Rob Ford's Toronto

[guitarchitect]

Look, since it's obvious you don't really grasp the point I'm trying to make, and can't seem to communicate without sarcasm or putting words in my mouth...don't bother trying to interact.

I'm being quite serious - I'm not sure why you're lamenting the fact that Rob Ford is the focus of the Rob Ford thread, and that we aren't talking about Marshall Mcluhan. But feel free to be even more condescending and keep lamenting the fact that things aren't what they used to be.

Ramako: I have the Swingers DVD sitting in front of me right now. Nice coincidence.

EDIT: Freshcutgrass - I guess what I really mean to say is - what are you expecting? Go to a philosophy forum or start a media theory thread, and I'm willing to be you'll find a tonne of people interested in Mcluhan. But the mainstream media and the Rob Ford thread aren't the place for the kind of deep thinking you're after. In much the same way that the world of Pop Music isn't where you're going to find the next incarnation of The Band (Dawes imho) or Bob Dylan (Tallest Man on Earth or Gregory Alan Isakov, imho). It's out there, but you've got to dig for it more than you used to, by virtue of the fact that technology has brought an immediacy to the world which has never been seen or experienced before.

 

[JWBF]

The Philosopy of Being Canadian & How We Influenced History & Pop Culture.

Since we just all just can't get along at times...

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...d-History-amp-Pop-Culture?p=761405#post761405

 

[anonymoose]

Also, CD's ruined music and computers ruined writing. I'm too young to have heard what people thought when vinyl was introduced, cars were introduced, or when typewriters were introduced - but I'm pretty sure it was a similar argument because it always seems to be the same.

http://xkcd.com/1227/

and

"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."


― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

 

[adma]

I still wonder why, in all this musicentric talk, nobody's really picked up on my "feedback & distortion" point.

Because, really: if you want to tie everything into music culture, the Rob Ford school of politics really demonstrates "be careful what you wish for" or theories of unintended consequences. Like, once upon a time, rock rebellion was exhilarating, an epiphany. A rejection of establishment thinking. But, over the years, as it trickled up and conquered all, it became corrupted into a rejection of *all* thinking. The worship of "Roll Over Beethoven" resulted in a cultural cohort that had all but no interest or even clue as to *who* Beethoven was. Poetry or skill didn't matter; sloppy, distorted noise and rudimentary awopbopaloobop wild-thing-you-make-my-heart-sing lyrics did. All that was more hifalutin than that was for pointy-heads and those campus know-it-alls who fancied themselves "serious rock historians".

When it comes to this corrupted unintended consequence, I like to claim that Obama may have been the first black president, but Sarah Palin was the first on the presidential ticket to "rock". And of course, the Fords "rock". Do they ever "rock". That's why people are drawn to Rob Ford; he reminds them of how they don't need no education, they don't have to be just another brick in the wall, they don't have to eat their meat if they want any pudding, etc...

 

[Parker]

You know for a bunch of folks sniping at some newbie about his irrelevant posting and its impact on mobile readers (a concern with which I heartily agree), you've certainly managed a lot of irrelevant music posts in a short time period.

It would be great if we could maybe keep this thread to Rob Fordish kinda stuff, rather than "filling in" with stuff that lowers the signal to noise ratio, and perhaps discourages pertinent posts.

Just my thoughts - probably soon to be deleted yet again by a mod.... ¯\ (ツ) /¯

 

[Grimace]

The anti-establishment message of Another Brick in the Wall and the anti-intelligence message of the right wing (and Ford in particular) are not the same thing. I don't know why you keep lumping them together.

 

[CanadianNational]

Could we get this thread back on topic, please?

Just pick a pic and run with it, if it'll help.

 

[dforthandbview]

This one is my favourite:

 

[ThinkRicky]

You know for a bunch of folks sniping at some newbie about his irrelevant posting and its impact on mobile readers (a concern with which I heartily agree), you've certainly managed a lot of irrelevant music posts in a short time period.

It would be great if we could maybe keep this thread to Rob Fordish kinda stuff, rather than "filling in" with stuff that lowers the signal to noise ratio, and perhaps discourages pertinent posts.

Just my thoughts - probably soon to be deleted yet again by a mod.... ¯\ (ツ) /¯

To be fair there's a bit of a difference between mindlessly spamming ancient news with no new commentary and a protracted derail about pop culture and it's effects on people and their politics. False equivocation sucks.

 

[Johnny Au]

Here are things to read from TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LowestCommonDenominator and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItsPopularNowItSucks
The magic formula for Rob Ford's success is to stupefy politics to the lowest common denominator. The discussion of popular music provides us with an analogy.

 

[Parker]

To be fair there's a bit of a difference between mindlessly spamming ancient news with no new commentary and a protracted derail about pop culture and it's effects on people and their politics. False equivocation sucks.

Of course if one derailment interests you and one doesn't, subjectively they will be different. But, if like several others on the thread, neither derailment interests you in the slightest, the do have something of a subjective equivalence. At least in terms of annoyance and irritation factor. YMMV.

 

[adma]

The anti-establishment message of Another Brick in the Wall and the anti-intelligence message of the right wing (and Ford in particular) are not the same thing. I don't know why you keep lumping them together.

*I* know it. But the lower-operating fanbase doesn't know it--to Ford types, it's a face-value slogan of pride. That's what I meant about "unintended consequences"...

 

[W. K. Lis]

The anti-establishment message of Another Brick in the Wall and the anti-intelligence message of the right wing (and Ford in particular) are not the same thing. I don't know why you keep lumping them together.

The Waltz was once considered vulgar and immoral, because the partners dared touch each other close.

 

[urbandreamer]

Rob Ford sure is popular with the Etobicoke folk! Gotta love it

 

[jusbokeh]

Etobicoke seems to be a place that seems still stuck in the 1970s, ditto for Scarborough. The folks out there seems to have values that are mired in a generation ago, hence the anger at urban progressives and downtown "elitists", hence the election of a simple-minded populists like Rob and Doug who will tell them everything they want to hear. People are bitter and angry because the economy is tanking, and they can neither afford the lifestyle nor uphold the values that they were brought up to follow and believe in.

The ironic aspect of all this is that the Ford brothers were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and seek to advance the interests of their felllow business class elites. These greedy charlatans could care less about the middle class who they are duping into voting against their best interests. Yeah, they're for the little guy. Yeah, right.

How does this even make sense?
1970s Scarborough and etobicoke was working class and white.

2013 it's largerly immigrant and lower middle class.

Rob ford is rich by money but he is not part of the upper class socially which is why they love him. They rejected him because he is a beer swilling and tasteless.