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Old 2019.05.29, 12:59 PM   #122
shirasagi
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Location: Vienna, Austria
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zero, thank you so much for that post. THIS is what I want these forums to be. I do want you to know that I really loved what you had to say. I could finally see things from your perspective. That Sputnikmusic review, for instance, is Exhibit A on how not to do it.

If criticism is put in the way you just did it, we would have amazing discussions over here. Mind you, I don't even think it's fun to agree all the time, but I really wish the criticisms at - in this case the new album - would be leveled in the way you just did it. And sure enough, communicating online lacks the nuance of a live conversation, so I'm very sure I come across saltier than I really am. What is really my point is to bring out a different perspective and, being a fan of Ringo's new music, hopefully challenge what has become the consensus. After all, it's not like we are going to change where she is headed as an artist, and there is so much to be discussed, so why not have fun in the process? And always agreeing is not fun either - but there are ways to disagree which are less toxic than a lot of the discourse has been in this fan community for a long time.

So anyway, I'm not going to counter you on anything you said above because I get it. And while I'm already writing, I'm going to give you a little anecdote directly related to Ringo which made me reevaluate a lot of things.

I spent a year in Tokyo between September 2017 and 2018, which as you know is when Reimport Vol. 2 came out and the Air Pocket tour was happening. Having listened to Ringo since fifteen and having this unwavering love for her, I think it's safe to say that seeing her live was literally the only concert on my bucket list that I absolutely had to see. So I bought a copy of the CD and one for a friend, with the lottery coupons in there and applied. Both have fallen through. Come the day the tickets went on sale, they were immediately sold out and I wasn't able to buy them, even though I literally got up earlier to be at my computer at the right time. Immediately, the tickets appeared on Viagogo at tenfold the price, which of course I didn't have. And then there were those last-minute lotteries, so I applied for each and every one of them in the Tokyo area. All in all, I tried to get tickets to seven or eight shows, and wasn't able to get a single one. Meanwhile, my friend had another friend in Ringohan, so his ticket was secure from the get go - and then he had the nerve to complain about the concert to me. It wasn't even his first one! So my lifelong dream of seeing Ringo live, which was at my fingertips, just evaporated like that. Seven times. I think no album she will release from then on will compare to the disappointment I felt time and time again during her tour, and chances are I will never be in Japan while she's touring. I basically had to make peace with the fact that I will never see her, and that was one of the few things I had on a proverbial bucket list - and pretty much the only one I had for my stay in Japan.
But it was also that experience which put a lot of things in perspective for me. Great expectations set you up for great disappointments, and once I realized that, I actually became a much happier person. I don't even feel sad about not being able to see her anymore, as much as that would still be cool.

Long story short, I suppose I really just don't "want" anything from her. I'm glad she's still making music twenty years on (that's not a given), and I'm even more glad that I happen to enjoy that music. Maybe that's why it upsets me to see literal outrage at her music. And maybe it's a strange point of view - I'm willing to admit that.

So, having veered kind of totally off topic, I want to thank you once again for how you approached this discussion and again, I'd love to see more posts like this. Certainly it would be a lot more exciting to read that than "kill it with fire" comments.
And really listen to the b-side of Hounds of Love sometime, I promise it's KZK level goodness.
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