November 13, 2015

"Prince is seated at a microphone behind a keyboard, which he keeps playing. This is quite disconcerting..."

"... if he doesn’t like a question, he strikes up with the theme from The Twilight Zone and shakes his head. At one point, he presses a button on the keyboard and the intro to his legendary 1988 hit Sign o’ the Times booms out of the PA. He looks at me. 'You wanna do this?' he says."

Prince does an interview and has his fun with the interviewers, one of whom writes for The Guardian, which — I don't know, maybe it's a British thing — doesn't edit out what to my eye is the run-on sentence of the year: "As skinny as a teenager, sporting an afro and almost unnecessarily handsome at 57 years old, Prince looks flatly amazing, exuding ineffable cool and panache while wearing clothes that would make anyone else look like a ninny is just one among his panoply of talents."

I diagrammed that in my head and determined that there needs to be a period after "amazing." But what is the subject of that second sentence, the one with the verb "is"? Answer: "exuding."

And what were the clothes that would make anyone else look like a ninny? Mainly the white platform flip-flops with white socks.

14 comments:

Ron Winkleheimer said...

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-20111123/prince-20111122

The man can play.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Platform flip-flops? Wonder if he wears elevator socks, too.

Tibore said...

Prince can come off as eccentric at times.... well, wait, scratch that. He is eccentric. All the time. And his fashion sense can waver between James Brown ripoff to 70's disco adorned with a 60's psychodelia palette. Kevin Smith has a damn interesting and funny account of being invited to film him that totally sums up what I'm getting at. So yeah, Prince is a strange cat.

But damn, that mutherf&$@$% can PLAY! Give him a guitar and some space, and he can wail like few others. I'm still blown away by his performance at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony for George Harrison. Sure, he probably stepped on some toes by upstaging every other artist there... but OMG, now THAT was a great solo.

It's crazy to think that, in a world with Jeff Becks, Robert Fripps, Eric Claptons, Jimmy Hendrixs, that Prince arguably belongs in that crowd. And it's crazy to think that, even given his fame, he's actually an underrated musician. But it's true. Surprising to think about, but true.

Rocketeer said...

Been awhile since I diagrammed a sentence but I thought "panoply" was the subject of the second sentence.

Bill said...

What does it mean to be "almost unnecessarily handsome"?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGqUwr9j8Zc

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Speaking of his 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y

Gabriel said...

He's a national treasure.

Joe Veenstra said...

How can anyone ever look handsome unnecessarily? That's the phrase I didn't get!

Also, I really like Prince because is a good musician and also doesn't seem to care very much.

My favorite is silly: Raspberry Beret.

Carter Wood said...

That little cough at the start of Raspberry Beret is hilarious.

Bay Area Guy said...

Prince was big 30 years ago -- Purple Rain, the movie, the album, etc, etc.

I can't think of a song he's done since then -- but maybe I'm way out of touch. Very talented, Dude, but kinda weird.

Sam L. said...

Perhaps you see why that paper is called the The Grauniad.

Mr. Fabulous said...

Regarding the poor editing Professor, I'd suggest something such as this: ....looks flatly amazing. He exudes ineffable cool and panache...

In my opinion, that then calls for additional editing, perhaps something on the order of "Prince looks flatly amazing, and is as skinny as a teenager. He sports an Afro, and at 57 years old is almost unnecessarily handsome. He exudes ineffable cool and panache in the same clothes that would make anyone else look like a ninny. That is just one of his panoply of talents."

Signed, Aspiring pendant.

BN said...

Let me know when he becomes King.