I got about four hours of sleep last night. I got two calls from work — unrelated — both of them were to tell me that there was a problem with a computer, without providing me any details about what computer, or even the problem was. And now I have to go into work into a building that's on lockdown and look out over a freaking war zone. I can't stop crying this morning. My life sucks so hard.

{{{Tom}}} I am so sorry. I hope today ends up being a good one despite it all.

{{{Tom}}}

Oh Tom, I am so very sorry. Four hours of sleep is not enough and lockdown work is no good. Is there a way to compartmentalize and just make it through the next hour and then reassess?

(((Tom)))

He responded. I failed. He hasn't heard of most of my list. But most male musicians pass his test.

I HE failed. He hasn't heard of most of my list.

There, fixed that.

Tom, I'm so sorry.

Lord, what a tool.

Tom, I'm sorry things are so shitty today.

I responded:

According to your rules, people who also sing are not musicians. Because Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon were married, neither Thurston nor Kim are musicians on your list, if we apply the same rules to men.

The Beatles? A boy band. And they were all singers. The Rolling Stones? A boy band. Robert Plant? Not a musician.

Fleetwood Mac? They all did each other. Jimi Hendrix? A singer. Kurt Cobain? Singer. Dave Grohl? Singer. I did come up wit Mitch Mitchell, who did not sing backup in the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Keith Richards cannot count as a musician because he's in an all-boy band.

Your rules are arbitrary, and since you seem to be the one who can decide whether or not a band or musician in well-known (and the criteria of being well-known is that you know who they are, which is absurd given that you have no idea who Liz Phair is).

And when your rules are applied equally: No boy bands, no mixed gender bands in which the male is a singer or has slept with another member of the band, etc) it doesn't work for you, either.

If you've no idea who Sonic Youth is, or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or Liz Phair, I would submit that you haven't read an issue of Rolling Stone or Spin in the last 20 years. This would make you not very familiar with rock and roll.

So you've purposely set up requirements that discount Patti Smith's guitar. These same requirements also knock Hendrix out. And Cobain. Go ahead. Give it a whirl. Give me your well-known male musician who is not a singer, in all boy band, or has slept with another member of the band.

David Bowie? Not a rock musician. Springsteen? Doesn't pass your test. In fact, the only thing keeping Clarence and Little Steven on the musician list is that Patty Scialfa in in the E Street band, making them NOT an all-boy band. Yay for Patti. Is she not well-known? She can't count as a musician, though, since Bruce.

Give me your list of well-known male musicians who are not in all boy bands, aren't singers, and don't sleep with any of the members of the bands they're in. You cannot count Billy Joel, Rage Against the Machine, or Soundgarden.

And then apply weirdly arbitrary rules to philosophers as well, since that's your analogy.

How about we don't count philosophers who are primarily professors and use apple computers?

If your point is that sometimes men bend backward to create weirdly arbitrary rules in order to discount the accomplishments of women (you can't count as a musician if you sing = you count count as a philosopher if you type your papers in Times New Roman?) then you've made an excellent point, and I agree.

Jimi Hendrix isn't a real rock musician. . . .

Tom - so sorry things suck today. Let's hope it gets better.