Comment Archives: stories: Columns
Re: “Boys and Girls”
Both times that we were expecting, many people asked us if we were hoping for a boy or a girl. I always gave the same answer and it was absolutely honest: "We honestly do not care as long as it has one head, two arms, and the feet point forward." That was my way of saying that we were hoping for a normal, healthy, child. Maybe it was just me remembering Thalidomide.
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
I used to wonder what the world would be like when the "Me" generation grew up. Now we know.
Someone has chosen to ignore the fact that insurance companies don't have to sell you a policy if they think you might actually make claims. A very large number of people cannot buy insurance at any price, and many more simply cannot afford it. Medical insurance should not be a for profit industry.
Right wing people show there true colors when they express disgust as they sarcastically state "some people think they are entitled to food and healthcare".
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
Obamacare also saved my life. In my case it was throat cancer. Would have died in April before my 50th birthday. I thank god every day for being so lucky!
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
It is interesting that they have changed their sound ever so slightly over the years, but to me it is far more interesting in the fact they have any consistency at all in their sound considering their roots musically. I used to play shows with those guys back when they were Margo, Nemo, and a few other obscure bands in the 1990s. There sound / sounds were anything from 90s grunge rock, to metal, and even rap core. Seriously, the sounded just like Stuck Mojo or Limp Biscuit at one point in time, if you can believe that. When they started playing acoustic initially, i just assumed it was because they wanted to get more gigs inside of coffee shops and venues that didn't allow loud music. Who knows why they changed, but they did and they have been more consistent in the last 10 years than they were for the first 10 that's 100% for sure.
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
Of course the care should be provided. Point to where I said otherwise.
Here is the point, in case you missed it, and apparently you did.
Pay your fair share. Pay an amount that approximates the risk. Before and after a catastrophic medical event; Don't dump the excess cost on "the system" because that's code for taxpayers. Remember, as a premium payer, the taxpayer that pays the outrageous health insurance premiums, inflated by medical inefficiency, medical excess and medical inflation, ALREADY covers the median risk of the pool. Now they get to pick up the bill for those who decide coverage is too expensive, but jump in at the last minute to lay the claims at the taxpayers feet. That's like buying insurance at the scene of an at-fault accident, from a state pool that can't say no, and which then drops the cost to the taxpayer.
Re: “No sleep till... who the hell knows?”
I agree. Americans, as a society, are afraid of everything and every one. It's pathetic.
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
I wanted to like this article... but seriously - their music PRIOR to Emotionalism was 'ok'? That's insulting.
As much as I adore the Avetts & always will... I gotta admit, I really do miss the pre-Emotionalism style.
The first time I listened to The Carpenter, I tried to be patient, waiting for that ol', beloved, Avett scream. While I love the slow songs... it just doesn't seem like an Avett albulm without some stompin' & sceamin'. <3
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
Rumbrave: The amount of attention the Avetts get is really just proportionate to their popularity, and that's just life. It's the way it is.
In essence, I agree with you -- too many artists either don't deserve the attention they get or don't get the attention they deserve. I happen to believe the Avetts -- and many other popular artists -- do deserve the attention they get. Dave Matthews Band? Maybe not so much. But that's just me.
But deserving of attention isn't necessarily the same as what's newsworthy.
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
SOMEONE can't fathom using any of his tax dollars to pay for something as silly as saving people's lives. SOMEONE knows full and well that medical care has reached the point of being unobtainable without insurance, and insurance unobtainable to millions of people. SOMEONE thinks they should just die in the street, evidently.
There are plenty of uses of public money that can be debated as frivolous, but I don't see this as one of them.
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
Ha, no offense taken, but the amount of music you listen to has little to do with whether you're jaded or not!
To clarify, I can't even really call the Avetts overrated, because I enjoy them quite a bit (maybe their writing more than their sound honestly), but the amount of attention they get is really disproportionate considering how many more exciting things are going on in that scene.
The avatar isn't me trying to be a music snob or anything, btw, I must have just thought it looked cool at the time.
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
John,
Glad you made it, bladder cancer took my father. I sincerely hope you stay in the clear.
Obamacare's state fund worked for you personally, but SOMEONE paid for the "enormous" costs you mention. I wonder who that SOMEONE was. If only there were a way to make each person pay a sum (let's call them "premiums") that reflected their risk factors of each individual, and these payments, in aggregate, would pay for all the procedures and drugs (let's call them "benefits") of the pool of people paying in. Oh wait; we have that already. It's called health insurance. The premiums you rejected as too high were in fact probably correct for your risk, weren't they? Had those insurers covered you at standard rates, they would have been hosed by your subsequent losses far in excess of premiums paid.
You rejected paying for coverage until a low cost (to you) solution came along, and now SOMEONE has to pay for your benefits to the tune of "enormous" amounts, when you should have been footing some of that cost, after all, that's fair to SOMEONE who doesn't have a history of bladder cancer and pays his own premiums. Why should SOMEONE now foot the bulk of your benefits? All state insurance funds (healthcare, workers comp, non-standard auto, etc.) have two consequences; they drive down competition by charging below proper risk adjusted rates, and transfer costs to SOMEONE. They are eventually mismanaged, have high expense ratios compared to private peers, and are usually disbanded, sold, spun-off, or remain the bane of insurance markets, as the Florida Citizens property pool and the California workers comp pool have been.
The answer, and anyone in insurance should tell you this, is to make each person pay an amount that reflects their risk factors and the risk of the pool, but backstop only catastrophic losses with a state or federal pool, which prevents SOMEONE from picking up the whole tab, and distributes the costs more fairly while preventing pre-existing screening refusals.
Glad SOMEONE was there for you, buddy, but don't thank Obama. It wasn't him that funded the pool.
sincerely, SOMEONE
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
Jaded? Moi? Au contraire! I probably listen to more music -- and more kinds of music -- than you know exists, even if you do use a hundred cassette tapes in your pic. OK, so maybe I'm a little arrogant, but not jaded. Definitely not jaded. :)
(Note: smiley-face inserted above to indicate spirit of good-natured playfulness. In other words, please don't get all bent out of shape -- I'm jesting.)
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
Every time I hear people slobbering over the Avett Bros I am convinced that they are just new to the genre. Don't get me wrong, they are great, but they are not the first, last, or best modern americana/rock band. It is an exploding genre over the last decade, and you would all do well to look beyond the 1 that has cracked the top 40.
My eyes also roll out of my skull any time a music writer gets bored and jaded enough to write an "Are ___ the end of ___?" article.
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
@Phillip: Hey, I'll say it again: Pink Floyd, The Wall -- an over-the-top opus. I'll also say this: Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn -- brilliant, groundbreaking, adventurous rock. And... Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here -- The band's last solid, well-executed concept before tipping over into over-the-top opus territory.
As for my take on the Avetts' early albums: I don't dislike those albums overall; as I said, I think they're OK. Plenty of those songs are excellent, and the band's live performances of a great deal of that material during those years were just flat-out sensational. In fact, on stage is where the band excelled back then, in my opinion. I just don't think they really mastered the art of composing for the studio until around the time of Emotionalism and the recent two major-label albums.
As for the cries "oh, they've changed" or "they've sold out," that's just bullshit. Children change when they grow up, too -- ideally, for the better, though sometimes that's not the case. In the Avetts' case, I think they've gotten exponentially better. But you know, every act that's ever become famous or popular on a more mainstream level has gotten that same "they've changed; they've sold-out" bullshit. The quality of an artist's work has nothing to do with his or her mainstream acceptance -- or lack thereof.
On the topic of whether or not the Avetts are rock: they're rock to me.
And finally, I think it's great that this piece has sparked such passionate response, whether positive or negative. I love it. It's healthy. The kind of intelligent, passionate debate that you all have brought to this issue is music to my ears.
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
"What did you expect
And what did you forget
That to live you let go of me with each step
It becomes a progression I won't let regret manifest
To aggression
Are you to assess what I've been? What I am? Or become?
Did you stop to accept how pathetically dumb
It can be to
Attack those around 'cause you're
True to color, a town, a time, or a place?
It's not you, it's not mine
And besides it is gone
And you never will find it again
But I don't want to fight
I just ask let me be
I won't give the chance to be my enemy
So go home
Think it through"
Seems to me the Avett's know full well what they are about and I, for one, am thoroughly enjoying the progression...and would ask, as they do in their lyric above to just "let them be".
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
I LOVE The Avett Brothers, but I couldn't finish this article... When pretentious rock critics start droning on about how rock was "bloated" & "overbearing", and slam masterpieces like Pink Floyd's "The Wall", they've lost me, because I know they're full of it. If they don't understand great rock that everybody knows, what should make me think they understand great new artists that most everyday people have never heard of?
@ Christopher Dwyer - I think it's perfectly fine to call The Avetts "rock". Rock is a pretty wide category, and "Americana" & "folk" (and even country & bluegrass) cross over into the rock "arena". I really like the idea of mixing The Avetts with artists like The Who, The Kinks, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, The Pretenders, Wilco, The Black Keys, The Alabama Shakes, Indigo Girls, Dawes & LOTS more, including other genres not normally associated with mainstream "rock"!
If it's good, it's good!
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
I, like everyone who has posted am a huge fan and have seen the avetts when the bar was full and the arena was full of people. But to say they are the last great rock band is not true, because I do not believe they are really rock music. They fall more in the americanna genre in my opinion. Which is a sound using classic blue grass and country foundations and attaching modern themes. Great modern rock bands are radiohead, the black keys, and well maybe that's it. The avett brothers do "rock" but do not rely on the electric guitar to drive their sound. I do love the discussion and the debate of what "rock" music is and how it can be defined.
Re: “Are the Avett Brothers America's last great rock band?”
Early Avett albums are awesome. Middle Avett albums are awesome. Recent Avett albums are awesome. Do they all sound the same? No. Then again, what I talk about, what I write about, what I think about isn't the same as last year, 5 years, 10 years ago. Why would I expect a band to stay the same and never change? I love the fact that they are continually growing and their sound is changing and I think that my connection with their music is stronger than ever. They have had major life adjustments in recent years and their music (their life) is going to reflect that. When I see all these fans complaining that they have sold out, or that they changed to sell more records or get played more on the radio, it disappoints me. I think what you have to "get over" is the fact that things change. And I feel like you just have to learn to appreciate their music in different ways with each new song and album that is released. The music, the actual lyrics, that's what it's all about.
Re: “How Obamacare saved my life”
Obama Care is like a cute little puppy at this stage: small, energetic, affordable. But in a few years it is going to grow into an out-of-control great dane sized mongrel that wil be enormously expensive to maintain.