Comments on: SEXY-SYNTHESIZER's electronic remix of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" is my new jam

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:47:00 +0000

Well, whaddayagonna do. Sometimes it’s a bummer when you have to give up a word due to unforeseen connotations and delicate sensibilities. Since I was a lad I often ran into “spaz” and “spastic” used to describe the more irritating habits of little brothers. More than once, Stephen King has used “spastic” in this context, both in the voice of a fictional character and in his own voice in nonfiction contexts. Having been a little brother myself (and having many friends with annoying little brothers), it always seemed a peach of a term to describe the obnoxious little fuckers who copy every thing you say on long car rides, can’t stop poking and pinching you, and behave in the most embarrassing way possible anytime you’re around someone you’d like to impress. (In my experience, 90% of these incorrigible little brothers happened to be named Jason. God knows why.)

But of course, using a term coined for people who actually physically have trouble controlling their movements to describe obnoxious little boys who generally only seem to be incapable of any degree of self-control is going to be perceived as insulting. And that’s a bummer. Heck, it’s always a bummer when people take offense where no offense to them was intended. So we must be sensitive.

Anyway, for what little it’s worth, I always hated being called a geek in my youth. It was a derogatory term used to denigrate me and my friends, and to separate us from the acceptable members of my school’s society, and I’ve never been able to embrace this term that originally was used to denote the appalling dude who bit the heads off live chickens as a carnival act. Boy, would I feel better if people stopped using that word to describe me and my friends and our interests.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:24:00 +0000

I have to wonder… could there possibly be such a thing as a 7th-grade handjob in an arcade that’s anything but awkward?

By: tsm_sf

tsm_sf — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Was expecting the synthesizers to be a little dirtier.

By: Dean Putney

Dean Putney — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:07:00 +0000

:( I was unaware of that connotation.

By: Dean Putney

Dean Putney — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:04:00 +0000

That’s the one. He now runs a great weekly radio show: http://midnightsnacks.8chan.net/

By: Michael Schwartz

Michael Schwartz — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:58:00 +0000

Doesn’t hold a candle to the Synth remix by Hot Chip. Try this, you will not be disappointed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ZKvnrZ-VY

By: Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:11:00 +0000

See above re: arcades, pockets of quarters. The only “laid” I ever got in that context was a painful, and ultimately awkward, handjob from Ben M_____ in 7th grade.

By: suburbanhick

suburbanhick — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Gordon Banks’ guitar work on the original just makes me want to put my guitar back in its’ case and tuck it under the bed.

By: asterios9

asterios9 — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:41:00 +0000

If you are going to lecture somebody on the meaning of words, you can’t overlook the fact that language is an intersubjective transaction. An inescapable part of CONTEXT is the what the word means to the audience (i.e. the audience’s context.)

Jon_anon is being impeccably clear about this – “I know *you* didn’t mean it like that…but it makes me wince nonetheless.” I don’t see why he deserves your condescension.

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:34:00 +0000

This version does not have the same effect on me as the original. Quite the opposite, in fact. Not useful if the hoped-for response is sexy times. Perfectly fine to dance to, though. Vertically. With clothes on.

By: M Carlson

M Carlson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:51:00 +0000

Nice.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Sigh…

Adjective: Relating to or affected by muscle spasm.
Noun: offensive. A person suffering from cerebral palsy.

CONTEXT is what makes words offensive, not arranging letters in a certain order.

By: Dirk

Dirk — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:12:00 +0000

Hey Dean,

check out this:

http://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/notorious-b-i-g-going-back-to

By: Fex

Fex — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Funny, I was listening to the Hot 8 Brass Band’s cover of Sexual Healing just this lunchtime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s75WIkQBYzk

By: Angela Leenhouts

Angela Leenhouts — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:23:00 +0000

this is GREAT. i’m playing this track at my wedding. =D

By: jordan314

jordan314 — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:14:00 +0000

This is awesome.
I’ve done some dubstep / electro remixes of James Brown and Billy Preston if you guys are interested…
http://soundcloud.com/jordanbla

By: jon_anon

jon_anon — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:48:00 +0000

Just for future reference Dean, “spaztastic” in other parts of the world is read as roughly equivalent to something like “so good it’s retarded”, in other words it’s a trigger for parents of spastic kids (“spastic” is a hateful insult hurled in school playgrounds in the UK and elsewhere), just as “retard” is for parents of same. I know *you* didn’t mean it like that (just like George Bush didn’t intend all the baggage of “Paki” that is perceived by some, when he called Pakistanis by that name), but it makes me wince nonetheless.

By: Jake Sullivan

Jake Sullivan — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:12:00 +0000

Probably the only version of that song guaranteed to not get you laid.

By: Haxagon

Haxagon — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:25:00 +0000

W.T. Snacks, of 4chan?

By: quantize

quantize — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:01:00 +0000

Bit overcooked IMHO, love the sounds and the vibe but it wears pretty quickly as opposed to the original

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:42:00 +0000

Suddenly, I’m back in the video arcade at Parkway Bowl, plugging quarters into the game my friend Tom always called “Gay-la-gay.”

Man, I like this a whole lot more than I thought I would.

By: Dean Putney

Dean Putney — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:34:00 +0000

When your ears start bleeding you know you’re heading in the right direction.

By: sunfell

sunfell — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Not bad, but damn, they’re running it loud! This Aerosmith remix is better: http://snd.sc/qw9Bfh

By: clpolk

clpolk — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:19:00 +0000

Usually I can decide if a song is awesome or terrible in a few seconds.

This… I can’t. I am completely conflicted. my judgment engine crashed in five seconds.