All the world is annoyed by Mudcat

Subject: Everyone hates Mudcat
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:05 PM

I guess I'm starting another complaint thread - and the title of the thread was a blatent attempt to get you to read it (... I guess it worked)

My complaint is in terms of people complaining about threads:

Why is this thread here?

This thread, denigrates Americans and is insulting!

What has this to do with folk music?

etc, etc...

I read mudcat everyday and only about 5% of the stuff interests me. I simply ignore the rest, and used to get cross that the mudcat wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be.

Of course that will never be, and we'll all 'hate' some posts. Can we not just live and let live?

The 5% that I love is more than enough to keep me coming back.

Ed

W

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:08 PM

Here Here Ed!

Like the one rule at my Grannies table... Take what ya want and leave the rest to others...

{~`

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Giac
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:14 PM

My uncle was a bit more graphic:>br>

If you don't like 'er, spit 'er out, but not on me.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:16 PM

Ya got me. If we spent less time invigilating we'd all have more time to write those astounding lyrics.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Mooh
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:19 PM

Ed, my sentiments exactly. Thanks, Mooh.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Easy Rider
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:27 PM

Why is this infernal thread here?

What has this got to do with folk music?

Why have you read down far enough to see this messsage?

:-) :-) :-)

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:43 PM

Indeed, Easy Rider... I tend to not even open posts with bigoted-sounding titles (what is it about anyone or why do people do something)... yet I find enough here to make me spend more time on these pages than is probably healthy - imagine if it were perfect for ANYONE, how could it then be perfect for anyone else?

Remember, a good compromise leaves everyone equally unhappy.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: dwditty
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 03:54 PM

Guest,Mrr
You wouldn't be an attorney, by any chance?

DW

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 04:10 PM

Everybody's annoyed by something. Usually it's something not worth being annoyed about.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 04:14 PM

Ya know Ed, I think you finally hit the nail on the shank, if not the head.....and I see we have a clan already in agreement with you pretty much. I can't buy all the "cluttering up" comments or the argument that this place is a strictly scholarly reference either. I read damn near all the threads to some extent. Some are great musically, some are wonderful political or philosophical debates, some are excellent learning and teaching aids, some are just fun, some completely bite big ones. So what?

All the debate over what should or shouldn't be here is just so much crappola. You don't like it, skip it. Everyone has different tastes......for which I am eternally grateful! Now if we could all just agree on that............

Its a good thread Ed, but the subject ain't dead and so instead will move ahead and I'll check back in before going to bed.

Spaw

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 08:46 PM

Ed: If 5% keeps you coming back then bravo! I don't read all the treads but for me mudcat isn't just about music, it's also about exchanging thoughts and ideas. I might not agree with all of them but i do try to see their point. I've met some great folks because of this sight and learned quite a bit in the process so it(Mudcat) is well worth wading through the inane every so often. Good luck and best reguards, Neil

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: bob jr
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 09:16 PM

whenever i have started a thread it always ends up being about something other than what i was asking about kinda like my message right here

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: BlueJay
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 10:29 PM

Ed, thanks for this thread. I don't understand "purists". I don't read a lot of the threads,but I think the purists are missing out on a lot.
If I were a title-editing purist, I would not have learned today that WesleyS just found out they are expecting twins. On it's face that's not music related, but if you read the thread you will find that it is.
If I were a "read only music thread" purist, I would never have read about Allan C and Bill/Sables Adventure. I would have never had them in my home. I would have never linked to LEJ,Rex and all the other Mudcatters along their route. This one small thread, has signifigantly changed my life. By it's original title, it could have been passed over as a non-musical thread!
If I were a musical purist, I wouldn't have even begun to read the "Colorado Wildfire" thread. What could that have to do with folk music? Except that I'd justspent one of the most enjoyable nights of my life at LEJ's house, playing folk music with him, Allan Clark, Bill Sables, Rex, WyoWoman, and other assorted friends. That wonderful place was then threatened by a forest fire. Thank God that seems to be over.
Sorry, purists. The Mudcat Cafe is about a lot more than music, at least from my perspective. Real people, with a common musical interest, who need support in other ways from time to time. The Mudcatters rise to the occasion every time! That's what makes The Mudcat Cafe the #1 internet site in the world. IMO BlueJay

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From:
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 10:31 PM

This is my 3d month in random participation on this site. I can't read music, I don't play an instrument, but I'm married to a church organist and spend a lot of time with musicians. I've learned one thing: musicians are smart. Because they are smart they are interesting. I like to hang around smart people, I try to talk smart when I think I have something to say, and this has lead me to this site night after night. Also, since I'm a pretty fanatic folkie, I've got questions about the folk scene and answers to occasional threads. And now for something completely personal: Thursday night I'm going to see Dan Bern (he now calls himself Bernstein, just that, Bernstein). Look for my remarks on this site Friday morning. Thanks for reading this. Do you know how much fun it is to enter something and see it leap to the top of the pile?

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 10:36 PM

This thread is doing my heart a lot of good........

Spaw

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 11:05 PM

I only read 5% of Catspaw's postings.

Oddly enough, I keep coming back.

Rick

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 11:22 PM

Well geeziz Rick, if you only read 5% of my posts and you figure that the average word count per post is 50 (some are much shorter, but many a LOT longer), then you will have been blessed with 13,350 pearls of the language. No one is sure what language...............

Spaw (50 words plus name)

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Big Mick
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 11:41 PM

Exactly what we have been saying for a long time, Ed. Many of us have felt this for a long time. Thanks for saying it again, and in a very positive way.

Rick, if you are spending that kind of time on 'Spaw, you need work. I will see what I can do.........LOL.

Big Mick

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Kelida
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 11:50 PM

I love the Mudcat. All of it. Even the inane. I'm not a great musician and only a mediochre singer. I'm just 17 so I'm not as experienced or wise or knowledgeable about music as most of the people here. I don't really care about obscure facts or (IMHO) irrelevant data.

But I love this place. I have learned so much since I began coming here. I've actually BEGUN to care about obscurities and irrelevancies. I've thoroughly enjoyed the Song Challenge!s and the BS threads. I hear (read) a lot of complaints about inane BS and threadcreep. But that just makes me think of everyone as REAL PEOPLE and not just nameless, faceless people behind computer screens maybe on the other side of the country or even the ocean. It makes me remember that others have feelings and get annoyed sometimes just like I do. Really, it makes me feel closer to people here.

Hey, we're not just Music-Data-Machines. It's okay sometimes to even act like we're not.

Peace--Keli

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 11:59 PM

You're right Kel. We are people and not just machines...and not just machines...and not just machines...and not just machines...and not just machines...and not just machines...and not just machunes...and not just machines...and not just machines...

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Gypsy
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 12:04 AM

Praise the Lord...we aren't being hassled by attorneys like i thought this was leading to! I am all for freedom of speech. If you don't like a thread, go to another one. But do NOT deprive me of the right to read and interact with it!

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Kelida
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 12:06 AM

Well, I don't know about you, 'Spaw. You may be a machine---with a few screws missing. . .

:^) Peace--Keli

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 12:11 AM

Want a little oil on that, 'Spaw?

Amen, Ed. After a sad Father's Day without my daughter, it's good to read a thread like this. Just remember, "purist" spelled inside out is "U. R. Spit".

By the way, 'Spaw, are machunes anything like cojones?

Aloha,
Noah Merck

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 02:36 AM

I'm buggered if I can understand why this thread was ever started, but more importantly why Ed didn't you label it as BS? Grumpily, John

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 04:12 AM

The folk instrumentalists, dancers, singers and listeners who contribute threads to the mudcat are a community of sorts, who by and large have interesting things to say on a variety of subjects, who have humor, who know how to kid one another, be serious with one another, and I have so far gotten alot out of my five months or so as a mudcatter. I skip over thread subjects that don't interest me, or ones asking for lyrics to songs I don't know, and click on a variety of subjects that catch my eye. If I thought that a particular thread was obnoxious or innapropriate, I would just "starve" it by not going for the bait. Keep it up, mudcatters!

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Wolfgang
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 09:00 AM

"This is supposed to be a forum to discuss folk / blues music.

As such, threads like this are entirery inappropriate" (Ed Pellow about three months ago in The Mudcat Park)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: GUEST,Ed Pellow
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 09:48 AM

Fair point Wolfgang, but am I not allowed to mellow with age or admit that I was wrong?

Ed

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 09:56 AM

A little musing on the irrelevant and obscure

If I had any clear idea of what the heck I was supposed to be doing in this life, it would be a lot easier to ignore the obscure and irrelevant. But one of the cool things that I have discovered as I got a little older is that you never know - at the time it occurs - what is irrelevant and what isn't. Sometime the seeming "irrelevancy" that pops up in your life suddenly drags you off in a direction you weren't expecting. And one that is much more gratifying than the one you had in mind. I have invariably found much more fun in following tangents than in adhering to my little plan of the moment. And when you're following tangents you occasionally find yourself in places where what was obscure in your former setting is suddenly seen to be center stage. It depends on your point of view.

I read somewhere that once the mind is stretched, it can never return to its former shape. That's why I would read every thread, if I had the time. Because you never know when one little idea, dropped in the middle of some BS thread that you never intended to read, might change everything.

I came here first for the music - but I come back for the company. I hope you all have a lovely day. It's the longest one of the year, you know.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Wolfgang
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 10:10 AM

You are, Ed, of course, I just feel a bit nearer to your previous opinion. That's all. And I know how to avoid threads haunted by the party crowd. They (the BS threads and postings) don't bother me much except when
(a) the verbal abuse is shown in the title (as in some recent threads) or
(b) the BS spills over to music threads (like, e.g., when someone tries to make a weak joke by feigning to misunderstand the thread title).

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 10:17 AM

C'mon let's face it, EVERY Mudcatter is probably annoyed by at least 3 or 4 OTHER Mudcatters. Over the years, almost everyone has probably gotten ticked at the following excesses:

suckiness

sarcasm

know-it-all-ism

juvenile profanity

know-nothing-ism

verbal diarrea

pathos

bathos (don't forget D'artagnan)

infantile humour

totally obscure humour

sanctimoniousness

terminal dullness

From what I can see, we've all been guilty of at least SOME of those (I remember one day when I was guilty of ALL of them.

On the other hand, where ya gonna go when you wanna know the twelfth verse to Matty Groves.

Just be glad the Cat whose being annoying that day doesn't move next door!

Rick

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 11:45 AM

I Don't think I've managed ALL of the above in ONE day yet - maybe one day...

Jon

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 12:16 PM

Some of the greatest music is inspired by the insignificant and irrelevant.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: The Shambles
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 01:52 PM

Some of the worst is inspired by the significant and the relevant.

The mountains around Colorado are pretty magnificent, some of the songs inspired by them are less so.

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: GUEST,Harry
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 02:40 PM

I have found Mudcatters to be among the nicest that can be found anywhere let alone online. I've been helped on more than one occasion by the group.

And I agree with the live and let live but for those who really need the threads to be about music, I've jotted down some lyrics off the top of my head to go with the thread......all in jest....Anyone wanna throw in a melody????? :)

Ode to thread Creep

Read a story 'bout a week ago
Feelin lazy the day was slow
Bout a fellow who was lookin for a song he heard
Couldn't really play it but he knew all the words

Said 'It's a song bout a girl who went to France
Didn't know where exactly but she took a chance
Can anyone out there help me figure this out
I'm sure someone can I don't have any doubt

thread Creep, Thread Creep
why can't the subject just keep?
If I ask a question to help knowledge expand
Can't you stay with the subject at hand?

Fellow wrote back 'I went to Paris before
Had a great time couldn't ask for more
Around the Arc de Triumph, lots of traffic congestion
Not really sure if I answered your question

Another one said, 'I was congested last week
felt really bad, well I could hardly speak
Now I hate to complain, through my nasal congestion
but why ain't this thread about a musical question?!?

thread Creep, Thread Creep
why can't the subject just keep?
If I ask a question to help knowledge expand
Can't you stay with the subject at hand?

........and so on.....

Harry

(line breaks inserted by a Joe clone)

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 02:45 PM

Fun, Harry!

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 02:47 PM

Actually Harry, if you leave out the chorus, which is cute and pertinent to those you're addressing, its a Talkin' Blues of the first order and for those of us who find creep anywhwere from annoying to hilarious, a few tag lines at the end of each verse would work about this place in general and make it a funny talkin' blues.

As I creep away, perhaps, from your original intent.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Áine
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 04:02 PM

Dear GUEST, Harry,

If you'd like to offer up your song to The Mudcat Songbook, I'd be pleased as punch to put in for you. Don't worry if it doesn't have a tune yet, you can just call it 'a work in progress'!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: GUEST,Harry
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 11:01 AM

I would be honored to be represented in the Mudcat Songbook! I'll be finding a tune for it shortly, in fact, I'll be spending the weekend on the shores of Cape May, NJ this weekend, guitar in hand......I'll keep you posted!

Harry

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Gypsy
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:39 AM

Harry, i don't have the tune, but certainly, we should let Dylan sing it. Wow!

Subject: RE: All the world is annoyed by Mudcat
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 07:40 PM

Harry: THat is a really cool set of lyrics! I don't write music but i look forward to hearing it when you're finished. As I said I don't read all the threads but I do take time to read the ones i do with an open mind. Keli; It is splendid to hear from a young lady who actually has some savvy. I suspect your voice is no where near as bad as you think. I look forward to reading more of your musing in these threads. Spaw; What kind of machine..machine..machine... machine... reguards, Neil