Marie Monday

1. What is your favourite piece of classical music?
One of Bach's violin concertos but I don't know which and I can't be bothered to look it up
2. At what age did you begin drinking?
15
3. Would you rather live under a benevolent dictator or an incompetent president?
Incompetent president (assuming you can call any dictator benevolent for the sake of argument). Even when said dictator would not commit cruelties and the people would prosper (which is probably practically impossible), that kind of authority is unethical and will probably lead to something much worse than an incompetent president, if only because of the issue of succession. The glorifying of the idea of benevolent dictators is revolting to me and a pet peeve because it seems to be fashionable among insecure edgy people. It's just fascism in sheep's clothing. Sorry for the rant
4. What material do you believe has had the most impact on humanity?
In the end probably wood? Since it was probably both the first form of fuel and material for tools
5. What’s your favourite plant or flower?
Oak trees.
6. What mystery would you like to see solved?
Any of the big physics mysteries. The incompatibility of quantum physics and general relativity, dark matter/energy etc.

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Trollheart

That was already solved.

and Mucha, no: no soulmate. I made it entirely clear you had two choices: the life you have now or one of complete luxury but total isolation and loneliness. Not even to talk or message another human being. Basically the last person left alive I guess.

1. What is your favourite piece of classical music?

I agree it's hard to choose one. Might be "Adagio for Strings" by Barber, but probably in the end another Beethoven fan, I'd be going for "Moonlight Sonata".

2. At what age did you begin drinking?

About I don't know 23, and pretty much gave it up a year or so later. Haven't had an alcoholic drink since probably 1990, if that. Don't need one.

3. Would you rather live under a benevolent dictator or an incompetent president?

FYI, I think benevolent dictators do/did exist, for instance Julius Caesar, being the first one, and probably all the Roman Emperors who followed. With a few exceptions, once you followed the law you were basically okay. The Roman Empire looked after its people.

Even at that though, no, I agree: incompetent president. For one thing, they'll probably be too incompetent to do anything really dangerous.


4. What material do you believe has had the most impact on humanity?

Plastic, specifically silicone, with the advent of the silicon chip.

5. What’s your favourite plant or flower?

I'm partial to roses but I really love sunflowers.

6. What mystery would you like to see solved?

Why doesn't anyone like me? Oh wait: that will never be solved. Okay then, my second choice is who was Jack the Ripper?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

1. What is your favourite piece of classical music?

Don't listen to enough to have an opinion but something by Schoenberg or Stravinsky maybe? More modern composers are more interesting than older ones to me at least.

2. At what age did you begin drinking?

17

3. Would you rather live under a benevolent dictator or an incompetent president?

I imagine "benevolent dictator" is probably a propaganda relic of some sort so I'll go with Biden. They can both swing though.

4. What material do you believe has had the most impact on humanity?

Wood sounds good. Fire and building materials have been pretty huge.

5. What’s your favourite plant or flower?

Roll dat **** light dat **** smoke dat ****.

6. What mystery would you like to see solved?

Dyatlov Pass is good.

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jwb

1. What is your favourite piece of classical music?
I only have a handful of classical songs i actually **** with.

I like piano concerto 2 by rachmaninov
Also 1812 overture and symphony 6 by tchaikovsky

2. At what age did you begin drinking?
First time i drank i was 11. Didn't start it regularly though till i was a late teen.

3. Would you rather live under a benevolent dictator or an incompetent president?
Obviously the benevolent dictator. Assuming you mean benevolent genuinely and not as a euphemism..

4. What material do you believe has had the most impact on humanity?
Oil

5. What’s your favourite plant or flower?
Don't really care?

6. What mystery would you like to see solved?
9/11 brother

Trollheart

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Marie Monday

At least you're not letting my rant stop you (probably the opposite knowing you)

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rubber soul

I'm not sure I necessarily agree that Caesar (and his successors) was all that benevolent given the history of the Roman Coliseum and all. When I think of "benevolent dictators" the first name to come to mind is Yugoslavia's Tito and, after talking to a Croatian friend whose parents lived under his rule, maybe he wasn't such a sweetie either.

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Trollheart

Yeah that's fair comment, but let's remember that those put into the Colosseum were basically enemies of the State (i.e., Christians) and certainly not Roman citizens. As I said, if you paid your taxes, worshipped the right gods and kept your long aquiline Roman nose clean, in essence the senate left you alone. Certainly there was infighting among the noble houses, but in terms of being oppressed by your own government as a normal, law-abiding citizen, I don't think it really happened.

I suppose you could maybe see Castro as one too, though of course he crushed his enemies, but then, gotta crush something, ya know?

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jadis

We are fed so many kitschy performances of it in soundtracks etc that it's easy to forget what a beautiful piece it really is. Luckily there are still the great masters (here Gilels from Carnegie Hall).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shfN-n1iW4c


Maybe you've seen me post about her before but my favorite barefoot violinist plays a lot of these two (including Pierrot Lunaire where she's the sexy narrator). Stupidly sexy (not even a foot fetishist but there is something about her...).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48WnNgrH57E


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn6K53W_Nu0

Marie Monday

um what you describe there is kind of fascist and very oppressive though. If you personally don't experience obvious consequences of oppression that doesn't mean you're not oppressed. The whole idea of a dictator is that they enforce their own authority and opposition is not allowed, which can't be enforced without violence towards dissidents, which is not benevolent.

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