[electrical]

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Steve: Swingo is my new favorite game and i would like to wager all my moneys on it.

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Come to Chicago on any Tuesday and look me up.

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...something Henry Rollins said on his show... about bands selling out their music to commercials. His claim: Who cares? Let good musician make a few bucks being appreciated now that they are respected instead of dismissed and ignored.

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Precisely the answer you'd expect from the Voice of GM Trucks. It's an argument that holds absolutely no water.

To say that an artist with a legion of devoted fans and a culturally-significant body of work is being "dismissed and ignored" is ridiculous prima facie and doesn't really need further debunking. What he's talking about is money. Whenever anybody starts justifying taking money with language derived from some other consideration, he's actually talking about the money.

I cannot fault anybody for taking money for their work, especially in dire circumstances (people often do degrading things for money, especially in dire circumstances), but it is ludicrous to suggest that as a fan (a participant in the celebration that made the song "Lust for Life" a valuable commodity in the first place) I shouldn't notice that it has happened, and that it shouldn't change the meaning of the song in my estimation. Of course I will, and of course it does. Previously, "Lust for Life" had been an ode to decadence, written and performed in a frenzy of cocaine, heroin bingeing and buggery. It has now become a mormon-worthy family-fun cruise jingle. Of course it has changed.

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Do artists really have some kinda responsibility to their audiences...even though, as you say, the best records are made without giving a crap what the public thinks?

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No, they owe us nothing. That also means that my enthusiasm for artists isn't bulletproof, and I owe them no allegiance either. If they become something I cannot get behind, then they are likely to lose me as a fan.

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I want Iggy to be as rich and popular as Justin Timberlake

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Rich, okay, but what benefit is it to the world to have douchebags and Justin Timberlake fans listening to Iggy Pop? Not everything is for everybody, and I don't think everything is universally improved if you lay it on with a ladle.

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Poker question: Would you ever put your tournament life in on a draw?

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If you're not willing to move-in with 21 outs on the flop, you're not really playing poker. If you mean calling-off with a bare eight-out draw, then I'd need to be somewhat desperate.
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If so, would you kick yourself in the nuts for using the term tournament life?

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You used the term, dipstick, not me.