That's the spirit of the whole thing, isn't it? A place to discuss whatever is on your mind - ask questions when you have them, propose theories or explain thoughts when they come to you. An open place for conversation among many diverse individuals.

Instructions

If you would like to join our community, please leave a comment, and we will be sure to add you as an author. You're also welcome to join the conversation on Twitter, just search 'weekendphilosophers'. All questions can be directed to nathan.driftwoodprose@gmail.com

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Let's talk about...love...baby?

Sorry, crazy 10-hour days at work, plus school and not doing homework have left Nathan a bit lacking in the time department. However, we are known as Weekend Philosophers for a reason - because I used to work long hours, thus could only post on the weekend...seems so familiar looking back now.

I'm glad you picked up on the topic of the hopeless romantic because it is clearly one that we can dive much deeper into, a lot of meet to that one. That's not to say that emotion manipulation by part of Hollywood is any topic to scoff at, the number of people who tuned in to Grey's Anatomy only to cry for two hours is beyond me. I'm naturally a cold person, don't make many attachments and this'll probably come up in the romantics talk in a second, but in this case, I make even fewer attachments to fictional characters with fictional problems (I often frustrate Tori by saying, "(s)he'll be fine" in response to anyone being murdered in a horror movie).

Anyways, moving on to the topic at hand...the hopeless romantic. Now, being a hopeless romantic sucks and it's all in the name - it's hopeless. We're looking for some crazy concept which probably isn't out there. We are so drawn to this perfect picture of love that we have in our minds, even though we've seen no evidence (at least I haven't) is real life where it works out the way we see it working, but we try nonetheless. There's absolutely no logic in it at all, and myself, being a logical person, can't stand it when I find myself going into these bizarre fantasies or flights of fancy where this kind of thing does exist. What's more, is that when we're identified as romantics, there comes this expectation for over-the-top romantic actions and I don't know about you, but it's just not there for me. It's not that I don't want to hold up my boombox outside your window or whatever, it's simply that I don't want to cross that line. I've experienced enough backlash to my romantic gestures that I know that there is this clear line between sweet and endearing versus kind of creepy. I've learned now that when a girl withdraws or shows disinterest, I just shut it down completely and wait for them to come back because it seems whenever I try to fix it myself, I only make matters worse. That could just be me sucking at this game, not sure. And the whole thing is that we're fulfilling all these self-prophecies because we see heartbreak to be almost as romantic as love itself. A great movie, and it's possibly in the book as well, I forget (High Fidelity) asked the question - am I sad because I listen to pop music or do I listen to pop music because I'm sad? Think about it - most songs are either about love, or love-lost, so we have this great relationship with the concept of being this pitiful, heartbroken soul. We think to have loved and lost is a great personal achievement, like we accomplished something by fucking up a possibly great relationship, and we kind of build off of that because it's honestly easier to be alone than it is to be with a person, and then we can wear this badge of honor that it didn't work out but I really care for her.

Then there's this whole concept of love, what's that about anyways? If I were asked to define love, I would be at a loss for words. That being said, I know that to the best of my perceptions of it, I love two people in the sense that I think I'm supposed to - Tori, my wife and Josh, my best friend. I like plenty of people a lot, a like plenty of people a little and I hate a whole bunch of people, but there you have it. There is family and there is family love, and I love my family in that sense...it's almost a guilty love, where I feel like they have to love me because I'm their son/brother, etc and thus it would be very easy to resent those feelings, then pass that resentment onto the person...doesn't happen in my family, that resentment clearly goes elsewhere or into more subtle passive-aggressive behavior, but it's no wonder most families are off the wall.

Marriage, an extended definition of family, is the same thing. It completely defines logic that a legal document is needed to signify love. That being said, I'm married and I couldn't be happier with my decision to do-so. I always said growing up that marriage was unnecessary, if someone loves you and you love them, then stay together - don't make a piece of paper tell you to stay. However, when I met Tori, I had to marry her. There was probably a thought in my brain that said, "lock that down, don't let it get away because you're likely to fuck up soon" and I have no way of telling if any number of fuck-ups between then and now would have caused her to leave permanently had we not been married. It would be very easy for me to take that paranoid approach and then loath the marriage certificate for keeping her here when she wanted to leave, as that's my biggest fear, but I do my best not to over-analyze things. I find that my problem in most relationships, that I over-analyze every interaction, every little hint that may or may not be intentional or even subconscious indications of one's true feelings. I think this is another habit of the hopeless romantic which leads to our downfall in most relationships, we rarely let things take a natural approach and feel we need to force things to go the way our minds tell us they should.

Back to love though, is the concept of love as it is sold to us by greeting cards and TV shows and crappy romance novels a complete myth? We all grew up hearing these fairy tales where everyone lives happily ever after, but is this ever realistic? Obviously, happy ever after is a myth, there's no question about that. It would be impossible for two people to grow and mature at the same rate over an extended period of time. If you met the 'love of your life' at ninety-two and then both of you died the next day, congrats - you're the first couple to never have a fight - for the rest of us, however, that damage control is crucial. Then we have that concept that there is one person out there for you, and that's bogus beyond bogus. I'm in the belief that any two people can get along in the right circumstances, either through just common niceties to get through a conversation or project at work, so just meeting someone at the right time and place in order to make that connection over a single common interest and bonding with that. That ability to make almost instantaneous bonds with others is one of the things that make humans so unique, that we can 'love' and personify and attach to almost anything. At some point in your life, you likely rooted for a talking toaster. I'm just saying. So if everything we're sold about love is a myth, is the whole thing? Is this a trained 'emotion' I'm told I have by years of conditioning? Is it possible we'll ever know the truth?

I recently listened to an interview with a former nun who was discussing the concept of God. Too often, people attempt to personify God as a supreme being or try to assign God a he or she pronoun, thus bringing the immortal more down to our understanding, however - she said - God is more of a concept, a thought of something too great for us to perceive (forest through the trees, type thing). Is love this way too? Is love a formulaic expression that we've taught ourselves to validate sexual impulses or is love something bigger, something grander than we can truly conceive or even experience in it's full sense?

That's enough for tonight. Just to conclude, all of us hopeless romantics are doomed, but we probably wouldn't want it either other way as the heartbreak validates our need for romance. Thoughts?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

From Evan via Facebook

So, it's been awhile since I've posted in here. mostly due to the fact that I'm trying to get myself settled. I feel like I've done that now.

The movie sounds interesting, at the very least, and i too identify with the hopeless romantic. I will definitely have to check this film out. The names of the girls are indicative of the seasons too. When you think of summer you think of summer flings. Autumn seems much more reserved and and calming. A better fit for a hopeless romantic.

Do you remember Cathy? For those of you who don't know her, she's a hot Hispanic chic that I dated that epitomizes the summer character in this film. She wants to settle down eventually, from what I gathered, but her actions suggest otherwise. She's never happy with what she has for too long and she's always looking for that perfect man. Which, is actually on the romantic side of things.

I wonder if she'd be even happy with the "perfect" guy. In my experience, humans are innately imperfect, so the search for "the one," as such is futile. Yes, I believe that there is someone who is right for you out there, but it's not only one person. It could be any number of candidates, it just depends on the sequence of events. Your willingness to grasp this concept will help your prejudice and help you discover wonderful relationships to which you might have otherwise been oblivious.

Doing the right thing. That's a loaded phrase in itself. How often does doing the right thing end up in humiliation for yourself, or alienation from the one person you were trying to do right by. What is the right thing? Is it based on moral conditioning? Your personal gain? The needs of your family? The benefit of society? (the list is in no specific order)

I'll leave that for another discussion. Go hopeless romantics, go get em. never change a thing. The world needs our idealism.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

(500) Days of Summer

Have you ever seen a movie and related to a character so naturally that you actually looked at their flaws and said, "that's how I come off" to yourself? I had this moment while watching (500) Days of Summer recently in regards to Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JGL)'s character in the film. He's this hopelessly romantic male who gets so wrapped up in getting things right, he doesn't let anything take it's natural course, which of course back fires and he ends up alone (kind of, it sets him up for a nice rebound with 'Autumn') .

So anyways, the plot is good - it bounces back and forth throughout the 500 days that JGL's character knew Summer, played by the wonderful Zooey Deschanel. Essentially, we go from bad days (usually 100+) to good days, and back again. We follow the un-chronological storyline through a day ticker between scenes, as well as the background tone of the ticker, indicating if we're in for a good day or a bad day. There's really no mystery in the film, so revealing a scene's mood prior to jumping in is a nice ploy so that mood doesn't have to be established. Quite a time saver if you're making a cheap and fun indie flick.

The thing I liked most about this film was Summer, who followed in this footstep of archetypal females who aren't all about love, commitment or settling down. For some reason, these women always attract the hopeless romantics. Summer reminds me a lot of Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that kind of magnetism and promise of something more, even if that's not really what she wants. It's really an interesting dynamic, these characters. I'd like to see more of them.

The film has some truly funny moments, some touching, some kind of pathetic (on the part of JGL's character, the ones that made me somewhat ashamed). In the end, it was a very enjoyable movie-going experience and what more could you ask for? I got exactly what I expected from it, maybe even a little bit more.

It's really good to see JGL back though, am I right? I never liked Third Rock From the Sun, but I always thought he was an alright actor. He's been a couple, mostly indie, flicks recently and that's good to see. I hope he has continued success because I think he's not terrible.

I'm going to find it more interesting to follow the career of Zooey, I think she's absolutely fantastic and while she's kind of niched herself as the indie comedy queen (with the exception of Elf, but still isn't exactly the start of a serious acting career). I'd be interested in seeing her explore different roles, and see how she fares.

So there you have it folks, brief wrap-up. Respond here, or on Twitter, just make sure to include 'weekendphilosophers' in your post.

Thoughts

So I was thinking about it, in my head, of why I don't update this as much as I say I will. I want this blog to succeed, but I think I'm seeking too much and I'm approaching it wrong. Let me explain - what I want are these great, somewhat random, or at least fluid conversations. However, what I'm getting - and this is just the nature of the blog format - are short essays which take longer to write and aren't exactly conversation promising, so as an additional side project, I suggest we move some thoughts to Twitter.


Just add #weekendphilosophers to the beginning of your update, or we can decide on a shorter topic if we want the space back, but then we'd have about 120 characters to put out a thought, or respond. It'll be much more fluid conversation, I think. Just a thought. I think we should still use the blog and just link to it when a new post is up on the Twitter feed. Thoughts?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Time Traveler's Wife

Without getting into the philosophy of Time Travel, which should definitely be on our to-do list, I went and saw the Time Traveler's Wife with MY wife and...I was surprised?

First, I'd like to say that Rachel McAdams is a pretty good actress, however her two most well known roles have been The Notebook and probably this...if she could grab a starring role in a solid (non-romantic) drama or comedy, she'd blow it up. Some people saw her in Red Eye, but that movie was nonsensical, she was overshadowed in Mean Girls where she played the villain, and her performance in State of Play was understated...the last one there, I actually think is a strength, since most actors always try to pull the attention to them on screen, where she's able to take the attention off of herself. Anyways, not enough praises on Rachel McAdams, but she needs to get out romances because she's going to end up pigeon-holed and then we'll never see her again.

Anyways, onto the film! I was, not really surprised, but content with the film. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be, it toyed with emotions and that was about it. I would first like to say, I have a love-hate relationship with movies that toy with me like that, for instance, Homeward Bound, the Incredible Journey - I hate it, absolutely hate it. They set it up so you think that Shadow is dead and they milk it, they drag it out, you start to see this kid realizing his dog is probably dead and then...BAM! Comes running over the hill, and the music swells, and it's the happiest moment ever. The happiest moment in a film should never, ever follow the saddest moment - especially if the saddest moment is a presumption of the worst. Don't toy with me, Disney. So anyways, in the case of the Time Traveler's Wife, about half-way through, there's a revelation that because of his time traveling condition, Eric Bana is going to die and he's going to die relatively soon. And again, they milk it for all they can. They build it up...within a year, he's going to die...within a day, he's going to die. Then he dies and it's like - so no surprises there, but the anticipation of his death has swelled so much since it was first revealed, it's almost like a relief that he's finally gone. You're toying with me.

So anyways - just a few philosophical questions that this movie raises...

The daughter (who can also time travel, but can control it), tells the daughter that her Dad is going to die. But how did the older daughter know - she clearly remembers when her Dad dies, which is understandable, but wouldn't she remember being told by her older self? And if that's the case - who knew first? Are they indeed two different beings?

Eric Bana's character meets Rachel McAdam's character when she is just a child and he's in his thirties, so that when they meet later in life - she knows him, but he doesn't know her. They even go as far as to suggest that the elder Bana travels back in time an develops a romantic relationship with underage McAdams. Ignoring the questionable ethics of wooing a minor, with the knowledge that you'll someday marry, again - what came first?

Now onto the ethical matter, is it cheating? Is sleeping with your partner, albeit your partner from another time, indeed cheating or being faithful? This is somewhat parallel to the different beings question. In my mind, I don't know future or really, past me...and either way, it's not me - it's future or past me, so he's another man. Just me?

Finally, a time space question - in the film, he randomly travels to different points in time and different places on Earth, although he usually gravitates towards the same general locations. It isn't explained in the film, and I doubt it is in the book, how these times and places are determined, only that he tends to wind up by 'big events.' Okay, I don't claim to understand how the universe (or universes) work, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. So there's this random mechanism in his genetics, which makes no sense, which manipulates HIS body to go someplace else in the time-space universe. Lucky, this place is always Earth, right?
Fact: The Earth is moving through space
Fact: Our sun, which the Earth revolves around is moving through space
Fact: Our galaxy is moving through space
I would make a guess that at no time in history, has the planet been in the same place speaking solely from a 3D plane. This concept that traveling back in time will land you in the same place as you were before is ridiculous because that place wasn't there at that time. We don't even know how fast we are moving through space, we know how fast we are moving in relation to the sun and that's pretty fast, so for all we know - someone goes back in time one minute, they could end up some unknown place of the universe if their physical location were to remain the same. Think about it. Woah.

So, to wrap it up, movie good but if you think too hard about it, concept bad. Go into the movie knowing you're being played though, make it less emotional for you. I have a bunch of tedious work to get to now. Ta.

Funny People

Sometimes at work, I have to wait for things to execute. This is when I get things like this done.

So anyways, the latest Judd Apatow film came out a while back and after a couple weekends, I was finally able to go see it. The reviews of the film were fairly mixed, especially in comparison to Knocked Up and The 40-Year Old Virgin. Peer reviews, mostly from Facebook status updates, were brutally negative. I think the major problem with the film, at least in the context of people who aren't critics, was that it was terribly misrepresented in advertising and I was only aware of the overall mood of the film by reading through the lines...this isn't a comedy, it's really more of a drama, involving people who are funny. Apatow's previous two films were comedies in the sense that the plots were extreme to comical effect, here - the plot isn't funny at all, it just happens to revolve around comedians. Let me next say that I liked this film, I liked it a lot. I say that now because most of the following is going to come off pretty negative. The film was good, I thought, despite of itself. I think most of the people who hated it probably went in with a perception of what an Apatow movie is, and didn't get it, others likely saw the film's flaws as a greater problem then myself.

I listened to an interview with Apatow shortly before the film's release and he kind of explained how the storyline came to be, how he originally wrote a movie about a dying comedian, then another romantic-comedy sort of thing involving an ex, and then a buddy film about comedians...but none of the stories really panned out, and eventually he kind of combined them into a single film. As anyone may be able to gather from that explanation, none of the stories really pan out and they don't exactly flow together well. There are three very clear acts in the story, but they seem almost irrelevant to each other. The film isn't sure who it's about - Rogen or Sandler - and it suffers from this lack of focus, like many of my posts. It's kind of a hard movie to wrap an opinion around because, while it was an enjoyable movie going experience, it didn't come right out and make that clear. You had to try to enjoy it, which is never a good thing in terms of any form of entertainment.

What did you think about it?

First Days of Spring

Sometimes, I take up a cause. Generally speaking, these causes are bands which I feel are under-appreciated or unknown. I still strongly believe that Biirdie could be a big the indie scene, they're precious and not overly innovative, but they write great songs which is kind of...you know...the whole point to music? Going out and doing something completely new is great and wonderful, but nothing can replace solid songwriting and honestly, the best instances of this great experimentation is still built on great songs. So anyways, my latest cause is Noah and the Whale. I put on a great, long review of their album, Peaceful the World Lays Me Down, somewhere on this blog. Well they are releasing their next album, The First Days of Spring in the US on October 6. The album is actually streaming now from their myspace, and I highly recommend a good listen. I'll first warn you, it's not as light and fluffy as their debut album, and what's more - this is a straight up break-up album. It's not a bummer though, it's full of hope, as their debut was. The biggest difference here is that it's much more orchestrated, likely a bigger budget, but it really shows up the songwriting (somehow, sometimes when a band gets a bigger budget, they cover up their songwriting). Anyways, check it out and...there you go.

By the way, I'm 15 posts behind, so I'm working on catching up. Well, 14 now. Here's my list...

  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something..
  • A case for slashers.
  • Violence in...
  • Sex in...
  • Violence and Sex, one in the same?
  • The Beatles
  • Online and unknown, privacy and security

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something..
  • A case for slashers.
  • Violence in...
  • Sex in...
  • Violence and Sex, one in the same?
  • The Beatles
  • Online and unknown, privacy and security
But first, a response to our newest contributor, Evan. By the way, my recent post in which I responded to "Max" was actually Evan, as I suspected but had he been under a pseudonym, I didn't want to take away that security blanket that Internet anonymity brings.

So I'm in class right now and we're supposed to be doing lab work, but I think I'll save it for this weekend because I'm quite tired and I feel like doing this. I recruited Evan very strongly, then I disappeared which was kind a of a dick move I'm pretty good at. I've been busy and preoccupied with a lot of things, but as I always promise - I'll try to be better. Key word is try, as in fail. Anyways, onto the response and maybe I can bust out a few more posts tonight yet.

I haven't spoken much of 9/11. I remember, about six months after the attack, I was on a field trip with some people from school, none of whom I would consider friends and one of them said, as a means of starting up a conversation - 'what is everyone's thoughts on 9/11?' I responded, lethargically, with no comment and I'd likely do the same today. I remember the day itself very clearly, as I know everyone who was alive at the time does. I stayed home from school that day and I woke up late, and walked out into the living room. I sat down on the couch and the TV was already on. All I saw was one of the tower's smoking badly, I thought it was a strange and morbid daytime movie or something, when all of a sudden, the second plane came in. I hadn't been sitting for more than five minutes when it happened and that's when it dawned on me - this looks like a scene from a movie, but this is real, unbelievable it seemed, but real nonetheless. Obviously, we all remember the next week of media coverage as well - the TV became a source of hope, or discouraging news, stories of heroism and stories of great loss.

Evan brought up the concept of religious motivation for the attacks and that does seem to be the principle reason for what happened. I've heard the conspiracy theories that we (America) was behind one or more of the attacks, money to gain or war to initiate. I don't know, either way you look at it - there's no rational justification for the attacks, for that amount of loss of life. In context, however, we as Americans really need to be more aware of the world around us. In our attempt to become this world power, policing the nation, we still maintain the separatist thinking that served us well between the Civil War and WWI. We think we're the best at everything, although in truth we really aren't at anything. The same goes for loss of life - while it is a great tragedy that 5000+ people, just doing their daily thing, were killed that day - the same happens all over the world, usually in greater numbers, and it gets no press coverage and nobody remembers it. In context, for America it was a great loss, but if we really strive to be this world presence, we should have the place of mind to realize that.

Jumping back to religion, I've never truly understand the blind following of the church. I was raised Methodist and at a certain point in my early teens, I decided I wanted to strengthen my faith. I began questioning things I hadn't questioned before and assumed that my church had these answers, I just had never asked. However, every question that I got answered, it raised ten more questions. Eventually, the questions started raising the questions that they had originally answered. The deeper I got into it, the less logic I saw in the whole thing. Nothing made sense at that point. I got desperate, I went out and bought a bunch of 'faith through logic' books which theoretically proved the truths in the Bible through historical evidence, but every supposed point they had seemed to prove them more wrong in my mind. Perhaps I had just gone into it already doubting the existence of God, but by the end of this I realized, there very likely isn't a God. Since then, I've realized that there's possibly a chance there is a greater power out there, but the likelihood that it is in any form related to the deities we call Gods is almost completely impossible. The biggest problem I had in this time of life when I was questioning everything is, when I questioned I was scolded. Only one religious figure (I should say quasi-religious figure, he was a preacher in training who worked at Taco Bell as he went to night school), who accepted me questioning his beliefs and actually tried to argue, with quite a bit of logical reasoning, the existence of God. It was one of the best conversations I've ever had, truthfully. Obviously, one cannot argue for the existence of God without first assuming the existence of God and vice versa. And truthfully, there is no argument either way, but the concept that questioning is wrong...how can any society be built on that? Questioning every aspect of society is how society gets improved. Questioning if the Earth is round leads to the discovery of America for the Europeans. Everything should be questioned. I'm not saying we should do away with religion as a whole, or the concept of faith or morals, but to take these to the extremes that most of these religious nut-jobs...it makes no sense, because they clearly aren't questioning anything and what's more, is they rarely question their own reasoning. They'll misinterpret, or takes things too literally, and all of a sudden they are crashing planes into buildings. Frankly, I'm not going to do anything rash in this life for anything in the afterlife, you know why? I'm guaranteed this life - I'm already here, but there is nothing promised to me in the afterlife that I know I'll get for sure.

I do accept the reasoning that there are three greater parts of the human life - body, soul and mind (as oppose to just mind and body), but the concept of the soul living on beyond the body or mind seems improbable at best. Then again, it could just be beyond our comprehension.

I've kind of lost focus now, I'm afraid, and honestly I don't know if any of that was comprehensible. I know it wasn't coherent. Anyways, respond and we'll see where we go from here - I have a lot more to say on religion, it's a great topic...and just as a disclaimer, nobody here is attacking anyone else's beliefs (and don't do so), just good conversation. Don't take anything personally. Ta.

Friday, September 11, 2009

9/11

Today marks the 8th anniversary of this tragic event.  My heart goes out to all those who had personal connections or loved ones lost.  A constant reminder that we are not as isolated as we wish to be.  America is still somewhat aloof to the rest of the world, but the world is much smaller than it used to be.  Of course, this tragedy wasn't merely an attack of the infidels, it was a religious statement.  In the minds our islamic brothers (humankind, not religious), they were merely carrying out the wishes of their religion.

I'm not really a fan of organized religion, so I'll say that up front.  If religion subscribes to calamities, such as 9/11 and the crusades, which hunts, etc, then I want to have no part in it.  Even the indoctrination of the entire German nation, you could argue that as a form of religion.  After all, what is religion, but a submission to doctrines derived from years of interpretation and loosely based on archaic texts.  Not to the extreme of the terrorists that attacked our country, but in a similar vein, i met students at Calvin College that blindly "believed" in their faith.  If you were to ask them why they believed in the Heidelberg Catechism or what in fact their personal stance on the divinity of Christ was, they could form no opinion.  Blindly following, without considering the consequences of you actions or beliefs, that in itself is tragic. Think people!  

The basic moral compass and a capacity to understand good and evil is inherent.  Conditioning and repetition in either direction will dictate who you become.  Routine clouds judgement.  If you have always done things a certain way without considering your initial innate inclination then you will continue on the blissful path of unknowing.  I understand that people can have chemical imbalances, which make their decision process much more difficult.  However, the ability was there at one point, it just a matter of whether or not they can retrieve the skill.  

As you may have gathered, I believe people to be fundamentally good.  It's the exposure to varying experiences both good and evil that helps hone the ability to do the right thing.  Life is way too short to harbor feelings of malcontent for our fellow brothers.  I take this from the Christian perspective, but I agree whole heartedly, love your neighbor as yourself.  If you love everyone equally, only good things can ensue.  Of course, I am a realist, there are some people that are too corrupted by their own way of thinking and you can't  reach them.  Mourn for them because they will never see how life can be lived to the fullest extent.

"Statistics are like loose women, you can do what you want with them."

  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something..
  • A case for slashers.
  • Violence in...
  • Sex in...
  • Violence and Sex, one in the same?
  • Once
I know, I'm a big Blog liar. I never update when I say I will. I was going to knock out a couple during the NFL kickoff last night, but I didn't. For some reason, I am more capable of splitting my attention between a movie, or TV show, and writing an entry versus trying to do so during a football game. This is odd because typically, in a visual story like a movie or TV show, the plot is just as important as the ending, whereas in a football game, more or less, it doesn't matter how you get there, the end result is the only thing that matters. The Titans, in many ways, won the game last night based on the 'plot' I saw, but the scoreboard says differently and that makes all the difference, doesn't it. This bodes poorly for me who also intends on doing homework during football on Sundays. We'll see if I can split my attention better in the future.

We did have a comment on my most previous post regarding Pandora, to which I will respond directly, "Max" said,
I have been aware of Pandora for about the past year. I hadn't participated until recently and I must say good work AI research people. Of course, it's not a perfect system. I don't think it's possible to create such a system that uses logic and cross references to calculate personal taste. Currently, I am inclined to say I don't like DMB, only because it plays him every other song. True AI, as seen in "I Robot" is a long way off. Perhaps over time, Pandora can assimilate a close relative, but to be a cognitive entity that learns and understands a person fully is the not yet attained dream.
I had a Pandora profile for the longest time but rarely used it because, like you're facing now, it wasn't very accurate. My flash drive, which contained all the mp3s for my laptop died, so I was forced to come up with a music solution for my long work days, so I rediscovered Pandora. First and foremost, it requires patience and rate your songs as often as possible. If you give the same artist two thumbs down on a given radio station, that artist will be banned from that station (assuming they aren't listed as one of the artist nodes). Also, create lot's of radio stations. I have 22 radio stations and more often than not, listen to 20 of them on QuickMix (two of them are very specific moods, in which I am rarely). I have a radio station with my top songs, I have another with my top ten artists, then I kind of veer off into more genre based music. I found that having a radio station only associated with the Beach Boys plays a lot of lightweight pop from the 60s (Jackson 5, Frankie Valli, etc...), however adding any of these specific artists skew the variety, the Beach Boys are the perfect middle of the road band for this. I try not to double up any of my artists, but I have things like 'Rap' (Atmosphere, Jean Grae, The Streets) and 'Pop Rap' (Eminem, Kanye West, OutKast). I try my best not to choose two similar artists (I wouldn't include Dizzee Rascal on my rap station, he's too similar to the Streets).

Here's my profile - http://www.pandora.com/people/nathan.driftwoodprose - where you can see all of my radio stations, songs I've thumbed up and down, etc... I bookmark songs I really like, so I can add them to my "Wanted Media" list, which is a Google Doc where I track CDs I want...I send it out to family members around the holidays in hopes I get CDs for Christmas...I never do. As anyone can see, I have very eclectic tastes, but I think I did a pretty good job as far as variety on my QuickMix goes.

As for the AI, no - it's not perfect and I like the approach, attempting to break down a song into specific elements and finding tastes accordingly, it is going to be inaccurate. For me, I generally like most music, so I'm probably an easy customer to please. There's also a memory aspect that Pandora can't account for, if I can't listen to Pearl Jam because of a terrible memory from my childhood, there's no accounting for that if I build a radio station with Nirvana, Soundgarden and Sonic Youth. Honestly, I'd probably be disappointed if I didn't heard Pearl Jam almost immediately. So you're right, there's no accounting for taste, really and while this computer tries it's best, it'll always play something God awful that you just have to thumb down.

Nathan out, hopefully some posts this weekend (watching Once tonight, maybe some posts during the movie). Ta.

Monday, September 7, 2009

3/15

  • Pandora
  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something..
  • A case for slashers.
Pandora, if you don't know, is an internet service that builds radio stations based on song or artist selections, built on the findings of the music genome project which basically, finds the common threads in music and attempts to determine trends and qualities on this information. I use it daily at work and usually at home or in the car, on my cell phone as well. It's great. I have about ten or fifteen radio stations programmed in, three to five artists each ranging many different genres, and then put it on quickmix, which matches my own personal musical library almost entirely, just with more variety which is what I'm all about. Since I've been using Pandora regularly (I've had an account for years...), I've discovered about ten bands that I plan on checking out on my own later. I'm really interested in the music genome project which looks at the individual quality of songs, like vocal melodies, use of acoustic instrumentation and complex time changes, among a bunch of others. There's a list of qualities on wikipedia, although in my listening, I've seen others come up as well. It's amazingly deep and informational in regards to what makes the music you listen to and like, unique to your ears. You can program it as well, by telling it what you like and what you don't like, building a virtual playlist of songs with the qualities you like. What's more, you can look for these qualities in other songs and it really makes you listen more to music as a whole, a deeper understanding of it helps in the listening to and creating of...new. Really, it's great stuff. Check it out.

2/15

  • Universal Health Care
  • Pandora
  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something...
Boy, Universal Health Care sure is rising a hub-bub, isn't it? The facts are - America has the lowest lifespan of modern countries, the lowest lifespan of people over 65 (that is, shortest life after the age of 65 for people who make it that far). Part of it is the unhealthy we, as Americans, live and part of it is our health system's inability to care for everyone. Yes, someone has to front the bill and yes, I've - in the past - complained about government involvement where the private sector is usually more efficient, but here is an exception to that rule. The health system is currently built on a by-job policy, that is to say, for every test a doctor runs, that doctor gets paid regardless of whether that test is needed or not. In addition, there is no distinction for quality control, a job is a job, regardless of results. There is malpractice insurance, but this just rises the cost of health care for the rest of us. The insurance industry is rife with crooks who don't even hide the scams they are pulling and the current system of insurance through your employer leaves very little options for the every day consumer. I don't know if universal health care if the answer, but our current system is broken and I for one am glad we are at least looking at other country's approach to taking care of it's citizens. Obama promised change when he ran for president and thus far, it's been a lot of the same, but this is the first sign of true change coming to Washington and how this nation is run, so I'm happy for it. We'll see if he can get it done.

1/15

  • The Fiery Furnaces in general...
  • Universal Health Care
  • Pandora
  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig.)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something..
It seems rather daunting, thinking about posting 15 straight posts, but I want to get them out there either way, so I'll do my best tonight. Forgive me now if I seem to rush through some of the topics, but if any of them catch as a conversation starter, we can always go back to them, can't we?

So the Fiery Furnaces...man, what a concept. In a few months, as I believe I mentioned in my previous post regarding their latest album, I'm Going Away, they are re-releasing the album...twice...with the two permanent members taking control of six tracks each on each version as oppose to collaborating, giving the songs new life in a different personality. This is an interesting approach to music, and really, any kind of art to see any piece to be an unfinished work...a building is called a building and not a built because it's in progress, it adapts to those who need it. Music adapts to the listener and over time, a music's message can change - this is true for the band too. Constantly evolving is one of the things I love about this band.

They also recently announced that they will release a 'silent record' which will, in fact, be sheet music. They will then tour and watch the fans play the album. What better way to prove my previous point that this is a band for evolution!

They came out around the time of the White Stripes' big break and were regularly grouped with them for some common threads...the whole brother/sister thing (although these are a real brother/sister combo), the blues-rock roots, the garage sound...it was big at the time. That was as they released Gallowbird's Bark, a brilliant piece of two minute rockers which merely hinted at the future. Songs like "Inca Rag/Name Game" and the final three songs.

Which brings me to the bomb that was Blueberry Boat. The first track is ten minutes, sprawling several different styles and genres, a couple of lines in a gibberish language. The album clocked in just shy of the eighty minute limit and it's a masterpiece. It's intimidating just to try to write about it, so I'll just put it out - listen and be blown away. Prepare to listen a couple of times though, because it isn't something that you'll get right away.

Then they released EP, a collection of singles to compliment the long format of most of the songs on Blueberry Boat, three minute pop hooks that really show off the band's knack for songwriting. It stayed with the theme though, of quirky and witty lyrics mixed with a wide range of sounds and genres making for an unique listening experience. This is the only album they've put out that isn't an album listen, as in, best when listened to together in a single sitting.

Next came Rehearsing My Choir, the mostly definitively split album to date, recorded with their grandmother of all people, it is the retelling of a life filled with love, heartbreak and a lot of youthful exuberance. It makes use of heavy classical orchestration, but with modern instrumentation (mostly keyboards and synths), as the story jumps and weaves from time period to time period, story to story. The best elements of the album come in the subtle musical clues, namely the use of several melodies, mostly prominently the 'memory melody' indicating that the narrator, whether it be Olga (the grandmother) or Eleanor (the younger version), is remembering something.

They followed that with it's companion piece, Bitter Tea, a more pop oriented album which looked wide-eyed and innocently towards the future. It was supposed to be the youthful look at life, love and adventure to give the opposite perspective from that on Rehearsing My Choir. The extensive use of backwards lyrics as counter melodies, complex keyboard parts put off some listeners, but the return of the pop hook returned to the FF domain as they produced some of their most immediate songs to date, not to mention my personal favorite (and in my top 80 minutes, "Benton Harbor Blues").

Next came Widow City, a dark and clearly Led Zeppelin-esque album with no real theme or direction. This wasn't a misstep for the band by any means, as a matter of fact, it was probably their most straight forward album to date. It featured long instrumental songs, or at least, songs built on few lyrics with long and complex musical bridges. This is when the band's musical technique came to the forefront and they began experimenting with the talents they had just with their fingers and guitars, or keyboards, or synths. It's a very loud record with few pop hooks but tons of great riffs.

Finally they released Remember last year which is a live album, of sort, although it's probably the least live, live album ever. Piece together from parts of a nationwide concert, it was then edited. It's the most overwhelming thing they've ever done, just in terms of pure soundscape variety.

Then came the aforementioned I'm Going Away which I already reviewed for you in my previous post. Expect full reviews when I get to them in my album reviews...eventually.

How many more can I do tonight? I don't think 14... We'll see. Later.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Checking in...expect to hear a lot from me

  • The Fiery Furnaces in general...
  • Universal Health Care
  • Pandora
  • Funny People
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • (500 Days) of Summer
  • The Jackson 5
  • Album Reviews
  • The constructs of family (continued)
  • Generational Gaps
  • Black Christmas (the orig. vs. new)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Hazards of Love
  • Disney Factory
  • The State of Horror
  • I want to do something...
After this post, I will be officially 15 posts behind...there are 15 true topics up there. I am going to try to do them all before Tuesday, which is where I am for the football blog. We'll see if I make the most of the holiday weekend, no?

Nathan out - ta.