Do all musicians have a silly switch?

Conrad · 2010-04-20T14:16:30+00:00

Do all musicians have a silly switch that just randomly toggles on and off? IOW do you sometimes break into your rendition of yankee doodle in an open plan office and then get hit by inevitable shame? Have you tried using spoonerisms in meetings? Or does something similar happen? :-[ Would love to hear about your experiences...

singemonkey

Stratisfear wrote Throughout history amethyst has been used to guard against drunkenness and is thought to be helpful in overcoming addiction. It has been used for hearing disorders, insomnia, headaches and other pain. Some sources suggest it is used to stabilize mental disorders.

Worn to make the wearer gentle and amiable. Amethyst powers include: dreams, healing, peace, love, spiritual upliftment, courage, psychism, protection against thieves, and happiness.

My good friend, Pinvictor, enlightens us from his "Fortress of Facts" - each of which was arrived at with identical rigour and lust for the truth as the above: (a sample)

13. Pet cats are responsible for the highest percentage of pet owner's deaths, followed by dogs, with snakes and rabbits in third place. Statistically, the safest pet to own is a cricket.

14. Rapper Snoop Dogg spent 1991-1993 performing under 12 different names, including Killer Kalvin, Doggz Body MC, Broadus Sholdaz, MC Heartplug, and Snoopy G-Buster, until he settled on his now famous moniker.

15. Liquidised maggots are the same consistency as hen's egg whites, but with 3 times the protein, and are used extensively in Japan, parts of China, and parts of Korea in all baked goods.

16. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmore played the longest guitar solo in history on 22 June 1971 in an outdoor concert in London. Lasting for 6 hours 12 minutes, Gilmore wore a catheter and colostomy bag for the duration, and had a roadie feed him a roast beef and mustard baguette after the first 2 hours. The rest of the band played for 90 minutes, and were then replaced by session musicians and members of Hawkwind, Camel, and the drummer from the Moody Blues.

17. There are currently more computer mice on earth than there are real mice.

18. The collective population of America outweighs the collective population of India, even though there are less than a third as many people.

Conrad

I am disturbed now by what Gilmore did and how much the Americans weigh....

Ray

X-rated Bob wrote
Computers - especially notebook computers with their cramped keyboards - are not good for wrists and elbows, but you can improve matters.

Hey?! What are you telling me? That's all I use! Right now my hand is killing me but I've always thought it was the weather and age and rugby. And now you telling me it's my job. Have to do something about that hey. As for this quirky business, I've met sooo many arty people who are the "I am arty so I am whack" mould and they spend so much effort on being whack it's exhausting.

Bob-Dubery

Stratisfear wrote I am indeed relieved, Bob. The mighty research power of the internet reveals that a rock friend like Irving will generate the following positive influences in your life:

Actually I usually threaten to throw him at people.

He's a real pal. Never a word of protest - he's always ready to take one for the team.

Bob-Dubery

Ray wrote Hey?! What are you telling me? That's all I use! Right now my hand is killing me but I've always thought it was the weather and age and rugby. And now you telling me it's my job. Have to do something about that hey. As for this quirky business, I've met sooo many arty people who are the "I am arty so I am whack" mould and they spend so much effort on being whack it's exhausting.

There's a well known complaint folks call "tennis elbow". It's an entrapment of a nerve in the elbow. These days physiotherapists call it "mouse elbow".

IIRC you play a lot of golf. There's also a chronic elbow problem associated with that.

Conrad

Ray wrote
X-rated Bob wrote
Computers - especially notebook computers with their cramped keyboards - are not good for wrists and elbows, but you can improve matters.

Hey?! What are you telling me? That's all I use! Right now my hand is killing me but I've always thought it was the weather and age and rugby. And now you telling me it's my job. Have to do something about that hey. As for this quirky business, I've met sooo many arty people who are the "I am arty so I am whack" mould and they spend so much effort on being whack it's exhausting.
Nah weird is different from a simple silly switch. I am referring to silly switches on people that don't pretend. People who are themselves. Being silly because one has creative energy that needs to be spent is different from pretending to be the outsider's outsider which is always just a group of people who are all "different" in the same way thus nullafying any uniqueness (which BTW was also not mentioned). I can't stand those people either.

[deleted]

I find with myself I go thorugh stages of having strange behaviours like needing to pull my wrists in certain directions when I walk in straight lines (The Vocalist of my band pointed this out as not being normal) and at the moment I'm going through a pokemon obsession, maybe these things are normal to you but other people have expressed concern.

I have recently been paying more attention to the level of insanity of people around me, trying to figure out how insane people can be before they are REALLY insane. You have nothing to fear, everybody I know is insane in some way. Some people just show their insanity to their nearest and dearest, but they're still crazy.

I watched a movie last night about a musician, he calls himself Golgo Bordello. He is your typical extrovert and also caused his grandmother concern when he was young because of his high level of energy. She thought he was crazy. I know people very similar to him. Many musicians seem to have a similar need to expend a lot of energy and dominate people's attention through their antics. This can be amusing, but I don't think it works in all situations. In the movie he was traveling in Eastern Europe trying to re-establish his gypsy roots. In the film it was edited very well to make him look like "the Pied Piper" gathering crowds wherever he went, but watching the extras you see a lot of the time he just cornered people. Quite offensive actually.

Sorry, no real conclusion there, just some observations.

chris77

Many moons ago a friend pointed out to me that there are two groups of people, and it comes from a long time ago when our earliest ancestors first gathered around the fire for a bit of a song and dance. You get the ones prancing around the fire, and you get the ones banging their rocks and keeping the beat. His context was aimed more at pointing out in a symbolic way that some are born leaders and others are followers, but I just loved the literal interpretation. Long before I picked up a real instrument, I was playing one in my head. Always keeping some kind of beat going, sometimes by lip-drumming, tapping my feet or driving my mother nuts by drumming my fingers on the dinner table. Now I dont think musicians are better than other folks, but I do believe they are born and that depending on their circumstances and means, they will find a way to let it out. Silliness isn't necessarily part of the equation, although I think even a reserved classical musician will sometimes act silly. (I also reckon the queen sometimes talks baby to her corgies, and passes wind loudly when no-one is watching. She is still only human...) So yes, all musicians have a silly switch, but although everybody has a silly switch, not all of them are musicians.

Bob-Dubery

chris77 wrote Many moons ago a friend pointed out to me that there are two groups of people,

Complete tosh! There are, of course, 10 groups of people.

Those who can count in binary and those who can't.

Renesongs

X-rated Bob wrote
chris77 wrote Many moons ago a friend pointed out to me that there are two groups of people,
Complete tosh! There are, of course, 10 groups of people.

Those who can count in binary and those who can't.

What rubbish there are only two types of people I tell you, those that divide humanity into two types and those that don't

[deleted]

What rubbish there are only two types of people I tell you, those that divide humanity into two types and those that don't

Ha ha, there are only two types of people, those that recognize me as ruler of the universe and those that don't.

Keira-WitherKay

all i have to say re this thread is ......."WHY BE NORMAL?"

cos really do we want to be dull uninteresting corporate robots all doing exactly what the society of the times dictates, ......

but i guess thats where the word the masses comes from, cos most seem to be happy to follow the herd .......

and really times change and as they do so does the masses outlook ............

so whats silly/wrong/wierd /outlandish today is quite normal tomorrow ?

the "normal people" thru time, thought it was perfectly fine that they burnt witch's/implemented persecutions in name of religeon / colour segregation/ sexual orientation / .......

so why be normal ..........

Conrad

@Keira +1

Bob-Dubery

Keira WitherKay wrote all i have to say re this thread is ......."WHY BE NORMAL?"

Frank Zappa was once asked if he thought that young players should learn more about the kinds of things that were going on in his band. He said no. The answer was to the effect that most youngsters who buy a guitar, join a band etc etc do so because they want to be more attractive to the opposite sex. So they should buy flash guitars, learn superficially flash playing in popular styles etc etc because that was going to give them what they really wanted.

Most people want to have a more-or-less normal life. They want to have a house, have some financial security, a little garden with a couple of kids running around. Please note: I am not saying that there is anything wrong or sub-standard about all of this - these are perfectly fine things to want and most people want them. And your chances of getting these things are improved by being more or less conventional in your manner, your presentation and your aspirations.

Most of us will more or less adhere to the norms (whatever they are at the time) no matter how rebellious or different we think we are.

I'd agree that society should be more tolerant of those who march to the beat of their own drum, but you can only have that space if most people march to the same beat anyway.

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