Someone just asked the opposite of this question here and I was wondering if there are cases were you’re just not interested in something but you know the community is great nonetheless.
For me it’s Metal music. It’s just absolutely not my genre but an overwhelming amount of metalheads I met were just the nicest, most wholesome and fun people all around.
We trash and bash in the mosh pitts, and get out our aggression. But if someone falls, you YANK them up. Many times I’ve fallen, and then suddenly felt myself lifted high into the air by the hand of god. Then I can see who lifted me, and it turns out it wasn’t god. It was a long haired, bearded, tattood muscleman. Which makes sense. I’m like 300lbs. If you’re suddenly yanking me up effortlessly, you’re a big muscle man. And then there’s other times I see women fall. I yank them up. I’m doing the right thing, I KNOW I’m doing the right thing, but the whole time I’m just like “Sorry sorry sorry sorry.” because you don’t aim where you grab. You grab and yank up, by whatever you can. You don’t want the pitt to come her way and stomp her head, not knowing she exists down there. So yank, but also “Sorry sorry sorry sorry”. I’ve yet to have any women mad at me for doing it, they get it, but MAN it feels weird just grabbing a woman like that.
Pushing, shoving, looks like a massive fist fight but it’s all love. We’re trusting them with our life. They’re trusting us with theirs. We all get super violent, and have a good time. Then the show lets out, and we’re like “Oh, you wanna go get some late night eats? Anyone know a good gyro spot?”, and we’re just friendly for the rest of the day. We’re like the Canadians of music genres. Violent when we play, and friendly the rest of the time.
Funny. For me mosh pitts don’t have association with metal. I married an ozzy fan though.
Metal Heads will absolutely be your best friends in time of need. Need help moving a body, no questions asked? Call your metal friend.
There is research and papers showing that heavy music in general can actually be therapeutic and make someone calmer, rather than the perceived opposite effect. It can be a great outlet. I listen to metal, heavy music, all the time but when I have used it as a coping mechanism, i.e. an outlet for stress, it has definitely allowed me to release such tension. Not only that, but singing/screaming to vocals along to the music surely does release all of energy, and while there are outsiders who might perceive the music as ‘angry’ the incorrect connection they’re making is that anger is an energetic emotion, as in unreleased energy/tension. Metal isn’t angry music, it is energetic. That is why it makes such good workout music. It stimulates and satisfies that part of our lives, letting us be some of the ‘nicest, most wholesome and fun people all around’.
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And I’ve always loved that mostly the lyrics are not like a lot of music that is just… I love you, I stalk you, I am nothing without you … Puke
I’d believe the research on a heartbeat. I don’t listen to metal very often and I’m pretty picky about subgenres, but when I’m in a horrible terrible mood, I’ll slap on some of the hardest most pig squealing, swallowing the microphone, quadruple bass pedal stuff I can find. After an hour or so of that, I usually feel much better.
Metal and punk music, not my style but def my scene
Skateboarding/ bmx/ rollerblades / scooters- have a fucked up knee so I don’t like to anymore but I love the energy the crowd brings
Street racing- car scene is dying and wifey doesn’t let me any more 🙃
Graffiti art- I’m just bad at it
Furries - not my thing but they’re fun folks
Larping / roleplay/ dnd - same
I feel you on graffiti. I’m a halfway decent artist with a pen but that skill does NOT translate to the whole arm movements needed for can control
Smokers. They have decades of being able to strike up an angry conversation in a street with an absolute stranger, whilst never letting it escalate, because, fuckit, brotherhood of smokers.
Plus a healthy appreciation of nature. Sure you can smoke and look at your phone, but you still have to be outside and that means glancing up from time to time to look at the scenery, the night sky, to wave at your neighbours, etc.
Good people smokers, filthy habit.
(Vapers dont count, cos you can’t really share a vape concurrently. Also a lot of them take pride in their devices which I find weird. Real smokers have a decent sense of self-hatred at their habit)
Fuck yeah, I miss it. Smokers are my people. Risk takers, nihilists, indulgers, hedonists, adventurers, rebels, fun-havers… but I’ve gotten domesticated and want to live a long and clean life. Sigh.
Burn, Burn, Burn by Ronnie Elliott is now stuck in my head.
Disco inferno?
Same, but it’s not really living is it
It is and it isn’t. My current goals and priorities require as long of a horizon to accomplish them and as much focus as possible. Or do they? if I got back into the risky overdrive mode and accelerated full speed and full joy all at once…
Clement Freud said “You don’t live longer, it only seems longer.”
Not sure what kind of smokers you meet. The ones I have to deal with blow cancer in my face right next to children, get aggressive when I ask them not to, spit on the floor every 5s, throw their still lit cigs into trash bins or into nature and cant stop coughing on the train.
yeah and I have to say even nice smokers seem to have no issue with flicking their but when they are done. Anytime I see a smoker hold onto their but when there is not some sort of enforcement I am like. That person is the rare saint.
Ah yep, my people. The good ones can cast an indignant parent/kid-free zone up to 15m away. Solitary creatures by nature, they hunt in packs, and if you manage to friend one, you friend them for life.
I miss smoking so much. It really is an awesome habit. Or would be if not for the cancer, COPD, and financial ruin.
Old school vapers at least, ones that still roll their own coils and rewick their rebuildable atomizers, would almost always have a device that they have customized themselves, or gotten a very beautiful custom mod.
Also vaping is a bit different in that you could vape using a device akin to smoking, or you could be vaping up a storm cloud like a shisha or bing would, or anything in between.
It’s a personal thing. At least in the opinion if this vaper.
Oh yeah the vaping crowd is definitely creative, but they don’t share with strangers cos they physically can’t
My dad gave me advice a hundred years ago, and it’s probably a George Carlin bit or something, but there’s a difference in philosophy between drunks and stoners. A drunk will pound a beer, or sip from a personal flask, or bring their own six pack to a party. A stoner’s first impulse is to light a joint and find someone to pass it off to. It’s communal, and it brings others into the circle, where alcohol is isolating. Obviously it’s a generalization, but it sort of fits.
Real stoners always load a full bowl.
That sounds like Carlin, but Carlin dispensed much wisdom in his time.
My favorite story from Jack Marigold’s A Child’s Garden of Grass goes something like:
A drunk, an acidhead, and a pothead are walking through the woods. As it becomes evening, they come to a city surrounded by a wall, and in the wall is a closed door with a sign that reads: “This door is only open 9-5”. After knocking and getting no answer for a few minutes, the drunk shakes his fist and says, 'let’s smash the door down!" The acidhead peers at the doorknob for a few minutes and says, “let’s just float through the keyhole.” The pothead shakes his head and says, “naw, man; let’s just sit here and wait for it to open in the morning.”
I can’t handle pot; makes me super nauseous for the entire time I’m high. Always has. But I love the people.
Hmmm… Mayhap. IM(limited)E, there isn’t a lot of thinking going on, either.
My other favorite excerpt from ACGoG:
S: Are you hungry?
Y: No. Wait, do you mean hungry, like food, or hungry, like in a search for knowledge?
S: What the hell are you taking about?
Y: You asked if I was hungry.
S: Did I?
Y: Yes.
S: Well… are you?
Y: Am I what?I never claimed that the thoughts were always relevant to others.
The reason they don’t know what’s happening is because they’ve already moved on to thinking about other things. They’ve gone down a mental rabbit hole so fast, it’s going to take some time to get back to that conversation that was happening moments ago.
There’s also the going in got a glass of water and being found an hour later by your friend because you got such watching the sink drip :-)
I’m not down on potheads. They’re my favorite inebriated people. I wish I could join them on their journeys, but alas my genetics gifted me with a paradoxical reaction to THC.
it’s communal, and it brings others into the circle
As a big pot head I think this is the big point. If you see someone smoking, there’s a damn good chance they’ll let you take a smoke. But you gotta be careful, cause then you’re gonna be stuck into a 30 minute convo about nothing haha
I didn’t say “perfect chance” because one time I was in German outside a club and smelled someone smoking a joint so I mimed the smoking gesture and he called me a selfish American and then they all laughed at me haha. But then later that night they called me over to do a couple shots with them so ¯\(ツ)/¯
Furries are cool people
and the backbone of modern societyI was never into furry stuff, but I hung out with an online furry community way back in 2006. Furries are cool. Furryism is just not for me.
This. To be clear I have absolutely no problem with furries existing and I believe anything less than letting y’all be would be tantamount to treason.
But God damn I just cannot understand it. I don’t get it. And it weirds me out.
Like I said, I would actually fight to defend your right to wear your fur suit out in public. But I’m also going to make fun of you because man it’s just weird.
Although I did have a coworker (I work in IT so this isn’t actually that surprising) who was a furry and he tried to meow at me one time when I called his name. Don’t do that. That was weird. Just tell me what you did to fix the computer man.
Although I did have a coworker (I work in IT so this isn’t actually that surprising) who was a furry and he tried to meow at me one time when I called his name. Don’t do that. That was weird. Just tell me what you did to fix the computer man.
He did. What you don’t understand is that meowing at the problem is often the solution. If meowing doesn’t work, try barking.
I like furries because I appreciate modern technology. If all the furries went to lunch at the same time, we’d be eating each other in the streets before they made it to the diner.
Same, lots of great people and a nice community. As a whole, they’re very accepting folks too and have no problems with the respectful non-furs.
Books. I’m dyslexic as fuck but heavy readers are mostly chill people.
Ooohh ooh audio books are my bag baby yeah.
Podcasts too.
It’s all about timbre and accent. I could listen to the right voice read the phone book.
Ancient civilisations. Noiser network. Paul McGann is the Narrator.
One that’s less relevant now, but throughout my life has been relevant: Juggalos.
I was a big metalhead in school, and i had a bunch of juggalo friends. I liked a couple of their songs well enough, but I found the “culture” grating. Still, those mothafuckas were the most accepting and tolerant people I knew. Tolerant of anyone’s way of life, except they fucking hated bigots. In the 90s, being accepting of queer peeps really wasn’t in vogue (to put it lightly) but juggalos welcomed queer peeps as friends with open arms.
Lol same. Juggalos are just awesome and wholesome. The music is soooooo bad tho.
Hahaha yeeee bad… but sometimes very funny. “Fuckin magnets” is timeless
Alright. I looked up what you’re talking about. I believe your referencing the song Miracles. Which is wholesome AF and an absolute banger. 10/10. No notes
Here is the contemporary SNL parody, for the record XD
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=alI12mhWZ2Q&pp=ygUTc25sIG1pcmFjbGVzIHBhcm9keQ%3D%3D
Punk/Emo Style
Not particularly into guys, but I love women who are into them.
No, not really. Do you need a diagram and flowchart? 😁
(Come to think of it: An awesome use case for gen AI would be a bot that generates memes and weird images on demand)
(not my meme, but I’ll add) Some missing context - Professor Chang, pictured in the meme - is also shouting at something that clearly isn’t gay.
Professor Chang is essentially a continuous uncomfortable non-sequiter of nonsense.
Makes a lot more sense with the added context, thank you 😂
If you have never watched community, I am genuinely jealous of the adventure you have ahead of you. Phenomenal show all around! Except for Pierce, he’s a GDB.
I FUCKING HATE ketchup. I can’t tolerate the taste or the texture. But I recognize that people that love ketchup are not evil, just misguided.
Same, but with onions. I love ketchup.
Damn this hits. I just had a talk with a passenger (I drive Uber on the weekends) about not getting certain lauded artists. She is up there with Jackson Pollock & Andy Warhol for me.
I got one of those painting by Max (last name escapes me, but he’s the son of someone fairly famous) called night watch I first saw at the Norton in a tucked away hall way near the exit to the brick maze. It was all black and relied on texture. Sad, I think they since put it away.
Edit: could not have been more wrong. It was Jimmy , son of Max Ernst.
No I think him and the dad are still alive. I know he is at the very least.
Edit: I could not have been more wrong in this comment.
Oh cause of the paintings name! Yeah, remember doing a report on it for my art class in the community college. And I had to special request a proper scan be done on it, I don’t think I ever got a response.
Ok so the flood of memories was so strong I actually got ahold of a curator at the Norton, and together we pieced together all the information.
The artist is Jimmy Ernst of Max Ernst fame who was also associated with Dorothea Tanning.
The title is “night watch”
And the curator who helped me track it down is currently corresponding with her superior to send me a quality digital scan, but I may need to fill out some paperwork before I am allowed to share it.
Thank you so much for the nostalgia over load, and convincing me to do some fucking legwork to track it down. I’ll update you with what I can in the coming days!
Two hours later and no response. Much like my inquiry a decade ago…
Dudes that are into piss
the entire point of the thread
You should read the NOFX autobiography, the open line is…
The first time I drank piss was on a fire escape overlooking downtown Los Angeles.
I am not a fan of the hardcore heavy/death metal music itself; but the metalheads are awesome people. The more unintelligible and scary/evil sounding the music, the nicer the crowd. It’s weird and cool and funny.
Metalheads. The nicest people in the world cosplaying as the toughest.
I’ve seen more than a couple hold their own in fights. Nice ≠ incapable of appropriate violence. Also not saying that is what you’re saying, but the “cosplaying” bit had me feeling some kinda way. 🤘
And there’s science backing that up!
Well you can’t just say that and not give me a link, you’ve piqued my curiosity
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6skS2Ur2bNG5rsBtuQDJpB
It’s all in this podcast epi but if you don’t want to listen, the name of the prof is there too
Yes I meet tons of people going to metal shows! They’re all very nice
Pineapple on pizza. You’re wrong and I wanna fight you but we can still be friends and have a good time over drinks.
No I am not wrong. And I can raise you with pineapple on burger.
But have you tried pizza on pineapple? A grilled pineapple slice with all of your pizza toppings on it.
Grilled pineapple on a burger.
This is gonna be just like my buddy at my old job where it became an office-wide (joke) rift and everybody took sides and anytime someone new joined we’d ask them which side they were on and there was much hemming and hawing on Slack.
Sex. Neurodivergent/nerd social circles often have a lot of kink/BDSM and otherwise sex positive people, so my friends group is pretty open about sex.
I’m on the asexual spectrum and would rather forget that sex is a thing, but I love my friends and as long as everyone is consenting and safe, I’m happy for them. I sometimes get awkward when sex convos happen around me, but hey, I get awkward with many other convos too.
I’m a part of the wrong nerd circles. Most of mine consist of one token furry, a couple lbgtqia+'s, an aging jock who clearly hasn’t grown up since highschool(but they were pretty cool in highschool as well) and a weirdly successful dude who you would never guess it. I don’t think any of them talked about sex with one another.
So there’s a lot of research suggesting neurodivergence has strong correlation with LGBT+ and there’s some indicating the BDSM correlation (not saying they are the same/related, but people who are in touch with themselves enough to identify as LGBT+ are more likely to be open about sexuality in general in my experience). It’s so present in my various social circles that I’ve connected nerd & neurodivergent and thought of those as the common factor.
But I realize there’s another commonality I hadn’t considered: they’re very community-oriented and attend community gatherings. There are three groups I’m thinking of: one has a ton of burners (not actually Burning Man, but smaller local variants), another are Quakers (and more specifically those who attend large regional/national gatherings), and the last are people who religiously attend DragonCon.
Maybe that has more to do with the sex-positivity and openness than the nerd piece? I don’t know. I just know I’m surrounded by it somehow, lol.