October 2007 Archives

I just suffered a strong sense of cognative dissonance this morning reading David Byrne wax poetic on Justin Timberlake's Madison Square Garden concert [about 2/3 of the way down, "JT on HBO"]. I would have assumed . . . Well, I would have assumed that he was as closed-minded as I am.

Sure, I could write it off as simply one artist's appreciation for the craft execution of another. But that would miss an important lesson here: one of the things I admire and respect about Byrne is the gusto with which he tries new things!

As an artist, it benefits him greatly to be able to embace the new. But the same could be said for all of us as human beings.

RSS is a long, protracted exercise in letting go.

. . .And a constant reminder that I need more practice.

I just listened to the following, meme tags never end up with a list this good:

"Five Man Army" — Massive Attack
"Don't Stop Me Now" — Queen
"Down Under" — Men at Work
"The Dead Heart" — Midnight Oil
"Parsec" — Stereolab
"Cecilia" — Simon & Garfunkel
"Stretch Out and Wait" — The Smiths
"Stuck in a Loop" — Devo
"If You Want To Sing Out" — Cat Stevens

Sure, it's not my perfect list, nor is each song necessarily the best choice from that artist, but each one of them has me moving in my chair in degrees varying from a little bit to full-on embarrassing.

I think I'll pull a Teletubbies: Again! Again!

The first thing I noticed about the paperback copy of The Code Book that I picked up recently was that it just felt wonderful: the cover, the inner page paper, everything. This is the most tactilely satisfying book, paperback or otherwise, I've had in very long time. I believe this is independent of the subject matter, which has completely fascinated me since I read "The Gold Bug" at the age of 8 or 9.

In slight contrast, C gave me a (hardback) copy of the latest novel by one of my favorite authors (Rant, Chuck Palahniuk), and while I'm also enjoying the feel of it, I strongly suspect some of that is the enjoyment I'm getting out of reading his prose.

Edit: Ok, so Rant took a a turn for the "Bwah?!" near the end, and while I still enjoyed it, (and it didn't diminish my tactile enjoyment) I feel compelled to say that. Oddly enough, this particular turn is one of which I'd be much more tolerant (and might actually enjoy) coming from another author.