics did a good job of being shocked - none of them had read Burroughs or Ballard, it seemed at the time.

In Deference to the Current Financial Situation, and since I might not get the chance again, here's Phillip Larkin's "Money":

Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:
'Why do you let me lie here wastefully?
I am all you never had of goods and sex.
You could get them still by writing a few cheques.'

So I look at others, what they do with theirs:
They certainly don't keep it upstairs.
By now they've a second house and car and wife:
Clearly money has something to do with life

- In fact, they've a lot in common, if you enquire:
You can't put off being young until you retire,
And however you bank your screw, the money you save
Won't in the end buy you more than a shave.

[b]I listen to money singing. It's like looking down
From long French windows at a provincial town,
The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad
In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.

[/b]

[brainpanhandler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qasn7TcS59c

[Stephen Morgan]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqNU8UMwYM