Well, yeah, I get that. But breathing is still not a cliche.

And neither is playing "Hallelujah", is her point.

Yeah, but using it in musical montages on tv is.

xpost, responding to Jon.

Mmm, I don't agree with that. Breathing's not a cliche because a cliche is a creative action, a phrase or concept or something like that. Playing a song can be a cliche, maybe not like yelling for "Free Bird," but covering "Hallelujah" is getting there if it isn't there already. I think Lisa's right. The analogy doesn't make sense, although the feeling behind the analogy does.

Let me explain it mathily.

Amanda Palmer postulates that:

IF [(playing "Hallelujah") == cliché] THEN [(breathing) == cliché]

Therefore, it follows, by some rule of logic that I've completely forgotten the name of, that:

IF [breathing != cliché] THEN [(playing "Hallelujah") != cliché]

Since we know, courtesy of Lisah's Law, that [breathing != cliché], we can state conclusively that [(playing "Hallelujah") != cliché]

QED

I should add that, personally, I think it *is* a cliché, but the analogy makes sense coming from someone who doesn't.

I'm torn between

I think Lisa's right.

and

courtesy of Lisah's Law

I'm right!!!

but...

I have a law!!!

See also, "A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle."

Just because fish don't have bicycles, you never hear people say that the analogy doesn't work. Stupid and annoying: yes. Doesn't work: no.

Jon, someone with more recent schooling in logic may correct me on this, but I think your QED only works if the original IF is replaced by an IIF or If And Only If.

I am making the music mixes for my reading tonight.

So these will be playing in-store as people arrive.

Actually, since I've got two mixes they could start it about three hours before the show.

But it's cool! I've got snippets from his interviews that illustrate things from the book, and stories he tells in concert (like, "Used Erotica"), and demos and live tracks and I put them next to their influences (Elmer Bernstein, Beefheart, James Chance, James Brown).

I might have to post them both at Buffrawk when I get a minute. It's worth it just to have Jesse Mae Hemphill's "She Wolf."

That's very cool, David.

I think the logic is off-track about the analogy, too. Lisa's point (I think, but well, it's my point, too, now) was that playing Hallelujah could conceivably be a cliche, but breathing could not.