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MeFi post: Ouch

Foo Fighters: No matter what you do, you’ll never be as good as your spouse’s dead first husband.

Ouch indeed. (From the dads’ list.)
posted to MetaFilter by bendy at 3:20 PM on May 11, 2024

I thought the secret was denial.

No it isn't!
posted to MetaFilter by Greg_Ace at 4:30 PM on May 11, 2024

I listened to jazz as a teenager, what do I win?

The ability to out Suburban Dad those other Suburban Dads by being the only one with a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) ranking that allows you to judge home-brew competitions.
posted to MetaFilter by Gygesringtone at 3:23 PM on May 11, 2024

There you go, that's the secret to never recognizing yourself on lists like these.


Really? I thought the secret was denial.
posted to MetaFilter by notoriety public at 3:37 PM on May 11, 2024

Hahaha!

Gets to Nine Inch Nails: RobloxOof. wav
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 12:49 PM on May 11, 2024

From the dad list: single, not a dad, and technically Cambridge is a Boston suburb but it is nobody’s idea of “the suburbs”…

Breeders + Toad the Wet Sprocket + Candlebox + Pearl Jam + Silverchair + Smashing Pumpkins = Jesus Christ it’s like somebody emptied an entire fucking magazine into the posturing I pretend is a personality.

Utterly savage. Uncalled for. Unconditionally loved this.
posted to MetaFilter by Ryvar at 2:59 PM on May 11, 2024

They Might Be Giants: You used to be a hopeless autistic teenage nerd, but now you're a hopeless autistic middle-aged nerd. Also, congratulations on coming out!
posted to MetaFilter by Faint of Butt at 12:51 PM on May 11, 2024

MeFi post: Twilight of the phenomenally talented assholes

I think it's less the stock market than it is the quarterly-reported earning cycle that is the cancer on society. Used to be companies could look at years or 5 years or 10 years for a profit cycle, not 3 months.
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 3:52 PM on April 2, 2024

"undervalued leadership"

What a slimy, self-serving, greedy, blinkered, idiotic thing to say. Prince of the Assholes Jim should be put in stocks in the town square for everyone to pelt with rotten food. And then all his money taken away.
posted to MetaFilter by Saxon Kane at 3:51 PM on April 2, 2024

It's worth noting that this happened when Boeing bought out McDonnell-Douglas after the DC-10 failures, and their Wall Street leadership took over.

As it turns out, there is a corporate form of kuru.
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 4:03 PM on April 2, 2024

I have one little regret in life, and that is when the CEO gathered us at work and told that we would have to outsource some of our engineering tasks to India to cut costs, I did not raise my hand and say "There are excellent MBA schools in India - how about we look to outsource management there, as management tend to be the highest salaried and thus has the highest cost cutting potential?"
posted to MetaFilter by Harald74 at 1:03 AM on April 3, 2024

“overvalued experience and undervalued leadership”

This has the stink of actual MBA jargon. I presume "leadership" means "people whose job is to cut corners" and "experience" means "people who know why you absolutely should not cut particular corners."
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 5:03 PM on April 2, 2024

I'm a mechanic and it's a wonderful thing to start working somewhere and discover that you work with even one phenomenally talented asshole.
posted to MetaFilter by shenkerism at 3:42 PM on April 2, 2024

Once again proving that there's nothing so good that an MBA can't find a way to maximize its profits on a slide towards death.
posted to MetaFilter by drewbage1847 at 3:25 PM on April 2, 2024

If there's one thing rich know-nothings can't stand it's someone with actual talent and experience who knows what they're talking about.
posted to MetaFilter by chasing at 3:38 PM on April 2, 2024

MeFi post: Does that mean all music is good now? Is nothing tacky?

The problem with this story is that Hall & Oates is objectively awesome. Creed and Styx, not so much.

You have made a powerful enemy this day.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:15 AM on May 9, 2024

A week ago I was at a cookout and a young hipster was telling horrifiex me how much he liked Creed and I was instantly transported to my past of being a young hipster telling a horrified older someone else how much I liked Styx and Hall & Oates.

Our youthful sins are visited upon us in middle age.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:13 AM on May 9, 2024

I don't care for Creedence.
posted to MetaFilter by surlyben at 9:04 AM on May 9, 2024

Apropos of .. something ... Kansas will be playing our state fair this summer, and the band still includes a couple of original members, and it's going to cost like ten bucks to see them, and I couldn't be more thrilled, words which I will never say about Creed.
posted to MetaFilter by vverse23 at 8:44 AM on May 9, 2024

You can slag Creed all you want, but don't blaspheme Dave.

Please note the "Charlottesville indie rock circles in the early aughts" clause there, because there were distinct cultural aspects related to that specific time and place. Dave himself always seemed like a chill dude when I would see him out and about.
posted to MetaFilter by thecaddy at 8:42 AM on May 9, 2024

I feel like I should post the "That's bait" meme from Fury Road as a warning to other reformed Gen X music snobs.

We've come so far, y'all. We don't have to jump at this red meat. This juicy, juicy red meat.
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 8:40 AM on May 9, 2024

Metalfilter: ARGLBARGL STEVE MILLER
posted to MetaFilter by howbigisthistextfield at 8:08 AM on May 9, 2024

What makes the "is Creed cool" argument especially terrible is that Scott Stapp is an evangelical Christian--an inherently uncool thing, since any concept of "cool" is defined by personal agency--and apparently has a domestic record. For all my abundant problems with Dave Matthews Band, at least Matthews fired Boyd Tinsley (CN: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault) after Tinsley was accused of harassing and assaulting one of his proteges. Then again, if Creed were to fire... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pxe2000 at 8:03 AM on May 9, 2024

Wait -- what's wrong with the Steve Miller Band?

To many of us, Steve Miller is just a familiar voice on Classic Rock radio, like Heart or Boston. Who can be mad at Classic Rock Radio? But in the 70s, best I can tell, Steve Miller was inescapably popular, which made people who cared about Real Rock very, very angry, because Steve Miller, aside from being a nepo baby (Les Paul was his godfather!), just had a very lazy vibe. I'm sure the phrase... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grumpybear69 at 7:51 AM on May 9, 2024

Wait -- what's wrong with the Steve Miller Band?
posted to MetaFilter by AzraelBrown at 7:43 AM on May 9, 2024

The Eagles got a shot in the arm back in the late 90s when I was in high school. We didn't know the Eagles sucked. Hotel California was catchy as hell.

Thankfully The Big Lebowski came along to offer a necessary corrective.
posted to MetaFilter by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:42 AM on May 9, 2024

The specific social conditions that made Creed uniquely uncool have gone away.

I experienced this phenomena at a recording session where there was an age gap of maybe 10 years between band members. The topic of Steve Miller came up, and we younger folk were all "he's fine, kind of milquetoast but inoffensive, and that synth intro to Fly Like An Eagle is admittedly pretty dope" to which the older folk responded... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grumpybear69 at 7:38 AM on May 9, 2024

...I had somehow conflated Creed and Nickelback.

Crack'd.
posted to MetaFilter by wenestvedt at 7:38 AM on May 9, 2024

Until I read these comments I didn't realize I had somehow conflated Creed and Nickelback. Creedback. Nickeleed. Crickelbeed.
posted to MetaFilter by custardfairy at 7:19 AM on May 9, 2024

Though it's kind of crazy to think Gen Z is like, unironically liking this. I guess we did the same thing. The Eagles got a shot in the arm back in the late 90s when I was in high school. We didn't know the Eagles sucked. Hotel California was catchy as hell.

To their credit I think some bands like Kittie are undergoing a kind of resurgence from the same thing. The Kids (tm) are finding things like Spit and hearing something... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by howbigisthistextfield at 6:55 AM on May 9, 2024

I've always put Creed in the same box as Nickelback and Imagine Dragons. Music that is inoffensive at first but becomes actively irritating very quickly.

My mental health status at any given moment has a big effect on my taste in music and once during a manic episode in my early twenties I decided I really really liked Nickelback.
posted to MetaFilter by an octopus IRL at 6:47 AM on May 9, 2024

I’m sorry, are we referring to the most NJ-centric band since Bruce as “NYC-area”?

Haha, I plead forgiveness, as I was a kid without a car and kept seeing them do shows in Brooklyn.
posted to MetaFilter by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:39 AM on May 9, 2024

I've always put Creed in the same box as Nickelback and Imagine Dragons. Music that is inoffensive at first but becomes actively irritating very quickly.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:38 AM on May 9, 2024

Ticketmaster was apparently trying to sell my husband $25 Creed tickets recently

Ticketmaster has something called "Concert Week" where it sells a limited number of tickets to a bunch of shows for $25. They'll be snapped up quickly, at which point Ticketmaster is hoping you'll go "oh, but I still want to see this band" and pay $100 (or whatever).
posted to MetaFilter by jscalzi at 5:44 AM on May 9, 2024

Leaving aside any judgment about their music, Creed is like any AOR-ish rock band whose fans evolved from deeply uncool teenagers into deeply uncool adults with disposable incomes: They're getting their 20-year payout in the form of audiences who can afford VIP concert packages and cruises. And that's fine. Let people have their fun.

(The edgy bands with the cool kids fans? Same progression. What are Pixies tickets going for these days, I ask you)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Bulgaroktonos at 5:37 AM on May 9, 2024

Every time I hear about Creed, I think about my youth as a 90s indie kid, and I remember this snippet from the biography of NYC-area almost-made-its The Wrens:

1995: Grass Records is bought from Dutch East India by insane, grudge-bearing millionaire and Chinese food aficionado, Alan Melzter, to acquire the Wrens – now the label’s flagship band. The Wrens release their second full length, Secaucus (1996), for Meltzer’s revamped Grass to even more wonderful critical review.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:35 AM on May 9, 2024

Leaving aside any judgment about their music, Creed is like any AOR-ish rock band whose fans evolved from deeply uncool teenagers into deeply uncool adults with disposable incomes: They're getting their 20-year payout in the form of audiences who can afford VIP concert packages and cruises. And that's fine. Let people have their fun.

(The edgy bands with the cool kids fans? Same progression. What are Pixies tickets going for these days, I ask you)
posted to MetaFilter by jscalzi at 5:35 AM on May 9, 2024

Look, I have a substantial collection of Jethro Tull albums. So understand I am coming from a place of empathy when I tell you Creed will never be cool.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:17 AM on May 9, 2024

They're so popular their new tour is in the middle of the ocean?
posted to MetaFilter by Brachinus at 5:16 AM on May 9, 2024

Now that Jimmy Buffett is dead, someone needs to perform for drunk straight white cruise ship people, I guess.
posted to MetaFilter by rikschell at 5:12 AM on May 9, 2024

no, no, your favourite band still sucks, don't worry, that is part of the human condition.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 5:05 AM on May 9, 2024

Sorry, just because a bunch of "giddy beer buzzed" white folks will pay to see Creed perform on a cruise liner does not make them cool. Quite the opposite actually.
posted to MetaFilter by jeremias at 5:03 AM on May 9, 2024

MeFi post: How King’s College Added 438 Solar Panels to a 500-Year-Old Chapel

It's weird that solar panels on a modern roof are considered inherently uglier than the roof itself.
posted to MetaFilter by suelac at 10:09 AM on May 9, 2024

We an estimate for getting solar panels on our house, which is in a small town in the burbs of Cleveland. The house lies on 8 acres, most of which is wooded except for 3 acres around the house itself. Last week the solar panel supplier took the drawing to the city hall to get a building permit, which was rejected based on the panels being visible from the street, about 1/8 of a mile away and mostly hidden from view due to trees. They said that the city doesn't allow for houses to show any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by waving at 9:47 AM on May 9, 2024

One fun thing about virtue signalling is that the argument can work in both directions. Suppose King's College pays for rooftop solar on some other roofs instead: they can be scolded for "not putting in the work" and outsourcing the problem to other people's roofs. "Ah, you see? Rooftop solar must be such a pain in the ass that King's College won't do it themselves! Clearly, this is virtue signalling. Wake me up when they deign to put rooftop solar on their own buildings."
posted to MetaFilter by BungaDunga at 9:35 AM on May 9, 2024

I don’t think I have the same definition of virtue signaling that some people in this thread are using. I thought it was making a token effort towards a value that makes you look good instead of making a significant effort. That would be the opposite of ‘an active effort by societies to preserve elements of their world which are significant to culture.’ Am I misunderstanding the concept?


The older usage wasn’t so purely negative: it’s always had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adamsc at 9:33 AM on May 9, 2024

also that historian wrote about virtue signalling in the Spectator, which is basically the Tory party magazine. He also writes columns about, let's see, how James Cook wasn't so bad, why the Ghanaian crown jewels shouldn't be returned, "Was the Black Death Racist?", Netflix's Cleopatra being played by a Black actor, why the Aboriginal spears brought back by Captain Cook shouldn't be returned, why the Rosetta Stone shouldn't be returned, and how "conservatives... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BungaDunga at 9:26 AM on May 9, 2024

I don’t think I have the same definition of virtue signaling that some people in this thread are using. I thought it was making a token effort towards a value that makes you look good instead of making a significant effort. That would be the opposite of ‘an active effort by societies to preserve elements of their world which are significant to culture.’ Am I misunderstanding the concept?

People getting mad about it goes to show how useful acts like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BungaDunga at 9:07 AM on May 9, 2024

I'd rather those panels be in a green field somewhere

Why would take away more green space for solar panels when we have perfectly good non green space that isn’t covered in panels? Honestly who cares about a roof? Especially, as Fiasco da Gama pointed out, the buildings have already been significantly altered to add modern things like electricity and heating.
posted to MetaFilter by Uncle at 7:17 AM on May 9, 2024

So it’s also the distinction between history and heritage; pure historians aren’t necessarily trained to appreciate that conservation efforts and the heritage movement (going back to the Athens Charter in 1931, or earlier) are almost exactly virtue signalling, an active effort by societies to preserve elements of their world which are significant to culture. Virtue signalling can be a good and admirable thing.
posted to MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:00 AM on May 9, 2024