Posts
10098
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Dallas, TX
US
Edited Date/Time
8/8/2019 12:01pm
Flipping between the various news channels after lunch and it seems like they are all hoping to find more and more tragedy in the El Paso mass shooting. Caught glimpses of footage showing victims on the ground, etc.
They wouldn't be doing it if they didn't believe that it would drive ratings.........
What the phuck is wrong with us as a society?
(And yes, the news is off limits in our house for at least the next 24 hours.)
They wouldn't be doing it if they didn't believe that it would drive ratings.........
What the phuck is wrong with us as a society?
(And yes, the news is off limits in our house for at least the next 24 hours.)
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry
Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em all around
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond
Who comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry
You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
I was always the bigger, older looking guy and was able to start buying kegs while I was 17!!!!!
The Shop
Paul was a pretty weird kid back then. He was a pretty dedicated fan of Duran Duran and I vividly remember him telling some of us that he would never pay to see any band play but them! We knew that was silly because we had just turned 18 and knew how 16yos didn't know anything about the real world.....
Sort of a funny story is that my best friend "sold" Paul a bass and amp to play with some of his high school buddies. I quote the sold part because he never actually got paid for them. After Paul sort of disappeared and stopped answering calls, my buddy went to his house and his dad answered the door. He told him that Paul wasn't there so my buddy asked if his dad would pay him the 2 or 3 hundred dollars for the stuff. His dad just laughed and said that he should have known to never trust his kid like that.
Some time in the late 90s, after he'd left Tool, he was up in town visiting friends and family and my buddy randomly ran into him at a local bar. It sounds like he settled up with him pretty well then.
The other connection to Tool is that the guy who did all the artwork with Adam Jones was a classmate of Paul's in high school and another kid who hung out at our place. His name is Kevin Willis and I'm pretty sure that his friendship with Adam is what landed Paul in the band in the first place.
When something like this happens, I think that the event is somewhat newsworthy and I'd want to know some details if it were in my general area and the killer were still at large, for example. But the footage of the carnage serves no real purpose other than what I believe it is, misery porn.
And maybe my aversion is what makes it seem like the talking heads are desperate for something else even worse than the last report to happen. It feels like they are auctioneers trying to bid up the death count for some insane reason.
Sorry if I'm ranting, but this shit today has truly made me physically ill and wondering about the society we live in.
Our present news media has devolved to a very low place.
Can the zest for ratings actually change the behavior of our society?
Or is the media simply a reflection of the audience it serves?
Sad.
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and despise a fool
Till you're so f****** crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for 20-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still f****** peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they're telling you still
But first you must learn to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
It's an old story told many times. Mass media and Social media just magnifies it. The more lurid the better. The rich get richer poor get poorer. What did Einstein say about the definition of insanity? We live it everyday. Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV. The opiate of the masses.
I guess it's just like cable tv in general. 250 channels and there only 5 that are interesting 10% of the time.
That would be a question to add to APLMAN'S. What is it about our society that that provides profit for endless amounts of bullshit on TV?
What a F-ing gas bag.
For the record my comment was to Dirty Laundry. IMHO Don could walk up on stage, rip a big ol' fart and the media would still find a way to say it smelled like flowers.
After his bust with the underage OD'd girl the media targeted him and really lit him up, hence we get Dirty Laundry. I doubt he would have ever written it otherwise.
Still can't help but smile every time I hear it.
Peace my brother!
Pit Row
Years before cable there was a large following for "detective" magazines that featured sensationalized crimes.
Go back a,little further and look at the crowds that would show up at hangings.
Heck, in a town near me 2500 people showed up to watch them hang an elephant that killed it's trainer in a parade.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(elephant)
Side note: I always liked the mid-song guitar solo on "Dirty Landry", finding out only a couple of years ago that it's Joe Walsh's work. And those of you in your mid-50's, remember "Thunder Island"? Great summertime song, made even greater by the guitar solo, courtesy of...Joe Walsh! All this AND James Gang, The Eagles, his solo career, etc...
'cause tragedy thrills me
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I
Some of the songs the toffs used to sing to each other sat around a grand piano in their country houses drinking claret were horrific as well.
I think we have always loved it, it's just with modern technology it's hard to get away from it.
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