13,889 - Music, part 1 of 5

I was reminded of something that happened in my life over ten years ago recently from two sources. This family member was talking about how she bought a new album on iTunes; which in all fairness is a resource that I use too. The second was Adam Sander from the movie Reign Over Me (which incidentally I highly recommend), his character is a collector of vinyl. Now there is me, someone who buys almost no CDs anymore but instead utilizes places like iTunes and eMusic to get my music; but I still buy CDs for artists that I really like (Tori Amos gets a semiannual pilgrimage, and recently Dresden Dolls) and to me it has become strange for people who exclusively buys CDs. Cassie’s brother does this, never downloads only buys CDs. Ten years ago I didn’t understand people who obsessed over vinyl who were not DJs. I think I understand now though.

January 22^nd, 1996 in Whitewater Wisconsin there was a heavy snowstorm, it was also the day that God’s (aka Tori Amos) third CD was being released Boys for Pele. I had already seen the video for Caught a Light Sneeze on 120 minutes (I miss Matt Pinfield) and was convinced that it was the greatest video ever (still excellent). UW Whitewater had a parking problem at that time and the snow plows trapped my car in so I decided to hoof it, about a mile, through the snowstorm so I could buy Tori’s new CD. In a strange way this was also an example to my devotion to Tori Amos’ music, I walked a mile in a blizzard to buy her CD. After the purchase I ran back to my dorm room and listened to it.

It was an awesome experience, really, and one that has never been duplicated and one that never will. iTunes is great and I love my iPod (makes it easy to switch between Tori, PJ, and Bjork), but I feel that one snow covered day I had to work for my music which is something that seems much more difficult now.

That was just braving the elements though, that is nothing to say about bands like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Leather Strip, Christian Death, Swans, and many more that if you lived in the suburbs meant a trip into the city just to shop for record albums. I had a hell of a time finding some Swans CDs, and once it took a drive to another city to do so. That happened more than once too. This is not saying that the current situation isn’t bad, it has been awesome because now I can fill in the gaps of my Coil collection from albums that I could never find; and a few others too (but dammit I worked hard to complete some collections).

So on May 1^st Tori has a new album coming out, and I’ll travel (by motorized vehicle) to the local record store and physically buy the CD even though I may not need to.

To be continued…

300 Rocks

I love reading movie reviews, and video game reviews. I like how movie reviewers express their opinions and especially like it when they completely pan a movie. This does not mean that movie reviewers express the same opinion as me, though I think that certain reviewers are much better than all the rest.

I have gone to see the movie 300 twice and loved it, and some reviewers have panned this movie and I have a problem with that because I think that they missed the point. 300 is a violent fictional depiction of a real event; therefore some reviewers should excuse themselves from reviewing it if they say that it is too violent, or object to the excessive Computer generated backgrounds because that is what the movie is. There has also been criticism about the meaning of 300 and the war on terror, and pro-America. WHO CARES? Movies are an art form and are supposed to be interpreted by the viewer. Finally some reviewers need to get off their high llama because of the historical inaccuracies in the movie… they are supposed to be there, it is a fictional retelling.

If you have not seen 300, and don’t mind ultra-violent movies, then watch this movie because it is just amazing.

The Most Powerful Magical Item

I like to consider myself an abnormal person, one that likes to play Role-Playing Games but has not done so in several years. Several times I have wanted to call my friends and say "Hey, let's start a good D&D campaign," but I never do because what always happens is that it doesn't last for very long. The problem with activities when you get older is that people always have something else t do, such as working on the weekends or shopping for new drapes, and these things are placed above role-playing. This applies to myself right now too. So I ask myself if I'll have the commitment after my current predicament is finished; I would like to think so but I guess I'll have to see.

Even if you don't like role-laying you should read this story about the most powerful magical item ever.

Some thoughts about Jesus Camp

A couple of weeks ago Cassie and I watched the movie Jesus Camp which was nominated for an academy award but lost to Al Gore. The movie is a documentary about far right Christian children before and during their experience in a “Religious Camps”, there may have been some scenes afterwards to that showed the children participating in an anti-abortion rally.

I would like to believe that there are few things that scare me, but the far right Christian Fundamentalists are some of the worst. The movie makes a very decent attempt to be objectives about the subject matter, several scenes were cut because they would sway the objectivity over against the camp. What is pictured is scary enough, there are children praying to a cardboard cutout of Bush, a musical with very young children dressed in camouflage, and several comments from the woman who runs the camp about how to manipulate children.

There are two things overall that scare me the most. First is the overall use of logical fallacies especially proof by example. For example: abortion is bad, liberals support abortion; all people who support abortion are liberals. This continues: liberals support abortion, abortion is a false belief; all liberal beliefs are false beliefs. Concluding with: liberals have false beliefs, liberals have a belief in global warming; therefore global warming is a false belief. Using this sort of logic creates many sorts of errors, and has lead to several of the mass panics and evils of history; including the inquisition, the Nazis, and Patricia Pulling. Second, there is a lot of discussion about what is evil in the book, for example; abortion, Muslims, liberals, democrats, the public school system, socialism, Satanism etc are all classified as evil. There is no distinction between these evils; so a child is being taught that liberals and Satanists are in the same category. Combine these two fallacies, liberals/Muslims/socialist/public school system are evil, Satanists are evil; liberals/Muslims/socialist/public school system are Satanists.

These are all spurious correlations. Everyday people make connections and take bad advice based off of logical fallacies (myself included), but hearing people argue them sometimes gets ridiculous. I recommend people go out and rent Jesus Camp (if you think you would enjoy a documentary) and think about what is presented in the movie. Is there a difference between the Muslim youth who are called “terrorists” and these children who the camp counselors are trying to mold into an “army”? Faith is respectful, but willful ignorance is not.

Postmodernism explained

Cassie was sorting pictures the other day.

Her Mom: You can take a short break.

Me: Take a couple weeks.

Her Mom: I said a short break.

Me: Short is subjective, it depends on context. In this case I'm using a century as a basis.

My secret love for commercials

With Tivo technology and DVR becoming a standard household item people really don't watch commercials anymore; unless you are watching the Superbowl, Oscars, or the Commercial Awards. For the most part I don't like commercials, but I like good commercials. I have even been known to buy a product that I do not particularly like because of an excellent commercial.

There is one group of commercials that I hate like a plague. These are cereal commercials, the one where there are a group of people around a box, or someone in their cube, or (my least favorite) someone stocking shelves. I have not ever seen anyone eat cereal while working (especially while stocking shelves) and find the entire concept humorous, but abysmally stupid humorous. In fact almost any commercial where there is a guy stocking shelves telling me what product I should buy I decide on not buying. The apple commercials with the two guy I also find annoying and solidified my resolve NOT to buy an Apple computer during a moment of weakness.

Overall I find that the commercials I find entertaining are for products that I already have which I cannot figure out is ironic, or mere coincidence.