Caesar's Bath?

[altivo]

Said meme takes its name from Mel Brooks' A History of the World (Part I), and, upon receiving it, one is supposed to list five things that one's circle of friends or peer group is wild about, but that one can’t really understand the fuss over. Quoth Caesar, "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

I've never seen that particular film, but I think I understand the concept. So here are five things, in no particular order:

1. Chocolate: Caesar has it right. Nice, but not thrilling. I remain forever puzzled why people will surrender their virtue, their money, and their hope of salvation for a lump of sticky brown stuff. If there were no more ever again I probably wouldn't notice except for all the other folks who'd be entering into terminal depression and rolling about in the street suffering withdrawal pangs.


2. Television: Eh? I'm told the average American will, by the time he or she dies, have spent more than ten years watching the boob tube. Utterly puzzling. It's dumb. Boring. Stupid. Pointless. And it's been getting worse in recent years. I go days and weeks without thinking of turning it on, and when I do, it's just for the weather.


3. Cell phones: Seem to be a requirement without which many simply could no longer live. Personally I don't like being at the beck and call of the conventional telephone and I'm certainly not interested in carrying one around with me so that I can be interrupted at the convenience of others at any time. People who scream into them in restaurants and on public transit are, simply, rude.


4. Professional sports: Well, actually, I don't much see the point of competitive sports even as a participant. But the point of watching a bunch of millionaires beating each other over the head with hockey sticks or trying to steal a basketball from each other? How could anyone have so little self esteem as to find this entertaining?


5. Loud music or anything loud: Music, engine noises, fireworks, gunshots... Most seem to find this stimulating and exciting. I just find it painful and can't imagine actually seeking it out. Restaurants and bars that think they attract and stimulate patrons by playing deafening sound system music? No thanks, I'll take my money elsewhere. I was recently subjected, involuntarily, to a 16 piece jazz ensemble that used amps and loudspeakers. Since when does a trumpet or a saxophone require amplification? They are already loud. It was very painful, not musical at all. Are people growing that hard of hearing?

OK, I'm supposed to actually designate three people to fulfill this same meme. Not my fault, that's how it was given to me by songdogmi. So... chibiabos, calydor, cats_haven, tag, you're it. (Now don't anyone feel left out because I didn't pick on you. I love all my friends, but tried to pick some who wouldn't feel put out by the request.)

Comments

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I once, and only once, had the great displeasure to hear a group of bagpipers amplified. They really did not need amplification, but there was so much amplification that as I sat in the last row, farthest away from the speakers, it was still physically painful. I didn't stay for very long.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. And I even like bagpipes. However, at an indoor performance by Battlefield Band, I found the concept of amplifying them to be an absurdity beyond belief. They should be heard outdoors, and from a distance. :)

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Okay, ummm.. what am I supposed to do now?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Check the first paragraph again. All you have to do is post a list of five things that your friends and peers think are wonderful but that don't make much sense to you. And name three people to do the same when you are through.

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Okay.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Hear hear, to 2 thru 5.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

But not number 1? So are we saying that the complex shades of brown and reddish brown in that panda fur are actually colored by... chocolate? :)

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Fur sure!

For I am an unsophisticated, domesticated doggeh at heart. ;>

[animist.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on 2,4 & 5. Chocolate though - that's a drug. It either works for you and lifts your mood, or it does not. I love a good, bitter dark chocolate in moderation. And cell phones, well, I'm hardly ever home. My PDA and my cel phone are more portable office. I'm learning to turn the damn thing off though, when need be, to be polite to others. I just got tired of leaving home at 7am and getting home at 10pm, and having messages, because I'm not going to return them that late. And I lways forgot to return them. Now I call people back within a hour or two, not a week or two. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm so old fashioned I prefer written communication to verbal. Telephones just don't do it for me. And cell phones (though no doubt many are careful about this) have become a socially obnoxious nuisance. A couple of weeks ago I attended a musical performance. In a church. Before it started a clear, explicit announcement was made asking people to silence their cell phones. Guess what happened three minutes into the performance? (And they always are set to ring as loudly as possible by playing some obnoxious "tune" over and over again.)

Yes, I've realized that chocolate must be a drug. Many people behave about it exactly as I expect addicts to behave. It does nothing at all to or for me, so I've been eternally puzzled as to what the big fuss is about.

[animist.livejournal.com]

I prefer verbal communication. The written word so often lacks emotional nuance that is important. I have seen so many times when I have made a joke and someone else has tken offence, or I have thought someone was mad at me and there weren't. The best communication is face to face.

As far as thinking, writing is superior to speaking. Writing encourages a lot more depth. And it also encouraged people to stop and organize. I have so many times wished my mouth had a backspace or undo key!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I can't resist pointing out the mild contradiction between those two paragraphs. :)

Face to face conversation is often, but not always, superior to either written or telephonic. And you are entirely correct when you point out that in these modern times, people have lost the ability to write clearly and to interpret what others write without jumping to conclusions, inserting meanings that are not there, and so forth. Nonetheless, this is not an inherent flaw of the written medium. It is a flaw in the way in which society uses it. Cell phone texting and instant messaging have made a major contribution to the problem with their tendency toward terseness and ambiguous abbreviation.

I rarely write long letters now, though I used to do it regularly. I still write long e-mail messages, but only to people who respond in kind. I find tremendous value in e-mail, though. I can return messages at 10 or 11 pm without worrying about disturbing anyone, for instance, and knowing that they will be able to attend to me at their convenience. The telephone, with its insistent and immediate interruption, is a rude and pushy New Yorker invading the quiet timelessness of a rural Missouri afternoon.

One wonders if stellar writers like Mark Twain or Ralph Waldo Emerson ever would have emerged in today's IM/cell phone/immediate gratification environment.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I've heard telephones compared - though I can't remember who by - to a brash person running into your office and announcing that sie'll jump up and down on your desk until you pay hir your attention rightnowthisminute.

IMs are the only method of communication for me. Letters and email are far too intimate. And I find it hard to respect another person when we're talking face to face. (I think that's one of those autistic spectrum disorder effects!)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Best cell phone ringtone I've heard had the phone sound like a music box. When it "rang" in the restaurant I was in, I turned and looked expecting it was a present to someone. It was a unique and distinctive "ring" but also very pleasant. It was no surprise that the call was then handled quietly, too.

Worst cell phone ringtone I've heard of (and have fortunately not encountered directly) was on a phone where any sound could be recorded and used. And someone recorded a crying baby for the ring...

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Regarding #5: I wonder if it's partly that the musicians don't know how to listen to each other when they play, so that they make sonic room for each other when the lead changes from instrument to instrument. I think it could be a neglected art in bands and combos. Another thing, if the venue was a loud restaurant or nightclub, they may have thought the band needed amplification to overcome loud talking among the audience. (I think the audience should be told to be quiet, but then I would think that, wouldn't I, me sitting here with an acoustic guitar and a microphone....)

And the amplified bagpipes that were mentioned -- I would've had to take off running in the other direction, and I LIKE bagpipes a lot.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That would make sense, except... this was in a library. With an audience quietly seated in rows of chairs, good acoustics, and not an overly large room. The group was from a local college, under the leadership supposedly of trained music instructors. I'm afraid loudness has become a cultural thing.

Jazz musicians of the 40s and 50s never would have considered amplification for trumpets or saxes. But given the example of amplified rock and the expectation that "music" requires stacks of loudspeakers and megawatts of power, now they are doing it too.

I was not happy. This was on my duty shift, I could not leave the building, and I ended up with a headache that lasted nearly 24 hours. I gave the director a bit of a tongue-lashing I'm afraid.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

In that setting, there was absolutely no excuse for amplification. You were justified in being upset.