Ahmadinejad and Rave Boy.
I know this is a ridiculous title for a blog entry but I'm wrapping two points into one today. And NO, they have nothing in common, just the timing of the issues on my mind.
Re. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, spoke yesterday at Columbia University, New York. The Right is up in arms at the University for allowing this guy a platform to speak at a major US University. To paraphrase Newt Gingrich, "This man is an evil tyrant and it is an outrage that Columbia University allow him to speak!". Now he has the first point down. It is UNDENIABLE that he believes and preaches that the Holocaust is nothing but a Myth, that Jews be, and this is a direct quote, "Wiped off the face of the Earth.", and that he supports and arms Insurgent efforts in Iraq that have led to the death of both Iraqi and Americans alike,...but that's beside the point. Here me out: Columbia University President Collinger responded eloquently to the right's criticism, and again to paraphrase; "This nation is great because of it's tradition of free speech, and that we should pose questions that NO-ONE in his country are allowed to ask, and that we, and the rest of the world, and especially his own people, hear his answers."
And so it went yesterday, in exactly the way most anticipated...Ahmadinejad proved the obvious to EVERYONE; that YES, he is a tyranical petty despot. After 10 minutes of University Pres. Collinger berating him on undeniable accounts of horror and oppression, the Iranian President answered with a slippery cool arrogance. He essentially dodged most questions and spoke with condescensions as if to say that such accusations are not worth a response or require a denial.
Case and point, and this takes the cake; when asked about the (again) undeniable reports that women in his country are on the whole repressed to the extent that adultery is punishable by legally sanctioned murder, that educators and students are imprisoned for their politics, and that homosexuality is responded to with execution, the President calmly dodged the question and went off on same tangent on how his country has successfully dealt with their drug problem and drug smuggling...WHAT?!? The University President patiently waited for Ahmadinejad to finish, pointed out that he failed to answer the original question and asked him again about the government's stand and treatment of homosexuals, and his response was truly unbelievable and downright telling,..."No, we don't have the problem of homosexuality in our country, and don't have the same problem YOUR country has with homosexuals." To which the audience laughed for as long as it took them to realize he wasn't kidding in the least, at which point the laughter turned to outrage.
In a nutshell, he believes homosexuality is a "problem" that his country does not have. He makes no mention of inclusion, no talk, for christ's sake not even lip-service to tolerance, and finally NO DENIAL OF EXECUTING GAY PEOPLE.
In the end, our country's tradition of free and open speech allowed this idiot to show his true colors indeed. Collinger went so fas as to say that he would have allowed Hitler to speak at the University because megalomaniac madmen have very little ability to keep their insanity hidden.
One caveat: Please don't think I believe we should invade Iran now. For crying out loud, we've made that mistake once, lets not make it again. Unlike Saddam who was a calculating evil thug who truly believed he could take control of the Middle East, Ahmadinejad suffers from same small man inferiority complex Kim Jong Il suffers. He has no aspirations of world domination despite his belief that Islam will take over the world. He wants to establish himself as a major superpower and international player, and most of all, continue the despotic rule of his country. His people will, as the oppressed always do, see through the bullshit,...and the world should support their rising call for political reformation....no bombs required or needed.
Now as for Rave-Boy. He has a PS2 game, I think it's called "Guitar Hero" or something. The game comes with a plastic controller that's guitar shaped with 5 buttons, simulating frets, and a switch which you can strum as if you were playing a guitar. You play with music, and I have to say pretty good music at that (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Pantera, Rush, Anthrax, Ozzy, to name a few). You press the button/fret they show you to play and you strum the switch at the same time.
Now here's the kicker. Granted, in expert mode, it's pretty difficult even for me. But Rave Boy is convinced and is trying to convince me that it's nearly as difficult as the real thing...and this is driving me CRAZY! Somehow I need to make him understand that playing "Texas Flood" by SRV on this game, despite it being difficult in Expert mode, can be executed near perfectly by any half way decent gamer given 2-3 straight days of practice, if that. Now give those same gamers a real Strat and have him learn "Texas Flood" and I GUARANTEE, it will take them 3 YEARS of constant practice learning one foundation of technique and layering that upon another and in the end, most won't have the TALENT it takes to pull it off....that's ONE SONG!...a 10,000 fold magnitude of difficulty!
I need to talk this foo about it this weekend.
Re. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, spoke yesterday at Columbia University, New York. The Right is up in arms at the University for allowing this guy a platform to speak at a major US University. To paraphrase Newt Gingrich, "This man is an evil tyrant and it is an outrage that Columbia University allow him to speak!". Now he has the first point down. It is UNDENIABLE that he believes and preaches that the Holocaust is nothing but a Myth, that Jews be, and this is a direct quote, "Wiped off the face of the Earth.", and that he supports and arms Insurgent efforts in Iraq that have led to the death of both Iraqi and Americans alike,...but that's beside the point. Here me out: Columbia University President Collinger responded eloquently to the right's criticism, and again to paraphrase; "This nation is great because of it's tradition of free speech, and that we should pose questions that NO-ONE in his country are allowed to ask, and that we, and the rest of the world, and especially his own people, hear his answers."
And so it went yesterday, in exactly the way most anticipated...Ahmadinejad proved the obvious to EVERYONE; that YES, he is a tyranical petty despot. After 10 minutes of University Pres. Collinger berating him on undeniable accounts of horror and oppression, the Iranian President answered with a slippery cool arrogance. He essentially dodged most questions and spoke with condescensions as if to say that such accusations are not worth a response or require a denial.
Case and point, and this takes the cake; when asked about the (again) undeniable reports that women in his country are on the whole repressed to the extent that adultery is punishable by legally sanctioned murder, that educators and students are imprisoned for their politics, and that homosexuality is responded to with execution, the President calmly dodged the question and went off on same tangent on how his country has successfully dealt with their drug problem and drug smuggling...WHAT?!? The University President patiently waited for Ahmadinejad to finish, pointed out that he failed to answer the original question and asked him again about the government's stand and treatment of homosexuals, and his response was truly unbelievable and downright telling,..."No, we don't have the problem of homosexuality in our country, and don't have the same problem YOUR country has with homosexuals." To which the audience laughed for as long as it took them to realize he wasn't kidding in the least, at which point the laughter turned to outrage.
In a nutshell, he believes homosexuality is a "problem" that his country does not have. He makes no mention of inclusion, no talk, for christ's sake not even lip-service to tolerance, and finally NO DENIAL OF EXECUTING GAY PEOPLE.
In the end, our country's tradition of free and open speech allowed this idiot to show his true colors indeed. Collinger went so fas as to say that he would have allowed Hitler to speak at the University because megalomaniac madmen have very little ability to keep their insanity hidden.
One caveat: Please don't think I believe we should invade Iran now. For crying out loud, we've made that mistake once, lets not make it again. Unlike Saddam who was a calculating evil thug who truly believed he could take control of the Middle East, Ahmadinejad suffers from same small man inferiority complex Kim Jong Il suffers. He has no aspirations of world domination despite his belief that Islam will take over the world. He wants to establish himself as a major superpower and international player, and most of all, continue the despotic rule of his country. His people will, as the oppressed always do, see through the bullshit,...and the world should support their rising call for political reformation....no bombs required or needed.
Now as for Rave-Boy. He has a PS2 game, I think it's called "Guitar Hero" or something. The game comes with a plastic controller that's guitar shaped with 5 buttons, simulating frets, and a switch which you can strum as if you were playing a guitar. You play with music, and I have to say pretty good music at that (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Pantera, Rush, Anthrax, Ozzy, to name a few). You press the button/fret they show you to play and you strum the switch at the same time.
Now here's the kicker. Granted, in expert mode, it's pretty difficult even for me. But Rave Boy is convinced and is trying to convince me that it's nearly as difficult as the real thing...and this is driving me CRAZY! Somehow I need to make him understand that playing "Texas Flood" by SRV on this game, despite it being difficult in Expert mode, can be executed near perfectly by any half way decent gamer given 2-3 straight days of practice, if that. Now give those same gamers a real Strat and have him learn "Texas Flood" and I GUARANTEE, it will take them 3 YEARS of constant practice learning one foundation of technique and layering that upon another and in the end, most won't have the TALENT it takes to pull it off....that's ONE SONG!...a 10,000 fold magnitude of difficulty!
I need to talk this foo about it this weekend.
posted by supergoober at
4:04 PM
3 Comments:
I think that 3 years is generous considering that you are still uncomfortable with some SRV songs after 18 years of playing guitar. Why do you think guys like Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, Angus Young, Eddie VanHalen, Carlos Santana, and many more, are all able to have careers in spite not having the same lead singers that they started with. they all play the same six strings as any other Guitarist. All of those guys are distinguishable simply by how they play. Case in Point: Last weekend I went to the Steve miller concert. He had Neil Schon (from Journey) Come up on stage and they played "crossroads", a blues tune written by Robert Johnson but made famous by Eric Clapton. Neil Schon and and Steve Miller are Both Incredible guitarists. Miller learned guitar from his godfather Les Paul and taught Boz Scaggs his first chords and Schon played With Santana at the age of 15, and turned down Clapton who offered him a job playing with Derek and the Dominoes (Santana asked first)
The performance was awesome BUT it was no Clapton.
I hear ya. Sounds like a rockin concert. I've always like Schon. He really blew me away when he played in HSAS.
As for Stevie Ray, SRV's sound is completely unique. He's inspired legions to copy his very distinctive style and after (actually) 25 years of play, Sheesh I'm old, only now do I have the maturity to play some of his melodies, and not note for note at that. So much of his style is improvisational; he'll play Little Wing one way in one show and completely differently in another.
In the tribute concert after his death, Eric Clapton described hearing him play for the first time. He said was driving, listening to the radio when he heard Voodoo Chile by SRV...he was soo blown away, he had to pull over. I love the way he puts it, to paraphrase, "His ability and technique is at such a level that there are simply has no limits to his ability to actualize his inspiration", in other words, what he hears/feels in his head is perfectly translated through his body, fingers, and guitar.
He went on to say that even when he made a "mistake", playing a discordant note, "SRV would simply bend the piss out of the note to a point where it became relative to the music and to the listener". Eric is poetic man.
So your right. 3 years is generous and I should add that even after 3 years, most wouldn't even come close.
P....it's Rave Boy...what do you expect??? Guitar Hero is basically Dance Dance Revolution (or Dance Dance CounterRevolution) for lazy people. There's the advance controller with the extra button that you have to be a contortionist to hit I believe.
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