I Know It When I See It, and I See You Austin Murphy!

"I know it when I see it" isn't a particularly impressive legal test--it's possibly the most subjective line of reasoning anyone could put forth to justify an outcome. But sometimes it just works.

For example, when I introduced "Blurred Lines" to G:TB just over three years ago, I said "If 'Blurred Lines' doesn't sample Michael Jackson's 'Whew!' and rip off Marvin Gaye's 'Got to Give it Up' then I'm Quincy Jones." Marvin Gaye's kids probably read G:TB because they sued Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for copyright infringement and won. I knew it when I saw it!

When the New York Times reported on the case, they said "the music industry has been gripped by a lawsuit over whether Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit 'Blurred Lines' was merely reminiscent of a song by Marvin Gaye, or had crossed the line into plagiarism." The line between reminiscence and plagiarism has again been blurred at G:TB.



Three and a half years ago, rob wrote a post about rubgy and the NFL. To call it a post doesn't do the piece justice. It's like calling David a statue of a naked guy. It's so good that one particularly erudite commenter said "This is fucking brilliant."

The piece is set in 2030 and it opens with the contrivance that rubgy has passed the NFL in popularity. Although the NFL still exists, more people watch the rugby championship than they do the Super Bowl. Along the way it quotes Ta-Nehisi Coates, cites various concussion-related events that took place before the real date on which the piece was written, and references the fictitious "upstart American Rugby League."

Three days ago, Austin Murphy wrote a piece for www.si.com about the future of football. The piece is set in 2036 and it opens with the contrivance that rugby has passed the NFL in popularity. The NFL no longer exists, so instead of watching the Super Bowl people watch rugby. Along the way it quotes Ta-Nehisi Coates, cites various concussion-related events that took place before the real date on which the piece was written, and references the fictitious "American Rugby League."

Blurred lines indeed. I know it when I see it.

Friday Afternoon Tunes (New and Old) for Your Mind Grapes

Four tunes have been getting a lot of love in TR's earbuds of late during his commute. I thought I would share before Rob took away my posting privileges for negligent behavior. And excessive body odor. The tunes are more poppy than you might expect, but when times are tough, as they've become for me for a couple reasons, some fun tunes are welcome. And they result in fewer headaches than drinking eleventeen scotches.

As an unabashed fan of Bill Simmons, nee The Sports Guy, nee The Boston Sports Guy, I pay attention to his posse of cultural critics who opine on all things sports, music and pop culture. This includes his podcasts, which serve as a coping mechanism for my mundane commute (along with these bad boys, of course).

As a result, I watch the After the Thrones show on HBO. I also dragged my wife into it. After her initial questions (Why are these guys so nerdy? They're gay, right? Is that Mallory girl the oddest looking person ever?, to which I replied: No idea, nope, yep), she became hooked b/c Greenwald and Ryan are astute and witty, if not telegenic.

I enjoy those two guy's gaming of throning on the telly, but I also (mostly) dig their music critiquing. So when the two came up with their "Memorial Day BBQ Playlist" on one podcast a few weeks back, I efforted up the tunes on my iPhone and gave them a listen. Turns out most are pretty good! The one that has wormholed its way into my brain to occupy space next to Thin Lizzy's Angel from the Coast these days is a catchy tune from an up-and-coming Philly rock band called Mercury Girls.

Here is All That Heaven Allows:




How do we follow that up? How 'bout with my favorite 18 y/o pop tune whose title is a cock ring reference! Sure, the tune is, like the strippers Zman makes it rain on,  "barely legal", but I'm slow to get into shit, so back off.

Here is a live version from Coachella in '15 (I think). And while the live version is disjointed, it packs in some extra whimsy. As I get older and face more, varied stresses in my life, I find brief forays into whimsy to be welcome. If you want the straight studio version, get it here.



Moving on (and even farther back in time), here's a deep cut (to me, at least) from Marvin Gaye. I found this one while wallowing in Apple Music one day. The ability to search for a tune you know/like, and then review playlists where that song was included, is a neat little feature to find related tunes you don't know. It allowed me to dig into some hip, hip stuff.

Here is Can I Get a Witness:



And we'll close this out with an instrumental from Umphrey's McGee. I'm not too attentive to the jam band scene these days, and am not too knowledgeable with these guys, but this is a fun tune that slots right in with much of the stuff we used to crank a lot at Unit M 20+ years ago. It doesn't break new ground, but sometimes that's just fine. So go to Unit L, borrow Dr. Crusher so you can take a pull from a 5' tube, and then crank this.

Here is Glory:



Happy Friday folks. Feel free to crank all of these at your cubicle, in your car, on the commode, or in your bedroom while you are sweet, sweet love. Or when you break into tears immediately after orgasm. Everybody does that, right?