MB awards 2020: nominations
 

Best Avatar: exo
Best Signature: ant
Sexiest Member: chio
Howard The Duck Memorial Award for Most Inane Member: mindfulness
Biggest Fanboy / Fangirl of the Year: elph - post-punk in general
Best Writer: jwb
Nicest member: ribbons
Smartest poster: bat
Funniest member: Marie
Angriest Member: bat
Best Mediator: Marie
Best Site Contributor: frown
Biggest Music Contributor: ant
Best Media Forum Contributor: ros
Best Taste in Music: exo
Most Improved Member: elph
Most Underrated Poster: lisna
Best Thread Starter: cuthbert
Most Missed Poster: chula
Most Diverse Music Taste: frown
Most Mainstream Music Taste: mindfulness
Thread of the Year: covid
Moderator of the Year: Marie
Best Journal 2020: battle axe riot grrrl
Best New Member 2020: ando
Member of the Year 2020: elph
Best Rivalry: hateful elph vs liberal elph
Biggest Lounge Lizard: bat
Virtuoso of the Year: kiii
Best Member Music Album (Released in 2020): what we know - cars with hats
Lifetime Achievement Award: wolf

I'm not even going to complain about the lack of comments because 'hateful elph vs liberal elph' is ****ing funny

Comments:

ant’s signature links to his review threads
jwb’s blog is special
you don’t waste time on bad jokes you wait until you really have a winner

It’s a toss up between frown and ant for music recs but ant goes further outside my wheelhouse so I gave site contributor to frown but it’s also for music recs

ros still does those radio shows plus when he links to something and you don’t know it you know you need to learn it / plus he gets info early

exo got best taste because he’s been killing it with the jazz (I’m secretly a little threatened tbh)

kiii’s **** is the most next level - I think frown has got some **** in his pocket though

wolf has a great arc to her post history - not just the classic down spiral

You easily have me bested as far as post 1980 jazz knowledge.

Got you for MOTY bro

I didn’t really have anyone for most improved

So how do we stack up 1945-1980 in your opinion?

I know you go to jazz school everyday at work and I’m ****ing around listening to slushwave and bandcamp ambient releases

even though you rec some unassailable **** I haven’t heard I’m not sure if you have the foundational knowledge I have - what composers they listened to - their philosophies - who played with who played with who -

Oh I don't claim to have more knowledge in pre 1980 jazz either, only that I REALLY haven't stepped into more contemporary jazz at all. I definitely need to read more about jazz and the artists of the 50's and 60's. I have Coltrane books waiting to be opened but I just can't focus on books recently.

I've considered getting an Audible account cause I can't focus on books very well a lot of the time too but I love podcasts. And I used to be able to crack out on books until a a few years ago but it's never come back so keep an eye on that **** cause it might be permanent. Something about life sapping your energy or spending too long on the internet and destroying your concentration.

That would be me.

Best Avatar: OccultHawk
Best Signature: Batlord
Sexiest Member: MusicBanter as a whole
Howard The Duck Memorial Award for Most Inane Member: That one guy that OH swears is a troll.
Biggest Fanboy / Fangirl of the Year: OccultHawk fanboying for Elph
Best Writer: Frownland
Nicest member: Lisna or Ribbons
Smartest poster: Frownland or JWB
Funniest member: My ding dong.
Angriest Member: OccultHawk
Best Mediator: Marie Mondy
Best Site Contributor: Everybody.
Biggest Music Contributor: Frownland?
Best Media Forum Contributor: IDK
Best Taste in Music: Frownland
Most Improved Member: YorkeDaddy
Most Underrated Poster: Anteater
Best Thread Starter: IDK
Most Missed Poster: MondoBungle
Most Diverse Music Taste: Frownland
Most Mainstream Music Taste: Mindfulness
Thread of the Year: What Came Out Today?
Moderator of the Year: Marie Monday
Best Journal 2020: IDK
Best New Member 2020: Ando
Member of the Year 2020: Marie Monday
Best Rivalry: OccultHawk Vs America or OccultHawk Vs Nuance
Biggest Lounge Lizard: OccultHawk
Virtuoso of the Year: IDK
Best Member Music Album (Released in 2020): IDK probably not Parasitic Despondency
Lifetime Achievement Award: WWWP for discovering her inner ***got.

Complicated fiction is a lot easier to deal with in print imo. I think it’s about pacing and too slow can be just as bad as too fast. If you’re reading you can adjust your pace to match how much information you’re expected to take in.

If I stop reading I know something is really really wrong.

I like audio formats as well but it can’t replace the printed word for me.

People who hate reading are just stupid or blind.

That's right, I said it. Kiss my dick about it why don't you.

I love reading but can only do it for like 15 minutes at a time now. My eyes actually hurt and I get anxious. Maybe I should see a doctor or smoke some weed about it.

Ahh, so you're going blind.

You’re the funniest poster. I forgot about you but Marie does crack some winners.

Most missed poster: bat when he was still funny

But I get it. Ain’t not much funny these days.

I've been blind since 4th grade bro.

Damn. That sounds like a mental thing.

What do you mean? **** is hilarious. People wanted to decimate a country over 9/11 but won't even wear a mask to prevent a 9/11 from happening everyday.

Irony isn’t always funny.

Humor comes from pain.

I just fall asleep for no reason. I crack open a book for five minutes and all of a sudden I'm yawning and my eyelids can't stay open and I end up reading the same sentence over and over again without realizing it cause I'm completely zoned out and then I physically need to take a nap.

We need to change our diets or something. You eat a lot of bread like me?

I'm sure my diet is garbage but I also suspect that just working a garbage job that saps my energy is more to blame cause it saps my energy to do anything else and I was eating garbage when I was reading books too.

One thing I tried to do when I had exhausting jobs was to read in the morning before I went to work so if there’s a limited amount of mental expenditure available I tried to make sure I used it for myself before it was stolen from me.

You’ve spelled out your schedule. Plain and simple you need to work less.

Right before the epidemic I'd fallen into a routine of heading out two hours before work to the Hardee's down the street, getting some food, and spending the rest of the time reading in the dining room before going to BK. I kind of loved it cause my Hardee's has great windows for sunlight and really miss it now.

Mawfukka do you know where I live? Working less means less money. I pay $900 a month just for rent.

I get it.

God these forum awards stress me out so much. I can never bring myself to fill one out due to not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings/simply not being able to choose ONE person for most of the categories. Plus it just brings back memories of similar awards threads on a couple message boards I frequented in my mid teens which were always rife with chaos and treachery.

Same for me (minus the anxiety). I have an easier time focusing on non-fiction books, personally. And also physical books as opposed to the PDFs I hoard on my laptop.

I really liked this article I read a while back that talks about the poor attention spans of those of us raised by the internet: https://www.motherjones.com/media/20...-unbreak-them/

I for one desperately need to get better at just focusing on ONE SINGLE BOOK/pdf/super long article at a time as opposed to 10+ at once. When I try, my brain is like "?? ? Not!!! enough!!! stimulation!!!! need ALL information at ONCE!!" (plus, having racing thoughts nearly 24/7 makes quieter activities difficult unless it's something like bird watching)

Tabs are a blight on human concentration.

Truly. But I feel like I'll die if I close one of my 15+ plus tabs (and yes I have the OneTab extension but it doesn't help)

My first ten tabs feel like they should be carbon dated.

What about some "most likely to.." type categories? Such as "Most likely to have a femdom fetish" or "Most likely to be able to actually function normally & blend in at a party amongst normal people" and "Most likely to be a bad tipper"

Orr, alternately, categories like "Member you'd most like to duel to the death on a frozen lake" or "Member(s) you'd be able to tolerate being stuck on a very long road trip with" and so on.

That would be me :cool:

Excellent. Compile a list if you feel like it, anyway I'll add some of these categories (no idea how to do that conveniently but I'll manage)
I'm an accidental bad tipper because I'm too unaware of social etiquette to know how tipping really works. There are so many different systems and it just gets complicated and drives me into anxious despair

This is it. Our brains are changing to need more, faster, immediate stimulation to process and retain information. With a printed book, not only do our eyes have a harder time adjusting to the lighting and font size of the text, but if there's a word we don't know we can't just pop open a new tab to check the definition, or look up a historical or cultural event that the author has referenced to gain more context or understand the joke. But it would be ridiculous to drop your book and grab a dictionary or encyclopedia every time to figure it out, and as a result that time spent reading feels wasted and unproductive.

You can train yourself to keep the skill active, but it's totally a if-you-don't-use-it situation.

Book recommendation: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

Ezra Klein mentioned that one on his podcast today.

It’s his final episode btw

Ha. Good luck at the failing NYT, Klein.

He’s painfully neoliberal but he’s a sincere dude.

I think maybe he sold the rights to his brand or something with that podcast because it doesn’t quite make sense giving it up to write editorials

Seems you could do both