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COMETBUS #54 Green Day In China?!


GDM

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In all honesty, the whole superfan controversy never even occurred to me until I came on the Internet. I truly didn't notice anything at all. I shrugged it off as another semi-judgmental Aaron moment. It was quite interesting to read about everyone's take on that bit, though.

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Also, am I the only person who considers the "only the craziest of superfans would recognize the Big Three" line to be completely tongue-in-cheek? If you read the context around that remark, it's clearly meant to be sarcastic.

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Also, am I the only person who considers the "only the craziest of superfans would recognize the Big Three" line to be completely tongue-in-cheek? If you read the context around that remark, it's clearly meant to be sarcastic.

I didn't catch that at first, but it does make sense now

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Also, am I the only person who considers the "only the craziest of superfans would recognize the Big Three" line to be completely tongue-in-cheek? If you read the context around that remark, it's clearly meant to be sarcastic.

You are NOT the only person who read it that way! I thought - wow - that sounds like the kind of thing I might say - just being silly.

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Good, so I'm not crazy. I just read right through it, sorta laughed a bit in my head, and then continued. And then I did a double take and I was like "wait, THAT'S what people got upset about? That was a fucking joke!" :lol:

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Taken by itself it could be a joke, but in conjunction with the other passage, and Aaron's actions at the last Pinhead show, it didn't work out as a joke to some.

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What'd he do at the Pinhead show?

Ancient history, but he treated many of the female fans who came to the show because of Billie Joe that night not in a nice way. I don't really want to go into it here, it is ancient history at this point. I wrote about the show on my blog because I was lucky to have gone to it. There's a link in my sig, if you want to read it. I am sure that many will say, "but's it not connected to #54" but I can only connect the dots and go by what I have come across in my lame and short two years of writing about Green Day. My conclusion is that he doesn't really like Green Day fans en masse, haha.

I have met Cometbus one on one here and there, and he's always been gracious and nice. So, take it for what you will.

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Taken by itself it could be a joke, but in conjunction with the other passage, and Aaron's actions at the last Pinhead show, it didn't work out as a joke to some.

Yeah, you're right that some people didn't take it that way. But I was at the Pinhead show, and I saw everything that happened, and this passage didn't bring that back to me at all (though some of the others did :)). When I read it - and especially, as Alex says, in its context - it didn't seem to have any kind of significant sub-text for me.

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I have no problem being the odd man out on this opinion. :thumbsup:

I also want to say that from what I understand at the Pinhead show, Aaron also felt that his community wasn't represented, and that upset him, since Pinhead is a separate entity from Green Day, and the show was for his friend's benefit.

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You are NOT the only person who read it that way! I thought - wow - that sounds like the kind of thing I might say - just being silly.

After a cosmo or two, especially. :wub:

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I have no problem being the odd man out on this opinion. :thumbsup:

I also want to say that from what I understand at the Pinhead show, Aaron also felt that his community wasn't represented, and that upset him, since Pinhead is a separate entity from Green Day, and the show was for his friend's benefit.

Well, you're not the odd mad out - a lot of people seemed to have that reaction. I just didn't see it being related to what happened at Pinhead. And I don't see how Aaron would be relating a comment about the Big Three to Pinhead. It's not the first time I didn't see something that was glaringly obvious to everyone else, though :).

After a cosmo or two, especially. :wub:

:wub: Exactly! Maybe Aaron was sampling the cosmos when he wrote that part :lol:!

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I gave this to my brother and he still hasn't returned it yet. I wonder if he has read it, I know he does like Aaron's zines and he writes his own so I think they inspired him when he was younger.

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I really need this. But I am so skint at the moment it's bad. Wish I'd bought it a month ago when i had more money... =/

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I finished it last night and though it was really good and i really did enjoy it I'm still sad that there's not more to read :( but i really like Aaron's writing and just his perspective on things, like he can be a bit judgmental (but who isn't), but he makes up for it later and re-examines things.

Ha i now know all the hype on the octopus thing and :sick: thought that was weird, scary, and just wrong, i didn't think it was thaatt bad. maybe i just think that cause my dad would do something similar....well maybe. and i didn't think that he bashed fans that much, it was actually pretty funny the way he described it.

I hate to say it but that part at the bar with that party was my favorite thing to read. not just cause it was super sweet, but the band felt so real in that scene, like it was really them just letting go and being themselves.

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Ha i now know all the hype on the octopus thing and :sick: thought that was weird, scary, and just wrong, i didn't think it was thaatt bad. maybe i just think that cause my dad would do something similar....well maybe. and i didn't think that he bashed fans that much, it was actually pretty funny the way he described it.

I hate to say it but that part at the bar with that party was my favorite thing to read. not just cause it was super sweet, but the band felt so real in that scene, like it was really them just letting go and being themselves.

For me the parts about the fans and the octopus were talked about at so much length and detail on the internet that when I came to them in the book it was a little anti-climatic. Like "is that it?"

Why do you hate to say it? I think that would be a lot of people's favourite chapter, it certainly was mine!

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For me the parts about the fans and the octopus were talked about at so much length and detail on the internet that when I came to them in the book it was a little anti-climatic. Like "is that it?"

Why do you hate to say it? I think that would be a lot of people's favourite chapter, it certainly was mine!

ya i read alot about it and thought it was gonna be way worse it but it was just kinda gross

i guess i hate to say it cause it was everybody's favorite part as well. but for good reason :)

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This subject makes my head hurt! :):wacko:

Awwwwwwwwww, sorry! There's no need to talk about it any more if you don't want to :wub: ... I'm still finding it interesting (not to re-hash everything - just interesting to hear everyone's perspectives).

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is there anywhere I can read this online?

I may or may not have exhausted my online buyings for the time being. I kinda maybe owe my mother $280 (car registration, awesome as fuck vinyl bundle, scott pilgrim #6, and other goods) and I really cannot spend anymore money.

postage to Australia is stupid. anywhere I can read online?

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Also, am I the only person who considers the "only the craziest of superfans would recognize the Big Three" line to be completely tongue-in-cheek? If you read the context around that remark, it's clearly meant to be sarcastic.

i guess it depends on whether you think being called a crazy superfan is an insult. if the shoe fits...

but i think it was surely meant to be a tongue-in-cheek insult.

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is there anywhere I can read this online?

I may or may not have exhausted my online buyings for the time being. I kinda maybe owe my mother $280 (car registration, awesome as fuck vinyl bundle, scott pilgrim #6, and other goods) and I really cannot spend anymore money.

postage to Australia is stupid. anywhere I can read online?

You can't. It's over 90 pages

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i guess it depends on whether you think being called a crazy superfan is an insult. if the shoe fits...

but i think it was surely meant to be a tongue-in-cheek insult.

Exactly this, it was funny but still an insult. The overall impression I got from everything he wrote about fans in this is that he has a pretty low opinion of them. He didn't say anything hugely offensive, I certainly wasn't offended by anything, and it was mostly tongue in cheek and a lot of it made me laugh. But because some the things he said were clearly based on stereotypes and assumptions and what he wanted to believe about fans rather than reality (a lot of it, albeit, said in a lighthearted way), I thought "that's a bit of a silly and ignorant way to judge people". That's it. Amusing, and not offensive or a big deal, but unfairly judgemental none the less.

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Having just checked this out, I have to say that it was almost tiring to read, because this guy is constantly wrestling with stuff. 'Judgemental' is what's getting thrown around - and yeah, he can come across as judging not only other people, but every situation, and he sure as fuck spends a lot of time judging himself. To me, it feels like he's constantly trying to make sense of things, to make them fit into some kind of order, and then there's the back-and-forth thing of his context with Green Day. There are very few moments - at least, on the page - where he just lets stuff happen to him.

The Green Day stuff is somehow upclose and distant at the same time, which I guess is fair enough both in terms of being respectful and because it's not about Green Day as such, it's about his experience of being with Green Day on this part of the tour. It's also very male - you get the impression of all these various types of guys tumbled together for this experience, and behind it all, the momentum of the tour driving everything.

I think he did a great job of conveying the chaos and the camarederie, the little shiney personal moments, the cultural pictures, the food and the people and the hotels and the photographers, and yeah, the fans in a lot of their aspects. It feels like a man always on the brink of being overwhelmed by the mammoth scale of stuff, trying to hold on to who he is and to figure out what he believes in.

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i've been reading the previous pages and thus wanting badly to know exactly what happened with tre and the octopus. i haven't read any spoiler about it so far. :(

did he eat it alive? someone please share the story. thanks.

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