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AFARRARAF

 I was having a convo about internet culture over on ONTD, and out of curiosity, I checked how long I've had an LJ.

Whoaaaa a conversation about internet culture on ONTD?
Probably went something like
PEOPLE ARE MEAN IN THE INTERNET TRIGGER WARNING TRIGGER WARNING CISGENDERS DIE :((((((((((((((((

I HAVE BEEN ON LJ FOR OVER 10 YEARS. I AM A DINOSAUR.

I've been on the internet for like
16 years so fuck your bullshit.

When I'm working, I tend to have something on tv or my laptop-- looking up helps me refocus my eyes, which helps me work longer. And I don't know why, but I don't find things with dialogue and plot as distracting as I do, say, music.

Uh-huh.
No that's perfectly rational.
IT'S OK BOSS WATCHING TV HELPS ME FOCUS.
You know if I tried that at my job--
I'd probably get in trouble.

So, Amanda Palmer has been asking musicians on her tour stops to volunteer for free, playing several songs in her sets.

1. Who is Amanda Palmer?
2. Why does she hate America?

On the surface, this seems pretty benign. I've seen a lot of people who don't work as professional creatives ask "what's the big deal?" Indeed, these volunteers get to hobnob with someone they like and admire, make a little music, and have a fun experience they can talk about on their blog. I want to make it clear that I'm not upset at the volunteers (I even know one). I get the impulse. Truly, I do. And I am not okay with people who are labeling those who volunteered at Amanda's show "scabs" or any other number of nasty names called.

THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON JESUS AND CAPITALISM.
WHY DOES AMANDA PALMER HATE CAPITALISM?
I BET SHE HATES JESUS TOO.

My ire is reserved for Amanda Palmer, who should fucking well know better, especially after being formerly outspoken about paying artists. Well, when it suited her, I guess.

>formerly outspoken
Yeah now she's raking it in so--
well, you know.
Intelligent people change their stance when new evidence comes to light.

When an established, well-known musician says to lesser-known musicians, "play my gig for free," they are taking advantage, pure and simple. There's an entirely different power dynamic going on. If you ask me, it's not terribly different from the label system where the corporation has the artist working for scraps, for "exposure," and for little to no money. Amanda Palmer is all about fighting against that kind of injustice from labels-- so why is she essentially feeding right back into it by asking for freebies from her fellow musicians?

Because the ends justify the means.
Also apparently Amanda Palmer is established and well-known.
No joke I have no clue who she is.
Her official website is called "The Official Website of Amanda Fucking Palmer".
I dunno, when I say "someone fucking last name" it's usually somebody like "Julius fucking Caesar".

I mean, I get the "fun experiment" angle to asking fans to join her onstage. Why not have jam sessions? Do it for charity gigs where nobody gets paid? If it's about fan interaction, or creative exploration, there are totally ways to accomplish this. When you monetize it, and have unpaid musicians supporting your livelihood, it becomes inherently exploitative.

I think you misunderstood her.
She was against this kind of exploitation when she was getting exploited.
Now that she's doing the exploiting, well--

(And I'm showing my bias here, but this kind of exploitation seems to be more and more common, both in the arts and with Amanda Palmer specifically.) And the "exposure" angle, lemme tell you, is not all it's cracked up to be. Sure some volunteers might have an album to hawk at the gig. Most won't. Nobody's gonna ask who that one sax player was, and where they can buy his band's album.

 Well maybe the sax player should up his ante.

...but she wants seven to eight musicians a night, free of charge (well, for hugs and beer).

She can afford all the bells and whistles and nifty whatsits, but she conveniently "can't afford" a relatively modest fee set aside to pay one-stop guest musicians. This shows pretty clearly what the priorities are, and highlights a trouble in many artistic industries-- people just don't want to pay for artists to work for them.

What, did she hold a gun to their head?
If they want money maybe they shouldn't collectively price themselves for free.
I wouldn't go to my job if they didn't pay me.
I like my job fine but I wouldn't do it for nothing.
 People need to stop acting like making money is selling out.
No, that's getting paid for what you love to do.
We should all be that lucky.

Or they want to pick and choose who is worth payment and who's not, while getting valued services from both. Both equally problematic.

If I played an instrument and Amanda Palmer, whoever that is, told me to play for her for nothing I'd tell her to fuck herself.
How about musicians grow a set and tell this cunt to go screw.

Here's the thing. Fans paid for the album via Kickstarter. They're paying for the tour via Kickstarter. She admitted she asks for fans to "crowdsource" her meals on tour. And now she's asking for free performances. All in the name of "let's hang out and have a fun time, man," which, in and of itself, does not sound like a problem, even though she's not some no-name, trying-to-make-it artist. 

She sounds like a marketing genius to me.

...basically, as a former fan, it sucks to see what she's become. Someone okay with hipster racism, pretend-raping someone onstage for lulz, emotionally abusing a loved one for "art," making fun of legit criticism (of EvelynEvelyn) by a disabled critic on tv, and now "pay the artist except when I 'can't'." It's all pretty vile.

Machiavelli would be proud.
I kinda like her, not going to lie.
I'm not looking at her stupid face, her website or listening to any of her music because I'm sure my favor would quickly turn but based just on this she sounds ok.

That said, since I know this may come up: if you want to discuss Neil Gaiman, go ahead. But stick to his words and actions regarding Amanda's work. I will freeze anything that's "I can't believe my precious Neil Gaiman married her." It's not the point. There's plenty to talk about without going there. Ditto for sexist namecalling, or criticizing her eyebrows. 

Neil Gaiman is an idiot, though. I wouldn't marry that snake.
Gay-man, you can respect her without having to stick it in her, bro.
One day I will bring all people to wisdom.

Man. I wish this were a public entry.

Says one comment.
...
I'm now left with the perplexing reality that I wield the power to see friends only entries.
This is the lamest super power ever.
But still, that's one more super power than you plebeians have.

Called in sick yesterday. The fever had passed, but my stomach was still in full riot. Overall, my symptoms were high fever, muscle stiffness, stomach ailments (being polite here), headache, confusion. Ariel called to check on me, knowing J was out of town last night. Oh, and hey, they've been spraying my neighborhood for West Nile because a dude passed away from it very nearby. Peachy.

WHOAAAAAAAA.
You work in a cubicle and almost die of the bubonic plague.
I work in the canticle of filth and retard germs known as a public school and I'm only now coming down with a cold.
Man I am awesome.
I had a 7th grader almost vomit on me last week.
Nary a scratch.

Last week both emotionally and physically wore me out. I did have a very uplifting day yesterday at the Inappropriate Hafla, spending time among friends who genuinely like and support one another. Every time people are shitty, I just have to remind myself: my dance sisters and the dance community here are amazing. 

Yeah man I had to keep 3rd graders occupied today while kinda sick.
You don't hear me bitching.

First my laptop died (hard drive crash). Then an old laptop I borrowed from my mother died (not sure why, exactly... I think she got a virus before and needs to re-install Windows). Then a tech confirmed for us that our modem isn't updating properly and needs to be replaced (will be tomorrow morning). I'm currently on a laptop of J's known as "the lemon" for its penchant for rebooting itself.

Watching people try to use computers is a frustrating experience.
I saw a kid today click on Internet Explorer 17 times then wonder why it was slow.
There are 17 windows open, kid.
I cut him some slack because he's 8 but when you're still doing that at 21 it's time to LEARN SOME FUCKING PATIENCE.

Okay, first of all-- I'm gonna be talking about rape in comedy here. Fair warning. I don't tend to lj-cut these things unless they get explicit-- but if you feel like I should cut this, please let me know, and I will comply. 

TRIGGER WARNING.
TW.
TW.

 So, you guys know about the Daniel Tosh thing? 

Oh boy let me summarize.
This woman seems to think this needs 3 links to entire pages of text and a Youtube video to summarize.
Let's see if I can manage it in less.
Comedian Daniel Tosh made a rape joke, some woman got bitchy at him (heckler) so he sort of implied she should be raped.
Don't heckle professional comedians because they'll say horrible things to you.
That's how it goes.
I heckled a comedian once and he called me an asshole.
It's what happens.

Anyway, what I find extremely fucking disheartening is just how many fucking people are using the "he's a comedian! What did you expect? Don't go see comedy! It's your fault if you're offended!" reasoning that's often espoused by people who can barely figure out how opposable thumbs work.

It is your fault if you're offended.
Daniel Tosh is a comedian well known for being offensive but still acting casually.
That's his entire bit.
Don't go to his routine.
His comedy is built around being offensive.
Personally I find unfunny twats who inexplicably make millions for being "SOOO FUNNY xDDDDDD" offensive so I don't listen to Dane Cook.

1. Comedians are not doing God's work. They are not completely untouchable by virtue of being comedians. If they say things that are fucked up, they deserve to get called on it.

Someone called him out on it.
He told her to get raped.
If she couldn't come up with a better response then that's her fucking problem.

2. If you think that a comedian can't do his job without intentionally being offensive, you're lazy and wrong.

This is how 6th graders debate.
YOU'RE WRONG BECAUSE NYAH NYAH NYAH.

I mean, of course, most comedians are going to be offensive at some point-- because most people are offensive at some point. The difference is a) intent and b) how they react, the caliber of their response to criticism. Intent isn't magic, no, but let's be clear-- Tosh wasn't unintentionally offensive here. Joking about how rape is just totally hilarious is part of his schtick.

This is common knowledge. He has joked about rape before.
Why would a person offended by rape go to his show?

3. The focus on "was her response heckling?" is suuuuuuch misogynist, minimizing bullshit.

How is it misogynistic? If a man said the same thing I'd say he deserved the same comment.
The audience paid to hear Daniel Tosh, not some cunt bitch a motherfucker out.
He was doing what any sane person would do.

No matter which account you look at, "rape hurts people" or "rape is not funny," said during a pointedly audience participation-centered bit is not heckling. I mean, that's sooooo tame. And his response was to say she should get raped. Any commentary that places any onus whatsoever on the blogger is missing the fucking point.

He shouldn't interrupt the public speaker
getting paid
by the audience
to speak publicly. 
I can shut a class up in 5 seconds.
That's why they pay me to shut classes up professionally.
If I couldn't do that know where I'd be?
Not doing what I'm doing.

She called people "too sensitive" for reacting this way to Tosh's suggestion that his audience member be raped. But guys! It's okay! Because other people agree with her! (Including, by their recent tweets, Louis CK and Patton Oswalt.)

If they say it's funny I'm inclined to trust their opinion.
I mean, what, would you trust them or this cunt who hasn't said a funny thing in her life?

Can rape be a topic in comedy? In my view: yes. Hal Sparks, Wanda Sykes, and (omg, I cannot believe I am saying this) Dane Cook have all had routines that talked about rape, and were actually funny. You know why they were funny? It's because they took aim at rape culture, and squarely portrayed rape as evil and not something to be minimized.

>Dane Cook
>funny
yeah ok.

And if you think that's okay-- if you think I'm being too sensitive or "persecuting" poor poor Daniel Tosh with my criticism, you need to fuck right off right the fuck now. I would rather have fewer people to interact with than interact with shitty human beings. I don't care who you are or how long we've been acquainted. Fuck off with your rape culture supporting bullshit.

k.
White women, am I right?

My exit strategy has always been organ donation, then cremation.

That said, I sort of hope I get a tombstone anyway.

"Here lies Christina. She had Very Strong Opinions."

Thoughts? Edits?

What would your epitaph be?

 Chaplain Grimaldus' is "we are judged in life for the evil we destroy".
Just saying.
Oh there's you.
White woman to the max.

I think my skin tone is neutral enough that I could pull it off, if I don't go too cool-toned.  

"Neutral tone"
AKA not brown.

In a world where so many gay and lesbian and other non-straight couples are denied basic civil rights, if you have the fucking balls to say that this issue is "trivial" or "minor" or play the "we should care more about X" game, go fuck yourself. 

K.
Do what you want. I don't give a shit.
I have an economy to fix.
People to subjugate
and an empire to forge.

Full stop. Seriously. I will not be polite or equivocate on this. I do not give the teeniest, tiniest of shits if my telling you to go fuck yourself hurts your wee tiny little fee fees.

Gee wonder why gays are having problems.
Could it be because of people going IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE THEN GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU SHOULD DIE IN A FIRE you know it's really not my fight.
I have 0 vested interest in this bullshit so you better make me care.
The fucked up thing about all this is I rarely see gay people acting like this. It's just retarded straight "allies".
You gay guys really need a PR guy to tell you how to deal with this shit.
I nominate myself.
I have no claim in this battle but I'll help either side if, of course, the price is right.
First thing my fine gay friends: gotta cut and run. the GLBTQQR27539YJK7 alliance is a detriment.

If it were me I'd even suggest cutting from lesbians and focus exclusively on your own interests but I'm guessing that's unlikely so you and lesbians can stay together. Cut everything else from your lineup.
A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting. - Christian Dior

 I'm surprised you'd quote this.
I mean I don't even buy into any of your bullshit but I can easily see where you could twist this into IT'S SAYING A WOMAN ONLY HAS TO BE PRETTY AND ISN'T JUDGED ON HER THOUGHTS which is mostly true, actually. If I said 1/4th of what I've heard women spew I'd be in prison.
Anyway time for bed.
After getting coughed on by 3rd graders today I think it's time to spread Nurgle's Rot to a high school.