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Random metal thoughts


Dead1

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On 12/3/2022 at 5:31 PM, FatherAlabaster said:

The file size limit here is very low. Upload somewhere like Imgur and then copy and paste the url of the actual image, and it should embed automatically.

I asked once, but never got an answer. How do you delete images from the "my attachments" area in this site? I can see them all but there is no selection to delete to make room for new posts. 

 

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On 12/9/2022 at 8:57 AM, KillaKukumba said:

Seems to me the only way a user can change it is to edit the post the image is on and remove the image from there.

It's doable as a moderator but the only way I found to do it is by brute force which removes it from the post and would be time consuming if there is a lot in there.

 

Oh yeah. That works. Bit of a faff, but there is a link straight to the post in the my attachments area, so it only took a few seconds to clear a bit of space.

It removes the image from the old post, but like anyone is ever going to find/read an old post from a year ago. 

I like how this site allows straight drag and drop. I really can't be bothered uploading to a third party site. Any image to be posted will be relevant to that moment in time and doesn't matter if it is deleted a few months later.

 

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Pretty cool workspace.  Mine's a large nondescript office but I like it that way and it makes the once common office moves easier.  People always comment on how lacking in humanity it is. 

I've always wanted to create a nerd shrine in my house like so many of my friends have (ie a room stuffed full of collectables and cool nerd shit).  But then I think about how expensive it would be, how it would get dusty and how none of it is useful.

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1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

  But then I think about how expensive it would be, how it would get dusty and how none of it is useful.

That's the exact reason I stopped collecting shit. I've got drumsticks, picks, mugs, statues and all kinds of shit from different bands and gigs but in the end they were just dust collectors. I don't miss them now they are in boxes and one day I might even get rid of them but I can't ever see them being out and proud any more.

 

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On 12/8/2022 at 11:00 PM, Dead1 said:

Race has never mattered much in rock/metal

 

That's probably because the majority of fans and bands were white for a very long time, much like women in metal. I think when the non-whites was very few and not seen as threatining the status quo. There were Alex of Entombed, the two guys from Suffocation, Death Angel, and Living Colour.

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11 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

That's the exact reason I stopped collecting shit. I've got drumsticks, picks, mugs, statues and all kinds of shit from different bands and gigs but in the end they were just dust collectors. I don't miss them now they are in boxes and one day I might even get rid of them but I can't ever see them being out and proud any more.

I don't collect anything anymore. The only things on display* are decades old. I'd have to be made of stone to throw away/ritualistically sacrifice the teddy bear my grandmother made for me when I was a newborn. However, I keep the clutter out of the rest of the house.

*And by "display" I mean stuffed in a corner next to a speaker. I know one guy who has actual glass display cabinets (plural) like in a museum. That is several steps too far.

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5 hours ago, Sheol said:

That's probably because the majority of fans and bands were white for a very long time, much like women in metal. I think when the non-whites was very few and not seen as threatining the status quo. There were Alex of Entombed, the two guys from Suffocation, Death Angel, and Living Colour.

Respectfully, while this is a commonly held belief, it's really just not that true when you start to dig into it a bit...

Central and South America especially have long and well established histories in the metal world and while I'm by no means naive enough to think there weren't times they were the recipients of some mongoloids stupidity, these bands were for the most part praised and embraced like any other.

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7 hours ago, Sheol said:

That's probably because the majority of fans and bands were white for a very long time, much like women in metal. I think when the non-whites was very few and not seen as threatining the status quo. There were Alex of Entombed, the two guys from Suffocation, Death Angel, and Living Colour.

Well I don't know what metal bands you're listening to Johan but as far as I can tell the metal world is still overwhelmingly white. It's a bit more diverse than it used to be, to where it's not really unusual to see non-white members in metal bands, but it's still somewhat of a novelty to see racial minorities turn up at shows and wear the merch and stuff. Or maybe not quite a novelty, because there are always some black guys and more than a few Latinos in attendance at most of the US metal shows I've been to, but I don't think I've ever seen this amount to more than maybe 5 or 10% of the audience at most, and it's usually less than that. So I think you're right that white people don't give this issue of race in metal much thought, and if they/we do they probably just think it's cool that some non-whites are participating in our awesome hobby because there's still not even the remotest of possibilities that this could ever threaten the staus quo.

Also I think that white people in general have become much more accustomed to and accepting of seeing non-whites in the entertainment fields of movies, comedy, sports and music over the last 70 years. I've known openly racist white people who love rap music for instance, or revere black stand-up comics, but I'm sure they'd completely freak out if let's say a black family were to actually move into the house next door. 

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1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Also I think that white people in general have become much more accustomed to and accepting of seeing non-whites in the entertainment fields of movies, comedy, sports and music over the last 70 years.

I mean... this is mostly true but the fact that there was such immense outrage over that Rings of Power Amazon series having an ethnically diverse cast is very revealing. The needle hasn't moved as far as many would like to believe.

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The amount of outrage over the casting choices for just about every series/show/movie these days is pathetic. Fan bases are just unreasonable not to mention the culture warriors out there who have to pick everything apart. I just actively choose not to watch anything that doesn't suit my tastes. It's a decent way to avoid getting tweaked over dumb shit. Too bad people can't understand that they have the option to just avoid something they don't like. Freewill and all.

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6 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

I don't collect anything anymore. The only things on display* are decades old. I'd have to be made of stone to throw away/ritualistically sacrifice the teddy bear my grandmother made for me when I was a newborn. However, I keep the clutter out of the rest of the house.

*And by "display" I mean stuffed in a corner next to a speaker. I know one guy who has actual glass display cabinets (plural) like in a museum. That is several steps too far.

 

Years ago I did want the glass cabinet and I had different stuff all over the place but it just got to be too much. When the kids moved out I considered turning a single room into a collections room, but then my missus reminded me that I do have a shed where I could just as easily put stuff, it was hard to disagree. However we are not beyond visible collections, we have a room that my wife refers to as the 'library' which has 12 book shelves, mostly double stacked, and about 16 large boxes full of books on the floor. I doubt too many of them will every get read again but because we had the space we never threw them out.

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Okay...I know what I'm about to say is probably going to get a fair bit of push back, but the whole "you're just mad because the cast wasn't entirely white people, racist" is an absolutely disingenuous narrative that people seem way to quick to buy into.

I'd really like to know, do any of you consider yourselves hardcore fans of any kind of pop culture that was at one time purely the domain of nerds and geeks? Comics, D&D, Video Games, Animation..anything like that? Because honestly, I grew up with a lot of that stuff, and I'm going to tell you, 90% of the outrage over casting like they did in Rings of Power isn't because of the ethnicity of the actor, it's because it changes the lore.

You need to understand the kinds of fanbases you're dealing with here...Not the cultural trend hoppers or the new fans who recently discovered something, but the people who have been with something for years of their lives The kinds of people who were a part of something long before it ever became part of everyday pop culture. These people have an understanding of the material to an almost obsessive point. They can site you chapter and verse about character histories, lines of dialogue, physical descriptions of people and locations. So when you take something that has a fanbase like that, and you present them with something that makes fundamental changes to their passion...yeah...you're going to catch a whole lot of hell from them.

...and I think this is why so many people buy into the "racist fans" idea. Because they don't have that same kind of connection to that something, and they don't understand why it would bother some people to make changes like that unless they were motivated by racism. Studios, particularly marketing and publicists, understand that and they use it to their advantage as a way to deflect from any real criticism leveled against their product.

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I'm not familiar with RoP specifically, but how do you explain the uproar over the Little Mermaid? There's no lore involved there, people just didn't like the fact that a fictional animated character they thought was safely one of theirs was so casually given more melanin. You know you've got a big problem if you're seriously worrying about what race cartoon characters are being drawn as. Zach's not wrong to say that the needle hasn't moved as far as we might sometimes think.

I guess I just like to think that the average serious metalhead (meaning not neccessarily the mainstream casuals) tends to be more intelligent, more enlightened and more accepting of diversity than the general public at large. But I am biased so I suppose I could be wrong.

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20 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

how do you explain the uproar over the Little Mermaid? There's no lore involved there, people just didn't like the fact that a fictional animated character they thought was safely one of theirs was so casually given more melanin.

You're kidding right?...

Have you ever met a Disney fan? They're beyond obsessive, and you're talking about an entire generation that was raised on the Disney animation renaissance from the 90's.

(Side note...it's actually an old Hans Christian Anderson story as well)

I'd also add as a counterpoint, notice there was no uproar about casting people from the middle east in the live action Aladdin? The problem is the change itself, not the race of the actors being chosen

20 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

You know you've got a big problem if you're seriously worrying about what race cartoon characters are being drawn as

Pretty much illustrating the final point in my post.

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59 minutes ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Okay...I know what I'm about to say is probably going to get a fair bit of push back, but the whole "you're just mad because the cast wasn't entirely white people, racist" is an absolutely disingenuous narrative that people seem way to quick to buy into.

I'd really like to know, do any of you consider yourselves hardcore fans of any kind of pop culture that was at one time purely the domain of nerds and geeks? Comics, D&D, Video Games, Animation..anything like that?

The Dune novel saga would be the only one for me. And as it happens they actually did change both the race and gender of one of the minor characters in the recent Denis Villeneuve adaptation (Liet-Kynes). And, predictably, many fans were utterly outraged by this even though it really didn't change anything meaningful about the character. In fact, had I not already known about the gender change prior to viewing the film, I may not have even noticed. Other than the gender swap, the character was portrayed incredibly accurately in regards to the novelization, rendering the backlash all the more ridiculous. But that didn't stop the anti-woke crusaders from rage posting about it for months on end.

I never read Tolkien's works, but I'd be interested to hear how the ethnicity changes in RoP changed the lore significantly. 

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1 minute ago, SurgicalBrute said:

You're kidding right?...

Have you ever met a Disney fan? They're beyond obsessive, and you're talking about an entire generation that was raised on the Disney animation renaissance from the 90's.

Pretty much illustrating the final point in my post.

No!! I don't know or hang out with any Disney fanatics (unless they're closeted) and I do my best to steer clear of LOTR/fantasy fans or anime nerds or superhero/action figure nerds or D&D nerds or cosplay nerds or Star Wars nerds...or just any of that shit. (even though my sister and her family fall squarely into this category - but I don't spend much time with them nor do we talk about any that nerd shit on holidays when I do - and if they do talk about it then I'm not paying any attention) But one does not need to immerse themselves in "nerd pop culture" (especially of the animated variety) to know that this "but the lore!" excuse is a giant load of shit. Not unlike how the "it's a states rights issue!" is a load of shit.

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3 minutes ago, zackflag said:

I never read Tolkien's works, but I'd be interested to hear how the ethnicity changes in RoP changed the lore significantly. 

I'm not huge Tolkien guy either...I generally appreciate him more for creating the genre as opposed to his actual writing, but one I know some people pointed out was the idea of dark skinned elves doesn't make a whole ton of sense simply because of the fact that Elves existed before there was an actual sun. Same argument was made about the Dwarves who live inside the mountains.

Regarding RoP, I think the real issue for Tolkien geeks is that Tolkien himself was pretty meticulous about how he viewed his world, the various people who existed in it, and more importantly what his goal was when he created it. LoTR was specifically created to be a mythology of the British people much in the way the Scandinavian myths and legends represent a very specific group of people and their culture.

16 minutes ago, zackflag said:

But that didn't stop the anti-woke crusaders from rage posting about it for months on end.

I don't disagree that this happens and a lot of times it's a mountain out of a molehill. Don't mistake what I'm saying as a defense of the various outrages that happen. I'm just saying, I don't believe that the majority of it comes from a place of prejudice, so much as it comes from the fact that something they really love is being changed.

I'll also add, that by their own words, we know studios like Disney are doing this kind of thing intentionally in an effort to be more diverse. As eye-rollingly ridiculous as the outrage can sometimes be, I can't say I'm necessarily surprised people ended up conditioned to see it in every little thing

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My reaction to the multi racial casting in rings of power was that, correct me if I'm wrong,  The Lord of the Rings is a fictional fantasy of medieval Europe which one would assume was overwhelmingly Caucasian.  I say that as someone married to a woman of color, so I don't think I really have an issue with multi racial casting but I do like things to make sense.  I like a certain amount of logic even in made up shit.

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37 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

But one does not need to immerse themselves in "nerd pop culture" (especially of the animated variety) to know that this "but the lore!" excuse is a giant load of shit

"This stuff doesn't matter to me, so no one else could possibly feel this way either"

It's not about immersion, it's about understanding a mindset...but if you want to just assume everyone is a racist I'm not stopping you

 

23 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Lol... - meme

 

"...but it's okay when we do it!"...Gotcha

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1 hour ago, SurgicalBrute said:

I'd really like to know, do any of you consider yourselves hardcore fans of any kind of pop culture that was at one time purely the domain of nerds and geeks? Comics, D&D, Video Games, Animation..anything like that? Because honestly, I grew up with a lot of that stuff, and I'm going to tell you, 90% of the outrage over casting like they did in Rings of Power isn't because of the ethnicity of the actor, it's because it changes the lore.

Yeah, I was. Grew up with Star Wars, D&D, all that stuff. Was deep into the books and games, even video games up to a point. I get what you're saying, but I'd offer that there has never been an adaption of one of those to a (live action) TV series or movie that fans thought was acceptable. It's just impossible to translate everyone's mental image of those characters onto a screen or translate the story into anything close to accurate. You have to leave something out or make a casting choice and upset someone. Dune is probably the closest I can come up with to the actual novel that works.

My point is, if you don't like it, just don't watch. Don't waste energy outraging on the internet. Better uses of time. The reason for the changes isn't that high on my list, but I wouldn't be bothered if they cast a female Batman or a caucasian Black Panther...whatever would cause the collective internet to lose their shit, I just wouldn't watch. Easy peasy. No one on the internet really cares about anyone else's opinion for the most part anyway, so why waste the energy?

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13 minutes ago, markm said:

My reaction to the multi racial casting in Rings of Power was that correct me if I'm wrong The Lord of the Rings is a fictional fantasy of medieval Europe which one would assume was overwhelmingly caucasian. I say that as someone married to a woman of color so I don't think I really have an issue with multi racial casting, but I do like things to make sense. I like a certain amount of logic even in made up shit.

But yet it didn't seem like anyone got bent out of shape when Peter Jackson chose to film his LOTR trilogy in New Zealand, which does not resemble Europe very closely. But that's ok because it's supposed to take place in Middle Earth, which is a completely made up fantasy world, so you should theoretically be able to shoot it anywhere. And the characters are all totally made up too so it shouldn't really matter who they cast or how the director and the costume designer and the make up artists decide they want to interpret the character. In my mind it'd be different if it were actual historical figures we were talking about. If Hollywood were to cast Snoop Dog as a weed smoking Abe Lincoln, or Lizzo as Winston Churchill then I could understand people not wanting to accept that. But we're talking about Hobbits and cartoon mermaids n shit here. WGAF?

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