Gangs of ILX: Introducing THE CLUSTER GANG

I identified another gang: the SOUTHSIDE CALLBOX gang.

Matt Cibulla
Nate Patrin
Jody Beth Rosen
Michaelangelo Matos
Anthony Easton

Anthony, you traitor! WHICH GANG ARE YOU IN?

(Unless said gang was comprised entirely of dirty dronerock soundartists and dirty dronerock history programme presenters.)

so as Jets, you are the pasty-ass white boy retard gang?

SING IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE FEY!
SING IF YOU'RE HAPPY THIS WAY!

Even death won't stop us now!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520230221/ref=lib_rd_ss_TBCV/103-3399556-0887035?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader&img=11#reader-link

Can he be in my gang? Please?

One hand! One heart! The LUSTRE OF CLUSTER!

(Peter Fame Academy is not as hot as Nigel Spivey. FACT!!!)

oh warriors come out and playay

*clink* *clink* *clink*

CLUSTERS, MUSTER!

http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/Faculty/photos/spivey.gif

He looks much better when he is wandering around underground bunkers talking about Nazis!

Are you *trying* to make me ill? I'm trying to have a sexual fantasy here, leave me alone!

Yes, his name is silly. It's part of the appeal. Like "Julian Casablancas" *isn't* a silly name?

I like the Island Manhattan! Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

I'm with the Saucy Liberals 100%!

(Perhaps they just make him up to make him look better on TV)

I can just imagine Ken Livingston saying his name in that Estuary drone:
Noyyyyy-jill Spoy-vee.

Do Sterzinger missiles come in packs of two, Nick?

Yes I live in Cambridge, now what was it you wanted me to do again?

We have better weed, too.

Joke - honest.

It looks like the only other member of the Saucy Liberals is defecting. Oh well, it will be a gang of one.

Oh god, where is the Crush Of Shame thread when I need it?

Peering askance at said miniscule opening I can't see anything except for women who still wear Alice bands.

Suzy - tell me about it. It's what? 4 knots? Many a time...

*cue OZ theme* *cue Momus and the Cluster Gang walking into the recreation area*

That's it, Marcello's in.

I suppose I could also be considered part of the "I'm Unimportant And Talk About Unimportant Things" gang, too. You know us -- we're the ones who check out the "This is the thread where I say" threads first. We revel in our "mundane" existences!

Oh yeah, and I'm the only person in the "I'm A Reactionary" gang. Aw.

*"cliques" on the Submit button*

(xp, obv)

Hey, jet!
Don't say that
When we get
You surrounded
In our ally, cat.

I would break out in song 'Don't Cry for Me Noam Chomsky' when I am viciously and accidently stabbed by one of the Cluster Gang's japanese accessories.

x-post
Maybe I need to join Dee's gang?

Pinkpanther: Which one, hon?

*cliques on Submit once more*

Having seen all the other History Prof's on the page where I got that photo, this could be a very very scary proposition, indeed!

hahahaa ... AIIEEE! NO. NO. (in the background the Clusters are singing 'I want to live in East London' (set to the tune of WSS 'America') whilst Ally was being butchered.

Anyway, I can join no gang. Since the demise of my master ****** ******* I am sworn to roam the lands unencumbered of earthly ties, for I must serve his spirit with every last drop of my blood. Plus, I'd lose all my health care benefits.

I'm outta here.

'I want to live in ammmerriiiccaaa'

and yes, I'm more than happy with the thousands of public drinking hostelries in London.

Moaning and Droning and Caffeination is where it's at!

Or the guy with the crazy sounds from Police Academy.

i am an elisionista

Ha ha! I like the polite tones that this was pitched in.

{*gun is cocked and fired*}

(I'm King News and I come to you with the truth
The mean streets took six more lives overnight
all the result of gang-bang stupidity
By the way, you gangsters should know
one of your victims was a three year old girl
Well, you gang members, you still don't get it, do ya?)

(With your badself)

[King Tee]
It's straight up madness everywhere I look
Used to be a straight a student, now he's a crook
Robbin people just to smoke or shoot up
Used to have a crew cut, now he's a pooh-put
Dropped out of school and he joins the neighborhood gang
Hangin on the streets sellin caine
To his own people
Now when I say people I mean color
You a stupid muthaf...
I'm tryin to stress the fact that you're dumb
Get yourself presentable, son, and just come
Together, you better, cause pretty soon it's gonna be too late
A message from King Tee The Great

[Body & Soul]
Sisters, since we are the mothers of this earth
It's time we start being good mothers from the birth
Of our children, no time for sleepin
Teach em to fight and win for the right reason
It's your time, it's your life, live it
Proud to be black, young and gifted
Lifted by the knowledge and takin the right route
Gang violence needs to be wiped out
A-l-m-i-g-h-ty C and E-z-i-r-e
We see the f-u-t-u-r-e
Should be a positive thang
Body & Soul and you, we're in the same gang

[Def Jef]
One and the same
Everyone came in the same chains
Caught with the same aim
Brain games and names changed
To protect the innocent by-stander
Lies, slander and the master-planner
Destroy the black male
Crack jail and semi-automatic
For static if the crack fails
So since we all talk the same slang
Stop killin, my brother, cause we're all from the same gang

[Michel'le]
Don't you know we've got to put our heads together?
Make the change cause we're all in the same gang

[Tone-Loc]
Now as a youth I used to get my bang on
And on the ave get my part-time slang on
Upon a time for me was no joke though
They knew I was crazy, so they labelled me Loco
Khakis creased, golf hat, feelin sporty
Low ridin and tossin up a forty
Thinkin in my mind that no one could handle us
The downest brothers ever touched Los Angeles
I found life was much more suitable
Cause I'm the brother that makes black so beautiful
I ain't slippin or down with a head trip
I'm talkin to all the Bloods and all the Crips
Throw down your rag and get on the right track, man
It's time to fight, unite and be a black man
Tone-Loc is on a positive change
Cause remember, we're all in the same gang

[Above The Law]
Bein the pimps that we are
We're here to speak on a situation that has gone too far
Here at home in the ghettos of LA
Where a young black brother's not promised to see the next day
Cause we used to clock on the streets before we made beats
But fools just lay and prey on the weak
It don't depend on the color of a rag
Cause if you got what they want you know they gonna take what you have
Cause violence don't only revolve from drugs and thugs
And gangs that bang
Most times it's a political thang
Yeah, a couple of spots'll get popped
And if the government wanted to freeze it it could all get stopped
But they don't because they want it like that
Because the system been set up to hold us back
Yeah, Above The Law means that we can do whatever
So why don't we stick together?
(You got it)

[Ice-T]
Ice-T rippin the microphone the way I do
Listen close, my brothers, cause I'm talkin to you
The problem is we got a suicidal lifestyle
Cause 90 percent of us are livin foul and wild
I say job, you say ([Hen-G:] bad joke
I rather jack another brother, watch the gun smoke)
Livin in the fast lane flippin like you're insane
You won't stop until your blood runs down the street drain
I got an idea, give me a minute
And if it makes sense, then get with it
What if we could take our enemies, feed em poison
Undereducate their girls and boys and
Split em up, make em fight one another
Better yet, make em kill for a color
All my brothers need to know one thing
No matter what you think, we're all in the same gang

[Michel'le]
Don't you know we've got to put our heads together?
Stop the fighting
(Make the change)
Because we're all in the same gang

[Dr. Dre & MC Ren]
Yo, we're not here to preach because we're not ministers
We're tellin like it is cause Ren and Dre is like sinister
Reality speaks for itself when it's spoken
A basehead cluck can't blame nobody for smokin
Yo, bullets flyin, mothers cryin, brothers dyin
Lyin in the streets, that's why we're tryin
To stop it from fallin apart and goin to waste
And keepin a smile off a white face
N.W.A never preachin, just teachin
The knowledge of the streets to each and
All that don't understand, that's why we came
To let you know that we're all in the same gang

[JJ Fad]
The J double, F, the a, the d, that is
And if you want the solution to the quiz
What's black in black, yo, and kills another?
An ignorant sucker that isn't labelled as a brother
But another
So now it's time we evolve
And get together and solve it
Cause the world is revolvin
Around a terrible situation
One will kill another for a reputation
So it's time we stop and realize that we're all the same
Yo Dre, tell em (We're all in the same gang)

[Young MC]
Brothers killin other brothers
I thought the idea was to love one another?
Open up the paper to one more death
If y'all keep this up then there'll be no one left
I try my best to set an example
Sayin hype lyrics over hip-hop samples
Not just a bragger to boast but to inform
Cause we're livin in the calm before the storm
You see, I believe that the children are the future
But what's it all about if in the future they shoot ya?
We're all human beings, if we're cut we'll bleed
And I want to see all young people succeed
Do 9 to 5, not 5 to 10
Just go to work and not the state pen
Cause you live better when you're out there free
And that's comin straight to ya from the Young MC

[Digital Underground]
I'm in a rage
Oh yeah? Yo, why is that g?
Other races, they say we act like rats in a cage
I tried to argue, but check it, every night in the news
We prove them suckers right and I got the blues
America...
Get busy, Humpy
The red, the white, the blue and
The blue and the red
For Clips and Bloods
The white for who's got you doin
Time bustin caps on one another
The Underground's down for peace among brothers
Kill a black man?
What?
Yo, what are you retarded?
Tell em, Hump
Yo, do you work for the Klan?
Do what you like
Unless you like gangbangin
Let's see how many brothers leave us hangin

[Oaktown's 3.4.7.]
The gang that should hang is the one that contains
The sisters and the brothers who are all in the same frame of mind
Now listen, get loose, it's unity time
Yeah, yeah
Peace is a presence that we all need
The future's in our hands, in word and deed
I'm Terrible T and I'm Sweet LD
We're 3.5.7. totally

[MC Hammer]
Kickin on the ave 'bout a quarter to 9
All the homies gettin blind in an eight ball line
Now on this tip they started runnin at the lip
Jumped in their deuce and took a little trip
Hit the block about 12 on the tick
The windows went down and the nines went click
People started yellin, bodies started bailin
Bullets cold flyin sendin some to hell and
It's gotta stop, we don't need all the violence
Peace in the hood and a moment of silence
We got together not for ego or fame
We got involved cause we're all in the same gang

[Eazy-E]
Last but not least, yo, Eazy's no sell-out
And if you can't hang in the streets, then get the hell out
I'm not tryin to tell ya what to do
You have your own freedom of choice who to listen to
You knew good from bad, fair from foul, right from wrong
Now your mother's singing that sad song
(My baby ain't never hurt nobody!)
But he still got smoked at Bébé's party
But you're not the first or the last
You're nothin but a short story from the past
You're dead now, not number one but a zero
Take notes from Eazy-E, the violent hero

[Michel'le]
Don't you know we've got to put our heads together?
Don't you know we've got to put our heads together?

we'd all get parts, even us preverted spear-carrying image-posting types.

i can do a mean baritone, too.

Matt Cibulla
Nate Patrin
Jody Beth Rosen
Michaelangelo Matos
Anthony Easton

Nah, that's so last year. Not that I wouldn't fight for those guys' honor, but these days my ultra-elite crime syndicate includes me, Elvis Telecom, and a getaway car with a trunkful of freshly laundered $100 bills.

mine wasn't bad,
matos hit me with a flower,
nate played me el-p

he's VICIOUS.

grr!

(x-post w/ Spencer's pic)

Shame, Sarah! You forgot his stylin' gold teeth

The Apple Dumpling Gang?

I'm audi. *flashes the Pizza Christ gang sign*

Oh, and General Cluster, sir: Ann also begs I remind you, the Sterzingers are historically a mercenary clan ...

This is my favorite response in this thread. Kim, thank you.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc800/c837/c83788qtnw0.jpg

good grief dr c!!

Doomie is in the Death Disco gang. Duh.

holger/can/faust/japanese hip-hop/50 cents/jeff wayne's war of the worlds/goblin/the exorcist soundtrack/the locust/racebannon/earl hilton/the millennium/richard and thomas frost/the advancement/stereolab/momus/i am a kraut-prog-rock-hip hop-leonard cohen loving freak..

and it's nerve wracking. though i got people dancing twice! hooray! but i was well into my psych northern soul set by then.

and tell yer leader, everett true, that he has a gig at the queen is dead if he so wants - cause man - the idea of him playing television personality covers on his casio intrigued the fuck out of me and i successsfully pitched it too alan ...

Why are you always so fucking rude to people in bands unless they're "famous"? Did it ever occur to you that some people are not in bands because they want to "make it" but because they actually genuinely enjoy making music? Something that, despite how much you pretend to DJ, you will never be able to do?

OK, I'm going to stop this tack now because I'm getting off playing poking and getting onto genuinely annoyed.

None of my bands have ever done anything because they've all been crap. At least I'm not deluded about that.

**but i was well into my psych northern soul set by then**

I bet you were.

Tell us another story about Alan McGee, Doomie. We haven't heard one for five fucking minutes.

nah i'm no bitter ...

i wish i was though. then i would have something to believe in. instead i wake up feeling so fucking empty inside every morning - no god, no television, no girls aloud, no big brother ... to be bitter i think you have had to believe in something and failed. i've never believed in anything. i have an automaton passion about everything.

This may or may not have nothing to do with a Public Drinking Club Occasion.

yeah, the tv got ditched when s/o started to do a part-time masters.

1. As my sexy male alter ego has gently reminded you, commandant, the Sterzingers are of the mercenary caste and have the family crest to prove it, so -- rival gangs must tithe to Momus so funds may be channeled to my coffers. Sinon, I shall have to go Saruman on everyone's keister and the White Han Dorks will NOT be a pretty sight: I'll make them dress like Harrison Ford and talk like Elmo.

2. Sterzinger missile leveled at retard, in defense of my honored clanlord (visual: my bowing dead veteran grandfather): I'm not goddamn searching for the thread you posted it on, but SOMEBODY here said something about liking Momus's music till he read his posts on ILX and decided the musician himself was an asshole. OK, buddy: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE A CRITIC. OF ANYTHING. EVER. GIVE ME ALL YOUR FREELANCE JOBS, ESPECIALLY THE WELL-PAID ONES. Do you think Momus would spend enough time with you, ever, to annoy you enough to equal the pleasure you're denying yourself by not listening to his lovely work? Denying yourself harmless joy will only make you a more unbearable ass. Personally, I don't know what I would do if George Bush put me in a jail cell with Momus -- when I got out, I would probably either assassinate Bush II or start voting republican -- merely as a thank-you to his highness, you understand. Either way, I'd still enjoy the albums. I'm one of those critics who reads the book before I write the review.

Oh yeah, one more thing: the motherless Irish goddess Kera has some surprises in store for all of yiz. And she is beautiful like a glass of cream would be if I weren't allergic to cream.

I'm one of those critics who reads the book before I write the review.

Momus ain't!

And sometimes, you must admit, one's reaction to the specific assholism is so visceral it really does trump any and everything else. Resisting is probably the good fight, but ...

1. Clusterfuck is one of my pet expressions.

2. Momus doesn't read before he reviews? Well, I believe a good slap to the face works with certain idiots, which might very well horrify him. And I flatly refuse to account for any incidental inconsistencies in my contrarian patron's shtick, as A. I couldn't sit through a damn Tarantino movie if you gave me free health insurance and my own human-size Habitrail, and B. There's more than one way to speak for devils. In MY gang we don't need to agree about everything.

3. Let me prove I can be fair: anybody have a gig the week of the 31st in Chicago? I'm subbing for the datebook girl at the Reader (little blurbs at the end of the calendar). You need more of a story than "my band has a gig," and whether I think you're a dink or not your project has to be interesting. I need at least one interesting event to blurb per day. Free publicity! Be interesting. Caveat: my choices are highly subject to editorial censure. Argh, the hired pen has half-tied hands.

I like also that this same Nate Detritus has, somewhat detrimentally to his argument, refused to follow a link to Vice magazine on that same thread because it might interfere with his own 'anticipation' of Vice's immorality!

May I add that Ann's line 'Sinon, I shall have to go Saruman on everyone's keister and the White Han Dorks will NOT be a pretty sight' is as lovely as Ezra Pound or Mike Hanle y. The chorus, immediately following it, that 'this thread needs to be STOPPED' simply proves that some will always hate talent.

(b) I anticipate your next album to be an unfounded attack on me and everything I enjoy (including Tarantino films, sports cars, loud angry garage rock). Sure, it could be about a happy society of anthropomorphic moles and their complex irrigation systems and their fascination with Pachinko, but I know there's going to be a nauseating sexual-deviant undertone filled with incest and pedophilia and trademark infringement.

I know that looks like I'm blatantly contradicting myself, and I can see Momus fingering himself in anticipation of his "I am the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde fo sho" bon mot comeback of death, but really, the exchange went something like this:

Me: "You're saying that a film involving phony violence via brightly-colored fake blood is worse than a film that involves real actual semen being shot from several real actual penises into the face of a real actual woman who's being really actually called "slut" and "whore" on the box?"

Him: "Oh come on it's not all bad, here's an article from Vice that says it isn't!"

And way to rip off the Damned there. Now do "Anti-Pope"!

Furthermore, you weren't even anticipating the film!!! (anticipate= to look forward to, especially with pleasure) You'd read a script off the Internet some time ago and developed all your own intractable conclusions already. In what way were your comments at all similar to the anticipatory comments that started the thread?

1: to give advance thought, discussion, or treatment to
2 : to meet (an obligation) before a due date
3 : to foresee and deal with in advance : FORESTALL
4 : to use or expend in advance of actual possession
5 : to act before (another) often so as to check or counter
6 : to look forward to as certain : EXPECT

You're half right, since my next album is a very beautiful folk record which sounds like a UNESCO field recording of a Gaelic-speaking tribe which has miraculously escaped the culture of 'Taratino films, sports cars, loud angry garage rock'. There is absolutely no 'sexual-deviant undertone', but if you want to anticipate that, well, it's a free country.

this 'gangs' business is sad and lame

Momus, that comment wasn't in reaction to Anne's post, I don't have any problem with Anne whatsoever- I was just thinking out loud, and I was thinking that this whole thread is rather silly. How you can see what follows as a "chorus" (how deliciously melodramatic) and a wholesale indictment of "talent" is beyond me.

Oh dear, now I feel all riled up. Is this why people like to argue with you so much? Is it okay if I just...don't bother?

(predicted Momus reply: "Maybe that'd be a better movie if that title were a bit more literal, nudge nudge")

ha ha. from someone that listens to 'sound artists' and 'improv' - i think i understand why you believe in this concept, julio. beeyotch!

(insert appropriate emoticon to calm the angry riot masses)

However if talent means unwarranted attacks on a guy, and a decent one at that, who hasn't even contributed here then I'll stick to being a dumb fuck in my gang of one.

i understood anthonys comment to be the latter, commenting contextually.

i do not know whether any form of personal relationship makes music better/worse, but i also do not know how it is possible to ignore such a thing and treat the music as though it were in a vaccuum (even if you should want to). i think maybe that context and life alter our opinions on things, and give us different views on things, for better or worse. was not anthony exploring this with his comment, that something external had an effect on his relationship with music.

i think i have missed what is bad about this, although it is possible that i have misunderstood. apologies to all concerned if this is the case

If I fucked up and projected stuff on other people, my apologies.

"I think it was a lesson in good journalism. You know, paraphrasing someone without citing the source.
-- bnw (rilke...), October 19th, 2003."

Hm. What about "I'm not goddamn searching for the thread you posted it on, but SOMEBODY here said something about liking Momus's music till he..." sounded like it was trying to emulate journalism to you? I spend 80 hours a week friggin' fact-searching; I'm not going to waste my free time rereading 8,000 "The very mention of M---- makes my dick turn black, shrivel up, grow a mouth, and start screaming in pain!" posts just so I can put an individual NAME INDIVIDUAL NAMES on a human weakness. Inside everyone there lurks an evil little beestie who wants everyone else's art to tank. And it's so much easier to let that little beastie off the leash if you can convince yourself that the artist you're talking about doesn't deserve an audience cuz he a joik. If you can't keep that creature in check, then you shouldn't look for work as a critic. And if you want to blame somebody for pinning "retard" to Easton, if the badge was indeed mispinned then -- though me, I'd apologize to Easton anyway 'cos I'd feel bad -- blame:

"That "retard" is Anthony Easton. He's respected around here. He earned it. What've you done?
-- nate detritus (n***p*****550...), October 19th, 2003."\

... who WAS claiming to know where exactly the post in question came from. If he was wrong, I'm so sorry I believed him and will try to avoid repeating the error.

what's the use, what's the use of it if you just have to pass it around?

Didn't I mean "work as critic" ?

Thanks in advance for your cooperation

http://66.203.200.20/images/Nigel_Spivey_square_shot.jpeg.jpg

I think he's lovely.

We're the Cape and Stick Boys
Whistling Lillie Langtry
How we laugh when we hear them sigh
The girls who never catch our eye
Wear capes and carry sticks
And the gang is gay

And the rookie's in the alley with his home-made drag in a polythene bag
And the rookie say 'Uh oh, looks like I got out the wrong side of my bed today!'
Cos the Capes and Sticks are waiting for him
And they pierce his ears with a safety pin
And the rookie's trying to laugh it off saying
'I was thinking of doing that anyway'

They mount a double-decker with their Lyons Maids
Sit down on either side of a girl with braids
With too much lipstick on her too-thin lips
And a handbag made of lizard
And the Cape in front of her charms her
Smiles in her face and disarms her
And when they kiss the Stick behind her
Cut off her braids with a pair of folding scissors
Singing:

We're the Cape and Stick Boys
Lillie is our heroine
We play pool all through the air raid
Rape machines in the game arcade
Wear capes and carry sticks
And the gang is gay

Well they don't need knives for their sweet attacks
Just the sticks they keep down the front of their slacks
Big as a family heirloom, Daddy's randy hand me-down
And for a couple of crowns they'll take you to the docks
Whistling Lillie as they pull out their cocks
Drag you to the top of the gantry
Dangle you fifty feet above the ground, singing:

We're the Cape and Stick Boys
Whistling Lillie Langtry
How we laugh when we hear them sigh
The girls who never catch our eye
Wear capes and carry sticks
And the gang is gay

And on every man's hip there's a thermos flask
If you want a sip all you've got to do is ask
Maybe it's bromide tea or maybe ecstasy
They kiss the girls and make them cry
Then they kiss the boys, they're real bi-guys
And we've all got to die some way, some day
You follow me?

http://www.aozj96.dsl.pipex.com/portillo.jpg

You can't fluster the Cluster.

Lady, I'd rather have the sweet solidarity and sense of fun on the fall fashion thread than the bitch-fest this has turned into.

http://66.203.200.20/images/Nigel_Spivey_square_shot.jpeg.jpg

Verbum!

Dude, how do I become a professor?

Humorless? Erm, [insert kettle/pot variation]
Stupid? Who trying to get crazy with, ese?
Annoying? Fair cop.

>But my experience tells me I'm right. For example: I work where Neal Pollack used to work. I asked "should I read his book?" and people said "he's an asshole!" And I grumbled: "I didn't ask whether he'd be fun to have on the bowling team, I asked whether reading his book is worth my time." And guess what? I read it, I laughed my head off; I wrote him up for the Reader and then I met him, and much to my lack of surprise he wasn't an asshole at all. I found him absolutely charming.<

[Sorry Ann -- couldn't resist.]

The idea that a critic can assess a work of art without taking into account the artist's reputation/history/previous work/and all gossip thereby pertaining is just impossibly purist. How else are you going to know whether you want to pick something up or not? Being able to put something in cultural context (hi or squalidly lo) is sorta key to finding your way into it. Of course neither should you dismisss something out of hand for those reasons but, well ... it's not like I'm dying to read Richard Speck's first novel. Or, if that's a cheap shot, Ann Coulter's. (There's a particularly annoying article in the Believer this month arguing for blindness in book reviewing, which has set my spleen on edge.) And, not to belabor the Pollack thing but in that particular instance, with a writer whose shtick revolves around playing with personae, "he's an asshole" seems like -- if not the most helpful nugget of literary criticism -- at least mildly relevant to the facts at hand.

There's nothing more noble than leading by example ...

Bribery is usually popular.

"Neal 'n' Ann in author-absolutely-charming-to-writer-who-wrote flattering-piece-about-his-book shocker..."

True, but speaking of taking things outta context, I didn't see you there -- I wurn't the only person to whom he wur charming. Granted, everybody was ostensibly there to see him perform, but it's not like he was hanging all over me in particular -- he was even nice to the shaker-egg-employing opening band. And why does being nice to people who have similar sensibilities (I wrote a flattering piece because I really enjoyed the book, not in order to elecit Pavlovian positive-behavior response -- nobody forced or paid me to go to the show)not provide evidence in favor of someone's non-assholism? If you want an asshole, bring me a writer who's slimily nice to people he thinks are assholes just to get on their good side. Then again, there is simple civility... but if you printed a piece about something I'd written that obviously showed you hadn't read it, for example, and was merely a hatchet job, I'd consider the rules of civility already broken. And yes, I have heard that Neal has been less impervious to charges of assholism in the past, but can't assholes be reformed? That's half the reason I brought the whole "You're an asshole for not liking someone's albums anymore because you think he's an asshole personally" thing up -- if people quit denying themselves harmless pleasures there would be (drumroll) LESS MISERABLE ASSHOLES WALKING AROUND!!! I just wanna help! (more puppy eyes)(hides potato in pantsfly)

Also, you're right that book-picking-up behavior shouldn't be taken out of context, but there's a finer point that you make yourself and then sort of back away from: not wasting precious time on something you think you might not like and/or might not interest you, based on suspicion that the writer has nothing valuable to say, vs. actively avoiding/slamming/no longer indulging in somebody's work just because you decide you don't like them personally.

(Remember that I even said in print that I did get a payoff from that one Eggers story even though he and most of his work makes me want to barf.)

(OK, and I do pick on Eggers a lot, because he makes me want to eruct, yes, but this is in part due to his [as I see it] hypocritical shtick -- which is part of his actual texts -- and, as I think I've said to you, he's such a disappointing waste of talent and opportunity.)

First, I meant to come to Subterranean, but I was so goddamn exhausted that I couldn't get off the floor.

That said, other than the Momusthing that started all this, who's doing this? is this a real phenom or a straw dog for the sake of argument? Critic types (at least the ones who want to continue to make a living) are more responsible than I think you're giving them credit for (or if they're not, their editors are). Who (around here or anywhere) is slamming someone in print because they don't like them personally?

But if you're just talking about personal consumption.. who cares? If I can't listen to a record because the guy who made it was mean to me at a party, or said something offensive in Vice, I'm hardly denying myself a simple pleasure. I'm avoiding pain! A natural human impulse, and one I practice often.

{let's just leave aside the stupidity of the fact that you're sitting ten feet away from me and we really don't need to be having this conversation on a message board.)

Eggers makes you wanna belch? Am I right? Is my English poor?

Eggers has a kind of pale imitation of the Cluster Gang, but from across the atlantic it looks weally weally parochial: they dig Nick Hornby ferfucksake, and they're always griping about writer politics in v expensive magazines - blind reviewing etc.

Who pays to read about that? I'm a writer and i don't. ILX talks about it for free, and lacks the hypocrisy of any movement that claims to be open but is in fact a clique.

odd

LBZC....?

I'd kinda noticed that Easton, Enrique, and Suzy were pretty much coming from exactly the same place w/regards to their posts. Kudos to Momus for spotting this.

"I met some famous people yesterday, and couldn't decide whether to toss them off or zing them"

I just scan read the thread, it's kinda dull then incredibly nasty.

I just scan read the threadILE, it's kinda dull then incredibly nasty.

Fixed.

ilx used to be so twee.

why do i get a security alert whenever i view this thread?

same

yeah me too :/

has momus left something behind for us?

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/dia/images/noHomers.gif

The oddest part of this thread is how it devolved into a conversation between Chicago Reader staffers.

why do i get a security alert whenever i view this thread?

-- Ste, Wednesday, 26 September 2007 15:09 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Any details on where the security alert is coming from? I'll edit whatever's causing it out if I know where to look.

^^^stealing bandwidth from "democracyinaction.org"

xpost

i wonder if it's anything to do with the link to amazon, one of kates posts ?

great ILX threads i'm glad i missed, #23 in a series.

Pash, seriously don't know. Nothing stands out, and nobody seems to have mentioned it previously on the thread which is strange.

its not happening to me anymore but i bookmark.

oh it's gone

oh hang on, i clicked 'yes' the previous time it showed up. duh

It's because one of the images (I presume) comes from an https site whose certificate has expired. Site is rt2.aeroplan.com, not sure what's referencing it as that url doesn't seem to show up in the source.

here:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/636/thingysu3.jpg

gosh im helpful

As of this point on, LBZC has been renamed "The Cluster Gang". Thanks for your attention.

http://z.about.com/d/phoenix/1/0/r/K/tumbleweeds01.jpg

"LBZC"?

google it

Is that the photo you show the barber when he asks you what you want your hair to look like, Pash?

4/10

OH SHIT DOM NOW I HAVE TO LOOK AT THIS PICTURE:
http://wiredtom.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/owned.JPG

i guess we'll never see what pashmina saw :(

http://englishfootballpost.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/bash_street_kids.jpg

The Cluster Gang, yesterday.

What is LBZC?

I'm gonna see if I can answer before someone does a "comedy" answer.

It stands for "lol britpop zing culture", it's a combination of two dismissive terms aimed at a loose brand of Brit ILM posters. "lol britpop" being descriptive of a certain type of thread beloved by Enriquit, and "zing culture" being a term for a style of ILX posting that values snark and wit above lengthy Sinister-style ish.

lgbt splinter group

ah shit xpost :)

Huh. Thanks Dom.

is it 'el bee zed see' or 'el bee zee see'?

zee see is snappier, but american

so it's lolbritpop zing culture, not lolbritpop zing crew?

I've always pronounced it in my head as "El Bee Zed Cee"

xp

we should get max clifford in to sort the lbzc publicity out before the prostate cancer gets him

so it's lolbritpop zing culture, not lolbritpop zing crew?

-- J0rdan S., Thursday, 17 April 2008 21:32 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Lol Britpop Zing Culture, aka the Zing Crew.

"Zing Crew" is a little more Americanized, perhaps showing a nod of the hat to the Ringtone Crew.

Lazy Zing Britpop Curmudgeons

hey what does 'blueski' stand for?

i want to be in a gang

DG it's not an acronym or anything

i meant in a moral sense

duh

you're funny!

you're not!

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

i was joking

http://www.newmexiconuts.net/catalog/tumbleweed.jpg

i want to be in a gang as well

My first week at college I walked up to some interesting-looking people and said "hey, we should start a gang". They looked at me like I was a total fuckwad. As it turns out, that episode is fairly paradigmatic of my life thusfar.

As it turned out, they weren't even particularly interesting. One guy was an albino white aspiring Rastafarian who got busted for buying weed a week later; another was a barely articulate J. Mascis-lookalike stoner dude, and another was some crushingly boring guy with a mohawk who covered his entire dorm room in aluminum foil...

What current gangs operate and rollcall pls

Privcrew checking in

lool dell

Sup dayo i see u *nods*

gangs

no more gangs *=*

Did I miss anyone out? Who else feels they should be with us?

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, October 16, 2003 7:25 AM (thirteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me

mods def a gang