Unpopular opinion... I don't think Eric Clapton is very great.

[Priaptor]

6 minutes ago, Jud said:

I've seen Clapton live and think he's a helluva guitarist. Absolutely love Van Morrison's music, too. But since the idiocy of the anti-lockdown song, combined with Clapton's drunken racist ravings in public before he kicked alcohol, I don't feel like giving either of them my money from streaming or downloads. I'll be content with the extensive collections of their music I already own if I want to hear something of theirs.

 

Now as an antidote to such thoughts, here:

 

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but not necessarily the dogma of "facts" when the "facts" are often being determined more by propaganda and absolutes as compared to changing paradigms to either support or refute the "facts". Unfortunately, the airtime given to certain "experts"  has usurped those of many other experts, including some of the most brilliant epidemiologists and immunologists in the world. Your comment  "idiocy of the anti-lockdown song". My perspective is that it is idiocy for any lay person, using their unknowing standing to push one way or another.

 

However, as to the veracity of the appropriateness and effectiveness of lockdowns, there are huge disparate opinions and facts to support or refute each other and the dogma of calling it idiocy to be against lockdowns may be pushing the envelop. Lockdowns have in fact proven to be disastrous on multiple fronts while doing little to stem the spread of COVID; enough examples here, in Europe and Israel  and many other countries to prove the point. On the other hand, we are seeing untoward numbers of violent crimes, domestic (including child abuse), drug overdoses, morbidity and mortality relating to lockdowns and failure to get treatment timely and the list goes on.

 

In fact, the propagandists who want us to BELIEVE one way of thinking have NOW had to admit this secondary effect to the point where they are now including these stats as "COVID related morbidity and mortality" INSTEAD of morbidity and mortality related to a particularly way of dealing with COVID, namely lockdowns. The concept of "herd immunity" another manipulated term by some has been used to denigrate, while, it is a very simple concept to understand without the need to invoke infecting the whole population with millions of deaths as some are claiming Atlas and others have been pushing for. It is strictly objective, mathematical and the formula is simple:

 

Rt= R0x (1-i) x (1-p), where Rt is infectivity after factors on the right taken into account and i is infectivity or immunized and p is mitigation such as masks, etc. The problem lies that when this became propagandized and political facts took a backseat to bullshit so you had deniers who refused the science of vaccines and masks and on the other side you had the deniers who believed that the concept of "herd immunity" could only be met with strict lockdowns and that anything else was a disaster. So the idiocy lies not with one POV but the bullshit and propaganda and the useful idiots who believe propaganda instead of science and those in the field who believe in dogma instead of the all facts, whether they fit their narrative or not. 

 

As to their song, like I said, entertainers would be better sticking to entertaining. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, Priaptor said:

As to their song, like I said, entertainers would be better sticking to entertaining. 

I was thinking about this logic. Should the same be said for welders, accountants, engineers, etc..?

 

The silence may be golden, but the lack of opinions would be boring. 

[lucretius]

2 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Other than the fact that I only like good music... There is a reason Ted Nugent and Kid Rock are not in my library.

 

Cat Scratch Fever is sort of an anthem. Although Ted's support of the NRA is abhorrent, I won't cancel him.

[Priaptor]

19 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

My Grandpa apparently just liked excitement. WW2 cured him of that I think, after that he became a normal hard working farmer for the rest of his very long life.

You bring up a very pertinent point. I am not sure how old you are. Growing up in a Brooklyn apt. you would always hear screaming couples in the hallway, see fights all the time, here from friends how the parents went crazy on them, etc. The WWII cure also had tons of untreated PTSD accounting for most of it I am sure. Coming back from these heinous experiences. Leaving from Biloxi all gung ho for the unknown finding yourself in the pacific or battlefields of Europe must have been an absurd shock to one's reality testing that few can imagine. 

[charlesphoto]

I've photographed plenty of black musician's and celebrities, including Mr Lee.. Doesn't in the least bit make me more 'woke.' But I'd rather be awake to the present than sleeping in the past.

 

Last year I was verbally harassed in the rural suburbs because I was wearing a BLM shirt from my kid's elementary school (which is majority African-American). I was waiting outside a small coffee shop because some maskless contractor dude was inside (how do I know he was a contractor? The Carhartt overalls and giant pickup truck parked diagonally across two spaces was the dead giveaway). When he came out he spotted my shirt and started frothing about how it was a terrorist organization etc. I finally lost it and told him to 'f*ck off. Of course he acted all hurt and said it proved his point. Dude, I told him, I was just wanting to get a coffee and YOU are the one that started going off on ME - not to mention  exposing the young women working the coffee shop because you are not abiding by the mask mandate (it pissed me off when I spotted him inside but I wasn't going to say anything until he started in on me). I have every right to tell you to go f*ck yourself, I told him. He kept sputtering nonsense as he got into his giant pickup. Talk about a one way street. 

[AnotherSpin]

30 minutes ago, Jud said:

I've seen Clapton live and think he's a helluva guitarist. Absolutely love Van Morrison's music, too. But since the idiocy of the anti-lockdown song [...]

 

Anti-lockdown song is not a single iota more idiotic than a pro-lockdown song if there would be any, imo.

 

[Priaptor]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I was thinking about this logic. Should the same be said for welders, accountants, engineers, etc..?

 

The silence may be golden, but the lack of opinions would be boring. 

There is a difference. Most of today's opinions are coming from people who have no to little knowledge of the topic they opine about that I call the "copy and paste" mentality where someone claims a fact no matter how absurd, another (snopes for example) validates it and now it is accepted truth. Hey even the experts today often are influenced by the same propagandist garbage. Some of the medical journals and science journals are filled with this crap.

 

I have no issue with "opinion" just those who are make baseless dogmatic opinion based loosely or without factual backups. Like I said, the NET has made everyone an armchair expert about everything with dumb conspiracy theory flying everywhere from both sides of the isle. "The idiocy of anti-lockdowns" just one but by no means the only. AND I don't mean to go after Jud as he is one of the most informed out there but unfortunately he made the statement and I use it to make a point. 

[charlesphoto]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I was thinking about this logic. Should the same be said for welders, accountants, engineers, etc..?

 

The silence may be golden, but the lack of opinions would be boring. 

A couple of years back we had a stove repairman at the house. While working on the stove he started in about how the 'bad kids' (i.e. code for black - I know how to read between the lines) should be put into special segregrated schools etc. I just ignored him. And then as we were settling up somehow he mentioned that he was originally from Monsanto (next door to Aberdeen). I asked if he'd ever run into Kurt Cobain  as he seemed to be about my age. Oh, yeah, he said, good riddance to that guy, and that he had laughed when he killed himself. I said nothing but couldn't get that ass out of my house fast enough and won't call that company again. Why should celebrities be treated any differently in our lives? 

[charlesphoto]

10 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Anti-lockdown song is not a single iota more idiotic than a pro-lockdown song if there would be any, imo.

 

Then why do either? Especially if you are sitting pretty in your country estate. Perhaps a song or album supporting the front line workers might be more appropriate, with proceeds going to the NHS. Mogwai did it, why couldn't those two rich f*cks. 

[Priaptor]

8 minutes ago, charlesphoto said:

I've photographed plenty of black musician's and celebrities, including Mr Lee.. Doesn't in the least bit make me more 'woke.' But I'd rather be awake to the present than sleeping in the past.

 

Last year I was verbally harassed in the rural suburbs because I was wearing a BLM shirt from my kid's elementary school (which is majority African-American). I was waiting outside a small coffee shop because some maskless contractor dude was inside (how do I know he was a contractor? The Carhartt overalls and giant pickup truck parked diagonally across two spaces was the dead giveaway). When he came out he spotted my shirt and started frothing about how it was a terrorist organization etc. I finally lost it and told him to 'f*ck off. Of course he acted all hurt and said it proved his point. Dude, I told him, I was just wanting to get a coffee and YOU are the one that started going off on ME - not to mention  exposing the young women working the coffee shop because you are not abiding by the mask mandate (it pissed me off when I spotted him inside but I wasn't going to say anything until he started in on me). I have every right to tell you to go f*ck yourself, I told him. He kept sputtering nonsense as he got into his giant pickup. Talk about a one way street. 

So there you go you proved the point of anecdote justifying and proving your biased angst for some. You are now a proven woke person by anecdote. Incredible how you fell the legitimacy by your views to legitimize the warped and inane view of the right wing contract worker, etc. LMAO. 

 

Yeah, well I know of many religious Jews in Crown Heights back in the Sharpton lets get the Jew days false narrative who were abused and attacked by blacks in their own communities. In fact, to this day in Williamsburg and Crown Heights there are still Jews being attacked by blacks with those attacks being posted on Twitter and elsewhere. 

 

Claiming anything from anecdote sucks and why my tongue in cheep example above has as much usefulness as tits on a bull as your politically biased anecdote. 

[sphinxsix]

Once I was punched in the face without any reason or warning, while walking down the 5th or 6th Av in Manhattan after midnight. The guy was a well, better than me, built black man about 30. Probably on crack - he was talking to himself, moving forth and back - a normal thing in NY back then, I didn't pay much attention while passing him.. till I felt the punch on my jaw that is. As it happened - this was the second time in my life I got punched in the face without any reason or warning - the first time took place in Paris a couple years earlier, that guy was also black - he was exiting a subway train while I was waiting to enter it, simply punched me in the face while leaving it. My friends stopped me from moving quite aggressively towards him to explain what was going on and just dragged me into the train.

After the Manhattan event however, I came to the conclusion that if I don't react this time I may have some racist problem deep inside, so I decided to act. I turned around after a minute or two and followed the guy who soon noticed that I was following him and managed to lose his 'tail' that is me after a couple of minutes. I didn't give up though and I was walking around the area till I found him . He was standing on the corner of an avenue in a relatively bright light and I was approaching him walking down quite dark street. I was walking towards him like an angry, self-assured bull with my eyes pointed at his, waiting for the moment when he spots me. He did - when I was 15-20 meters away, and he recognized me of course, I saw fear and hesitation in his eyes. 'What's up, man?' he shouted. I thought 'In a moment you will see what's up moth.....r..'. I quickly stopped, spread my feet quite wide and reached for a gun that I had under my under jacket, which I quickly pointed at him. At this point - I should add a non-existing gun which unfortunately he had no chance to see as such, cause the place where I stood was much darker than where he was. What happened next.? You've guessed it right - I didn't shoot him, what happened next was actually my witnessing to what I bet was a beating of the 400m world record. In addition zigzagging. I can't prove this was a 400m zigzagging world record though.

 

This is how I've managed to avoid becoming a racist (at least a small one in some well hidden corner of myself).

 

I can't prove it though @Priaptor..

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

28 minutes ago, charlesphoto said:

A couple of years back we had a stove repairman at the house. While working on the stove he started in about how the 'bad kids' (i.e. code for black - I know how to read between the lines) should be put into special segregrated schools etc. I just ignored him. And then as we were settling up somehow he mentioned that he was originally from Monsanto (next door to Aberdeen). I asked if he'd ever run into Kurt Cobain  as he seemed to be about my age. Oh, yeah, he said, good riddance to that guy, and that he had laughed when he killed himself. I said nothing but couldn't get that ass out of my house fast enough and won't call that company again. Why should celebrities be treated any differently in our lives? 

Wow. 

[AudioDoctor]

My girls were talking about the mock election for kids that they participated in last year, while a couple guys were here working on the house. The girls were talking about the candidates in the ways you would expect a 6 and 8 year old to discuss these things, when one of them, we'll call him the dumber one, decided to pipe up and interject his thoughts into the discussion. That was put to a stop immediately and he and his co worker were told to pack their stuff and leave immediately.

 

My first thought after that was, does he make a habit of arguing with little kids about politics? Does he do this because he can't "win" an argument with an adult? Why not just do the job and keep your mouth shut, it would probably be better for business.  He did say he was going to sue me for violating his free speech rights...  So far, I haven't heard anything about a lawsuit... 

[Tokyokyoto]

6 hours ago, charlesphoto said:

He's atrocious IMO, esp with that anti-lockdown ditty he and Van Morrison released a couple of months back. Funny thing, is, for some reason I had a few Clapton records in Roon (I think they were put there when I first signed up for Tidal years ago and downloaded the 'essentials' or something like that) and I deleted them because of that song. Guess what? Next thing Roon is suggesting that conservative screed to me on the home page. So much for their algorithms...

 

 

What do conservative viewpoints have to do with racism?  Shame on you!

[christopher3393]

as i saw it:

 

 

 

 

 

[sphinxsix]

34 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Once I was punched in the face without any reason or warning, while walking down the 5th or 6th Av in Manhattan after midnight. The guy was a well, better than me, built black man about 30. Probably on crack - he was talking to himself, moving forth and back - a normal thing in NY back then, I didn't pay much attention while passing him.. till I felt the punch on my jaw that is. As it happened - this was the second time in my life I got punched in the face without any reason or warning - the first time took place in Paris a couple years earlier, that guy was also black - he was exiting a subway train while I was waiting to enter it, simply punched me in the face while leaving it. My friends stopped me from moving quite aggressively towards him to explain what was going on and just dragged me into the train.

After the Manhattan event however, I came to the conclusion that if I don't react this time I may have some racist problem deep inside, so I decided to act. I turned around after a minute or two and followed the guy who soon noticed that I was following him and managed to lose his 'tail' that is me after a couple of minutes. I didn't give up though and I was walking around the area till I found him . He was standing on the corner of an avenue in a relatively bright light and I was approaching him walking down quite dark street. I was walking towards him like an angry, self-assured bull with my eyes pointed at his, waiting for the moment when he spots me. He did - when I was 15-20 meters away, and he recognized me of course, I saw fear and hesitation in his eyes. 'What's up, man?' he shouted. I thought 'In a moment you will see what's up moth.....r..'. I quickly stopped, spread my feet quite wide and reached for a gun that I had under my under jacket, which I quickly pointed at him. At this point - I should add a non-existing gun which unfortunately he had no chance to see as such, cause the place where I stood was much darker than where he was. What happened next.? You've guessed it right - I didn't shoot him, what happened next was actually my witnessing to what I bet was a beating of the 400m world record. In addition zigzagging. I can't prove this was a 400m zigzagging world record though.

 

This is how I've managed to avoid becoming a racist (at least a small one in some well hidden corner of myself).

 

I can't prove it though @Priaptor..

 

 

 

Yet, I must state it clearly, if any of these two guys who punched me in the face issued some great music, I'd be ready to buy it..(which probably proves how sick I am ) 😀

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'm much more a fan of Hendrix work than Clapton.

[lucretius]

5 minutes ago, Tokyokyoto said:

What do conservative viewpoints have to do with racism?  Shame on you!

 

Exactly!  Unless one confuses conservatism with Trumpism.

[lucretius]

3 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

 

Yet, I must state it clearly, if any of these two guys who punched me in the face issued some great music, I'd be ready to buy it..(which probably proves how sick I am ) 😀

 

I'd buy the music too but I'd still welcome the opportunity to return the punches, LOL.

[sphinxsix]

14 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I'm much more a fan of Hendrix work than Clapton.

 

Someone said it at last! Let me declare it officially now: Hendrix is God!

(at least to audiophiles, it's been proved in the above mentioned thread)

 

And Coltrane too of course.

 

 

 

[sphinxsix]

5 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

I'd buy the music too but I'd still welcome the opportunity to return the punches, LOL.

 

I guess if one has won a certain number of fights in his life, he then can just move on in such circumstances, especially if he almost shot the guy 

 

 

[lucretius]

1 minute ago, sphinxsix said:

 

I guess if one has won a certain number of fights in his life, he then can just move on in such circumstances, especially if he almost shot the guy 

 

 

 

You mean with that "non-existing" gun? 😃

[Priaptor]

50 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Once I was punched in the face without any reason or warning, while walking down the 5th or 6th Av in Manhattan after midnight. The guy was a well, better than me, built black man about 30. Probably on crack - he was talking to himself, moving forth and back - a normal thing in NY back then, I didn't pay much attention while passing him.. till I felt the punch on my jaw that is. As it happened - this was the second time in my life I got punched in the face without any reason or warning - the first time took place in Paris a couple years earlier, that guy was also black - he was exiting a subway train while I was waiting to enter it, simply punched me in the face while leaving it. My friends stopped me from moving quite aggressively towards him to explain what was going on and just dragged me into the train.

After the Manhattan event however, I came to the conclusion that if I don't react this time I may have some racist problem deep inside, so I decided to act. I turned around after a minute or two and followed the guy who soon noticed that I was following him and managed to lose his 'tail' that is me after a couple of minutes. I didn't give up though and I was walking around the area till I found him . He was standing on the corner of an avenue in a relatively bright light and I was approaching him walking down quite dark street. I was walking towards him like an angry, self-assured bull with my eyes pointed at his, waiting for the moment when he spots me. He did - when I was 15-20 meters away, and he recognized me of course, I saw fear and hesitation in his eyes. 'What's up, man?' he shouted. I thought 'In a moment you will see what's up moth.....r..'. I quickly stopped, spread my feet quite wide and reached for a gun that I had under my under jacket, which I quickly pointed at him. At this point - I should add a non-existing gun which unfortunately he had no chance to see as such, cause the place where I stood was much darker than where he was. What happened next.? You've guessed it right - I didn't shoot him, what happened next was actually my witnessing to what I bet was a beating of the 400m world record. In addition zigzagging. I can't prove this was a 400m zigzagging world record though.

 

This is how I've managed to avoid becoming a racist (at least a small one in some well hidden corner of myself).

 

I can't prove it though @Priaptor..

 

 

Nice story BUT two points and I digress with those two points:
1. "The guy was a well, better than me, built black man about 30. Probably on crack". Some here consider that racist on it's face for such a generalization, no?

2. Are we going this person a pass for his criminal act because he was "probably on crack" as an explanation yet Clapton, on drugs and alcohol deserves no such leeway? A double standard?

 

In any case, it is a dangerous world and as the expression goes I rather have my CCW and not need it than need it and not have it. 

[sphinxsix]

Just now, lucretius said:

 

You mean with that "non-existing" gun? 😃

 

It's much more difficult to (almost) shoot a guy with a non-existing gun, believe me or check it out for yourself! 

 

[Tokyokyoto]

16 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

Exactly!  Unless one confuses conservatism with Trumpism.

Well that depends on what your perception of “Trumpism” is.