The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

Seems a bit like the United States' short lived obsession with the "trans-Atlantic" accent in the 20th century. Man was that weird.

I don't think that it was an "obsession" outside movie production circles, but I always thought it funny that Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart killed it by refusing to sound like anyone but themselves.

Yeah it was mainly a theatre thing. I probably should have specified.

But still having the movie stars all speaking that way had some impact I bet.

[Sheilbh]

Seems a bit like the United States' short lived obsession with the "trans-Atlantic" accent in the 20th century. Man was that weird.

I love that accent. But similarly it was probably a class thing - like public schools creating RP - by the people who then speak authoritatively on certain mass media. In my head the exemplar is FDR, not any performers (though the Hepburns and Cary Grant come close) and it's how I imagine every Edith Wharton or Henry James character speaking. I'm not sure when it transitions out.

It's always weird from a British perspective when you hear BBC from the 20s or 30s - or even the Queen when she was young - because the accent is so much posher than RP/posh English today.

[Josquius]

With London I reckon it's (largely. A myriad factors of course) the immigrant vigour factor at work. Kids of hard working people who give enough of a shit to uproot their life and move to a new place tend to inherit some of these traits.

I think that's a big factor. It's grim and I hope I'm wrong but I basically suspect that you have the immigrant work factor, especially as many immigrants are basically working in jobs that are a class below where they would work in their country of origin. So I worry there's a one off boost for that generation but once the next generation is locked into the British class system failures will revert basically. I hope I'm wrong.

I agree. I do think thats where this 'first generation in a middle class job' is of vital importance, balancing on a knife edge. Take a wrong turn and fall then all the hard work is for nought as their kids are back to the cycle of hopelessness. If they can manage to push forward and build the right environment though then they can establish themselves in this new 'uplifted working class'.
Falling off the other edge of course they can go too far and end up creating just another tory.
And yes. This is a big worry in my life.

This is true and possibly an optimistic counter to what I was saying. I hope that's true.

I'm a big believer in these cohort uplift effects. Its a massively underestimated environmental factor, but such a hard one to measure as every individual within a circle influences every other individual constantly and to varying degrees.
As I've mentioned before with the whole 'red wall' going tory thing, I really do believe if you take the educated 5% they've lost and put them back home that the result would be more than double that number voting sanely. They all have to influence just one person.
In London meanwhile this is wasted as they're all just stood outside a pub reinforcing each others views.

[Tamas]

Regarding the "women are destroying society by studying" study I posted about yesterday (and the point of the post seemed to fly over your heads, namely just what an obsolete misogynist bullcrap it was), somebody found that the earliest such concern in Hungarian politics came in 1907, when an MP -for the first time ever- argued for a numerus clausus in Hungarian education.

Unlike his brethren a generation later, it was not proposed on grounds of Jewishness, but gender: he called women getting diplomas "female monstrosities" and "family destroying explosives".

Interestingly, in the years before there were only 31 women in Hungarian higher education in total, and it's not like they had equal chances of getting employment. The first female doctor only got a job in 1903 in a shelter in the arse end of nowhere because literally no men doctor was willing to take it.

[The Larch]

So, Coldplay has sold out 4 shows at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium. First ever band to do so (not even Springsteen, who has a huge local following). I'm... surprised. I mean, they are a popular band around here, but I didn't know they had that level of following.

A friend of mine from here has recently been trying to get tickets to one of their Portuguese shows to no avail whatsoever and is now looking at scalpers. I think Coldplay has always had plenty of commercial success, so I'm not *that* surprised at them having sold out shows, even if they're past their prime.

On the topic, I'm watching Muse live in a couple of weeks, the first big concert I'm attending since the pandemic, so I'm quite excited about it!

[celedhring]

So, Coldplay has sold out 4 shows at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium. First ever band to do so (not even Springsteen, who has a huge local following). I'm... surprised. I mean, they are a popular band around here, but I didn't know they had that level of following.

A friend of mine from here has recently been trying to get tickets to one of their Portuguese shows to no avail whatsoever and is now looking at scalpers. I think Coldplay has always had plenty of commercial success, so I'm not *that* surprised at them having sold out shows, even if they're past their prime.

On the topic, I'm watching Muse live in a couple of weeks, the first big concert I'm attending since the pandemic, so I'm quite excited about it!

I watched them live the summer before the pandemic. It was a killer show.

[The Larch]

Talking about music, Danny Elfman, Tim Burton's habitual composer (and former leader of Oingo Boingo), has played in Coachella this year in some kind of rock performance of some of his soundtracks. I was not expecting his look...



The guy is 69.

[celedhring]

Damn, dude's jacked.

[Josquius]

I know him from the simpsons credits

[HVC]

He's performed some weird science.

[PDH]

He is only a lad.

[mongers]

Do we need a 'Getting Old' thread yet?

I'm certainly entering that frame of mind, actually found myself thinking 'When I get home in the evenings I should soak my feet in a bowl of warm water for 10-15mins'. 

[crazy canuck]

Do we need a 'Getting Old' thread yet?

I'm certainly entering that frame of mind, actually found myself thinking 'When I get home in the evenings I should soak my feet in a bowl of warm water for 10-15mins'. 

I think we are arriving at that point - just got off the phone with some "young" lawyers back at the office who were seeking some advice on an matter that might need to go to a judge during evening hours for an emergency application.  They didn't want to bother me with doing it because they said it might be late before the materials are ready to go - at about 10 pm. 

[Josquius]

You're old when people who can drink weren't even born when you were drinking.

[Admiral Yi]

You're old when people who can drink weren't even born when you were drinking.

42? 36? 32? That's the prime of life.