March 2, 2010 Music
“It’s not about the hair, it’s not about the shoes, it’s about the music. The best way to experience the music is and has always been to listen to it, to watch the performance. We sometimes forget that as fans, we get sidetracked by the other crap.
I wanted to expose people to the depth of sound hiding in the cities they live in. After talking to friends, I realized that many of the bands I consider great and even popular are completely unheard of to most people. I’m not bitter towards mainstream music, but the Canadian music scene has so much to offer — minus the shoes and the hair.”
Straight from the mouth of the man himself. Check out Jeff’s project at Minus the Music to be enlightened, to be exposed, to hear the many flavors of indie music flowing out of Canada’s great cities. No decorative distractions, just the music.
March 1, 2010 Books
School and a new job have been devouring my free time at an exasperating rate. I always have to read something, but my list this month is a lot shorter.
I found Carson McCullers’s first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, slightly battered and buried in the bargain bin. It was beautiful and sad. I’ve never read anything by McCuller’s before, but her praises are well deserved.
I am also halfway through a very different novel I got from my Dad, The Aquitane Progression by Robert Ludlum. He likes to read these espionage-action novels, and I thought I’d give it a try. The military jargon is a bit of a tangle, but the descriptions of Europe and the spy drama keep it interesting.
February 27, 2010 Excerpt
The word depression is used as a “catch-all” term to describe a “spectrum of symptoms.” I am wary of the medical standard which of late seems to prefer to medicate first and diagnose later, especially in children. Jonah Lehrer helps us to see that depression should not be dismissed so quickly:
“If depression didn’t exist — if we didn’t react to stress and trauma with endless ruminations — then we would be less likely to solve our predicaments. Wisdom isn’t cheap, and we pay for it with pain.”
A hefty price. However, it’s not always that simple, either:
“To say that depression has a purpose or that sadness makes us smarter says nothing about its awfulness. A fever, after all, might have benefits, but we still take pills to make it go away. This is the paradox of evolution: even if our pain is useful, the urge to escape from the pain remains the most powerful instinct of all.”
Read more about Depression’s Upside on the New York Times website.
02/24
Reading, writing, seeing, giving: Thinking for a Living.
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02/23
A certain web designer at The Phuse put on his science hat and came up with an altered Taxonomy for his gazillion fonts. It is ambitious. I helped him to fine tune the article, to fix a few grammar issues, but the man knows his typefaces. The article is beautifully rendered, which alone makes it worth viewing, but there’s also a little giveaway contest included, so head over to check it out and win yourself a prize.
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02/23
Archaeological Dig Reshaping Human History. “All our theories were wrong.” “First the temple, then the city.”
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February 23, 2010 Political Slant
This is both interesting and amusing. Ron Paul won the 2010 CPAC Straw Poll, which is an early republican presidential candidate litmus test. Doug Wead writes,
“But no matter how deep the denial of the American media you can be sure that Ron Paul’s victory sent shock waves through the rest of the American establishment.”
And then they got Tim Pawlenty to go on Meet the Press instead of Congressman Paul. Pawlenty came in 3rd with 6%. Ron Paul got 31% of the vote.
This poll by no means indicates that Ron Paul will be the Republican Candidate in 2012, but it may be an indication that he could win as an independent. He certainly has the popular support.
Update 02/24: I found this at Newser, Mike Huckabee Says CPAC is Too Libertarian, Not Relevant. Too Libertarian? Well, Ron Paul won. But not relevant? Just because the typical Republican candidates didn’t win? Because the grassroots movements are getting involved? Don’t you think it’s the mainstream Republicans that are becoming less relevant, and not the people’s opinions? Huckabee seems like a sore loser.
February 23, 2010 Sketch
Here’s a fun fact.
My dentist told me that flossing your teeth is the oral equivalent to wiping your ass. Then he described, with liberal hand gestures, the terrible things that happen when they have to surgically remove your sphincter; and the necessity for colostomy bags, despite their frightful malfunctions.
We really bonded.
February 21, 2010 Political Slant
Charles Krauthammer talks about “popular will expressing itself–despite the special interests– through the existing structures.” It’s nonsense to say the U.S. is ungovernable.
Tougher restraints on banks, a “fundamental shift” in policy, has been dubbed the ‘Volcker Rule’.
Finally, if you live in Kentucky and are able to vote, Rand Paul is running for Senator. In the words of an obscure British Hip-Hop group I know only as The Rub,
“No vote is no protest, do you understand?”
(Note: Rand is the son of Congressman Ron Paul, whose good ideas we’ve mentioned before.)