Bill M.'s definitions

bass

Short for either the bass guitar (also known as the "electric" bass) or the upright bass (also known as "bass fiddle", "double bass", "contrabass", "string bass", or "acoustic bass"). Although different in design, both of these musical instruments essentially serve the same role: providing a low bottom-end to the music and a link between the rhythm and lead sections of a band. Though plenty of exceptional players have shown that the bass can additionally be a versatile lead instrument in its own right.

"At night I could hear the bass reverberate through the neighborhood. The guitars and drums were muffled, but the bass traveled everywhere. I loved that, and wanted to have the power to shake buildings. Also, the bass was big and manly; guitars were little and wimpy, with these thin little strings that looked like Velveeta cheese cutters." - Billy Sheehan

by Bill M. August 30, 2004

anagram

One or more words created by rearranging all the letters of a given word or phrase. All the letters have to be used, and only used once. The resulting anagram will usually have nothing to do with the original word or phrase, but it's amusing when it does.

Anagrams are not to be confused with palindromes (though "straw" is both a palindrome and anagram of "warts"), spoonerisms, acronyms, or other word plays.

- "earth" is an anagram of "heart"
- An anagram for "Alice Cooper" is "A cool recipe"
- "General", "enlarge", and "Al Green" are all anagrams of each other
- "Axl Rose" is an anagram of "Oral Sex"
- "Dormitory" becomes "Dirty Room"
- "Santa" becomes "Satan"

by Bill M. August 27, 2004

base

1. The phonetic but incorrect spelling of bass, still occasionally seen in ads that bands put up in music stores.
2. A juvenile way of measuring how "far" a couple has gotten in terms of sexual activity, drawing an analogy to a game of baseball. Typically, "First Base", "Second Base" and so on refer respectively to tongue kissing, some type of heavy groping, oral sex, and full intercourse. Though the precise definitions have been known to vary.

1. "Our hevey metel band is seeking a drumer and base player."
2. "You went out with Cindy last night? So, dude, did you get to third base with her?"

by Bill M. September 10, 2004

cheesy

1) Any form of entertainment (music, movies) or aesthetic (hair style, photo pose) that the status quo has deemed fully open to ridicule, usually with no explanation. More specifically, the status quo here being that of Generation X. "tacky" and "dated" are closely related words, but far from being exact synonyms.

2) Anything the speaker doesn't like, which makes it an immensely vague adjective

3) A term embraced by young self-proclaimed non-conformists, to hypocritically distinguish what they've been taught to dislike from what they've been taught to like

"Family Ties? That show was so cheesy!"

"Ha ha ha...Cameron just bought these used hair metal CDs he found in the store. The CDs are so cheesy! In fact, we hated them so much, that we kept listening to them last night and singing along until 4 in the morning."

by Bill M. July 23, 2004

Liberal media

A term that implies that news reporting has a bias towards "left" or politically liberal ideas, but in reality is an illusion created when highly opinionated people inevitably use selective hearing to filter out and pick up on topics they don't like, forgetting the rest.

You can find some on-line conservative newspapers that claim to be "the real news, not the liberal media kind!" as well as some on-line liberal papers that claim to be "the real news, not the conservative-bias kind!"

by Bill M. August 27, 2004

Berkshires

("BURK - sheerz") The western half of Massachusetts. Pretty much everything west of Springfield, regardless of whether or not the town is in the actual county of Berkshire. Known for its heavily wooded areas, ski resorts, and small towns, in contrast to the more urbanized eastern half of the state.

"We went to the Berkshires last winter to go skiing."

by Bill M. December 17, 2004

lanyard

A cord designed to hold something around the neck, usually with a clip at the end on which to fasten the object. Used for easy exposure and/or quick access to an ID badge, keys, etc.

"We could tell who the roadies were at the rock concert, because they each wore an 'all-access backstage pass' on a lanyard."
"Oh, so THAT'S what those things are called."

by Bill M. July 29, 2004