MURRCHER IDOL 2: AGE OF THE MERMICORNS GT2 (finale/WINNER REVEALED)

First up is Pete:


Pete:
The Clash - Combat Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk1QnHpE88E&index=1&list=PLw8I74P--tlWCqPPE0R4TqBWNYFgYxw2F

"Know Your Rights"
Murr: I'm thinking my format here will be shortish commens for each song, follow by a longer rant at the end, just so I can listen straight through. lol @ Cherry not being familiar with this album. It's been years since I've listened to it. Wasn't crazy about The Clash back then, but I've liked them more in bits and pieces since, so this should be interesting. I like that it's just kind of violent and shouty. And the guitar has a nice cut to it. Makes up for the reggae-ish groove.

Cher: Guys, I have a document on my laptop where I have put all of my comments for every round I hosted of both this season and last season, and the document is currently 68 pages, haha. Anyway, album time! I put yours first because I don’t know your album, and I already know I like the other two  Obviously I know who The Clash are, but it’s not something I listen to much. Cute that you told me this was one of the first albums you bought as a young teenager. I wasn’t even born when this came out  you are such a sexy old man. Anyway, his voice reminds me of someone else’s, but I can’t think of who or whatever. I kinda like the music for this one, it’s not like a OMG attention grabbing song, but it’s not bad.

"Car Jamming"
Murr: Lauren Bacall in a car jam! I will say that punk political songs were far more biting and clever than hippie political songs, generally speaking. Thought this lacked a little power in the beginning, but as it went on it had a pleasant feel. Didn't want it to end, especially given...

Cher: I like the title of this one. Let’s jam in your car, bro. This song is a little bit faster than the first one. Omg is he singing about hyenas? That’s fun. I don’t know. I mean like...this isn’t torture to listen to, but the other two literally both sent albums that are on my CHERRY TOP TEN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME list so like...if you make it to the finals, it’s purely based on Murr. That said, this song isn’t bad for something from the 80’s 

"Should I Stay or Should I Go"
Murr: I think this is the song that first mad me sneer at The Clash. I remember my first trip to Bell Buckle, TN (some bluegrass mecca), this came on the radio as we were pulling up, which I thought was apt at first. Cool town, though. Anyway... not crazy about this song.

Cher: I know this one! Haha. This is actually a pretty cool song, sorta sexy, haha. It’s super catchy, and I do like the music, the part where it starts to speed up is great. Also, I like how he is describing a conundrum. Also, I always want you to stay, Pete  someday you will come to America and respond to my advances in an appropriate (or...maybe inappropriate xoxo) manner

Neil:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9eNQZbjpJk&list=PLJNbijG2M7Oxi67PuOajK3Y0DR1WtoVqq

"Around the World"
Murr: Another album I haven't listened to in ages. From what I remember, I LOVE some of these songs, and HATE others. In fact, you know when people always talk about skipping certain songs on an album? I never understood that, always listened to albums all the way through... until this. That said, it does have some of my all-time favorite RHCP songs, so this should be interesting. Anyway, definitely a great opening track... Does he even know wtf he's rapping/singing about, aside from the chorus? I like how it's kind of just the opening to an adventure... like, you know when you read a fantasy/adventure book, and on the first page it shows a map of the land? This song is the map to the album's adventure book.

Cher: I’m guessing you sent this because you know I like it, and it’s one of the few things you know that I like, that you actually know and like yourself, haha. This is on my top 10 albums of all time list, this album is like, really important to me actually, because well, one it’s one of those albums where it’s pretty much good from start to finish, but also because it is one of the first albums that I like, seriously got into. Like there’s the pop albums you buy when you’re young and are like AMG BRITNEY

Jesse:
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, Its Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GHyLhbdzN0&list=PL3ZK2vfURtSnumbQcfu3jRtwEdX0RGGvx&index=1

At the Bottom of Everything
Murr: I love these weird little Conor intros. It's kind of a given that you'll get first place this round. So, congrats in advance! I've loved Bright Eyes since I was kid, when all these dumb girls made me listen to him and I thank them for that. Not the best Bright Eyes song, but such a fantastic intro to this particular album (and yes, still very good). We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge!

Cher: I love the beginning of this song, so much. Like it’s just so conversational, like he’s casually telling a story. Then like...when the plane starts to crash, the idea of this intelligent older man who had zero interest in making small talk with the woman next to him previously, just comforting this woman because she is panicking as they are going down, it’s just so kind. Then the airplane story just kind of intertwines with the rest of the song, like it’s cynical and bleak, “we must memorize 9 numbers and deny we have a soul” but the music is so upbeat. Like it’s so...positive and hopeful sounding, “and they splashed into the deep blue sea, it was a wonderful splash!” Like so charming, as if he’s describing a dolphin splashing around, only you know, IT’S A PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE SPLASHING. “And then when we get down to the bottom of everything, we’ll see it, we’ll see it, we’ll see it!” Such happiness, about a plane crashing and the realization that you are no one in the world.

We Are Nowhere and Its Now
Murr: I've never understood people who actually like the taste of alcohol. Something must be wrong of them. "Why are you scared to dream of God?" "As we move over the ground, and all day it seems we've been in between a past and future town". And now the big lift, here we go... That yellow bird! He comes in again over the course of this album... maybe it's a concept album about a yellow bird.

Cher: This song has a completely different sound from the one before it, none of the upbeatness of it, but the themes are kind of the same, being nowhere fits in with the realization of being no one. There are so many lines I love in this song “you see stars that clear have been dead for years but the idea just lives on” and “like a 10 minute dream in the passenger seat while world goes flying by, I haven’t been gone very long, but it feels like a lifetime.” Then the part about the waitress at the diner...like that’s just a thing, like there are people you can see out in the world and like...you might notice that they seem upset but you don’t say anything, either because you don’t actually care enough, or because it’s not your place, or whatever. But she turns the jukebox on for him, so it’s like you do what you can, without having to say anything to these people you know, but not really. Then the whole part about the yellow bird at the end is also really lovely.

Old Soul Song
Murr: I love this song, but it's so precious. Kind of like the fantasy your dumb 20-year-old self wants to live... "On the way home, I held your camera like a Bible". So stupid, but so satisfying and lovely and, in some weird way, meaningful. Yeah, they go wild...

Cher: “On the way home, held your camera like a bible, wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth. And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room, you dropped the paper in the water and it all begins to bloom” I really like that a lot, like the idea of trying to find some kind of meaning and truth in these photographs. “And when I get so lonesome I can’t speak, I see some flowers on the hillside like a wall of new TVs...yeah they go wild” just a really cool image or whatever, watching these images from what is going on inside your head.

Lua
Murr: Supposedly this song gets sent all the time, according to Cherry, but I don't recall ever judging it - I think I judged a cover once, but that's it. Haha it was mostly in the Natcher days it got sent all the time, and the first couple seasons of Cherry Idol...by the time you came around to judge I had already started banning it lolz Yes, it's one of Bright Eyes' more popular songs, I'm supposed to be all "ew, it's so overplayed, but I actually love this song. "But me, I'm not a gamble; you can count on me to split..." I actually have some anecdotes for this song, but... meh. Sorry, Chairy. Truly beautiful, though. "I got a flask inside my pocket, we can share it on the train; and if you promise to stay conscious, I will try to do the same..."

Okay since all albums have a different number of songs, all songs were scored individually, then all scores will be added up, and divided by the number of songs on the album.

Pete's average: 7.2 + 6.5 = 13.7

Neil's average: 8.3 + 6.1 = 14.4

Jesse's average: 9.15 + 8.45 = 17.6


Which means that Pete, you have received the lowest score and are Murrcherliminated  We both adore you, so you should probably sit alone in a corner for the rest of the week, thinking about how you let us down, and the ways to do better next time in every way, xoxo.



As for Jesse and Neil, congratulations on making the final two, gentleman! Please behave, both of you. xoxo.

Murr has some stuff to post.


At once I knew I was not magnificent

The seas are even higher today, with the smell of driftwood permeating everything. In the midst of this disaster, you can feel the inventions of the coming age: the air filled with fog, the anemones of tidepools now far submerged.

I've escaped further inland, though I don't know if "escape" is the right word. I've come here merely to watch the inevitable play out slowly, methodically, as though it were God's design all along. To rush it, to be overwhelmed by the rising waves, in just an instant... what a loss, what cruelty to this creator, to not bear witness to mankind's last show - our great demise.

The Mermicorns have arrived, have pulled back the shroud hiding their civilization and are claiming what Creation has given them once again. Since the days of Pangaea, they've lied in wait... and now, to claim their world - perhaps our world. It's beautiful to live, and perhaps, die through this.

Still, I sometimes see the hint of tears in their eyes - the same tears, I can only imagine, they shed when the Mahabharata unfolded with the destruction Mohenjo Daro so many millennia ago - the same tears they've shed every time mankind has led to its own undoing. For their glory does not overshadow their compassion for lesser beings.

A wave is coming, I can feel it. Soon, we'll be just anemones, yet Lyonesse and Atlantis will rise. The age of the Mermicorns is here, and their magnificience... O! how magnificent they are! Hail the Mermicorns!

THE MURRCHER FINALE, THE END OF IMDb, THE MERMICORNS RISE!

First, I would like to thank everyone who participated in this game. And thank you, Cherry, for co-hosting it with me. Also, to make this a special event - the last Idol game in IMDb history, I'm pleased to announce we have a guest judge. Please welcome the great, the wise, the powerful, the champion of MurrCher Idol season 1... WOLFNAT!!!

Now... your final themes! Lucky Round 13!

13A: Superheroes

This theme is courtesy of Natwolf. Send a song about a superhero. It needs to be an actual superhero, with some comic book/literary/etc... precedent. Not just some random person with powers. "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down is banned so hard. If you even try to send it, I'll deduct 10 points from your score. Seriously.

13B: Valtari

Send a song from Sigur Ros' album, "Valtari". Simple enough. This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and now, you get to cater to me. Thanks! http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/sigur_ros/valtari/

13C: Unicorn

A magical album, from T. Rex when they were still Tyrannosaurus Rex... before the platforms, glitter, and electric guitars, Marc Bolan was a precociously mystical folk darling, and this album is the best representation of that era. Not the best representation of T. Rex as a whole, but the album title - and several of the songs - fit the themes of this game very well. So, send a song from Tyrannosaurus Rex's 1969 album, "Unicorn". http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/tyrannosaurus-rex/unicorn/

13D: Music of the 1920s and 1930s

It's an era generally long forgotten in Idol games, but one of my favorites. Exciting time for the Berlin scene, modernist "classical", blues, jazz, etc... If you send a song, if must have been recorded between 1920 and 1939; if you send a classical piece, *ideally* send something recorded during that era, but it must have at least been composed during that era.


13E: Songs for Cherry...***

Not as simple as the title suggests. Last season, we did a theme, "Songs Cherry and Murr Hate", in which the scores were inverted - you wanted the lowest score possible. For example, if I scored it a 2, that effectively be an 8. For this theme, you should know our likes and dislikes, and where our tastes differ. So, send a song THAT CHERRY LOVES BUT THAT I HATE! Cherry's score will be standard (if she scores it a 10, you get a 10), but my scores will be inverted. Basically, you want to send a song that shows where our tastes differ... something she loves, but something I hate.

13F: Songs for Murr...***

Same as above, but for this one, you want to send something that I'll love but that Cherry will hate. My score will be standard, her score will be inverted.

***For themes 13E and 13F, only Cherry and I will judge. Keep that in mind.

And, the final theme (lucky 7)...

13G: Departure

Arthur Rimbaud is one of my favorites poets, and I've wanted to do this theme for ages. It's a broad theme, and very interpretative...
Departure

Enough seen. Vision met in every air.
Enough had. Murmurs of cities, evening, and in the sun, and always.
Enough known. Life's stops. O Sound and Vision!
Depart in new affection and new noise.
-- http://zonefornone.blogspot.com/2006/06/translation-of-arthur-rimbaud-by.html

It seems apt, both for the theme of this game, and for IMDb going bye-bye. Send a song that reflects your interpretation of that poem. I realize this is a very interpretive theme, so you have a lot of rope. If it looks like you've made an effort, I'll accept it - if you choose to take this as "song of choice" and send in the Spice Girls' "Wannabe", I will not accept it.

Also, for this theme (and only this theme), everyone who participated in the game will have the option to judge, as one last hurrah. I will be sending songs for this theme to everyone who's been eliminated from this game - they will each judge on a scale of 1-5 (NOT 1-10). Whoever's scores I get in the allotted amount of time will factor into your scores. However, if I get the impression the didn't actually listen to the songs, or guessed at who sent what and scored based on that, I'll toss their scores.

And that's that. Send songs to me at your earliest convenience. Congrats on making the final 2, and good luck to both of you!

Congrats to Neil and Jesse for making Final 2. Thanks to Murr and Cherry for hosting. I was unable to send my favourite album for copyright reasons, but still felt confident with The Clash......but it wasn't to be.

As for the teenager I was, listening to that album...well, I like to think I was too cool for words, but in reality, I was the guy with odd tastes in music (The Clash, The Jam and lots of sixties stuff) lol Should i Stay Or Should I Go was, and still is, one of my all-time favourites. Should I ever travel to the States, Wisconsin will be high on my list of places to visit, for sure.....and not just to see The Fonz statue !!

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

Good game, Pete. Can't believe I made the final of this. Without doubt the hardest idol game I've ever played and these final themes, help someone?? 

I'll try to make a contest of it but this is way beyond me.

Murr, is that another easter egg you posted on your profile? Plese no, not for the final lol.

 #VivaLaIMDb Games: Other Games. You will be missed!

Pete, you never said what your favorite is, I'm curious.

Lol why did you feel confident with The Clash though? It wasn't bad, but it's not something either of us have expressed a huge love for. Final three, you go big or go home 

Also the Fonz statue is in my city! I have a pic of myself standing with him somewhere hahaha.

At once I knew I was not magnificent