Wow. Some remarkably petty counterpoint, today. The train seems to be 
running low on soul coal.

>Michael Bennett:
>  >but I've heard albums by Benson, GBW and Splitsville. Nuh-uh.
>
>You've convinced me -- that's very compelling reasoning. (Of course, 
>Greenberry Woods were major label and Brendan Benson certainly did 
>well in critical circles outside 'IPO pop' thing you go on about).

How telling that I posted endorsements of about 60 albums, and you 
yanked out the one negative line to harp on. Nuff said. And your 
parenthetical point only *supports* my speculations about the lack of 
worthwhile bands stuck on the IPO level.

>Now, here's an idea -- rather than presume that people on this list 
>aren't with it
>enough to understand a lot of the things that you like (or dislike), 
>post about
>them and explain why something floats your boat or it doesn't.

Uh-huh. See below.

>Give props to Rufus Wainwright for his "My Funny Valentine" on 
>Lennon last night?

Simply forgot to watch. Ah well...I'm not particularly fond of 
Wainwright's lounge-lizard side, anyway. Your "Lennon" slip is 
hilarious, of course.

>(Speaking of -- did you find Rufus's second to be somewhat of a 
>disappointment? I didn't hear enough strong songs...).

Well, you saw my relative rankings of the first and second 
albums...sure, it was a big disappointment. I love four or five 
tracks (basically, the same ones which he performs the most), but the 
rest is kinda dull. His guitar-based songs have a much weaker 
slugging percentage, and the mix-and-match producers leave the album 
very disjointed. And I wish he would figure out that "One Man Guy" 
just isn't that powerful a song -- he treats it like it's friggin' "I 
Shall Be Released" or something.

Also disturbs me that I have some rare songs saved on MP3 which I 
like better than most of the Poses tracks. Particularly "Little 
Sister" -- I'll be *very* exasperated if RW never records a proper 
version of that. That song is <superlative>sheer genius</superlative>.

Someone (Pat?):
>From my stance, it's easy to see that our tastes differ, plain and simple.
>And, while you may hinge on the upscale/lofty point that you don't 
>offer *superlatives* as descriptions of certain discs, you 
>definitely don't hold back at aiming the cannon of vitriol at 
>certain posters. Heck, you even stoop to critiquing the way they 
>peruse the bins.

Well, someone else already pointed out how ridiculous it is to make 
an issue of this "Amoeba chance-meeting" thing. No need for me to be 
redundant.

>The difference I see, is that I don't feel a need to pigeon-hole 
>your releases into a classification, nor do I feel a need to chide 
>you incessantly because you like quite a bit of music that is a 
>complete and utter bore to me.

Just this once, I guess. ;)

>And hey, that brings to mind a question. Do you play an instrument? 
>Do you have musical dreams/aspirations beyond tearing down other 
>people's music/dreams with flacid verbal offerings and "look at who 
>*I* like, suckas" lists?

I play piano pretty well, and can figure out most pop/rock songs by 
ear so quickly that it's almost like a parlor trick. I used to play 
clarinet, but I've kinda let that lapse (my axe needs a total 
overhaul to be playable). I can pick basic chords on a guitar, but 
certainly don't consider myself anywhere near competent. And I bet 
someone can contrive a feeble way to slash at this paragraph, too. 
"Well if yur so smaaaart, why donchu start a band yurselllf?"

Meanwhile, you really *blew it* by attacking the act of posting a 
"Look at who I like" list. As someone else stated, "I can't win for 
trying." I expected that folks would be eager to snort at certain 
Not-of-the-Body albums on my list, but I never imagined that someone 
would gripe about the "egotism" of posting recommendations at all. 
You just blasted a big hole in the "good guys" side, and sent a truck 
of fresh armaments to the Yangers in the "Why bother?" camp.

>Like what they do or not, I don't make it a point to criticize the bands/folks
>here in bands I may not like simply because *I* can do no better.

Ahh, straight from the Gospel of the 7-to-10er. Come on...this 
reasoning is off-the-charts trite.

>Bill Silvers:
>What do those egalitarian,
>broad-minded CoF folks think of them? Eb? Anybody?<g>

If you really care, just skim the lists on the CoF page and see if 
there are any Figgs votes. One thing which *definitely* makes the CoF 
poll more valuable is that it publishes all the individual lists. ;)