Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with depressing

...

Pants! — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:34:54 -0800

What are some blues songs with genuinely depressing, ruin your mood lyrics/vocals?

Super depressing winter murder movie.

agentofselection — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:13:41 -0800

Forgotten movie: Winter, small crashed plane in the woods, bag of money, resulting woes. Spoilers inside. I remember a movie probably 10+ years old. A man and I think his brother find a crashed small plane containing dead men and a bag of money. They take the money. It corrupts them, and one man and his wife end up killing the other, and a few other people. Eventually the FBI come to town looking for the money, which was apparently from a ransom or something. They don't catch the couple, but do disclose that the serial numbers of the bills were recorded, making the cash unspendable. In the end, the couple end up with the blood of friends/relatives on their hands, and a bag of money which they can do nothing with but burn. Anyone remember this?

How to get the sunlight into my cube?

ThinkandDrive — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:50:10 -0800

We've been told for some time at work that we're going to be moved from a second floor, windowless area down to the first floor which is at street level and has floor to ceiling windows looking out at street level. This sounds great! However, I just saw the plans and it appears that the cubicles which we have the option to choose from all have cube-height (six foot?) walls between our chairs and the windows. Think back to Office Space. I have seniority somewhat in the group and should be able to get a seat right next to a window. But how to deal with that cubicle wall? Is there some sort of curved, parabolic mirror thing I could rig that would get some sunlight into my cube? It has to be tasteful, clean, and not look like something that was just rigged up. Any on the market solutions?

Songs about difficult Decembers?

MrVisible — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:43:22 -0800

My sister is having a rough month. She's toughing it out through a Jerry Springer-scale divorce drama while dealing with potentially serious medical problems. She's asked me to find songs for a compilation about difficult Decembers to help her get through. It's fine if it mentions Christmas but it shouldn't be a Christmas-centered song. She's already got "A Long December" by Counting Crows, and Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December." I was thinking about throwing in Tom Waits' "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" and possibly Imogen Heap's "Just For Now" (thanks to this thread), but I'm pretty stumped after that.

My sister is doing amazingly well considering the circumstances, but it's a rough time, and particularly tough due to the constant presence of cheery Christmas music.

I'd appreciate any help you have to offer.

anti-winter!

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:57:01 -0800

I hate winter. How can I make the next four months better than they would be otherwise? The winter has always been cold and dreary, filled with bad things and stress and having to walk everywhere while freezing.

I already bought earmuffs. Other than that, how can I make this winter more enjoyable? [preferably very inexpensively.]

Books for people who can't cope good.

mumble — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:09:11 -0800

Recommendations for books that aren't overly sad? Yes, I did a search and checked out previous threads. I'm two thirds into Elliot Perlman's Seven Types of Ambiguity and am considering to just stop reading there (again) because it's way too depressing (well, and contrived). I adored the language of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, but don't think I could read it again anytime soon. By the end of The Corrections I was a bit annoyed with Franzen, not because I didn't like his style, but because I felt getting to people by writing about unhappiness just wasn't all that hard, really. Admittedly, I haven't read a whole lot of non-genre fiction in the past years, but I get the impression that good novels tend to be about loss and disappointment and generally bad experiences. "Happy families are all alike..." etc.

My question is, are there any contemporary works of non-genre fiction that are somehow beautiful/moving/non-tacky (!) without focusing on anguish/hopelessness/violence too much?

For the record, I love Douglas Adams and David Sedaris, own most of Terry Pratchett's stuff, really don't like Milan Kundera's style and prefer <4 00 pages to>500. Also, I'm German, but the vast majority of books I've read in the last ten years have been in English, so bonus points for suggesting German authors/books that you think fit the criteria. Thanks very much in advance.

depressing holiday music playlist

Julnyes — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:03:30 -0800

I am interested in putting together a playlist of music featuring depressing / creepy holiday music [MI] meaning broken relationships or creepy / weird songs about the holidays. I was inspired by Santa's Beard by They Might Be Giants - in the song a man is complaining about his wife kissing his friend who is dressed up like Santa.

Any songs come to mind?

Movies to Cry To

jmd82 — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 22:39:51 -0800

I just watched Schindler's List and it made me cry like a frickin' baby. What other movie's make even the stounchest heart break into uncontrollable sobbing?