Why Do People Hate Nickelback?

Some what of a cultural phenomenon has been taking place lately. It seems more and more people have been jumping on board the Hate On Nickelback train.

Its made me think about why that is and maybe it says something about the times we live in live. I don't consider myself a fan of Nickelback nor do I feel the need to hate on them. I'm fairly indifferent to their success, impact and criticisms. As a huge fan of rock music all my life, I still like to be in the know when it comes to bands, even though I may not be a fan. In this case, though, the huge success and large amounts of attention on this band is hard to ignore in this era of explosive use of social media.

The first reason is that throughout history, its been human nature to feel threatened and jealous of anyone who achieves massive success, especially when its done in a short amount of time with seemingly little effort. The truth is that, nothing comes easy or quick in my opinion. The boys in Nickelback weren't exactly an over night success even though it may appear so to the general public. For this reason, its natural for people to get upset at anyone that achieves perceived undeserved success and the fame and fortune that comes with it. People don't like seeing other people get cookies handed to them, it just goes against our ape instincts.

The second reason I came up with, and this is the reason I'm not a fan, is the MUSIC ITSELF! I understand the appeal, its rock, its loud, its 'clever" lyrically to a lot of people. The problem however, is that many people can't stand the polished, over produced, generic radio friendly sound that Nickelback has been clinging to for the last decade. The songs have been Pro-Tooled to death!, the vocal pitching is ridiculous, the most annoying part about the vocal sound though is that it is clearly stuck in the late 90's post grunge Creed era. A common phrase I hear people use to describe Nickelbacks music is "You can not polish a turd". I will have to admit though, Chad has been able to write some decent "Pop" songs in the past. I can't say the songs are horrible, to me they are just boring, generic and over-played. I usually change the channel or the station when I hear Nickelback now. Its like a fast food diet but with music, it might taste ok at the time, but after a while it starts to make you feel sluggish, dumb and depleted of vitamins and nutrients. Nickelback is clearly style over substance in my opinion and when the style itself is so unappealing to so many people, its obvious why there is a big backlash.

The third reason, and this is kinda connected to the reason #2 but I think many people have a problem with the way Nickelback comes across and what they might represent. I actually don't know what their values are, if they are family men, if they do good for communities, charities, benefit shows, etc. I should look that stuff up but for me now, and for most people, Nickelback doesn't come across in a positive way.
There is something that comes off as insincere and pompous, its hard to really put a finger on but most people can't relate to them anymore. Its like its just become a hit machine that pumps out overly produced low substance material over and over. They seem to lack that emotion and that connection with the audience. When you hear Chad singing lines like "I got a fist-full of $50's" or "Hey, I wanna be a Rock Star" its kinda hard for the average person to relate or appreciate that. That deep heart and soul that you get with a lot of other music is just absent from Nickelback, there just seems to be a disconnect and incongruence to the whole thing and trust me Nickelback is by far not the only band where this is the case.

Love or hate em, there is no denying that Nickelback have found a formula that works. Their record company has done of good job of packaging and producing the Nickelback brand. They have been able to some how hook the attention of a massive amount of people and sold 50 million albums in the process. I'm not really sure what the ultimate secret of their success is, but I feel I have a general idea of why they are hated on.

I might add more to this later. Feel free to leave comments if you agree or disagree

Denny

Hockey Riots Could Have Been Worse

Congrats to the Boston Bruins on their Stanley Cup Victory!

I was somewhat torn between who I wanted to win the series. On one hand, it would have been nice for a Canadian team to win the cup after a long drought. One the other hand, I just don't like a lot of the Canucks roster, nor am I fan of there particular brand of sneaky and dirty hockey. Of course I can't hate on the whole team but a few select players I just don't have sympathy for. I also bleed Edmonton Oiler blue and Vancouver being one of our main rivals also makes it difficult to get too excited about a Canucks Stanley Cup victory.

It was a great series though, two really good teams, could have went either way although The Bruins out-scored The Canucks by a large margin 20-5 through 7 games I believe but the slightly better team came out on top.

I do feel bad for a lot of Vancouver fans though that have waited so long for their team to win and The Cup to come to their city. The thing is, Canucks have historically been chokers. 1982, 1994 and now the 2011 Cup finals. Also they seemed to drop the ball on countless playoff runs in the past where they were expected to go far. They have always had a solid team but they just can't win the big one!

Vancouver is a great hockey city and they have lots of good fans but there are a segment of their fans that need to be bitch slapped multiple times. That brings us to the events after the big game as people poured out onto the streets of downtown Van.

I can't say I was surprised that there was violence and chaos after such an event. A big rowdy city with rowdy hockey fans, its expected. The media sometimes makes it looks worse that it probably was. With all the people that were in those hot spots, its really only a small percentage that turned out to be participants in the riot. They don't show you all the people that are leaving and heading home peacefully, they show the cars on fire and the idiots rampaging all over the place. MOST of the people in Van wouldn't approve of such behavior.

It could have been worse.

This is just my opinion but I think if The Canucks DID win The Cup, there would a shit load more people out on the streets. I'm thinking a large percentage of fans headed home sad and depressed after the loss, now if they joined a victory party, the population of party goers would be significantly larger. People would have kept drinking after the game=more drunks out on the street. The larger crowds would then be more difficult for police to control allowing the bad apples more free reign.

The police did a good job from what I hear. The city handled it and was prepared for it. If they weren't prepared or vigilant, that could have also made this riot worse.

Rioters are just dumb people who are under the influence usually, angry drunks, irrational, disrespectful and violent by nature. No regard for peoples safety, no respect for public and private property. Its a shame but whats done is done. Hopefully some more lessons learned.

Denny

The Boyfriend Objection

Well I think its official. I know what the number one rejection line is in today's world of men pursuing women. Guy asks girl out and she replies with the dreaded and commonly used "Sorry, I have a boyfriend"

Damn I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a girl say that. I not only had those words directed towards me but have also witnessed this happening to others on a regular basis.

I think this speaks to the fact that girls and people in general are polite and friendly. This is obviously a girls polite and sensitive way to say "No Thanks". When a girl says this to you, it usually means one of two things. A.) She really DOES have a boyfriend and isn't interested in you or B.) She DOES NOT have a boyfriend and still isn't interested in you.

Now in some cases, its what we call a "test" girls will sometimes say use this line even when interested in the guy. Partly because they are used to saying it, its kind of an autopilot response but its more so a test to see if the guy will run away with his tail between his legs. Girls want to see how you handle a rejection, are you confident? charming?, stable?, etc. Its just unconscious screening on their part. So sometimes it pays to stick in there and be playfully persistent

I will now share with you some things you can say in response to the "I have a boyfriend" line. This of course is meant to to help you display some charm and leave the interaction is a more noble way, it will eliminate any awkwardness as well as provide a pleasant surprise for the girl.

OK, so girls says "Sorry, I have a boyfriend" You can say the following...

"Yeah, so what? maybe you need another one?"

"I'm not interested in him, I'm interested in you"

"Why are you telling me about your problems"

"I'm not looking for a 3some, but thanks for the offer"

"Good, he can he cook for us this week?"

Those are just a few examples. I can't take credit for all of them since these I learned from various sources. They however are no substitute for having the right attitude, skills and confidence around women.

If you're a single guy looking for girls and you're NOT hearing this line thrown at you on a weekly basis, it means you are not trying ANYTHING or maybe not even leaving the house to try and meet girls.

Have a good summer people!

Denny

KIngs Of Huh? LEON?

Back after a bit of a Blog hiatus. Hope 2011 is going well for you so far.

Today I'm here to basically shit on a very popular American rock band. I think they call themselves the Kings Of Leon, whatever that means, and yes, I'm too lazy to Google the meaning.

So I guess this band has been ripping up the modern rock charts for the past 2-3 years. Most of music masses think this band is new and only has the one album but they have been around since 1999 and although I haven't crawled deep into their musical history or listened to large quantity of their musical library, I think their older stuff is a lot more genuine and creative than the new mainstream sound they seem to be going for.

I'm writing this because I just can't wrap my head around why this band is so popular and praised by music critics. It seems the masses have become sheep when it comes to music. Its like whatever comes on the radio and is heavily marketed, that's what ends up being consumed to great degree. I always thought "WTF" when I first heard these guys on the radio. I didn't hear anything particularly melodic or innovative when it came to KOL. Now I realize everyone has their own tastes, and I like the fact the world is like this. If everyone liked the same thing, what a boring ass world this would be. I been trying to describe the current sound of KOL. What I came up with was a bizarre fusion between U2, Nickelback and Cold Play. Also, the singer sounds really Emo to me, sounds like he is about to cry on a lot of the songs and his lyrics are incoherent the majority of the time.

KOL are a prime example of Rock n Roll gone "soft". I guess when a record company decides to market a certain act to the masses, they know what they are doing as far as creating an image and sound that will appeal to large audience, they can hook the right people and reel them in but unfortunately for them, their fish hook missed this Rock n Roll fan by a country mile.

Check out KOL if ya like though..

The Kings Of Leon Music

Denny

Racial Humor

I always been a big fan of stand-up comedy and am glad one of my favorite comics Dave Chappelle is doing stand-up again. Theres hundreds of funny bits from Dave's show on youtube but I wanted to share this particular one because I think racial stereotypes can be funny as long as its done in a light hearted way. We shouldn't take ourselves so seriously and get too attached or uptight about our race or color.

Enjoy!

Quirks

I thought id share with you some of my personality quirks. I find human behavior very fascinating, I like to notice subtle things about their mannerisms and patterns in behavior. By quirks, I mean the peculiarity of certain behaviors. I find this interesting because I like unique, eccentric people, people that are just a bit "off" but not totally off socially or too weird, there is a distinction there. There are other people however that are too proper, too rigid, too worried about how they are being perceived so they try and act "safe" all the time. I find this to be kind of boring but of course, no offense or harsh judgment because there is no correlation to their inner character or value as a human being.

I think most people have their quirks but some definitely more than others. I'm not even sure I can list all of mine since many of them I may not even be conscious of. I am however conscious of the following...

1.) Glass half full. When I'm home alone, I tend to pour my beverages into a glass but I never fill it up all the way. I almost always just pour it partially. So then when I visit someone and they pour me a full glass of soda or juice, it takes a few seconds for my brain to adjust to the new stimuli. I have no idea why I do this but my theory is that I started this in order to preserve the carbonation of the soda as a full glass would take longer to consume, thus resulting in more loss of carbonation.

2.) Stating the obvious. I usually am not conscious of when I do this until after the fact. I always say shit like "wow, its a scorcher outside today huh?" when its 30 degrees celsius outside, Captain obvious! I'm not even sure this would be considered a quirk, its more like a need to establish social comfort but when you do this as consistently as me, it can viewed as a quirk.

3.) Toilet geometry. This one blows my mind. There's no logic in this one but let me try and explain. When I stand in front of my toilet, or any toilet for that matter and I have to go pee, I always stand off to a slight angle when I do my business. Its not an extreme angle, but as close to 45 degrees and you can possibly get. I can never stand in front of it and face it head on, parallel or square. Its not really a fear or anything, just another one of those unconscious, nonsense behaviors. When it comes to public bathroom urnals though, I face it head on, I go normally, no angle in that situation as it would be completely socially retarded to invade someones personal space standing beside you taking a piss.

4.) No condiments. This one started at a very young age. I basically can't stand any condiments of my food. Ketchup, Mustard, Mayo, etc...NO THANKS! I always order my burgers and hot dogs plain! Cheese, meat, bread, thats it! anything else on that? nope! I just find it contaminates this kind of food. I even eat French Fries without ketchup most of the time although, its not too bad if I'm just dipping fries in it. Most people think this is really peculiar even though most fast food places understand what a person means when they say "Plain" so its not that uncommon but I'm in the minority regardless.

5.) A "touch" too much. What can I say, I like tactile response. Don't take me to an antique store, I will place my grubby paws on everything! I like to touch things, even if its not something I may be interested in, I still wanna touch it. A lot of times its an unconscious response. I have to be very careful in strip clubs!

Well that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure people that know me can probably add to the list. My list is by no means extreme or drastically out of the norm. I think a lot of quirks can be tied into O.C.D and other personality disorders. I don't feel like I have any of those, at least I hope not.

Denny

Swing town: A look at an "alternate" lifestyle.

Hey bitches! I'm back and ready to post more juicy Blog entries. Its been a while but as Kurt Cobain once said....All Apologies.

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about open relationships and my experiences working in a real life Swingers Club!

I recently started working part time as a bartender at a Swingers Club. This particular club is owned and operated by certain members of my family, weird? Some may claim it's odd, awkward, weird etc but I don't see it that way. To me its just not a big deal at all, if anything its just a moderately unique situation.

I'm sure everyone has preconceived notions about what a Swinger Club is. Some may assume is a place where sex crazed, emotionally neglecting people congregate and have orgies right in the open. Well if you assumed that this was the way it is, you would be 100% Correct!!. I kid of course, it's not like that. From my experience, at this particular club, I see normal everyday people, many shapes and sizes and ages although it seems to be a predominantly older crowed. I'd say 35-60 would be a good age range to describe the bulk of the crowed of regulars. The Club has a very laid back, lounge feel to it where people are being social, having drinks, etc. There is a dance floor, a D.J and a fully licensed bar. So in many ways it's like going to a "regular" bar or club except that this place caters to the Swinger lifestyle. What you don't see on the main level is what they call "Play" Rooms. These rooms are located upstairs and its where the sexual activities happen. I don't feel like going into detail about these rooms, but lets say they have their bases covered, For example they have a T.V room where people can watch all their favorite Academy award winning films to get themselves in the mood and YES, there is a fetish/kink room for those that like the taste of leather or the warm sensation of a paddle to flesh smack!. There is one particular room that even threw me for a loop when I seen it. They call this room Goliath? WTF??. I guess they call it that because of the INSANELY large bed that is contained within it. I swear this bed must be 4 king sized mattress's put together. If you're at all shy or have something against nudity in public...I'd stay away from this room as there is NO door either.

Most of the people I've met so far at this club have been really friendly and easy going. The management does a good job of screening potential club members. There is a zero tolerance for non-sense and douche-baggery. Everyone gets a long and the experience is usually enjoyable for most that attend. Couples meet other couples, single people are welcome there on certain nights as well so all you see is a bunch of people interacting and if the chemistry is there, people will then "Play" with each other! I like how they use that word "Play" as the substitute for Sex, I guess calling them "Fuck rooms" would be a little crass and off putting. With all that said, I've had fun hanging out in this club, its been an interesting experience and at the same time, I get some work experience as a bartender.

As for the concept of Swinging, or open relationships, I don't have a strong opinion either way. I like to think of myself as fairly liberal in my views and don't judge what consenting adults do. I'm against deception, abuse and manipulation and so far I haven't seen any of that take place at this club.

So what makes people become involved int this lifestyle? Is it just an overwhelming need for sexual variety whilst keeping the stability or a traditional marriage? Is it just boredom after years of marriage in order to add spice? Are there some deep seeded validation issues in some of these people to where they feel they need to be "loved" by many?. I actually have no idea, maybe different people are in it for different reasons. I think as long as they are comfortable with their choices and live a life of abundance be it sexual or whatever, then that's a good thing. I'm not trying to say that there is anything wrong with the lifestyle or the people that live it. I just like to ask these questions. Its kinda like the question of "Why does a stripper become a stripper?" I find it interesting so I like to explore it but try not to judge it. I'm not a strong advocate of the lifestyle or saying its the new way to be and thats simply because I don't have the experience, I'm a single guy and if I ever was in a committed relationship, I highly doubt I would be interested in the lifestyle.

Today's society has made relationships a very challenging thing to maintain. I mean, how many people stay together for long term these days? long term these days means 5-7 years. Can we explain the high divorce rates, break-ups, cheating, and the high percentage of single, never married people? The dating scene is very complex and challenging also. I don't think people really understand or know what they want. When you look at all this, it almost seems like a Swingers lifestyle is a viable option. I mean, there's no need for cheating or deception. Sexual variety can be achieved without cheating on your partner since its consenting adults. There is also an evolutionary psychology argument in that you can say that humans are not wired to be monogamous, at least not long term, hence the high rates of divorce, infidelity etc. This is all theory of course and can be discussed in detail for days but its worth noting for all the haters out there that think the lifestyle is immoral.

In closing, I guess I can't be a strong advocate for the lifestyle, but no one should really be ADVOCATING things like this. Its up to people to make their own choices, live how they wanna live and do what makes them happy. People shouldn't judge it either, I mean who can truly call themselves a moral authority these days?

Have fun, play safe!

Denny