.
Because there were so few of you, I triple-dog thank those of you who took the time 'n' trouble to vote on my latest installment of Battle Of The Bands (BOTB).
.
I'm sure glad I didn't invest a whole lot of myself in this last Battle, because it wouldn't have been worth it. It wouldn't take too many more dismal voter turnouts like this one to make me reevaluate my time investment. (And as I've said before, if I ever get down to a single-digit voter turnout, I'm done.)
.
PRO TIP: BOTBers do NOT need to have a Battle of their own running in order to vote here. You can vote whether you happen to be playing in the round or not. And, of course, non-BOTBers are welcome to vote as well, and have always been encouraged to do so.
.
The song this time was 'ORANGE COLORED SKY' and the contestants were Nat King Cole versus his daughter, Natalie Cole. The contest took place HERE.
.
I was surprised that the Battle wasn't much closer than it was, since in their previous face-to-face, Natalie came within two votes of tying her legendary old man. But, no, this was not competitive. And maybe it's good that more voters didn't show up because it may have become an even bigger blowout for poor Natalie.
.
Natalie did capture the final four votes (mine included), but it was too little too late. I like Nat King Cole's voice well enough -- it was certainly unique sounding -- but I think Natalie actually has a technically better voice. I believe she had a better range and better vocal control than her famous dad did. In fact, it was kind of a "classic" female singing voice with plenty of power!
.
I was also surprised that no one really mentioned Natalie's charisma on stage. Under most conditions, I would not use a live recording versus a studio recording, but something about Natalie's facial expressions and body movement in that live performance really appealed to me. I watched the video over and over and started to develop a little crush on her.
.
Anyway, none of that mattered because Nat is a legend; people don't tend to vote against legends. (I think I'm officially retiring Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra from BOTB competition on this blog.)
.
I just now got out my calculator, put fresh batteries in it, and totaled up all the votes. It turned out like this:
.
Nat King Cole = 7 votes
Natalie Cole = 4 votes
.
Hmmm.... This Battle felt like a blowout, but now that I'm actually looking at the final tally for the first time, I see this wasn't a blowout at all. Just a lousy turnout. Maybe Natalie would have had a chance after all, had more people posted an opinion.
.
I will have a new BOTB installment appearing here on March 15th. It's going to be a "Battle Of The Sexes", which was inspired by MMQE's recent contest over at her blog Jingle Jangle Jungle. And I am certain that this next Battle -- a high-energy, fist-to-fist, "up to eleven" Hard Rock extravaganza -- will indeed be a blowout. In fact, I may just be asking for my first ever (dreaded) BOTB shutout. This is gonna be an ugly beatdown, no Q about it. The feminists better get out the vote and fight the Patriarchy if they don't want to see their representative suffer a shameful shutout against "the boys". (Not joking -- I'm seriously worried about a shutout, as I told Mary days ago in her comment section.)
.
Will I see you here in the next round of BOTB on March 15th?
I'd pose that Q to my
Magic 8-Ball but I'm a-skeered of what it might say..
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
.
Oh Stephen...
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the poor turnout. I've noticed this as well about the battles on the first of the month. Even with the 'extra encouragement' of bringing in others (ie: posting the link in a blog comment thread that requires reciprocation) the numbers are still rather low for my battle as well. Beware the Ides of March, my friend. Don't let this next battle get you down.
I know you don't like to get out there and 'hustle' when it comes to the blog, but sometimes you just gotta do it! Looking forward to your upcoming battle. As for me... I think I've decided on something from the early 70's... and then I've got a good one lined up for April Fools Day. At least I think it will be a good one - lust filled thoughts have clouded my judgment as of late.
Keep your chin up and get out there and Hustle!
~Mary
MMQE ~
DeleteYeah, it DOES seem that the first-of-the-month Battles are the ones that suffer most from low voter turnout. I think perhaps BOTB has never fully rebounded from the One-A-Month schedule that some of us switched to.
That's not really a good reason, though. Because I feel the BOTB Community should be supporting ALL of the BOTBers, regardless of their posting schedules. I know that when I was doing BOTB on the 15th only, I still went and voted on the Battles of those folks who continued posting on the 1st as well.
>>... "Beware the Ides of March, my friend."
HA!-HA! You know, I'd already had that same thought. I was thinking: Of all the dates to taunt a shutout and dare it to try and get me, am I sure I REALLY want to do it on March 15th?!
But you know what? I'm gonna go ahead, throw caution to the wind and take a chance.
I figure even if I do wind up with my first BOTB shutout, at least I saw it coming, and at least it would be (IMO) the right performer getting shut out. Because, to me, this one'll be an objectively obvious choice.
However, it's probably all a moot point, anyway. Because I've come close to a shutout a few times but some "oddball" (and not always the SAME "oddball") has always come along to vote against the grain and save the day. (Heck, one time the "oddball" was ME! Ha!)
>>... "Keep your chin up and get out there and Hustle!"
[Link> AS YOU WISH!
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Interesting--we both had about the same ratio of win to lose in our Battles. And like you one of my artists is a legend while the other who lost might be technically better. Maybe it is time to avoid Sinatra, Cole, Armstrong and the like.
ReplyDeleteI'm always a bit baffled by those who say they're not going to vote because they don't know anything about music. If you can hear then that's the main criteria. Or maybe there really are people who are so utterly tone deaf or devoid of any musical appreciation that they really can't judge between two recordings as to which they like better. It's kind of a mystery.
May the next turnout be better. Actually I guess mine wasn't all that bad, but I'd still like to see better.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE, I just saw your BOTB outcome. (Unfortunately, I can't comment from this work computer.) I'm not surprised Darin lost to Sinatra. I WAS surprised when Darin lost to Armstrong on 'Lazy River' in my 8th BOTB installment. But since then, I have learned that certain names are nearly impossible to beat.
Delete>>... "I'm always a bit baffled by those who say they're not going to vote because they don't know anything about music."
I've been fortunate in that I very rarely have anyone leave me a BOTB comment that doesn't also include a vote. But I have noticed that you and Mary get a lot of that.
I'm merely speculating, but I think there may be a few different reasons for that.
I think the least likely (or least frequent) reason for it is that the people literally cannot tell which song they like better. Music is the most Spiritual of the arts, and I believe few if any people are really so Spiritually deficient that they have no preference regardless of the tune.
I think a likely candidate for explanation in some cases is that there are folks who just want to leave their quick, 2-sentence comment to get their "credit" for having stopped by, but they don't want to invest a whole 8 or 10 minutes having to listen to two songs and then comment on them.
Then there may be some visitors who feel kind of intimidated by the comments of others. Maybe they literally don't know the difference between the sound of a trumpet and a tenor sax, for example, and when they see other commenters dissecting recordings in a more musically educated way, they hesitate to say anything for fear they will appear musically ignorant.
Of course, you can say until you're blue in the face that "no music knowledge is required" and "a simple preference is all you need to indicate", but if they fear seeming ignorant to others, they will remain mute.
Well, heck, to a great extent, I think that applies to the oft repeated remark, "I NEVER talk about politics or religion". For a long, long time I have believed that most people who fall back on that expression do so because they know they don't know much about either topic and don't want others to discover that about them.
At any rate, it's a bummer to put work into a BOTB installment only to have it attract a small number of voters.
This was my lowest turnout in a long time, and I hope it isn't indicative of an overall loss of interest. Which seems very possible when we factor in all the people who have dropped out of BOTB. There really aren't too many of us left.
But then I think blogging in general may have been a fad that is now fading. YouTube video channels now seem to be all the rage, and actually reading words is so "yesterday".
Lately, I've wondered how much longer I will stick with blogging. When the feedback diminishes to a trickle, a person begins to question whether or not continuing is worth the time & effort.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I think all of your reasoning is correct to some degree or another, but I think mostly a matter of investing the time. The place where they are reading blogs probably also has some influence--if they're at work they might not be able to listen. But I'd rather someone come out and just say something like "I don't feel like it" rather than that they don't understand music.
DeleteI've lost the blogging bug to a great extent, but it's mostly become a certain aversion to the internet and social media. I don't think it's just blogging. I think the world is just getting weirder. I'll call it "climate change" and I'm not referring to the weather. It's a state of society.
I don't guess I'll totally stop blogging anytime soon, but if comments or any other feedback stopped I guess I would stop. If I want to talk to myself then I can save energy by not typing and just arguing with the TV.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Yeah, I agree, LEE. The most likely reason is just simple "I don't want to spend 8 to 10 minutes listening to music. I could thumb through six thousand and sixty-six Facebook updates in that amount of time!"
DeleteI was just having an Email conversation with a friend and I wrote in part:
We're in a post-literate era. Everyone has been dumbed-down and technology has reduced everyone to a gnat's attention span.
It's like no one's brain can focus long enough to digest a detailed examination of a serious subject. Everything has to be spoon-fed to people -- including smarter patriotic conservatives -- in small doses and with lots of sound and visuals (aka YouTube videos).
No one really wants to be deeply educated anymore. What they really want is simply to be entertained... in 3-5 minutes of flashy video.
Now, of course, I'm not saying technology doesn't have its positive points as well. But overall, I think the scales tip toward the negative side. And as evidence for this, I present to the court...
[Link> THESE PEOPLE!
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I think good sense is a diminishing quality in our world. These Parkland shooting kids are blabbing about gun control and aren't even using reason to examine why we have a 2nd Amendment. They're like, "Imagine all the people, etc, etc" and I doubt whether most of them even know who John Lennon was. The ideology of illogical idealistic thinking has pervaded the left and much of the younger generation.
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE, here's a link to an article I think you'll be able to appreciate:
Delete[Link> How Teens Whose “Prefrontal Cortex Are Not Fully Developed” Will Solve America’s School Shooting Problem
That blog has become one of my real go-to websites. (Why anyone still gets their news from the Mainstream Media -- including so-called "conservative" organs like The Drudge Report and Fox News, etc. -- is way beyond me.
One must have a love of being either completely lied to or being fed a steady diet of half-truths to regularly visit MSM sites and channels.
The truth is out there, but it won't be found where big money backing is also found.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I never claim to know all the music stuff but I love your BOTB and what you put together so I hope you stay. I liked this battle and see what you mean about her style and I’m not just saying about her outfit:). I just liked Nat’s voice because it sounded so different. Anyway, I think it’s a great battle
ReplyDeleteWow! BIRGIT, what a nice thing for you to say. Thank you! I appreciate it. And I don't have any plans at the moment to quit BOTB. I'm hoping this terrible turnout was just an aberration and things will return to decency with my March 15th Battle.
DeleteThanks for all the BOTB support you have given over the years. I'm sure that I am not the only BOTBer who is grateful for it.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Another great matchup. Although I had a feeling Natalie Cole wasn't going to win. Voting is good. Even though when Kelly Tripucka didn't make the All-Star team once I lost my faith in democracy for a moment. S-Man, your multi-media skills and essays are fantastic. I'll betcha you like writing and posting to do it for yourself. As well as other good people. Almost nobody reads my stuff and I don't care. I enjoy writing as the old-man "my knees hurt" updated version of practicing skateboard tricks solo in the basement to the Boston 8-track, shooting hoops solo, hitting a hockey puck against a brick wall for hours, drawing a box on the brick wall in chalk and pitching and catching the tennis ball.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt on media. I know people who write no more than five words and make up for it with 14 emojis. I hope you continue to write "Epic" as the young people say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNIQrIXlrNw
Gee DogG ~
DeleteAnother super-nice comment. That's two in a row! I'm on a roll. [;^)}
Thanks a lot, McBro. You're like 4 strong Irish Coffees on a cold, grey, gloomy day!
I must confess that I had to Google "Kelly Tripucka". But no need to do a search of "Boston 8-track". And why is "Boston 8-track", even all by itself, automatically funny? What's up with that?
>>... "drawing a box on the brick wall in chalk and pitching and catching the tennis ball."
Oh, man, me too! When I was a kid, if someone would have given me a penny for every time I threw a tennis ball (or "Baby Indoor") against the wall facing the house I grew up in, in Santa Monica, I would never have needed to work a day of my life.
"Five Words And Fourteen Emojis" -- that sounds like it could be the title of this generation's 'Less Than Zero'.
Thanks for the encouraging words (aka Irish Coffees).
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Ha, if I had a penny as a kid for every time I said to myself "Overtime (or 10th inning for baseball), one second left.... !"
ReplyDelete<<"Five Words And Fourteen Emojis" -- that sounds like it could be the title of this generation's 'Less Than Zero'.>>
That's the funniest thing I've heard/read in a long time.
***
Kelly Tripuka. I confess of using Neil Simon's the "k" rule: "Words with 'k' in them are funny. Casey Stengel, that's a funny name. Robert Taylor is not funny. Cupcake is funny. Tomato is not funny. Cookie is funny. Cucumber is funny. Car keys. Cleveland ... Cleveland is funny. Maryland is not funny. Then, there's chicken. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. Cab is funny. Cockroach is funny – not if you get 'em, only if you say 'em."
Cheers, McBrother
McDogG ~
DeleteWe males who hail from real life (as opposed to virtual life experienced through a smart[sic]phone) were always thinking and/or saying that...
"OK, bottom of the ninth, Game Seven, bases loaded, two outs, and the pitch..."
Dang, McBro! Back then, our Mom's could barely get us to come in for dinner. -- ("OK, Mom. Let me just get this last out." -- "No! You heard me! You get in here right this second, young man! ...And wash your hands!" -- "Aww, Mom!".) -- But today, Mothers have the opposite problem: They can't get their sons OUT of the house. They're always in the basement, playing video games or scrolling through their Facebook contacts... at the age of thirty-phuqin'-five!!
"And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men"
It was a time of "Confident Heterosexuality".
Today it's a soy latte, 666 tattoos, Five Words And Fourteen Emojis -- sad, so sad.
I raise my cold Mojito and toast "the good ol' days"!
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Aha, Mc Brother. Similar idea here. When I was in second grade, if a baseball game was in the next town I'd ride my bike to the next town, come home after the game and my mom didn't know I had a game. (She didn't care about sports. The only scolding I got regarded grades and especially if I used bad words. For example, when I said "I'm voting for the Raiders" the quick reply was "You're ROOTING for the Raiders"). And there was no such thing as "T-Ball" nobody knew what that was - there were real pitchers. My mom worked full-time so it was subtext: "Wake yourself up." "Get to school on your own, walk home, I'm not picking your monkey ass up." Laissez-faire is a good thing a good philosophy for life. Walk 30 minutes to school, walk 25 minutes home. Jump a neighbor's fence and sneak through the back yard to save 5 minutes.... Learning from peers and kids a few years older. The grade school little league system had a great idea: The coaches were junior high guys to look up to/emulate. Take away the safety net and kids figure out how to make it.
DeleteToday it's, "Get in the SUV kids, with DVD players attached to the interior. We'll drive you everywhere and make sure you're safe until your 20's or 30's... And we're getting tired of you living in the garage.. with tattoos and working as a barista."
I raise my Coors Light to you and am also reminded of each summer in high school staying out late drinking. I think sometimes parents got worried yet held fast to laissez-faire with, "You're on your own, kids."
G McDOGG ~
Delete>>... "You're ROOTING for the Raiders"
Ha! Yeah, common mistake made by all of us kids. I'd forgotten about that one. (Childhood was so long, long ago.)
>>... Today it's, "Get in the SUV kids, with DVD players attached to the interior.
Yeah, God forbid kids actually develop their imaginations, invent their own games in the backseat, carry on face-to-face discussions...
>>... working as a barista
It used to be that coffee was what you drank to wake up and get started on the day's goals. Today, drinking coffee IS the day's goal!
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteNatalie might have beaten her dad had the voters showed. I did cast mine for Pops. It was just hard for me to go against the old man. His classic, smooth style says "Winner" to my ear. I'm looking forward to your upcoming battle. You got me intrigued with the prediction of a shutout or should I say your fear the future holds for the next round. At least you're stoking the embers to get the sexes really on voting day. Thanks for sharing and for visiting, my friend!
CATHY, I appreciated your vote, regardless of who it was for. Every vote (or "bote", as the Beer Brother likes to say) was especially important this time because there was such a small number of them.
DeleteI'll see ya at the next Battle, dear. I suspect I'll avoid the shutout this next time (I always have, somehow) but it's a-gonna be a lopsided contest, that I know.
That's OK. I'm going to have the chance to introduce people to a really badass song that might make some folks feel like breaking out their old, neglected Air Guitars.
:^)
Thanks for always being here, Cathy. I know I can count on your $0.02
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Aw, Reno. Don't be discouraged. As you and Lee discussed above, I think it has to do with the way of the world these days. If it isn't 'Scars and Gripes Forever', an alarming number of folks rush to something they can literally sink their teeth into.
ReplyDeleteMe, I love entertainment and you never disappoint. I just have a problem with time management. Was that yesterday? Snap!
I just wrote your name at the top of block 15 in my daily planner - See you then!
Howdy, dIEDRE!
DeleteYou're so nice. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
'Scars And Gripes Forever' -- Ha! :oD Is that a 'lowercase d' original?
'Time Management' is one of those things that I put in the same category as 'Cleaning The Bathroom' (i.e., I expect them to take care of themselves, because I'm much too busy for them).
Of course, I am always pleased as spiked punch to find you here, and you have an open invitation. Unfortunately, though, I fear my March 15th Battle is not exactly going to be your cup of tea. It's going to be really loud Hard Rock, which doesn't strike me as being in your wheelhouse. Although perhaps you'll surprise me. And naturally, when it comes to BOTB voting, "I hated B a little less than I hated A" is always a valid opinion, too.
Thanks so much for coming by to say howdy, d.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
My excuse: I haven't been ANYWHERE on the blogs much over the last month. I may or may not be here on the 15th - text me, then I will remember, lol.
ReplyDelete10-4, WILD THING. I will texteroo you. (That sounds dirtier than it really is.)
Delete~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends