Taking a Stand

Scott Hardie | January 15, 2005
It's time we did something about all of the evil being inflicted in the world right now. Please support the cause below and bring some peace of mind to your community. This tyrant isn't going to stop unless we do something.

(link)

Anna Gregoline | January 15, 2005
I've never heard her sing, so I'm safe from the pain.

Amy Austin | January 15, 2005
Is this for real?

Scott Hardie | January 15, 2005
God I hope so.

Amy Austin | January 15, 2005
So, did you sign it, Scott?

Anna Gregoline | January 15, 2005
Doesn't anyone feel bad for this poor girl? I haven't heard her, but is she honestly that bad?

Kris Weberg | January 15, 2005
Yes, she really, really is.

Seriously, if you'd heard her....yes.

Anna Gregoline | January 15, 2005
Thank god I have managed through sheer luck to not hear her then. I don't even know who she is.

Scott Hardie | January 15, 2005
I have not heard her singing, which I am prejudging as awful, based on sheer probability. It's her nature as a manufactured, artificial, pretend pop star that is so bothersome — it's not even the pretense that she's a singer, it's the pretense that she's a hit singer. Her barely-talented older sister grew up and got married and no longer appealed to the teen demographic, so the record company dressed her up in clothes that demonstrated her "attitude" and coached her on how to lip sync, though they obviously didn't coach her very well. Public humiliation on Saturday Night Live and at the Orange Bowl are not enough to stop this woman, who makes up wildly implausible excuses for her poor performances rather than admit to even the slightest degree of atrociousness. She's not that much worse than most other put-on pop stars these days, but she's attracting mounting criticism on behalf of her peers. Our culture is getting fed up with record companies cramming these talentless fresh-faces down our throats (really, how many of those drunken Orange Bowl attendees were still in middle school?), and I'm sensing that Ashlee Simpson is becoming a target for hostility towards that musical trend in general.

But also I thought the petition was funny.

Scott Hardie | January 15, 2005
(link)

Nadine Russell | January 16, 2005
Her acting skills should also be targeted in that petition. It's painful to watch her onscreen. I hear she's going to be doing some more projects coming up soon. I'll be staying far, far away.

Anthony Lewis | January 17, 2005
There's a far greater threat on the horizon.

Hilary Duff. She sings worse than Ashlee, and acts worse than your standard "Skin-emax After Dark" thespian. And she has the kiddies in her pocket due to "Lizzie McGuire" (I actually liked that show.

She has a guest role on "Joan Of Arcadia" this Friday night. That is my favorite Friday night TV show. I hope the shark is not preparing to jump.

Why are these people getting press, and people who can really act and sing, like Christy Carlson Romano can't?

Jackie Mason | January 17, 2005
[hidden by request]

Kris Weberg | January 19, 2005
Wait....someone thinks that Avril Lavigne has talent?

What is that talent, and when will she display it?

Anna Gregoline | January 19, 2005
Yes, I'm still waiting on that one too.

Scott Hardie | January 19, 2005
Don't get me wrong, I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but Lavigne A) writes most of her own songs and B) plays a real instrument. That the same could be said of impoverished sidewalk musicians but not of the music industry's current top-selling acts does not speak well of the music industry.

David Mitzman | January 19, 2005
I'm not really one for the teenie-bopper pop acts that seem to reign supreme over our culture right now, but hear me out.
Avril's songs, no matter how teenie-bopper they are, don't sound as manufactured as the "others" as I like to refer to them as. Given some time (a few more years provided she sticks around that long), she'll most likely mature into a pretty good rock musician (since her fans will be aging as well). I think her vocals are interesting too since they don't sound premanufactured.

Erik Bates | January 19, 2005
[hidden by request]

Anna Gregoline | January 19, 2005
She just comes off like a big phony to me.

Jackie Mason | January 19, 2005
[hidden by request]

David Mitzman | January 20, 2005
I think Ashlee Simpson is a victim of two things:

1) Jealousy of her sister because of the fame she attained at such a young age.

2) Her father trying to milk his children for all their worth. Seriously, if he realized that his younger daughter was completely talentless in music, he wouldn't be pushing this. Jessica Simpson happens to be an extremely talented singer (albeit annoying at times, but her "airhead" persona is the way the media presents her to us). The fact that her musical career has fallen off to the side is because people just got tired of her relatively quickly. I was kinda annoyed by the unholy marriage of her and John Mellencamp for one of her singles.

The worst part about Ashlee Simpson is that she's just pouring out the blame to everyone else. Whether that's her doing or someone behind the scenes, she's still the one looking bad and hopefully she will fade away before the summer.

Kris Weberg | January 20, 2005
She's also a victim of not being able to fucking sing but doing so anyway.

But then, when Ashlee sings, we're all victims in a way.

David Mitzman | January 20, 2005
Yes quite the good point. When you hear her recorded studio songs, they sound "OK". Nothing stellar. When you listen to her live, you can hear her true crappiness.

My measure of a singer is this: studio recordings are not nearly as important as a live show. If a singer cannot perform live, then it shows they can't sing without a studio engineer taking steps to make them sound better.

Scott Horowitz | January 20, 2005
I heard on the radio that she is going for voice lessons. It might have been a good idea to do that before you record the album.

Kris Weberg | January 22, 2005
It reminds me of the dialogue in the old movie Animal Crackers:

Spaulding: What do you fellas get an hour?
Ravelli: For playing, we get-a ten dollars an hour.
Spaulding: I see. What do you get for not playing?
Ravelli: Twelve dollars an hour.
Spaulding: Well, clip me off a piece of that.
Ravelli: Now for rehearsing, we make special rate. That's-a fifteen dollars an hour...That's-a for rehearsing.
Spaulding: And what do you get for not rehearsing?
Ravelli: You couldn't afford it. You see, if we don't rehearse, we a-don't play, and if we don't play that runs into money.