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The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #1 | ||||||||||
Including but not limited to slash, femslash, incest, twincest, may-december romance, mayfly-december romance, crossovers, pairing-the-spares, Sinking/Sunk Ships, FoYay, Cargo-Shipping, and/or Crack.
:.:.: Do you like odd pairings? Do you get great joy out of crack shipping? Then do we have a place for you! Rejoice with your fellow crack shippers for the low, low price of FREE! That's right, if you act now, membership is free! (Just pay Shipping and Handeling!) So what are you waiting for? Join now! :.:.: Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Anyway, this is a 'club' for those of us who like strange ships. This is a place to have fun and talk about why we love our ships. "Strange" is a relitive term, your ship may not be strange in your fandom, but you or others outside consider it strange. THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR SHIP BASHING! If you plan on being rude, please go elsewere. :.:.: ((Thank goodness for TVtropes, I never would have remembered all of those shipping terms.))
Posted on: 2010/7/29 13:12
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #2 | ||||||||||
wow I odd pairings
I was wondering if anyone would ever make a thread like this. Though I may be too strange for this thread
Posted on: 2010/7/29 18:48
Signature by niyuki-chan on deviantart |
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #3 | ||||||||||
Nah, you can't be too odd!
You might as well share. ((Honestly, I think my odd pairings might be too tame.))
Posted on: 2010/7/29 19:12
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #4 | ||||||||||
*makes self right at home* Aren't I one of the most notorious crack-shipper around here? Especially since I constantly shove them in your faces...
Most people already know my Aveyond crack-ships so I probably don't need to mention it And... those are the one I poke around the most, actually. I hardly care about any of my other crack-pairings. Oh, I know! My "minor" AV crack-ships. Nanghaithya/Zarich, Saurva/Te'ijal, and..... uh.... one-sided stalker!Ahriman/Talia (HE'S TOTALLY STALKING HER, I'M TELLING YOU!!!!). Geh, for other stuff... lessee... The only one that can truly be considered crack is Fujita/Najika from Kitchen Princess. From Harry Potter I kinda support Gryffindor/Hufflepuff and Slytherin/Ravenclaw, but that's not exactly crack since nobody CARES about those oldies.
Posted on: 2010/7/29 19:32
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #5 | ||||||||||
Joins right away.
I'm one of those crazy fans who NEVER has the official pairings as a favorite pair. Prefer to focus on those lesser/minor characters instead. Quote: From Harry Potter I kinda support Gryffindor/Hufflepuff and Slytherin/Ravenclaw, but that's not exactly crack since nobody CARES about those oldies. Who said nobody cares? I do. In fact I've mentioned about this being one of my fave pairings before you did
Posted on: 2010/7/29 19:41
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #6 | ||||||||||
hey..isnt this thread somewhat the same one as watershine's?wait.. me forgot, its spam heaven so u can spam all y' wont k, no biggies, me posted ma fave weird couples on her thread so me post the same thing here, and i still wont get banned hehe me just lovee SH XD
the most wierdest couples eva- (here goes nothing XD). av1= larsXte'ijal! rhenXgalahad! (hmm thats it) HP= dracoXhermoine! voldermotXballetrix! XD (im a slitheran fan) dumbeldoreX...(nah hes gay.. only make straight couples lol) twilight= jacobXjane!(ok.. that was wierd..) bellaX..nevermind. XD fantasia= hmmm.. cherylXthanos! What?! i was bored.
Posted on: 2010/7/29 19:57
Somebody, a short while ago, told me I used too many commas in my writing. I was crushed, to say the least. I have no idea why, exactly, anyone would think that, because I certainly do not believe that I use too many commas. Like, seriously, I don't. |
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #7 | ||||||||||
As for me, some of my odd pairings don't really go into 'Crack' territory... Lemmie think...
Probably my strangest would be LucyXTumnus from Chronicles of Narnia. It is one of my OTPs, and I don't know why I love it but I do. From Harry Potter, I love LillyXSnape. And I tend to like Luna with just about everyone, esp. LunaXHarry, LunaXRon, LunaXNeville... And, d_a, I totally agree with the SlytherinxRavenclaw and GriffindorXhufflepuff. Yep yep. Ummm... AliceXMad Hatter, from the Tim Burton film. And I read a really good Disney villains fic for MalificentxJafar, and I like them together. There's more, but that would require much more thinking then what I want to at the moment.
Posted on: 2010/7/29 20:17
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #8 | ||||||||||
@Eclipse: LOL, that was totally out of the blue... Since I don't exactly care about HP anymore, those pairings just go out the window.
AHHHH!!! Alice in Wonderland!!! I totally forgot that!! My personal fave is Alice/White Rabbit >:3 I'm sick and tired of Alice/Mad Hatter, so much so that I actually HATE it, but for the Tim Burton's movie I'd let it slide. Think think think.... Is there any other pairing I actually bothered caring about these days? I usually think of "crack" as "going out of the norm" a.k.a little to no others support it, but someone else said that anything that makes no sense in canon counts as "crack". Okay, this is totally the sickest and weirdest of my crack pairings because it's YAOI and I actually support it. I don't usually support yaoi. My current set is an irony, seriously, because I said I do NOT support it in the avvie. Okay: Sanzo/Hakkai/Ukoku triangle from the Saiyuki manga series. This makes no sense whatsoever from canon's perspective, so I guess that counts as crack. -------------------------------------------- Annnnndd.... since this is a crack pairing community, I will contribute a cute crack-pairing pixel graphics. It's also in the Collegium, so you might already see this before. How can you not love such a fluffy and cuddly kitty? Rhen (doh) and my custom-made kitty-Agas.
Posted on: 2010/7/29 22:11
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #9 | ||||||||||
@d_a I only read HP fics when I've exausted all my other fandoms. As for Alice/Hatter, the thought honestly never occured to me until the new movie. ((And adorable pixels!))
:.:.: I'm trying to think of parings that seem crack-y that I ship... I once read a fanfic that complained about Jareth and Sarah being 'crack', so I guess crack can be personal preference. Going with the 'no sense in canon' crack theory, I must admit to shipping Briar and Tris in Tamora P. 'Circle of magic' books. And Kurt and Mercedes in 'Glee'... even though Kurt's gay. I feel bad liking them together, but yeah.
Posted on: 2010/7/29 22:42
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #10 | ||||||||||
Nyeh, yeah. What counts as "crack" varies depends on who you talk to.
Oh, I found another of my quasi-crack-ship!!! - Tokyo Mew Mew: Quiche (yes, that's the proper name for "Kisshu" or "Kish" or whatever people usually call him)/Ichigo - Kingdom Hearts: Luxord/Larxene. Hey, any pairing involving the Org XIII is crack because they're not supposed to be able to love. -------------------------------- Can I spam this thread with my AV crack-OTP art? Kissy kissy fluffy pics:
Posted on: 2010/7/29 23:30
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #11 | ||||||||||
Ohhhh, pretty pictures... I like pictures.
And, and... I totally forgot about the Organization! My God! I don't read fanfics, but I totally love going on deviant art and looking at the wonderful pictures. Yay! You may blame the AxelxRoxas shippers for making me like yaoi. Axel is just so... *sigh* .... Does anyone else like ship just because of their combo name? Like in Glee, "Puck plus Artie equals Party!" No? Oh...
Posted on: 2010/7/29 23:48
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #12 | ||||||||||
oh boy...my pairings aren't so much crack as "just kind of out there". and i have yaoi/slash pairings left, right and center. in fact, i think every one of my stories/fandoms has at least one...
AV1: Tei'jal x Derez (the random necromancer in veldarah) Lars x Vampress (i call her Ludmilla--she's the one who wants a ghost) Rashnu x OC (who happens to be the moon goddess) Nanghaithya x AP Warlock (you know, cute warlock from AP. also do some nanghaithya x indra, but that's just a little too plausible) ffvii: Rufus x OC (bishi boy named masahiro. masahiro XD yes, my rufus is gay. deal.) Reno x Cissnei Rufus x Reno (this totally depends on who's writing it--some are really cute, some are really bizarre O.o) Tseng x Rufus (another depends-who's-writing-it one. it's very, very rare that i find one of these i like.) *** thanks to D_A, i like saurva x erithea too XD and thanks to kaz, nanghaithya x tei'jal can be good too. and then there's the random bands i like--daisuke asakura and hiroyuki takami are absolutely adorable. they swear up and down they aren't gay (or, hiro does at least), but their fanservice suggests otherwise. either way, they're adorable ^^ i'll let you know if i think of any more. rufus x masahiro is possibly my favorite as of right now.
Posted on: 2010/7/30 0:01
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #13 | ||||||||||
@Tei: WAT? You also like Saurva/Eithera because of me? How come you never made mention of that?
LOLz, my crack pairings happen usually because I just don't like any of the logical or canon ones and because for some reason I "sense" that they could be compatible. In the case of my AV crack-OTPs, those are just stupidity that got carried away. Saurva/Eithera: Me and Rogue paired them up (among many other random good guy/bad guy pairings) simply because Eithera blew up and screaming about wanting to rip the daeva to shreds or something of that sorts. If she didn't blow up a gasket once released, I doubt i would even think of pairing them up. Agas/Rhen: This is actually my first AV crack pairing, but since it didn't start as a pairing and I completely forgot all about it, it didn't re-enter my mind until... Oh, I dunno, last year? It's the classic shoujo manga style "I molest your girlfriend so you will be pissed off because I can" thing. I only remembered this because I for some reason took note of this crack pairing in my diary somewhere and when I read through it, I found that random plot point and thought it was so much fun. I'm pretty sure my Agas is no longer Nazi-Hitler-Spartan-Mariner Agas at that point, because that would be totally SCARY You know, this guy right here, a.k.a (a remake of) the first Agas I ever drew. -------------------------------------------- More picspam to prettify the thread, yes/yes?
Posted on: 2010/7/30 1:03
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #14 | ||||||||||
@d_a: What's the big idea of suddenly posting a bunch of kissy-kissy pics? You almost gave me heart attack!
Anyways, my complete list of Fave pairings (I know I've posted this in another thread before, but- heck- this is Spam Haven. Who cares?): Games AV Series: Nanghaithya/Indra (though I've quite forgotten about this since I stopped playing AV1) Saurva/Eithera Beauty/Eston (And I've liked this pairing even BEFORE I knew they were actually betrothed) None from the party members because I don't like any of them. None from AV2 either, because I don't remember any of the characters. Final Fantasy: Noctis/Lightning (FF 13-Versus crossover) Maqui/Lebreau (FF 13) Rufus/Elena (FF 7: ACC) Genesis/Cissnei or Genesis/Aerith (Ciris Core) Sephiroth/Elfe (Before Crisis) KOEI Warriors: Nu Wa/Fu Xi (WO) Taigong Wang/ Himiko (WO) Mitsunari Ishida/Ginchiyo Tachibana (SW) Xing Cai/Zhao Yun (DW) Misc. Games: Venus Moonflower/String Bean (The Urbz: Sims in the City) Manga/Anime APH: Taiwan/Hong Kong (It used to be Taiwan/Japan, but I just lost interest) Vietnam/Thailand Russia/Belarus Belgium/Holland (new favorite incest pairing. Bwahaha) Black Lagoon: Rotton/Shenhua or Rotton/Sawyer Gretel/Garcia Lovelace Chang/Balalaika Pandora Hearts: Alice/Break or Break/Alyss Gil/Ada Glen (Oswald)/Lacie Misc. Anime/Manga: Itsuki/Yuki (Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu) VOCALOID: Kaito/Meiko EDIT: removing some pairings off the list due to its lack of unusual factor
Posted on: 2010/7/30 4:41
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #15 | ||||||||||
I totally support:
- Dameon x Indra. - Saurva x Eithera because of daeva-agas' old comic - Lars x Dameon - Zorom x Vel (which makes no sense, but...) - [s]Nox x Mel[/s] I'm kidding, kidding! - Edward x Spook, totally. - Gyendal x Stella. Angstangstangstangst- - Ahriman x Agas XD - Ulf x Belf - Lydia x Golden Frog - KTC x Giant Crab And many, many more.
Posted on: 2010/7/30 5:51
Soyasushi Productions |
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #16 | ||||||||||
Wow... looks like many people came to like Saurva/Eithera pairing because of d_a's comic.
(Not me, though... Since I'm the one who came up with that first)
Posted on: 2010/7/30 7:39
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #17 | ||||||||||
@kirroha, ahrimanXagas?!! and KTCXgiant crab?! we amaranthians sure have a good taste in choosing our spouse
Posted on: 2010/7/30 7:42
Somebody, a short while ago, told me I used too many commas in my writing. I was crushed, to say the least. I have no idea why, exactly, anyone would think that, because I certainly do not believe that I use too many commas. Like, seriously, I don't. |
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #18 | ||||||||||
Wow Daeva! Nice pictures
As for me, I don't remember much characters from the AV series but I have them on my computer so I will replay them. For anime, Tokyo Mew Mew (daeva said it before me) IchigoxKisshu and MintxRyou Some of this is fanon/canon, btw..., but it still fits "weird, unusual, abnormal etc" Kodomo no Jikan AokixRin KyokoxNo one KuroxShirai and MimixReiji I watch a lot of anime, but that's all I can think of right now... Games Rune Factory 2: KylexJake, AriaxBarrett Legacy Of YS:FeenaxAdol Master of the Monster Lair: OwenxKate Touhou: Well, most of what I come up with will be yuri because there are only girls with the exception of Rinnosuke, and my mind is practically dead right now anyways.. CirnoxSuika, HouraixShanghai (the dolls bwahaha), MarisaxRinnosuke, ChenxRan, SakuyaxHong(aka Meiling, China, Chugoku) I will update this post later.
Posted on: 2010/7/30 7:44
Signature by niyuki-chan on deviantart |
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #19 | ||||||||||
((okay, off topic, but this bothers the heck out of me--probably more than her XD--but when shortening daeva_agas, methinks she prefers D_A or agas.))
adept_rogue: Quote:
really? i've seen that one done occasionally, but never thought about it myself. (hardcore tseng x elena over here XP)
Posted on: 2010/7/30 12:33
Re: The Unofficial "Unusual Pairings Fan-Club"! | #20 | ||||||||||
@daeva oops i mean D_A , mabye u should put up ur "kissy kissy fluffly fluffly" pics in the art gallery.
Posted on: 2010/7/30 12:46
Somebody, a short while ago, told me I used too many commas in my writing. I was crushed, to say the least. I have no idea why, exactly, anyone would think that, because I certainly do not believe that I use too many commas. Like, seriously, I don't. |
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If you watched Super Bowl XLV, you may have seen Best Buy's commercial for its Buy Back program, which lets you trade in older gear purchased at the chain for newer stuff.
Right now the program is free, but after this Saturday you'll have to pay an upfront fee to participate. So of course we wanted to see if it's a good deal for consumers.
Our verdict: It's not.
The concept of trade-ins isn't a new one; there are several third-party companies that will accept used goods and pay you a fee. Although most of the major ones, such as Gazelle.com, don't yet accept TVs, some do. TechForward offers a plan very similar to Best Buy's, and another site, CEXchange, lets you enter a TV's make and model number to get an estimate as to its trade-in value. Best Buy previously ran an electronics trade-in program, but it didn't include TVs. In fact, its new Buy Back program isn't run by Best Buy itself, but rather by Chartis WarrantyGuard (CWG), a third-party company that administers extended warranty plans.
But when you look at the fine details of the Best Buy program, it's not likely to make good economic sense for most of us. In many cases, the cost of the plan will exceed the trade-in credit you'll receive. The HD Guru website did a nice job of breaking down the terms of the deal, but in a nutshell here's how it works.
To begin with, you pay an upfront fee: $60 for TVs that cost less than $500, $100 for sets priced at $500 to $1,199.99, $180 for models that cost $1,200 to $2,499.99, and $350 for TVs priced between $2,500 and $5,000. You have to bring the TV into the store to trade it in, and all payments are made via a Best Buy gift card—you can't get back cash you can spend elsewhere.
How much you'll get back depends how long you've owned the TV, and the condition in which it is received. The TV will have to go through "acceptance testing," where the TV's condition will be "graded." Details of the plan give CWG—at its "sole discretion"—the right to adjust the Buy Back amount based on its assessment. Here's the table from Best Buy's terms and conditions that shows the sliding scale of what you can expect to receive based on the TV's date of purchase and its deemed condition:
TVs, Laptops, Tablets & Mobile Phones |
TVs Only |
Acceptance Testing Condition Grade |
6 Months from Effective Date |
After 6 Months to 12 Months from Effective Date |
After 12 Months to 18 Months from Effective Date |
After 18 Months to 24 Months from Effective Date |
After 24 Months to 48 Months from Effective Date |
Good or Fair |
Up to 50% |
Up to 40% |
Up to 30% |
Up to 20% |
Up to 10% |
Poor |
Up to 25% |
Up to 20% |
Up to 15% |
Up to 10% |
Up to 5% |
Substantially Impaired |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
* The Buy Back Amount is expressed as a percentage of the Original Purchase Price of the Device. The Buy Back Amount may be reduced from that listed in the schedule due to missing or inoperable accessories or included items, as provided for in the paragraph below.
So under this plan, we decided to see what we'd receive if we brought in a 46-inch Samsung LCD TV (UN46B6000), purchased in December 2009 for $1,600. If the TV was in good condition, we could receive up to $480, although as HD Guru points out the term "up to" is somewhat vague, and it's left to the discretion of CWG. But if the TV is deemed to be in poor condition, the most you'll get back is $240. In both cases you'd have to subtract the upfront cost of the plan—$180—from the amount to see what you'd net. Under the best-case scenario the amount is $300, but it's only $60 if the TV is deemed to be in poor condition. A quick check on eBay shows a few of these sets selling from $500 to more than $1,000. It's likely you can do much better using craigslist—we saw one locally listed for $650—where you don't have the hassle of shipping (though having a stranger come pick up the TV isn't everyone's cup of tea).
Since Best Buy's program is remarkably similar to the one run by TechForward, we compared the programs based on that same 46-in Samsung LCD set.
Best Buy |
TechForward |
Plan cost |
$180 |
$150 |
Buy back |
30% (max) |
30% (max) |
Buy Back |
15% (max) |
15% (max) |
Dollar amount |
$480 |
$480 |
Payment |
Best Buy card |
Store credit/rebate |
One difference is that you have to ship the device back to TechForward, although they'll send you a prepaid postage label along with a box and appropriate packaging materials—but you have to ask for it. With Best Buy's plan it's your responsibility to get the TV to the store. TechForward's plan is less expensive, but you may find that the convenience of being able to deal with a local Best Buy is worth the extra $30.
But the bigger issue is whether the prepaid buy back concept is a worthwhile one. For most of us, I don't think it is. For one, you're prepaying for a service you might never use. For another, unless you plan to buy a new TV every six months, the amount you'll receive isn't likely to be meaningful. For example, if you keep your TV for two years, in the best-case scenario you'll only get up to 10 percent of the original purchase price, and after four years you'd get nothing. So in the case of the Samsung set, after two years you could receive a maximum of $160, but you'd have paid out $180, for a net loss of $20.
To us, this plan seems more like a way for a retailer to add a higher-profit item to a low-margin sale than a great way for consumers to get a break on new gear. And it will make even less sense after Saturday when the program is no longer free.
—James K. Willcox


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Of all the words I tend to overuse hideously when writing about music - and I'm hankering after the now-blacklisted 'sophomore' here - 'pop' is the one I'd swear by the most. More so than 'indie', whose rep has taken a bit of a battering of late, 'pop' is the bandwagon whose wheels I'm happiest throwing myself under time and again. Rather than get bogged down too much into a discussion about semantics (pop-ular? pop-ulist? Etc), let's instead look at pop in all its vague and polymorphous glory. (As an aside, one colleague's best stab at defining the word neatly was 'anything you dance to at a family wedding', to which the obvious riposte is I would dance to Joy Division records at a family wedding, and do it with a shit-eating grin on my face that scares the crap out of the kids.)
For music critics, pop seems more of an ill-defined sensibility than anything, a platonic ideal that has no meaning outside of their own twisted logic. Animal Collective? Pop, innit. Deerhoof? Fahckin' blinding tunes, geezer. Of course, critics are also by and large overgrown mummies' boys that never quite recovered from their adolescences and therefore aren't best equipped to understand when the public at large chooses not to see things their way. Take M.I.A., for instance. Capable of transforming even the most dour of post-rock worshipping musos into rabid, delirious disciples of POP, she is nonetheless incapable of persuading the great unwashed of her universal appeal – 27,000 sales of Arular to date and a little over 2,000 of Kala midway through its first week of release. At the other end of the spectrum to M.I.A's consummate sense of 'now-ness', there's the whole raft of Brian Wilson-aping indie-poppers, regularly written about in hallowed terms as 'perfect pop' but again selling generally bugger all records - The Shins may be a big deal in America but they've barely made a dint in the national consciousness over here, of Montreal have only recently transcended toilet venue status ten years into their careers, and New Pornographers have yet to make a splash four albums in.
At worst, a literate approach to pop music amounts to the kind of convoluted snobbery that's very much the preserve of indie fandom, but it's also resulted in some of the best groups of the past few decades, and ones that actually sold a few records, too – from the brainy end of glam (Bowie, Roxy Music) through to the entryist approach of the early new romantic bands (Scritti Politti, Heaven 17) and new pop vanguardists like Orange Juice, Associates et al.
Arguably, though, pop doesn't need indie lending its music a veneer of credibility right now. As the chart-bothering indie music du jour scrabbles for the centre ground with the unprincipled indignity of a New Labour rally in the home counties, ripe with poorly-observed platitudes or solipsistic epic-isms and riddled with presumptions about the primacy of guitar music over subnormal pop, cred-pop continues to deliver tunes by the spadeful with none of the pomposity – Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Rihanna, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Timbaland (okay, maybe he's a bit pompous). To put it another way, would you rather hear Timbaland's crisp, sexy production on Nelly Furtado's 'Say It Right', or would you prefer to hear Kele Okereke bleat his way earnestly through the track for Jo Whiley's Live Lounge?
Should this be allowed to happen, ever?
We're used to hearing bands drone on about the perils of being pigeonholed, but where it's accurate at least, no band worth their salt would get haughty about being tagged 'pop'; pop being spritely, irreverent, aware where rock is merely leaden and self-important.
Which brings us, albeit in a very roundabout fashion, to the big question: what are the arty pop acts you'd like to see / have seen selling records by the bucketload? Does pop even need art meddling in its affairs?
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didn't really go anywhere, did it?
'pop', like all genre terms, is only useful for a point to describe music, like 'indie', 'rock', etc. maybe we should leave arguments over semantics and definitions to the dictionary folks?
this is so pointless, who really cares, lets just listen to whas good, i dont mind if it's 'arty' or not as long as it makes nice sounds in my ears.
I think the problem
with this piece is that it starts by saying "pop music is great, it shouldn't be frowned upon for being popular etc etc" and then, at the end, asks for which "arty pop acts" you'd like to see. Why do they have to be arty? Why can't they just be pop?
why can't they just be arty?
Does pop even need art meddling in its affairs?
i remember a quote
on dEUS' first album that said something like "pretentious art wank?...as a big fan of both art and wanking..." and it was a recommendation. dEUS never sold any records and probably aren't pop. now, is my comment as well made as the article that preceded it or what?!
pop is where indie went wrong
there is nothing wrong with being 'pop' but ever since maximo parks/kaiser chiefs broke through, bands have been more concerned with filling a gap in the market than making anything good/challenging
The Beatles
created Pop.
what a lame topic suggested as if it has any relevance at all..
pop is art
or, at least, as much art as any other music genre is.
everything's so intertwined and blurred, especially now, that there isn't really anything worth going over anymore in discussions like this. as the article hints at, "pop" is mostly a structural description, just like "post-rock" or "post-hardcore" or "slowcore" or whatever the fuck is. thats all there is to it, and there isnt much to say about it either. its meaningless
as an aside, i'm confused as to why post rock, a genre which is generally fairly simple, not very diverse and a bit self-parodical has (in the uk) come to represent the pedestal of high art for indie dorks? especially as in america it's very frequently treated with skepticism and often ridicule
yeah, but...
Yanks can't even spell Scepticism correctly, so what do they know?! More generally, i don't think American cultural mores are going to serve as a weapon to lambast British culture (especially as you have to reduce us to crude, clumsy, irrelevant stereotypes to do it) when it's international cultural reputation (however fair) is a by-word for superficiality, lazy derivation, and a low opinion of the audience.
In all honesty, the indie dorks i know don't worship at the altar of any one genre and might look down on Sigur Ros whilst praising the latest EITS effort. The music they're most likely to jump about celebrating would be Green Acre types bunging as many notes, time signatures and patterns into one song as possible.
Isn't art when people take a cultural form (music, painting, writing, ship-building etc.) and try to give it a deeper meaning than the purely functional (you can sing along, dance to it, it's pretty/colourful, it describes something, it floats...).
So pop isn't necessarily art, any more than any other musical genre, but it can be - it all depends upon the intentions and skill of the maker.
Of course, that's a purely subjective interpretation; feel free to disagree.
it's treated with sCepticism and ridicule
in the UK too. hence all the beard-stroking jokes.
much ado about nothing.
And similar to shakespeare's plays. So much is spouted, yet nothing really happens
I got lost after reading such words as 'semantics' and 'polymorphous'.


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Diana Taurasi Continues to Shine for Spartak
Nov. 5, 2009 - 2009-10 EuroLeague Results & Standings
Diana Taurasi was born under a very bright star. The winner of two Olympic gold medals, three NCAA titles while at the University of Connecticut, two WNBA crowns with the Phoenix Mercury, and three EuroLeague and three Russia Super League championships with Spartak Moscow, Taurasi collects championships the way little kids collect Webkinz. And she seems to be hitting her stride. After her first two EuroLeague games this year, Taurasi is leading the pack with a 28.0 ppg. average, 5.7 ppg. ahead of the league's second scorer, DeLisha Milton-Jones (22.3 ppg.). She also lists No. 4 for assists (5.5 apg.), showing she's not afraid to give up the ball, has hit all eight of her free throw attempts and is shooting a respectable 50.0 percent from the field in the EuroLeague. What the future holds for Taurasi is anyone's guess. But we would have to assume more titles are in store for Taurasi and Spartak if she keeps this up.
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This Week's Roundup
Six teams remain undefeated early in EuroLeague play, including Group A's Ros Casares Valencia and Galatasary, which meet up in two weeks in Istanbul. In Group B, Beretta Famila Schio and Wisla Can-Pack are both sporting perfect marks. One of those teams is sure to collect a loss next week as Wisla Can-Pack hosts the Italian club in Krakow, Poland, on Nov. 18. Rivas Ecópolis is the only undefeated team in Group C and Spartak Moscow Region is the only team in Group D to not feel the sting of a loss. Additionally, seven clubs are still in the hunt for their first victories.
The 2009-10 EuroLeague preliminary round still has many weeks to go, but over the next five weeks before the two-week holiday break the standings should start to shake out. The cream will rise to the top by then, but some squads will need to return from the break in top form. The middle and bottom rakings usually become quite a competition over the final two weeks of play as only the top four from each group will advance to the next round.
Spartak Moscow Region 88, Fenerbache 74
Diana Taurasi turned in another superb performance in leading Spartak Moscow Region (2-0) past Fenerbache (1-2) in Istanbul, Turkey, with a game-best 29 points, seven boards and six assists. Spartak jumped to an early 20-4 lead. The Turk squad slowly chipped away at the gap and with 7:23 to play the USA's Nicole Powell sunk a pair of free throws to give Fener its first lead of the night, 70-69. However, Taurasi hit 6-of-6 from the line and dished out a pair of assists in a Spartak 11-0 run that spanned two minutes and left the Russian club on top 80-70. Fenerbache never again threatened as Spartak remained undefeated.
In addition to Taurasi's performance, Latvia star Anete Jekabsone-Zogota scored 18 points, USA National Team member Sylvia Fowles hit 6-of-9 from the field and notched 13 points, while fellow American Janel McCarville scored 12 points.
Taurasi's Phoenix Mercury teammate Penny Taylor of Australia scored 21 points and grabbed nine boards, while American Nicole Powell contributed 19 points and six assists.
Ros Casares 87, UMMC Ekaterinburg 68
Behind 19 points apiece from two-time Olympic gold medalist DeLisha Milton-Jones and Spain's Laia Palau, Ros Casares (3-0) took the top of the leader board in Group A by handing UMMC Ekaterinburg (2-1) a stunning 87-68 defeat. Playing without its injured point guard Celine Dumerc, UMMC was forced into 20 turnovers. Ros opened with 12 unanswered points and was still up by 12, 24-12, at the end of the first quarter. The Russian side clipped it to five points, 40-35, at halftime, and the third quarter was nearly even with Ros taking it 19-17. With her side trailing 59-52 heading into the final stanza, USA National Team member Cappie Pondexter cut the gap to four points with a three to start the fourth quarter and with 6:14 to play the Valencian club's lead was narrowed to three points, 67-64. That's when Milton-Jones went to work. She outscored UMMC 8-2 to give Ros some breathing room, 75-66, with 3:14 to play.
In addition to her 19 points, Milton-Jones grabbed six boards. Czech national Jana Vesela added 16 points and Brazilian Erika de Souza posted a double-double of 13 points and 12 boards. Ann Wauters scored 16 points to lead UMMC, Pole Agnieszka Bibrzycka tossed in 13 and Pondexter, in her first game back after eye surgery, scored 12 points and added seven boards.
Cras Basket Taranto 70, TTT Riga 59
The USA's Rebekkah Brunson and Jami Montagnino each chipped in 17 points, while Brunson grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds and Elodie Godin contributed 14 boards and six points as Cras Basket Taranto (1-2) secured its first victory with a 70-59 road win over TTT Riga (0-3). The Latvian squad was paced by 14 points from Lisa Willis.
Wisla Can-Pack 77, ESB Lille Metropole 71
Wisla Can-Pack (3-0) traveled to Villeneuve d' Ascq, France, and eked out a close victory against ESB Lille Metropole (1-2) 77-71 to remain undefeated in EuroLeague play. The team from Krakow, which slipped into the EuroLeague slot vacated after CSKA Moscow folded, is quickly proving it belongs here. Falling behind 20-13 after the first quarter, Wisla Can-Pack outscored the home club 44-30 in the second and third quarters and held off Lille in the fourth for the eventual win. Polish national Ewelina Kobryn was huge in the win, posting 24 points and 10 boards; while France's Elodie Bertal scored 15 points for Lille.
ZVVZ USK Prague 96, KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow 79
KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow (0-3) scored the game's first four points, but ZVVZ USK Prague (2-1) outscored the visitors from Poland 23-9 in the remainder of the first quarter and by halftime owned a 48-30 lead. The second half was much closer, the Gorzow squad won it by a point, 49-48, but the damage was done as the Poles suffered their third defeat of the season. The Czech's Katarina Elhotova top-scored for ZVVZ USK with 25 points and American Catherine Kraayeveld. The USA's Lindsay Whalen had an off shooting night, she hit 2-of-10 from the field to finish with seven points, but also dished out a high of seven assists. Agnieszka Kaczmarczyk scored 20 points in her team's losing effort.
Bourges Basket 82, MKB Euroleasing 56
Bourges Basket (2-1) handed MKB Euroleasing Sopron (2-1) its first loss of the season with a dominating 82-56 victory in France. Holding a slim 16-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, Bourges jumped on the visitors early in the second quarter and owned a 42-25 lead at halftime. The Hungarian side that advanced to last year's Final Four was never able to recover as Bourges, bolstered by a balanced scoring attack, took the win. Czech Ilona Burgrová led Bourges with 15 points, France's Paoline Salagnac added 13 and former Rutgers standout and USA Basketball gold medalist Essence Carson contributed 10 points. The Hungarians also had three players score in double digits, including American Amber Holt and Serbian Maja Miljkovic, who scored 13 apiece, and Hungarian Tijana Krivacevic added 12.
Frisco Sika Brno 70, Tarbes GB 62
After trailing by three points, 37-34, at halftime, the visiting Frisco Sika Brno (1-1) squad outscored Tarbes GB (1-2) 19-10 in the third quarter and held the French squad at bay in the fourth quarter for the 70-62 win. Czech Hana Horakova's 19 points aided her side in the victory, as did 12 points from former USA National Team member Taj McWilliams-Franklin. American DeWanna Bonner also contributed with nine points in the win. Swede Frida Eldebrink led Tarbes with 23 points and Charde Houston had 12 points.
Galatasary 82, TEO Vilnius 55
Galatasary (3-0) remained unbeaten, while TEO Vilnius (0-3) is still looking for its first win of the season after Galatasary blew out the visiting Lithuanian squad 82-55. The first 15 minutes of the contest were close and with just under five minutes to play before the midway buzzer, the score was knotted at 26-apiece. Sophia Young broke the tie and scored five straight points in a Galatasary 12-0 run that blew the game open. TEO finally scored with 21 seconds on the clock, but by halftime the game was well in hand, 41-28. The second half saw Galatasary outscore TEO 21-13 in the third and 20-14 in the fourth quarter for the victory. Jia Perkins was the game's high scorer for the Turkish club, while Young finished with 17 points. The two Americans on the TEO roster both scored in double digits as Renee Montgomery notched a team-best 21 points and passed out four assists and Quanitra Hollingsworth added 12.
Beretta-Famila Schio 91, Gospic Croatia 76
Beretta-Famila (3-0) led from wire-to-wire and earned its third victory of the season, handing Gospic Croatia (0-3) its third straight loss in a 91-76 win in Schio. -I'm very happy for this third straight win," Marissa Coleman, who scored seven points and had four assists, told FIBA Europe. -I'm (in my) first appearance in European competition and I think that (the) level of teams is really high. I hope our team continues with this powerful (performance).' Laura Macchi led the Italian team with 23 points and five assists and France's Nicole Antibe added 16 points in the win. Croatian Jelena Ivezic led her team's losing effort with 22 points and six rebounds.
Halcon Avenida 69, MiZo Pecs 2010 60
MiZo Pecs 2010 (0-3) suffered its third loss of this EuroLeage season, this time at the hands of 2009 Final Four participant Halcon Avenida (2-1) 69-60. Trailing for most of the first three quarters, the Spanish club took its second lead of the game when Spaniard Isa Sanchez hit a layup with 38 seconds to go in the third quarter. The game remained close, but Halcon Avenida never gave up its lead and came away with the win. Sanchez and the USA's Le'Coe Willingham scored 17 points apiece, while Russian Olga Podkovalnikova added 14 points and nine rebounds. Hungarian Zsofia Fegyverneky scored a high of 15 points, Hungarian Anna Vajda had 15 points and nine rebounds, while the USA's Nicole Ohlde contributed 12 points and seven rebounds for the Hungarian side.
Rivas Ecopolis 74, Good Angels Kosice 58
Rivas Ecopolis (3-0) relied on balanced scoring that saw four players hit in double digits as it took down Good Angels Kosice (0-3) 74-58 to remain undefeated. Jelena Dubljevic led the charge for the winners, who went up early and never looked back, with 18 points. The Slovakian team, led by Candice Dupree's 17 points and 12 rebounds also saw Angel McCoughtry score 19 points in the loss.
Lotos Gdynia 74, Szeviep 61
Shameka Christan and Polish national Magdalena Leciejewska posted 17 points apiece to lead Lotos Gdynia (2-1) to a 74-61 win over Szeviép Szeged (0-2) in Gdynia. Alana Beard played just five minutes for the Polish side and accounted for two points in her 2009-10 EuroLeague debut. Lithuania center Vaida Sipaviciute had team-highs of 14 points and six rebounds for the Hungarian squad.


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Build Your Trip to Africa
Syria People - Overlanding Africa.com
Syria people you may meet on your OverlandingAfrica.com trip consist largely of native Syrians, with Kurds as the biggest minority group. Other people that live in Syria include Armenians, Turks and Circassians.
Overall, the country has a young and developing population, with over half the population being under the age of 15 years. Syrians are well-educated, and take pride in their work. A large percentage of Syrians are in the farming industries, and about 25% of the population is economically active. While most Syrians speak Arabic, French is also spoken – especially by older citizens. English is also widely spoken, with mostly the younger and middle aged groups speaking English.
As a nation, Syrians place great value on tradition, religion and family, and are very proud of their cultural heritage. They are also friendly, love to talk and will always make visitors feel welcome.


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Press Contact:
Mary Dickson
(801) 581-3263
Aired Wednesday January 23rd, 2013 at 7:00 pm on KUED HD Ch. 7.1
Sir David Attenborough
In honor of Sir David Attenborough's 60th anniversary on television, Nature presentsthree films on subjects that Attenborough feels have been transformed most profoundly: filmmaking, science and the environment.
The three-part special, Sir Richard Attenborough's Life Stories, beginning Wednesday, January 23 at 7:00 p.m. on KUED is richly illustrated with the sequences he has spent six decades capturing (re-mastered in HD;, new interviews in which he revisits the content; stories and locations that were featured in his landmark series; and packed with the personal anecdotes of the BBC's most accomplished raconteur. The series is a singular synopsis of a unique half-century.
In Life On Camera Sir David Attenborough revisits key places and events in his wildlife filmmaking career, reminisces through his old photos and reflects on memorable wildlife footage, including swimming with dolphins and catching a komodo dragon. Returning to his old haunts in Borneo, he recalls the challenges of filming on a seething pile of guano in a bat cave.
In Understanding tne Natural World, airing Wednesday, January 30 at 7:00 pm., Sir Attenborough shares his memories of the scientists and the breakthroughs that helped shape his own career. He also recalls some of his more hair-raising attempts to bring new science to a television audience, such as when he stood in the shadow of an erupting volacano as lumps of hot lava that crashed around him were being charged by a group of armed New Guinean tribesmen.
In Our Fragile Planet, airing Wednesday, February 6 at 7:00 pm., Sir Attenborough reflects on the dramatic impact that we have had on the natural world during his lifetime, such as the disappearing rain forests and coral reefs, endangered species such as the blue whale, manatees, sea otters, chimpanzees, and orangutans. He notes how the vulnerable Panamanian golden frog is now quarantined for safety so it doesn't succumb to a highly infectious fungus which has already made the Monteverde Toad from Costa Rica extinct.
He tells surprising, entertaining and deeply personal stories of the changes he has seen, from his early travels with the London Zoo collecting animals; showing viewers the world's rarest living animal, the giant Galapagos tortoise, Lonesome George; to covering the work of Dian Fossey, whose life's mission to study and protect the endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda inspired him to become a conservationist.
But Attenborough also reviews the revolution in attitudes towards nature that has taken place around the globe. He cites the creation in 1961 of the World Wildlife Fund, the first international organization to spend money on conservation projects around the globe, and protections put into place in Borneo and Malaysia to protect birds and turtles.
He concludes with a warning about the consequences of sea ice melt: exposing the dark sea water that doesn't reflect the sun's heat to keep earth cool. Unlike ice and snow, it absorbs the sun's heat, raising the sea temperature and its level. Climate change, he says, is already affecting the lives of not only wild animals, but ourselves.
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text: I find I can sometimes walk for miles/hours without seeing anything I want to photograph. But as soon as I take out the camera and start composing something, anything, I start seeing endless possibilities. So I have a rule that if I have not found anything to photograph in the first 15 minutes of an outing, I stop, take out the camera, and start framing whatever happens to be there. I'll usually end up finding something compelling enough to photograph. I think the camera acts like an on/off button sometime; in the bag = off; on the tripod = on.