Doesn't Bruno Mars count as a black man? He should if Obama does.
In any case, if you consider the combined number of weeks Gotye, fun., and Carly Rae spent at no.1, 2012 was a white-ass year in music.
Yes, Bruno Mars will be crushed to learn he doesn't count as a black man.
Tangentially, I would submit that though it is "the done thing" to rag on Ke$ha as a no-talent hack, I actually think this is truer of Nicki Minaj, whose primary claim to fame lies more in her measurements and her fashion sense than her music. (Listening her trying to bust a clumsy flow clearly inspired by Missy Elliott is physically painful; I can't imagine how it must make Missy feel.) Ke$ha at least seems to have some legitimate pipes on her when she decides to use them.
Oh, and this song is awful, and DJ Earworm is awful, and did all the source material really abuse Autotune as massively as this makes it sound (in which case the State of Pop is awful)?
Isn't Nicki Minaj's verse on "Monster" supposed to be really good?
did all the source material really abuse Autotune as massively as this makes it sound
"Someone That I Used to Know" has been massively altered.
I agree wholeheartedly with 3.2 and 3.3. The mashup is kind of impressive on a technical level, but one listen was plenty.
Wait, maybe I was thinking of Pop Danthology in 4, but it's also true of this one (specifically the song seems to have been slowed down).
Also, someone should tell Katy Perry's music video people that that's not how strawberries grow.
Pop culture isn't the only sector that is less integrated than one might wish. Attending a lot of classical music events these days, I have recurrently been struck by the complete absence of African Americans and Latinos.
Jay-Z is ill-served by the Chipmunk filter he uses when he's in character as Nicki Minaj. The original sounds much better.
Attending a lot of classical music events these days, I have recurrently been struck by the complete absence of African Americans and Latinos.
The performers are often drawn from a wider pool (Derek Lee Ragin!), which seems odd, except that I've several times heard a performer say that s/he started out playing rock or jazz but a teacher insisted on classical practice and classical finally won.
10.--Awesome. The chorus gets a little boring, but the verses are exactly right.
A rather different sort of sound collage. I knew entropy had cut a wide swathe through the music world this year, but damn.
I've several times heard a performer say that s/he started out playing rock or jazz but a teacher insisted on classical practice and classical finally won.
This is also explains all the white people who listen to classical music.
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In Stupid Stepmother-in-Law Liveblogging, last night, surrounded by stacks of dirty dishes and glasses from the night's delayed Xmas feast, she once again ran a half-empty dishwasher. It's literally as if she gets bored and just runs it rather than put every available dish in first.
Oh, and when my dad mentioned listening to Bob Dylan's radio show, she asked, "You mean the popular singer from the 1970s?" This from a woman who was 13 when "Like a Rolling Stone" was released.
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16: Except me. I went straight from Free to Be to Nonesuch's cheap vinyl early music and am only now considering the 19th century. The Mendelssohns, maybe. No iron-framed pianos, certainly.
By the time I left Seattle I had progressed from the back of the Early Music Guild seating to third row center just by outliving fellow enthusiasts. Damnit, I'm probably going to have to start over.
17.1: Possibly `gets bored' as in `the dishwasher is running, I must be done'. Tiny chance that she lives with an ancient dishwasher that only works if half-full, though.
Tiny chance that she lives with an ancient dishwasher that only works if half-full, though.
A generous guess, but I happen to know that her dishwasher is a fine, modern model. I suppose it's possible that she is under the misapprehension that no dishwashers run well when full, but she's seen our dishwasher run full. It's a defense that's an indictment, if you will.
I think that God put her on earth to remind me that, for all my frustration at my MIL's incompetence, she's infinitely more competent* than my S-MIL. The only thing I've ever seen her show competence in is in repeating painfully empty platitudes of the sort that Hallmark rejects for being too treacly.
* my MIL has several significant competencies; what maddens me is how circumscribed they are. A graph of them would be a bell curve with extremely steep sides.
It's a defense that's an indictment, if you will.
Or her attentiveness or your dish-cleanliness?
A rather different sort of sound collage. I knew entropy had cut a wide swathe through the music world this year, but damn.
Etta James was "fluid" in jazz, R&B, and soul?
All my relatives are competent and they would all like to be in charge.
21: The first one!
Seriously, we have a really good dishwasher. The dishes come out great.
I think that my dad's hobby is seeing how full he can load the dishwasher. He can pile dishes on other dishes and have them not break.
[Note to self: don't let children get married.]
I just checked to see if that band from the Zales diamond commercial is touring. They are not! But, I swear I would have gone to see them if they were. That song is seriously stuck in my head.
Is Janelle Monae wearing a bowtie on her necktie?
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I just got a grade for a class that I put a lot of work into this semester in grad school. It's a B-. This is the first time I've ever gotten lower than an A. The criticisms of my final paper were harsh but justifiable. I was completely exhausted by the end of this semester. I still am. Fuck.
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And this is a professor I was going to rely on for references in the future. Double fuck.
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That's crappy.
Are you asking for advice on how to salvage the relationship with the professor, or just sympathy on a demoralizing experience?
Mostly the latter but if any good advice is offered it would certainly be welcome.
Said professor also really went out of her way and set me up with a sweet internship. Treble fuck.
You have my sympathies. That feeling of having poisoned a relationship one was excited about, whether social or professional, is a really awful one, even if--as is often the case, I think, with the folks who inhabit the Mineshaft--it's not actually an accurate read of the situation.
33: send a nice note (but not too over-the-top) explaining that you admire her and value the professional relationship but that you were absolutely brain-dead by the end of the semester. Apologize (but not too obsequiously) for taking up her time with work that wasn't your best, note that her comments were right on, and promise that this won't happen again. If she's a decent human being, and you do good work in the future, you should be fine. That said, I've been there, and it sucks. I'm very sorry.
Wow, that's a really terrible memory that I had mostly stripped of visceral power and repurposed as a kind of professional aphorism. Ugh.
Ke$ha at least seems to have some legitimate pipes on her when she decides to use them.
Also on the subject of "Wait, I thought we were all supposed to hate her": the friend I was staying with in NYC is a big fan of Kreayshawn's "Go Hard". I confess I, too, found it rather catchy.
Thanks. I won't have the chance to take another class with her in the future but I would like to use her as a reference as I said. I'm pretty sure I'll also be running into her where I'll be interning.
I very much encourage you to follow the VW's advice in 35. My own strategy--actively hiding from the professor in question--did not lead to particularly good outcomes.
Wait, we're supposed to hate Kreayshawn? Since when?
The email to the professor is written but I think I might sleep on it before sending. Thanks again for the advice.
actually, I rather like kreayshawn. ke$ha is more knowing that her detractors credit her for being, but she still sucks. nikki minaj--eh, it's a weak criticism to say "x tried to pull off flow like missy eliot's and came off looking waaay the worse in that comparison." except where x=missy eliot, I'm not sure anyone does very well there.
and T-Ro, you have my sympathies. I agree that it's worth writing the professor and saying, "you were absolutely right that I wasn't performing at my best, but I respect you and want you to know that external factors were the cause--I wasn't turning in shit and just hoping you wouldn't notice. and I both appreciate the internship thing and would like to work with you in the future if it's ever possible." basically see if there's any way that by (maybe) face to face discussions you could revive her earlier high opinion of you (since obviously she had one!)
Oh, we do? Great! And "T-Ro" for Teddy Roosevelt is awesome.
41: if you post the e-mail here, I'm sure we can all be very helpful!
Also I have no credibility because I like ke$ha and Nikki minaj, too.
The email:
I just wanted to say that I really admire your professionalism and value a future professional relationship and hope my (uncharacteristic) crappy work at the end of your course doesn't jeopardize that. Your comments were on the money throughout, after doing much research I had left little time for actually writing and organizing the paper. Just to pick one thing out of many, I knew I had to put in xxxx, and as I told a number of my fellow students "just follow her syllabus as an outline and you'll be fine"; would that I'd followed my own advice. I know it's no excuse but frankly, I was nearing complete exhaustion by the time December rolled around. I am a bit surprised at the mistakes in spelling and diction which is even more uncharacteristic of my work in general. I guess I was even more brain dead than I'd thought. Ouch. I'll not let something like this happen again.
Best wishes and a happy new year
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You should put The word 'professional' in scare-quotes throughout. At the end, mention that she's hot, but qualify it by saying "I'm not being inappropriate, but... "
Thanks HH but I think I'll wait till VW weighs in.
He'll just say the same thing but mopier.
You know, VW doesn't have more tenure than me.
Is it bad? Any helpful advice? C'mon Mineshaft, don't let me down.
Semicolon after "Your comments were on the money throughout".
Teddy, this is good advice you're getting. I went trapnel's route with some of my potential mentors, and it did not end well. Don't grovel too too much in your email: I'd suggest instead a professional note followed up with an in-person chat during office hours. Others may disagree.
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Very much a tangent:
I went to see Django Unchained last night and kept wondering who the hell the actor was who looked so damned much like Paul Krugman. (Obviously, I have since found out that he was the dude who won the oscar for his role in the last Tarantino flick, which I clearly have not yet seen.) Anyway, if any of you people go see this movie, I invite you to think of the Paul Krugman gif opportunities. It adds a certain je ne sais wtf quoi to the spectacle.
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This is like a second humiliation here.
I also would probably say "poor" rather than "crappy," and might leave out the first, parenthetical "uncharacteristic."
Thanks, Blume. Good changes.
I am a bit surprised at the mistakes in spelling and diction[comma] which is[are] even more uncharacteristic of my work in general.
Basically, sleep. Then look at it and polish it up and send it.
Okay, now I'm feeling like a nitpicky asshole. I swear, I was just trying to help!
Did you say that just to make me feel like a nitpicky asshole, Blume?
It's a fine email. Sleep on it. Maybe by morning VW will have left mopier and more tenured comments.
The performers are often drawn from a wider pool (Derek Lee Ragin!)
Isn't that the countertenor who had like a two-minute career and got his voice computer-smooshed together with some Polish soprano to create a voice for Farinelli?
You're not planning on sending this by email, are you?
Condolences, T. Ro. I've been there.
Al's advice is good, but also difficult to pull off in writing. I'd cut much of what you've written, and just keep it short and to the point: You know that you screwed up. It was out of character and not meant to disrespect her or her class. You hope that this will not hurt your relationship in the future.
FWIW, one of my favorite students turned in a super crappy final paper for the first class she took from me. I pointed out that I was disappointed in her paper, she acknowledged that it sucked, and we got over it.
Also, what Jackmormon said. This is a better conversation to have in person.
"I know that I have done real harm to your perception of me as an intellectual giant, one of the greatest -- no, the greatest student you've ever had the pleasure of working with. I truly regret this, but hope that in time you will learn to see these few missteps on my part as a humanizing intimacy that you were privileged to share as you played your small but vital part in my Ozymandias-like rise to greatness. I know that's what I want for you."
Last sentence could use some rephrasing but you get the gist.
Thanks J, R. It might be a better conversation to have in person but that will be difficult to do. No office hours. We might run into each other at the place of internship where she consults but I can't count on it.
And then you could link to your order for the industrial-sized popcorn-maker that will shortly be delivered to your professor's work address.
Not her home address, because that would be creepy.
I'd start with something like "thanks for your comments on my awful paper" and close with the "I respect you and hope to keep working with you," and request a follow-up meeting rather than going into detail about issues in email. You will feel much better after talking to her, unless she drops some kind of bomb at the meeting. "Teddy, there's almost no way for a white man to be hired in your field, and it's actually harder, not easier, if you're dead."
The email I sent after a B+ was along the lines of "OMG AM I GOING TO DIE DO I DESERVE TO DIE JUST ASKING?" -- and after a follow-up conversation the grade was quietly changed to an A-.
49: Is there time to set it to music, record it, and stand under her window as in a certain beloved American film? Otherwise, I just second the thing about "crappy."
Ask her if she'd mind being fluid-bonded with you.
(74 notwithstanding, just ask if there's a place or time to talk, even by phone -- the worst she'll do is say no.)
Send her a link to a link to a link to a link to a link to a link to a link to a link to a link of a dog about to chomp down on its own balls.
What font are you using?
Only Comic Sans will do.
I was kidding about posting the e-mail here. IS THAT MOPEY ENOUGH FOR YOU, GRIZZLY TEO?
Great, now I feel like an even bigger fool. Will someone please get rid of my 49.
And for what it's worth, I think this is the sort of interaction that's best handled via e-mail rather than in person. Honestly, just write a short note and put the whole thing behind you.
Thanks VW. I think so too.
88: of course not. You're fine.
So this is what it feels like to be Mineshafted.
Like I said, Teddy, I've been there. It totally blows and then it blows over (aphorism!). Get some sleep. Whatever you end up writing (or not writing) will be absolutely fine.
72 is great, but only if she's a fan of Watchmen.
To be fair, everyone's pretty mopey compared to heebie.
97: I'm like double-tenured compared to you.
Could everyone please help me write an e-mail to Teo? I think I need to mend fences.
Huh, the one time I received a B- (or B+? I think I got a B+ in the class?) on a paper I assumed it was because I was being very critical of the professor's adviser/mentor, whose epigone the professor was.
In retrospect, though, it was probably a bad paper—but I think the basic problem that I claimed to exist really is a problem.
I'm tenured at institutions that don't even exist yet.
102: nobody will accuse you of being mopey, Mr. Wolfs.
Is Kreayshawn's sidekick actually capable of speech?
Was that the problem you tackled in your B- paper?
It totally blows and then it blows over (aphorism!).
Aphorism, euphemism, something or other.
I think I need to mend fences.
Nah, we're good. There's nothing wrong with being mopey; there's a lot to mope about these days.
I got a B+ in a high school science class, so then my parents and the parents of other disappointed students colluded to get the teacher fired.
That sounds terrible, but I swear it was justified and would make more sense with more context.
Why were other students disappointed at your grade?
112: there were lots of students sufficiently disappointed by your B+ that they organized a movement to get a a teacher fired on your behalf? Yes, please do share the context.
110 and 112 are awesome in totally different ways. (And 112 sounds like something that could have happened at my school.)
110 and 112 are awesome in totally different ways. (And 112 sounds like something that could have happened at my school.)
I don't think I implied that, did I? Anyway, surely they were all disappointed by the setback in my Ozymandias-like rise to greatness.
I'm too mopey to preview before I hit "post".
I don't think I implied that, did I?
It's one possible reading of your phrasing, yes.
"My balls yearn to write a better paper."
It's one possible reading of your phrasing, yes.
A very natural one, I think, since surely if the other students were disappointed about their B+s essear wouldn't have started off saying only that he got a B+, and so, etc.
Oh well. The teacher systematically graded boys lower than girls, for one thing, and acted seriously creepy toward the girls who were his favorites. He also had a habit of losing the assignments of people he didn't like and giving us zeros for them. I've probably commented on this before somewhere here? The same guy was in the news at some point for faking death threats against himself to get an FBI bodyguard.
You should have sent him a nice e-mail taking responsibility for your failings. That always works.
I mean, you would have gotten an A- at least. Also, I think you're responsible for the fact that I've been binge-watching, or what passes for binge-watching in my pathetic world, The Good Wife during this break. I thank you for that.
I'm such a television-evangelist. If only there were a short form of that phrase I could use.
It seems to me that it would be easiest to join them at one of their shared consonants: tellist.
Somehow I knew exactly what heebie's comment was going to say as soon as I saw it in the sidebar.
Well, it's one of the more obvious mash-ups of the two words.
No shit, taking a sudafed 12-hour without taking a tylenol PM along with it really fucks up sleeping.
In HS there was another kid who looked like me and one teacher kept mixing us up in his class to the point that he swapped some of our grades for participation (like saying I missed a presentation I was there for and the other guy wasn't.) I got my final grade bumped up a few points a couple months after the class ended.
Which actually turned out to be important for just barely meeting a goal my brother suggested- on everyone's transcript they publish the class decile boundaries for GPA (to the hundredths place!) along with your GPA (to the thousandths place!) on a 100 point scale, and he said I should try to get a GPA over 100 (honors and AP classes get +5 for GPA calculations) to see if they would print that. It turns out that they will not in fact print a top decile range upper bound over 100.00 (I made it to 100.024.)
Now let's all share our SAT scores.
The teacher systematically graded boys lower than girls
I had a Latin teacher who did that. When my HS went co-ed, they set the number of girls at less than 50% which meant that on average the girls had higher test scores. Teachers had to give out little not quite mid-semester grades to let kids know how they were doing. This particular teacher went on the assumption that a boy deserved a 60 until he proved otherwise and a girl deserved a 90 until she proved otherwise. By the end of the semester everything evened out.
I never saw him in a class setting. He was retiring when I was in the 9th grade. A couple of teachers thought that the Latin class I was in was too slow for me, so they pulled me out, and I did an independent study with him.
I mean, maybe he should have been fired for other reasons. I'm told that he used to rap his cane quite loudly, and he may have thrown erasers at kids.
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ADVICE. PLEASE.
I need some advice on how to deal with something professionally. The assisted living place my parents moved into is screwing me, and I set up a meeting with the executive director.
Basically, they got onto a Medicaid program which pays the care portion of their bill. They're supposed to pay all of their social security minus $100 each to the facility. When I met the executive director, I was told that there was a family supplement for that apartment for PACE participants of $1,000.00 (which for strange reasons can be paid out of a trust and counts as income to the beneficiary for IRS tax purposes but is not countable for Medicaid purposes). I didn't push to get this in writing, because I was doing things quickly and the care manager I worked with had had good experiences with this facility in the past. Also, I assumed that the rates were governed by the terms of the contract with the elder service plan. And in their disclosure materials it says that PACE participants and other low-income individuals get reduced rates.
Anyway, now the business manager is claiming that we are supposed to make up the full market rate. He also charged for a service that my mother declined. He had to go to corporate to do the research to fix the bill, and on the most recent bill submitted to the trust that amount is taken off, but it's not itemized as a credit. He also tried to bill the full market rate or else just failed to report in time that as of December 6, they switched to PACE.
I wrote a letter and cc-ed the enrollment person at PACE plus the trustee. He's now not returning the phone calls of the trust administrator who is supposed to pay the bills.
I don't want to go in there all guns blazing, but I will probably need to hire the specialist lawyer who marked up the contract to limit my own personal liability.
The guy I dealt with initially was promoted and then left the company. I sort of imagine myself saying, "You know, I'd really hate to have to hire a lawyer." I think that I do have to hire a lawyer, but I'm not really sure how to handle myself during the meeting or what I should do to document the meeting. Would it be ridiculous to ask the executive director to sign an attendance sheet?
I do need to work with these people in the future, but I don't want them walking all over me. I do kind of want their reputation ruined with every care manager in the state. And part of me wants to report them to somebody, but I'm sort of afraid that my parents would experience some backlash.
Legal and business types, what would you do?
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I'm going to sleep and I don't know enough to have any good advice but that sounds like a really difficult situation BG and I hope you can get good help for it soon. [[hugs]]
banned emoticon infinite no backsies to the power of the backsies.
I would just go with a lawyer to the meeting.
Yeah in my one experience of something like this the response to "I'll be speaking with a lawyer about this" was "ok. Get back to me."
141: Thanks, al.
142: I don't know if I can get her to come by Monday.
143: And the new executive director is the smoothest, grossest kind of marketing guy who promises the world and never delivers.
Assisted living --even at the better facilities, and ghis is sort of fair to middling--is such a racket.
If I were rich, I'd just find a way to hire round the click caregivers until my Mom's dementia gets so bad that she needs to be locked up.
145: I just decided to e-mail her to ask her advice this morning.
I still find this sort of interaction confusing and feel like a failure as an adult for not being better able to negotiate.
148: I feel the same way, but very few adults are good at this, so we should probably not beat ourselves up about it.
h well. The teacher systematically graded boys lower than girls, for one thing, and acted seriously creepy toward the girls who were his favorites.
I had one like that! But it was more like he couldn't bear to give a girl a bad grade, so all the girls got good grades while the boys were graded fairly and logically.
148: Ugh! I know I would feel overwhelmed and inadequate, but I think the system is set up to make you feel that way and not question authority. Just that you're willing to do that should help you get some concessions, I hope.
148: It's not the sort of thing on gets practice with growing up. You find yourself thrown into the situation, forced to try to learn on the fly, handicapped by the fact that your parents' well-being is a subject of emotional significance to you. Go easy on yourself. Calling the lawyer for help sounds like the smart choice. Personally, I fuck way too much up trying to figure things out on my own, so you are kind of a rockstar as an adult, in my book, for having the sense to seek help.
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Paraphrase of conversation from which I just self-extricated:
"So Dr. Foofram, what do you think about Obamacare, and how the PA governor doesn't want to participate in these exchanges?"
"Well, before I talk about how Obamacare might affect people in Pennsylvania (which I could not be less interested in), you must be aware that I'm what I guess you would call nowadays a fairly strict Catholic, so I have to preface my answer to your question (which I will never answer) by citing chapter and verse of the fifty right-wing websites I read every day. Do you know the HHS Compromise? OK, well, Bart Stupak, after they twisted his arm into voting for Obamacare, and then he retired on principle, he wrote this letter - are you familiar with Bart Stupak? OK, well, he wrote this letter saying that he was lied to, and apparently Catholic institutions are now being forced to give their employees, whether or not they are married, insurance that covers abortifacients, and Plan B and all that... (drift out of earshot)"
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E-mailed the lawyer, and she's out until the 2nd. I probably should have put priority in the subject heading except that it's not like they're getting evicted tomorrow.
153: Does Obamacare cover stabbing yourself in the eyeball to extricate yourself from conversations of this type?
So sorry to hear about this BG. When I've been in similar situations it's always involved me throwing myself on someone's mercy and crying, so I can't say I have any solid recommendations other than to be good to yourself. There really isn't any training for this sort of thing.
156: Do you have any tricks for crying on cue?
157: Insomnia, forgetting whether one has taken one's meds and deciding not to risk a double-dose, extreme stress, infuriating family members, and a broken mental and physical health system make crying when necessary REALLY easy!
Music thread!
Boccherini. Lots of Boccherini. I really like Boccherini, though I suspect that makes me boring. I don't know nothing about classical, except I like slow cello stuff. That means Boccherini.
And Jon Hassell.
153: Remember "Insurance may be bad now, but Obamacare won't make it any better"? That was us. Happily, as I've mentioned before, we're now on the Great Unfogged Stork Run of 2013.