Metafilter Complaints Choir

We can do this standing on our heads.

Let's. (We don't need to be standing on our heads.)

Exhibit A - MeFi post on complaints choirs.

Exhibit B - the Official Complaints Choir How-To document.

We'll need to modify that how-to a bit. But the basics are the same - we collect complaints. We make them into a song. We record that song.

It's possible that a large number of complaints already exist on the site waiting to be turned (with permission of their original posters) into lyrics.

In the end, with this kind of thing, there needs to be someone to put the lyrics together, someone to compose / arrange music for it, one or more people up for recording a backing track and a whole bunch of people prepared to record their vocals and send them to someone up for mixing it all down. Many of us could do any or all of those tasks, but for this, it would, I think, be best if there were a few of us putting it together, plus, of course, as many vocals as humanly possible.

Any takers?

posted by motty (29 comments total)

Count me in.
posted by unSane at 4:13 AM on November 20, 2010

(The lyrics should be verbatim bitching from MeFi, as you suggest)
posted by unSane at 4:18 AM on November 20, 2010

Yeah, verbatim bitching, certainly.

I'm in, for collecting, collating and choraling.
posted by Kattullus at 4:40 AM on November 20, 2010

Cool. Let's get on it.

Would a MeTa post be appropriate, do you think, or shall we just take it from here?
posted by motty at 4:30 PM on November 20, 2010

I think recruiting the hive mind to select some premium bitching is a good idea (I think I'll start with Faze's comments, personally). Is it an AskMe or a MeTa? I mean it's definitely Meta but it's also a well formed Ask I think. Hm.
posted by unSane at 6:17 PM on November 20, 2010

My first thought wrt to Ask was that 'Please complain for us' would be total chatfilter, but thinking about it some more I've realised that the question is not that at all, but rather is more along the lines of 'Please select the most appropriate complaints across *.metafilter.com for use in a Complaints Choir song', which seems fine.

Having thought about it a bit since my (slightly alcohol inspired) post from last night, I think recruiting the hive mind to select the bitching outside the MeMu ghetto is not just a good idea but necessary - to me the best of the complaints choirs from the original post, without exception, were the largest, and similarly here, the more people we have contributing, the better the end result will be.

I also don't think it needs to be spammed across every subsite, so there's no need necessarily to post to both Ask and MeTa (and Projects etc...), and off the top of my head, Ask might well be the best place to start (modulo possible moddische thoughts on this to the contrary of course). Don't mind asking the Ask myself but it might be better if someone else did.

Some way down the line, it's occurred to me that many people might want to join in with singing who don't necessarily have a home studio at home. I'd be happy to have any London area Mefites come round mine to record, though space is limited here and I couldn't accommodate too many at once. But that's a way down the line - we'll need a song and an arrangement first.
posted by motty at 8:58 PM on November 20, 2010

Great idea, motty, to cull Mefi comments for this project.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:30 PM on November 20, 2010

This is a great idea.
posted by umbú at 11:25 AM on November 21, 2010

This sounds like a MeFi classic in the making!
posted by snsranch at 1:42 PM on November 21, 2010

Okay, so I've started collecting some notable complaints and putting them in rhyming couplets. These are verbatim.

Sadly, the education of the youth of amerika is declining in more than one way.
My FPP was deleted today
Lofi is showing a cold fusion error if you are not logged in.
The MeFi Wiki appears to be spammed, Captain.
What you think I am saying is not actually what I have said
Stop pissing all over the threads
MetaFilter is now neither meta nor a filter. Discuss.
Is there a point to this other than to encourage a pissfest?
In this thread, there is some horrifically bad advice
Too much hate. Why can't people just be nice?

Chorus:

WHAT.
THE.
FUCK.
MATT.
fuck you, you make me angry and you're stupid too, GRAR
posted by Kattullus at 6:39 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was thinking 'everybody needs a hug' could be a descant
posted by unSane at 7:00 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, can we please include something of Faze's most epic comment of all time, which was deleted from MeFi but reposted by Jessamyn in MeTa... for example:

American hip hop has spread over world like a great stinking wave of diarrhea

If you look at Faze's other highly favorited comments there are some other doozies in there.

I think Blazecock and Joe Beese both have some stingers too.
posted by unSane at 7:04 AM on November 22, 2010

unSane: I was thinking 'everybody needs a hug' could be a descant

Or a coda. And it should be the full "Note: Everyone needs a hug."
posted by Kattullus at 7:18 AM on November 22, 2010

Great to see complaints already beginning to be collated. Promise to have a trawl myself and contribute some more.

The more I think about it, the more I think a Request For Complaints should be posted to MeTa rather than Ask. Any views on that?

The two broad categories of complaint I am seeing so far are 'MeFi Related' and 'Not MeFi Related'. I'd imagine that 'Get Off My Lawn' also would be a category in its own right, but we'll have to see what we come up with.
posted by motty at 1:42 PM on November 23, 2010

Ha. Love it. I like the focus on metafilter/website-related complaints as what would make this more unique than just "a bunch more people complaining about stuff", but I can see it going either way.

Putting my mod hat on for a moment: a metatalk thread soliciting ideas for complaints would be fine. An askme thread would not be. This is, fundamentally, a thing that is (a) pretty chatty by definition and (b) about metafilter, so askme's a pretty solid no-go.

I would also very strongly suggest, in part for for diplomatic/good-will reasons and partly just for the sake of scansion and rhyme, that we focus on archetypical or paraphrased complaints independent of any specific complainer. I'd rather this be a funny collection of various (and probably at time self-contradicting, such is mefi) complaints that everybody will recognize for the content of the complaint than something that treads into "hey remember when THIS GUY said THIS THING" territory.
posted by cortex at 8:17 AM on November 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I support this unreservedly
posted by The Whelk at 9:24 AM on November 25, 2010

Ok, MeTa. Apologies for delay.
posted by motty at 10:11 AM on November 30, 2010

i can work on the lyrics
posted by lakersfan1222 at 10:26 AM on November 30, 2010

"This is a bad idea and you are all bad people for trying it."

Did I do it right?
posted by not_on_display at 11:10 AM on November 30, 2010

Totally in!
posted by By The Grace of God at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2010

I'm happy to sing and to write music for this.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:20 PM on November 30, 2010

I'd love to sing for this.
posted by saveyoursanity at 8:26 PM on November 30, 2010

I can complain allllll day and night in harmony or melody. Whatever you like :) (And I'll help with lyrics, too.)
posted by Madamina at 8:38 PM on November 30, 2010

I don't think this sort of post belongs here.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:06 AM on December 1, 2010

Tra-la!
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:07 AM on December 1, 2010

Inspired by The Whelk and never used baby shoes, I wrote some new MetaFilter lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody.
posted by mattdidthat at 3:22 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

That cannot possibly be bettered. We should just do it.
posted by unSane at 5:01 PM on December 1, 2010

Will there be a lone voice coming in just to accuse all the complaining voices of abusing their position of privilege, swept away by the bridge?
posted by Mchelly at 7:42 PM on December 2, 2010

Well, if we can find a verbatim complaint to that effect somewhere in the archives, yeah, that would be wonderful, especially if it got smothered by guys complaining about how men are oppressed by feminism or political correctness or the like.

Ooooh... that gives me a thought. We should come up with search terms that could lead to rich seams* of complaints. I'm dogtired so I don't have time to go searching, but "political correctness" should lead to complainypants threads on the Blue and Gray. Any other search terms you folks can think of?


* Yes, I am indeed a recovering Dwarf Fortress-a-holic... until I have the time to unrecover!
posted by Kattullus at 8:18 PM on December 2, 2010