Club Calypso

Music Appreciation

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:16:02 -0400

I recently launched a music blog with a group of friends, and I have become frustrated by the lack of hits on that site. We have incredibly good writers, compelling topics, etc. When we started it, I thought: Yes! I can talk seriously about music again! (I kinda do that here, but this is more of a rant site for me while the other one has a much tighter focus and more positive bent, seeing as I don't own it, I just run it.)

But we seem to have run into a problem. Nobody wants to seriously discuss music. Ask them about their favorite song, what song was playing when they had their first kiss, what artist they think is a total hottie... oh yeah, tons and tons of discussion on that sort of thing. I know that I could easily solve my frustration by going somewhere that people with music degrees hang out, but I like the people that I talk to online now. I just want the conversation to be a bit deeper sometimes. (Not all the time. Sometimes I enjoy discussing an artist's underwear choices.)

So why is it that people, given a music discussion, focus on trivia and the obvious? I think it's because, much like with art, people are afraid to be seen as "dumb" if they don't "get it". The majority of people don't feel like they "know" anything about music, so they focus on things that are obvious, like hotness, or trivia, like "what did you have for breakfast". The same problem happens in art: people do not go to galleries and look at art, and if they do, they don't discuss it, because they are intimidated by it. They shouldn't be! Art is for everyone, or it should be. If it's not, the artist needs to reevaluate their purposes. Art, music, writing -- people should be able to experience it and have their own opinions without feeling like they're going to be "wrong", because really, there is no "wrong". Unless the artist is a prick (see above).

As usual, I'm looking for solutions. The first thing I'm going to do is give people the vocabulary they need to discuss music. Hell, had I been a teensy bit more realistic in my post-high school education, I would have gotten a teaching certificate and I'd be teaching music theory (and probably chorus) to high school students anyway. And I think I'm a pretty good teacher, or maybe I'm just bossy. ;) Anyway, over at that other site I'll be posting periodic music theory blogs to help people express their musical ideas more confidently.

I'm open to other solutions as well. Do we, the artistic community (encompassing all of the arts, thanks), need to be more open to the ideas of people who are not trained in our fields? I'm totally open. In fact, I may start posting my own music up here for critique pretty soon, once I figure out how to record on this computer. (Which, I'll admit, could take a while, because I'm a pretty busy person already what with all these blogs and stuff.) And since the majority of people who read my blogs do not know what I look like, maybe we can discuss my music without talking about what color my hair is or how I really need to sit down and pluck my eyebrows back into shape. Anyway, if anyone else has any input on this topic, let me know. I mostly am concerned about the discussion on my other blog, but if this is one of those societal things that needs to change, hey. Let's open a dialogue. :)

Psychopathy and the Culture of Negativity

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:44:06 -0400

I read with some interest a few weeks ago about psychopathy, or the fact that some people literally do not have a conscience. Similar to the idea of not having my right arm, it's hard for me to understand how any human could be literally incapable of feeling things like guilt or compassion. Even my cats can feel those things.

Anyway, the article is quite interesting (Damn Interesting, in fact, which is the name of the site and totally worth an afternoon's browsing if you're so inclined) and I found myself wondering who in my circle of acquaintances might be a psychopath.

While I don't think I can seriously classify anyone I know as a psychopath, I do find that many, many people are experience a crippling of their conscience. I think that, as a society, the collective conscience has been taking a bloody beating. And that, at least, we can lay at the feet of actual psychopaths. It's like we've been poked in the shoulder so many times, we can no longer feel pain or even annoyance when it happens again.

The end result is a culture of negativity and schadenfreude (an excellent German word that means "taking pleasure in others' pain). We no longer help others -- we revel in their misery. This is amplified if the unlucky one is a celebrity, but you can see it everywhere. And any dissenting opinion (such as pity for Britney Spears, my favorite trainwreck) is quickly drowned out by ad hominem attacks on the dissenter.

The best example of this is the comments section of any article on any online news outlet that allows commenting. (AOL is particularly bad, and feeds my belief that anyone using AOL is either a pervy asshole that lives to comment, or a naive email user like my boss.) My usual solution for dealing with this is to not look at comments, and to avoid articles that are likely to stir up negative feelings in myself. I avoid the letter section of the local newspaper for the same reason. But what happens when the negativity seeks you out?

I am still a fan of taking the high road, rising above, things like that. And soemtimes you just have to cut ties. I recently discovered that a site I frequent has been "infected" with negative (and possibly at least one psychopathic) personalities. One of these I had counted as a friend, but as my research (my greatest ally, research) turns up proof against her, I have decided to remove myself from that toxic environment and redouble my focus on the positive spaces I have helped to create.

It is a difficult disentanglement, and several close friends are struggling with the same decision themselves. And as anyone who's ever tried to quit a bad habit can tell you, it's harder to do something positive than something negative. It's easier to fall into the dark abyss, because you can just let gravity take over.

But for those out there who still have that kernel of a conscience left, no matter how injured, withered or weak, please believe me when I tell you: it is more rewarding to do the good and difficult thing than the evil or indifferent. You don't even have to believe in eternal life for this to be true (I don't). Your heart will be lighter, your mind will be clearer. (Unless you're a psychopath.)

The change must come from within you, though. There are no carbon offsets for the soul.

(More on the rewards of good, not evil, behavior in a future post.)

I think I'm pretty awesome!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:28:31 -0400

So last weekend, I was pretty depressed because I was having trouble learning Flash. Well, I'm over that. I don't need it. Today I figured out how to embed fonts!

You'll notice that I now have a mostly-readable font on this blog. It's just for testing purposes, maybe I'll go back to Arial later, or maybe I'll replace it with something else. I think it's totally sweet, though, and I wonder why I didn't do it 10 years ago. :)

I never knew they had a manual

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:07:13 -0400

In my boredom and net-trolling today, I found this article about a book that explains how to be an asshole. The funniest part of the article is that Newsweek is not allowed to publish the word asshole, so they had to come up with like 391284250345 different ways of saying it. *snort* I enjoyed it immensely, and I'm actually tempted to read the book now. Gotta see if the library has it.

I'm kinda hungry tonight

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:19:09 -0400

My Prediction for American Idol 8

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 19:59:00 -0400

So not like I've watched AI since Season 5, although I've caught a couple performances on YouTube and the people I hang around with talk about AI a lot, but I kinda have this idea for next season. Since they're now allowing people who have had major label recording contracts in the past (just not now because apparently they tanked so bad they had to be cut loose), I figured you could pretty much get anyone on there, as long as they fit in the 16-28 age range when they auditioned.

Now, y'all know I have this little Britney Spears obsession, and I've tried to tone it down. Plus she's made it really easy for me, appearing on a show I don't watch anyway, and pretty much not doing anything else. (Which I think is great for her. And for me. I've gotten a lot done recently!) So I think maybe she's making headway in her life, and anyway she's getting really close to "old" for the music industry. But what about her little sister?

Yup, Jamie Lynn Spears is the ideal American Idol contestant. Now, I don't know if she can sing, and frankly I don't care. Her sister can kinda sing. Maybe she's got a musical gene. Maybe she's actually better, but was encouraged to go into acting (like Ashlee Simpson) because her big sister already chose music. Whatever. (Oh, clarification: Not saying Ashlee is a better singer than Jessica. Can't stand either of them.)

Here are JLS's qualifications (and a loose guide to how AI or her own people can market her to win):

1. She's from the south. AI winners have been from Texas, North Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Alabama, and... um, can anyone remind me where Jordin Sparks is from? Utah or something? Okay, maybe she was a fluke. Anyway, more top 12 contestants are from the south, and you have a better chance of winning if you're from the south. The only thing that could make JLS more attractive to southern voters is if she was trapped in Hurricane Katrina. Or if she was black. Oh well.

2. She's a single mom, or she will be in a little while if she doesn't marry some guy (baby-daddy or other). Sure, she's got all her acting earnings to fall back on, but she didn't go to a real high school. She could totally play the Fantasia card there. She's gotta name the baby something weird out of the Bible, though.

3. That acting experience. She could totally fake her way through one of those horrid group sing things, she could smile through stupid questions, and she could nail the Ford commercials!

4. She's at the low end of the age scale. Now, granted, teenagers often do not do well on AI because they don't have the experience necessary to pull off a successful performance and keep their shit together over two nerve-wracking live shows each week. And dealing with the judges and Seacrest is a special pain of its own. But JLS has been dealing with Hollywood stuff for ages now. She has a pretty successful TV show, or she did, and it's even not so annoying that I can't watch it. (The camera work is great. Kudos to those guys. Now would someone take the remote away from my sister?)

So what do y'all think? Ladies and Gentlemen, your new American Idol... Jamie Lynn Spears? :-D

Aren't I talented?

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 08:24:52 -0400

So you'll see over to the right there that I've added space for some ads. The ad that's there now is a little Flash ad that I made up myself. Okay, I could've done the same thing with a jpg and a normal link around it, but the point is I'm learning to use Flash. Eventually that ad will be animated. In fact, it was animated last night, but I had trouble getting it to animate and link to the external page at the same time. Anyone available to tutor me? :-D

I'll figure it out eventually, but in the meantime, if anyone wants to pay me to put ads on my site and can do the ActionScript themselves, let me know! I could always use more revenue...

Pleasant Surprises

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 12:49:24 -0400

I've been pleasantly surprised by a few things lately. Thought I would share them, and maybe induce others to think of the things that make them unexpectedly happy, too.

1. I fit into my goal jeans! Two weeks ago, I tried on these size 13 Jordache jeans that have been taunting me for years, and they didn't fit. Yesterday? They fit! :) I'm so proud of myself. I really stuck to my exercise and diet and it has actually paid off. Next goal: be skinnier than my sister by her wedding in August. Yeah, she might kill me for that, actually.

2. The feeling I get when I jog 0.6 miles out of 1.86 (I walked the rest). That's what I did on the treadmill this morning, pushing myself just a bit harder than I have before, and every time I do that, the high is incredible!

3. Finishing (mostly) my first paid freelance project. It should launch by the end of this week if all goes well. I love the feeling of accomplishment, particularly because I have done something for another person.

4. My high school reunion planning. It looks like the actual fun people are doing the planning, and I might actually have a good time! So, fingers crossed that the boring-ass preppies don't get wind of the planning til the last minute, and we can pull this off. :-D And if the preppies do join in, maybe I'll get lucky and they've gotten cooler as the years wore on. Hmm... bwahahahahahaha!

Okay, that's my happy Sunday so far. Now I think I'm going to see if I can get some fresh air, even though it's not 63 and sunny like it was yesterday (more like 47 and cloudy, oh well).

Mari's Book Club

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:34:38 -0400

I was thinking that if I had any spare time left, I'd want to start a book club. Start, not join, because I'd have to pick the participants very carefully. I have an eclectic taste in everything in life, including and especially books.

Right now, for instance, I am reading a book that probably was intended for a male audience. The first two chapters are basically about the care and feeding of the AK-47. But, Harry Turtledove is one of my favorite authors ever, so The Guns of The South ended up in my hands. Turtledove is awesome at alternate universe historical fiction, so if you like both history and sci-fi, his stuff is worth picking up. The plot of this one is, basically, white supremacists travel back in time to help the South win the Civil War by supplying them with futuristic weapons.

I am only about halfway through, and I would say I am not really a Confederacy buff although I do know a bit about the north (I can't help it, I was raised in CT and the winners write the history books), so some of it is a slog for me but I am getting pretty educated at the same time. I might have to read some straight Confederate history later, just for comparison. See how each battle went without the machine guns. :D

Anyway, I'm off to read now, while I walk on the treadmill (it's pretty much the only time of day when I cannot be on a computer). I'm interested to see what happens in the Wilderness...

Happy Easter!

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:06:54 -0400

Usually these show up weeks and weeks before Easter, but the Vatican was on crack this year, so...

We had a pretty good holiday this year. My sister and her fiance hosted both their families. I got my favorite Polish foods. I made a really good, alcohol-soaked banana trifle.

I'd say it was pretty good. Next year, though, I'll have more prep time before the holiday and I'll make pysanky. And then it'll be a real Easter! :)