Comments on: Daily Music Feud: LDN by Lily Allen

By: Butter

Butter — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:33:02 +0000

I see what you did there! I'm assuming you know that a squab is a juvenile pigeon. (It can also mean pigeon meat, whose popularity as cheap slave food, incidentally, contributed to the wholesale slaughter of the American passenger pigeons.) Interestingly, it appears that this sense of squab and the verb squabble, as in "argue pettily", aren't etymologically related, with the former arising from a Scandinavian word for "a fat mass" (and earlier from Proto-Germanic *(s)kwab-) and the latter, despite also arising in Scandinavia, being onomatopoetic.

By: David

David — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:06:43 +0000

Ha ha! I thought there might be some positive comments / votes here, but there is nothing but squabble about pigeons! Because of one K.E., I’m totally set to win this little war. Not that I think I should, but I can’t vote for your choices, so….FAIL.

(I guess we still have tomorrow.)

By: Waffles

Waffles — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:24:57 +0000

Hmm… I saw it a bit differently. The “Dark World” obviously represents the city, since the song is about city life (which can be inferred from the oft-repeated lyrics, “yeah, that’s city life”), and the macaw morphing into a pigeon is not necessarily going from “good bird” to “bad bird.” I see it as more of a “unusual/exotic bird” to “common city bird.” And, as much as one likes pigeons, one must admit they are a common site in cities.

This analogy can be taken further in the song where we see a couple carefree sailors morphed into a construction worker. By your logic, this means that construction workers are bad, while sailors aren’t. Quite the opposite, perhaps — construction workers are vital to maintaining a city’s infrastructure and safe operation. It’s just that construction workers pushing wheelbarrows are a more common urban phenomenon than 1940s era sailors (you of all people should know that, Mr. Dolan) goofing around.

In closing, I’d just like to say this:
PIGEONS SUCK BIG PARROT D**K!

By: Butter

Butter — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:01:31 +0000

Sir! I must protest!

In the wipe to the Dark World the adorable dancing Scarlet Macaw turns into a pigeon! The viewer is thus to infer that flapper:crack whore::Macaw:pigeon. This defamation of the Columbiformes must cease! It is a relic of a less ecologically intelligent era. Pigeons are sensitive and intelligent creatures that bring a connection to the natural world to our urban areas. Their lack of adorable rainbow plumage is a consequence of evolutionary circumstances far beyond their control. Unflattering and biased portrayals fail to recognize not only their ecological role but also the service they have rendered mankind as messengers, especially in wartime. Some, as you should know, have been decorated for wounds sustained in action against the enemy. To be repaid by being used as a visual icon of a slum is a grave injustice based on faulty knowledge, sir!

By: David

David — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:59:44 +0000

I love it! It’s so fun and decrepit! Win!