Really bizarre, embarrassing shit from The New Yorker (merged)

[Noj]

At first read I thought the article was by Sonny Rollins (I'll admit to being naive but won't beat myself up over it). I thought maybe he was bitter because the current music which is so popular and pays so well is utterly without the immense talent and dedication artists like Sonny Rollins have poured a lifetime into. After being informed it was satire, I just sort of groaned and thought, "oh, that author's a dick. I didn't know the New Yorker did that old Onion-type stuff."

Then I read the piece some tin-eared goof wrote about "jazz being out of ideas" and a bunch of other crap about music being "better with lyrics." My response there was that genres don't run out of ideas, but musicians and listeners might. All it takes is a new creative personality to bring a fresh touch to any genre. If a song with lyrics doesn't have you whistling it later, its melody isn't worth a damn. If a song without lyrics has you whistling it for days on end, it's doing everything a good song can do. Lyrics can enhance a song but aren't necessary to its success. In my experience the folks who can't appreciate a song without lyrics are less sophisticated, less eclectic listeners who haven't really wrapped their ears around what makes for quality music.

[mjzee]

Amen, brother.

[Big Beat Steve]

Then I read the piece some tin-eared goof wrote about "jazz being out of ideas" and a bunch of other crap about music being "better with lyrics." My response there was that genres don't run out of ideas, but musicians and listeners might. All it takes is a new creative personality to bring a fresh touch to any genre. If a song with lyrics doesn't have you whistling it later, its melody isn't worth a damn. If a song without lyrics has you whistling it for days on end, it's doing everything a good song can do. Lyrics can enhance a song but aren't necessary to its success. In my experience the folks who can't appreciate a song without lyrics are less sophisticated, less eclectic listeners who haven't really wrapped their ears around what makes for quality music.

Yeah that ... particularly that last sentence ... :tup

Little sympathy here with those who need "catchy" lyrics all the time to blare along with ...

[xybert]

I assume that "Editor’s note: This article, which is part of our Shouts & Murmurs humor blog, is a work of satire." was added after the brouhaha began. Otherwise, what's really bizarre and embarrassing is the hysteria expressed in this thread.

I for one found the piece hilarious, but then I'm a long time reader of The Onion, so it's no surprise.

"We always dressed real sharp: pin-stripe suits, porkpie hats, silk ties. As if to conceal the fact that we were spending all our time playing jazz in some basement."

Yup, the editor's note was added afterwards (whew, dodged that bullet!). Having said that, from the get go i think what most here had an issue with was that the article was misjudged, weird (not in a good way) and not funny.

Funny can have a lot to do with context. Personally i don't think framing it as something from the Onion helps to make it more funny (humour is subjective though!). 'Tim and Eric' works better for me, but, you know, i'd feel like i was trying too hard to do the writers job for them. It's like reading a bad sci fi novel and pretending that it was intended to be funny. So, this was supposed to be funny, but it's not funny. What if it was an Onion article? Still not funny. What if it was meta unfunny funny stuff? Yeah i guess i can enjoy it on that level.

Anyway, i just wanted to point out that for a lot of people that posted here this wasn't a "lolz facepalm we didn't get that this was a joke" thing.

[Scott Dolan]

Very well said, Capt. Howdy.

[jes1982]

http://jazztimes.com/articles/136918-notes-from-the-backlash

Notes From the Backlash New Yorker humorist Django Gold speaks

In the furor surrounding this humor column, posted in late July on the New Yorker’s “Daily Shouts” blog, one party has been mostly silent: the column’s author, Django Gold, a senior writer for The Onion. So we decided to reach out to Gold and commission a guest column on the creation of his piece and the controversy it sparked. EVAN HAGA; EDITOR, JAZZTIMES

[king ubu]

I had committed a grave injustice against Jazz Music from which the art form would not recover.

how's that for hubris?

if he wants to make fun of jazz writing, he should make fun of jazz writing and those that produce it, using a musician isn't the soundest of ways to achieve that - but then no one would ever read a piece making fun of jazz writing, so ... lame ass stuff.

[ejp626]

I had committed a grave injustice against Jazz Music from which the art form would not recover.

how's that for hubris?

if he wants to make fun of jazz writing, he should make fun of jazz writing and those that produce it, using a musician isn't the soundest of ways to achieve that - but then no one would ever read a piece making fun of jazz writing, so ... lame ass stuff.

Yeah, he's definitely a conceited d-bag. Stop digging, son...

[king ubu]

Know what? Might just be another case of satire, after all

[JSngry]

Dumbest thing ever invented?

Electric can opener.

Everything else pales in/by comparison, including this so-called "jazz".

Yeah, I'm going there.

[johnblitweiler]

Dumbest thing ever invented?

Electric can opener.

electric toothbrush

[Chuck Nessa]

Dumbest thing ever invented?

Electric can opener.

electric toothbrush

But, if I have electric teeth (I might have one) where else do I go?

[JSngry]

Before decisioning that variable, keep in mind that the electric chair was invented by a dentist.

[Noj]

[ejp626]

Before decisioning that variable, keep in mind that the electric chair was invented by a dentist.

This is an art installation that somehow manages to mix Kafka (think In the Penal Colony) and a trip to the dentist. It is pretty unsettling toward the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak6Ldat9yto

[JSngry]

[.:.impossible]

Can opener? Tooth Brush? Career!

[Larry Kart]

A Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush is excellent for warding off gum disease, and you don't want gum disease, believe me.

[Chuck Nessa]

Does it infect Hubba Bubba first?

[jlhoots]

A Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush is excellent for warding off gum disease, and you don't want gum disease, believe me.

I agree!!

[T.D.]

A Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush is excellent for warding off gum disease, and you don't want gum disease, believe me.

I agree!!

My dental hygienist suggested that I switch to an electric toothbrush, and I've been using one (a competing brand) for a few years. I think it's been effective (though I'm a moron and likely tend to autosuggestion).

Edited August 20, 2014 by T.D.

[Stefan Wood]

This qualifies as the strangest thread ever!

[Leeway]

Maybe it's a satire?

[Head Man]

This qualifies as the strangest thread ever!

...EVER?....surely not!

[Larry Kart]

Whether you feel he's good at it or not, Mr Gold was merely doing his job. The New Yorker deserves the blame for not clearly identifying the piece as satire.

An on-line interview with Gold (see post #158) makes it clear that the piece was all his bright idea, not something that the New Yorker asked/assigned him to write. So he wasn't "merely doing his job" in the sense you seem to mean.

Sonicare versus gingivitis (gum disease)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9487840