learning that self depreciation isnt cool and just makes the people around you uncomfortable unironically improved my mental health a lot. like if you just stop saying negative shit about yourself you will genuinely like yourself more and other people wont be repulsed by your attitude and you will have more friends. it’s true.
It’s an underdog story about classism in which the folk hero (Johnny) is confronted by a powerful man (the Devil) who tries to exploit the hero’s perceived ignorance and inferiority by offering a great reward with impossible odds. Although Johnny warns him that looks can be deceiving, and that he’s going to regret the dare because Johnny is the “best there’s ever been”, the devil is blinded by his greed and arrogance.
The devil creates an awful cacophony of technically excellent fiddle playing that would be impossible for Johnny to replicate. It’s a trick.
But Johnny just grins at him and starts to play “simple” classic country fiddling songs - Fire On The Mountain, House Of The Rising Sun, and Daddy Cut Her Bill Off. He doesn’t rise to beat the Devil - he simply creates his own music from his home, in the style that he knows, and his love of it and the familiarity of the music make his “backwoods” fiddling more perfect than the Devil could ever achieve.
It is thus the devil’s pride, not Johnny’s, that allows Johnny to Bugs Bunny his way into a golden fiddle.
(In that sense, I do agree that it is the most American song: in a land of prejudice and inequities, great power lies - dormant but ever-present - in those we underestimate and attempt to exploit.)
Also people initially react to the devil’s part like “holy shit that’s badass” because he’s got electric guitar and bass and a whole backing band to make him sound good. Of course he sounds amazing. But if you drill down to the actual fiddling – and this is straight from Charlie Daniels – it’s not as technically difficult as what Johnny does. It’s fast? But it’s mostly just going up and down scales.
Here’s a good performance – the devil’s part starts around 2:00. Check out how long Daniels just stands there holding his fiddle while the guitar and piano carry the weight. I love that piano bassline but fiddling it ain’t.
It’s still an American narrative: if you can afford to hire a bunch of more talented people, you, too, can look like a genius. Doesn’t make you one.
when I listened to hold me tight or don’t for the first time I was kind of confused by the line ‘when your stitch comes loose/ i want to sleep on every piece of fuzz and stuffing that comes out of you” because it’s such a jarring line idk. but then like. it’s actually not a weird line it’s so fucking pete wentz. like ‘if you’re at your lowest low I will love you anyway’ and ‘if you fall apart I too will be vulnerable’ and not even Iwill it’s Iwantto. like I love you THAT much. aaaa
Get your fucking bread out of the fridge. Refrigeration makes it stale faster. If you’re not eating your bread before it goes bad you should keep it in the FREEZER, never the fridge. Stop eating subpar bread
I DONT CARE IF YOU DONT LIKE COLD BREAD YOU MIGHT THINK ITS STALE (ITS NOT) BUT AT LEAST MY BREAD ISNT MOLDY IN LESS THAN A WEEK
When you have to spend 45 minutes arguing the plot of a doll movie cause your political movement is definitely winning in the marketplace of ideas and you attempted to grow a beard to hide your botched lip filler in your old navy outlet Jean jacket.
contrary to popular belief not everyone has an innate sense of internal gender or care to have one or seek a name for it, some people go their whole lives without questioning their occupation in one of two gender roles, but for some people, if pressed, they don’t feel that internal sense of ‘i am a woman’ or ‘i am a man’, and in that case i feel the switch over to transgender vs cisgender relies on active identification of a gender other than the one they were assigned. if someone’s like ‘idk dude I just work here’ then that’s valid
i just remembered how there was this pizza place i went to regularly when i lived near houston, and i never really went to the restroom of the place so after going there for like two years regularly i went to the restroom for the first time and saw this
a taxidermied massive rat glued to what was previously a shelf for a private toll phone with an engraved metal plate bolted to the wall behind him that said REST IN PEACE “WOODY” NOVEMBER 29TH 2000. and thats not some random date i picked that is the day of my birth. i just kinda stood there thinking about how this rat died the same day i was born. i was like nine years old i couldnt quite concieve it yet and it didnt help that a south park pinball machine was blaring at max volume directly behind me as i just looked at this massive rat
