Social Networking Type Thingies

[wolf moon]

Originally Posted by Corpsey

It's not just that they speak it fast, it is that they have various dialects. I have no idea which dialect to expect when I go over there, so I hope it's one without too many nuances.

My husband speaks German with precisely the sort of accent I was taught to never use. His "ich" veers a bit into the "ish" side of things, and he uses the back of his throat less than most. Funny part: he's the native speaker, born and raised in Germany. I didn't start learning until I was 20. His dad makes fun of me for rolling my r's excessively.

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

Yep. How can you enjoy something like music if you don't understand it?

I could go both ways on this. I'll readily admit that I can't respect a song with terrible lyrics. But I tend to listen to the instrumentation of a song before I pay much attention to anything else - by the time I'm really listening to the words, I've usually already decided how I feel about the song itself (unless they were so awful I got distracted). Also, I listen to a lot of music in languages I don't speak fluently; while I can usually figure out the general idea, I've never bothered looking up a direct translation for most songs. Still think they're pretty.

[Grausamkeit]

Well, I've never been one of those 'ignorance is bliss' kinda people.

I'm more like if ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile from my face.

[Saya]

Once I visited a friend's house and her roommate had some punk music on. My hearing is bad, in the "I can hear you, I just can't understand you" sort of way, so most of the time I need to read lyrics before I know what the words to the song is. Anyway, I couldn't really tell what it was saying and I was just kind of bopping my head to it, then the roommate came by and sang the lyrics and suddenly I understood. It was Nazi music and it was about deporting black people, and my friend had to explain that in a rush to escape living with her abusive boyfriend, she had moved in with a Neo Nazi.

Since then, its been important to me to understand the lyrics.

[wolf moon]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

Well, I've never been one of those 'ignorance is bliss' kinda people.

I'm more like if ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile from my face.

It's not so much that I love not knowing or that I figure if it's awful and I don't know it doesn't count; it's that english translations of, say, old Norwegian folk songs are sorta difficult to come by. And since I can usually pick up the general idea ("it's about a girl! she's sad!"), I often don't feel the need to hunt them down.

[Morpheus13]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

Isn't not bothering about what the lyrics say in a song akin to reading a book because you think the pages are a pretty colour?

If I found a book that had pretty page colours, I would definitely read it. But generally they come in white or off-white. And as such I read them based on content. Usually.

[Miss Absynthe]

I have been a HUGE Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer fan for years and years... but have recently been looking at her lyrics with a more critical view, and have found that I have real issues with a lot of the songs that she has written. This is definitely affecting my enjoyment the music.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

I have been a HUGE Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer fan for years and years... but have recently been looking at her lyrics with a more critical view, and have found that I have real issues with a lot of the songs that she has written. This is definitely affecting my enjoyment the music.

I'm more of a fan of Amanda Palmer's solo career than I ever was of Dresden Dolls, but I really can't listen to Delilah anymore, particularly because of one line.

[Corpsey]

Originally Posted by Saya

Once I visited a friend's house and her roommate had some punk music on. My hearing is bad, in the "I can hear you, I just can't understand you" sort of way, so most of the time I need to read lyrics before I know what the words to the song is. Anyway, I couldn't really tell what it was saying and I was just kind of bopping my head to it, then the roommate came by and sang the lyrics and suddenly I understood. It was Nazi music and it was about deporting black people, and my friend had to explain that in a rush to escape living with her abusive boyfriend, she had moved in with a Neo Nazi.

Since then, its been important to me to understand the lyrics.

For precisely this reason I'm starting to listen to less and less Ramnstein. Before it was easy to listen to their industrialish instrumental beats, til I realized it was about one man abusing his brother sexually. After that, I became a lot more selective of what music I listen to in foreign languages. Still, atleast it's not Neo-Nazi beats.

Graus - A bit of both to be honest. I used to listen to them regularly. At the moment, if I want to listen to German music, I'll prefer Die Toten Hosen. I thoroughly reccomend them. They're one of the few punk bands from the late 70's/early 80's that are still making music and touring.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by Saya

I'm more of a fan of Amanda Palmer's solo career than I ever was of Dresden Dolls, but I really can't listen to Delilah anymore, particularly because of one line.

Delilah is one of the songs that I'm talking about... which really annoys me because it was one of my favourite songs. Sex Changes annoys me as well.

I really like AFP's solo music, except that she blogged a cover of Rebecca Black's Friday sung from the version of a truckstop hooker - and it was really really offensive. I find it really quite depressing that someone I admired so much is that wrapped up in their own privilege.

[Miss Absynthe]

My best friend (Aaron) hates social networking type thingies. He has never had a FB, MS, Twitter or anything like that. he hates most things modern, to the extent that he really doesn't read modern literature and tends to submerge himself into things like Shakespeare, Kant and Socrates.

He joined FB yesterday after the following conversation:

Him: I have some news that might interest you. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are getting divorced.

Me: Yes. I've known that for like two weeks now...

Him: Really? How on earth did you know that?

Me: Do you see what happens when you don't have a Facebook account?!

I'm scared that I'm going to go and visit him in December to find him reading a copy of people Magazine hidden inside the cover of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

[wolf moon]

I'm actually rather fond of most of the Dresden Dolls lyrics. Amanda Palmer's solo stuff I find rather trite and boring. Though I admit that I really, really dislike Amanda Palmer as a person, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume that her music bothers me just because there's so much of her awful personality in it.

[carakitty]

Originally Posted by Corpsey

For precisely this reason I'm starting to listen to less and less Ramnstein. Before it was easy to listen to their industrialish instrumental beats, til I realized it was about one man abusing his brother sexually.

Do all their songs revolve around that subject matter?

Many years ago I looked up the translation of "Du Hast" because I had the MP3 on near-repeat play but now i don't recall what it was. I currently have a copy of "Feuer Frei" but have yet to translate it.

All of my brothers took German in high school and were shocked when they learned I was 'getting into' Rammstein. I still don't know what the fuck they are saying I just like the way it sounds!

[Grausamkeit]

Rammstein lyrics

There are other places on the web you can look up the translated lyrics.

Yes, some of Rammstein's music focuses on abuse, but not all of it. Till was abused by an alcoholic father growing up. The subject matter seems sick on the surface, but it's definitely not an endorsement of abuse. It's showing people how disgusting and perverse some individuals can really be. That's the point. People should be disgusted by some of the subject matter they sing about. Their music brings to light many things that society chooses to ignore because it's an ugly truth. With their music they are saying 'Look! Quit avoiding the fact that this exists! People do these horrible things! Your world is not as pretty as you make-believe.'

Corpsey, I will look up Die Toten Hosen. Thanks!

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

Delilah is one of the songs that I'm talking about... which really annoys me because it was one of my favourite songs. Sex Changes annoys me as well.

I really like AFP's solo music, except that she blogged a cover of Rebecca Black's Friday sung from the version of a truckstop hooker - and it was really really offensive. I find it really quite depressing that someone I admired so much is that wrapped up in their own privilege.

That's sucky, did anyone complain about it? I haven't really been following her blog. What I do like about Amanda Palmer is that she does seem pretty receptive to criticism, like after her fans complained that Evelyn Evelyn was ableist.

[Grausamkeit]

This is the reason I think Amanda Palmer's a complete cunt.

ETA~ Link=NSFW!

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

This is the reason I think Amanda Palmer's a complete cunt.

ETA~ Link=NSFW!

She lives here in Wisconsin, beat that:P

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by Renatus

She lives here in Wisconsin, beat that:P

I'd rather she live in Antarctica.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

This is the reason I think Amanda Palmer's a complete cunt.

ETA~ Link=NSFW!

Damn NSFW links. I'm at work.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

This is the reason I think Amanda Palmer's a complete cunt.

ETA~ Link=NSFW!

I think that person knows what sarcasm is. She also wasn't serious about the emergency tampon app.

[wolf moon]

But that really sort of is why Amanda Palmer is a cunt. Not just because she's sorta crappy at sarcasm and often offensive. But because she tries so damn hard, and seems willing to do literally anything to make some money and get some applause. I've never seen her or heard her speak and felt like I was watching/listening to a human. She's become a cheap and tricked out version of herself, cobbled together from stolen bits of other people and pictures of her own tits.

[Grausamkeit]

Moonie, I was going to go with "she's still a cunt", but you word it much more eloquently.

[Saya]

Eh. If people who tried too hard offended me, I wouldn't be here :P I thought Dresden Dolls were far more pretentious and contrived.

[Miss Absynthe]

I think that is the burlesque aspect of it all, though. There is a tacky attention seeking quality to burlesque performance that is meant to be tacky and attention seeking. I just find that with AFP when you take the burlesque performance aspect away there doesn't really seem to be a lot left, almost like she has been the character for so long that she has forgotten who she is on the inside.

Although, maybe it is just that she is SO good at being the character and so good at hiding her true self that we never get to see that side of her, and when we say that she is contrived it is because that is just the side she is showing to the world and is keeping her private side private.

[Saya]

Generally, I just care about the music, I'm on Chomsky's side that things celebrity gossip are just a distraction, and I'm on Miss Representation's side that it caters to the stereotype that women are gossip bitches who like to tear each other down. Except when they get like Morrissey and say that certain races are subhuman.

[Grausamkeit]

Well, I think he's a PETA supporter, so that doesn't surprise me that he'd say that Chinese people were subhuman based on them not treating animals the way the western countries do.