OmarBradley

Not so sure about that. Jungle is a pretty mainstream "80s rock song" these days and it goes a lot harder than WLL does.

Maybe "normal" wasn't the best word to use in my post, but although WTTJ is pretty mainstream 80's, I still think a general poll of any random sampling of lets says 100+ people will result in WLL winning by a decent amount (obviously this forum isn't completely unbiased). LZ has more prestige (and probably more fans) than GNR, all arguments of who we like better aside.

Most normal people would pick WLL I'm certain, and although I am a big LZ fan, WTTJ wins this one for me. It's tough though.

Finished my Top Gear spree early this morning. I have now seen every episode (UK of course). Went from having seen none to all in just over 5 months... which is a while I guess.

I guess it's okay but I don't think it's great. Honestly "compressor: clang, clang, clang" songs don't do it for me. Lots of indy bands make songs like that. I don't have many years left. I want to hear something that's really good. I could write a better song in 15 minutes.

This is more of his normal style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNLsBESyA0w, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FjXvr22W-0

It's weird, and it definitely took me time to appreciate it, but I really like his stuff now.

As far as writing a better song in 15 minutes, that's an opinion. Yeah I could sit down with my guitar and throw around 3-4 chords in a random key, maybe a few single note riffs and licks on top, and have a song in 15 minutes too... but that's missing the point.

I do agree though that these indy bands are rewriting the same songs over and over again. Hell, most of the modern rock bands are doing it too, loads of distortion + deep voiced singer + produced up the wazoo + verse, chorus, solo (bad solo at that), verse, chorus. Unfortunately, musical exploration in mainstream rock has all but stopped.

Never got into RHCP, but how can you not like this song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmcp2JBfqLs (ignore the skating video)

I like a lot of his solo stuff, which is generally much weirder than the RHCP stuff.

I was being stupid, switched up totalitarian and authoritarian in my mind. China does fit into many authoritarian paradigms (but not all, executive power transfer), but no totalitarian paradigms (though neither of you were arguing this). My mistake, carry on.

Guys correct me if I´m wrong. But I think that in Slash albums maybe we see much room for improvement because of budget issues. As far as I know Slash doesn´t have a big record company supporting him with many hours of studio, engineers or producers. With that in mind, well there will always be limitations to the tacks potencial and development. I guess he can push the envelope with himself and the band but I don´t see another Coma in a Slash album. I will be happy with more Anastasia type of songs.

I don't think there is a problem regarding accessibility to pro-studio time. I'm pretty sure Slash's studio has all of the components and amenities of any Sony, Universal, Warner, etc. studio. Slash probably has unlimited hours of studio use, a hired engineer or two, and a chosen producer. The last record was produced by Eric Valentine, a fairly well known and successful producer. I don't agree with a lot of you who are saying the songs and musical ideas weren't fully developed, but that's up to opinion. Slash wanted to make a hard rock record, and he did.

I avoided reading this thread for a while because I assumed it had gone down the same route as the "Nixon homework help" thread. Boy was I wrong, turns out there's an actual intellectual discussion going on. Now, there's no way I'll be able to read everything you guys have been going back and forth over, and I'm not even sure I have sumrised who is arguing what, but a generality about the Chinese political system:

The Chinese government considers its current form of governance to be socialist, with communism as the goal. Although there have been reforms over the past 30 years, which include some privatization and institutionalization of executive power transfer, China sees itself as a socialist/communist power with economic capabilities. Premier Wen said in 2007 something along the lines of "justice, freedom, and rights are not attributes limited to democratic governments." Arguing that the Chinese government is authoritarian is ludicrous to be honest. China purposely started to diverge from the Soviet communist model as early as the 1950's.

In terms of censorship and media control, I agree, its deplorable. But Chinese culture is pretty different from western culture. China's "human rights" are based on the notion that everyone is entitled to economic equality, the conventional definition of human rights is not what China subscribes to. A lot of this is rooted in China's history pre-Mao. Not just the 19th and 20th centuries, but some of their political customs can be traced back to the Han Dynasty.

Lastly, I don't know if this distinction has been made, but the Chinese "government" is made up of two entities: the party and the state (can also be called government, its confusing). The party basically calls the shots, and the government executes the party's will. Many high level party positions also are tied to state positions, so the President (state) is also the General-Secretary of the party. This model, is very communist in nature. So China certainly isn't capitalist, its not really fully communist (because that doesn't work, and they know it), and they're sort of socialist. Weird combo, seems to be working though; depending on your definition of working though.

Not exactly my style, but good job nonetheless. Nice LP, Classic? Into a DSL? And don't tell me that's a red MG stack on the other side...

I am looking forward to it. Harrelson is always great, Sarajevo, 7 Psychopaths, No Country. Though I did not like Natural Born Killers. And Bale looks good in this too. Will see it.

I think Gandalf would have returned to The Shire faster if he had realized what the ring was earlier. If I remember correctly, basically when he finally got to the bottom of what the ring was, he rushed back. Though I haven't read FOTR in years so that may not be completely accurate.

From LOTR wikia:

Good to hear AC4 is better than 3. Although 3 was fun, I thought it was the weakest in the series since the first one. I've been avidly playing the series since the first one and they got too mainstream with 3. Sort of like how Modern Warfare II and III became mainstream commercialities. I'm waiting for 4 to come out for PC, so I haven't played it yet.

Haha I guess we don't see eye to eye on everything. I actually think Far And Away is a great song, possibly my favorite on the album. I prefer the rockers, but that song has a really nice build and its clearly different from the rest of the album. On the softer songs, I think Slash puts more time into layering them, whereas the rockers are a riff and then a guitar solo. Personally, I think he's an idiot for not playing F&A every night, but you can't get everything. I'm really upset he only played that like 5 times on the tour and I didn't see any of them.

I was at the last (I think) show they played it at, July of this year in PA. Was nice to hear it, but would have much preferred to hear Shots Fired, AL again, or something else.

Tried watching Snow White and the Huntsmen. It is like Twilightfied. Maybe I can give it another chance.

Not worth the time. Wasted $10 on it in theaters. Concept was great, execution was not. No problems with Hemsworth/Theron, but the rest of the acting, writing, plot direction, etc. just didn't rise up to the idea behind the film.

Beowulf was cool.

Some of my thoughts:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't understand why everyone loves Andrew Stockdale so much here. Fine, I guess everyone has a personal favorite, but it seems so unanimous as if he did something amazing when he didn't. By The Sword is good, its not GREAT (again like everyone says), and the two Myles songs were far better than that off the first album, at least Back From Cali was. Another thing I don't get: everyone loves Standing In The Sun. I mean, its good, but thats the one you all think is so great?

Yup. 100%.

Omar, I wouldn't want M Shadows being Slash's singer. Nothing To Say is a very good song, one of my favorites from that album, but that genre can get painfully dull quickly. Its fun to hear Slash do that once, but I don't want to hear him only play that stupid riff over and over again which I think many of the songs would sound like if he was working exclusively with Shadows. Also, say what you want about Myles, but I don't think Shadows is that great of a singer. He's good on that song, but thats basically his only voice. Every Avenged song has that sinister verse vocal and then the chorus where his voice rises, and settles again for the verse. Its good for him, he's got a thing and he can stick with that. And it works very well on Nothing To Say, but I could see that getting repetitive for a whole album.

I can see that argument, and it's not a bad point to be honest. I would say much of the A7X I have sounds very similar, but Slash would probably write a bit more intricately if Shadows was in a permanent band with him. As you know that first solo record had music written specifically for those singers, i.e. what Slash thought would be a good combo of rock/those singer's respective styles. Though I can't argue that Shadow's has more than 1 or so voice that he uses.

Out of the people on his first album, Myles seems like the best pick. He's nice, got a great voice (apparently not to many here) and he has a rock sensibility that works for Slash's music. But I do agree as much as I liked AL, it could have been a lot better. Songs like We Will Roam and No More Heroes don't ever reach their peaks to me. They are good songs but Slash doesn't have anyone to make them epic. Like make them a GNR level song. It sounds like he gets the riff, creates a basic structure, and Myles adds vocals to that. And thats what's released. He doesn't have anyone pushing him further, and clearly these songs are what he can do on his own with a bunch of people that bow down to him and will say yes to whatever he suggests (not to disparage the Conspirators, but we all know thats what they are).

AL was still the best hard rock record of that year, so that says something. Even Slash on his own is much better than most other hard rock these days. But I know what people mean when they say the stuff sounds unfinished. Anastasia does stand out that it seems really worked on. Everything else is very straight to the point and doesn't have the layers to be an incredible song. I love stuff like Shots Fired and Halo and Not For Me, but they all have the feeling where they don't reach their full potential. I can ignore that because I like the CD, but it is there. Stuff like Apocalyptic Love and One Last Thrill and Hard & Fast seem like stuff he could write in his sleep. Again, not bad, but its an observation that I think is fair. Funny that Axl strove to be TOO epic with Chinese and Slash could have done well with trying to be a little more epic with his songs.

Fuck, you talk sense.

The only songs on AL I didn't love were Standing in the Sun, Far & Away, and sort of Bad Rain. The rest I thought were great. Didn't have any issues with Heroes or We Will Roam, I thought for what they were, they were great. I could never get really into You're A Lie, but I think that's because it was the single. Singles just don't sit well with me, it bends the way I hear it.

I agree about the song AL, One Last Thrill, and H&F, doesn't make them not great though, as you noted. I think Shots Fired, Halo, and NFM sound very complete, and they are definitely 3 of my favorite songs on the album (though almost every song is a favorite of the album). I never got to hear Shots Fired live though . Heard H&F I think 3-4 times, and I think they were the two being switched out for each other. Luck of the draw though, not particularly Slash's fault. Although the live setlist conversation is for a different topic, and I know you and I see almost exactly eye to eye on that anyway.

A lot of Slash's ideas just need more time to develop imo.

Indeed.

He needs to push himself a bit more or be pushed by someone else who in this case, is not Myles Kennedy.

True. AL is a very solid album but you see some ideas could have been used more efficiently sometimes, y'know? Slash needs an Andrew Stockdale. I'll stick to that theory, it'd be my dream team

Don't want to start an argument here as we're all Slash fans, but can you give some examples of AL ideas that weren't used efficiently? I'm not saying some weren't (though personally I don't think any were), but I'd be interested in hearing what another Slash fan thinks.

I didn't love By The Sword that much, I like almost every Myles song better. My pick for a singer for Slash: M. Shadows (though I am perfectly happy with MK). That track off the first solo album is f*cking killer.

When I bought AL in UK they sent me a rock magazine with an extended edition of Slash's Guitars. It was a very interesting read. Does anybody know if that's available online? Otherwise I'll scan the magazine and upload it here.

I haven't seen it anywhere, though I'd be very interested in seeing it if you can find the time.

The mistake the Lost writers made was that early in the shows run, one of them made the claim that everything had a logical/scientific explanation. Maybe they said this to keep people watching, I don't know, but it was a stupid thing to say because Lost was science fiction from the very beginning. I think that expectation for "the answer" may have ruined it for a lot of people. They only part of the show I'd accuse them of 'making up as they went on' was the beginning of season 3 because they were in talks with ABC at the time, didn't know how many series they were signing on to do, so just meandered for 6/7 episodes.

Any questions off the top of your head that you thought needed answering? I found that, on my second watch-through, a lot of the questions are actually answered if you look hard enough.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm pretty sure they planned the story by the season. So when S4 ended, they would then write the story for S5. The problem with this method is that on a show like Lost, you lose the flow of the story because each new season is essentially a new story, regardless of its connections to previous seasons. I'm not saying there's no connection, there certainly is a lot, but you can tell each season has its own elements characteristic to that specific season.

As for my questions, I don't know when I'll be able to find that document, and I haven't seriously watched the series since 2011. But if you want to find a bunch of unanswered questions check out the theories pages on Lostpedia (example: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Incident,_Parts_1_%26_2/Theories). Obviously, some of the theories you're going to find are obscure and don't warrant actual answers, but many of the theories on Lostpedia are completely valid and were never answered.

Well, I think it becomes public domain 120 years after the owner dies... so, there's hope, but not for us. Don't quote me on that number though.

I think Brody deserved it. Both roles involved insane method acting. DDL went overboard by not wearing a coat in freezing weather because it was not period authentic, resulting in pneumonia. Brody was the better performance.

One reason the Oscars get so many unworthy rulers is because of the voting methods. You get five or six people and the one with the most votes wins. There is different methods of voting that could give several results. So often the unworthy win.

Interestingly, I actually studied the Oscar's voting method in a course at school. I believe they use something called the "Borda" method. It's a slightly convoluted system that doesn't require a plurality to win. And then there's the fact that the members of the academy itself are not very diverse, though I'm not sure how that affected the Brody vs. Day-Lewis face off in 2002 (I think? or 2003?).

I don't want to say Adrien Brody did not deserve that Oscar for The Pianist, but I really think DDL should have gotten it for GONY. I know The Pianist had a perhaps more important prerogative and message, but ffs DDL was just insane in GONY.

Bump.

I wish they could make The Silmarillion.

Just noticed this post. That would be very cool, but I don't think it could be a linear film, and they'd certainly have to cut a lot of material out, as the book is mostly informative history rather than progressive story telling. That said though, I'd love to see what Jackson and team could come up with for it.

Let's see them. I thought the show answered most things that needed answers and the stuff that was left a mystery was better left that way. Giving a clear explanation for some of it would have been like attributing the force in Star Wars to a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians.

The problem is, with Lost they lead you on to believe that there were answers in existence for all of these mysteries. Those Star Wars prequels were regrettable, but the original saga never claimed to have answers for its sci-fi characteristics. LOTR doesn't really give you an elaboration on why the ring has power other than that it was forged in Mordor and made to rule other rings. Did Inception give you the scientific explanation as to how you could force certain characteristics in dreams? No. The difference between SW, Inception, LOTR, and Lost is that the first three are sci/fi in nature, and claim to be nothing more than that. Lost trotted along as a thriller/drama/mystery (in the beginning this was essentially the only genre) with sci/fi elements (progressively added as the series went along). Lost fomented the spirit of mystery and surprise while SW, LOTR, and Inception triggered your intrigue regarding the metaphysical, philosophical, and sci-fi/adventure elements in each respective piece of art.

I know this isn't a 100% parallel comparison, but hopefully it helps you to see the fundamental difference I see between Lost and its artistic counterparts. This isn't necessarily a bad thing inherently, when Lost was about the thrill/the surprise/the mystery, it was great. But as it progressed it became clear that some mysteries that simply didn't have answers (and it go more sci-fi), and this to me seemed lazy on the part of the writers. "Lets put X/Y/Z in this episode, and then if we get to it later, we'll answer it." From viewing the series, that's how it looks like it went.

As for that Word document, I'll have to look, that was 3 computers ago.

Seasons 1 and 2 were terrific, maybe the best first and second seasons of any show I've ever seen. And that first scene of the pilot is by far the best opening scene from a TV series. Season 3 was hit or miss, season 4 was even more hit or miss. Seasons 5 and 6 were a disgrace. The problem with theories like the ones posted above, is that it really became clear towards the end that the producers really had no intention of fully answering the big (and small) unanswered questions. Not only did they not intend to, it looks like they never even had answers; they continuously posed questions to the audience that there were simply no answers for. They propelled this phenomenon early on in seasons 1 and 2, but by season 5, it was easy to see there were simply no answers constructed for many of the series's mysteries. I watched the whole series live starting from season 3. I was wholly disappointed in the end, found myself with literally 3.5 pages worth of unanswered question on a Microsoft Word document.

The producers said they would come back about a year or so after the finale aired to finally seal the deal... that never happened. I heard Damon Lindelof had to leave Twitter because he was getting trolled about Lost too frequently (can't say I have much sympathy).

The show had a great combination of mystery, history, philosophy, science, acting (sometimes), writing (most of the time), and story telling. But they really "lost" it towards the end, at least that's my opinion.

I will see it, and Cap 2, if only to be properly caught up for Avengers 2 in two years.