There have been studies that compared BMI data with other, more accurate means of measuring a person's fatness (skin fold caliper tests, etc.). The studies found that, although BMI misses a small handful of outliers, it's overall an incredibly accurate means of determining whether someone is overweight in an unhealthy manner.

Sure, Michael Jordan would be counted as obese, but most people aren't Michael Jordan. If you work out a lot and have serious muscle weight, you can disregard the BMI findings. You'll also find that most people aren't like you.

Mandroid2.0 wrote:I could have snapped a man's neck with my legs.

snap, may be not, permanently ben-d it, might be.

Question for Tim:

Think back to when Silkworm were stationed in the Northwest. Can you name five bands from that region/time that you think were criminally (or otherwise) underappreciated?

On the subject of BMI:

http://flickr.com/photos/77367764@N00/s ... 199008819/

I'm now 135 but spend a lot of time sitting on the sofa reading the PRF and various other sites of internet vice. My muscle tone is non-existent and my exercise consists of walking a mile to the store and back for more food every so often. My body looks drastically different than when I was ice skating in high school, but the BMI chart says I'm pretty much just as healthy.

Yeah, if you work out at all, you're doing something different than most people do.

The other thing to keep in mind re BMI: "healthy" is usually associated with longevity, and caloric restriction is one way to prolong one's life. BMI is slanted towards longevity as an ideal.

Some people have other desires to fulfill, and sometimes those desires are at odds with not weighing more than the chart says they should.

Anyway, seriously, what my doctor said was that if a person has a muscular build, the chart doesn't mean much. He said getting up into 28/29 wouldn't be a good thing for me, but I already knew that two bills was about the limit for being totally comfortable. Two bills is at about 27 for me.

Wood Goblin wrote:Question for Tim:

Think back to when Silkworm were stationed in the Northwest. Can you name five bands from that region/time that you think were criminally (or otherwise) underappreciated?

Yes...only just:

Jessamine--All records are very good. Great bass player. Just a really good, inventive, conceptually rigorous band. Great people. Along w/Engine Kid, the only band with whom we had a full-on musical rapport.

Engine Kid--Often kind of incredible live. Records are good, but the guy at c/z refused to do any mastering on Bear Catching Fish, so it has that working against it. Angel Wings is very good. Beautiful guys and close friends.

Treepeople--Guilt Regret Embarrassment and Something Vicious for Tomorrow are very good records. Bonkers guitar playing.

We felt an immediate musical connection to these guys, and they influenced us in that regard. We didn't hit it off in a huge way personally, though we were friendly enough to each other.

Anything after Something Vicious is not really Treepeople and is best avoided.

Black Cat Orchestra--Records are very good. Mysteries Explained is the best one I have heard. Varied musically, but overall vibe is that of a Weimar Republic cabaret group, with overtones of the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

Music this eclectic is often served with a gross portion of smarm, but this group was always totally, completely, 100% reserved and straight up about what they were doing. Always rewarding. Nice blend of virtuosos and amateurs as well.

Walkabouts--Records are often kind of disappointing, though Cataract and Rag and Bone are good. The band has this very slightly raw edge that helps make them good, and it gets sanded off on a lot of the recordings. They're somewhere between Eleventh Dream Day and Fairport Convention musically.

I imagine Carla Torgerson is still an attractive woman. Apropos of nothing. Nice people. Chris Eckman always had kind things to say about Silkworm. We covered Hangman on the Even a Blind Chicken comp.

That is about it! And there were 1,000,000 bands in 90s Seattle!

Thanks, Tim!

I don't know much about Jessamine or Black Cat Orchestra, but I loved most of the other bands. (The Walkabouts never did much for me, but I should give them another chance. Being that they had a reputation for being the "nongrunge" band on Sub Pop, I think I wrote them off as a bit of a novelty.)

Engine Kid were great live, and I loved that first record. I met Greg Anderson once or twice, and he struck me as a lovely fellow. Glad to see that he's achieved quite a bit of success doing what he loves.

Agreed that post-Dough Martsch Treepeople isn't very good at all.

tmidgett wrote:

I don't know you but I love you and I'm willing to sell you my 99 S10 for a couple vegan sandwhiches.

One thing I don't need is a pickup truck. If you have something motorized with two wheels that is reliable, I may consider it.


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tmidgett wrote:but the guy at c/z refused to do any mastering on Bear Catching Fish

Always wondered about that record.

Not their best performances of those songs, imho but I still dig it. The others are fucking great.

Why the "no mastering" edict on BCF?

That was the one where the liner notes mentioned, "We drove [xx] miles to record in some guys basement? Go figure." Or something.

Mandroid2.0 wrote:

Dr. Venkman wrote:

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:

tmidgett wrote:I spent a couple of years up at two bills, just recently. Then I nudged it up about 15lbs over that.

Tim, should we believe the CDC BMI calculator when it states that we are overweight at what I estimate to be our roughly equivalent heighths and weighths?

My wife saw this bullshit BMI thing hanging on the wall of the doctor's office the other day. How can it be gender-neutral? Complete bullshit. Hey, medical community! You're not seriously telling us that a 6'0" tall dude who weighs 190lbs. is grossly overweight, are you? The moment I stepped on the scale the other day, for the first time in months, my wife came up the stairs, looked at the scale and said "That's not right!" Thanks, honey.

Actually, I think that 190 at 6'0" tall is on the low end of the overweight spectrum and not obese.

Those things are bullshit anyhow, as they don't take into account your bone frame or how much muscle mass you have compared to your fat mass. I weigh the same now as I did when I was in significantly better shape and with much more muscle, which of course weighs more than fat does.

I am 5'8" and just today I weighed in at 215.

This surprised me as I don't think I look like I weigh 215. I have a pony keg belly, but aside from that I don't think I look fat. But it would explain why I feel heavier and get winded going up stairs.

Some of you saw me just a week ago, would you have guessed my weight accurately? If you say yes, you will not hurt my feeling.

tmidgett wrote:It's like the old days, when I had to special-order LPs and wait three weeks for them to get hauled into Montana on some covered wagon mostly full of cookware. But with computers.

tmidgett wrote:My doctor said that chart is for pussies and chicks only.

Don't go all ice-tea and salad over it.

Tim, I had the shittiest day I have had in some time, and upon reading this I did the stoopid movie cliche of laughing so hard I started to cry.

Salut, Tim, for making it OK for me to cry like a woman.