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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 03:19 |
Hi Andy,
I think we got mixed up here, the first part of my post was aimed at you (which is why I quoted you) but the second part was addressed at Gentle Tull about dismiising a group too quickly
Blacksword wrote:
Sean Trane wrote:
OldFatherThames wrote:
Blacksword wrote:
Well my preference may be towards the old school, but I'll give anything a go. A friend of mine likes some Porcupine Tree, and has played me some. Cant remember which album but it was fairly recent and quite heavy (?) I didn't dislike it, but it didn't really grab either.
My attititude to modern prog is, I admit, quite cynical. This attitiude is based on what I've heard by Dream Theater, Spocks Beard, Glass Hammer, Echolyn & The Flower Kings. With all these bands we have excellent musicians arguably wasting their time, paying tribute to their heroes. I dont think they make bad music per se, but if I want to listen to symphonic prog I'll listen to the original bands. The original and the best. I dont get as excited by a band that sounds like Yes, as I do about Yes themeselves...
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Exactly what I think too. I never heard "new" prog I really like, and I listened to many bands ! I dont know, I dont like their sound...I try not to be snob in front of new prog bands, but I cant ! I disllike about all of them. Some exception, maybe for Anglagard and some song of other bands, but that's it....so I can understand what the original poster meant.
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Exactly the way I feel also! SB, DT, TFK and PT are good musos and write correct music, but they are not pushing musical boundaries much. They just do not move me enough to actually want to keep the albums in my shelves or much less in the deck for a spin
For modern groundbreaking , you must head into newer RIO genre like Miriodor, Alammailman Vasarat, X-legged Sally etc... But I am afraid most of everything has been done
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GentleTull:
However, To say I am not a fan of PT, I have heard at least once over 90% of their albums and I listened extensively four of them.
To say you do not like PT after one listen of Deadwing (which is all I did with that album) and dismissing the group's oeuvre however is not really open-mined
To me if you really want to investigate Porc Tree, you must try Lightbulb Sun, Signify and Floyd-inspired Sky Moved Sideways
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Dont get me wrong, I don't dislike the bands I mentioned. Indeed, when I first discovered Spock's Beard and Glass Hammer I listened to them a lot. I liked the songs. But the novelty of discovering a new symphonic prog band wears off fairly quick for me as I inevitably compare them to the 'masters' and soon realise that the old ones are indeed the best. They were innovating, the new bands are copying. At the end of the day I would happily pay money to see any of these new bands, and I'm sure I'd love the show, but I'd pay a lot more to go back in time and see the 'masters' at work
Out of interest Sean, what do you think of TMV?
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I have a problem with TMV, because their sound is simply too aggressive for me and they go left right and center musically , but seem to really be aimless. I never heard yet the debut album and only once the second, and I will probably rent the albums someday. But at first listen , I had a hard time rejecting that repulsive reaction I had when I heard it.
But I will not dismiss them just now
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 03:19 |
I said early 80s. Rush, Crimson, Devo, Talking heads, Tull, Split enz and many other bands produced very good stuff in the early 80s. Alot better than what you would hear from 1985-2005.
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 03:24 |
seems like something is screwing up here
Edited by Sean Trane
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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richardh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Online
Points: 28969
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 04:29 |
Prog-man wrote:
All prog is good!!
I like PT (I'm a really fan). But I like old prog bands too.
- I like all Genesis (Gabriel-Collins-Wilson) and Yes line-ups (Yes, "Drama" and Rabin stuff too!). I'm very into King Crimson, Focus and Jethro. I like Kansas and Asia (Wetton or Payne, really!!). All Rush albums. And bands like Wobbler, Anekdoten, Sinkadus, Liquid Scarlet, who re-create that old sound
- I like neo: Marillion (Fish), Pendragon, Arena, IQ, Pallas, Galleon, Jadis, Twelfth Night, Grey Lady Down, etc.
- I like new prog like Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Ayreon, Sylvan, RPWL, The Pinneapple Thief, Marillion (Hogarth), etc.
- And I like prog-related bands like Muse, Radiohead, Saybia, Codplay, etc.
1) Of course, I think the master pieces form the "old school" are "In the Court of the Crimsom King","Selling England by the Pound", or "Close to the Edge".
2) But there are more modern prog masterpieces like "Deadwing", "In absentia", "Trying to Kiss the Sun", "Deliverance", "V", "Snow", "Metropolis Pt. II", "The Masquerade Overture", "the World" "The Wake", "Ever", "Subterranea", "The Visitor", "Into the Electric Castle", "Moonshine", "Into the Electric Castle" "Mind over Matter", etc.
3) And stuff like "Absolution" and "OK Computer", too!
Prog is a recognyzable hybridized rock music. Is music that aspires. Epic or love songs. Long or short songs. With classic or modern influences. 4/4 o 9/8. Old or New.
If you sound exactly like in 1970 you're not in progress!
Let it be progressive, not retrogressive!
My friend: Try another albums from PT (and BLACKFIELD, NO-MAN, BASS COMUNNION, I.E.M., STEVE WILSON, and others of his works with O.S.I., FISH, MARILLION, PAATOS or OPETH) , and give another chance to the most important prog musician-writer-producer of this time!!!!!!
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Very good post!
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Nazgul
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 30 2005
Location: Poland
Status: Offline
Points: 148
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 04:41 |
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 06:18 |
i don't dislike them cos they are modern. I just don't think modern music is very good ;)
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Bob Greece
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Greece
Status: Offline
Points: 1823
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 06:38 |
Personally, I think that prog music got better AFTER the 70's! Well, there won't be many prog fans who agree with me there.
My favourite band Ozric Tentacles started in the eighties. My favourite Hawkwind albums are from after 1980. My favourite Jethro Tull album is Crest of a Knave from 1987. I think Dream Theater are great. My favourite Yes album is Going for the One, made after the main prog period. I think neo prog is yummy. Of course there won't be many people who agree with me but, when all's said and done, it's just a matter of taste.
Edited by Bob Greece
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Rorro
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 31 2005
Location: Uruguay
Status: Offline
Points: 508
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 07:53 |
Ok, I'm 20, I wasn't alive at the 'Golden Times' of prog, but my first experiences with prog were because of a friend's father ( that was a really good drummer), that seeing that i tended to like more complex and meaningfull music, he showed me album's from yes, jethro tull, gentle giant genesis, pink floyd, etc. So my ears were accostumed to that music, at the point that i used to find modern regular rock reaaly boring, it hadn't got that complex melodies, neither the mood changes, and the dinamic of the old music, i it didn't seem to point anywere but sells. Then I listened to a liquid tension experiment album, i was surprised that modern music can be good also, but i didn't like it, because it didn't sound like yes or ELP. Afortunatelly i was intrested because of the complexity of the music, so i kept on listening to the album , until one day i gut used to that metal sound with influences from the old groups, and at that time my ligth turned on and i got to understand the album. Then i went into modern prog, and i discovered that there is really good stuff nowadays, i recognise that old groups have the plus of being the pioneers of this artistic style, but in quality terms there are bands that are as good as the old ones, and there is very innovative stuff.
The same thing happend to me with in absentia, the first time i listened to it i was disapointed, and i tought the album was overrated. But i didn't give up, i kept on listening, until i started to understand it, in every listen i gave to the record i was founding new things i had't found before, and now i really like the album, it is easily a 4 stars album, and in my opinion one of the best albums since 2000.
Gentletull, give this album a second chance, i won't say that you'll find this as good as the old school groups (although some people finds it), but i assure you that if you get used to the style and songwritting, you'll have to admitt at least that it is good stuff.
And i disagree with those who says that there haven't been innovative stuff since the 70's. They should try for example anglagärd, a band that takes some influences from the seventies symphonic groups, but they made something new with that, they made symphonic prog like nothing i had listened before, one of the best i've ever listened. Of course they have influences, but i think it's imposible not to have it if you have grown up listening to that music.
Also after 1995 there has been innovative stuff, try God speed you! black emperor, sigur ros, wheatstone bridge, Planet X, and many others. The Mars Volta is a very innovative group making really high quality art, and i'm sorry that you didn't like it, but please give them a second chance.
And if you don't like new prog not because it is not innovative, but because it lacks of quality, try stuff that sounds like the older groups and in my opinion they reached to have the same quality, like Glass Hammer, Dream Theater, Neal Morse, The Flower Kings (a band that i don't think that it sound's as similar as the old ones as other people say),Anekdoten, etc.
Or simpler, listen to the album cinque from Deus Ex Machina and tell me if it isn't one of the best things you've ever listened to and if it's not comparable to the old group's productions
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oldebag
Forum Groupie
Joined: April 27 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 40
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 08:03 |
This thread is still food for thought! What is interesting to me is that ...before PT , I dismissed any metal - progressive or otherwise. Steve Wilson et al.. opened the possiblity for further study. This band PT is of such high skill and thought, I can't believe anyone who took the time couldn't find some part of their work to be inspiring .Pax Nobiscum...(ps....i need a "spell checker")
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 08:06 |
2) But there are more modern prog masterpieces like "Deadwing", "In absentia", "Trying to Kiss the Sun", "Deliverance", "V", "Snow", "Metropolis Pt. II", "The Masquerade Overture", "the World" "The Wake", "Ever", "Subterranea", "The Visitor", "Into the Electric Castle", "Moonshine", "Into the Electric Castle" "Mind over Matter", etc.
Out of this list, in 20 years time, how many do you think these will still be masterpieces?
those modern prog "masterpieces" being called as such, almost as soon as they have been released always make me dubious on how many of those progheads claiming those to be, know actually what a masterpiece is. Are most of you sure you are not getting excited for next to nothing about minor works.
I am talking to the older progheads who have heard hundreds if not thousands of prog records, not the newbie who fell on Ayreon's Electric Castle as his first experience with prog and loving it and when buying Nursery Cryme, loving it as much and therefore thinking Ayreon's ITEC is as good as Genesis's NC.
A lot enthusiast progheads (and to my discredit I am not an enthusiast about prog's future anymore and stopped being enthusiastic about the second prog "boom" in 2001) should really be a little more discerning and have a better perspective of things. It is not because you get caught up into an album, that the albulm is any closer to a masterpiece than if you just disregard it because you do not understand it.
But then again , WTF do I know, I am just on old crusty proghead
Give me two days reflections and I will give you list of real prog masterpieces from 1990 onwards. Less than ten, I think, however personal that choice list may be.
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Rorro
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 31 2005
Location: Uruguay
Status: Offline
Points: 508
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 08:13 |
Iwould Say that Frances The Mute And Hybris are real Masterpieces, but maybe we have different thougts about what a masterpiece is.
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TheProgtologist
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Baltimore,Md US
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Points: 27802
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 08:28 |
Rashikal wrote:
IcedSabbath wrote:
Rashikal wrote:
porcupine tree is prog i guess by fusing nu-metal and piano pop???
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That rules!
It's sad but true, man! All these modern prog/prog metal bands think it's a good idea to put crappy chug-along riffs into their music to make it sound "metal." They need to realize...it's fake metal!
That being said, I don't like Porcupine Tree's last 2 albums. Too nu-metallic for my tastes.
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I disagree with that if you're reffering to Tool. I would call Tool sludge rock with droning doom bass lines. But hey, they're just labels.
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You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Tool isn't sludge rock/metal.
Bands like Neurosis,Isis,Pelican,Red Sparowes and Cult of Luna are sludge rock/metal.
Edited by TheProgtologist
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 08:53 |
Rorro wrote:
Iwould Say that Frances The Mute And Hybris are real Masterpieces, but maybe we have different thougts about what a masterpiece is. |
Yup!!!! And this is where it huts badly for some: you must have enough references and experience and background to actually judge what a masterpiece is.
masterpiece is Meisterwerk (german roots) and it is exceptional!!
for some people almost every album they buy is a masterpiece and to be found behind every street corner- and if it is not they will convince themselves of it by beating their brains into a pulp with repeated listenings until they succeed in self-brainwashing
TMV cannot be a masterpiece , yet - in anybody's minds who knows what a masterpiece is.
FTM is not even one year old!!!! How about the test of time????
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Rorro
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 31 2005
Location: Uruguay
Status: Offline
Points: 508
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:06 |
Sean Trane wrote:
Rorro wrote:
Iwould Say that Frances The Mute And Hybris are real Masterpieces, but maybe we have different thougts about what a masterpiece is. |
Yup!!!! And this is where it huts badly for some: you must have enough references and experience and background to actually judge what a masterpiece is.
masterpiece is Meisterwerk (german roots) and it is exceptional!!
for some people almost every album they buy is a masterpiece and to be found behind every street corner- and if it is not they will convince themselves of it by beating their brains into a pulp with repeated listenings until they succeed in self-brainwashing
TMV cannot be a masterpiece , yet - in anybody's minds who knows what a masterpiece is.
FTM is not even one year old!!!! How about the test of time????
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Ok i accept the critic that i don't have enogh experience to judge what a masterpiece is, but i thought i had the right to express what would i call now a masterpiece. Maybe when i get more experience i change my mind, but i was just saying what i thought, if you think think my opinion is valid just because of that, well, don't give it importance, maybe when i become a more experienced listener i understand what a masterpiece is. For now i really think that Hybris is the best album i've ever listened to, and that FTM is a Masterpiece, and i don't know what you're talking about when you say test of time, please explain.
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Rorro
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Joined: December 31 2005
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:10 |
Oh, and i only call masterpieces, to a really small nuber of albums, if i have to think of more masterpieces since 1990, i'll have to think a lot, and hardly i will find one or two more albums. From the seventies i woul call masterpieces to a few albums also, meybe Thik as a brick, Foxtrot, Close to the edge, In Praise Of Learning (Henry Cow), and i have to think a lot to find two or three more.
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Empathy
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 30 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 1864
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:28 |
Sean Trane wrote:
Rorro wrote:
Iwould Say that Frances The Mute And Hybris are real Masterpieces, but maybe we have different thougts about what a masterpiece is. |
Yup!!!! And this is where it huts badly for some: you must have
enough references and experience and background to actually judge what
a masterpiece is.
masterpiece is Meisterwerk (german roots) and it is exceptional!!
for some people almost every album they buy is a masterpiece and to be found behind every street corner-
and if it is not they will convince themselves of it by beating their
brains into a pulp with repeated listenings until they succeed in
self-brainwashing
TMV cannot be a masterpiece , yet - in anybody's minds who knows what a masterpiece is.
FTM is not even one year old!!!! How about the test of time???? |
I have to slightly disaree with you, Sean. There's a degree of
relativity and retrospect in calling something a "Masterpiece". It's
certainly required for a work to stand the test of time in order for a clear consensus
to form around what qualifies as "meisterwork". You seem to imply that
a contemporary work of art automatically cannot qualify as a
masterpiece purely due to the fact that it _is_ contemporary.
To be contrary for a moment... Mozart had _many_ contemporary
detractors. How many people dismissed any of the top 20 all time prog
releases at the time as pretentious tripe?
Now, I'm not stating that any of the aforementioned works _are_ masterpieces, I'm just saying the jury's still out.
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Pure Brilliance:
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:29 |
Rorro wrote:
Sean Trane wrote:
Rorro wrote:
Iwould Say that Frances The Mute And Hybris are real Masterpieces, but maybe we have different thougts about what a masterpiece is. |
Yup!!!! And this is where it huts badly for some: you must have enough references and experience and background to actually judge what a masterpiece is.
masterpiece is Meisterwerk (german roots) and it is exceptional!!
for some people almost every album they buy is a masterpiece and to be found behind every street corner- and if it is not they will convince themselves of it by beating their brains into a pulp with repeated listenings until they succeed in self-brainwashing
TMV cannot be a masterpiece , yet - in anybody's minds who knows what a masterpiece is.
FTM is not even one year old!!!! How about the test of time????
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Ok i accept the critic that i don't have enogh experience to judge what a masterpiece is, but i thought i had the right to express what would i call now a masterpiece. Maybe when i get more experience i change my mind, but i was just saying what i thought, if you think think my opinion is valid just because of that, well, don't give it importance, maybe when i become a more experienced listener i understand what a masterpiece is. For now i really think that Hybris is the best album i've ever listened to, and that FTM is a Masterpiece, and i don't know what you're talking about when you say test of time, please explain.
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Please do not be hurt by my answer to your quote you were not specifically aimed at and you said something very true and I highlighted it! I have no idea how old you are or what your background is, and therefore I could not have specifically aimed this at you
I love Hybris as much as you do(I made love to my girlfriends to that album and I heard hundreds of time), but this is retro-prog (it appeals to our lower instincts as progheads by duplicating the sounds we all love and cherish - a bit like soap operas and Harlequins books appeal to women), which means that it was aimed at nostalgic progheads by nostalgic musicians. I doubt very much Hybris will be a masterpiece in 20 years time, but FTM has much more chance to reach that status than Hybris.
This is precisely what the problem is: Masterpiece (Chef d'Oeuvre in French and in english ) is most debased (or cliché and over-used word by almost everybody (myself included)
This is all I meant. No personal attacks
By the test of time: in 20 years time from now, after having hear thousands more prog records (provided you are still into prog) , will you still think this album is still so great or will you be embarassed just thinking you loved that album and that you were so wrong at the time? Remember that by that time you will have heard all kinds of prog albums that may have influenced artistically the album at stake.
There is no possible answer to this, today..... New albums should be at least a few years old before entering the possible masterpieces category.
Believe this old crusty proghead (who called masterpieces in his youth albums that he now considers as dipensible records), calling an album a masterpiece should rightly be rare
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Empathy
Forum Senior Member
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Status: Offline
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:33 |
lol, thanks for making my last post irrelevant, Sean.
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Pure Brilliance:
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:37 |
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20357
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Posted: February 23 2006 at 09:39 |
Empathy wrote:
lol, thanks for making my last post irrelevant, Sean. |
And thanks for making mine also
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.............. Frigging cross-fired posts
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let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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