MetaChat - Do you ever have things where you just can't decide if you like them or not?

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13 December 2009

Do you ever have things where you just can't decide if you like them or not? →[More:]Here are a couple of mine. Maybe you could help me make up my mind, or share some of your own.

Balmorhea--Texas indie/post-whatever group. If I don't like 'em, I'm not exactly sure why not.

Seth MacFarlane--animation juggernaut. Don't get me wrong--I'll never think he's great. But I can't decide if I think he's good.

post by: box at: 14:13 | 25 comments

Yeah I just ate a brownie that I'm not sure about. It was kinda bitter from the cocoa. I might have to have another to figure it out.

posted by rmless2 13 December | 14:52

I feel like I'm supposed to like Seth MacFarlane, because so many people who share my sense of humor do--but I just don't. It always feels like he's trying too hard. And I think he often mistakes crude for funny. (Which is not to say that crude can't be funny. I find It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia very, very crude and outrageously funny.)

posted by jrossi4r 13 December | 14:56

You like Balmorhea. A lot.

Seth MacFarlane - no, no you don't. His animation is basic, his ideas more so.

Or, put it this way:

You like Balmorhea because you like fog, bourbon, warm coats and the way the bed and you are the same temperature when you sleep in.

You don't like Seth MacFarlane because you don't shop at Abercrombie and Fitch, aren't 19 years old, don't mix Red Bull and Jaegermeister so much you have a nickname for it, and are a classy, caring human being.

Other things you didn't know you liked, but do:

- early Humphrey Bogart movies like They Drive By Night

- the music of Fanfarlo, of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, and Van Ghost.

For animation, or at least for comics, you didn't know you liked Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer.

-

posted by Lipstick Thespian 13 December | 15:12

I heard a Howard Stern interview with Seth McFarlane and I thought he came off like kind of an ass. Think what you want of Howard, he gets more honesty out of an interviewee than anyone else out there. Anyway, Seth made it clear that he likes young girls... Like, really young: he dated Amanda Bynes a few years ago. He said he's never dated a girl less than four years younger than him. I mean, that's his preference, cool, whatever, but the way he talked about it really approached creepy.

I have actually fully formed a lot of opinions of various celebrities based on their Howard Stern interviews.

posted by amro 13 December | 16:26

I like Family Guy, but interviews McFarlane comes across as kind of a douchebag.

posted by jonmc 13 December | 16:28

This is so weird.

I was just compiling a list of things like this for a blog entry.

Short answer:

Grapefruit. I can't decide about grapefruit, from bite to bite. Sometimes it's perfect, sometimes it makes me shudder. Sometimes, this happens in the same bite.

posted by Elsa 13 December | 16:48

Glee.

At times, I like the satirical and fantasy nature of some of the early episodes which were fun and snarky. But too much on the nose sentimentality like singing 'Lean on Me' to your friends sans irony? Really? I guess I liked it more when it was a comedy rather than a drama.

posted by typewriter 13 December | 17:08

A lot of humor doesn't really seem all that funny to me.

posted by sperose 13 December | 18:50

The only thing I like about Seth McFarlane is the attitude he adopted about missing a flight that ended up as one of the hijacked planes on 9/11. He was hungover, slept in and got the wrong departure time from his travel agent.

Rather than get all spiritual about it, he says that shit happens all the time and sometimes you get lucky.

posted by mullacc 13 December | 21:51

Thing I can't decide if I like: food from East and Southeast Asia, besides sushi.

I pride myself on being easy to please food-wise, but I just can't get into most Chinese, Thai or Korean dishes. In either Americanized forms or supposedly authentic forms. I'll eat without complaint if someone invites me to a restaurant serving one of those cuisines, but I'll never choose it myself.

Sushi is the exception. I loves me some sushi.

posted by mullacc 13 December | 22:03

Balmorhea: Thanks to this post, I've heard them for the first time and so far I like them.
Seth Mc: never liked so was always pleasantly surprised, thus like as long as I continue to dislike.
Balmorhea: Don't like this second piece by them . . .
Now I'm not sure anymore.

posted by Obscure Reference 13 December | 22:06

I used to have a lot more things on this list. As I get older and reckon more often with the fact that my time on earth is finite, I've become much more comfortable only concentrating on stuff I definitely like. There's probably a lot of stuff I'd like if I tried harder, lived with it a while, gave it more of a chance, had it the wonderful way so-and-so prepares it, researched it, spent more time there, or whatever - but since I'll never exhaust all the music, books, ideas, flavors, artists, and stuff I am already drawn to, I feel less and less interested in spending lots of time on stuff I only sort of think I might kind of like but am not sure.

posted by Miko 13 December | 22:43

posted by dg 14 December | 07:35

It took me decades to learn what dg just said.

posted by Obscure Reference 14 December | 08:49

Which I see now is what Miko just said.

posted by Obscure Reference 14 December | 08:51

... since I'll never exhaust all the music, books, ideas, flavors, artists, and stuff I am already drawn to, I feel less and less interested in spending lots of time on stuff I only sort of think I might kind of like but am not sure.

This is the reason I will now stop reading books or watching movies in the middle if I don't like them, something I would never have done when I was younger.

posted by amro 14 December | 09:57

Iced coffee. It's, like, pretty good, but at the same time it has an air of wrongness about it. I don't actively seek it out, but occasionally it simply presents itself.

posted by Wolfdog 14 December | 10:34

Iced coffee is just wrong. But then I feel the same way about putting milk or sugar in coffee as I do about ice cubes. Bleh.

posted by octothorpe 14 December | 10:47

Norwegian goat cheese. Every few years I'll remember that it exists, but I won't remember whether I decided last time that I liked it or not, and so I'll have to try it again to find out. I'm due for another round soon.

About iced coffee: if you add ice cubes, you then also have to add milk and sugar. Not so if the coffee is hot.

posted by tangerine 14 December | 13:50

Omigod, goat cheese is a perfect example of this for me, too, tangerine. Can never decide if I like it or hate it, but keep going back for more.

posted by amro 14 December | 13:55

Tip: don't add sugar to sweeten cold drinks. Add syrup.

posted by Wolfdog 14 December | 14:10

Ice cubes in coffe is an abomination. Iced Coffe is one of the great pleasures of life, but it is made properly by a cold brewing process, like this product does it. Not an endorsement of the particular product, but it breaks my heart that iced coffee - you guys are doing it wrong!

posted by rainbaby 14 December | 14:50

Putting ice cubes in coffee just gives you cold coffee.

Cold coffee ≠ iced coffee.

posted by dg 14 December | 16:42

I'm not talking about putting ice cubes in coffee, anyway.

posted by Wolfdog 14 December | 16:54

I was this way with Battlestar Galactica after the first season-and-a-half or so. I just wasn't sure i actually liked it anymore. Watching each week was like having a conversation with myself, asking "Is this really any good? Are you really enjoying this?"

I suppose I could put my career in this category, too.

posted by Thorzdad 15 December | 10:29

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