#Fuck the CMAs

[house-of-maximoff]

Anyone still mad a year later that Lainey Wilson won Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs before Carrie Underwood?

Like I love Lainey, but Carrie deserved it by the time she released her debut album Some Hearts. Not to mention they gave it to Lainey, when she hasn’t done half of what Carrie has managed to do. It’s crazy that the Grammy’s show more respect to her than the Country Music Association. All they gave it to this year is an opening act. And Carrie Underwood was an opening act too. For Guns N’ Roses. Not to mention she had her own Denim And Rhinestones album and tour, and her Las Vegas Residency. Not to mention the NBC Sunday Night Football theme.

I refuse to watch the CMAs this year.

[snail-friend]

Not my boy! noooooooo!

[jobazzle]

beyoncé finally winning album of the year at the grammys with cowboy carter after the cmas refused to give her any nominations last year oh this is EVERYTHINGGGGG

[sexcromancy]

cowboy carter aoty we might actually as a nation be so back. haha I'm just kidding this country is for the dogs but I do feel like I could do three backflips rn

[mariamariquinha]

Just so you know, "She didn't embrace the genre" is a way of saying, "She's just black and we don't like it."

[freakystinky]

OP is being a wet sock in the comments for some bizarre reason, so since I’m U.S. based here’s a link to all the United States requirements for relicensing physicians because I think it’s an imperative resource for chronically ill and disabled people to have:

Due to individual states deciding these requirements, they’re obviously insanely varied. This impacts the way that patient care is delivered SIGNIFICANTLY, especially in physicians who have stayed in the same states and have been meeting those lower standards for many years, compounding their paucity of knowledge and lowering the quality of care their patients can receive.

Generally, 50hrs/yr is the average, with retesting every 1-4yrs, but some states such as Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have them at 20hrs/yr or lower.

This means, that over only 8 years of practice, an MD in Washington state (50 hrs/yr) has obtained up to 304 more credit hours than an MD in Alabama (12 hrs/yr).

You’ll also notice that states with the lowest CME requirements (highlighted) also happen to make up the states with the highest maternal mortality rates…

That correlation aside, we KNOW that CE is incredibly important, and that doctors with CE have better patient outcomes. The fact that the US doesn’t have federal regulations regarding this is just plain embarrassing (source).

The system is dysfunctional and things like this are probably costing peoples lives. We need to talk more about it; the first step to improving it is creating awareness that this stuff does exist, it’s just not as effective as it should be. As patients deserve it to be.

Relicensing is already real and a requirement, what we need to do is make it functional and regulated using our votes.

I'm so extremely serious when I say doctors should be put through an extremely extensive reliscensing process every 10 years. Doctors should have their knowledge scrutinized against current medical research and be de-barred at even the tiniest discrepancy. Too many old doctors absolutely refuse to stay up to date on research and dismiss patients because of their personal experiences. Too many people die every year because doctors don't take us seriously and refuse to listen to people who KNOW something is wrong. Too many people are told their problems are nothing and come back in a year or more with serious illnesses and doctors are just like "lol everyone makes mistakes" but doctors mistakes routinely cost people their lives! I'm tired of medical malpractice being swept away under the guise of "mistakes were made."

[aspiringhorrorauthor]

God I wish owners would ask to speak to my manager rather than just verbally berate and insult me bc they know management won’t change the price for them but they might be able to attack me until I break and try to remove some of the costing instead

[theinfinitedivides]

we love racism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (derogatory)

[lyricsandpapers]

Might i be drunk? Yes. And?

[oeuvrinarydurian]

Everybody’s choices have been terrific. Hundred percent Millie Bagshot, hundred percent Charles Highbank, and I agree with you, his performance was absolutely pitch perfect. I’m immensely moved every time I watch his dinner scene with Mrs. Armstrong - his eyeshadow and scarf worn without comment in a safe space like her flat, he’s so himself. I get choked up.

Evans would have chemistry with a rock, so I can’t help but think back to characters like Alice Vexin and Pat what’s her name from “Game“, both of whom he had crazy chemistry with. 

Of course, I thought he had such great chemistry with Gillian Nicholls from “Terminus” that I wrote a 50,000-word fiction about the two of them. 

One of the things that keeps the show so engaging and that it does so exceptionally well is cast people even with a handful of lines. 

Just for comedy, though, I’m gonna go with…

Cousin Carol.

Somebody posted a few weeks ago that she should’ve wound up with Strange, and I’m sorry, I can’t remember who you are, but it would’ve been splendid to have her come back. I was even thinking of writing a fic where she does.

With a baby in tow.

Ahem. 

Favorite one-episode characters?

The love for Eve Thorne got me wondering, what other one-episode characters would you happily have seen more of?

For me it's this guy, Charles Highbank. He was such a good friend and had a very moving backstory. Scenes without the main cast can cause me to zone out a little at times, but whenever this man was on screen I was entertained. Was sad to learn while looking him up that the actor, Adrian Schiller, died earlier this year.

I also found this character memorable. She had great chemistry with Morse. I felt like she'd be a fun match for him, similar to Joan but more self-assured, and despite her small role she honestly seemed more fully rounded as a character than Claudine.

[nautical-language]

Cowboy Carter - Why it matters that Beyonce finally won Album of the Year at the Grammy’s for this album, specifically.

I grew up listening to exclusively modern country and classic rock, genres which both owe their existence to Black people (and by Black I do mean African American) but have been whitewashed.

I have literally had Cowboy Carter on repeat since it came out; easily my favorite country album of all time, if not just my favorite album, period.

If you don’t wanna read it all, here’s the short version: Cowboy Carter is a truly seamless blend of country and other musical styles that pays homage to the genre’s greatest musicians and mirrors the ways Black music has transformed, and been transformed by, U.S. culture. Never forget: the only musical genres that were created in the U.S. (jazz, hip-hop, rock, country, and more) were created by Black people.

Although it’s a country album—and it IS, undeniably, a country album!—Cowboy Carter is structured like a classic hip-hop album, including an “anthem” song that intros and outros the album (“AMERIICAN REQIUEM”) and intermissions where other famous stars of the country genre dap up Queen Bey.

Specifically, white country music legends Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton introduce the album/songs. That’s not just significant because they’re white or because they’re genre icons, but ALSO because they are icons of the country music era that—while predominantly white—actually still focused on the OG working class, blue collar themes of the genre. (Explaining how country music has changed over time is something I can’t even get into here, but the point is that Beyonce had white authentic country music legends introduce her album, as opposed to modern country music stars. It legitimizes the album as a country album the same way having a more famous rapper introduce your song/album would legitimize it as true rap.)

The first half of Cowboy Carter is much more “classically country,” while the second half is a bolder blend of country with other genres. In the intermission where Willie Nelson introduces the back half of the album, he literally says, “I’m here because sometimes it takes someone you trust to turn you onto some real good shit.” It’s this beautiful moment of authentic artistry and cultural exchange, because not only is Willie Nelson introducing white country lovers to Black music, Beyonce has also introduced Black r&b/hip-hop/rap fans to country music.

People who think Beyonce did a country album to prove she can cross genres like taylor swift are completely missing the point. First of all, Cowboy Carter is the second in a planned album trilogy, with each album paying homage to a different musical genre/group of genres created by Black people. The first installment was Renaissance, a trap/house album. Beyonce had originally planned to start the trilogy with Cowboy Carter, but chose to release Renaissance first in 2022 because she felt like “people needed to dance.”

As part of Beyonce’s career, Cowboy Carter also exists in a very specific context: https://www.vulture.com/article/beyonce-cmas-the-chicks-oral-history.html. After all the shit that happened during and after Beyonce’s performance of “Daddy Lessons” at the 2016 CMAs, “Cowboy Carter” didn’t even get NOMINATED at this year’s CMAs (and then it won this year’s grammy for best country album AND album of the year, so FUCK those racist assholes). Beyonce literally referenced the 2016 CMAs in the instagram post announcing Cowboy Carter.

In my mind, Billboard and the CMAs snubbing Lil Naz X’s wildly popular “Old Town Road” in 2019 must’ve only added fuel to the fire.*

So the planned album trilogy — and, of course, Cowboy Carter in particular — are a reaction to the whitewashing of genres created by Black people and the cultural appropriation that happens when modern Black artists are excluded from the genres they/their predecessors created.

*Note that Beyonce paired up with Miley Cyrus for “II MOST WANTED” on Cowboy Carter. Why would that matter? Because Miley’s dad is country artist Billy Ray Cyrus, who was notably one of the only modern white country musicians to publicly condemn the industry for its treatment of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” to the point that Billy Ray Cyrus literally did a version of Old Town Road with Lil Nas X as a way of legitimizing the song as real country music.

Other standout moments on the album—and these are just the ones I’ve caught:

-“BLACKBIIRD” (2nd song on the album) has Beyonce and 4 other, less well-known WOC cover the beatles’ “Blackbird,” which Paul McCartney wrote in honor of the Black women of the U.S. civil rights movement.

-At the end of “DAUGHTER,” Beyonce seamlessly transitions into the operatic aria “Caro Mio Ben.” If that doesn’t tell you what a flawless genre-blender this album is, I don’t know what will.

-Track 10 is “JOLENE,” which is Beyonce’s version of Dolly Parton’s song of the same name. Beyonce’s cover directly mirrors the way white artists took over the country music genre by covering and sampling songs originally created by Black artists.

-Every single track is a bop, but IMO, the album’s crowning achievement is “YA YA.” The song is amazing, and my favorite moment is when Beyonce does an impression of Elvis, who built his reputation as the King of Rock and Roll by doing an impression of Chuck Berry. “YA YA” features samples from country songs created or made famous by white artists (“These Boots Are Made For Walking” by Nancy Sinatra and “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys, plus a ton of other references—literally just go read YA YA’s Genius page), once again intentionally subverting the phenomenon of white artists covering Black artist’s music and receiving greater acclaim.

[alexanderwales]

One of the more pointlessly frustrating things that ever happened to me was getting an email that told me I was switching cell phone carriers. The email just said "Notice: Your Verizon Wireless service is transitioning to AT&T". This was back in 2010, when that was a slightly bigger deal, since LTE wasn't widely available in the United States at the time. Verizon was using one standard, AT&T was using the other, and most phones could not switch between the two because they required fundamentally different hardware.

The email said that they were going to get me a new phone, and that my Verizon plan would become an AT&T plan in some kind of bastardized version of grandfathering, without changing the rate I was paying.

It did not explain to me why this was happening, or how, and I didn't find out until later, in spite of a few emails inquiring what the fuck they thought they were doing.

This was the biggest pain in the ass I have ever experienced. I was one of a group of people this was happening to, but it was a small group of mostly rural customers, and between the time I'd signed up with Verizon and when the switch happened, I had moved away from where virtually all the other customers were. I had no way of knowing this at the time, but it meant that when I went to the AT&T store, they had not had any training whatsoever in what was supposed to happen. They didn't believe me until I showed them the documentation, and even then, I think they were a little skeptical. Managers were called.

Eventually I got it sorted out, but it was even more complicated than it needed to be because my dad had been the one to sign me up for the phone (I was in college at the time) and his name was the one on the account. He lived four hours away from me, and AT&T did not seem to know what to do about this whole thing.

But I did, eventually, learn how and why I was being made to switch carriers.

What had happened is that back in 2008, two years prior, Verizon announced that it was set to acquire Alltel. This would have created a monopoly (Alltel and Verizon were significant competitors), so the FCC required that part of Alltel would be spun off into its own company that would remain independent in order to ensure that there was market competition, particularly in rural areas. AT&T then snapped up some of the remaining pieces of Alltel. In theory this should not have affected me, because I was a Verizon customer, not an Alltel or AT&T customer.

So what happened to me was more complicated.

As background, the FCC divides cell phone markets into Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), which are then either Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) or Rural Service Areas (RSAs). There are about 750 total CMAs in the United States.

Back in 2005, Alltel acquired Midwest Wireless Holdings. There was a consent decree in 2006 that required them to divest markets that would have been anticompetitive, and four of those RSAs were then snatched up by Rural Cellular Corporation. Rural Cellular was then bought by Verizon in 2009.

So there was one single RSA, out of 750 in the United States, which was covered by the Alltel/Midwest consent decree and the Alltel/Verizon consent decree, and for all this merger madness to go ahead, it was agreed that Verizon could acquire everything in that RSA conditional on "prompt redivestiture" to a buyer approved by the DOJ. Most of these customers would go from being Alltel customers to being customers of someone else, not Verizon, but Verizon did also have to give up some of their own original customers.

Here is the punchline: the Department of Justice, in order to promote competition in the free market, forced me to change carriers to someone I did not choose for myself. Like if I was about to go to Burger King and they forced me to go to McDonald's instead so that there would be "fair competition". Absolutely ludicrous, at least from my perspective.

Anyway, this was all back in 2010, so ... thanks, Obama.

[lastoneout]

finding out the grammys denied this for the country category makes me so FUCKING mad like give me names I swear to god I'll fuckin- *I am dragged off stage kicking and screaming and snarling*

listening to the version of 'Daddy Lessons' that Beyonce did with The Chicks and like I need someone to come scrape my ass off the floor I am a changed person what the FUCK

[killsandthrills]

beyonce just won best country album at the grammys… they really said fuck the cmas lmao

[mariacallous]

Ticketmaster has a dream. A dream that one day, it will be “pleased to have partnered with” your child’s school, making it “easier for you to buy tickets” to the nativity play. Which will henceforth be known as the nativity experience. But listen – Ticketmaster wants to make the whole process run more smoothly, freeing you up to connect with the performers you love (your kids) while being “gifted” the paper cup that forms part of the package in these platinum seats (the tiny chairs from the classroom).

No, none of the standard seat tickets are still available. But you can upgrade to the ultimate VIP package, meaning you have access to the Bethlehem lounge (the reception reading corner) an hour before the event. If you want to experience magic this Christmas, do remember to clear all cookies, have only one tab open, and prepare nevertheless to be ejected from the queue four hours in after being accused of being a computer, by a computer.

So yes: Ticketmaster. After the Oasis tickets horror show last weekend, the row about the ticketing website this week developed into such a horror show that you could probably sell tickets to it. And if you could, Ticketmaster surely would, having previously handled ticketing for such fan-facing events as the crucifixion and French Revolution guillotinings (mandatory purchase from one of our knitting concessions). Sadly, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) doesn’t seem to recognise that rich heritage, opting to launch an investigation into Ticketmaster over Oasis ticket sales, “including how so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ may have been used”. Sarcastic scare-quotes: the CMA’s own.

I’m not saying the ticketing websites are quite simply the worst people in the world, even though I’d quite like to provoke Ticketmaster’s lawyer into writing a cease-and-desist letter listing much worse people from the 20th and 21st centuries. Listen, I already love this notional lawyer. Like a lot of people who draw a salary in his stratum of reality-laundering, he possibly tells himself he works in respectable business, but may be better off informing his parents he works in a more popular trade, like puppy-drowning or journalism.

Now, there are some companies in this world of ours that love to be talked about. But a feature of ticketing companies is that they don’t want anyone talking about them, because if people are talking, the talking is always bad. Nobody goes through a ticket purchase these days and wants to sing its praises. They get to the final scene of an absolute ring quest of an attempt to see an artist/show/ballgame they like, are faced with the last-minute news that, actually, their ticket is going to cost nearly three times as much as they thought, cycle through the five stages of grief while a little counter threatens to time them out, decide to pay the extra, and are left staring at the success screen thinking: “Fucking Ticketmaster.”

Obviously, it’s better if they say this on their own. Unfortunately for Ticketmaster, more and more people are saying it out loud, some of whom are the UK culture secretary, others of whom are the CMA, and the last of whom is the US attorney general, who in May launched a lawsuit against LiveNation-Ticketmaster seeking to break it up on grounds of “monopolisation and other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the live entertainment industry”.

What its Department of Justice detractors don’t love about the firm is its ability to dictate to every part of the entertainment supply chain, from venues to artists to promoters, and that’s before you get into its role in the resale market. Unsurprisingly, this is not the vibe you get from the Ticketmaster website, which is a masterclass in that very particular self-pitying corporate tone. “The fees we charge,” it quavers, “are often the only revenue we get for making sure you can get the tickets to the events you love.” Oh no! Who’ll spare a thought for poor old Ticketmaster, simply trying to connect fans with their beloved artists, and surviving only on the coins thrown into its begging bowl? Counterpoint: this is a vast international firm headquartered in Beverly Hills, currently worth an estimated $22bn.

That’s enough cash to make you the proud licensee of some ultra-high-end euphemisms. “Processing fee”, “service fee”, “delivery fee” – truly it has 100 ways of saying “because-we-can fee”. If that feels like you accepting a wage for your job, then charging your boss a supplementary “doing my job” fee each time you feel you’re doing your job … try it, see how you get on! The fact is, Ticketmaster fees can be as high as 75% of the base price of the ticket. Arguably the worst euphemism of them all is “dynamic pricing”, which sounds buzzy and energetic, and something we’d all like to be involved in, until you realise that it means the £148 ticket you queued for hours for now costs £355 – and your favourite artist agreed it all via their management. Whatever they may now say (��Shut up”, in the case of Liam Gallagher.)

In the end, like most things with the word “experience” tacked on to them these days, the “fan experience” has become a soul-swallowing submission to getting rinsed and having to look grateful. But with so many hares now running on Ticketmaster and the practices of the wider ticketing industry, it would be nice to think we might be closer to better regulation in the interests of the customer. Record numbers of fans would buy tickets to that.

[freightertonowhere]

Beyonce wins the Grammy for best country album! A win for artistry and pettiness! Fuck the cmas!