I'm going to start a new thing. Every so often, I'm going to share some music I'm enjoying that day.
Tonight's music as I work at home is one of my favorite albums: "Raising our Voices" by the Yellow Jackets (2018). This sweet cut is called "Solitude." Every one of these musicians is world class.
As I work tonight, I'm listening to "Close to the Edge" by Yes. I have cranked up the volume and I find myself surrounded by uninhibited on-fire genius. This song by Yes is so well crafted that I'm listening for the third time in a row, and it deserves these replays. Are there any bands out there today who are willing to experiment like this? Is there a modern version of ELP? Are there any modern versions of "Stairway to Heaven"? My sad gut feeling is that far too much of today's music is crammed into pre-determined tropes. I know there has been crappy music in every decade and that I'm listening to something extraordinary tonight. But does anyone have recommendations of any bands today that are thoughtful, complex, unrelentingly excellent and experimental? Self-consciously uninhibited and not primarily driven to satisfy a mass-market?
I found this on FB. I would attribute this to someone, if I only knew who that is . . .
At min 2:00 of his TED talk, Robert Lang asks what has allowed the recent explosion of innovation in the ancient art of origami:
And it raises a question: what changed? And what changed is something you might not have expected in an art, which is math. That is, people applied mathematical principles to the art, to discover the underlying laws. And that leads to a very powerful tool. The secret to productivity in so many fields -- and in origami -- is letting dead people do your work for you. (Laughter) Because what you can do is take your problem, and turn it into a problem that someone else has solved, and use their solutions. And I want to tell you how we did that in origami.
In his excellent talk, Lang refers to modern examples of origami, including a cuckoo clock made from one sheet of paper and no
cuts. Lang proceeds to discuss the mathematics of origami. Beautiful, mathematical and mind-blowing. It's an excellent talk with more than a few laughs along the way.
We need George Carlin like never before, but he is no longer with us. He was willing to ignore propriety and power centers and to pull the scabs off social absurdities with polished eloquence. He was able to do this because he no longer "had a stake in the outcome" of the "freak show." We need someone like Carlin to expose and ridicule the absurdities of modern wokeness, especially on college campuses. Unfortunately, some prominent comedians, including Chris Rock, have given up on performing for college students because they have become so Woke. I believe I heard Ricky Gervais express this same reluctance in a discussion with Sam Harris (in these notes, he discusses the minefield encountered by modern comedians). The following short video illustrates what comedians are up against on campus.
Check out 3:40 of this video, the speaker is talking about what "they" want and the interviewer challenged her: "They don't speak with one voice, do they?" She then claims that 18-21 year olds are "diverse." This is a deep issue, perhaps the defining issue of today: For many people today, "diversity" does not include intellectual diversity. Her comment revealed the intense tribal energy in our coddled young people, as well as their desperate felt need to be protected ideas they consider offensive.