Desert Island VIII Results Thread

[iron yuppie]

I wonder if the next DI could perhaps restrict the lists to under two hours. I feel that two-and-a-half hours' worth of music is a lot to digest, and, if you take a break in the middle, you lose a sense of the flow. Did anyone else feel that way?

 

[Reggo]

I like the idea, iYup. When the lists are broken into sections and they're supposed to sort of be separate from each other, then taking a breather doesn't really detract from it. But when it's one solid block of music and you have to take a breather for one reason or another, it's harder to get back into the mood and the flow. Shorter lists would be better, or even if the maximum was kept, but the minimum time limit was made 90 minutes. I felt with mine that I had to stretch it out to meet the max and then I lost the plot somewhere past Tool. Just my opinion.

 

[the tourist]

I feel like we have this conversation every time, but every time it is shot down.

 

[PhilsFan]

To be fair, we had 10 weeks this time. 10 weeks to listen to 15 lists. That's less than 4 hours of listening time per week. Not a hard feat to accomplish, in my opinion.

agreed, it's just all a matter of making time for it. i hope i don't start an argument or anything and i'm not picking on peefaroni but that's one of the reasons i pulled out of di. the whole point of di (imo) is to introduce people to new music, plus i like the listening diaries and getting people's feedback. if people don't listen and post about it then i have no idea what anyone thought of it which for me anyway defeats the purpose for me.

but like i said, i'm not picking at anyone or anything, just wanted to get it off my chest since it was (sorta) brought up.

Each time out I say, "This really shouldn't be too hard to listen to everything." And then things come up and DI obviously is not a priority when I have things to do, so it always seems to fall behind. I don't think it's fair for me to compete if I'm not going to listen to everything, and I can't guarantee I will be able to.

 

[the tourist]

That's really unfortunate, because your lists are some of the best.

 

[LemonMelon]

I feel like we have this conversation every time, but every time it is shot down.

I'm one of the people that always pushes against it. The idea of having to throw out the four lists I've finished is enough to make me not want to participate, tbh.

Plus, two hours is a really arbitrary limit that doesn't work out well in a disc format. Some of us like to make longer lists, some don't. There's no one preventing us from making shorter lists, and it's sometimes very difficult to make a good one of that length anyway; I always feel like I'm rushing through the process in mini DI, as one disc limits obscurities and details in favor of a big-picture quality that I personally don't find all that rewarding (this is why I like major restrictions in mini DIs; it's possible to represent a genre in one disc). I can't tell a story or paint a picture in that time frame, the way Reggo did with her list.

 

[bono_212]

I'm starting to turn towards the shorter list side. I think it would bring participation back up.

 

[iron yuppie]

I'm going to have to disagree respectively with you here, LM. I feel as though a well-conceptualized list should be able to tell its story in a relatively short period of time - hence the many, many great albums that comprise only one LP in length.

 

[LemonMelon]

And that's what I believe mini DIs are for. Otherwise, I suggest we change the name of those to "special" DIs or "specialized" DIs, or perhaps not have them at all. Traditional DIs being 40 minutes longer and lacking a genre limitation doesn't differentiate them all that much from the minis. Adding an entire disc (up to 20 songs) is much more significant.

So yeah, I'd like to keep the maximum and make the minimum 90, as Reggo suggested. I feel like there's a bias against shorter lists, and if we post a minimum, it will make those shorter lists look more legit, and we will receive more of them as a result. As it stands, they just appear unfinished because, hell, why wouldn't you take advantage of the full 160? But that's not how everyone operates. Similarly, I don't feel 160 is an extraordinarily high ceiling, and if others don't feel like listening to the list, it will just receive a poorer ranking as a result. Capitalism and all that.

 

[Reggo]

Yeah, that was sort of a fluke, Don't expect that from me in the future,

 

[Screwtape2]

I like the idea of a genre mini-DI as long as multiple people were allowed to use the same genre. Personally, I would love to do an all jazz playlist.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

I am for short lists because I feel like when I listened to other people's list it's easier to come up with ranking system because I can keep track of everyone's lists more and the lists don't get jumbled up in my mind. Because when there are so many mins pre each playlists I loose track of the vibe from each playlists. I listen to one playlist and I enjoy it for an hour but I feel like I have to muddle through the rest of it because I love music but it becomes too much to listen to. And it feels like if you break the playlist up to two days it becomes less concise and it loses the flow of it. Just my thoughts.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

I'm thinking we'll have a mini of some sort, perhaps this summer, before we get to DI9.

Cool beans.

 

[Axver]

I like the idea of a genre mini-DI as long as multiple people were allowed to use the same genre. Personally, I would love to do an all jazz playlist.

Yeah, if it were done, I think it'd be silly to say that there can only be one playlist for each genre ... especially since different people will have wildly differing takes on the same genre. I still don't think it's THAT similar to regular DI, especially if genre selections need to be narrow, picking subgenres or local scenes rather than pretty vague umbrella genres. I don't know about anybody else, but I'd dig 80 minute introductions to genres I don't know much about, and nobody's exactly done DI lists that are wholly shoegaze, or jangle pop, or chillwave, or any sort of jazz genre, or whatever.

But it's just a suggestion and I'm not particularly concerned if it's taken up or discarded. I honestly wouldn't be opposed to a Mini DI that is exactly like regular DI, just with short lists. We could perhaps do an open DI like that to see how high participation is, and to basically test it against regular DI - see once and for all what we prefer, rather than having this back-and-forth "oh it should be shorter" "no it's good the way it is" sort of discussion at the end of every tournament. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, at least in future when this crops up, we can point back and say "we tried to do an open DI with short lists and it just didn't go that well".

 

[Reggo]

very diplomatic, Ax. I like it.

 

[the tourist]

I'm one of the people that always pushes against it. The idea of having to throw out the four lists I've finished is enough to make me not want to participate, tbh.

Plus, two hours is a really arbitrary limit that doesn't work out well in a disc format. Some of us like to make longer lists, some don't. There's no one preventing us from making shorter lists, and it's sometimes very difficult to make a good one of that length anyway; I always feel like I'm rushing through the process in mini DI, as one disc limits obscurities and details in favor of a big-picture quality that I personally don't find all that rewarding (this is why I like major restrictions in mini DIs; it's possible to represent a genre in one disc). I can't tell a story or paint a picture in that time frame, the way Reggo did with her list.

I agree with pretty much everything here. I know in this list, I would have had to do some major, major gouging to get the circular flow and represent each genre I wanted to represent. A lot of the more obscure would have been lost in the shuffle to more well-known stuff that wouldn't have introduced people to anything new.

 

[the tourist]

I'm starting to turn towards the shorter list side. I think it would bring participation back up.

And participation being brought back up would mean more lists to listen to. You'd be listening to roughly the same amount of music with 19 120 minute lists vs 15 150 minute lists, right?

 

[IWasBored]

Some Kind of Hate was a joke, right?

no

 

[Reggo]

Friggin' Cobbler.

 

[IWasBored]

What the fuck.

yeah, that's a headscratcher for sure.


now i'm kicking myself for going all mia on this place when i did. i'm going to officially blame real life business. vacation plans stressed me out, and now i'm pretty sure i came home with some kind of a stress fracture in my left foot. but vacation was awesome. and i'm still technically on vacation, although i actually went somewhere for the first time i've taken a vacation in like...oh, i don't know, 5 or 6 years. usually i just stay home. but anyway...

finally made it through this thread. congrats, screw!


so, when we playing again?

seriously, this game was more fun than i thought. i suspected i'd enjoy certain things i wouldn't like on their own due to context, and was right. always had reservations about playing in the past because i've never been a fan of any kind of voting people off island games (maybe in part because i am a competitive bastard with some kind of a monster of an ego at times and don't usually play games i know i'll never win. definitely in part because trying to compare the giant pile of awesome apples and oranges presented here made my brain explode. why'd ya'll have to go and make good playlists? think i said it somewhere else that i ended up liking stuff i didn't even like. or however i phrased it. everyone had some part of their playlist that was freaking brilliant, so....ya...). but it was cool.

 

[IWasBored]

Friggin' Cobbler.

now i want him to listen to ramallah's "kill a celebrity." it's not a yes or no, is this a joke. because no, it's not a joke, but it's not literally advocating going out and shooting everybody. i think i vaguely remember SKOH was supposed to be written from the point of view of not necessarily one of the kids from columbine, but someone who would find themselves doing that...go shoot up their high school, crazed postal worker, or someone. i guess it worked better when eddie vedder did it in the 3rd person.

 

[Reggo]

The next formal DI isn't for a year, but there's rumblings of a mini-DI in the interim, or bumping up the official one.

 

[bono_212]

I don't think there's ever been a year between DIs...are we really thinking of waiting that long?

 

[Reggo]

now i want him to listen to ramallah's "kill a celebrity." it's not a yes or no, is this a joke. because no, it's not a joke, but it's not literally advocating going out and shooting everybody. i think i vaguely remember SKOH was supposed to be written from the point of view of not necessarily one of the kids from columbine, but someone who would find themselves doing that...go shoot up their high school, crazed postal worker, or someone.

I loved that song. I took it as the dude was singing it to get the idea out of his head instead of acting on it.

 

[Reggo]

I don't think there's ever been a year between DIs...are we really thinking of waiting that long?

That's the word I got from Axver.

 

[IWasBored]

I loved that song. I took it as the dude was singing it to get the idea out of his head instead of acting on it.

pretty much. pretty sure that's also a part of it.

one of my favorite blood for blood songs. blood for blood is one of my favorite bands. hell, i'm extremely fond of any album rob lind has ever been involved in (and something from all three made it onto my playlist...bfb, ramallah, sinners & saints. the one sinners & saints album that those guys ever released being my all-time favorite album).

this is the part where i say something again about 1) how psyched i was you loved it and 2) i knew it wouldn't exactly be the type of song everyone here would be into. yadda yadda, said it before, you know the rest.







i'd love to detonate a car bomb
at the doors of your precious mtv
and put some saron gas in the central a.c.
at the vmas and watch those beautiful faces turn ashen gray...


sure, it's easy enough to take at face value as something designed to offend/shock. or hate for the sake of hatred. i listen to the rest of the song and do think yeah, there's something fucked up about a pop culture that worships popstars and fame. no, i'm not actually going to go kill anyone. take the "hey kid if you're under 18 you can blame it on me" part as advocating such? no, i think it's sarcasm. hey, blame the guy who wrote a song about it, that's what everyone does...they blame the video games, movies, marilyn manson, etc. every time some kid does something fucked up. all that violence made them crazy! yeah, i get the delivery isn't exactly the most appealing to people who don't enjoy that style of music, though.

 

[Axver]

That's the word I got from Axver.

No, you said it would be a year to me.

 

[cobl04]

I'm absolutely down for jazz. I couldn't participate but I would love to hear the lists.

 

[LemonMelon]

Might as well include a few of those on Genre Island, I reckon. I ain't never goin' ta Jazz Island anyhow. You know my kind.

 

[phanan]

Genre Island is an interesting concept, although as was said, when it came time to do rankings, I don't know how well it would work. If someone makes a jazz playlist and a listener just doesn't like that genre, it won't do well on their rankings.

Unless we put restrictions on the type of voting this time, like if each person had to vote for songs, presentation, etc.

Just thinking as I'm typing here. You could have each person vote for a playlist based on the following:

33.3% - Songs
33.3% - Sequencing, transitions, flow, etc.
33.3% - Representation of genre (or something along those lines)

People could rate each part on a scale of 1-10, and the average of all three would be the final score. Then you submit your rankings based on who has the best average score, from 1st to last.



Could work possibly.