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Eric - 2006-01-02 23:58:42
Paula: Would it be alright if I shared my film Top 10-considering I don't have a blog of my own?
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Paula - 2006-01-03 10:17:22
Absolutely.
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Dave - 2006-01-03 13:10:33
Actually, both you and your younger you are correct -- brunch is the most exciting meal of the day.
p.s. I really like the phrase "your younger you." for its three letter alliteration. I'm gonna have to use that in a song.
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Eric - 2006-01-03 14:53:27
My personal ten best.
1. Crash
2. Broken Flowers
3. The Best of Youth
4. King Kong
5. Grizzly Man
6. Match Point
7. King's and Queen
8. A History of Violence
9. The Weather Man
10. The Ice Harvest
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Paula - 2006-01-03 15:21:06
Sounds like a good list! Only saw #2 and didn't like it, but have Netflixed a bunch of the others on your list. Thanks, Eric.
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Michael - 2006-01-03 16:13:59
"p.s. I really like the phrase "your younger you." for its three letter alliteration. I'm gonna have to use that in a song."
Dave, that song writes itself. A verse occurred to me instantaneously,it's so obvious, but it's up to you to finish it:
If only you were/ Your younger you.
(Probably won't be a very popular song, though, on second thought...)
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Michael - 2006-01-03 16:16:40
I've only seen one of Eric's films, and I'm afraid we all know which one that was.
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Dave - 2006-01-03 16:49:31
Eric-
I only saw three of your top ten. I'm with ya on #s 5 and 8, but agree with Paula (who I actually saw it with) that #2 bit the big one. The whole movie reminded me of a bit of dialogue from the movie Barcelona-
Fred: Plays, novels, songs - they all have a "subtext," which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext?
Ted: The text.
Fred: OK, that's right, but they never talk about that.
Broken Flowers seemed like a bunch of subtext where everyone underplayed everything so much that they totally ignored the text, which is too bad because it's generally there to give you a clue what the subtext is.
Michael-
You call one line a verse?! What kind of half-assed songwriting attempt is that?
Sorry everyone, feeling surly today...
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2fs - 2006-01-03 17:15:45
As a cynical bastard, I'd alter Michael's two lines to: "If only you weren't just like / your younger you"
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Michael - 2006-01-03 23:58:19
Dave, it was two lines, and it contained the whole thrust for the song. There's a vast resevoir of regret out there for you to tap into now that I've practically done all the work for you....
As for 2fs, I see he noticed it was two lines, anyway, and I'm not sure which approach would be the more cynical. It's an intriguing question.
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Bob - 2006-01-04 02:05:17
Yeah, but while we're being surly, I haveta point out that 2fs didn't so much as notice that "oysters" pertained to what he had just written about "pasty and pale" the other week, in his haste to rush into huffiness (not real, I trust) about "random" blather. And I haveta [which is of course a contraction of 'I don't really have to'] weigh in that "If only you / Were your younger you" is not so much half-assed as puerile, and may not merit expansion. And that "If only you weren't just like / your younger you" is more pissy than cynical, because nobody is. But I hope I'm trying to make real points, not score "troll points", cuz there's a refreshing lack of that here.
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Michael - 2006-01-04 08:40:34
Bob, you misread the line. And anyway, the whole thing was supposed to have been a joke.
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Paula - 2006-01-04 08:45:32
Wow, everyone's a-fussin' and a-fightin' today. Nyquil hangovers?
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Dave - 2006-01-04 09:29:04
Look, just because you put a slash in-between some words doesn't mean that it's two lines. It's clearly one sentence and I'm not usin' it anyway. The actual line of the song will read-
In youngly days, your younger you was a younker in yourt.
And the chorus is just - YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUPY YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUPY YOUP YOUP YOUP shouted as loud as possible.
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Dave - 2006-01-04 09:30:17
Sorry, that should read - a younker in *a* yourt. Otherwise it doesn't make a bit sense.
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Janet - 2006-01-04 09:34:57
Paula, I have a mess of journals dating back to, oh dear, middle school or so. I don't have what it takes to sit down and read through them again, though heaven knows I could never discard them. And I don't think I want anyone else reading them. So there they sit, millions of words about my life, taking up space. Hm.
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Janet - 2006-01-04 09:36:34
"a bit a sense", perhaps?
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Dave - 2006-01-04 09:42:24
Sorry, it should read "a lick of sense." When I get all fired up about blog commentin' my typin' goes all haywire!
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Paula - 2006-01-04 10:44:43
Comments on the comments:
Bob, I never think of you as a blog troll, actually.
Dave, have you been drinking shoe polish again?
Janet: Read them! Read the journals! They will show you both how you've grown as a person and how you're exactly the same. and I bet there's some good writin'.
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Dave - 2006-01-04 11:41:08
One doesn't drink shoe polish. It's a spread, particularly good on cinnamon raisin bagels.
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Bob - 2006-01-04 12:01:31
Nah, I misspelled the line, but only in terms of punctuation(?). And I was just tryin' to disclaim/dismiss the possible appearance of snippy trollness, because I honestly think "If only you were / Your younger you" would be a puerile sentiment, if sincere. Cuz been there, done that, no matter how good it was. I can see "I wish you weren't like / Your current you", were it not so negative, but at least it could have some meat if expanded upon (and not be moot).
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Dave - 2006-01-04 12:16:18
The second verse starts with "Eulogize euthanized euchre..." and the third verse starts with "Utilize uvulas unanimously..." Really, I'm done with this. I promise.
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Jessie's Girl - 2006-01-04 12:16:33
If only I were / My younger me / But the point is definitely moot
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Michael - 2006-01-04 12:55:24
Almost all song lyrics involve puerile sentiments, and nothing but puerile sentiments. That was one point (plus it turns the whole thing inside out, since nobody that I know of has ever written song lyrics overtly bemoaning the significant other's physical decline: it's unthinkable, which kind of makes it anything but a puerile sentiment). But as I said, it was supposed to be a joke, made obvious by the comment, "...now that I've practically done all the work for you..."
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Bob - 2006-01-04 12:59:30
Gee, and I thought I'd just gotten the joke, and it was "If only you were / Your younger you / But you weren't"
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Bob - 2006-01-04 13:09:06
And it's not unthinkable, it's thought all the time, and IS puerile, dammit. Friggin' boomers.
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Michael - 2006-01-04 14:37:50
It's thought every minute of every day, but show me a song that mentions it. There are plenty of songs about "us" aging but I've never heard a single one about "you" aging.
Kids these days.
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Flasshe - 2006-01-04 15:09:34
I kept a journal for a year in college and I recently tried to find it so I could put the John Lennon tribute entry from the day he was killed on my current blog for the 25th anniversary of that day. But I couldn't find it! I know I saw it as recently as a couple of years ago. I hope the maid or one of my friends didn't run off with it. From what I remember about it, I would be mortified if anyone read it. I don't know if *I* could stand to read it these days.
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Bob - 2006-01-04 15:10:13
I'm a friggin' boomer, but maybe the reason there are no songs whining about someone aging is because most of even us have at least an inkling that that would be puerile?
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Dave - 2006-01-04 15:35:30
Michael-
Perhaps this is obvious, but saying that all song lyrics are about peurile sentiments shall not endear you to a blog whose audience (and writer) contains more than it's fair share of song-writers.
I would like to apologize for the younger, foolish me that started this whole bloody mess. Rest assured, the younger me shall receive both a stern talking-to and a whompin' as soon as I get my hands on that puerile little bastard.
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Michael - 2006-01-04 16:13:48
Dave, I said "almost" all song lyrics are about peurile sentiments, not all song lyrics (I hope there's a big difference). I think that's unfortunately self-evident, if my radio's any indication. Paula's writing, for one, is certainly an exception, and I bet yours are, too, along with most of the people here, if your general comments are any indication. As for starting a whole festival of utterly unforeseen comments, it seems that I can't make the most offhand joke or remark without starting some sort of little (or, in the case of MTA Strike Day, huge) firestorm that I neither intended nor wanted. It's an eerie experience to find oneself vainly attempting to defend and explain some offhand joke of no cosequence, and I always meant to simply be witty and mellow on this site and not suddenly find myself in unforeseen debates that I never would've intended. Perhaps I should just be quiet for a while myself for a change. So be sure to let the younger you go if you should happen to encounter him somewhere: he probably meant well.
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2fs - 2006-01-04 17:09:01
Monkeys! Cute puppies! Yeesh, y'all! Anyway, about this terrible evil disgusting divisive proto-song: Dave, if the chorus really is "YOUP YOUP YOUP" etc., Robyn Hitchcock just might sue you for plagiarism (I mean, that *is* pretty close to "yip yip yip..."). Anyway: some lyrics about youth or aging, from actually written songs by actual songwriters: "I thought she was young up until / I saw her last night in close detail" (Elvis C. "Black and White World"); "The morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age" (Rod Stewart "Maggie May"); "I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now" (Duh.) You will notice the cynical misogyny of the first two (or at least, hints that way: a lot of that in the '70s...). Dylan, of course, gets at almost the reverse of my proposed revision ("weren't your younger you"): he's talking about the energetic, open qualities of youth, which he's *learned* to value with (actual, physical) age; while I'm talking about someone who hasn't grown up (presumably, emotionally). It's that last bit, I think, that makes some folks suspect that a line like "I wish you were / your younger you" would be callow: it values physical appearance (presumably) over emotional maturity. Still, it'd be a good song as sung by Humbert Humbert to the married Lolita...
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Michael - 2006-01-04 18:11:31
"I wish you were/ Your younger you."
I saw it as sadistic; the lyrics you mentioned are one thing, but none of the singers are singing them directly to their paramours, which is what I meant when I said I don't know of anything like it.
Okay, shutting up now, I promise.
Paula, bring on the Monkey Pants!
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Paula - 2006-01-04 18:18:51
"The morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age"
The next line redeems it, though: "But that don't worry me none, in my eyes you're everything."
Incidentally, strictly in musical terms (we shan't look too closely at the goofy lyrics), "Maggie May" is one of my favorite songs, ever...it is buried deep, deep in my psyche and always cheers me up when I hear it on the radio or in a store or whatever. It is catchy and it reminds me of some happy childhood memories.
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2fs - 2006-01-04 19:28:11
"None of the singers are singing them directly to their paramours": Uh, wrong: "Maggie May" is entirely an address to said paramour. It begins, "Wake up Maggie, I think I've got something to say to you..." Anyway, Paula's right - both about the monkey pants and this song. I mean, in some ways yeah it's iffy - but it's yet another song about a guy in love despite his wishes, and it at least has the graciousness not to overly macho about it and claim a heart of stone or some such. In fact the singer's pretty vulnerable; he knows he's in over his head, is uncomfortable, but knows also he still loves her. But I'm a sappy romantic; someone else might claim it's really about a SERIAL MONKEY KILLER!!
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Michael - 2006-01-04 19:54:30
No, you're both right, you found "the exception that proves the rule" (whatever that means), and it's a standard that you still hear pretty constantly; I heard it in some store somewhere just last week. I was wrong. (Although the poor schoolboy doesn't come right out and say he wishes she were younger: "I wish you were/ Your younger you.")
I always did prefer "Every Picture Tells A Story" anyway.
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Sharps - 2006-01-05 00:03:46
Is this the right room for an argument?
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2fs - 2006-01-05 00:40:00
No, this is Abuse, you snivelling, toadbreathed puddle of steaming horsepiss! If you were any more inept you'd be President, you slat-toothed, shrivel-sac'd, sunken-ribbed pile of frangible old-lady bones!
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Bob - 2006-01-05 01:31:54
I hope that nobody thought I was in any way referring to them when I said /you/ above;; I always meant that in the paramour context. But, it's like, Eminem, ya know, he sang a lot of "I wish you weren't like / Your current you" songs at his former wife, and he certainly has a lot of pretty young fans out there who would like themselves availed of, but maybe those songs were, like, constructive, cuz him and his ex are actually planning to remarry. So, um, he is not puerile(?), at least compared to boomers, who I was broadly (not specifically) condemning for aging gracelessly (and was implying that they shouldn't be encouraged to do so by a song). And I honestly did think that I had finally gotten Michael's joke, and that it was a play on "were", saying that you had never been your younger you. Damn.
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Bob - 2006-01-05 12:05:04
Oh, and the song "New Thing", by Thatcher on Acid, addresses this aging gracelessly issue specifically to an old rocker (rather than gracelessly harping to a paramour). And Rod Stewart, somewhat ironically (cuz he's hardly everything), is actually a close fit, come to think of it, if you listen to the song. ...Which I like to do cuz of its sound.
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