On 5/17/2016 4:41 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
Folk Music Moose wrote:
Had you spelled out MMA, I'd have known what you were talking about. What
troubles me is that you apparently watch "sports" in which people try to
seriously injure each other.
In a simplistic way of putting it, yes. I have a friend who is an MMA
fighter. The level of discipline involved in this sport is extremely
high.
So what? I assume that's true of assassin, torturer, and other occupations that
I choose not to follow.
I also happen to enjoy watching motorsports.
The point of motorsports is to get to the finish line first. Sure, there are accidents, injuries and deaths. And they
likely add a frisson of excitement to many watchers, but considerable trouble is taken to avoid them, and those how
cause them lose. I see "sports" such as MMA as different in kind.
I'm sorry that this makes me a heathen in your world-view. :)
Nah. Heathen (dweller on the heath) and Pagan (from late Latin, country dweller) both came from words for people of the
land, farmers and other rural people who tended to annoy the Church by continuing to follow their much older forms of
worship.
They're cool, except for some neo versions of both who have created narrow, highly structured contemporary religions
supposedly recreations of ancient forms.
The long weekend retreat we just returned from seems to me close to these country people. Almost everything was outdoors
in beautiful Redwood and Douglas Fir forest. Endless music and dance. If three people met, at least one was likely to
have an instrument, spontaneous song was likely to break out, attracting more people. The final gathering Sunday morning
could have passed for a Pagan/Heathen/Whatever worship service. In a beautiful meadow surrounded by forest, with lots of
ecstatic experiences obviously happening as various folks led all sorts of song and movement/dance. I imagine that
topless women dancing around the outside assures that it wasn't any contemporary, organized religion.
We may not know what name to give our people; they are of various sorts. But we know them when we meet them. They
generally aren't religiously orthodox, although a few are ministers or seminarians. :-)
I knew who Taylor Swift is, in the broadest sense, a country singer. As I
was never a great fan of Country, with a few exceptions, and don't even know
what it sounds like now, if different than then, I don't know what she
sounds like.
Wow! She hasn't been country for the last three albums, I think.
Ah well, don't know much pop these days.
There
are several things that I appreciate about her:
1. Talented and well trained/coached.
2. Incredible business sense.
3. Personable and relatively humble (the new Oprah).
4. Good communicator.
5. Easy on the eyes...
The business sense is probably the one thing that impresses me the
most. I could rattle on for hours...
It's nice you have such an attractive role model. None of those points, however, have anything to do with the music*,
which is what I would care about.
I've now listened to a few. Perfectly good pop; nothing of interest to me. It's possible, likely even, that she has a
much broader talent than that which has rocketed her to stardom. Only time and opportunity will tell.
. . .
AG (I knew you were trouble **
Thanks for the compliment! I thought one of the nicest things my late wife said
about me was that I was an iconoclast.
Rock 'n Roll Moose
* Yes, there are very talented and well trained/coached folks who make music I don't like, as well as those who make
music I do like.
** I choose to take this song title literally . . .
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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