Text 13719, 67 rader
Skriven 2007-04-20 21:49:29 av Josh Hill (82.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Attn JMS: The five stages of grief and  "FALLEN SON: THE     DEATH 
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On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:28:42 GMT, Amy Guskin <aisling@fjordstone.com>
wrote:

>>> On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:03:14 -0400, Josh Hill wrote
>(in article <o8dg235l9nqi0hvep0nlo6tg5cfvf0csod@4ax.com>):
>> 
>> I always had the impression that Madonna was a master of
>> self-promotion rather than an artist. No performing talent, and no
>> song-writing talent of which I'm aware -- she just seems to have
>> attached her name to songs that others wrote. <<
>
>I am probably more knee-jerk critical of female performers than ANYONE here, 
>and I include Wendy in that statement.  :-)   But I have to disagree with you 
>here, Josh -- what Madonna does may not be the highest of art forms, and she 
>may have taken credit for the creation of songs she had little to do with, 
>but as a performer?  She's top notch at what she does, and has only gotten 
>better over the years.  Her imitators can't hold a candle to her.
>
>I can take or leave her music (although I do have a _serious_ soft spot for 
>"Borderline"), but I can't fail to respect what she's done.  She is the 
>cookie cutter from which all of the untalented little cookies like Britney 
>and Jessica have sprung.  And she really _is_ better than them.  She created 
>a style, and whether you like that style or not, she knocked it out of the 
>park, and continues to do so.

I confess I haven't exactly lapped up M's music or followed her career
except insofar as it paid my bills, so it's quite possible that I'm
ranting from ignorance. But -- my problem with M's music is that it
seemed to lack any redeeming value -- musical, intellectual,
stylistic, moral. It was shallow and self-promoting and, what's worse,
it celebrated that, and I guess that struck a chord in the Reagan era.
And even if it did no /positive/ harm, each song of hers displaces an
equally-sized tune by Praetorious or Fats Waller, and in doing so it
diminishes the finite songosphere.

>>> I confess I wasn't wild about Galen either, mostly because he, well,
>> seemed to posture too much -- but then, there's a depth to the
>> technomage concept that only comes out in the books, and I assume this
>> would have made its way into the series, which just didn't have a fair
>> chance to develop. Ditto for Gideon: I suspect his character would
>> have gained depth as we learned more about the magic box. <<
>
>I'll have to jump on the "disliked Galen at first" bandwagon here, too.  As 
>with you, Josh, it took his portrayal in the books to make me warm up to him.

Ah, if only (he says, dreaming about he unmade episodes of Crusade).

>>> LOL. Am I the only one who laughed during that movie? Something about
>> the earnestness of the fake guts. I never like Spielberg when he's
>> trying to be serious, because you can see how hard he's trying, and
>> yet it's not his sensibility.<<
>
>Aw, c'mon, Jaws has its serious moments, and I think it's an excellent piece 
>of work.  I could watch that 50 times in a row and never get tired of it.

You're right, of cawse, and you make me wish I'd mentioned that
because I was wondering whether I should mention it..

-- 
Josh

[Truly] I say to you, [...] angel [...] power will be able to see that [...]
these to whom [...] holy generations [...]. After Jesus said this, he departed.

- The Gospel of Judas
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