Sharing your music.... When it's not very good

[ghettosynth]

my definition of "very good" is...
everything in my music collection.

that sounds overopinionated but
isn't that everybody else's
definition of "very good"?

i mean if it isn't very good then
what's it doing in your music collection?

so, i compare my music to what's in my music collection.
and i'm like "damn, my music isn't very good".
i have the ramones in my music collection.
my music is not even very good compared to the ramones.

but i'm working on it.
and right now, it's going to remain not shared.
thank me.
cos it's not very good.

No, appreciation can be transient. We buy stuff at different times in our lives and the impetus to get rid of it isn't very strong. I have some shit in my music collection.

[BONES]

Bootcamp taught me so much, it gave me confidence and tools I still use today...how tough bootcamp is is a personal thing, what truly matters is what you take from it imo...

I think our first five weeks of officer training was way harder than anything soldiers went through at recruit training because they were deliberately trying to break you, to weed out the pretenders and I know a lot of my classmates carry huge scars from the first year of training. What got me through, I think, was that I could see it for the artificial construct that it was, the bluff and bluster of the drill sergeants made me laugh more than it scared me. Having done recruit training as a digger in the Reserve made it easier in some respects but it also made me a bit of a target for some of the bigger bullies amongst the staff.

Do they have Cadets in the US? At my high school we had Air Force cadets, which was a lot more serious than the Army cadets and most other schools, so that also made Reserve training a lot easier for me because I already knew how to march and shoot.

I went from a small boy to a man, a well tuned machined and you bet many is the time I have reminded myself of that and drawn from that.

I saw that in so many of the recruits I trained, and some of the parents were so pathetically grateful for how we'd transformed their sons, but I didn't see it in myself so much until I was a lot older.

Where it started with new recruits was at the camp barber shop. The recruits would get off the buses on Tuesday evening and we'd give them bedding and get them off to sleep. First thing on Wednesday morning they'd be lined up at the barber shop, all cocky and joking amongst themselves. They'd go in one door and out the other end, like sheep in a race, and when they came out with all their hair gone they were as docile as little lambs. It was like turning off a light switch, all the fight gone out of 'em. I've never seen anything like it.

I do wonder how I would have survived my last 5+ years without that confidence, losing my wife the way I did and once again packing up for a huge move. But as can be witnessed here by many, I nailed it.

I think you underestimate yourself. The Army can only work with what's there, all they did was bring it out in you. The selection process might not seem too rigorous but those old soldiers at recruiting offices are pretty good judges of character, they know what type to look for.

For me this is not a case of an inflated ego, this is pride, I accomplished something I should take pride in that.

Abso-fucken-lutely! If you can't take pride in your achievements, they are meaningless.

* hand to hand combat the drill sgt asked if anyone had self defense/martial arts training, a few of us raised our hands. We had to relearn that...I'll never forget his words..."WE ARE NOT TEACHING YOU TO BE DEFEND YOURSELF, THIS IS HAND TO HAND COMBAT, WE ARE TEACHING YOU TO KILL".

I always enjoyed their refreshingly candid attitudes to that kind of thing. We never did hand-to-hand but bayonet training was where we really pumped them up. We'd get them to take off their shirts, pump out their chests and charge! Some of them, often the quiet ones, would rip into their sandbag targets and tear them to shreds. It was a real insight into how easy it would be to get your platoon to follow you over the top of the trenches and into no-man's land if you ever had to. Thank f**k it never came to that.

[melomood]

I may need a cold shower after all that topless chest pumping

[BONES]

Settle, petal.

my definition of "very good" is...everything in my music collection.
that sounds overopinionated but isn't that everybody else's definition of "very good"?

No, I definitely have some utter shite in my collection, like a pre-Police album (Strontium-90) that featured producer Mike Howlett. I keep it because it's interesting but it's definitely not good. I also have a few albums that complete an artist's collection that I don't feel are particularly good, like some of the 90s albums from Opposition. There are a couple real duds in Killing Joke's oeuvre, too, but I keep them for the sake of completeness.

my music is not even very good compared to the ramones.

Don't underestimate the genius of the Ramones. They made it seem easy but no-one ever managed to better them at it.

It took me a long time to realize that I’m happiest during the process, and most miserable when doing live shows, even though I’ve had some amazing experiences. I’ve never been able to make a decent living doing music, and I like sleeping in my own bed a lot.

I'm the opposite, I live for the chance to get up on stage and let loose. I mostly f**king hate the process. I never really had any illusions about being able to earn a living from it so it's always been a hobby, albeit a serious one that has definitely cost my other career on a couple of occasions when I put it first.

From what I can see, the music industry is like a lottery

The best illustration of that to me is Pearl Jam. I reckon there were probably a thousand bands around at the time who, given the opportunities Pearl Jam got, could have done at least as well. They just seemed so average to me. Not bad but no better than a lot of other bands who never had their moment in the sun.

What if there was some mechanism where there was not such a focus on superstardom? I’m no economist, but when you become something like a UI designer for games (my profession) you have your people who work on AAA releases, but also guys like me who make a decent living doing smaller or even independent games. I don’t need a mansion in the south of France and my own plane. I’m happy with a small condo in the suburbs and a trip to Florida every few years. There doesn’t seem to be such a position in the music business. Not as a musician writing original songs, at least.

Of course, there was a time when that wasn't just possible, it was actually pretty easy. In Sydney in the early 80s there were probably 100 or more bands who could play 7 nights a week and fill dozens of venues all over town. When pubs used to shut at 10pm, it was easy to see 9 or 10 bands a night - 3 or 4 at a pub, then another couple at a venue that closed at midnight, then off to Kings Cross to see another two or three at a venue that closed at 3am - which I'd do every Friday and Saturday, as well as going to see a few through the week. It was a grind but those bands all made a living doing it, even though many of them never released more than a single or an EP, some not even that.

Midnight Oil, The Angels and INXS all came out of that scene and that's undoubtedly why they were/are all such great live acts. AC/DC probably pre-date that era by just a couple of years.

[ghettosynth]

I may need a cold shower after all that topless chest pumping

LOL! Right? Chest pumping should not be confused with my stories of cheek squeezing. I recommend a warm shower, with soap, after finding yourself in the proximity of the latter.

[PatchAdamz]

Maybe golden showers....

[vurt]

Maybe golden showers....

are we back to my army wife escapades already?

[melomood]

[donkey tugger]

I may need a cold shower after all that topless chest pumping

'An Officer and A Gentleman'.

[vurt]

he ain't gonna be gentle ...

[donkey tugger]

he ain't gonna be gentle ...

I was thinking of Hink and Bones. Hink is an 'officer' in KVR terms anyway....

[vurt]

he ain't gonna be gentle ...

I was thinking of Hink and Bones. Hink is an 'officer' in KVR terms anyway....

oh, i thought bones was the officer and melo the gent

[donkey tugger]

he ain't gonna be gentle ...

I was thinking of Hink and Bones. Hink is an 'officer' in KVR terms anyway....

oh, i thought bones was the officer and melo the gent

Come on, Bones is a fine gene'man.

[melomood]

Im Sally Fields in this scenario. Opinionated yet virtuous

and still a virgin, technically...

[vurt]

im morphic fields