Off Topic Thread 5.0

jacothelad

Zzippy wrote: »

I was fishing yesterday morning in Connemara. Pulled in at a beach car park at 5.30. 4 camper vans parked up, 2 UK reg. We're a joke when it comes to keeping possible carriers from bringing it in to the country. People are coming in and ignoring self quarantine rules, travelling all around the place. All it takes is one of them to introduce it to a few places and you have uncontrolled spread...

The GB reg campers could of course be from NI. I had one for a while.

Did you catch anything? I used to do a lot of angling and was a member of Ardara anglers for years but I gave up in 1996 after catching and killing a very big hen salmon and other smaller fish on the Owenea. I caught 5 in total that day and was very happy initially but I soon came to the decision that it was a bad thing to do. Almost 25 years later I still feel real guilt over it. I miss fly tying and the gear and had some great stuff like Sage and Hardy rods and reels and a lot of sea fishing stuff. I live in the catchments of the Spey and Deveron now and my new friends here all fish. I know there is no killing any more but I'm not sure I want to go back. Part of me certainly does.

Zzippy

jacothelad wrote: »

The GB reg campers could of course be from NI. I had one for a while.

True. At least one was probably from England though. Two people paddle boarded past the rocks where we were fishing about 7am - I had noticed the boards on one of the campers earlier. Was a very calm morning and sound travels well over water. They were definitely English. It's a joke that they can get a ferry over and travel around the country with no possibility of contact tracing anyone they infect in shops, petrol stations etc.

jacothelad

Zzippy wrote: »

True. At least one was probably from England though. Two people paddle boarded past the rocks where we were fishing about 7am - I had noticed the boards on one of the campers earlier. Was a very calm morning and sound travels well over water. They were definitely English. It's a joke that they can get a ferry over and travel around the country with no possibility of contact tracing anyone they infect in shops, petrol stations etc.

Yes. I know I could do it without difficulty as my car still has it's Belfast reg. no. but it would be wrong to do it.

jacothelad

Zzippy wrote: »

True. At least one was probably from England though. Two people paddle boarded past the rocks where we were fishing about 7am - I had noticed the boards on one of the campers earlier. Was a very calm morning and sound travels well over water. They were definitely English. It's a joke that they can get a ferry over and travel around the country with no possibility of contact tracing anyone they infect in shops, petrol stations etc.

Yes. I know I could do it without difficulty as my car still has it's Belfast reg. no. but it would be wrong to do it.

Neil3030

Our dear newspaper of record did an article I won't link to, detailing the top 50 Irish albums of all time.

There was no Rory Gallagher, Astral Weeks didn't make the top 10, and the only Thin Lizzy album was in LAST place. The number 1 album are some group I've never heard of from 2019.

I honestly think I'm just too dumbfounded to be annoyed.

sydthebeat

Neil3030 wrote: »

Our dear newspaper of record did an article I won't link to, detailing the top 50 Irish albums of all time.

There was no Rory Gallagher, Astral Weeks didn't make the top 10, and the only Thin Lizzy album was in LAST place. The number 1 album are some group I've never heard of from 2019.

I honestly think I'm just too dumbfounded to be annoyed.

By picking THAT album as no 1 it unashamedly is obviously a pure click bait article.

These lists are always subjective and good for a debate, but this list is ruined by that number one choice. That album will simply be known as a curio in years to come. It's good, it's different, it's a crazy love child of my bloody Valentine / captain beef heart / joy division..... But its a second album from a band just discovering who they are.... Ireland best ever album it is not.

Neil3030

sydthebeat wrote: »

By picking THAT album as no 1 it unashamedly is obviously a pure click bait article.

These lists are always subjective and good for a debate, but this list is ruined by that number one choice. That album will simply be known as a curio in years to come. It's good, it's different, it's a crazy love child of my bloody Valentine / captain beef heart / joy division..... But its a second album from a band just discovering who they are.... Ireland best ever album it is not.

Yeah. It's just such an utterly pedestrian attempt at trolling. I think that's what insults me the most.

clsmooth

No Live at the Point by Christy Moore either. Nothing by the Dubliners. Nothing by Rory Gallagher. I’m surprised The Thrills didn’t come in at number one :eek:

b.gud

Can someone post the list, or at least the top 10/5/1 so I can see how bad it is without giving them the click

sydthebeat

b.gud wrote: »

Can someone post the list, or at least the top 10/5/1 so I can see how bad it is without giving them the click

Top 10 is standard enough... The number one is the weird outlier.

Girlband: the talkies

sydthebeat

Top 5

Roisin Murphy : overpowered
Whipping boy : heartworm
A house : I am the greatest
U2: achtung baby
Girlband : the talkies

thomond2006

Mask wearing seems to have increased a lot in the last few days from what I've seen. In a Tesco this morning in Dublin and I'd say 4 in 5 were wearing them.

Stheno

b.gud wrote: »

Can someone post the list, or at least the top 10/5/1 so I can see how bad it is without giving them the click

what paper was this published in ?

b.gud

Stheno wrote: »

what paper was this published in ?

Based on a quick Google it appears to be the times

b.gud

sydthebeat wrote: »

Top 10 is standard enough... The number one is the weird outlier.

Girlband: the talkies

I've never heard of that band. I suppose that is just one more thing to add to ever growing list that proves that I am no longer with it. I think Grandpa Simpson said it best

Former Former

Stheno wrote: »

what paper was this published in ?

Irish Times entertainment supplement on Saturday

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/50-best-irish-albums-of-all-time-in-order-1.4295696

It's a list of two people's opinion. It reflects their tastes and probably their age too, it's very 21st century and thus a lot of it is over my head. I wouldn't in a million years have had Roisin Murphy in the top 50, let alone the top 5 and EVERYONE knows that Moondance is a better album than Astral Weeks, right? But it's subjective opinion.

It's not clickbait. Do people even know what that word means anymore?

It's a bit of fun lads. It might even introduce a few people to some new bands - I've put a few albums on my Spotify list for this week. Does the world really need another list telling us how important The Joshua Tree is or how Horslips were the greatest Irish band never to make it?

Update: I'm listening to the 'The Talkies' for the first time right now. Definitely not for me.

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

Mask wearing seems to have increased a lot in the last few days from what I've seen. In a Tesco this morning in Dublin and I'd say 4 in 5 were wearing them.

Yeah I agree and have definitely noticed the same. I have a feeling that as the world opens up there will once again be clear trends internationally and this time it will be led by mask compliance.

Countries that can coordinate high compliance with masks can probably keep a lid on the virus on an ongoing and sustainable basis. It's already becoming apparent that certain parts of the world are likely to struggle with that compliance due to weak political leadership.

Travel restrictions are going to become the norm in those instances I'd imagine.

sydthebeat

Of course it's click bait. The essence of click bait is an advertisement or promise of something that it clearly isn't. Bait for views, being contraversal for the sake of getting views. The link being posted in the previous post is exactly what they want.

The whole point of this discussion is how thinly veiled the click baiting is... As said before, its pedestrian trolling.

errlloyd

sydthebeat wrote: »

Of course it's click bait. The essence of click bait is an advertisement or promise of something that it clearly isn't. Bait for views, being contraversal for the sake of getting views. The link being posted in the previous post is exactly what they want.

The whole point of this discussion is how thinly veiled the click baiting is... As said before, its pedestrian trolling.

Whatever about clickbaiting in the content, "listicles" should be below the level of the Irish Times, even if the article did make a bonafide attempt to actually give the best 50 albums of all times.

Former Former

It is NOT click bait. It is exactly what it claims to be. You just don't agree with it. Neither do I, FWIW.

errlloyd

Former Former wrote: »

It is NOT click bait. It is exactly what it claims to be. You just don't agree with it. Neither do I, FWIW.

Hmm, I disagree.

"My 50 favorite Irish albums of all time" would be exactly what it claims to be.

"The 50 best Irish albums of all time" is what it claims to be. For that article to be what it claims to be, it could have taken a quantitative approach by surveying people or doing sales analysis. Or a qualitative approach by interviewing a panel of experts. But that article is a blog post masquerading as a source of truth.

CatFromHue

I check The Times website a couple of times a day to get the news and this is the first I've heard of the article. So if it is clickbait then they've done a terrible job of promoting it.

The article title and the first line don't fit together though as the first line explains the list well but the title is kinda clickbaity in fairness.

THE FINAL LIST REFLECTS CONTEMPORARY IRISH MUSIC AS MUCH AS IT PAYS ITS RESPECTS TO THE PAST. THERE ARE NO TOKENISTIC INCLUSIONS HERE: EVERYTHING WAS SELECTED ON MERIT ALONE. BUT WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING: ‘WHERE THE HELL IS ASTRAL WEEKS?

It’s true that Van Morrison’s masterwork has a habit of dominating lists like this one. When The Ticket’s editor Hugh Linehan tasked us with drawing up a list of the 50 Best Irish Albums, however, we were in agreement on one thing: this list must reflect contemporary Irish music as much as it pays its respects to the past. In other words, we’re not quite slaughtering any sacred cows; think of it more as leading them into the shed for a bit of a rest.

I also have to say I've never heard of Girlband. There's other artists where I've heard their name but not their music but I had to google them just there to make sure they actually exist.

swiwi_

sydthebeat wrote: »

Top 5

Roisin Murphy : overpowered
Whipping boy : heartworm
A house : I am the greatest
U2: achtung baby
Girlband : the talkies

I’d hardly consider myself a music aficionado but on that list I only recognise achtung baby. Maybe I’m too mainstream...or not mainstream enough...?

sydthebeat

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’d hardly consider myself a music aficionado but on that list I only recognise achtung baby. Maybe I’m too mainstream...or not mainstream enough...?

You're just not Irish

If you've never heard heartworm then you are in for a very pleasant surprise.... It's a great album.

b.gud

Former Former wrote: »

It is NOT click bait. It is exactly what it claims to be. You just don't agree with it. Neither do I, FWIW.

I get what you are saying as the traditional clickbait would be "You won't believe what the best Irish album of all time is". This kind of clikbait doesn't get the results that it used to anymore so publications have had to become more savy and create this kind of clickbait. Articles that are designed to create outrage in order to get you to click on it to see what all the outrage is about. For this particular article it worked really well.

I agree that in general you are never going to agree with a list of the "best" albums as it is entirely subjective but from having read the intro and had a quick browse through the list it seems that the author went out of their way to justify why they were going to lean heavily toward more recent albums. If the Times truly wanted to create a list of the top 50 Irish albums of all time they could have had a more collaborative effort. How about a new weekly column where music journalists post their top 50 Irish albums and then after a few weeks they all get together and hash out a collaborative list.

But at the end of the day none this really matter after all it's just an opinion piece about which sounds are better than other sounds. It's just a distraction from the s**tshow that is the current global current affairs and sometimes that is exactly what we need.

I also got a few new albums to try out this week

DGRulz

Anyone know anything about tuning in satellite TV? Recently bought an LG C9 and it apparently comes with a built in satellite tuner. Probably a stupid question, but do I still need a dish?

b.gud

DGRulz wrote: »

Anyone know anything about tuning in satellite TV? Recently bought an LG C9 and it apparently comes with a built in satellite tuner. Probably a stupid question, but do I still need a dish?

Yeah you'll need a sky dish, or similar for that to work. Without having looked at the specs of the TV this should get you all the freeview channels once you get it setup.

Yeah_Right

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’d hardly consider myself a music aficionado but on that list I only recognise achtung baby. Maybe I’m too mainstream...or not mainstream enough...?

I was thinking the exact same thing :eek:

Yeah_Right

I actually just had a look through the list. I have listened to 8 of the albums. I have heard of maybe 10-12 of the other artists but I'd struggle to name one of their songs. I'm not sure whether that is because I'm old and out of touch or it is because most of those artists never cracked the lucrative NZ market.

swiwi_

Yeah_Right wrote: »

I actually just had a look through the list. I have listened to 8 of the albums. I have heard of maybe 10-12 of the other artists but I'd struggle to name one of their songs. I'm not sure whether that is because I'm old and out of touch or it is because most of those artists never cracked the lucrative NZ market.

Say what you like, but do the Irish have their own version of “How Bizarre”