Life As I See It

    I was looking at some of the “matches” the computer
came up with for me on this internet dating thing. One woman said that
she couldn’t live without good music, especially Dave Matthews! Before
I even realized it, I had clicked the button to eliminate her from the
list… At first I felt a little bad about it, but upon further
reflection, I really don’t…
    I was burning a cd for a friend at work and I
realized that I didn’t have my best of Buddy Holly or the Velvet
Underground’s second album in my iTunes collection. How did that
happen? Now I have to stay up a little later to make sure that I have
them imported. I’ll sleep much better:-)

Isaac

    I’ve put up what will probably become a rather long
page of the best songs never heard on the radio. It’s under my music
musings section… If you think of something, please send it my way!

Isaac

    Stayed home today cause my GI tract didn’t want me
to leave the bathroom this morning. I’ll still teach my class tonight
though, I’ve already cancelled one of their classes (so I can go visit
my grandmother) so i didn’t want to do another…
    I’ve started some more pages for my website. I’m
going to have pages dedicated to the best songs you never hear and the
best songs you’ve never heard. The distinction is that the “never hear”
are ones by well known artists and even fairly important songs that are
rarely played on the radio or TV. The “never heard” ones will be by
more obscure artists, ones where there really isn’t any reason for you
to hear unless you were looking for them. It should be fun. let me know
if you have any suggestions for songs to include on either list, I’d
love to discover some new stuff…

Isaac

They were actually playing videos, just like old times! It was the rock
countdown or something like that. The one that jumped out at me was
“Helena” by My Chemical Romance. I was impressed by how over the top it
was, it sure looked intentional what with the death theme, elements of
Kabuki, and even ballet. They had managed to make it so surreal, so
overly emotional that it became a performance moreso than just a song.
It actually reminded me a bit of some things I’ve ruminating about
Bowie for a while. There’s a catch though, without the video, “Helena”
collapses into melodramatic pop rock. You really need the video and the
backstory (it was an angryn letter the singer wrote to himself for
staying on the road during the last year of his grandmother’s life) for
the song to be compelling at all. Bowie’s stuff benefits from knowing
the overall story of the album and his theatrics reinforce the story,
but the music does stand on its own. My prediction is that My Chemical
Romance really sucks live…
Isaac

    The teacher is a bit loopy, and he likes to talk and
play a lot. He does have a lot of knowledge though, so I’ll stick
around for a while and see if I can’t pick up on some of it. I didn’t
do much playing this time, most of the lesson was about holding the
guitar properly, striking the strings properly, and positioning the
right hand (stop moving it!). I had been screwing around a bit, trying
some of the lessons. I was doing things wrong of course. So I’ll spend
this week trying to unlearn the bad habits I started. It’ll be fun
eventually… I am gettng some nice sounds from the guitar (as opposed
to music) and the teacher complimented the guitar I chose so that made
me feel pretty good. Gotta go practice…

Isaac

    The post had a great breakdown on where all the
money from increased costs of gas goes. It turns out that it is the
refiners that have captured the lion’s share of the profits. The actual
gas stations look as though they are making about as much as before.
Why is this? The simple answer is competition. There are what seems
like endless gas stations. Any possible huge profits to be had are
erased by competition among themselves for customers. There are
relatively few refineries. There will always be enough gas stations
around to supply consumers, but it looks as though there aren’t enough
refineries to maintain the lower prices that we’d like to.
    The article has the usual quotes from politicians
that advocate price controls, taxes, etc to eliminate “excess” profits
(whatever those are). The only way to bring down the price without
adverse effects to the rest of the economy is through competition. I guarantee
you that if profits remain sky high, other companies will
come into the refining business to capture some of that profit.
Companies such as 3M, DuPont, etc are certainly capable of doing it, it
just hasn’t been profitable for them to do so, until now. If things are
allowed to work themselves out, without meddling from congress (and
that includes laws excluding entry into the business), overall prices
will come down assuming that the oil supply doesn’t dry up.
    Another definite result of high gas prices (separate
from oil prices) will be a more aggressive pursuit of alternative
fuels. The more gas costs, the more lucrative things such as hydrogen,
ethanol, solar, hamster wheels, etc. become. The key is to let people
and corporations pursue that potential profit. This is the only proven
way to advance technology. Human ingenuity will find solutions to
problems if it is profitable to do so. The newest alternative fuel will
find its place along side all the other technological advances made
over the last 100 years that have made our life so good.

Isaac

    My tuesday class has 10 people signed up for it. 7
of them showed up the first night. It doesn’t sound like a big
difference from the 3 and 4 people I’m used to, but it is. They are
also, in general, much further along than the other students I’ve had.
They’ll definately keep me on my toes. Another wrinkle is that most of
them will be shooting with digital SLRs. That’s not really a big deal,
except that I don’t have a great way of showing their pictures to the
class. I think we’ll end up hooking their cameras up to a TV. Anyway,
should be interesting… I wonder how confused I’ll get between the two
classes, I’m sure they’ll move at different speeds and have different
questions. Wish me luck!

Isaac

Ever wonder how to increase traffic to your web site? Just post some fairly expensive things for sale on it. I had 382 unique visitors today! With over a 1000 pageloads… I wonder at what poing I run out of bandwidth?

Isaac

    For the first time in my life I have to worry about
my fingernails. Or at least I do on my right hand, classical guitar
makes extensive use of them. I’ve always looked at guys with perfect
nails as those things people call “metrosexuals.” You know, the guys
concerend with the more feminine things like nails, shaving thie
chests, etc. So how can I still be “manly” with perfect nails? I’ll
have to muddle through I guess…:-)

    Got several cds by accident. I meant to hit the
“update cart” button after I had unchecked everything. Instead I hit
the confirm shipment button… Oh well, at least they seem to be pretty
good albums. “Diamond Dogs” by Bowie, “Rust Never Sleeps” by Neil
Young, “A Ghost is Born” by Wilco, and a best of compliation from Black
Sabbath. “Rust” is an amazing album, everyone should hear it as far as
I’m concerned… It’s nice to hear new music, it’s been a while since I
added to my collection.

Isaac 

    Remind me to never doubt the genius of Gilbert
Gottfreid again. I have not seen the film yet, but the description of
his section in the film made me cringe and laugh. I gotta see it for
myself. In case you haven’t heard, “The Aristocrats” is a documentary
about the biggest in joke that comedians have. It is filthy,
disgusting, and can be hilarious. It is rarely told in public because
of its vileness, but when it is, it can be a doozy. It’s a subtle
thing, much like the Philip Glass composition of silence (I think it’s
called 15 minutes or something like that), the audience’s reaction is
far more interesting than the joke itself. The combination of shock value and the unwitting participation (you and your reaction are the joke) is what makes this joke work. Google “The Aristocrats” and get an idea of how it works. Be prepared to be offended…

The joke has also been used to rattle rookie comedians right before they go on stage. Here’s anonther example of that kind of hazing I found on another website.

” Joke-teller: So this [insert racial slur of your choice] goes into the baker’s, and asks for a loaf of bread. And the baker says “Brown or white?”. And the [racial slur] says, “It doesn’t matter – I’m on my bike.”

At this point everyone except the mark laughs loud and long and waits for the mark to join in. At that moment, everyone should stop laughing:

Joke-teller: [to the mark] Why are you laughing? It’s not a joke.” A comedian and the audience members in the know can have the same kind of fun and laughs when the aristocrat joke is sprung on them.

    I first heard about this joke when I read a piece in
the NY Times about GIlbert Gottfried’s performance of it at the Friar’s
Club. They were roasting Hugh Hefner several weeks after 9/11 and there
was a weird vibe in the air. Gottfreid’s reaction to this was the most
edgy, problematic, and heroic that I can think of. He started off with
some planes flying into buildings jokes. When the inevitable boos came
raining down on him, he launched into “The Aristocrats.” He threw their indignation right back at them. The audience
was horrified at his telling of this unbelievably vile, unholy, unnatural
joke. Appearently it was all they could do to gasp at his first line and then sit there dumbstruck at the torrent of vileness that Gottfreid was able to improvise. His fellow comedians on the other hand were literally falling on
the floor with laughter because they couldn’t believe that he had the
balls to tell it to an audience. Not only was he saying it to an
audience, but to a nervous, unsettled, hostile one. By all accounts, his rendition embodied the best of improvisation, delivery, and shock value, all the things that are necessary for the joke to be effective. The reviewer for
the NY Times said that it was a blow to the gut, it was Gottfreid
ramming medicine down the throat to cure the  post 9/11 gloom. The
joke itself isn’t funny, but it was needed, it (in the reviewer’s mind)
made it OK to laugh again in NYC.  It also shows how great
comedians work. They go to places that you hate, are afraid of, or are
disgusted with, and make you laugh at them. You also get to see how the
comedian improvises, what motivates him and how far he is willing to go
for the reaction.
    The film builds on this and shows 100 different
comedians telling the history and technique of the joke along with
their own versions of course. I will rent this as soon as it comes out
on DVD.

Isaac