Off-Topic Chat Thread

[sr edler]

Oh, I like all of the books you mentioned, especially the Les 7 Boules de Cristal/Le Temple du Soleil duo, so no huge disagreement there.

BTW, luckily, the Finnish translations (by Heikki and Soile Kaukoranta, and by Jukka Kemppinen) of the Tintin books are very good and catch the humour and the references and all that. In comparison, the old Swedish translation by Karin and Allan B. Janzon stinks! They missed so many jokes, as well as often simply did not translate the 'difficult' references to history etc, probably thinking that "the kids won't get it". Good that there's a new translation by Björn Wahlberg.

Apparently there was some censorship too in the first Swedish translation regarding Haddock's alcoholism, I've heard (can't remember myself), through the publisher (Bonnier). He didn't drink whiskey but raspberry soda instead, which made it quite a curious case when got drunk, because who gets drunk on raspberry soda?

 

[seventieslord]

Apparently there was some censorship too in the first Swedish translation regarding Haddock's alcoholism, I've heard (can't remember myself), through the publisher (Bonnier). He didn't drink whiskey but raspberry soda instead, which made it quite a curious case when got drunk, because who gets drunk on raspberry soda?

According to Don Cherry, a lot of guys got pretty wasted after having "a few pops".

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Anybody else work with building electronics, arduino raspberry pi stuff?

I had an idea a while back for a shot trainer that you could slide down the tube of a composite stick and map the sticks motion in real time.

Any other hockey related ideas that would be interesting?

 

[VMBM]

Apparently there was some censorship too in the first Swedish translation regarding Haddock's alcoholism, I've heard (can't remember myself), through the publisher (Bonnier). He didn't drink whiskey but raspberry soda instead, which made it quite a curious case when got drunk, because who gets drunk on raspberry soda?

HA! It was exactly the same in Finland when they first tried to 'launch' Tintin here in 1961-62 and released a few books (Tintin only broke through in Finland in the 1970s, with new/'current' translations)... I remember that we had one of those old versions of one book - it was L'Étoile mystérieuse - and in it captain Haddock drank something called "malspiikki" ('marlinspike'), which from my understanding isn't a drink at all and never has been but a tool that sailors use(d).

 

[bobholly39]

Oh, I like all of the books you mentioned, especially the Les 7 Boules de Cristal/Le Temple du Soleil duo, so no huge disagreement there.

BTW, luckily, the Finnish translations (by Heikki and Soile Kaukoranta, and by Jukka Kemppinen) of the Tintin books are very good and catch the humour and the references and all that. In comparison, the old Swedish translation by Karin and Allan B. Janzon stinks! They missed so many jokes, as well as often simply did not translate the 'difficult' references to history etc, probably thinking that "the kids won't get it". Good that there's a new translation by Björn Wahlberg.

I could spend all day talking about Tintin books lol. So many good ones. I must have re-read some of them....over 100 times each in my life lol. Depending on the day i might argue for one or another as my favorites.

Some that always shine for me are the 2-parters. So the Temple du Soleil, Rackam le Roure and the Moon ones - all 3 great. But then a lot of the individual ones near the end are also great as you say.
Haddock and Tournesol both definitely add a lot to the stories, in particular some great humor.

 

[bobholly39]

Well there's something called artistic integrity. Would you like me writing a sequel on Crime and Punishment and call it a Dostoyevsky book? Sometimes there's more to art, or life, than just money. Sometimes a story line is complete. If you created something you probably would like some kind of control over it, I guess.

By the way, Spielberg and Peter Jackson did a new Tintin movie and it wasn't very good at all.

Tintin and the Lake of the Sharks, again, not very good.

It can be good though, but most often it isn't because it's been far too removed from the original creator and the story's most often been watered down. Adaptations is another category though, I guess. When you're talking about the Disney films, Walt Disney didn't write or sketch those films himself, even from the get go. He took European folklore, summoned a group of talented illustrators and got the ball rolling. He did short cartoons himself (like Mickey Mouse) with Ub Iwerks.

On this topic Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata, who later became famous with their Studio Ghibli films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies, tried to pitch a Pippi Longstocking film (or several short films perhaps) in the early 1970s but Astrid Lindgren said no, for unknown reason.

They even visited Gotland, where Pippi Longstocking films had been shot, and you can see inspiration from Swedish architecture in later Miyazaki films.

Here are some of the sketchs from the scratched project

Since this thread is literally called "off-topic" - i'll respond to take it further off-topic.

The Tintin movies recently made - well first of all, I liked it. Second of all - it wasn't a new story, it was a combination of old albums. It'd be as if they made a new Harry Potter movie - but instead of a new story, it retells the story of....books 4, 5 and 6 combined.

Regarding Disney doing a great job - i'm talking specifically in terms of Marvel and StarWars. There's a huge demand for it (just count the billions of $$) - and so they continue producing new stories. I love that.

But - i'd argue even for their animation films, they seem to be following this trend. Some of the most successful Disney movies ever made were probably Beauty and The Beast, Lion King, Aladdin in the 90s...but then no sequels were produced. I know they technically had some straight to video sequels - but that's not quite the same, since the quality wasn't there.
Then after the success of Frozen....Frozen 2. Why not? They made so much money with the first, it makes sense to do a sequel.
Even with their live action movies - Aladdin, is supposedly getting a big sequel as well. Which makes me happy.

Shrek did this very well years ago. So much money success - so they made another, and another...until eventually demand went down a bit and they stopped. But - leave the door open to possibly going back.

To make another parallel - I absolutely love that in recent years Holywood has brought back some prominent tv shows with new seasons. Anything from Prison Break, to 24, to Roseanne.

I don't care whatsoever about artistic integrity. I'm a consumer who enjoys certain forms of entertainment - and when I like something, I enjoy getting more of it.

So yeah - i'm disappointed they were never able to write more Tintin books.

 

[VMBM]

I don't care whatsoever about artistic integrity. I'm a consumer who enjoys certain forms of entertainment - and when I like something, I enjoy getting more of it.

So yeah - i'm disappointed they were never able to write more Tintin books.

"Tintin, c'est moi! ", said Hergé (after Gustave Flaubert regarding Madame Bovary) and that was that. Although he did also say that someone else might even do a better job at it, but he didn't think that it would be Tintin anymore.

Somehow I think it's cool that it's just those 20+ comic books, with one guy responsible for them all (although, to be fair, he got a lot of help, especially in the later books and their background drawings).

 

[bobholly39]

"Tintin, c'est moi! ", said Hergé (after Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary) and that was that. Although he did also say that someone else might even do a better job at it, but he didn't think that it would be Tintin anymore.

Somehow I think it's cool that it's just those 20+ comic books, with one guy responsible for them all (although, to be fair, he got a lot of help, especially in the later books and their background drawings).

And i'm certain the quality may have declined if someone else had taken over. Its different with Disney and Marvel/Star Wars - they have such huge teams reviewing everything, so more quality control and consistency. Comic books can be influenced a whole lot more by 1 person, and thus the quality could suffer. Other comic books I could list as examples show this when a new author takes over.

But....I don't care. I'm a consumer who loves the product and stories and I still wish I could have had more.

Imagine the NHL after the 1993 season saying "wow - this is our best season ever. Let's end it here boys....".

 

[sr edler]

Imagine the NHL after the 1993 season saying "wow - this is our best season ever. Let's end it here boys....".

I get you don't care about artistic integrity, and that's fine, but how is a sports league comparable to an artist's work from this specific angle? A closer comparison would be if someone started a pirate league and called it the NHL, with logo and everything. Or, if the NHL went bankrupt and defaulted and I picked it up instead and started a beer league in Atlantic City under the NHL premise, with logo and everything and claimed it to be a continuation of the league, or something.

You can still have adaptations. I actually watched an adaptation of The Nutcracker on telly this Christmas and it was really good.

 

[VMBM]

Music lovers? (No, I must be the only one )

Here are my top 10 favourite albums of all-time. I limited this list to what you could call popular music (otherwise, there might be a Miles Davis etc album in there as well). The top 3 is pretty much set in stone, but other than that there's no strict order.

Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
I'm not exactly the biggest Neil Young fan in the world, but this album really hit me back in the early 1990s, and it has stayed with me ever since; 11 songs, each more beautiful than the other. If I had to name favourites, they would be "Tell Me Why", "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", "Don't Let It Bring You Down", "When You Dance You Can Really Love", "I Believe In You"... Ah, the whole damn thing.

The Beatles - Abbey Road
The A-side is fine but it is the 'pop symphony' on the B-side that makes this such a masterpiece for me. Even though Lennon and McCartney couldn't get along during the time the album was made (1969), they surely could still combine musically with great results. A bit of a breakthrough for George Harrison as well (two classics with "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun"), and Ringo is, well, Ringo. It probably has the best production and vocal harmonies of any Beatles album too.

Metallica - Ride The Lightning
My favourite Metallica album. As I see it, there are five masterpieces, namely "Creeping Death" (the best metal song ever?!), the title track, "Fade To Black", "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "The Call Of Ktulu", and three lesser but good songs (the rest). A huge leap from Kill 'Em All in my opinion - the songwriting and arrangements, Hetfield's vocals, playing, production, you name it, everything's improved.

The Who - Who's Next
Slightly pompous here and there, but what the heck, I forgive them! Originally it was meant to be another rock opera called Lifehouse. Excellent songwriting throughout. Along with the biggest hits ("Baba O'Riley", "Behind Blue Eyes", "Won't Get Fooled Again"), there's also the gorgeous breakup song "The Song Is Over" and brilliant "Bargain", but there really isn't a bad one among the bunch. My only complaint is that Pete Townshend sings a little too much on the album, but it is kind of understandable; the record is so heavily his creation (John Entwistle's contribution "My Wife" doesn't change that fact much).

Dr. John - Gumbo
I love New Orleans music (R'n'B, funk, rock and roll). Love it! Here are 12 (or 14, depending on how you count them) NO classics brilliantly performed by one of the biggest Crescent City icons, Mac Rebennack alias Dr. John. So OK, it's a record with only cover songs on it, but what does it matter when the versions are consistently even better than the originals (and in some cases there really even isn't an original). A sort of beginner's guide to New Orleans R'n'B, but it gives joy and pleasure after many many listens as well. Let the good times roll indeed.

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
My favourite punk/hardcore band ever by far, and their debut album is their best in my opinion. Merciless lyrics with Jello Biafra's sneering delivery, and the music is clever; there's hardly any straightforward 'bashing' on the album, almost every song has quirks and bits to keep one interested. I would have left the cover of "Viva Las Vegas" off the record, but no big deal.

Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
This is the best Genesis and prog album ever in my opinion. The band had something to prove after Peter Gabriel left and prove they did. I often find even the most classic prog 'masterpieces' uneven and overrated, but I think this is a very well-balanced record. "Entangled" is one of the most beautiful songs ever, and the title track is the best song that The Beach Boys or The Beatles never did in the 1970s.

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Although I consider this album slightly uneven, it has been a very important one for me from the moment it came out in 1991. Heavy but groovy ( Matt Cameron is a brilliant drummer!), multifaceted, and, of course, Chris Cornell had a unique voice and he was a great artist - although his stuff outside Soundgarden has never quite impressed me that much. Anyway, "Slaves & Bulldozers" is one of my favourite metal songs ever, and there are plenty of other great ones on this record too.

The Band - The Band
One of my top bands, and this is a nearly flawless record in its genre. Like with Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, almost every one of the 12 songs is better than the next. Although it is not as versatile as some of the later Band albums, you can't really complain about the songwriting here. The sound on the album is a bit too 'dry' for my liking, though; if it had been made a couple of years later, it might have even better groove, but I'm just nitpicking here.

Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now
My favourite album from my favourite band... Or something like that. Looking at it strictly song by song, this maybe should not be on a top ten list, but the playing is so groovy, Lowell George's voice is so soulful (he sings on most of the tracks anyway), and well, those compositions are not too shabby either. A very versatile album; has everything from a bit of reggae beat ("Rock And Roll Doctor") to New Orleans funk ("Spanish Moon") to almost jazz fusion ("The Fan" and some bits on the "Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie" medley).

There are many other records that could be in the top 10, for example:

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Van Morrison - St. Dominic's Preview
Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy
The Beatles - Revolver
Metallica - Master Of Puppets
Little Richard - Here's Little Richard
The Ramones - The Ramones
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star
Laura Nyro - Eli And The Thirteenth Confession
The Clash - London Calling
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Catch A Fire
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
King Crimson - Red
Abba - The Visitors
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?

Huh, better stop now... otherwise I'd still be typing next week...

Anyone else have a list?

 

[VMBM]

Wow. Such enthusiasm. Oh well, at least Tintin got talked a bit.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

I limited this list to what you could call popular music (otherwise, there might be a Miles Davis etc album in there as well).

In the space of about half-a-year, the Jazz World fired three salvos of immortal recorded music:

August 1959: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
December 1959: John Coltrane, Giant Steps
February 1960: Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out

 

[The Panther]

My top-10 albums (including compilations, as it gives a more accurate view of my tastes):

Elvis Presley -- Elvis at Sun
John Coltrane -- Blue Train
The Beatles -- Rock'n'roll Music Vol. 1
Bob Dylan -- Bringing It All Back Home (a better choice is Biograph, but a 3-disc set is cheating, I suppose!)
John Lennon -- John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band
Bob Marley & The Wailers -- Natural Mystic
Joni Mitchell -- Hits
Prince & The Revolution -- Purple Rain
U2 -- The Joshua Tree
The Stone Roses -- The Stone Roses
____________________________________

Almost made the cut:
Billie Holiday -- Lady's Decca Days Vol. 1
Elvis Presley -- Elvis '56
Blossom Dearie -- Blossom Dearie
Johnny Cash -- Ride That Train
Bob Dylan -- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Beatles -- Please Please Me
John Coltrane -- A Love Supreme
The Beatles -- Beatles For Sale / Beatles '65
Sam Cooke -- Portrait Of A Legend
The Byrds -- Greatest Hits
The Beatles -- Abbey Road
Joni Mitchell -- Blue
Joan Baez -- Blessed Are...
Stevie Wonder -- Songs In The Key of Life
Yazoo -- Upstairs At Eric's
U2 -- The Unforgettable Fire
Prince -- Sign O' The Times
Sinead O'Connor -- The Lion & The Cobra
Sting -- ...Nothing Like The Sun
U2 -- Achtung Baby
Liz Phair -- Exile In Guyville
Speech -- Spiritual People


I have a blog about music....

 

[The Panther]

[Mod Edited]

Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg / President / concept of 'free speech'

What do y'all think?

 

[Theokritos]

What do y'all think?

That the site rules also apply to this thread, including rule 4:

"Political discussion is not permitted on the forums except within the narrowly defined scope of hockey-related matters."

 

[sr edler]

Wow. Such enthusiasm. Oh well, at least Tintin got talked a bit.

I've never listened to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. I probably wouldn't be able to recognize a Led Zeppelin song if it came on the radio. I'm too young (b. 1981) plus I've grown up in the hipster capital of Europe. You know how Swedes are right? I like Blood Orange & Sky Ferreira.

 

[sr edler]

Speaking of music this one from 1983 is pretty funny, the singer (to the left) of this short lived British New Wave duo made it big 18 years later with a comedy show.

 

[The Panther]

[Mod Edited]

Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg / President / concept of 'free speech'

What do y'all think?

Er... Okay. I thought it might be okay to discuss Facebook and free-speech in the off-topic forum.

(This kind of thing is very North American.)

 

[Czech Your Math]

Top 10 albums, that's so difficult. Off the top of my head, limiting it to albums not already named and one album per artist/band:

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Radiohead - OK Computer
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Rush - Hemispheres
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Yes - The Yes Album

I wouldn't actually put Beastie Boys in top 10, but it was so hard to pick a tenth, so I put it in there for variety.

My favorites of the ones already named would include Bob Marley - Natural Mystic, Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger, and King Crimson - Red, but there were a ton of great ones.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I've never listened to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. I probably wouldn't be able to recognize a Led Zeppelin song if it came on the radio. I'm too young (b. 1981) plus I've grown up in the hipster capital of Europe. You know how Swedes are right? I like Blood Orange & Sky Ferreira.

yeah seriously who knew everyone else here was a buncha boomers? (i kid i kid, bc i love)

is gothenberg the hipster capital? i followed a community of artists from there a decade ago. they had a balearic pop revival label called sincerely yours, still listen to some of those records now.

but to continue the 60s/70s music theme, this week i’ve been listening to a lot of curtis mayfield. don’t know if it’s making me feel better or worse tbh.

 

[sr edler]

yeah seriously who knew everyone else here was a buncha boomers? (i kid i kid, bc i love)

is gothenberg the hipster capital? i followed a community of artists from there a decade ago. they had a balearic pop revival label called sincerely yours, still listen to some of those records now.

but to continue the 60s/70s music theme, this week i’ve been listening to a lot of curtis mayfield. don’t know if it’s making me feel better or worse tbh.

I'm not from Gothenburg but from the east coast, but I guess it's up there regarding general hipsterism. Jens Lekman perhaps the poster boy. I think Lekman's from the Gothenburg suburbs though and not an actual city boy (if that's even a thing down there). I think much of the Gothenburg scene does have a big influence from the British scene too though, with all its faults. When it comes to Stockholm and Gothenburg both cities does have specific inner city areas where this kind of culture is (or was) a strong hold. I think it's also prevalent in other university cities such as Lund (Scania region) with say The Radio Dept. The north (Norrland) had a big straight edge scene in the 90s, with punk/hardcore acts.

The balearic pop scene I guess you mean acts like jj and TTA? It's pretty close to the dream pop scene too, with The Radio Dept and its off-shoot Korallreven ("The Coral Reefs").

Jesus, now when I read the influences on The Radio Dept from its wiki page I realized how much of it aligns with my own personal taste, like Kraftwerk, The Avalanches, Pet Shop Boys, Chet Baker.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I'll limit it to rock(ish) albums:

1. Blaze Bayley - "Silicon Messiah"
2. Death From Above - "You're A Woman, I'm A Machine"
3. Iron Maiden - "Powerslave"
4. King Crimson - "Red"
5. Rage Against the Machine - "Rage Against the Machine"
6. Slayer - "Reign in Blood"
7. The Who - "Quadrophenia"
8. Thin Lizzy - "Live And Dangerous" (do live albums count?)
9. Wishbone Ash - "Argus"
10. Yes - "Fragile"

It's a ranking of albums, not artists (for example I think Black Sabbath is clearly better than several of these artists, just that they never had an album quite as good as, say, Wishbone Ash's best album).

 

[sr edler]

@vadim sharifijanov To elaborate on Gothenburg's music scene or Sweden in general I'll say that Jens Lekman isn't that well known in Sweden in general. His music doesn't appeal to the broader populace, plus he seems a bit media shy, plus I think he's lived abroad for quite some time (Australia). I think he's sold more records abroad too.

The biggest pop cultural phenomenon in Sweden the last two decades is without a doubt Håkan Hellström, also from Gothenburg. Everyone knows who Håkan Hellström is here. He's selling out big soccer stadiums every year in his home town, he's had a movie made about him, I even think they have guided theme tours through the city regarding his catalog. It's insane. He sings like normal catchy pop songs in the Swedish language, often with romantic themes, so he's hit a broad fan base from teenage girls and young men to older women. He's also got a very 'socially correct' image with lyrics like "I'm in love with the ugliest girl in the world". Before he got his big break in 2000 or something he was a drummer of some bands in the Gothenburg indie scene in the mid to late 90s, which is Honey is Cool (with Karin Dreijer of The Knife) and Broder Daniel. So I guess you can say he's kinda fused the indie audience with the broader general audience.

I actually heard a funny story once about Hellström's breakthrough, which he told himself in a televised interview. Apparently several members of the Gothenburg rock band The Soundtrack of Our Lives, who in the 80s had been in the punk rock band Union Carbide Productions, were played Hellström's songs by the record company and literally laughed out loud when they heard his music because they found it so ridiculous and thought it would never amount to anything. When Hellström's first single hit the radio/TV though it became an instant monster hit and he never looked back.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I'm not from Gothenburg but from the east coast, but I guess it's up there regarding general hipsterism. Jens Lekman perhaps the poster boy. I think Lekman's from the Gothenburg suburbs though and not an actual city boy (if that's even a thing down there). I think much of the Gothenburg scene does have a big influence from the British scene too though, with all its faults. When it comes to Stockholm and Gothenburg both cities does have specific inner city areas where this kind of culture is (or was) a strong hold. I think it's also prevalent in other university cities such as Lund (Scania region) with say The Radio Dept. The north (Norrland) had a big straight edge scene in the 90s, with punk/hardcore acts.

The balearic pop scene I guess you mean acts like jj and TTA? It's pretty close to the dream pop scene too, with The Radio Dept and its off-shoot Korallreven ("The Coral Reefs").

Jesus, now when I read the influences on The Radio Dept from its wiki page I realized how much of it aligns with my own personal taste, like Kraftwerk, The Avalanches, Pet Shop Boys, Chet Baker.

yeah, TTA, air france, jj, and eventually ceo. and there was someone named kendall johansson that they were always talking about being the next up but a record never came out? i never knew korallreven was a radio dept offshoot but i knew korallreven through the same pipeline. i remember playing the hell out of these three dream pop mixes they made. over here radio dept felt like this bigger crossover thing but i liked them too. was actually going to see them this spring but of course none of us saw any shows this spring because covid-19.

i don't know much about northern swedish punk other than refused. but i vaguely remember randomly coming across a few swedish pop-punk bands in the mid-90s... no fun at all, millencollin, satanic surfers

and on the topic of swedish pop music, we're old people now and don't get out much but the last big show anyone in my household went to was my wife seeing robyn a year ago. unfortunately i had to be home watching the kid.

 

[sr edler]

yeah, TTA, air france, jj, and eventually ceo. and there was someone named kendall johansson that they were always talking about being the next up but a record never came out? i never knew korallreven was a radio dept offshoot but i knew korallreven through the same pipeline. i remember playing the hell out of these three dream pop mixes they made. over here radio dept felt like this bigger crossover thing but i liked them too. was actually going to see them this spring but of course none of us saw any shows this spring because covid-19.

i don't know much about northern swedish punk other than refused. but i vaguely remember randomly coming across a few swedish pop-punk bands in the mid-90s... no fun at all, millencollin, satanic surfers

and on the topic of swedish pop music, we're old people now and don't get out much but the last big show anyone in my household went to was my wife seeing robyn a year ago. unfortunately i had to be home watching the kid.

I guess Fireside was the second biggest commercial group from that Norrland punk pop/hardcore scene, I think they even went on tour with that Lollapalooza thing in the US in the 90s, but they (quite predictably) never became anything over there. Their singer Kristofer Åström though has made some good low key solo albums more in the normal singer-songwriter genre, like Northern Blues. Robyn's last album Honey was really good, but she's also made a bunch of bland albums.