Brainmay.com - More Senseless Rambling

Doesnt seem to be senseless if you read the full thing. It seems he bought into Blairs ideology before slowly realising, through both his personal encounters and wider observation, that Blair was masking an underlying insincerity . As it is a "soapbox" of course this is going to be the type of posting that will be made now and again.

Graeme Arnott wrote: Totally agree Gregsynth, the negativity aimed at Brian is now getting a bit extreme, is this a Queen fans forum?
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After reading carefully, this thread was to BRAIN MAY, not BRIAN May!

Graeme Arnott wrote: Totally agree Gregsynth, the negativity aimed at Brian is now getting a bit extreme, is this a Queen fans forum?

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Yes, it's a fan forum.  Were you expecting a sycophant forum?

What is more than a bit extreme is a disconcerting chunk of Brian May's public discourse. He has as low as a tolerance for competing thoughts, opinions and actions as I've ever seen.  When someone has the temerity to have a different opinion on a subject he feels strongly about you can reliably expect a wild carpet bombing and thorough trashing of somebody's character.  He can't seem to write in anything but apocalyptic terms where the theme is implicitly (and sometimes explicitly!)  forces of 'good' (him and everybody that agrees with him) in some kind of epic battle with ignorance, corruption, stupidity, greed, insanity, evil blah blah blah.  It truly reads like a really bad novel. And it's not just Tony Blair, it's everything he feels any kind of passion for, and for some people it's become more than tiresome.  Worse, in my opinion, it's become utterly ineffective.  Brian sacrifices a lot to be as publicly accessible as he is, and I hate to see it too often turned into something that seems to me at least to diminish him.

I could easily write ten times that last paragraph on the things that I admire about Brian and the many traits that make him a special musician and a special man, but on the endless and indiscriminate ranting he absolutely does deserve criticism.

At least Brian is doing something with his life instead of luxuriously living it up without a care in the world.  He could have stopped after selling hundreds of millions of records and revolutionizing rock guitar, but he also got his PhD in astronomy, wrote books, invented a stereoscope device, and is now trying to make a difference in the world.  He lives a life of passion, which leads to statements made out of passion that won't meet the approval of every critic.  So while he isn't perfect, there has got to be someone else who is a more worthy recipient of complaints.. like the other 99% of rock stars who are doing nothing to make the world a better place.. ?

You might be able to find a handful of successful rock stars of Brian May's generation that haven't made significant contributions in time and money and endorsements to various charities and causes, but you can be sure they're not going to add up to 99%.   PhDs and stereo viewers and books are not altruism, they're the product of living a life that is fulfilling to one's own self, just like the rest of us.  And having a bit of a superiority complex is not a prerequisite for living a life of passion.  All kinds of people are passionate about all kinds of things, yet they are not significant contributors to the sum of  useless, divisive and polarizing rhetoric in the world.  He most certainly is, and that does nothing to make the world a better place.  There are loads of comments on this forum, loads on Queenonline, an intimation by his bandmate, several newspaper articles or editorials and an entire site in (the now defunct?) 'Dr. Brian the Wise' that have reacted negatively to this aspect of his style.

Brian is a citizen and tax payer of the UK and therefore he is entilted to criticize Blair.

We are Brian's customers and so we are entilted to criticize Brian's work but I think it should be limited to his music.  Anything else is not our business.

Show 'em, Benn!

tcc wrote: Brian is a citizen and tax payer of the UK and therefore he is entilted to criticize Blair.

We are Brian's customers and so we are entilted to criticize Brian's work but I think it should be limited to his music.  Anything else is not our business. 

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He is entitled to criticize Blair, you're right.  And this rant really wasn't a great example, because all sorts of people think very little of Blair and most of us in general tend to discuss politicians in reductionist and hyperbole ridden ways. But the thing with Brian is that it's virtually always like this, and when you can't get through a point without insulting somebody and sounding like you're in the middle of a Jackie Collins novel you're going to attract some negative attention.  He has a public blog and conducts a public awareness campaign through which he seeks to share and shape opinion, so it's the business of anybody who wishes to engage.  There are many wonderful things that define the man far more than this aspect of things, but people aren't out of line for calling this out.  He's so intelligent, and so passionate, and so articulate.  He could easily be a guy that speaks with widsom and authority, but he comes off far too often as hyper partisan,  insensitive, monomaniacal, overly simplistic, unnecessarily dramatic and only very narrowly empathetic.  I still love him, I still think he's amazing on a whole bunch of fronts, and I'll forever be a very grateful fan, but it's unpleasant as much as anything else, and since it's being dumped out into the collective people get to complain. If you see things this way in some ways it's no favour to him not to complain.

Anyway, he made me go out and buy Blair's book today in a round about way.  So we'll see if I like it.

Sir GH wrote: At least Brian is doing something with his life instead of luxuriously living it up without a care in the world. 

That sounds like you're taking a pop at Deacon John

paulsmith2001 wrote:

[QUOTE]That sounds like you're taking a pop at Deacon John[/QUOTE]

I wasn't intending that, actually.  I was referring to rock stars in general.  Maybe he's part of the 99%, but nobody really knows what he's up to.  Last thing I heard he was photographed getting a lapdance from a stripper.

Something odd happened to me this evening.  Even though I've spent three posts in this thread defending complaining about Brian's frequent diatribes, and months on end doing so more broadly, I think I want to try to stop complaining.  It has nothing to do with those diatribes not being outrageous after all, because they're pretty damn outrageous.  It's not because it's not our business, and it's certainly not because of what other rock stars are or aren't doing (sorry Bob! :) ).  It's because there was something about this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/05/brian-may-interview-blogging that made me suddenly compute that he can't be anybody else other than who he fundamentally is anymore than I can.  The ranting is a natural and likely immutable response to how he sees the world and who he is as a person, and though I think it does nothing to illuminate any subject he discusses and adds nothing positive to the universe, I'm going to stop expecting him to change and try to stop acting and writing like he should.  He pays for his indiscretion all the time in pieces like this, and the older one linked at the bottom of the page, and I understand why the journalists write what they do, because it's their job and because they're right.  But I'm not a journalist, I'm a fan, so I have other options.  And maybe even other responsibilities.  That reporter somehow made me want to close ranks a little; made me feel like she's on the outside and I'm supposed to be a little more on the inside on this issue. So I'm going to try to complain less, even in my own head, and try to have a bit more empathy for where it comes from and see how that goes. Kind of weird.  Never expected to be writing this.

And now Brian has gotten himself involved in slagging off the Halal Meat process.

He's treading on some extremely dangerous territory with that one.  You'd sort of hope that "Steve" has sent this in in the hope that Brian will take the bait and rattle off a diatribe about it.

Then, seeing him on ITV's This Morning show today, and how thoroughly fucking miserable he looks (my wife's words not mine!), you have to wonder why he doesn't just bugger off to a country that suits his needs.  Australia should do him; they're loony liberal enough to put up with him.

Regarding the Halal meat letter sent to Brian, part of Steve's letter was:

"My rant is about halal meat, how the hell in this country can we allow people to come here and practice their vile slaughter practises?"

The wording of that statement is crude to say the least and bordering racist. How about the many Muslims who are not immigrants but were born in the UK (like myself?)

Brian's response to this letter is typical Brian, on the people he agrees with: "I agree with you completely"

Brian's response is worrying - like Benn I think Brian is at times blinded by the pro-animal perspective. Its not as simple as he imagines it to be.

I read an article today dated several years ago about halal practices in the UK.  The article claimed that in practice it is very much like regular slaughter as far as cruetly considerations go, with virtually all animals being stunned before death due to practical considerations.  Slaughterhouses tried not stunning, and it just didn't work. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/sep/14/religion.animalwelfare

I don't read Brian's website much anymore. It's all politics and 'Save The Fucken Badgers' etc these days. Sure, it's great to see him have a passion and something else to do, but I used to enjoy reading his musings on music etc a lot more than local council members. Music doesn't seem to be his primary focus these days perhaps, which is good for him after so many years giving his all, but being from the other side of the world, his bollocking of everything under the sun bores me to tears.