Music Party Norms - Update

1. I should have used the word norms, not rules, perhaps.

2. My articulation of these rules are NOT in reponse to any one event, person, or thought. I've been asked to articulate my sense of them for some time, and the core is - be aware of how you can make everyone's experience better. For example, Chas can make it better by never losing his voice again! And I can make it better by staying sober.

3. It's quite clear that there are two main types of music parties - egalitarian, and not. My norms are for explicitly non-egalitarian music parties, and should not be taken to apply to every gathering.

4. We have a vocalist-instrumentalist divide. In that there's a sense that anyone who wants to sing should be able to sing, but ... if a saxophonist walked into a music circle, insisted on taking a turn every time it came around to do a 15 minute improvisational jazz solo, couldn't hit the notes, played over people's singing, took solos and simply could not play them - I think some of the people who now seem pissed off at me would be right on my side. I could be wrong though. Egalitarian extends mostly to singers, I think.

And from the sports desk

If you like sports at all, you must read:

The Brushback - A.L. Preview.

Examples:

(For the Red Sox):

Strength:
Defense. The Red Sox have gold glove winner Mike Lowell at third base, tiny person Alex Gonzalez at short, Mark Loretta at second base, and Kevin Youkilis at first base platooning with JT Snow. Last year they lost a lot of close games with shoddy defense. This year they’ve chosen to lose those games with shoddy offense.

(For the Twins):

Strength:
Torii Hunter is one of the games best centerfielders. Unfortunately he has fragile girl ankles that snap like twigs whenever he tries to make a catch. He would be wise to get them replaced now while he still has a few years left.

(no subject)

I often find the New Yorker Magazine a little ahead of the curve. It's where Seymour Hirsch wrote the Abu Ghraib story. A few weeks before the recent anti-intelligent-design decision was handed down in Pennsylvania, the New Yorker wrote a long discussion of the trial (all other national news media that I read only really wrote about it after the decision was handed down). I also find that you can trust New Yorker film reviewers more than any other. Even when I don't fully agree with the reviews, I always see their point. Denby and Lane, the two reviewers, are much more film snobs than I, but I love the way they write about cinema.

With that said, here's Denby on V for Vendetta. And I see his points, though I enjoyed it immensly.

I think he did too, if you read past the first line.