Note: Avoid Lily of the Valley
 

From Reuters:

Sperm Turned on by Lily of the Valley

BERLIN (Reuters) - Human sperm become excited when exposed to the scent of lily of the valley, doubling their speed and homing in on the aroma, a German scientist said on Wednesday.

Hans Hatt, a biology professor at Ruhr University in Bochum, said knowledge about a newly discovered odor receptor on the sperm's surface could enable researchers to devise alternative contraception methods or ways to boost fertility.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rmany_sperm_dc

Note: Avoid Lily of the Valley
 

Any word on how they respond to Eau de Chicken of the Sea?

Note: Avoid Lily of the Valley
 

It's very confusing for them. Imagine millions of sperm trying to decide whether the chicken or the egg comes first.

just for you Paigow
 

More drama Queens...




http://www.usatoday.com/life/gallery/family/rivers.jpg

Note: Avoid Lily of the Valley
 

If I didn't know better, I'd say that was an obvious set-up. Very funny, bilmore.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Interesting. I don't see much of a difference at all. You like to over-generalize by saying "genre," but when I see someone convert someone else's style as best they can, that seems more dishonest. For example, Gauguin might not have reproduced actual pieces by Tahitian artists, but in my opinion, his work after his stay there is less "influenced by" and more "stolen from" Tahitians. Skeelo (in this case) is not implying that he is the genius behind that particular line. He picked it out BECAUSE it was recognizable.

And I can't speak to Skeelo's exact "stolen" stanza, but you can't really call it thievery when artists now get permission and pay the original artist an arm and a leg for each sample.

I think rap music is creative in that it takes bits and pieces of all types of music and transforms it into something new. I believe that's the very definition of postmodern. I also think it's not so unique a practice among black people who have historically had to make do with less resources. Can't afford to form a band? No instruments? No problem. Two turntables and a microphone. Create some beats, find a sample and get to it.

TM

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Interesting that when blacks copy someone else's style or just lift their lyrics outright, you call that creative. When whites such as elvis improve on a style, its stealing from the have nots. Just a bit biased are you, TM, eh?

huh?
 

I regret to inform you that Paigow is, in fact, all of the above. This poster, for one, tunes in largely to enjoy her well-turned bitchicisms. If you don't relish her, you're not living life to the fullest.

Beeyatch has earned her regal status.

Sorry.

Bathrobes...
 

I got my big fluffy, love to spend hours and hours and hours in it, bathroobe at Earthsake. I think that this is it. It's thick and warm and fluffy and absolutely wonderful.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Skeelo's appropriation of a familiar lyric is different from using a sample of a song. His use is more of an homage that appears in many different musical genres, but it is common within hip-hop.

Since De La Soul and Steely Dan, sampling is different from outright theivery because royalties are paid.

Interestingly, it's often a badge of honor for an independent artist to reach a large enough audience that they have to start paying for their samples.

Bathrobes
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by mmm3587:
Can anyone reccomend a nice, reasonably priced (less than $100, less than $150?) terry cloth bathrobe. I'm always close to buying the ones that nicer hotels have, but I figured I should ask here first.

MMM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a Nautica Bathrobe that I got for Xmas that I'm sure was relatively reasonable and I love it.

The 4 Seasons Bathrobe is $95.00 - monogramming is extra.

-TL

Movie recommendations?
 

I couldn't get through this movie because I couldn't get past the dubbing. Give me subtitles any day. The DVD that I rented didn't have any other option and it bugged the hell out of me to the point that it rendered the movie unwatchable for me. I'm going to have to hunt down another version because aside from the distracting dub, it looked pretty cool.

sampling
 

Sampling is fine if it's by an artist or group (like De la Soul) that actually has musical talent. By someone like P.Diddy, it's a shameless coverup for a complete lack of ability (though I don't doubt his abilities as a producer/promoter). If you have no musical talent, for god's sake don't be a musician.

As to copying other people's styles, everyone rips off everyone else in cycles. How else to explain, for example, the ten thousand impossible-to-tell-apart unreasonably-pissed-off-screaming-middle-class-white-white-guy bands right now? But as always, the first and best have the satisfaction of knowing they started it. If not the cash, which they should also have of course.

Movie recommendations?
 

I actually saw it in the theater. Don't know about the DVD, but I imagine there must be a version w/o the dubbing.

edit: spelling

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Elvis became popular by watering down a style so that it had mass appeal. For you, that may be improvement, but that is because you are one of the people with bland musical tastes - the people to whom Elvis was being marketed. It is not your fault you cannot take the real shit - you have lead a sheltered life, and it is hard for you to conceive of anything outside the boundaries of that sheltered life.

The use of a digital sampler to create new music from pre-recorded music is not just a black thing. It is a technique that is used in both hip hop and modern dance music/electronica, and the many variations and hybrids of hip hop, electronica, turntablism, whatever. A lot of the most creative stuff going on in music these days involves the manipulation of already-recorded music and sounds, sometimes combined with live instruments, sometimes not.

Movie recommendations?
 

Ours started dubbed, too. It took a little while but we found the subtitles.

Why do they dub movies?

Melissa Rivers' Boobs
 

Didn't someone say that Melissa Rivers has breast implants? I would sure as hell be pissed if I ended up looking like that after I had paid good money for breast implants.

I can't believe those are fake. Note to self - find out who Melissa Rivers' plastic surgeon is so that you avoid him or her should the need ever arise.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Note to all, when you quote it, I have to read its posts. Please limit your quoting of it to emergencies only.

-TL

Melissa Rivers' Boobs
 

One gets the feeling that photos like these will be used in med schools in one hundred years to show how primitive plastic surgery was back in the day.

I am more troubled by Joan's boobs. After all the work on her face, the natural little droopy boobs dont seem to belong. Was she hoping that all the face lifts would yank the boobs up as well? I dont get it.

sampling
 

His "sampling" is unreal. He basically records the rap track over an instrumental version of the song.

I never paid much attention to his own music until I was standing with some friends in a club when the dj spun the Diana Ross song he used for "Mo Money, Mo Problems." My friends did his "rap" over the song and never missed a beat.

Even(I'd hate him, but he gave us Mary J Blige)Odds

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

So, when someone who has not dabbled in classical tries it, it's stealing? When blues spread, it's been misappropriated? (BTW, I didn't even know that the song in question was rap - so, to your disappointment, my comment wasn't a racial thing.)

You're taking this way too seriously. I simply meant that to copy, word-for-word, someone else's lyrics and drop them into your own song seems plagiaristic to me. Sampling seems different, as it is clear what's going on. Think most of the listeners to your song know who Buffalo Springfield was?

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

You are an idiot without the benefit of even one rational thought in your head.

I never said Elvis and other white artists weren't creative. I was asking Bilmore what the difference was between his type of "theft" and sampling. In fact, if there was any connection between what you read and what you understand, you would have seen that I put both types of "stealing" in pretty much the same category. Thus my question: what's the difference?

And your conclusion that Elvis improved upon a style is 100% subjective.

It is clear that you are a troll or an annoying sock (which is why your name is "justforfun") and therefore not worth my time or attention.

Thurgreed(if you post and no one can read it because you're being ignored, is it really a post?)Marshall

Melissa Rivers' Boobs
 

Well, she'd look like an idiot if she did the unnaturally-high helium-floaters that say Carmen Electra has. As it is, she merely has that freakish stretched perpetually-surprised look. Perhaps she's better just stopping there than extending the damage to farther down.

sampling
 

What's sad is that I've had to hold several educational sessions with kids in order to explain that no, the Police didn't steal anything from P. Diddy or whatever he's called these days.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Let me guess, next you are going to tell me that blacks can't be racists because they were the oppressees?

In defense of Elvis
 

Pat Boone became popular by watering down scary black folks music for the growing white suburbs. Hell, Pat Boone (and his ilk) watered down the original "white" versions of the "black" music. And, admittedly, as Elvis became more a commodity, he became pretty watered down as well.

But the early Elvis stuff (Sun Records and early RCA) is hardly watered down. Inspired by the blues and gospel that came before it, but not no more a rip-off than the work of the more creative elements of modern hip hop. And Scotty Moore's guitar kicked ass.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

I didn't make that very clear - let me try again. Sampling seems to be the the musical equivalent of a cited assertion. Dropping someone else's words into your own verse is the unsourced version - there's not the affirmative acknowledgment that you are using someone else's work that sampling provides.

In defense of Elvis
 

And Stone Temple Pilots became popular by watering down Pearl Jam. What's your point?

Melissa Rivers' Boobs
 

Agreed, but still stunned by the fact that so many guys actually like the way Carmen Electra's and Pamela Anderson Lee Kid Rock's look.

I think she would look fine if she didn't have her brows lifted so much. The rest looks fine.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

So you have the same exact problem with Tom Petty's "Last Dance with Mary Jane" and the "borrowing" of some lyrics from Steve Miller's "Dance, Dance, Dance"?

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

I think most recognized the lyrics, even if they did not know the name of the original artist. Which is why he did it. Hip hop artists are constantly referencing other lyrics, whether they be hip hop lyrics or lyrics from elsewhere, in their songs. They do it intentionally, with the understanding or hope that the listener will catch and appreciate the reference.

In defense of Elvis
 

I don't disagree. I just wanted to call JFF bland, because despite my repeated offers to sex her up, she does not even acknowledge my existence. I think she has used the ignore feature on me. Bitch. Super hot, perky-breasted, lithe and well-toned bodied bitch. The more aloof she is, the more determined I am to make her love me. In a purely physical sense.

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Yes. Of course. That's exactly what I'm implying.

Actually, I was trying to ask you why you thought there was such a big difference between someone taking a style, copying it and holding themselves out like they're some huge genius and lifting a recognizable line from a recognizable song. But I no longer care.

Sometimes, to your disappointment, you really come off as an asshole. Initially, I was kidding with you. When is the last time you saw me put a smiley into a post? Jesus Christ. I was messing with you because we always have this argument.

Actually, after the initial joke, I was trying to have a normal discussion with you. Clearly that's impossible.

I know what you meant. And the plagiarism accusation is ridiculous. As I said, the line was chosen because it is so recognizable. I think any implication that he was trying to pretend that he made it up is stupid. I'm sure most of his listeners have no idea who Buffalo Springfield was. But I'm even more sure that they have all heard that song at one point or another.

Thurgreed(whatever)Marshall

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Had I ever heard (or maybe just remembered) either song, I would try to answer. If Petty just copies Miller's words into his own song, with no outward acknowledgment, then, I probably would have the same problem.

Or, Maybe Joe Biden was just very, very artistic.

In defense of Elvis
 

My point? Just that early on, Elvis rawked, and was doing a whole lot more than watering down blues and gospel.

And STP were more a flat rip off than watered-down anything. Pearl Jam, otoh, became popular by watering down lots of more interesting stuff that was going on in the great NW (e.g. Green River, which Gossard and Ament were actually in, Mudhoney, early Soundgarden, Melvins, Nirvana). Which bands were, in turn, largely playing Sabbath through a punk rock lens.

Ollie (don't get me started on the late 80s NW music scene) Ramone

In defense of Elvis
 

Ozzie as The Source Of All?

I wish I was a little bit taller....I wish I was a baller
 

Sorry if I missed the joke. I have taken the same theme from you in the past, thought it was a joke to start with, and been burned, so, if I'm paranoid, at least I'm an informed paranoid.

In defense of Elvis
 

This is a brilliant and subtle tying together of threads, because JFF has been accused of being a watered down version of Paigow.