THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: yellowfoliage on 18 Mar 2009, 19:41
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If you could sit down (perhaps over a nice meal) and have a conversation with any person, living or dead, who would you want to talk with?
I would love to be able to talk with Orson Welles. It would be great to try to get inside the mind of such a unique and brilliant dude. Plus, the meal would probably be really large and tasty, considering the company. I also think it would be pretty cool to talk with Andy Kaufman or Richard Nixon.
But that's just me. What do you guys think?
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Johnny Cash, Hunter S. Thompson, and Trent Reznor. Johnny Cash was allegedly good friends with most Presidents up until his death, and he just seems like the kind of bloke I'd want to sit down at the pub with and pick his brain. Reznor is a more a "Let's go get completely wasted and muck around with drum-machine programs when we're done with this meal". I think it'd be nice to meet someone who's generally had a positive influence on your life. On that note, I'm also adding Adam Duritz to the list. As for Thompson, well... Why wouldn't you? Other than the fact that he'd probably be several days late. Or early.
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Teddy Roosevelt. Shit would be awesome
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Buddy Holly perhaps?
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CONAN
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CONAN
FYP
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The Dalai Lama and Ghandi
Bear Grylls
Einstein
I think each one of those people have/had a great approach to life and i would love to talk to them about it.
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Wait what did you do
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Guy Picciotto
Steve Albini
Frank Herbert
Matt Groening
President Josiah Bartlet
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Ghandi
Hitler
Eva Duarte Peron
Daniel Quinn
Freddie Mercury
Stalin
Siddhartha Gautama
Oh man, so many. Fuck.
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Wait what did you do
He Froze Your Post. You know, for posterity.
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Screw musicians and philosophers, I want to talk to famous traitors and controversial figures throughout history and get a sense of what they were like. Guys like Aaron Burr and Brutus.
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Oh, so that's what that means. Things I thought it meant:
For Your Perusal
Fine Young Pineapples
Four Yellow Parakeets
(the idea is that I had no clue. I just think Conan is totally fucking awesome)
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Four Yellow Parakeets
<o)
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IN THIS THREAD I CONTRIBUTE NOTHING OF VALUE.
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What are you talking about, I will be danged if that is not the best text parakeet I ever saw
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Douglas Adams
Neil Gaiman
Jim Morrison
Aristotle
Thomas Hobbes
Buddy Rich, so I could kill him, eat his brain and gain his powers.
Terry Pratchett
Ridley Scott
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Teddy Roosevelt and Shigeru Miyamoto
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I dunno if I would say I've had a long enough conversation with them to really count for this thread's purposes, but I have talked to Lemmy, Darryl Hall and that douche Art Alexakis. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to ask about Oates' shorn but much loved moustache.
Actually, I must say Lemmy definitely doesn't really count. It was extremely brief and I don't really speak tired Kilmister.
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Gryff...
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James Joyce - The dude was a writer almost without peer. His grasp of language and form was sublime.
Adam Smith - It would be really interesting to talk to the founder of capitalism about what it's become.
Louis Riel - Uh the dude led a rebellion and thought he was the voice of God so obviously super interesting
Anton Maiden - Not sure how to explain this one, the idea just fascinates me.
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Oh, god yes, Louis Riel is a great choice. I think I would also like to talk to pretty much everyone who was around during the Enlightenment, particularly rulers like Catherine and Frederick. Weird time to be a monarch.
Also, I was thinking of saying Otto Von Bismarck, but on further reflection the cagey bastard scares the hell out of me.
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Senator Steve Fielding, even though I'm nowhere near a good enough communicator to persuade him to change his mind on internet censorship.
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I'd like to speak to Allen Ginsberg, because he wrote words that make me cry and I'm grateful for it. I love the sound of his voice and I feel he'd have a lot to say.
I'd sit in a room and drink sake with Yasujiro Ozu and he'd point to various objects and angles in the room and tell me why they were beautiful.
I would also like to speak to J. D. Salinger, as I gather he doesn't do that much.
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Bruce Lee.
I mean come on, what would you expect from me?
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I have had conversations with Guy Picciotto, Steve Albini, Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams. I can strike those four from this thread on everyone's behalf. Feel free to join in if you can do the same.
Tommy, can I kill you and take your life?
I'd like to speak to some ancient people, like Caesar or Octavian or Cleopatra or something. Also Genghis Khan, the man would be the best to party with.
And the historic Jesus and Mohammad. And the Buddha. And at last the last emperor of the Aztecs, Moctezuma II.
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Bill Hicks
Bastard, that one's such a good choice I wish it were on my list.
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Jens is as predictable as I am.
(I knew you were going to say Ian Mackaye, I just knew it)
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James Joyce - The dude was a writer almost without peer. His grasp of language and form was sublime.
JOHHNY I WROTE YOU A LETTER
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Generals Patton, Eisenhower,and MacArthur.
War hero "Chesty" Puller
Alan Turing
Charles Babbage
Drs. Watson and Crick
Einstein
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Hemingway
(Lots of war heroes and scientists.)
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Salvador Dali
Leo Tolstoy
Elliot Smith
Napoleon
Get all of them in one room? That would be fun.
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I'd have to go for Avery, MacLeod, McCarty and throw in Pasteur as well.
As for Watson and Crick...maybe you should chose people who did their own work? Unless you're planning on bitch slapping them for stealing the work of poor Rosalind Franklin and many others I would have no interest in them
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Franklin's data was used by Crick and Watson under possibly dubious circumstances, and should have been clearly acknowledged (the group she was in was acknowledged); but note that Franklin herself argued against its interpretation as a helix which was the core of their discovery.
My school sent me on a course at Cambridge run by Crick and Brenner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crick,_Brenner_et_al._experiment) in 1963, so I've met them already, and have the photo I took of Crick's model of DNA in his office. The person I would like to talk to is Alan Blumlein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Blumlein), the greatest genius of all in the field of electronics; also J S Bach, but to experience the depth of his religious belief, and the way it informed his work, rather than his musical side.
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Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo.
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Oh I'm stealing Frida Kahlo and putting her on my list.
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Nuh uh, find your own god damn awesome artist.
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If language wasn't a barrier I would pick Sun Tzu.
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If language is not considered a bar I would have (for a big dinner party)
FDR
Fredrick the II Holy Roman Emperor
Terry Prachett (as lots of people have mentioned)
Disraeli
Bismark
Pope Joan (if she existed)
Mata Hari (for dancing later)
Bob Fosse
and the classic Churchill.
oh, and Zhuge Liang
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Mega list coming up:
Tutankhamen
Cleopatra
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Emperor Nero
Pliny (Elder and Younger)
Homer
Buddha
Muhammad
Jesus
Attila the Hun
Genghis Khan
Joan of Ark
Guy Fawkes
Sir Francis Drake
Shakespeare
Mozart
Beethoven
Rachmaninov
Raphael
Karl Marx
Hitler
Edgar Allen Poe
H P Lovecraft
Rudyard Kipling
Winston Churchill
Edif Piaf
Emeline Pankhurst
Einstein
Virgina Woolf
Audrey Hepburn
Sylvia Plath
Neil Armstrong
Andy Warhol
Stephen Hawking
Carl Sagan
Richard Dawkins
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett
J.K Rowling
Neil Tennant
Thom Yorke
David Bowie
Debby Harry
....and that dude who does the dramatic movie voiceovers.
Although knowing me, if I ever did manage to have a conversation with these guys, I would probably end up talking about the weather or something lame like that.
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Jesus Christ (i got some questions, motherfucker!)
Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter S. Thompson
Dick Proenneke
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In no particular order...
Friedrich Nietzsche
Adolf Hitler
Albert Einstein
Ivory Watson ( The Ink Spots )
Billie Holiday
Jack Johnson
Aristotle
Julius Caesar
Stuart Murdoch ( Belle & Sebastian )
Sean Danielsen ( Smile Empty Soul )
Che Guevara
Leonardo da Vinci
The list is endless, but they're probably the top candidates.
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John Lennon
Jesus
Che Guevara
Hitler
Richard Pryor
Gandhi
Abraham Lincoln
Henry Rollins
Miles Davis
Hunter S. Thompson
Mozart
Karl Marx
Only one live person on the list. But Henry Rollins seems like he would be the coolest guy to talk to about anything.
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Most people I admire make me feel like an inarticulate and simple person when I read or hear interviews and such, I imagine I'd just embarass myself in a conversation with them. I definitely value what they have to say though, it has a massive effect on how I conduct myself in life.
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I would like to have a conversation with Henry Miller.
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John Lennon
Jesus
Che Guevara
Hitler
Gandhi
Abraham Lincoln
Mozart
Karl Marx
Them.
And I would also love to talk with Voltaire.
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The Incredible Hulk.
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....and that dude who does the dramatic movie voiceovers.
Don LaFontaine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine
I love his voice so much.
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Jesus of Nazareth. Now THERE'S a pivotal historical character; I'd love to get some things straightened out with him!
As for alive or dead, I'd go for alive. The dead usually aren't very conversational. ;)
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Marilyn Monroe.
'What was it like being murdered by the Secret Service?'
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Joseph Kittinger.
Burt Munro.
Andy Green.
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Adam Weishaupt
Terrence McKenna
Albert Hoffman
Robert Anton Wilson
Alan Watts
Aleister Crowley
Grant Morrison
John Lennon
Aldous Huxley
Tom Robbins
Rob Breszny
Mantak Chia
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MacArthurs or any of the early Golden Dawn dudes would be great. Otherwise, seconding OWW's Crowley.
Otherwise, Jesus and James Hetfield. Oh, and Isaac Newton, that'd be rad. We'll throw in Bush Jr., too, why not.
I dunno, I admire a lot of historical figures but wouldn't really see a lot of point in talking with them. I'd probably just leave disappointed that they're not these supreme beings.
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Aww, that makes me sad.
I'm reluctant to meet a lot of my heroes because if they were in a bad mood and behaved a bit dickishly, I'd be devastated. The shine's already coming off my respect for Jeph ;)
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list
No Timothy Leary? I think I might wanna add Timothy Leary to my list.
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I figured Leary would be a little cliche. Besides, I think if I picked Robert Anton Wilson and Albert Hoffman's brains enough, between the two of them I could probably figure out a lot of what he'd have to say on my own.
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Cliché or not he did spring to mind as an interesting person to talk to, although, it's true, he spoke publicly enough and to enough other people that most of what he has to say could basically be gotten from other people. The converse is part of the reason I picked Salinger. But then again...fuck it, he's an interesting dude and it's not like I lose anything for saying I think he'd be cool to talk to. To shit some shit with him, and maybe if I'm ambitious have him hash out his ideas on big concepts and go in depth...I feel like actually speaking to a person about their own ideas, your resource is practically endless. It's the difference between writing someone's biography while they're still alive and trying to piece it together 30 years after their death.
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It would be difficult to have a spontaneous conversation with him but I met Stephen Hawking once and he made a speech with several jokes in it. He was funny! It is odd to be surprised at that but I guess he is a paralysed physicist, humour does not immediately spring to mind as a potential best quality.
Or am I just a bigot?
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Eric Cantona. I'd like to go to a pub, have a few beers, and talk soccer with him.
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well, Jesus as many have said.
also Moses.
and I'd like to meet my grandmother and grandfather on my father's side: they were awesome from what I read/hear.
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Hunter S. Thompson
Edward R. Murrow
Elliot Smith
Diane Arbus
Bruce Haley
Michael Foucault
Robert Capa
Karl Marx
Vladimir Lenin
Anton Chekhov
Leon Trotsky
Thomas Paine
Many more who, for the sale of brevity, have been omitted.
I would also like to meet my grandfather on my mothers side, it seems as though there is not much that that man has not done
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It would be difficult to have a spontaneous conversation with him but I met Stephen Hawking once and he made a speech with several jokes in it. He was funny! It is odd to be surprised at that but I guess he is a paralysed physicist, humour does not immediately spring to mind as a potential best quality.
Or am I just a bigot?
Personally I think that for a person in Hawking's situation humour would be essential!
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I'd actually really like to have a conversation with myself. It'd be interesting to experience me from a whole new perspective.
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Benjamin Franklin
Andrew Jackson
D. A. "Jelly Bean" Bryce
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I'd actually really like to have a conversation with myself. It'd be interesting to experience me from a whole new perspective.
But if it's "you" having a conversation with "yourself", wouldn't "you" be experiencing "you" from the same old perspective?
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I'd actually really like to have a conversation with myself. It'd be interesting to experience me from a whole new perspective.
"God damn this guy is an asshole."
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I've spoken to Ian MacKaye! At the Dischord house. That was a fun day.
But I'd like to talk to the Dalai Lama. Also Jim Morrison, but I get the feeling he would kind be a gigantic douche and just burp in my face or something.
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Vigo Mortenssen.
Do I need a reason?
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This will sound silly but i want to have conversation with me/myself.
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This is a little bit of a sidebar but...
I've met/know quite a few famous and or semi-famous folks. Strangely enough, the only one who actually made me feel somewhat in awe of being in his presence was Stacy Keach. Who woulda thunk? Shocked the shit out of me too, but that guy just radiates awesome in person.
I'd like to take guitar lessons from Eddie Hazel and Lightning Hopkins, though I think there are probably way more beneficial uses for being able to wish the dead back to life than getting guitar lessons.
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Vigo Mortenssen.
Oh man did you see the lord of the rings extras? "And then I kissed Billy, which was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, but let's not talk about that"
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I'd actually really like to have a conversation with myself. It'd be interesting to experience me from a whole new perspective.
I was thinking something similiar when I clicked on the thread, but im afraid to have a conversation with my current self. I don't think I would be pleased with how i come off. Ideally I would like to have a sit down with myself when i was younger and explain a few things. Get me on the right track so to speak.
I'm 26 now, so I would say I'd go back to when i was 13, split the difference.
Am I alone in thinking this would be a great topic for a thread? Has it been done here before and I've missed it?
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I'm assuming if I can bring someone back from the dead, I can find a translator.
-Henry Rollins (Although I've already met him...I shook his hand and got his autograph after a spoken word performance about five years ago)
-The Marquis de Sade
-Audrey Tautou (probably just to stare at her)
-Charlie Chapman
-Marie Currie
-My grandpa
-Amelia Earheart (mostly just to ask "What exactly happened to you?")
-Alan Turing
-Oscar Wilde
-Edgar Allan Poe
-King Henry the 8th
-William Shakespeare
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Andrew Jackson (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=12347)
???
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my late grandad. preferably in a quiet pub somewhere in his native dublin on a sunny day.
he was a huge influence on me in many aspects of my life, my attitudes, and the way i think and act; he was pretty much the one person i really looked up to. it was heartbreaking to see him spend the last two years of his life bedridden, unable to communicate much beyond a simple hello and a smile, despite being completely intact mentally, and i can't imagine how that must have felt for him. to be able to speak with him again would be amazing, especially right now when i don't know what the hell i want to do with my life, since if he was still around, he'd be the first person i'd go to for advice. but that aside, he was a funny guy and always a pleasure to be around, so it'd be great even just to make small talk.