Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994), formerly known by the stage name Frankie Cosmos, is an American musician and singer-songwriter. She is known for her independent releases, inspired by Frank O'Hara's poetry, DIY ethics of K Records and the early 2000s New York City's anti-folk scene. She is the daughter of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates.

I am now a Maoist.

Geiginni wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:25 pm

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:52 pm

Geiginni wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:34 pm The self-contained singer/songwriter/performer doing first-person perspective songs about their interactions with and feelings about the world is the pinnacle of narcissism.

This perspective would put a tremendous amount of literature in the bin.

I suppose one must assume a certain degree of narcissism to sing or write words in hopes that others will consume them.

This impulse came about after seeing another child-of-celebrity-starting-their-colorfully-fashioned-hipster-music-career blurb, and couldn't help thinking "Who seriously could give two fucks at this point?." Is there anything of value any upper-east-side manhattanite-now-living-in-Greenpoint 20-something year old strumming a Danelectro can add to the canon of the art? Isn't this just the juice of another squeezed out orange added to the bulk juice container ship on its way to another commodities market?

I suppose the narrator is the main character and you need one you can root for. That's harder to do when their surname conjures all of their privilege. I wonder if people saw Marry Shelley's name on Frankenstein at Ye Olde Book Shoppe and whispered "nepo baby married a poet huh?", scoffed and left it sitting there. I might have.

I remember once reading an interview with the singer for The Wallflowers, in which he insisted that he didn’t want to live in his dad’s shadow.

You know, the singer who, for some reason, didn’t go by the name of Jakob Zimmerman.

Am not familiar with that singer-songwriter, but it's interesting y'all brought her up, as her brother, Owen Kline, made one of the better newer films I saw last year: Funny Pages. I didn't have any idea who he was going into it, and still don't know much about him, but the film delivered. Am not often down with whatever A24 puts out (some of their stuff is truly dreadful!), and I don't often like American independent cinema, but the film was colorful and freakish and humorous and lacked propriety in just the right ways. Plus, it wasn't overlong.

I think the key problem I have with the "nepo baby" discourse, or really any view of an artist in which some kind of privilege might render their work suspect, is that these metrics, in and of themselves, don't really account for whether the creator can bring the proverbial it. Much like the Bechdel test or woke film criticism, they could be useful in some contexts but don't necessarily tell us--or at least me--how good or bad the art in question is, what kind of personal slant the artist brings to the table, whether the thing they've made is fresh or stale, the overall tone and intricacies of the thing, etc.

I don't like the idea that everyone has to be "one of the boys" in order to earn my favor. That is, belong to a given class, or gender, or race, or education level, or generation, or geographical region, or anything. First and foremost, things will usually either sink or swim on their own merits.

^ Well said. When I think about Jeff Buckley or Justin Townes Earle neither of them recorded music that is better or worse for its association with their fathers. Possibly because they were both estranged, but maybe it doesn't matter. Do the names Janet Jackson or Sophia Coppola first conjure familial associations or just how you feel about their creations.

There was like one week where all I knew was that Billy Ray Cyrus guy had a kid who sang. Now whatever the Miley Cyrus phenomenon is it's totally eclipsed her one hit wonder if a father.

Sorry, I don't know if any cows I brought here are sacred and I haven't tipped shit. Carry on!

For every success story, there are like a dozen cursed nepo-baby trainwrecks, like Tom Hank's son. But for every one of those there are a dozen more that never even get into the papers and all you hear is that they OD'd. Like the David Crosby/Melissa Etheridge kid.

I mean if all of your friends had seen Judge Reinhold masturbating to your mom's boobs you might also have a few songs to sing.

Is The Last of Us a sacred cow cause it's really really dumb more often than not.

handsbloodyhands wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:03 pm Is The Last of Us a sacred cow cause it's really really dumb more often than not.

I'd go as far as saying that episode with Ron Swanson that everyone creamed over was pretty 'meh'.

handsbloodyhands wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:03 pm Is The Last of Us a sacred cow cause it's really really dumb more often than not.

I mean, it's fine. It's a show.

The way they present the sort of desperation and tribalism that would be inherent in an apocalyptic world is better written than I anticipated, so maybe that's part of it. Not sure what I anticipated though. I didn't even know it was based on existing IP when we started watching it, but now that I know it's based on a game, the story presentation seems a little more obvious though.

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:10 pm
I'd go as far as saying that episode with Ron Swanson that everyone creamed over was pretty 'meh'.

I call that one "Gated Community". An hour plus Libertarian fantasy. Even a gunshot to the belly can't stop the power of individualism.
This show spends more than enough time talking about "freedom".