Prince's death killed the boards

[Mike]

Everyone's too depressed by the news to participate anymore today?

C'mon... I got us new memorial avatars. Anyone can have one. It'll get better. I promise.

Hey... wanna go for ice cream? Would that make you feel better? Oh, there it is! There's that smile!

[Elle]

Oh Mike, the memorial avatars. I have not seen mine yet but will, after this post. I really do find it too upsetting to talk about. I feel like his death was unnatural.

[Cazmonster]

I was asleep for most of the hoo-hah. Now I'm up and I'm posting at work, like always.

[Elle]

Something in the milk ain't clean.

[poorpete]

Love Symbol #2. Prince I've always admired but I feel is similar to some of the great modern rappers, who are wordsmiths, great with flow, have great producers, but in the end, a little to explicit about sex for my tastes. Thoughts?

Favorite of his lyrics: "Would you let me dress you-- I mean help you pick out your clothes before we go out"

[Mike]

I'm a fan of explicit. I'm a fan of dirty.

Prince was an incredible talent and a sexy motherfucker.

When I was in high school and college, girls would talk about how sexy Prince was, especially after Purple Rain. I was baffled by that at the time. I didn't get the appeal until much later. But I always loved his music.

[Elle]

Everybody I see is wearing purple - it is truly astonishing and lovely.

[buckett]

Prince owned.

Everyone's probably watched this a billion times by now but I love him just annihilating the stage for this George Harrison tribute:

[Elle]

I made the terrible mistake of reading articles about Prince and watching some of the clips on news shows paying tribute to his life and music. I was left feeling this gloomy pessimism about humanity. Here are two stories: one is that a man of small stature, who is a very talented musician inspired by musicians from all genres, comes of age in a time when eyeliner and blouses are fashionable for men, exactly as they should be for all time henceforth. Maybe some people think that looks queer or gay, but he doesn't care. Not that he dislikes queer or gay people - he's tolerant of everyone but happens to be straight and also very religious. He looks however he feels like looking, and anyone with a modicum of taste grasps that his choices of appearance are universally amazing. His lyrics and intense personal presence are sexually charged, which causes some degree of fanning and pearl clutching. For others, we just collectively realize that the man is the walking embodiment of sexy. Because of this, and his songs about sex, people often assume that all his songs are sexual even when they are religious. He loves the baby Jesus and thus often speaks about his efforts to love humanity. He's a talented and flashy performer and a true original, so everyone takes note. His talent continues to grow and eventually everyone, fan or no, has to recognize. He is from Minnesota so he likes living there. He builds a completely kickass house where he does all kinds of awesome things that anyone would want to do if transformed into a multimillionare. He doesn't seek the limelight when he's not on stage; he disagrees with the way major labels treat the artists who create the music and is willing to take extreme measures to dissociate himself from that bullshit. People find this weird, but whatever, he's a man of sound principles and he sticks to them. People think he's all weird and private, except that he is continually inviting people up to his kickass house, constantly collaborating with all sorts of artists in all musical genres, and he seems like a completely humble, humorous, soft-spoken, pleasant natured person in every single interview you can find with him. He's a strict vegan and doesn't indulge in drinking and drug abuse, perhaps because, as he discloses to the public, alcoholism and domestic violence were problems he experienced in his childhood. He is married a few times; he suffers the tragic loss of his child to a rare disorder and also his wife's miscarriage, at least once. Eventually he gets old. He has health problems. Maybe he's even taking medicine for his health problems. He gets really sick, or maybe the medicines interact poorly or something, and he goes to the hospital in an emergency. His privacy can't be respected at the hospital (as subsequent events prove absolutely correct) so he leaves, continues to take treatment for whatever illness, whether long term, short term, or both, and unfortunately, ends up dying at home alone. (And here Elle inserts her crazy paranoid theories about how They sacrificed him for their April 20-21 night event, in the damn elevator, because... the elevator, and he was vulnerable, and they hated him because they couldn't ever control him.)

Here is the TMZ/Media/Other Humans I Loathe version of that same story, which you will find all around the internets and any other form of media you have the misfortune not to avoid: Weird little introverted "effete" (I quote, yes) dude is either gay and/or willing to exploit the gay culture to fuel his rise to andryogynous pop stardom. His music is entirely sexual. Songs like I Would Die 4 U are a testament not to the baby Jesus but to his bisexual androgynous lust. (Note Elle has rage stroke somewhere in this vicinity, but recovers enough to write this.) But after achieving pop stardom and dating a lot of women as well as Boy George, he freaks out and goes into seclusion in his compound in Minnesota (which happens to be right there on a main street), even though it is no secret exactly where he lives and he interacts relatively normally with the people in his local community all the time. But no, he is an "intensely private person" in a strange way because he refuses to discuss sordid details of his life in public. Who would live in Minnesota, anyway? More proof of how freaking weird and reclusive he is - there are no people there! He is a Jehovah's Witness, which is a really, really weird way to love the Baby Jesus and he even has the audacity to talk to interviewers about the Bible. He is also a terrible hypocrite because we all know he is gay and has AIDS. If you doubt it, just look at the way this dude dressed! The eyeliner alone impossible for any straight man. His pouty lips, God-given, were surely a sign of his gayness. He was TINY. He even wore high heels. We have gender norms to uphold, damn it, even though we are outraged that due to his weird religiosity he was homophobic - a self-hating gay. Despite his public persona of being a vegan teetotaler, he is secretly a drug addict, has an overdose due to his addiction, lies about it being flu-related, and then dies of another overdose a few days later.

Basically, anyone who tells the latter story in any of its parts or forms is my sworn Enemy.

[Elle]

[akiva]

I'm not a Prince fan--not my style of music--but the guy was crazy talented. A lot of people whose taste in music I respect loved him. And Mike Watt came out singing Prince's praises. So I'm sad; it doesn't matter that it's not my thing.

Although I have been singing a bit of "1999" in the last day or so.

And Elle, you're damned right.

[Zen]

[Tahlvin]

And it's weird that he died so recently after we had the discussion about the tafkap emoticon.