tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20582301.post113777456877137154..comments2023-08-07T01:55:08.458-07:00Comments on Isoceleria: Computational Irritation, and then someMatt Pavlovichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05013325260480687935noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20582301.post-1138093992022420642006-01-24T01:13:00.000-08:002006-01-24T01:13:00.000-08:00I agree about Firefox. For those who may not know ...I agree about Firefox. For those who may not know any better, why not make a post about your favorite/most-used extensions and features? I love SessionSaver, NoScript (even though it requires you to manually authorize every site's Java, once you've built up a list of your usual sites, it does a great job of blocking out a lot of irritants), All-In-One Gestures (better with a mouse). I've got some other things running, too, but maybe you'd care to grace us with your must-haves?<BR/><BR/>About Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has always seemed like a stunt song; it's absurdly-produced, a spectacle of a song, but certainly not one to put on when you feel like a little Queen... however, I obtained the album it came from originally, <I>A Night at the Opera</I>, a few weeks ago, and within the context of the album, it's much better. It's also one of the lesser tracks on what is, on the whole, an incredible group of songs by a band at, as far as I can tell, their most confident, capable, and appropriately self-aware. There's a lot of playful poking fun at the Queen "sound," within the context of masterful songwriting that displays that very sound at its best, and when you reach Bohemian Rhapsody after 10 songs ranging from "You're My Best Friend," a power ballad about being in love with a car, a few jaunty little piano pieces, several impossibly catchy acoustic songs (and several others), one might get the idea that, yes, the song might be grandiose, it might be ambitious in its production and scope, it might be overbearingly dramatic... but it might also be a song written by gentlemen who were having a lot of fun making seriously good music - without being afraid to do things that are a little (or a lot) tongue-in-cheek.<BR/><BR/>Freddie Mercury said in an interview with <I>Circus</I> Magazine, in 1977:<BR/><BR/>" We were always a sitting target in the press because we became popular so quickly. But, you know, we spent two years putting our act together. It destroys the soul to hear that you're all hype, that you have no talent, and that your whole career has been contrived. I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs. When the whole point of Queen was to be original.<BR/> I'm the first to accept fair criticism. But the dishonest reviews-where people haven't done their homework - I just tear them up. I do get annoyed when up- and-coming journalists put themselves above the artist.<BR/> I don't care what the journalists say, we achieved our own identity after Queen II. As for the Beach Boys or Led Zeppelin comparisons: it's the combination of all those influences which means Queen. We were disliked by the press in the early days because they couldn't put their finger on us, and that was the case with Zeppelin as well.<BR/> A lot of people slammed 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but who can you compare that to? Name one group that's done an operatic single. You know, we were adamant that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' would be a hit in its entirety. We fain' been forced to make compromises, but cutting up a song will never be one of them."<BR/><BR/>So, that's a thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com