New Year’s Eve & the Aesthetics of Trying Too Hard
New Year’s Eve is the most overrated of holidays. Nothing squelches a potential good time faster than the sense that one is obligated to have a good time, which is what New Year’s Eve feels like. This is an example of a more general phenomenon, which could be called Trying Too Hard, or TTH.
TTH can be fatal to the success of many otherwise worthwhile projects, and although I don’t have the inclination at the moment to develop a general theory of TTH, I’d like to throw out a few illustrative examples:
Finnegans Wake
Born To Run (song, not the album)
Weddings
The Super Bowl
Compare Eric Clapton’s version of Little Wing to Jimi Hendrix’s.
Etc.
JP Stormcrow:
December 31st, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Buckaroo Banzai.
Leeds man:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:05 pm
All those silly athletes who give 110%.
DocAmazing:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:27 pm
About half of male rock vocalists of the 1990s.
Paul Campos:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Pete Rose was very TTH.
Decrease Mather:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:31 pm
TGI Friday’s
Jewish Steel:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Jewish Steel:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:44 pm
although i like she’s like a rainbow.
JP Stormcrow:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Cruises (apologies to DFW).
STH:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:53 pm
. . . and Applebee’s and all of that ilk. Any restaurant that tries to create a “party atmosphere” by turning up the music too loud.
And, yes, I am too old.
Davis X. Machina:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Tom and Victor.
STH:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:54 pm
And 100% of ’80s hair bands. Screeching and having big hair does not make you Robert Plant.
Tnap01:
December 31st, 2012 at 9:57 pm
That Flaming Lips album that you are suppose to listen to with all 4 albums playing at the same time, sorry I’m too drunk and/or bored to look it up.
Davis X. Machina:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Victor Cruz, as of this moment, has 158 career catches, and 2.5 trillion receiving yards, as per Wikipedia.
That‘s trying too hard.
tonycpsu:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:08 pm
A cool 0.1 astronomical units per catch. That’s some fantasy value!
JazzBumpa:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:22 pm
My response is to put very little effort into anything. Tnap01 is setting a fine example.
joe from Lowell:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Stabbing Westward
TTH
James E. Powell:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Any work of art or literature that is intended as a political statement.
MD Rackham:
December 31st, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Ryan Seacrest.
Tnap01:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Tk
GeoX:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Counterpoint: The Public Burning. I’m sure other people can think of others, but this is the one I’ve written a dissertation chapter about.
joe from Lowell:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:26 pm
The language in most dissertations.
broken heroes:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Why doesn’t Campos want to guard Wendy’s dreams and visions?
Jonah Goldberg:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Well this is one thing that Liberals won’t accuse me of doing!
Belle Waring:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:46 pm
2000 Man is also a legit good song, dude. But OK.
Belle Waring:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Zaireeka
Erik Loomis:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:49 pm
I’d like to defend Reds. But it isn’t really possible.
MAJeff:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:51 pm
That would be all of 1970s and 1980s “lesbian literature.” And I agree. Rita Mae Brown is unreadable.
GeoX:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Fair enough; I’ll grant that you won’t find too many dissertations that are of interest to more than six people. But I do not think the same can be said of political novels.
Anonymous:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:16 am
Cruising the film is pretty okay, though. Pacino definitely didn’t try too hard to learn how to dance. He coulda tried harder, is my point.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:29 am
Guernica? The Grapes of Wrath? Neruda’s La Muerta?
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:31 am
Ditto Gandhi
efgoldman:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:34 am
And that makes two of us.
Portion-controlled, over-salted (so you will drink more), over-spiced (so you don’t notice the shitty quality of the underlying food), waitrons who want to be your buddy, (or at out age your niece/nephew). Gakk.
If you’re going to eat like that, you might as well go fast food and save the money.
efgoldman:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:37 am
I would try a defense of Born to Run, but it will just start an argument, and the statheads will just try to prove their point (whatever it is) with obscure formulas of which no-one has heard.
When my kid was little, however, Born to Add was a top-five all time.
efgoldman:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:39 am
The Star Wars prequels. They have the distinction of both being shitty, awful dreck and trying too hard.
handy:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:47 am
Tales From Topographic Oceans
jlr:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:49 am
Yes.
Decrease Mather:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:55 am
Joel Osteen
Warren Terra:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:13 am
Sacrilege!
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:17 am
I have obscure formulas which would prove you wrong, but you wouldn’t understand them.
Richard:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:38 am
Born to Run is a great song. The only possible problem with it is its embrace by aging middle class baby boomers (but having seen Bruce just a few weeks ago, I found it endearing to be among 17,000 aging middle classers screaming out that “tramps like us, baby we were born to run”)
STH:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:39 am
Sigh. Isn’t that always the way it goes?
Scott Lemieux:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:42 am
And “2000 Light Years From Home.” Really, take out the jams and it’s a pretty good album.
STH:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:44 am
“Hi, I’m Chad and I’ll be serving you your salty deep-fried cardboard today. Can I start you off with some greasy lumps? With extra sugary goo?”
My partner doesn’t get why I refuse to go back there (I suspect he doesn’t mind it because they have the Black Butte Porter he likes). The last straw was when the chummy-with-extra-chummy-sauce waiter asked me if I had dyed my hair.
Yes, really.
Richard:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:51 am
Absolutely not. Its a terrible album. Truly terrible.
calling all toasters:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:16 am
Chocolate everything that was made without chocolate before 1990.
calling all toasters:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:17 am
Glee
James E Powell:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:23 am
Six? You are defining “of interest” rather broadly.
James E Powell:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:25 am
The Grapes of Wrath: Exhibit A
Walt:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:38 am
Really, it does. There’s not much to being Robert Plant.
Walt:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:43 am
Language.
Walt:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:45 am
If you actually read a book about Gandhi, that would be trying too hard. That’s why we have the movie.
Walt:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:47 am
Glee, the emotion.
John Revolta:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:55 am
I’m normally a big Jim Gordon fan, but he was definitely TTH on Clapton’s Little Wing.
jeer9:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:59 am
The interviews in Reds were fairly interesting, and Nicholson as O’Neill isn’t bad but you couldn’t pay me to watch it again.
John Revolta:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:03 am
Fripp, usually.
John Revolta:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:15 am
And Born to Run, hell yes. What was it, six months he spent mixing that thing?
Murc:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:00 am
You know, I’ve only been in a situation where the waiter didn’t get the hint from my body language and tone of voice that I wanted our relationship to be strictly professional once.
And I simply said ‘Listen, this conversation is far too personal for my taste. I know you have a shitty employee handbook advising you to make friends with your customers, but really all I want to do is sit here and eat before I have to get back on the road. Bring me my food and be generically pleasant, and you get a 25% tip.’
Worked out fairly well. Like I said, I only had to do that the once.
And, yes, 25% is my standard tip. Waiter at any kind of mid-range chain restaurant is a hellish job; you will never meet more entitled customers who are worse tippers than, say, the sort of people who show up for all you can eat shrimp at Red Lobster. You have to do something pretty extraordinarily awful to get me to go below 20%.
Murc:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:08 am
This isn’t actually the reason.
At BEST, you will get a few people who might only have had one adult beverage order a second one. That economic gain is more than offset by the fact that the majority of your customers (these being family-themed restaurants) are ordering soft drinks.
Soft drinks that come with free refills.
Which mean that people drinking more costs you time and money.
And which cause people to fill up on liquid, which means they’ll feel too bloated to order a dessert, and your desserts have a rather high margin.
This is not to say that the food at most mid-range chains (hell, at most restaurants period) is NOT oversalted. It is. But it is oversalted for entirely different reasons than a cynical plan to get you to drink more.
Djur:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:46 am
DFW himself.
Alan Tomlinson:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:56 am
Suggest you listen to a song called “A Blessing of Tears” by Mr. Fripp. Or choose to remain in ignorance.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
Alan Tomlinson:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:58 am
Making critical commentary about things one knows nothing about is definitely an example of TTH.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
Dave:
January 1st, 2013 at 5:36 am
Surely, blog-commenting on anything more significant that the doings of one’s cat qualifies pretty much by definition?
J. Otto Pohl:
January 1st, 2013 at 6:11 am
I understand that the dissertation of Dr. Loomis has become a cult classic in the circles of certain conservative bloggers. It is the only dissertation I have ever seen reviewed on a blog.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 1st, 2013 at 6:15 am
Does this include music? I can think of a number of political songs that I quite like as pieces of music.
Thlayli:
January 1st, 2013 at 6:56 am
“Good Vibrations”.
Jameson Quinn:
January 1st, 2013 at 7:26 am
Sneaky Pie is worse. And gah, I can’t believe I actually know that.
Jameson Quinn:
January 1st, 2013 at 7:31 am
Metamagical Themas. While we’re on the subject.
I’d nominate GEB too but… no… can’t. I suspect it’s only because I read it at the right age. There’s no age at which MT isn’t TTH though.
c u n d gulag:
January 1st, 2013 at 7:40 am
THIS!
Happy New Year, ef!
c u n d gulag:
January 1st, 2013 at 7:54 am
TTH?
I nominate Tim Tebow for the TTH Award – for his attempt to be both a humble Christian, while running around shirtless and never missing a TV camera, and a Football God-Hunk, who can run like a faster Larry Csonka, but passes like… well, Larry Csonka.
No.
Let me amend that – The TTH should go to the NY sports media, for trying to make this mucular mysogyinist, who “throws like a girl,” into someone worth breathlessly covering, like he was a male Kardashian in shoulder pads, from the first time this 3rd String QB was flown into NY on a private jet, to meet the press.
Or, let them share the award.
Malaclypse:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:52 am
Ahem.
Also, too.
catclub:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:58 am
Help, by Garret Keizer
Tries too hard but in a good cause.
Uncle Kvetch:
January 1st, 2013 at 9:38 am
Personally, I would say that TTH pretty much is Brooce’s aesthetic in a nutshell, but I realized long ago that this opinion is shared by absolutely no one, so it’s not a soapbox I care to get on.
I found it endearing to be among 17,000 aging middle classers screaming out that “tramps like us, baby we were born to run”
I still cherish the memory of seeing the words “IT’S SO HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY!” written on a bathroom wall at my expensive, suburban Catholic high school.
lawguy:
January 1st, 2013 at 9:53 am
Your comment interested me and by golly you are right. Piss those people off and they will come at you forever.
Timb:
January 1st, 2013 at 9:59 am
This seems right to me, although 2.29 for a glass of Diet Coke does seem like someone is making bank somewhere
Major Kong:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:00 am
I think they turn the music up loud to force turnover. It it’s loud you’ll eat and get out instead of sitting around talking.
Jon H:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:15 am
After their video with the woman and the bodily fluids, I’m inclined to say Flaming Lips, in general.
Davis X. Machina:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:28 am
…is the reason why “Born to Run” is what it is, and why BTR took six months to mix.
JB2:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:30 am
- Holiday beers put out by otherwise reliable craft breweries;
- The HBO series “Carnivale”;
- ESPN’s coverage of the Home Run Derby; in fact, pretty much everything Chris Berman has said or done over the last 25 years;
- The terrible comedian who was co-featured in the Jerry Seinfeld documentary about ten years ago.
Hogan:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:48 am
It’s like he wishes she’d just leave him alone.
Anonymous:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:48 am
British stand-up comics minus Eddie Izzard
Pinko Punko:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:49 am
Scott is right- it is OK- three classic songs at least (mentioned above). If “We Love You” had been on there it would have been even stronger. It just happens to be less good than albums before and after. It is decent.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:50 am
And it didn’t have Diane Keaton in it (did it!?!). So there is that too.
Pinko Punko:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:51 am
Heh
Pinko Punko:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:52 am
No
Rhino:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:57 am
Hospital food.
Case in point. I have been in a hospital (in Canada, thank god) recovering from an extremely nasty infection (necrotizing fasciitis, in the left latisimus dorsi muscles).
On Xmas day we got ‘traditional family turkey’ which consisted of a 1/8″ slice of mechanically deboned and formed turkey loaf, and stuffing made out of a mixture of bread crumbs and what seemed to be sand.
Tonight for New Year’s Day, I am to look forward to ‘beef Wellington’.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am literally alive only due to an improbable set of coincidences that led to my being admitted to emergency a good 24-36 hours before symptoms would have driven me there (by which time it would have been far too late). I am grateful to be alive and the for opportunity to eat whatever the dreck they serve me.
But why even try? You are an institutional caterer. The very best you can aspire to is ‘technically edible’. Anything else, well it’s just humiliating yourself. Please don’t.
Pinko Punko:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:57 am
Jesus, Pitchfork of course.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:58 am
Funny, I can’t think of a misplaced or unnecessary note. And the man barely moves on stage, so no idea what you mean.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:03 am
WTF? Billy Connolly and Danny Bhoy?
Jon H:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:06 am
Shyamalan.
Jon H:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:08 am
Morning drive-time ‘zoo’ format DJs and shock jocks.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:09 am
Using more than two acronyms in a comment.
OK, I give. What’s MT?
Jon H:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:12 am
Public TV when trying to attract money from viewers.
Bill Cross:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:27 am
The Cruise is an even better film. Speed Levitch does not try too hard
Richard:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:29 am
No. No. No.
Bill Cross:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:39 am
and for something completely different
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL0j8XU7oaw
They’re mavericks
STH:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:41 am
Ack! Sneaky Pie! The horror!
Bill Cross:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:42 am
see the no misplaced notes shows that he tried too hard to get them in the right place
STH:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:51 am
Conservative bloggers who give themselves ancient-Roman-sounding pseudonyms and pontificate in a pompous style that indicates they’ve never actually read anything written by an intelligent person.
JoyfulA:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:52 am
Like the uncomfortable plastic seating in fast-food restaurants.
Bill Cross:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:59 am
Necrotizing Fascitist? Do you getthat from reading Breitbart.com? or Jonah Goldberg?
Dave:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:00 pm
LMGTFY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamagical_Themas
Tacitus:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:00 pm
No way
Cincinnatus:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:01 pm
Tacitus has it right
spencer:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:04 pm
I always preferred the Kiss cover version of that one.
spencer:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Jesus and Pitchfork both.
Suetonius:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Wonkette
Flatulus:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:16 pm
I disagree.
Catamite Rex:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:25 pm
I’ll have your head on a spike for that.
Rhino:
January 1st, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Actually it’s the same bacteria that causes strep throat, which under just the right circumstances attacks internal tissues through a cut or scratch and kills large chunks of muscle and other tissues inside the body. The surgeons have to remove the dead tissue, and as much of the bacteria as possible, and try and set things up for antibiotics to puta a stop to it. Meanwhile, periodic new surgeries clean up any more necrotic tissue until they finally close you up.
There are few things worse than Brietbart, but this would qualify.
Incidentally to all of you LGM commenters and the LGM authors themselves? Thanks for keeping me sane the last few weeks. You guys, sadly no, and alicublog were sometimes the only thing that kept me smiling.
I’m expected, now, to make a full recovery. It’s the only reason I mention it now, when I can give my thanks without burdening you with it, but truly you guys have my gratitude. Never forget that your audience contains more than trolls and fellow pinkos, some of us, sometimes, get a lot more from you than we will ever be able to give back.
Alan Tomlinson:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Tim Tebow is not eligible for the TTH award since he has already won the dumbshit/Pharisee two-in-one award.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
STH:
January 1st, 2013 at 1:45 pm
You’ve got to work in a “qua” or “ceteris parabus” there somewhere if you’re going to do it right.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:00 pm
I’m still working on my MFO.
Bob:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Ben Stiller. A terrible actor but damn the man tries. You can see the effort oozing out of his every pour in every frame of every movie he’s in. That’s why as bad as he is I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for him. No one who takes what he does that seriously and tries that hard deserves open contempt.
Say what you will, he never phones it in.
c u n d gulag:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:33 pm
LOL!
Bob:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:36 pm
Btw – As one who takes booze seriously I haven’t ventured out on New Year’s Eve in several decades – I have no use for amateur night. BUT no New Year’s Eve gave no “The Apartment”, a great Billy Wilder film. Thus I have to give the day a pass on the TTH meter.
AuRevoirGopher:
January 1st, 2013 at 2:58 pm
-The Royal Tenenbaums
-Every actor in The Royal Tenenbaums under the age of 40
-Wes Anderson generally
The Dead Acorn:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Born To Run? Naahhh … I think to be in the TTH category, there needs to first exist the unreachable expectations. His first two albums were pretty dang good, but it’s not like there was some “oh jeez, this new one is gonna be THE.BEST.EVAH.” thing in anticipation (which, I think, is sort of the TTH part of NYE, a holiday/party the inclusion of which I tolly agree). The song is the 3rd or 4th best on one of the greatest albums of all time. I don’t get a TTH vibe there at all.
virag:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:10 pm
the wake only seems like tth for people who are not the intended audience. unfortunately, the intended audience probably wished he had lived another 150 years so he could get it just right. as it is, more than likely jj felt like he didn’t try hard enough.
Cincinnatus:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:15 pm
I think there’s some drug use required, too
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Προς Ρωμαίους πιπιλίζουν
LazyMonkey:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Sting. Every breath he takes. Every move he makes.
And especially his version of Little Wing!
Bijan Parsia:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:37 pm
I’m very glad you were “lucky” (given the initial, extreme unluckiness).
Best wishes and big hopes.
Rhino:
January 1st, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Me too. The corner was turned about 4 days ago, and the confirmation of the turning, via tests of the wound conducted then, and various blood tests have confirmed that I am now likely okay.
Thanks, and thanks as I said for being part of the community that in large part kept my mind occupied and my fears distracted for so long. Morphine kept me from posting much back then, but I read doggedly and sometimes even left the boat to kick at mangoes.
DocAmazing:
January 1st, 2013 at 5:18 pm
For that matter, any DJ who spends more than one-third of his/her show talking or doing anything other than playing music.
mch:
January 1st, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Auld Lang Syne is about loneliness, and about overcoming it through community (the community of now, the community of now linked to past and future). (A quick Wikipedia check on that song/lyrics helps here.) Nothing like a party (any time of year) to emblematize that dynamic.
How many of us (me included) who happily stay at home on New Year’s Eve, but stay awake through midnight, tune in to some simulacrum of a party? Just sayin’, let’s not knock it.
rbcoover:
January 1st, 2013 at 7:15 pm
Well, he can just go to hell. Bruce tried to write the greatest rock song ever and probably didn’t quite get there, but it was not because he was trying too hard and anyone who criticizes that song is terrible.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:19 pm
Given that the actual greatest rock song ever, “Thunder Road”, is on the same album–oh, look, it’s the first track!–the notion of “failure” in this respect is like that of the pole vaulter who knocks the bar off after he’s already set the world record. I’m getting a little tired of hearing myself say this, but I’ll bring it out again: anyone who can’t get Springsteen, at least in his prime, I have to regard with pity rather than anger.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:20 pm
Some people’s velvet rims are just too ticklish, I reckon.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:24 pm
You nailed it. His presence in Mystery Men, next to vastly superior actors such as Hank Azaria and William H. Macy, is both a thing of pity and an ironic reflection on the nature of the title characters.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:43 pm
I’ve already vented about “Born to Run”, and I could go on (oh, could I), but I do have to agree with Paul on weddings in general. They’re such appalling spectacles that I sometimes wonder if deep down the participants know that it’s all downhill from there. Also:
- Just about every filmmaker who tries to be like Quentin Tarantino, including the two films (True Romance and Natural Born Killers) made from Tarantino scripts.
- Mitt Romney, who never convinced people that he really didn’t give a shit about them so much as when he tried to convince them otherwise.
- 99% of tattoos.
- Everyone on Jersey Shore, in every imaginable way.
- Modern sweatshirts. I sometimes wonder if occasionally someone’s head whips back in a double take when I walk past them in a plain black hoodie.
- My elderly aunt who has unfortunately discovered Facebook and will repost literally at least a dozen huge pictures featuring pets, Jesus, babies, and/or soldiers every day, at least half of them implying that I’m an awful person if I don’t “like” it.
- Every cake that I see on the internet.
- Pumped-up dudes who drop their weights at the gym. RARRR FEEL THE GROUND SHAKE AS I HURL MY IRON AT IT RARRRRR. If I believed that I had a soul, I’d gladly trade it for one of these ‘roid pigs to crush his own big toe, just once.
- Ke$ha. The hell, girl.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:56 pm
Agreed. Rubyfruit Jungle is intensely self-aggrandizing, but at least it’s sincere in its own way. With the Sneaky Pie books, she’s basically turned herself into a minor character from Dykes To Watch Out For.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 8:58 pm
David Coverdale at least did a more-than-passable imitation.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 9:01 pm
No. It seems that way on the surface, with Infinite Jest having footnotes for its footnotes, but DFW is having too much fun for it to be TTH.
Halloween Jack:
January 1st, 2013 at 9:02 pm
+
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 10:49 pm
They’re such appalling spectacles that I sometimes wonder if deep down the participants know that it’s all downhill from there.
Precisely twice as bad as funerals, because of the number of people heading down.
Quentin Tarantino
Didn’t quite see the point of all the superfluous words around the name.
brewmn:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:27 pm
I’m with you, uncle. I like a small subset of Bruce, totalling maybe 3 LPs worth of music, pretty well. But there’s just no way you can make a convincing case that he’s among rock’s truly great, like the Beatles, Stones, Who, etc.
And that feeling that he’s trying just so damn hard to be serious singer/songwriter who can also rock The Garden to the cheao seats is the main reason he falls far short of greatness, IMO.
Leeds man:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:28 pm
That sounds like a nightmare, Rhino. All the best.
Bill Murray:
January 1st, 2013 at 11:30 pm
Mystery Men needed the Flaming Carrot and Screwball and some extra stories like They Cloned Hitler’s Feet
Rhino:
January 2nd, 2013 at 12:19 am
It was, and thank you.
Scott Lemieux:
January 2nd, 2013 at 2:24 am
Pinko has it exactly right. It obviously pales next to the astonishing run of albums it’s embedded within, but on its own terms it’s a pretty good record.
Halloween Jack:
January 2nd, 2013 at 11:10 am
About the only film of Tarantino’s that really comes close to trying too hard is Kill Bill, and I wouldn’t give any random minute of it for both Natural Born Killers and True Romance, although I enjoyed Brad Pitt as a stoner couch potato in the latter.
BKN in Canadia:
January 2nd, 2013 at 11:14 am
FTW
BKN in Canadia:
January 2nd, 2013 at 11:16 am
Yes, yes, oh God yes. I’ve run out of “Really?!”s in response to all the times I’ve seen Moonrise Kingdom on Best of lists.
Origami Isopod:
January 2nd, 2013 at 1:03 pm
I enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath, frankly. I preferred it to Of Mice and Men.
Origami Isopod:
January 2nd, 2013 at 1:04 pm
+1
Publius:
January 2nd, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Yea, verily.
mark f:
January 2nd, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Charlemagne had eyes like a lover
but last winter there was weather, and his eyes they iced right over
Cassanova’s in the corner and he’s asking for a dance
Speedshooters driving round and coming down, tryin to hook up with an exit ramp
Cuz tramps like us . . . and we like tramps
Charlmagne’s got something in his sweatpants
Pseudonym:
January 2nd, 2013 at 2:52 pm
The left latisimus dorsi is the Jew of necrotizing fasciitis.