tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post3273431342183966406..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: Hate Mail - Here's A Clue, Dopey, If You're Going To Cite Something To Make A Claim Make Sure It Supports Your Claim Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-56533570690439598562018-05-05T19:49:24.027-04:002018-05-05T19:49:24.027-04:00I'll make you a deal, Simps, I'll feel emb...I'll make you a deal, Simps, I'll feel embarrassed about my typos when you get embarrassed about your lies and hypocrisy and illogic. <br /><br />So, when are you going to start your "self-banning"? The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-45928357916988621862018-05-05T19:44:27.859-04:002018-05-05T19:44:27.859-04:00No, I mean creepy little, hypocritical assholes. ...No, I mean creepy little, hypocritical assholes. <br /><br />To paraphrase Lewis Black, you've got Jewish tourettes. Blitzstein was not only a thoroughly secular atheist, he was a Stalinist, I'd look up if he ever addressed his heroes murders of Jews in such events as The Night of the Poets and the Jewish Doctors pogrom but I'm not really that interested. <br /><br />His music isn't really that interesting, his fame is largely dependent on the lore of that one performance. I would bet that hardly anyone could, cold, hum much more than a couple of the tunes from the numbers in Cradle, Nickle Under Your Foot, Art For Art's Sake, maybe the Honolulu song or the song about the Freedom of the Press. I wonder what would happen if they sang it in the Soviet Union while Stalin was around, I wonder if there was a production there. I would imagine that real Soviet unionists - those who hadn't already been shot or deported to the gulag, would have found it disgustingly hypocritical. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-53012381220899528822018-05-05T19:33:23.427-04:002018-05-05T19:33:23.427-04:00More like listening to the score while playing it ...More like listening to the score while playing it on a piano, you know, the way it was done in that legendary first performance with the composer at the piano, if I recall the fable correctly. <br /><br />You are mentally deficient. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-17659991354368390172018-05-05T19:15:08.067-04:002018-05-05T19:15:08.067-04:00"I read through the piano score for that way,..."I read through the piano score for that way, way back"<br /><br />Reading through a score is like listening to a painting.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-17045593317556320762018-05-05T18:56:11.274-04:002018-05-05T18:56:11.274-04:00"Granted, it's not as horrible as Brecht-..."Granted, it's not as horrible as Brecht-Eisler's "Mother" but it's nothing to get exited about. "<br /><br />Nothing to get exited about. Gotcha.<br /><br />Let's talk about things to get entered about. steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-72669182924721511912018-05-05T18:54:12.945-04:002018-05-05T18:54:12.945-04:00"So, Simps, I think you and creepy little Mar..."So, Simps, I think you and creepy little Marc were kindred spirits."<br /><br />You mean gay Jews???<br /><br />I'm completely shocked.<br />:-)steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-41569911885794534412018-05-05T18:32:14.163-04:002018-05-05T18:32:14.163-04:00While it doesn't give you a complete appreciat...While it doesn't give you a complete appreciation for what an asshole he was as an adult, you can read the first chapter of Marc the Music, The Brat about his childhood on Googlebooks, Especially what a manipulative little creep he was, exploiting the guilt of his mother, the reason that chapter has the sub-heading, "Mumsie, are you sorry? Are you sorry, Mumsie? is an actual quote. <br /><br />So, Simps, I think you and creepy little Marc were kindred spirits. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-86720606100793119782018-05-05T18:25:18.297-04:002018-05-05T18:25:18.297-04:00I knew it, Simps, I knew you wouldn't have the...I knew it, Simps, I knew you wouldn't have the discipline to "self-ban" yourself from my blog even with my invitation to feel free to do so. <br /><br />I read through the piano score for that way, way back. It's not a masterpiece, it's not even especially interesting. The most interesting thing is the introductory music and a few short interludes. The numbers are amusing enough in some cases, though when you consider Blitzstein was a dedicated Stalinist as he wrote it and Stalin's not only complete suppression of independent unions but his murders of any unionists or suspected unionists who aspired to independence, it's entirely hypocritical. <br /><br />Cradle isn't his best work by a long shot. If it hadn't been momentarily suppressed it would be a totally forgotten piece of turgid agit-prop. Granted, it's not as horrible as Brecht-Eisler's "Mother" but it's nothing to get exited about. The only reason it was ever revived was because of that theater-commie lore about that one performance. <br /><br />It's so funny that Marc Blitzstein has some kind of status as a bold, brave, revolutionary when he was a total asshole who loved to harang other composers for not staying within the prescribed rules of the real, right way for commie composers to compose. Read the authoritative biography of him, Marc The Music and unless you're a kindred spirit, an asshole, you'll end up thinking he was a total jerk. <br /><br />Tim Robbins, well, he came around to facing reality on voting for Hillary Clinton to prevent disaster but it took the jerk long enough to do it that it doesn't count for much. <br />The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-62171542673564717612018-05-05T18:12:48.430-04:002018-05-05T18:12:48.430-04:00Oh, BTW, Schmucko -- here's a movie review of ...Oh, BTW, Schmucko -- here's a movie review of a masterpiece you'll just fucking hate. And now, buy bye!!! :-)<br /><br /> CRADLE WILL ROCK (1999)<br /><br />Stunningly cinematic and audacious on every level, writer-director Tim Robbins's look at the collision of the Depression-era art world and politics may well be a masterpiece; at the very least it confirms that Robbins is now, officially, a major American auteur.<br /><br />The basic story (it helps to know a little history) involves the government-funded Federal Theater group, home to Orson Welles (Angus McFadyen) and gay composer Marc Blitzstein (Hank Azaria), whose pro-labor musical will be shut down on the eve of its opening, courtesy of red-baiting congressmen. Around that, there's a dizzying succession of subplots involving (among other things) the stormy relationship between Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) and radical artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades); a passel of American businessmen funding Mussolini's war machine; and paranoid, right-wing ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw (Bill Murray, in the role of his life), whose dummy walks out on him.<br /><br />Obviously, we're not talking documentary-style realism here, and Robbins stages it all in a virtuosic style that splits the difference between artsy and immediate, up to and including the taking-it-to-the-streets performance of the titular musical that's the film's thrilling finale. Hell, let's not mince words — it's downright Welles-ian. Robbins also gets sensational character performances from the likes of Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Redgrave, Emily Watson and John Turturro, and throws in a sneakily erotic scene at Rivera's loft that suggests a familiarity with Henry Miller.<br /><br />Of course, it doesn't hurt that recent events (read: the flap over the Brooklyn Museum's "Sensation" show) have made the picture's themes more than a little relevant; in fact, Robbins nails the point, brilliantly, in the film's last moment, a tracking shot down contemporary Broadway that's the most genuinely earned bit of dramatic irony in recent movie memory. -- Steve Simelssteve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-75328059531300282212018-05-05T17:33:56.206-04:002018-05-05T17:33:56.206-04:00Hey, Stupy, it's entirely in your hands if you...Hey, Stupy, it's entirely in your hands if you "self-ban," my only question is why so modest in your ambitions, "self-ban" yourself permanently and never mention me again. <br /><br />That was, actually, funny, as if you had the discipline to stop lying. <br /><br />You come here because Eschaton is so drearily predictable, the way Duncan likes it, having his collection of geezers coming back and running up his piddling profits from his agéd, addled cattle. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-34315308144455545272018-05-05T17:26:32.936-04:002018-05-05T17:26:32.936-04:00I know they told you that you can only get out wha...I know they told you that you can only get out what you put into an intellectual endeavor, Simps, but they didn't mean a. your lack of comprehension or reasoning or b. your habitual dishonesty. <br /><br />I wonder which of the playwrights I compared him to, favorably, would be considered pop-culture, Pinter, Albee or Williams . . . I don't think even Tennessee Williams would be flattered to have his work called "pop-culture" though his late short-stories are high culture only if you consider decadence high culture. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-81754650668545966822018-05-05T17:25:02.177-04:002018-05-05T17:25:02.177-04:00"The friggin' Ramones? I'd have to li..."The friggin' Ramones? I'd have to listen to them, it's been about 40 years but I don't remember them being especially harmonically complex."<br /><br />THAT'S THE POINT, YOU GORMLESS MORON. Those parts are so simple even you couldn't play them.<br /><br />Good fucking lord, you're the most obtuse asshole in recorded history. I'm outta here. In fact, I'm gonna self-ban myself around here for a month. Which won't stop you from quoting me, you self-centered insecure twit. :-)<br />steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-13359634141547255962018-05-05T17:22:17.194-04:002018-05-05T17:22:17.194-04:00The friggin' Ramones? I'd have to listen ...The friggin' Ramones? I'd have to listen to them, it's been about 40 years but I don't remember them being especially harmonically complex. <br /><br />You brought up the Principia not me, I was just noting that other than knowing the name you couldn't cite it if it was necessary. As I recall I did, actually cite one of its sections in a post but it would be pointless to search my archive as you wouldn't read it, anyway. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-79858095335211812182018-05-05T17:08:57.442-04:002018-05-05T17:08:57.442-04:00"I doubt you could navigate the first three s..."I doubt you could navigate the first three statements in the Principia"<br /><br />I doubt you could play the rhythm guitar parts on an early Ramones song.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-10485696611358040472018-05-05T17:04:13.446-04:002018-05-05T17:04:13.446-04:00Earth to Sparkles: You're the one who called A...Earth to Sparkles: You're the one who called Arthur Miller pop culture. Obviously, at this point your brain is dribbling out of your ears.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-29789960028782217232018-05-05T16:59:07.108-04:002018-05-05T16:59:07.108-04:00I have a feeling Arthur Miller wouldn't apprec...I have a feeling Arthur Miller wouldn't appreciate someone calling his work "pop-culture" and it was the alleged non-fiction of The Crucible that this argument began with, the propensity of even college educated people to mistake fictionalized distortions of history for history. I remember a number of years ago I had an argument on Eschaton, as I recall two of the actual smart people who used to go there as I stopped made that mistake, Derbes and Gromit, it shocked me that they'd do something I figured people at that level of educational achievement wouldn't do. But maybe that lapse in reality is what permits them to keep going to Duncan's post-literate play-group for play-lefties. <br /><br />I doubt you could navigate the first three statements in the Principia, I doubt you could deal with his introductory notes on the notation he used. It would require attention, something you lost through disuse. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-9412336610944560322018-05-05T16:48:18.765-04:002018-05-05T16:48:18.765-04:00"I wonder when the last time you cited someth..."I wonder when the last time you cited something other than fiction and low-brow pop culture in an argument."<br /><br />You're so right, Sparky. In an argument about fiction and pop culture, I should probably be citing PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, RALPH ROISTER-DOISTER, and something really High Modernist, like Wyndham Lewis' THE APES OF GOD.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-27111527102284740982018-05-05T16:34:28.501-04:002018-05-05T16:34:28.501-04:00I often find that's the way when trying to com...I often find that's the way when trying to communicate with people who, like you, live in post-literacy. But I can read you like a grade school primer, what you just said means, "Yikes, he's figured out what I'm doing." <br /><br />I wonder when the last time you cited something other than fiction and low-brow pop culture in an argument. I mean other than the one and only non-fiction book about the run-up to WWII you pretend to have read. But what can you expect of someone who shares a sartorial style with Roger Stone. It's not the only thing you two share. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-73286430738764300412018-05-05T15:39:40.366-04:002018-05-05T15:39:40.366-04:00Jeebus H Christ on a piece of Passover egg matzoh ...Jeebus H Christ on a piece of Passover egg matzoh — it’s like trying to have a discussion with Andy Kaufman’s Foreign Man character. Sparkles is saying stuff in some argot that seems to superficially resemble English, but is actually made up gibberish.<br />steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-59562229060980327632018-05-05T14:45:26.419-04:002018-05-05T14:45:26.419-04:00Oh, and by the way, notice how Simp is relying on ...Oh, and by the way, notice how Simp is relying on what it says in a novel a couple of comments up. He lives in a world that can't distinguish between fiction and reality. He and Trump were trained on TV and movies. He probably read a review of the book somewhere, if that. There was probably a movie. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-81058980894909066392018-05-05T14:40:46.916-04:002018-05-05T14:40:46.916-04:00The Simels' two-step, he brings up something e...The Simels' two-step, he brings up something entirely irrelevant to the discussion and when asked to explain how that refutes anything I said, he pretends that I said something I didn't. In this case it's about the stupidest thing he could have come up with because as McCarthy was an American Senator OF COURSE MCCARTHYISM WAS A PECULIARLY AMERICAN PHENOMENON. Which doesn't refute anything I said. <br /><br />It's like when Simps accuses me of denying "the centrality of Jews to the Holocaust" when the Holocaust refers ONLY to the Jewish victim of Nazi genocide so, by definition, Jewishness defines the victims of that industrial murder.<br /><br />Of course it being Simps and Simps only caring about an ethnic group he belongs to, he figures,millions of murdered Poles, Roma, Russians, etc. Meh! The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-77181953673079909992018-05-05T14:24:07.831-04:002018-05-05T14:24:07.831-04:00You attacked me for saying McCarthyism was a pecul...You attacked me for saying McCarthyism was a peculiarly American phenomenon. Which, you dimwit hick, it clearly was.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-63084341498976942852018-05-05T13:26:34.555-04:002018-05-05T13:26:34.555-04:00You really imagine that's some kind of a refut...You really imagine that's some kind of a refutation don't you. I mean, you really believe that negates what I said. <br /><br />Explain how it does that. I ask knowing that you might pull something out of your ass but it won't answer anything but you can't make it relevant. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-4881555944874336042018-05-05T13:14:11.452-04:002018-05-05T13:14:11.452-04:00Get back to me when you can name the Joe McCarthy ...Get back to me when you can name the Joe McCarthy of France or England.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-30302164345304311512018-05-05T13:07:36.459-04:002018-05-05T13:07:36.459-04:00How typically American of you, only thinking of wh...How typically American of you, only thinking of what was done to the United States when the worst thing the American Communists did was support one of the most murderous if not the most murderous series of dictatorships in human history. What HUAC did was peanuts as compared to what the commies did, one of the worst things they did here was lend legitimacy to HUAC and the red-scare. Another one was act as a weapon to use against the non-communist, non-dupe liberals and the moral left. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.com