Since Grinch doesn't really figure in my Xmas, I prefer The First Noel . (Which is a song I love; unlike quite a lot of Xmas songs around, it actually works musically, without lyrics.)
Also, I do, in general, prefer my Xmas music a great deal cheesier than you prefer yours.
Since it appears (according to all those interviews with self-professed Democratic voters) that many Obama voters actually thought that Pres-Elect Obama endorsed quite a of McCain's positions (e.g., on abortion, on Iraq), how will they know that the Pres-Elect has flipflopped? As long as Pres-Elect doesn't admit it clearly and precisely (and he won't; he's excellent at waffling), I doubt they'll be told by MSM
I agree that you have a point. But, of the people I know/know of who have seriously considered suicide or knew who have, it appears to me that the greatest burden they carried was life itself. Should they then never have been born in the first place? (I admit that my 'sample' is by no means large enough for statistical analysis/certainty.)
Have you seen FAIL blog ('Fail, Owned and Pwn moments in pictures and videos')? These are my current favourite fails: Ad Location Fail; Elephant Fail; Bookstore Sorting Fail; Dear Abby Fail; and
You're absolutely right in that there are quite a few metal (term used broadly) singers that should have been on that list, as well as 'alternative' one (the nod to BjÃrk I see as whole perfunctory/mandatory), country ones, etc. There are even pop strumpets with good voices. Better than Patti LaBelle at any rate.
Again, I think it's a problem with the voter base: the overall list is ludicrously weighted in favour of R&B - if I can use that term really, really broadly - and I believe that's because it's seen to confer more 'cred' to the list voter than any other musical genre and therefore a 'safe' choice; I mean, it was hardly a secret ballot
At Downs and Chemo kids.
[X] "I had to. CowboyNeal ate all the toilet paper, and I didn't have anything smaller than a $20".
But it's weird, the way they've 'upgraded'/'fixed' it!
The desire to say "why me?" is a human constant
Actually, when everything has gone to hell in a handbasket and I'm already there and looking back on it all, I have to say, I have to say, that it was either absolutely and totally my own fault - iow, more or less inevitable given my own actions - or, if we posit a creator/intervener, that it made perfect sense to let me experience the whatever, put that burden on my shoulders.
They say God doesn't burden you with more than you can bear; you dead yet? I'm not.
I think you're right in saying that people go over the top in demanding absolute (absolutistic) adherence in adaptations of their favourite oeuvre. Well, if doesn't exactly mimic absolutely everything in the book(s), then it isn't a proper adaptation at all and I shaaaaaaaan't have it!. There seems to be genuine and general difficulty in distinguishing drama from literature: what makes literary sense (or, at least, what doesn't detract from literary qualities of a literary work) is quite different from dramatic qualities. LOTR is actually a really good example (incidentally, I don't particularly like the book(s), but have grown quite fond of the long versions of the filmatizations): I remember some idiot on Australian television complaining that Tom Bombadil wasn't in the films at all - but however interesting a worthwhile from a literary POV, the Bombadil bit doesn't do anything, anything at all, for the dramatic LOTR story.
[setting: the woo household. bettiwettiwoo is bitching to her lord and master, Dr woo (a.k.a. MFM), about her latest kitchen accident: a 4cmX2cm blister on her left, inner arm, acquired by handling the steaming hot water kettle in such a peculiarly inept manner one would really have to see it, or at least see the consequences of it, in order to believe it.]
Considering that I think everybody who voted for Aretha Franklin (et al.) were talking to the gremlins in their heads, it makes perfect sense to have an imaginary singer as #1. It would make the list more honest!
Let's be honest: few people own Aretha Franklin albums, even fewer listen to them; John Lennon is not a singer, he's a tragedy; the best thing about James Brown is the Was Not Was song I Feel Better Than James Brown; and Tina Turner ahead of Freddie Mercury ??? Yeah, that'll be about right. Not.
No, you're right: most Rolling Stone lists seem to make more sense upside down
The only Stones album I like is Tattoo You. And, of course, you're right: neither Mick Jagger nor Dylan belong on the 'best singer' list. It's absurd.
Oh, please: Aretha Franklin is one of those 'tick singers': she's just a box all aspiring R&B songstresses have to tick when asked about role models, favourite singers, inspirations, whatever.
Yes, we all know and love Think and R-E-S-P-E-C-T and possibly that poppy thing she did with George Michael and possibly, possibly her cover of Jumping Jack Flash, but nobody can listen to that nasal screeching for an entire album. It's simply impossible.
Insofar as anybody's actually owning any album of hers at all, they're the ones collecting dust in the corner, together with Leonard Cohen's and Neil Young's oeuvres. Bought in order to tick a box; always passed over for something more easy on the ear.
Sad to see someone whose taste in music is otherwise so decent being so
Listen, your treasured favourite stories will always suffer to one degree or another in adaptation, that's a given. And yes, some are more inexcusable than others. But to get all absolutist is silly.
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.
