Spring is-a-comin' Tiny Letter, March 2021
God exists, and he lives in Belgium
I very much enjoyed this whimsical, irreverent film. God is portrayed as a grumpy, vindictive middle-aged man who spends his days shouting at his wife and daughter. Using a vintage computer which apparently controls the world, he figures out how to make people's lives more frustrating, annoying, and inconvenient. One day, his daughter has had enough, and she messes with his computer, altering a host of rules which constrain the lives of earth's inhabitants. With the help of her brother Jesus, she escapes the crappy apartment she shares with her parents, and goes on a quest to find her disciples. After sitting through one too many mediocre films during pandemic times, I was happy to find this refreshing story.
Rewiring your brain to reframe a cherished, but troubled relationship + life on the road
Dessa is a singer and rapper from the Twin Cities. I can't say I'm familiar at all with her music, but when I read a review of this book, it suggested that a key story was her attempt to get a loving but tormenting relationship with her ex-boyfriend by rewiring her brain. I use the term “rewiring” here loosely, as the study of neuroplasticity is very new, and as with anything new that people yak about on the internet, claims for how it works or what it can do may be wildly overblown.
That said, the idea is intriguing. It turns out the story makes up a very small part of the book, but her writing is phenomenally good. Every couple pages is a line I want to quote. Speaking as a successful artist in her 30s (but not as successful as she would like, Dessa admits):
[Artist] Santigold had her big break at thirty-seven. I keep that fact in a lockbox for safekeeping but take it out every so often to turn it over in my hands. Numbers have no natural predators, they can overrun the mind and choke out other thoughts. If you're not careful, a music career can get reduced to a videogame: just a bunch of scores to keep and beat. The headcounts, the downloads, the likes, the streams, the follows, the charts, the stars (is this three and a half out of four? Or five?). Like some sad-case at the casino, you sink your fortune into a blinking machine one coin at a time, and when your hand hits the bottom of the empty paper cup, you are not sure which meal you most recently missed or if this is how fun is supposed to feel.
Dessa writes with a strong self-awareness, sketching the rhythms of cross-country tours with her band, the late night gigs followed by long, exhausting drives between cities.
…and because no city loves a single musician enough to hear her play every night, the musician has to travel, and travel hard. Each tour stop has to be booked far enough away from the last one that the shows don't compete with one another. Which means each day, a musician has to drive farther than his or her fans would be willing to. If you stop moving, you die. Just like sharks.
My own devices: true stories from the road on music, science, and senseless love
A little compassion for our elders
The present moment has me thinking that many of us are very nostalgic for the Before Times. And I also feel a lot of longing for the day when we can return to the level of human contact and interaction that we are used to. I mean, people are a pain in the ass, but I still want to join these pains in the ass at large, loud, and not always consistently fun outdoor events.
I was thinking how the first part of that equation tracks somewhat with the experience of some older folks looking back wistfully at things they used to do or used to be able to do. Often, in advanced age we are limited by what the body can do or tolerate—as the saying goes, “the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak”. So perhaps this period can give us a bit more compassion for folks who used to do all the things that we do, and perhaps take for granted, and can no longer do some of them.
Nice pop tune, with an unexpected shift in the verse
It’s hard to be original in music. There’s SO MUCH MATERIAL out there. For my part, I’m generally not interested in music where I can predict where it’s going in advance. The following isn’t the most original pop tune in the world, but it has a nice, unexpected shift in the verse. For me, that’s enough to grab my ear. The band also seems to be having a genuinely good time in this decidedly low-budget video.
Are you still wearing clumsy cloth or medical-style masks? Time to upgrade.
The following may be obvious to most, but let me say it anyway.
Cheap cloth masks of any type help you keep your exhales to yourself, hence protecting people around you. They also provide some protection to you, but most of the protection is for others.
N-95, KN95, or similar masks use a special weave of fibers that protect both you and people around you. However, these disposable models are effective for a limited time until they need replacement. They also are not the most comfortable.
There is a third option, a mask that has multiple cloth layers and/or a replaceable filter. Based on the advice of arstechnica.com in a comprehensive article, I've tried two of their recommended models: one from fashion brand Kenneth Cole (left image), and one from Outdoor Research (right image).
I prefer the Kenneth Cole model, but both of them are great. They are comfortable while fitting snugly. I spend minimal time indoors with strangers. Mostly it's the grocery store or the doctor's office. At the grocery store, there are always one or two yahoos with their mask hanging off, apparently not aware that the nose is also used for respiration. Alternately, someone will remove their mask to make a phone call, unaware that soundwaves can pass right through fabric. I will not be even the 10,000th person to suggest that perhaps we are failing to teach the most basic scientific principles to our citizens. Because of this, I prefer to shop after 7 or 8 PM, when few people are in the store. And should I momentarily enter the orbit of such a yahoo, I appreciate that my mask provides a higher level of protection.
TL;DR Upgrade your mask. It will help protect you and others, and give you some peace of mind in environments with a higher “Duh” : “I Get It” ratio*.
* Perhaps DIGI could become a new acronym? That would make me very happy. I want to be spotted at a party someday, “Hey, are you the guy who came up with DIGI?! Right on! Let me buy you a drink!”
SPEAKING OF THINGS MAKE ME HAPPY
You can never go wrong appealing to vanity, right?
If you happen to waste time on Twitter, I recommend that you stop. It's really great for one's mental health. Stopping, that is. That said, I was quite amused by this prank. Public figures who use Twitter can apply to be verified, so that people reading their tweets will know it's them. This makes sense, but the apportionment of this verification, represented by a blue checkmark, seems somewhat arbitrary, and for some, it's not just a way to confirm their identity, but a symbol of importance.
On a whim, San Francisco artist Danielle Baskin created a website called Blue Check Homes, which allows people to apply for a blue check plaque for their home, as if to say, someone important lives here. This reminded me that some years ago, other pranksters were putting physical “like” buttons on common objects like fire hydrants or fence posts. The concept of “liking” something is now so ubiquitous that I don't imagine that prank would be funny anymore. But Blue Check Homes is. The prankster is really messing with the people applying for this made up designation.
…the qualifications to obtain one of these crests seem to grow increasingly absurd. You must be a homeowner who is also a “thought leader,” for instance, or identify yourself as an athlete or member of a professional esports league who has been featured in gaming publications like Kotaku, Polygon or IGN. Are you a famous actor desiring to own one of these crests? Well, unless you have at least five production credits on your IMDB profile, too bad.
A few thoughts on “cancel culture”
The writer John Scalzi speaks eloquently about this idea of canceling people. His central point is that often, when conservative media personalities are "canceled", what's really happening is they are finally being held accountable for shitty things they have said or done.
I think the discussion is broader and older than this recent idea of de-platforming people, kicking them off social media, firing them, etc.
One of the central points for me is, how do we engage with the art or intellectual content produced by people who may be major assholes?
I think this idea first caught my attention when my dad was grumbling about some lewd, incomprehensible pop star appearing on Saturday Night Live. Of course, my dad is in his 70s, so his frame of reference for what is considered lewd is far different than mine. Watching Britney Spears, Rhianna, or whoever is the flavor of the month bump and grind to their music is neither new, interesting, or shocking to me.
Somehow, our discussion segued into consideration of artists who may say or do awful things, and we looked back in history.
Frank Lloyd Wright stiffed his contractors. Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix were truly terrible to women. Vagner’s classical music is linked to the Nazi ideology. And I'm sure we can find many examples in history of people who produced great works, but whose personal behavior was abhorrent. Michael Jackson is a more recent example. It's clear that he sexually abused children. So what are we to make of his music now? Can we separate the art from the artist? Can we recognize that deeply flawed, even criminal people can create great art? How should we respond to the sensitivities of people who might be triggered by hearing a Michael Jackson song, knowing now what they know of him?
I don't have any great wisdom on this topic, but I think I generally separate the art from the artist. If I were to find out that, for example, some of my most favorite artists were terrible people, that would be very disappointing, but I'm not sure it would detract from their work. Maybe this applies more to people who are retired or passed away. I'm not sure how I would feel about consuming the current work of someone who has repeatedly exhibited terrible behavior, for example, Mel Gibson, especially if they are unrepentant.
You can fairly argue that consuming the work of people who really ought to be canceled for their behavior only empowers and enriches them. When you see a Mel Gibson movie, you are paying his salary. On the other hand, there are plenty of artists and people working in Hollywood who are Grade-A assholes, but they are not public figures, so you probably don't hear about it.
I think a larger problem is, if you are going to boycott people or institutions for egregious behavior, you will have a hard time existing in the modern world. Let us go down the list: Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Twitter, Boeing. Where will you stop?
QUOTES
Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."
- Ambrose Bierce
###
Theories have four stages of acceptance:
i) this is worthless nonsense;
ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view.
iii) this is true but quite unimportant.
iv) I always said so.
- J.B.S. Haldane, 1963
CLOSING TRACK
Perfect Way, and so many chord changes
I think I commented to Paul that this might be the most complex pop song ever to hit the charts. And I think, if memory serves, he said it was more about chord changes or unusual shifts. If you are not blessed/cursed with an ear for music analysis, you can just enjoy this 1980s tune without trouble. If you do have one of those ears, you may have to brush up on your chord changes. And no, this is not Michael Jackson, but Scritti Politti. To my ears, this is a classic song on their otherwise forgettable album, “Cupid & Psyche 85”.
Prefer fewer chord changes? Drop me a line.