What Happened to Rod McKuen? • Hacker News Board

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#21

Post by pcl » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 8:51 AM UTC

googlryas wrote: post #10

deckard1 wrote: post #8

> The Spotify algorithm, Amazon’s recommendations, they’ll never, ever show you Rod McKuen. Those are designed to direct you towards things that other people like right now. But thrift stores, used bookshops, and Goodwills are, accidentally, perfectly designed to show you things that people liked decades ago, then stopped liking. I've often thought of and lamented the former idea. That the serendipity of the algorith…

My partner hates it("clutter"), but this is part of the reason I'll buy a physical book after reading and liking an ebook. Also the reason I dispose of books I don't like in one manner or another. Usually dropping off at little free libraries, unless I think the book is dangerously bad, at which point I will shred it and turn it into compost.

What’s an example of a dangerously bad book?

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#22

Post by kwertyoowiyop » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

readthenotes1 wrote: post #3

mynameishere wrote: post #2

What happened to "Life's little instruction book"? What happened to "Don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff)"? Every so often some "nice" but vapid book or fad comes along and makes a lot of money from people in that literate but dull IQ range of 104-106 and while it's never fun to smilingly fend off recommendations from well-meaning friends ("You should read this! It's really inspiring!") it's all pre…

That song sucks.

We can be glad we never heard the B-side:

> Jacks released his version as a single in 1973 on his own label, Goldfish Records. "Put the Bone In", an original composition about burying a deceased pet dog, was included as the B-side.

— Wikipedia

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#23

Post by markoman » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 11:35 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #13

deckard1 wrote: post #8

> The Spotify algorithm, Amazon’s recommendations, they’ll never, ever show you Rod McKuen. Those are designed to direct you towards things that other people like right now. But thrift stores, used bookshops, and Goodwills are, accidentally, perfectly designed to show you things that people liked decades ago, then stopped liking. I've often thought of and lamented the former idea. That the serendipity of the algorith…

My mom (died in 2019 at 76) left behind 60GB of her digital music collection, along with hundreds of playlists drawn from it. I plan to do the same, but about 3-4x more stuff. And if my kids response to that is anything like mine to my mother's music, they will barely ever listen to any of it.

Our parents are those who introduce us to the joy of music, and eventually we are destined to criticize and question their choices as we form our own unique relationship with music through guitar and piano lessons, etc. My dad, now 8 years gone, was an ex-singer in the US Navy band from the early 1960s and in our house in the early 80s he'd often play Sinatra albums as well as other show tune type fare featuring a big band and heavy voice.

What I get now is how he used his albums to travel back in time to re-live glory days of when he was seeing the world and watching the effect his voice would have on people in different ports. Using your voice to make music is such a personal form of expression.

Understanding the music choices of your parents is one way of knowing who they were, often to some surprise after they are gone. I'm left with his albums now and they help me make that connection with the past and a renewed love for music back from the time when I was first learning it singing with him.

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#24

Post by cafard » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 12:48 PM UTC

nl wrote: post #20

mynameishere wrote: post #2

What happened to "Life's little instruction book"? What happened to "Don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff)"? Every so often some "nice" but vapid book or fad comes along and makes a lot of money from people in that literate but dull IQ range of 104-106 and while it's never fun to smilingly fend off recommendations from well-meaning friends ("You should read this! It's really inspiring!") it's all pre…

> Every so often some "nice" but vapid book or fad comes along and makes a lot of money from people in that literate but dull IQ range of 104-106 and while it's never fun to smilingly fend off recommendations from well-meaning friends ("You should read this! It's really inspiring!") it's all pretty harmless. While I'm not defending McKuen, if you are going to be a critic at least be an interesting critic. To quote th…

When I was first reading the NY Times Sunday Magazine, I would see articles interviewing e.g. Nick Nolte and leaving it to be understood that he was the greatest mind in the acting business since William Shakespeare. I thought them odd, and I took a while to understand that these pieces were timed to appear before the subject's next movie.

A bit later, I noticed that the same magazine would now and then pick out some other figure--the columnist Lewis Grizzard or the singer Robert Goulet--for a good beating that seemed out of proportion with the space they took up in the readership's psyches, perhaps out of proportion with their demerits. Do we need figures to think poorly of to reassure ourselves of the value of our positive judgments?

I imagine also that some of the critics who looked down on McKuen had good words for singers and writers equally forgotten now.

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#25

Post by googlryas » Sun, Oct 16, 2022, 5:26 AM UTC

pcl wrote: post #21

googlryas wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner hates it("clutter"), but this is part of the reason I'll buy a physical book after reading and liking an ebook. Also the reason I dispose of books I don't like in one manner or another. Usually dropping off at little free libraries, unless I think the book is dangerously bad, at which point I will shred it and turn it into compost.

What’s an example of a dangerously bad book?

My dad gave me "Mad Money" by Jim Cramer for some reason.

Re: What Happened to Rod McKuen?

#26

Post by kbelder » Tue, Oct 18, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

pcl wrote: post #21

googlryas wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner hates it("clutter"), but this is part of the reason I'll buy a physical book after reading and liking an ebook. Also the reason I dispose of books I don't like in one manner or another. Usually dropping off at little free libraries, unless I think the book is dangerously bad, at which point I will shred it and turn it into compost.

What’s an example of a dangerously bad book?

Brian Herbert