JCC Embrace The FU - Formerly the STAR WARS IS BAD thread

Not American Superiority but American Centric produced by a US NGO. I mean it more from the standpoint of where was everyone else, a more pan-national approach perhaps.

 

wasn't that song a follow-up to the Band-Aid song Do they know it's Christmas ?

 

I don't know what's going on in this thread anymore. Can we just talk about hot pockets or dead gorillas?

 

I think an argument for Americans to make charitable donations pretty rightly featured American artists and titled itself as American.

 

Yes, but this was a British/Irish joint

 

yeah I know , but . . . . oh I dunno .

(btw - that's ^ the wrong vid )

 

Yeah-first one I came across. Apologies and you are correct there were several renditions going back to the 80s.

Pffft- For anyone who thought we couldn't bring Star Wars into this:

 

Post the right one!

 

You're giving me flashbacks to the TPM opening crawl.

 

What your saying that TPM’s crawl was easy to understand?

 

Do They Know It's Christmas was a good song, with a heart.
We Are The World was the typical American take on an original idea: sappier, with more celebrities, more glitter, and more gold. And Dylan.

Both made some cultural mistakes, that have long been acknowledged by their creators, and that everyone but Wocky understands by now. Did Bono really sing "tonight thank god it's them instead of you?" Is that line really followed by "and there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas/ the greatest gift they'll get this year is life"? Pretty reductive for a whole continent.
They made the same mistakes in the US. "USA for Africa" didn't make the average African feel as warm inside as it made the average American. "We Are The World" doesn't mean "we're in this together" - it means "we're saving our own lives".

 

Look at how hard Ellie Goulding is trying not to look at Ed Sheeran. "Oh no, you dodgy ginger, you're not claiming my soul as your newest freckle!"

Good on her. Standing up against pallid darkness.

 

This is a very different sort of criticism. Philanthropic efforts are quite often failed, presumptuous, belittling, or otherwise problematic. But that's separate from a question of whether or not their branding was meant to express some sort of sentiment of superiority or naked self-importance. It wasn't.

 

Meant? No.
You are arguing against a claim nobody made.

 

I like Band Aid 1984.

 

Eh, correct in that post.

However there was a follow-up post claiming explicitly that the song was "American centric." This, even though it was conceived explicitly as an effort to boost American charitable contributions, was the brainchild of American activists, and was both written and performed by American artists.

Will you also complain that Bastille Day is too French centric?

 

Oh I don't know, given how people who are 94th generation American still celebrate St Patrick's day and call themselves Irish, you guys could probably celebrate Bastille Day too.

 

That's not my claim, but I can see some value in it. We can't ask Michael Jackson, but maybe we could ask Lionel Richie who the "we" were in "We Are The World".
Probably shouldn't ask Quincy.

 

Stop Calling It Bastille Day
"France’s national holiday is not about the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution. Yes, the fortress/prison was taken down on July 14, 1789, but what the French are celebrating is something that came a year after that, called Fête de la Fédération. July 14th was picked because it is the official day of the Fête de la Fédération, the event of 1790 honoring the brand new French Republic. The national holiday is about national pride: the national bleu-blanc-rouge flag and the national anthem La Marseillaise created to highlight the French values of Liberté, Fraternité and Egalité — the three foremost rules of the country."
... Maybe you thought it was like how Americans celebrate July 4th?

 

I like how la Bastille is merely a "dangerous" roundabout. You can tell Ms Sawyer has spent significant time in Paris and therefore thinks driving like a demon possessed is natural.

Calling any roundabout in Paris "dangerous" is like calling American gun culture "a tad problematic".

 

And the Fete was in turn deliberately timed to coincide with the storming of the Bastille.

As with many things that exist in the vernacular, it's neither entirely accurate nor preferred. But for ease of communication, it's employed.

 

Jabba I'm not trying to make any serious points, I'm just messing. Just trying to keep this from being about Star Wars. You're good.

Have you driven there ES? It's very strange. The lines between lanes aren't chalked on the streets - they're formed by drivers sticking out their middle finger at each other.

 

I have, yes. One of my best friends was living down in Barbizon, as her husband was doing his MBA at Insead in Fontainebleu. Her mother in law had a small pharmacy in the 10th Arrondissement, and we drove in there one day to drop her daughter off before wandering the city.

After we met up in 2013, I ended up going to Germany then Italy, and in Italy I had a car for a few days. So driving in Romantic countries where the rules of the road aren't enforced, I had some experience at automotive chaos. They also don't queue, which is bloody rude.