Kedvesem and her LPUC scale

Key · 06-11-2016, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qwertyy

He really blew up when they started selling his shirts at Hot Topic.

Kedvesem · 06-11-2016, 05:43 PM

Now I know that Sir is doing this on purpose. His knowing laugh when I said so was confirmation enough, but then he chose Pink Floyd for our Saturday evening music? I warned him, though, that if he is burning through the L ranking, soon my journal will end. After all, the LPUC scale is very, very bottom-heavy. Each layer is smaller than the layer below.

But back to Pink Floyd.

We listened to my two favourite Pink Floyd albums:

Animals

And Wish You Were Here

Now, there are several reasons I love Pink Floyd, but Animals clearly illustrates two of the primary ones. First, there are the guitars. Oh, those guitars. Pink Floyd embraces the phallic aspect of the guitar, of course, but they do more. The guitars of Pink Floyd are vocalists, too. The guitars sing. There is even a spot on Animals where the guitars actually cackle. When a guitar can sing and speak, it becomes a separate entity in the band, and I appreciate its contribution.

Another thing I appreciate about Pink Floyd is their astuteness. One of the main points I take away from Animals is that, whether the dogs are in charge or whether the sheep have risen up and overthrown their dog overlords--the pigs remain the same. The pigs are the societal constant.

It's a brilliant observation, and I appreciate the intelligence that makes it.

Wish You Were Here is, for me, simply more of what I love about Pink Floyd, their singing guitars and the strong statements, eloquently made, in their songs. The poetry of "So you think you can tell Heaven from Hell" is astonishing and beautiful, and the musical expression of it soars with their guitars.

Hence the L.

Zhanteimi · 06-11-2016, 06:10 PM

Quote:

And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown.

I shouldn't have listened to this album on threshold LSD with my friends. Too much mind reading ended our friendship.

The Batlord · 06-11-2016, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1blankmind

They made him as big as Misfits and Nirvana. Those bands that no one's ever heard the music of but have shirts every where.

Pretty sure even African pygmies living deep in the Congo have heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Kedvesem · 06-11-2016, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mordwyr

I shouldn't have listened to this album on threshold LSD with my friends. Too much mind reading ended our friendship.

The friendship wasn't worth the preserving. But listening to the conclusion of the album while playing on the kitchen floor with the kittens? Yes, please. No one reads my mind unless I choose.

Tristan_Geoff · 06-11-2016, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristan Geoff

One of my three prime interests.

Oops, made the reference wrong. That would be ol' Ludwig Van.

Kedvesem · 06-17-2016, 07:27 AM

And now I'm back.

Oh boy.

Tonight my darling Sir and I listened to Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage.

Now, this was not our usual musical fare, and, furthermore, it was my first introduction to Frank Zappa. I had heard precisely none of his music before this, and the sum total of my knowledge of him was that he named his children "Dweezil" and "Moon Unit".

Additionally, we listened to this album--which I was surprised to learn was a rock opera--because a friend of Sir's and mine mentioned that this album had changed his life, helping him to make sense of things that had never made sense before.

So I went into this looking at it through the lens of my friend's worldview.

First of all, I was surprised by the overwhelming sexuality of the piece. Don't get me wrong. This was a pleasant surprise, and I enjoyed it greatly. But given my friend's personality it surprised me--until I realized that the "Central Scrutinizer" was also, doubtless, part of what my friend identified with. He has mentioned his difficulty in shutting off his "inner monologue" long enough to enjoy something, and since this rock opera has an "inner monologue" already built in, I suspect that that was part of what enabled him to enjoy the album.

Secondly, I knew that I would not be able to dislike the album when "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" came on. That song was pure win, and I love it.

Thirdly, my 15-year-old, my 6-year-old, and my 1-year-old all started dancing at any point when they passed through the room while this album was playing. My 15-year-old actually said, "How can you not dance to this?"

So, this hodge-podge of a review actually suits what it is a hodge-podge of an album. Nearly every song was a different genre, with a completely different sound. These individual pieces, each good but having no bearing on the pieces on either side of it, were strung together by the "Central Scrutinizer", whose commentary was the only unifying factor.

This, too, struck me particularly because our friend has mental health issues. For him, too, reality is apparently disjointed, dissonant set pieces, connected by the single thread of his own "Central Scrutinizer". This added a poignancy to the album for me personally that, I think, is actually absent from the musical artifact itself. And at the end, Joe realizes he is mad--which would parallel for my friend his diagnosis with mental illness--but where Joe chooses to forgo his imaginary music in favour of getting an ordinary job that crushes all his creativity and musical genius, my friend refused to conform. This would grant my friend a sense of superiority. Recognizing his own "madness" for lack of a better word, he embraces it because the alternative is stultifying conformity.

It gave my friend a way to cope.

In and of itself, I found Joe's Garage to be pretentious. Any musical piece that focuses on the "persecution of music" has a tendency to be pretentious. I dislike pretension, and that was a turn-off overall. Music being illegal? Ha. Never. It's too useful as a tool for propaganda to be criminalized. However, any album that describes prison rape as sensually as this does is a stroke of genius, and the "imaginary guitar solo" was brilliant.

I rated this album a solid P, which was far higher than I thought it might rate on the LPUC scale.

Zhanteimi · 06-17-2016, 07:30 AM

Excellent thoughts on this most excellent album. I had a lot of fun (and we had a lot of laughs) listening to this, and I especially liked our 15-year-old constantly interjecting with "what the frak?" But it was the imaginary guitar solo that really got me; it was serenity after the mayhem. There was no laughing then.

The Batlord · 06-17-2016, 10:42 AM

So there are other people who use "frak" out loud? Oh god.

Zhanteimi · 06-17-2016, 02:56 PM

She's watched BSG through about three times now.

06-17-2016, 07:30 AM	#38 (permalink)
Zhanteimi Mord Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Tokyo Posts: 4,874	Excellent thoughts on this most excellent album. I had a lot of fun (and we had a lot of laughs) listening to this, and I especially liked our 15-year-old constantly interjecting with "what the frak?" But it was the imaginary guitar solo that really got me; it was serenity after the mayhem. There was no laughing then. __________________ Zhanteimi LetsTalkMusic

06-17-2016, 02:56 PM	#40 (permalink)
Zhanteimi Mord Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Tokyo Posts: 4,874	She's watched BSG through about three times now. __________________ Zhanteimi LetsTalkMusic

06-11-2016, 05:43 PM	#32 (permalink)
Kedvesem I like what I like Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 303	Now I know that Sir is doing this on purpose. His knowing laugh when I said so was confirmation enough, but then he chose Pink Floyd for our Saturday evening music? I warned him, though, that if he is burning through the L ranking, soon my journal will end. After all, the LPUC scale is very, very bottom-heavy. Each layer is smaller than the layer below. But back to Pink Floyd. We listened to my two favourite Pink Floyd albums: Animals And Wish You Were Here Now, there are several reasons I love Pink Floyd, but Animals clearly illustrates two of the primary ones. First, there are the guitars. Oh, those guitars. Pink Floyd embraces the phallic aspect of the guitar, of course, but they do more. The guitars of Pink Floyd are vocalists, too. The guitars sing. There is even a spot on Animals where the guitars actually cackle. When a guitar can sing and speak, it becomes a separate entity in the band, and I appreciate its contribution. Another thing I appreciate about Pink Floyd is their astuteness. One of the main points I take away from Animals is that, whether the dogs are in charge or whether the sheep have risen up and overthrown their dog overlords--the pigs remain the same. The pigs are the societal constant. It's a brilliant observation, and I appreciate the intelligence that makes it. Wish You Were Here is, for me, simply more of what I love about Pink Floyd, their singing guitars and the strong statements, eloquently made, in their songs. The poetry of "So you think you can tell Heaven from Hell" is astonishing and beautiful, and the musical expression of it soars with their guitars. Hence the L.

06-17-2016, 07:27 AM	#37 (permalink)
Kedvesem I like what I like Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 303	And now I'm back. Oh boy. Tonight my darling Sir and I listened to Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage. Now, this was not our usual musical fare, and, furthermore, it was my first introduction to Frank Zappa. I had heard precisely none of his music before this, and the sum total of my knowledge of him was that he named his children "Dweezil" and "Moon Unit". Additionally, we listened to this album--which I was surprised to learn was a rock opera--because a friend of Sir's and mine mentioned that this album had changed his life, helping him to make sense of things that had never made sense before. So I went into this looking at it through the lens of my friend's worldview. First of all, I was surprised by the overwhelming sexuality of the piece. Don't get me wrong. This was a pleasant surprise, and I enjoyed it greatly. But given my friend's personality it surprised me--until I realized that the "Central Scrutinizer" was also, doubtless, part of what my friend identified with. He has mentioned his difficulty in shutting off his "inner monologue" long enough to enjoy something, and since this rock opera has an "inner monologue" already built in, I suspect that that was part of what enabled him to enjoy the album. Secondly, I knew that I would not be able to dislike the album when "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" came on. That song was pure win, and I love it. Thirdly, my 15-year-old, my 6-year-old, and my 1-year-old all started dancing at any point when they passed through the room while this album was playing. My 15-year-old actually said, "How can you not dance to this?" So, this hodge-podge of a review actually suits what it is a hodge-podge of an album. Nearly every song was a different genre, with a completely different sound. These individual pieces, each good but having no bearing on the pieces on either side of it, were strung together by the "Central Scrutinizer", whose commentary was the only unifying factor. This, too, struck me particularly because our friend has mental health issues. For him, too, reality is apparently disjointed, dissonant set pieces, connected by the single thread of his own "Central Scrutinizer". This added a poignancy to the album for me personally that, I think, is actually absent from the musical artifact itself. And at the end, Joe realizes he is mad--which would parallel for my friend his diagnosis with mental illness--but where Joe chooses to forgo his imaginary music in favour of getting an ordinary job that crushes all his creativity and musical genius, my friend refused to conform. This would grant my friend a sense of superiority. Recognizing his own "madness" for lack of a better word, he embraces it because the alternative is stultifying conformity. It gave my friend a way to cope. In and of itself, I found Joe's Garage to be pretentious. Any musical piece that focuses on the "persecution of music" has a tendency to be pretentious. I dislike pretension, and that was a turn-off overall. Music being illegal? Ha. Never. It's too useful as a tool for propaganda to be criminalized. However, any album that describes prison rape as sensually as this does is a stroke of genius, and the "imaginary guitar solo" was brilliant. I rated this album a solid P, which was far higher than I thought it might rate on the LPUC scale.