The posts that never were ( = Content!)

Along with digging through old posts, I found some old drafts that I started but never flourished, never matured into full-fledged posts. As mentioned in the previous post, I found it fascinating to read the kind of stuff I was writing a couple years back so I'm going to post them here for analysis. Some were particularly time specific, so don't make any sense here, although interesting my F1 post going on about Lewis Hamilton outshadowing Jenson and how now he will never get a chance to challenge for the world title, can't always be right :)

To warm up, a few tiny drafts of film reviews I was going to put together under a Lovefilm Picks tag - when I used to subscribe to Lovefilm, still a great service, although for streaming only and more TV options, Netflix may well be the way to go now. It's quite interesting that they are very much in note form, and I present them unedited.

Garden State
"cool film, warm feeling, tenuous story, although there is a sweet love story at the centre.
Falling into a groove with someone, being really honest etc"

How'd you like them apples?! (Good Will Hunting)
Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon good, Ben Affleck bad.
Therapy interesting, tempted it by myself.

...and finally a post where I moan about music and how people can get arsey and protective over the music they like...

My shit music is better than your shit music
Yes, my (shit) music is better than your (shit) music. The aim hopefully is to educate others on the correct etiquette to observe when discussing your musical tastes with your friends, and more importantly strangers.

Now I can freely admit that I used to be one of those persons that would hold the opinion that any music which didn't fall under my tastes was of somehow poorer quality. It is ok to go through life like this but when embracing a melting pot of different opinions and tastes (University is an obvious example from my experience), I learnt that some people other than myself have opinions different to my own. I quickly changed my ways and I suggest that everyone does, everyone will be better off for it.

The problem comes when people take this difference in opinion so personally. It's understandable; people like to define themselves by the music they listen to - it influences their dress and even stances on things like religion, for example. There comes a time when you may discuss musical tastes with people like this, and you might say that you're not a fan of their fave artist. This comment is taken so personally, for some it's almost like you've insulted their mother.

I can remember a time, When at a gig wearing my Alkaline Trio hoodie, and while we were getting a beer post-gig, a couple of people felt the need to express that they didn't like Alkaline Trio. That's fine - as mentioned above, people are always into different music, but shouting their mouths off, "oh yeah, they're really shit!" doesn't really help anyone. It's not going to change my opinion, or at least not with that poorly constructed argument - the only thing it achieves is effectively putting up a dividing wall, defining differences between people and generally making the immediate atmosphere more frosty. Again, I'm not fussed by what comments people pass but people find it to be a personal attack. In many cases they offer a counter-criticism.

I find it hilarious that when expressing an opinion of any sort, it has to be qualified with "...that's in my opinion", "no offence!" or "..and I mean no disrespect for that". If someone offers some criticism for example and then adds no offence, it truly is an omission that they think what they just said is offensive and they offer "no offence" to protect themselves. Again, it's similar with people that get out a cigarette and then ask the throwaway question "oh, do you mind if I smoke?" as they hold their lighter up all prepped to spark up. Well yes, as a matter of fact, please don't smoke.