In this Discussion
- bell8square September 2006
- berry79brown August 2006
- C80I August 2006
- crocuscrown9 August 2006
- crop51sound September 2006
- DSikes August 2006
- jedi_grrlie September 2006
- jetsurf799 September 2006
- kissteam1 September 2006
- nerverise9 August 2006
- QueenofthePosers August 2006
- sherib September 2006
- Tempe Arizona August 2006
- The End Has No Jen September 2006
- thephantommilk September 2006
- tune1shade August 2006
- vinyl_days August 2006
- women60banana August 2006
- woodmaid8 September 2006
Comments
"freedom of speech yo"
and the less generic responce of:
when eddie gurreruo died last year, a news/sports person on the radio maid the pre judgement of saying someitnh along the line of "chalk up another death to steriods/drugs"
anyways, freedom of speech and judgeing people on face value is what people do, if you dont like what they say then just dont listen to them..sending them long emails that they probally wont read due to them thinking your a crazy fan girl wont amount to much
Freedom of Speech means people are Free to say what they like
Random fact: Australia actually does not have the explicit right to freedom of speech. It is merely implied. We have no Bill of Rights. Boo us.
ETA: I maintain that I think it is unprofessional for DJs and VJs to knock artists, but that is merely my opinion. In addition, I personally am of the belief that you don't talk shit about anybody (celebrity or no, close personal friend or mere acqaintence) unless you are willing to back yourself up. It's just rude.
You go God!
Exactly. It's not like I'm saying that freedom of speech is stupid, I'm saying that it was in very poor taste for him to diss someone like Damian, especially the he did. This radio show isn't like Howard Stern, it's a family show. They have a segment called Mad-Moms-In-MiniVans where moms and kids call in on the way to school. This radio show is supposed to be high quality, and it has been up to this point. It'd be one thing if it were an adult radio show and they dissed OK Go, but it's not, there are tons of kids listening, and it's not teaching them anything good when they go on like that.
BettyNLBboop raises a good point in saying that we don't really *know* the guys. We know them as fans. Some people have more access to them or people they know than others, but it's still a fan-band relationship. And I certainly only know them as a fan. So I can't claim to have special insight by any means.
But here's the thing that puzzles me about everyone saying Damian can be an ass and that "Everyone knows he can be an ass," etc.--I actually don't see him that way. I don't get why there's this "he can be a total dick" image of him among so many fans. I'm not saying that in a pissy way--I'm just saying I really don't get it. I am asking for insight, maybe examples. Am I too new on the OK Go block? Am I just blind?
Or is he maybe being read wrong by other people?
People call him pompous, but I find that weird because he seems to me like he can't stand pomposity and actively tries to avoid it, in himself and other people. He downplays Brown and the semiotics degree. He said something in an interview once about how going to school doesn't necessarily make you smarter than anybody although people might think that's the case. People go on about the "u tilize" thing like he was being a pompous ass, but I love that he was really complaining about pompous asses. I get the feeling that while he was probably an excellent student in college and really got a lot from/contributed a lot to his classes--I imagine he was a really good thinker/writer/discusser--he probably also gagged on a lot of the academic mumbo-jumbo, intellectualism, and mental masturbation that went on, like I did, lol (I was an English major--and went to grad school), even while he was good at it. My friends and I realize that 50% of our degrees consisted of the art of bullshit, and I bet he'd feel the same way. He seems very non-elitist to me. He talks a lot and he has a good vocabulary, but I don't see that as pompous. And I don't think he really thinks he's that smart. I really don't. I think he recognizes when he's dealing with someone with whom he may not be able to conduct certain kinds of conversations--hence what he said that one time about how you don't get to be around a lot of "smart people" in the rock world ... but I think that was just a comment on how it's nice to be around people who can exercise your brain sometimes and that if you go without that for awhile, you miss it. I don't think he treats people like they're stupid. And he seems really interested in people as people whoever they are. He said that thing about how interacting with fans makes people seem more human to him, and he talked about hanging out with people at that LARP convention, not in a "What a bunch of losers!" way, but seeing what made them tick ...
Another thing I think about is how in interview after interview and article after article from a few years back ('02, '03), writers refer to him as modest, humble, self-deprecating, gracious, and "nice." They fall all over themselves calling him these things. The A Fine Tooth article about last NY Eve was like that, too.
I think there's a tone of voice he uses sometimes that is misconstrued as dismissive or arrogant when actually he's being modest or is embarrassed. The part at the beginning of the mp3.com Great Albums interview comes to mind, where he refers to covering a Rolling Stones song as embarrassing, and it sounds as if he's being stuck-up toward the Stones and you think, "Holy crap, who does he think he is?" and then you find he's embarrassed in a modest, "Who are we to cover the Stones?" way. I think there are also occasions where people completely mishear him and jump to conclusions. Someone on YouTube has a live clip up from last year and claims that in it Damian refers to the album as "my new album" (or record? whatever) and then they go on to say "he can be so douchey at times." But I swear he's saying "our." Listening to it, it never would have occurred to me that he's saying "my." I can't believe that he would ever call it his new album. Onstage. With the band right there. ?! No way.
I also think that sometimes when he appears snobby he's actually intimidated.
I don't think he's really conceited about his looks, either.
Whenever I see people talking about this stuff I remember a bit of conversation on the way home after my first OK Go show, last November in Chicago. We were talking about Damian, who I knew nothing about at this point; and the friend who got me into OK Go (this was her second show--her first was years before, when they were opening for TMBG, and she had lost track of them for quite awhile before "Oh No," so she wasn't an expert who'd followed their every move and knew their every personality quirk or anything) commented that Damian seemed very, very confident, and I agreed. We had been in maybe the third row, so we'd seen everything up close. One of the other two people who went with us but sat in the balcony said, "Confident or cocky?" And we both said, "Confident" right away. I remember that that question kind of clarified for us what we were trying to put our finger on about him--that he exuded confidence but somehow managed to never cross the line into cocky.
So I don't get the vibe that he needs to be put in his place or taken down a notch or anything like that. What exactly is he doing/saying/projecting that makes seemingly so many fans say he can be an ass?
I just looked at that post for the first time since writing it and it's so long!!
Apologies.
me
haha
Hm, what should I write?
LOL
See, there's good stuff in the fan correspondent interviews. This one's from Austin, I belive--I think the interviewer's name was Jennifer. Can't remember which part--maybe part 2? Anyway.
He also used to talk too much when he was a kid, but he was a good student so it balanced out and he didn't really get in trouble. He also apparently didn't use utensils in nursery school like he was supposed to. I find it hilarious that he brought this up as a serious answer when she asked him what kind of kid he was and whether he got into trouble.
Definitely do both. Go ALL the way back and read all of Andy's blogs. There are a few from Tim, too.
And have you watched the Truth in Music videos? J orge's even in a couple of them.
I can't believe this. Mind blank. I got nuthin'.
Damian once jumped from a height he shouldn't in concert and broke his foot. He wrote about it in one of those articles for the Japanese magazine that are in the Articles by Damian part of okgo.net, under Fun & Games.
Damian's dog once ate a bunch of prescription antacids, leading to a veterinary emergency the same day the guys were gonna do something (appear on Conan, maybe?)--this was years ago and the dog was fine and they got where they needed to be fine ... if I'm not mixing up stories here. I may be, actually. The day of Conan (I believe), Damian lost his voice and had to go to an ear, nose & throat specialist--they gave him steroids and he basically screamed through the performance according to his description. But the part I was going to mention is that they stuck a scope in and he got to watch it on a monitor--and he described his esophagus as looking like a well-muscled vagina.
Enough rambling?
I don't know--I wondered that myself.
However, I do think he knows he's cute (he wouldn't make love to the camera a la the Letterman show if he didn't or wear insanely tight pants to show off his, um, legs?) and I do think he's smart and knows it. He just doesn't make a huge deal out of it.
Definitely do both. Go ALL the way back and read all of Andy's blogs. There are a few from Tim, too.
And have you watched the Truth in Music videos? J orge's even in a couple of them.
I can't believe this. Mind blank. I got nuthin'.
Damian once jumped from a height he shouldn't in concert and broke his foot. He wrote about it in one of those articles for the Japanese magazine that are in the Articles by Damian part of okgo.net, under Fun & Games.
I managed to find 2 podcasts on my iTunes (#4 and #5), have not gotten around to listening to the others from the website 'cause I avoid streaming things I guess, I like to download.
Alas my computer seems to hate any video that isn't on youtube.com
I went back about 8 months on the blogs once and then had to go to work and it slipped my mind after that. I also read a couple of the articles by Damian but not all.
I haven't really had a lot of time on my hands in recent weeks due to increased workload both at my job and at University which is why I haven't had the time to go through everything yet. This weekend is the first weekend I've had off in over a year and a half and I've mostly been catching up on the sleep I never manage to get
But I'm definitely going to try to get all that done today 'cause I don't have to leave my house all day long. w00t!
It's an absolute bitch losing your voice when you have to perform. I once lost my voice after months of rehearsal for "Titanic! The Musical" a few years back. Fortunately I was just a lowly First Class passenger and not a major principle role in the show or it would have been horrible lol.
*Edit: I just changed my typo on "definitely." I'm anal that way.
As he should
But yeah,
yeah, i pretty much agree with everything you said. despite all the backlash i read about damian, the fact that he was nice (actually more than nice, but enthusiatic and gregarious) to a lame fan like me during the few times i've met him, is enough for me.
it's quite disheartening to read these things about a guy who has never eaten ice cream or performed a sex act.
But yeah, that's an element of what we were talking about in that confident/cocky conversation. He totally knows he's hot and he plays it up sooo well onstage, yet he doesn't seem conceited. People call him "full of himself"--I don't get that sense.
lol I saw that vid
I think you can download the podcasts from okgo.net. I'm 99.9% sure I right-clicked and downloaded them from there.