Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Second rate reporter says what?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

He really is that stupid.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

You are here: Home / Music / A commodity to be bought and sold, like rock n’ roll

A commodity to be bought and sold, like rock n’ roll

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Dick Clark RIP:

Dick Clark, a television host and entrepreneur who sold rock-and-roll to Middle America on the dance show “American Bandstand” and counted down the new year with millions of TV viewers as emcee of an annual celebration in New York’s Times Square, died April 18 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., after a heart attack. He was 82.

[…]

Mr. Clark was a millionaire by 30, describing himself as having an interest in 33 businesses, ranging from music publishers to, as the New York Times reported, an operation that made and sold a stuffed kitten for sale on “American Bandstand” called the Platter-Puss.

His other enterprises included the book “Dick Clark’s Easygoing Guide to Good Grooming” (1986) and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill, his dance-show-themed restaurant.

When I watched the “Behind The Music” on Jerry Lee Lewis, I learned that Dick Clark was one of The Killer’s best friends. Not quite as surprising as learning that Wink Martindale was one of Barry White’s closest friends, but close.

I always liked Dick’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve better than the other Rockin’ New Year’s Eves.

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Dick Clark’s Easygoing Guide to Good Grooming” (1986)

    If this is available on the Kindle, it’s mine.

  4. 4.

    AA+ Bonds

    Ive been sort of . . . aware of Dick Clark my whole life, like when you see a spoof of something that you haven’t experienced firsthand but it’s so well known that you recognize it as a spoof

    The joke was some Dorian Grey shit wasn’t it

    I don’t know . . . Old People

  6. 6.

    AA+ Bonds

    I don’t think my generation had a Dick Clark but I don’t know if that’s necessary anymore

  7. 7.

    RossInDetroit

    I just got a call from a colleague. The Pres. is down the block at a fundraiser. She’s supervising a school tonight and the SS, bomb squad, cops, valet, etc. have taken over her parking lot. To the great consternation of the Cub Scout moms and softball dads who just want to get in and out with their kids. It’s an unholy mess. With helicopters.

    ETA: Oh, and someone put up a big misspelled sign for a charity event out front. For about an hour there was a placard saying “EMPTY BOWELS PUBLIC WELCOME” to advertise the Empty Bowls fundraiser. Nice.

  9. 9.

    The Dangerman

    …and sold a stuffed kitten for sale on “American Bandstand” called the Platter-Puss.

    In the height of cincidence, I once tried marketing a Puss-Platter; it didn’t sell well.

  10. 10.

    cathyx

    I still imitate the dancers from American Bandstand when I’ve had too much to drink.

  11. 11.

    AA+ Bonds

    Because we accept the corrupt rule of capitalists a rich capitalist’s death and the President’s guards trump anything else happening

  12. 12.

    AA+ Bonds

    So I take it the proper authorities are justly redistributing Dick Clark’s obscene wealth as we speak

  13. 13.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    RossInDetroit:

    It’s an unholy mess. With helicopters.

    In the same way that it’s not a party until there’s spilt alcohol, it’s not an unholy mess until there’s helicopters.

    Or gore and demons. They can make an unholy mess without helicopters.

    And, yes, Republicans count as demons.

    .

  14. 14.

    Poopyman

    Betcha he still will host New Year’s Eve. Who’s gonna know the difference?

    Poor Dick. He should have given up the gig years ago.

  18. 18.

    Poopyman

    @AA+ Bonds: No, you didn’t. You couldn’t. Radio was king but was quickly giving way to TV, and Dick rode the crest of the wave. Too many entertainment outlets these days.

  24. 24.

    RossInDetroit

    @Anya:

    Does that mean Obama lost the Cub Scout moms to Romney?

    They’re all “WHY CAN’T I PARK HERE AT THE SCHOOL?”

    and the Secret Service is all “That spot’s reserved for the bomb truck”

    So they dropped their kids off to play in the parking lot with traffic and cops everywhere and helicopters, because THAT’s the responsible thing to do…

  26. 26.

    ruemara

    I always preferred Dick’s rockin’ eve myself. Rest In Peace. And is this AA Bonds, Samara or that other one in disguise? The insistence that his/her musings are worth multiple strings of posts seems too similar for coincidence.

  27. 27.

    RossInDetroit

    @Raven:

    If I’m in the home state of nugent and the prez is there I’m runnin high security.

    Yeah, good point. But I’ll bet Ted’s having his meals pushed under the bed to him after his response from the President’s Secret Service detail.

  28. 28.

    AA+ Bonds

    I for one would also be angry if the Secret Service “bomb truck” were parked at my kids’ school

  30. 30.

    Violet

    @Poopyman:
    Ryan Seacrest is this generations equivalent of Dick Clark. Host of widely syndicated radio show. Host of most popular show on TV. Producer of multiple popular reality shows. Soon to be reporter for NBC news during the Olympics. The guy is everywhere in media. Just like Dick Clark.

    I always liked Dick Clark. Seemed like a nice guy. RIP and condolences to his family.

  32. 32.

    AA+ Bonds

    Does anyone care about the subjunctive in English anymore because it seems pointless

  36. 36.

    Schlemizel

    I remember reading a thing about some teen heart throb from the early 60s (pre-Beatles, who really did change the music world completely). They brought a record to Clark who listened to 30 seconds of it & said “nope”. So they didn’t even bother to release the record. Dick Clark was that powerful. They made a different record got Clarks approval & the guy (I forget which one it was) became a big deal.

    I never cared for AB or Clark. I had a huge old radio I listen to as a kid – in the dark of night I could pull in stations that played real rock-n-roll Little Richard, Fats Domino, black voices Clark would not have on his crappy AB. But he did introduce the boomers to modern culture, dance and dress that defined a period of time unlike any before or after. He was a giant of his era

  37. 37.

    Raven

    @Violet: Watch Bowling for Columbine.

    Clark was featured in the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine. He was criticized for hiring poor, unwed mothers to work long hours in his chain of restaurants for little pay. The mother in particular works over 80 hours per week and is unable to make rent and gets evicted which results in her having her son stay at his uncle’s house. At his uncle’s house the boy finds a gun and brings it to school where he shoots another first grader. In the documentary footage featuring Clark, Michael Moore tries to approach him to inform him of the welfare policies that allow for these conditions, and questions him about the people he employs and the tax breaks he takes advantage of, in employing welfare recipients; Clark refuses to answer any of Moore’s questions, shutting the car door and driving away.

  38. 38.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Baud:

    I have just been trying really hard as sort of a game after a lifetime of being one of those people who simply doesn’t observe shit like that or no split infinitives when I don’t find it parsimonious

    But I wonder if there’s something I’m missing

    For a while I cared about “begs the question” because now we don’t have an enigmatic phrase that forces a small amount of people to look up the phrase and learn a way they are easily fooled by everyone around them

  40. 40.

    AA+ Bonds

    What’s clear is that he was a rich ass exploiter elbow deep in the music business back during a time when it was absolutely gruesome, even worse than now, and so, y’know, it’s sad when people die but

  41. 41.

    Schlemizel

    @trollhattan:
    How can you like Dick while hating Pat? Clark foisted Boone on us. His white bread bullshit castration of decent RnR songs so the white girls could hear them was a crime that Clark made happen.

  44. 44.

    RossInDetroit

    The California band X sez on Facebook: “Rest in peace, Dick Clark. He was a big X fan and supporter of the band.”.

    That was a surprise.

  46. 46.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Schlemizel:

    Per the Wikipedia: Shortly after taking over, Clark also ended the show’s all-white policy, and introduced numerous black artists, such as Chuck Berry…The shows were among the first venues where blacks and whites performed on the same stage, and eventually the seating was likewise desegregated…

    The show’s emphasis changed from merely playing records to including live performers, and as a result many of the leading rock groups of the 1960s had their first exposure to nationwide audiences. A few of the many artists introduced were Ike and Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Talking Heads and Simon and Garfunkel.

    “Introduced” probably translates to “made safe for Middle America after other people had already discovered them” but still, if this is accurate he was pretty obviously not just a Pat Boone type.

  48. 48.

    RossInDetroit

    @AA+ Bonds:

    It is hard to imagine that, after Dick Clark became a cartoon character, he would ever not be a fan of any band at all

    I’m trying to imagine Dick tapping his toe to ‘We’re Dangerous” or “White Girl”, and it’s not working.

  49. 49.

    PIGL

    Not to speak ill of the dead, but “I saw a vampire move across the floor. Old and white with a silver cane, lusting for youth in the mirror.”

  50. 50.

    AA+ Bonds

    @RossInDetroit:

    Really because that sounds like I just turned on basic cable to see a show that shows a YouTube and has Andy Dick puff his cheeks and cross his eyes at it

  51. 51.

    Veritas

    @Raven:

    Yes, because Michael fucking Moore is such a trustworthy source.

    Fucking hypocrite babbles about “TEH ONE PERCENT” while living in a sprawling country mansion in Traverse City.

  52. 52.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @RossInDetroit: People can be surprising. He spent his whole life in the business; just because he sold mainstream, whitebread stuff doesn’t mean he didn’t recognize quality.

    ETA: Don Cornelius and Dick Clark dying in the same year. Weird.

  53. 53.

    Schlemizel

    @AA+ Bonds:
    In the early to mid 60s he did open up a bit & allow blacks on his crappy show. (“Hairspray” made a complete cock up of the era and the events) But black kids were not allowed on AB till much later. He was not exactly late to the party but he was not even close to being a pioneer, It was avant but safe by the time Clark came around.

    In his defense he may have been a decent guy who just didn’t understand his prejudices or a money grubber who knew his power would be diminished by pushing blacks. Faint praise I know but once he made the turn he did a good job of providing time for black voices

    +4

  55. 55.

    Veritas

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The stuff he sold is the musical equivalent of Applebee’s or Chilis or what have you. Not awful, not that great, but at least established a floor of acceptable quality.

  57. 57.

    RossInDetroit

    Michael Moore tries to approach him to inform him of the welfare policies that allow for these conditions, and questions him about the people he employs and the tax breaks he takes advantage of, in employing welfare recipients; Clark refuses to answer any of Moore’s questions, shutting the car door and driving away.

    I’m sympathetic to most of MM’s causes. But I’m also glad he’s fat and I’m fast in case I ever see him coming with a mic in his hand. I really don’t blame Dick for blowing him off.

  60. 60.

    AA+ Bonds

    DID YOU KNOW . . . that rich celebrities aren’t cool just because their deaths are national news

    *Andy Dick makes jumping motion with his hand, dolphin chatter plays*

  61. 61.

    Veritas

    I mean how many of you guys wouldn’t run if say, Andrew Breitbart (were he still alive) came at you with a mic?

  65. 65.

    muddy

    My favorite line from Bandstand was “It has a good beat and you can dance to it.” This has been my measure of music ever since. Much to my son’s chagrin, I’m sure. “Mo-om, don’t dance in the car! People can see!”

  66. 66.

    chrismealy

    DougJ, it seems like most of your Mekons references come from “Rock N Roll”. You should check out “Journey to the End of the Night” and “Natural”.

  70. 70.

    AA+ Bonds

    FACT: Dick Clark was supposed to play the villain in the Bond flick A View To A Kill, but it turned out that being a millionaire at 30 already makes you the enemy

  75. 75.

    Schlemizel

    @LIAR:
    But, bu,t but, liar? I thought you believed a workman was worthy of his hire!

    Mike EARNED his millions unlike Willard who got his from Daddy. Mike still fights for the folks of Flint while Willard just want to round them up & put them into Foxcomm semi-slavery

  77. 77.

    lamh35

    speaking of Dick Clark, but not really, I happened to be watching the Madonna interview on Rock Center, but now they are talking about Ussain Bolt and the Olympics and I realizing that I kinda can’t wait for the Olympics.

    I’m thinking this year, I’m going to go all in. First FLOTUS will be leading the American deligation, it’s in London, so I hope to see an Idris Elba sighting or too, but it’s the few times I can watch track and field and gymnastics and swimming meets without surfing the dial to find a good meet.

    100 days until Olympics…kinda can’t wait.

  84. 84.

    AA+ Bonds

    Don’t watch Michael Moore but instead watch Adam Curtis, it’s just as loose with the facts but much more fun

  87. 87.

    Heliopause

    Not sure why this seems to be everybody’s top story. People younger than me remember him barely or not at all, and there must be quite a few people my age (52) and older who just weren’t interested in watching teenagers dance to canned music. Nothing against him but I can’t figure out why his death is a big deal.

  88. 88.

    AA+ Bonds

    I kid; Europe is going to burn

    We’ll see about the Olympics in other words because it would not be the Americans I would be worried about, were I worried instead of sort of . . . anticipating

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @AA+ Bonds: What is it with Americans and wondering what is it with Americans and people who hock cheap garbage on TV? A known figure from the youth of many people who read this site has died. It spawns memories. At 47, I am a generation too young to have had Clark be a cultural touchstone for me. Others are not. Like or loath him, he had a significant effect on the music of an era. Not your era, not mine, but that doesn’t meant we aren’t touched by the cascading effects of his influence.

  91. 91.

    RossInDetroit

    I’m listening to Brightblack Morning Light(1) on an audio system I just lashed together as a prototype for a project build. And eating an omelet with morel mushrooms from the yard. My day has been weird and it’s not over yet.

    (1) how do you not love a band with a dude named Nathan Shineywater?

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    @AA+ Bonds:
    I care a great deal about the subunctive mood. In fact, I use it a lot in my comments. I would use it in this comment too, if I thought I needed to.

  94. 94.

    AA+ Bonds

    Well one thing is clear: the Brits are going to import Greek street tactics and prep them for the Games

    We’ll see if the fucking Nazi police state camera cops get them or not

  95. 95.

    lamh35

    @Raven: My first “olympic type” event was in high school. My lil class of urban kids were able to sit in on the Olympics trials that occured for the Atlant Olympics I think. It was in NOLA at Tad Gormley Stadium. We saw the “race-walkers” and steeple chase, and acouple of heats, but no big names.

    On Rock Center, they talked about all the hits the sport of Track and Field has had of late with juicing and what not (I’m still PO by Marion Jones and such) and they went out of their way to make sure to point out that Ussain Bolt is aware of the stigma on T&F right now and to make note that Ussain has NEVER failed a drug test.

    I’m rooting for him. Mainly because I don’t know enough about the current team. MAybe once the heats start, I’ll be able to catch up.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @Schlemizel:

    Don’t claim to have liked him, just didn’t dislike him like Pat Fucking Boone. That motherfucker appropriated a lot of great music and made it awful while raking in the bucks. But I could say that about a gazillion artists. What he REALLY helped unleash on us was Ronald fucking Reagan. More recently he’s been banging the anti-ghey drum.

    On December 6, 2008 Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily wherein he drew analogies between recent gay rights protests and recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. He reminded readers of hostage taking, exploding bombs, systematic murder and chaotic conditions of carnage. In it, he asserted that marriage is a biblically ordained institution, which the government has no part in defining. He then stated that equal rights for women and blacks were not “obtained by threats and violent demonstrations and civil disruption” but rather through due process. He concluded by warning that unless they’re checked, the “hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of homegrown sexual jihadists will escalate into acts vile, violent and destructive”

    Also a birther.

    So, what do I really think? :-)

  99. 99.

    RossInDetroit

    @Heliopause:

    and there must be quite a few people my age (52) and older who just weren’t interested in watching teenagers dance to canned music.

    I’m 52 and from a small, all-white town. As kids we watched Soul Train because it was so exotic, mysterious and fascinating. later I met people who were on the show and it was even stranger than we knew. Plus it outraged Grandma in a really entertaining way.

  100. 100.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Amir Khalid:

    But is there really a reason to use “were” instead of “was” anymore in, say, Baud’s example up top

    I am seriously asking because I am sure there is a trapdoor somewhere that hasn’t occurred to me

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    @Veritas:

    Except he hasn’t, you know, done anything. He’s famous for being famous. And somebody is going to snap that pencil neck like a twig one of these days.

  104. 104.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Veritas:

    What for the Olympics? A lot of people over there aren’t doing their jobs if not, I mean, the Trots can’t shut the anarchos down anymore and everyone “non political” is still filled with the same rage over relative deprivation

    It will come down to, like, weather, and the fact that the British security state has pretty much nothing controlling it except scandal in the press at some later date and so if the people over there are incompetent they may get divvied and jailed

  105. 105.

    RossInDetroit

    @efgoldman:

    Let me guess: tubes, tubes and more tubes, plus vinyl.

    Nope. Opposite way. LM386 opamp chip amplifier and fullrange speaker in a cigar box. This is a cheapo simple afternoon build that can’t kill you with high voltage. Designed to run off of an iPod or similar. They made me design really complicated metal/plexiglass cabinets for the last article so I stipulated no fancy boxes for this one. It will be easy and fun. And it sounds good for low power.

  107. 107.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Oh I know, most people are like, SHIT, A CELEBRITY, WHY I SAW HIM ONCE ON A SCREEN

    To me it’s like people who don’t know anyone who was anywhere near the buildings that got hit on 9/11 but is all somber about how everything changed for them that day, yeah, not unless you are brown or Muslim

  109. 109.

    Veritas

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Why did they riot last time? Remember Britain is undergoing even more strife than we are. If you think *we* have racial issues, economic problems, and tensions with immigrants, try London.

  110. 110.

    satanicpanic

    Good lord, I had to scroll past most of this thread. on the subject of music, what I’ve heard from the Black Lips Arabia Mountain is really good.

  112. 112.

    Amir Khalid

    @AA+ Bonds:
    All the serious grammar fussbudgets say “if it were true”. Just like we would say “Governor Romney and I will …”, rather than “Me and Governor Romney will …” as a certain POTUS said the other day.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @AA+ Bonds: As I said above, with this particular guy for people of a particular generation, there was a larger effect than that. He had an effect on popular culture. I don’t see a problem with recognizing that. He was different in effect if not type than the infomercial dude.

  114. 114.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Amir Khalid:

    Yes, and lately I have been kind of trying to do the same after a lifetime of saying “that shit is pointless formalism” because I think it helps keep me sharp, like old people and their crosswords

    But what I wonder is if there is some point where using ‘was’ will trip me up in sentence construction because let’s be honest I have plenty to trip over

  115. 115.

    RossInDetroit

    @Veritas:

    Why did they riot last time? Remember Britain is undergoing even more strife than we are.

    Depends on who you ask. Students were upset that fees for school skyrocketed. But I’m not sure they would have burned down buildings and looted stores over that. There were plenty of opportunistic aggressors who too advantage of protests to just mess stuff up on general principles. London cops should be worried, I think.

  116. 116.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Veritas:

    Well like I said: relative deprivation, in a world of mass media – thus “relative” has been flattened

    If you read the rioters the G. and etc interviewed they were usually quite honest that they were showing that it wasn’t only powerful people who can take what they want

    Still, it was no Paris 2005, certainly no Athens 2011

  118. 118.

    PurpleGirl

    @RossInDetroit: Back in January, IIRC, the President was in NYC for a couple of evening events. By coincidence, friends and I were having dinner out in a restaurant on Second Avenue. Luckily, we met at the restaurant before the President arrived and one stop and they closed a block or two to traffic (even walking traffic if you didn’t live on the block) and he left for another event elsewhere before we left the restaurant. So my friends and I weren’t stopped from walking.

    But from other traffic lock-downs when the President or foreign officials in being driven around Manhattan, it’s big inconvenience and a nuisance, PITA. I understand how the mothers feel.

  119. 119.

    Veritas

    @AA+ Bonds:

    If you read the rioters the G. and etc interviewed they were usually quite honest that they were showing that it wasn’t only powerful people who can take what they want

    Yes but even taking that statement at face value I’d rather live through a financial crisis than have my home or business or neighborhood looted and burned!

    I agree Paris ’05 was worse. We’re fortunate in this country that hispanic immigrants are assimilating more easily than the ones in Europe from the middle east and Africa are. The fact hispanics have been a cultural presence in the southwest for centuries anyway helps I guess.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    between AB and Soul Train, this was pretty much the soundtrack of my life through college.

    Never got the feeling Dick Clark or Don Cornelius ever talked down to the musicians of the day. they were always respectful.

    RIP, Dick Clark.

    NYE hasn’t been the same without you.

  124. 124.

    RossInDetroit

    @AA+ Bonds:

    These are what Athens tactics look like after all

    Oh, holy crap. That was raw and extreme. Makes me wonder if we’re one economic downturn from that.

  126. 126.

    AA+ Bonds

    @PurpleGirl:

    I think that’s mostly other boards’ patois but honestly I know samara is/was channese and I’ve never once posted there

  131. 131.

    Veritas

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Not so much fascist as nothing more than an arm of the Germans uh I mean the “European Union”. Independence for the smaller nations of the EU is pretty much a fiction now.

  132. 132.

    handy

    @James Hare:

    The good news is that amateur hour is now over and the private space race has begun. Where two Cold War superpowers failed, let a thousand business plans bloom!

    Yeah good luck with that. Unless we’re talking about some Total Recall type dystopian solution, which in that case…

    QUAID START THE REACTOR!

  134. 134.

    AA+ Bonds

    I don’t want anyone to be surprised when free market space travel “succeeds” by killing a bunch of people and then becomes the status quo

  137. 137.

    mattH

    Dick Clark could be quite the non-nonsense guy.

    On 17 May the group appeared on the “staid” teenage music show American Bandstand. This was because an influential producer for the show was insistent despite objections from nearly all the show’s personnel and host Dick Clark, who referring to Lydon said, “What can I expect from this asshole?” The group was not keen on appearing either, but went on. As “Poptones” and “Careering” played, Lydon and the group broke many of the show’s rules by failing to lip sync, blowing his nose at the camera, bringing disco-clad audience members to himself and the group, and banging a microphone in time to the music on Clark’s podium. ABC, feeling the show was a “disaster”, did not want to air it, but the influential producer successfully fought for it. The show became a regular part of American Bandstand’s highlight reels

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Image_Ltd

  138. 138.

    eemom

    don’t have time to read the thread, and don’t know nuthin about Dick Clark except his name. Was gonna ask for a quick “Dick Clark: RIP or grave piss?” summary, but now I see the trolls are getting into it with my homeland and the Germans, so…..whatev.

  139. 139.

    AA+ Bonds

    @RossInDetroit:

    Oh, holy crap. That was raw and extreme. Makes me wonder if we’re one economic downturn from that.

    Maybe even closer than that . . . in Athens the word is that the anarchos were using lines to trip police bikes last year; I haven’t found video of that

  141. 141.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    What like if a black musician implied that he or she would assassinate a Republican President or candidate

    Honestly that’s been happening since Public Enemy at least

  142. 142.

    RossInDetroit

    @AA+ Bonds:

    As bad as things are on the periphery of the EU you have to wonder if something could start and spread to Spain, England, etc. Wherever a lot of people are jobless and feeling screwed over.
    Like Occupy, only Incinerate.

  143. 143.

    muddy

    @AA+ Bonds:

    But is there really a reason to use “were” instead of “was” anymore in, say, Baud’s example up top

    Use the subjunctive for a condition of unreality.

  144. 144.

    AA+ Bonds

    @muddy:

    what I am asking is not whether I should use the subjunctive or how to use the subjunctive, what I am asking is whether there some sort of practical reason why I should actually care about using “were” instead of “was” for purposes of the subjunctive based on some unlikely but real sentence I might construct or can I consider it just form over substance

    because for much of my life I was punk rock about this and made fun of people who corrected others over it

    I also use “this” and “that” interchangeably with abandon, etc.

  145. 145.

    PIGL

    @James Hare: you have the cause and effect mixed up. Your more cowardly pseudo-intellectual assholes gravitate towards libertarianism because it offers a cosmic rational for their personality disorders. The brave or really dumb assholes don’t see the need for justification, so they tend to be ordinary Republicans.

  146. 146.

    muddy

    @AA+ Bonds: I guess it only matters if you care about grammar, most people don’t know and/or care.. My grammar is not always the best, but I remember about the subjunctive due to praise in youth, before I knew what subjunctive was. I just used what I heard at home. And plus I just really love the phrase “condition of unreality”. (scan for temporal anomalies…)

    Also too, you can be really superior when people correct you for saying “were” and they are not familiar with the word subjunctive. Or sometimes they say, “I had that in Spanish one year.” Just the one? I guess I find amusement in odd ways.

  147. 147.

    muddy

    @AA+ Bonds:

    I also use “this” and “that” interchangeably with abandon, etc.

    When my son was 1-1/2, and going through the stage of asking me to name everything in the world for him, “dis” was for close things, “dat” was for something over there. I have no idea if this is correct grammatically, it seemed sort of organic for him, so maybe it makes sense.

    And he’d keep saying, Dat dat dat if you did not say the noun he was asking about. We were at the deer camp one time and there was a old poster of a naked girl kneeling in front of a fireplace with a rifle. Old style poster, she’d have been considered fat nowadays, anyway she had breasts like watermelons. He kept pointing, and saying Dat dat dat, I was offering Girl, Gun, Fire. No! Dat! My boyfriend finally offers, Tits. Off went the little guy, happily muttering tits tits tits to himself. Bf says, why doesn’t he know what that is when you’re breastfeeding. I said he never saw anything like *that* at home. Talk about your condition of unreality.

  149. 149.

    Scamp Dog

    @RossInDetroit: A Nerd Pride moment: I know what you’re talking about! Where are the articles you’re talking about being published?

    @James Hare: I don’t think that post really gets into the true “libertarian asshole” realm, but it’s definitely in the “Space Cadet libertarian” arena. He’s probably sure that there’s some simple, cheap way to get into space that incompetent government engineering can’t (or doesn’t want) to figure out. And he votes Republican, because he’s sure that they’re better on space exploration, in spite of the fact that the R’s would much rather put money into tax cuts and military projects. After all, they remember every instance when Democrats have cut NASA funding; Republican cuts have somehow disappeared down the memory hole.

  150. 150.

    RossInDetroit

    @Scamp Dog:

    Make Magazine. An awesome publication for all nerds and DIY-ers. the amplifier was called Squelette. The latest one won’t see print until the end of summer. But right now it’s Urgent because that’s how publishing works. I’ll have some pix when there’s something worth showing.

  151. 151.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Ohhhhh…so this is why the Mayan calendar stops at 2012! It’s the first year since the calendar was created that Dick won’t be around to call in the new year.

  152. 152.

    RadioOne

    Both of my parents were baby boomers born in Philadelphia, and both of them were kinda like “well, it’s a loss.” I love the fact that American Bandstand introduced new great music to a national audience. but I don’t think Dick Clark was a genius who did it by himself.

  154. 154.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    “Introduced” probably translates to “made safe for Middle America after other people had already discovered them” but still, if this is accurate he was pretty obviously not just a Pat Boone type.

    Definitely not a Boone type, and definitely a once-high-powered tout who lost a bit of that power when rock and roll was taken over by the major players of the recording industry. When I first heard of his death, I couldn’t help but thinking of the lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s Free Man In Paris– which, iirc, was written following a conversation with David Geffen, but it works here, imo, but for the part about wanting to walk away from it all.

    @RossInDetroit:

    The California band X sez on Facebook: “Rest in peace, Dick Clark. He was a big X fan and supporter of the band.”.

    Yeah, Clark was a charmer, John Doe and Billy Zoom are charmers…But go search for his AB interviews with X, and you’ll see Clark going the LCD route with ’em, as if he could make teen heart-throbs out of the band that wrote I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, Los Angeles, etc…

  155. 155.

    Bruce S

    “I don’t think Dick Clark was a genius who did it by himself.”

    Clark mainstreamed what regional DJs had been doing for some years before. A more appealing, family-friendly version of the Allen Freeds and Dewey Phillps. Hit a sweet spot at just the right moment and had the business acumen to make the most of it. Seems to have been widely respected by the performers, which means he was doing that part of it right and knew where his bread was buttered.

    Another figure who seems somewhat ridiculous in retrospect who brought a lot of great black artists to national audience was Ed Sullivan. He had R&B performers on his show well before he presented Elvis. Check out how many times Jackie Wilson appeared on Sullivan’s show. Ed couldn’t get enough of Jackie. (Greatest Ed Sullivan intro ever: “Couple of weeks ago I went up in Harlem, I’d seen these shots in the newsreels of thousands of people jamming the streets around Frank Shipman’s Apollo Theatre, all trying to get in to see Dr. Jive’s.. roll rhythm and uh, rhythm and roll. Rhythm and color. Rhythm and blues.” This was Ed’s preface to an appearance by Bo Diddley on the Sullivan show in 1955, nearly a year before Elvis was on. Diddley killed, of course.)

  157. 157.

    theflax

    @RossInDetroit: I definitely remember X doing ‘Burning House of Love’ on AB. Not quite ‘White Girl’ or ‘I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts’, but still…

  158. 158.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    ” A lot of people over there aren’t doing their jobs if not, I mean, the Trots can’t shut the anarchos down anymore”

    ????? Back in the days of Thatcher, the Trots were just as volatile and unpredictable on a march as the anarchosyndicalists.

    If you style yourselves as the Vanguard of the Proletariat, you’re going to get a few headcases.

    However, my observation from those days is that almost without exception riots during protests in London started because the Metropolitan Police lost their shit.

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