Thursday Musical Tribute; or TRS and Soundtracks

One of Harrogate's favorite aspects of this blog, if not his very favorite, is the musical discourse, in which all Board Members have engagingly participated over the years. And, Soundtracks have been a subject this blog historically bandies about. Once upon a New Years' Eve, Megs reported on a vehicular conversation between herself and solon, in which the question of "best soundtracks" came up. A great thread emerged.

Harrogate listed the soundtrack to She's The One, which is also a record by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Harrogate's reasons for putting this album involve every single song, which taken together represents some of the best work this group ever did. And the song posted below is, perhaps deservedly, the most famous single from that record. Harrogate presents it now, as the Thursday musical tribute.

Wherein Harrogate Expresses Disgust for Perez Hilton, Keith Olbermann, and Others

This whole flap over Carrie Prejean is so stupid. Here are some observations:

1)Perez Hilton is a paparazzi imbecile. The Rhetorical Situation is that he was judging a Donald Trump event. First of all. And so that's where his ethos starts.

2)Perez Hilton has been all over cable television and video blogging about how Prejean shouldn't have injected politics and religion into the pageant. BUT HE ASKED THE FUCKING QUESTION. What was she supposed to do, lie? This is like the worst caricature of liberal academic "political correctness" come to light. David Horowitz must be so pleased.

3)What assholes Olbermann and this other callow, snippity paparazzi hound look like in the clip below. Can you believe that Olbermann said that the flap makes Perez Hilton look like an "intellectual titan"????? Fucking seriously.



4)Anyone who would object that Prejean is taking advantage of her newfound Rightist celebrity by touring the pundit circuit, all Harrogate can say is, so what? It was "liberal" pundits that fired the first shots, and went out of their way to demonize her for answering the question.

5)Anyone who would object that idiot rightist pundits like Hannity and Limbaugh have turned her into a hero, once again showing the banality of the Right: Harrogate acknowledges that there is some truth to this inasmuch as Prejean is clearly no political theorist.

At the same time however, again, let's remember that it was the ridiculousness of Perez Hilton that threw this into the blaring media lights. Let's also remember this:

6)Barack Obama is on record opposing gay marriage. So these people can beat up on Prejean and other opponents of gay marriage all they want. But until Olbermann and his idiot contributors are willing to speak of Obama in the same way they spoke of Prejean, Harrogate's advice for them is to grow the fuck up.

7)Harrogate is in favor of gay marriage but has long been annoyed with the desire of some to turn this into a revisitation of the 1960s civil rights struggle. It is in fact in no way like that.

There Goes Harrogate Again, Making Another Bold Claim

Having just completed the fifth season of Scrubs, and soon to launch into the sixth one, there is no longer even the shred of a doubt in Harrogate's mind that what we have here is the best use of music ever, on a television show.

Now Harrogate of course realizes that other Board Members are not so enamored with Scrubs as he is--given his obsessive engagement with it over the last several months, how in the world could it ever be otherwise? Still, Harrogate is confident that in a moment of cool reason, it is hard to deny the show's innovative use of music to enhance Rhetorical Situations.

For immediate evidence of What Harrogate is Talking About®, Harrogate offers this shattering clip, which he and Supadiscomama had seen before, but watched as if for the first time again, last night. He invites ye all to check it out, and weigh in.

Inert Propaganda Punch Line Below

Man falls into Panda pen. Because of a tall barrier, the man cannot escape.

Panda investigates. Begins to maul the intruder. According to CNN, The man's response to being mauled:

"The panda is a national treasure, and I love and respect [him], so I didn't fight back," Zhang said. "The panda didn't let go until it chewed up my leg and its mouth was dripping with my blood."

State run propaganda runs deep in some people.

Question of the Day Part the Second: IS an "Adult Pretending to be a Child Still an Adult"????

Solon's favorite blogger over at TalkLeft, TChris, offered up this fascinating post on Sunday, and Harrogate has had it rolling around in the back quadrant of his teeming brain ever since.

The issue before us, Situationers, is succinctly articulated by TChris

A troubling trend that vexes those of us who believe the police should prevent or solve crimes, not manufacture them, is the detective sitting in a chat room posing as a 15 year old waiting to engage in salacious conversation with an adult. Courts have typically held that an adult who travels to meet the "15 year old" for a sexual encounter can be charged with attempted sexual assault of a minor, even though the defendant never chatted with a minor and no actual minor was ever at risk.

TChris's own position on this issue is compelling:

Whether a mistaken belief about a chatter's age (when the belief is induced by a lying law enforcement officer) should lead to any form of criminal liability is questionable. Putting that question aside, it is reasonable to recognize, as Indiana now does (at least until the legislature closes this "loophole"), that people who don't put a child at risk deserve greater leniency than those who do.

It is of course no surprise that he or Jerlayn would take this stance, as standing up for defendants' and/or criminals' rights (unfortunately for some commenters who tried to morph it into a mouthpiece for a particular brand of feminism) is the true backbone of TalkLeft.

But in addition to the Legal Question, there is also a Rhetorical Situation here that needs to be examined. (Oxymoron, for example, continues to argue that when you are watching a football game on television, that the colored first down line is actually on the field. Of course, Oxymoron also once argued that Styx was a great band, so you have to be careful with Oxymoron.)

So, likely all of us on this Board dislike the idea of Entrapment. But will anyone here straight-up say that detectives should stop trolling for "pedophiles" in this manner? Or conversely, will anyone say straight up that the detective posing as a fifteen year old (what if the detective poses as an 8 year-old) is doing the right thing, indeed, protecting children?

Harrogate will leave the light on for you.

Here's to the Oxymoron Family Ushering in 2009!!!!!

Soundtracks

Solon and I are in the car thinking about how hard it is to compile a really good soundtrack. So I pose the question: what are your top ten soundtracks? In thinking of the best from our generation, here are our favorites (in no particular order):

Singles
I Am Sam
Judgement Night
Garden State
The Crow
Romeo and Juliet
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
The Last Time I Committed Suicide
Trainspotting


Honorable mention:
In Good Company
8 Mile
Dirty Dancing
The Big Chill
Forest Gump
Purple Rain (Harrogate?)
Clerks
A Hard Days Night
Magnolia
Stand By Me
Help!
The Graduate
Natural Born Killers