Chris Merritt Likes Good Music Too!
Posted by The Gimcracker in Music on 14. Dec, 2011 | No Comments
Hey everyone, welcome to the all-new Gimcrack Miscellany! Just kidding it’s still the all-old Gimcrack Miscellany. That means I need to write more posts. So, there’s a guy named Chris Merritt that I really love for three main reasons: 1) he writes good music, 2) he is what I call a free-thinker, and 3) he listens to good music. A while back I wrote a brilliant and award-winning post about why Nickelback is an objectively bad band and why Radiohead is an objectively good band. I completely shredded Nickelback’s latest (at the time of writing) single called If Today Was Your Last Day. I just re-read the post after a long time and it’s amazing how much free time I used to have. I literally systematically ripped apart their song lyrics line by line. I’m such a meanie!
Songs From Mumford & Sons’ Upcoming Album
Posted by The Gimcracker in Music on 12. Oct, 2011 | 1 Comment
Are you like me? Have you listened to Sigh No More a hundred times straight through without skipping a song? Are you literally sitting and waiting for Mumford & Sons’ new album to come out? Well I’ve got some good news for you, you can hear some songs off of their new album before it [...]
Ron Paul’s Views
Posted by The Gimcracker in Theory & Philosophy on 18. Aug, 2011 | 2 Comments
If you want to know Ron Paul’s views in a nutshell, watch this video. About the only area he tends to veer from a lot of Libertarians’ points of view is the area of abortion, which incidentally is one of the few areas where I tend to disagree as well. This guy shares my political viewpoints almost entirely, at least on the big issues. Check out this interview on CNN:
Why Is No One Paying Attention To Ron Paul???
Posted by The Gimcracker in Seriously?!, Theory & Philosophy on 17. Aug, 2011 | 3 Comments
Two things happened today. First, I found my blog! I went to vacuum under my couch and there it was! It must have rolled under there a few months ago. Second, I watched a clip from The Daily Show with John Stewart and I actually agreed with it! Lately, I have been bothered by the republican presidential candidates and how they endlessly flap their jaws about banning gay marriage (THAT will save our country’s economic crisis!) and blaming democrats for all of the problems in this country. It is just as much the fault of republicans as it is democrats. And if you say any different, ask yourself why Washington has been equally dominated by ONLY these two parties, yet both the government and our nation’s debt has continued to increase over the last century?
So, it really bothers me that when a guy like Ron Paul comes along who does not change his beliefs based on popularity and consistently discusses issues at their philosophical foundations (instead of just flapping his jaw about how dumb and terrible [x] party is), he seems to be almost completely ignored by the media. I don’t watch The Daily Show and from the few clips I’ve seen I generally tend to disagree with it, but they really nailed this issue. Check out this clip that pretty much says it all:
Mumford & Sons Covers The National
Posted by The Gimcracker in Music on 30. Jun, 2011 | No Comments
Something amazing just happened. An unstoppable force just collided with an immovable object. Mumford & Sons just covered the best song off of The National’s newest album High Violet. The song is England. It’s such a beautiful song. Here are some other pairings that would be almost as amazing as this:
Why We Are All Afraid Of Deep Water
Posted by The Gimcracker in Science, Theory & Philosophy on 24. Mar, 2011 | 19 Comments
One of my biggest fears is deep water. I have always wondered why I’m so afraid of it. One time I was jet skiing in the Cayman Islands and I was cruising around within 50 yards of the shore. One of the boat captains had previously explained to me that about 200 yards off shore the depth of the water sharply dropped off from around 40 feet to a mile. A MILE DEEP. That is 5,280 feet, way deeper than 40! I decided to venture out and see what it was like to cross the “threshold” of depth. I revved my trusty Yamaha and went straight out toward the horizon. Suddenly, all around me, the water turned from light blue to black; I had journeyed over the great shelf. I was immediately filled with an ominous fear I had never experienced before (aside from when Taco Bell took the Volcano Taco off their menu). When I scampered back to safety and calmed down, I posed this question to myself: “Why is it that absolutely nothing changed when I crossed the barrier – my jet ski still worked perfectly, I had the same ability to swim, and the waves remained the same – but I was absolutely horror-stricken?” I researched the answer to this question for 3 solid years and have finally figured out the answer. In keeping with the TGM tradition, this is all totally scientific and full of completely accurate science.
The Texting Laughter Scale
Posted by The Gimcracker in Your Meme on 10. Mar, 2011 | 1 Comment
First of all, I probably knew what 1337 meant before you were born, so some of the items on this scale will be a little too geeky for your taste. If that’s the case, you are hereby excused to your social life of gyms and nightclubs and water coolers and philanthropy. For people who spend the majority of their daily communication on such platforms as texting, IM, E-Mail, forums, and MMO’s, here is the official “texting laughter scale” which I found on a prominent web site out there on the Internet. This is very very official. It has been created by science itself. Just kidding, it was actually created by J. William Patterson in 1934. Can you believe how long this has existed? This scale is listed in order of how much you’re laughing at your keyboard from least to greatest and is case-sensitive:
What Would You Do If You Were Rich?
Posted by The Gimcracker in Gimcrackery, News, Theory & Philosophy on 22. Feb, 2011 | 3 Comments
This is probably one of the most popular questions people ask themselves. Well, this and: “should I have another volcano Taco?” The answer to that one’s obvious. But the answer to the former is not so simple, is it? There are a few wise people who answer “I wouldn’t want to be rich.” But for the rest of us, the answer usually consists of a few big ticket material items right off the bat, some aspect of saving or investing, and in a lot of cases, charity. Charity, either because of a true desire to be charitable (in which case the answerer probably already is a charitable person), or because simply having a lot of money seems to bring along a level of guilt (in which case the answerer probably lacks somewhat in the area of charitabilityness).
I, for one, would love to be rich. Being able to partake in the finer things would be awesome. Five-star restaurants. No more broken down cars. Someone else to do my house repairs. A personal trainer to equal out my increase of Volcano Taco consumption. Oh that’d be so grand. However, that stuff would very quickly become boring, I’m sure. So, I’d like to think that I could do something more meaningful with my newfound financial responsibility, such as giving it away, starting my own charity, helping widows & orphans, and spreading the Gospel. You know, Bible stuff. Christian stuff. The trouble is, I don’t really do much of that now, so what makes me think I would increase those activities just because I had more money? More money would probably equal more distractions and stress, which would in all likelihood decrease those activities.
Well, here’s a great example of a few people that did what I’d like to think I would do. And by the way, they were just killed a few hours ago in the pirate-infested waters of Somalia.
Refreshing Band “Mumford & Sons”; Good Music, Great Lyrics
Posted by The Gimcracker in Music on 15. Feb, 2011 | 3 Comments
I can’t believe I discovered this band at the Grammys. The Grammys is a 3.5 hour block of egos, actor slash “musicians”, and occasional mainstream country performances. Amiright? Yes, I am right and correct. But something happened two nights ago at the 53rd annual Grammy awards show that knocked me off my condescending elitist horse. I saw a band I’d never heard of before perform a song with such fervor that I was instantly drawn to them. And the song was very, very good. Too good. I thought there was a catch or something. But after two days of pondering, buying their album, and watching Youtube videos of their performances, I’m convinced they’re the real deal.
I oft face a conundrum with music in general, and that is: why do most of the “best” bands have dark & depressing, overly-political, or blatantly atheistic lyrics? There are of course exceptions to this rule, but they are too few and far between. I’m happy to report that Mumford & Sons have narrowed that gap just a little. Here is their refreshing Grammy performance of The Cave to start you off:
An Ode to the Colts of Two-Thousand and Ten
Posted by The Gimcracker in Sports on 02. Dec, 2010 | No Comments
This about sums up our frustrating 2010 Colts season thus far. This poem was written by the Professor of Puns, the Friar of Funny, the Weaver of Wordplay, the Begetter of Brilliant, and the Teacher of Tongue-in-cheek, Jonathan Wey. Truly epic:
