Category Archives: Uncategorized

Summon The Birds!

Spam I just received:

From: "The Hummingbird Vine"
To: ....
Subject: Brighten up your yard 

Make your home more beautiful, Attract Humming Birds! 
You'll be the talk of the neighborhood.

It's Easy to Do This Summer With A Pillar of Flaming Trumpets.

A pillar of flaming trumpets ? What kind of hummingbirds need to be summoned with flaming trumpets ? And what are they going to do to my lawn ?

Are they going to fly down from Mt. Olympus bearing the seed of a tree that grows Zeus' golden apples; and only we can harvest them; thus making us the envy of all our neighbors ? Cause that'd be cool w/me.

Oh sure, maybe a "flaming trumpet" is a flower of some kind. Well, it's a stupid name for a flower. So there.

We're Number One!

According to Forbes, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. is the most gas-guzzling area in the country!

Annual miles driven per household: 21,800
Gallons per household: 1,074
Fuel expense at $4/gal: $4,296

Sweet.

Why Today's Music Sucks

AV Club asks: Why do pop-culture fans stop caring about new music as they get older?

My theory is pretty simple: current music is a reflection of current popular culture, obviously. And popular culture is that which is made by, and for, 25 year-olds. And the further you get from being 25, the less the new music of the day means to you.

Basically, it's a generational thing: today's 25 year-olds all grew up in basically the same musical culture: Lada Gaga is revolutionary; Nirvana is an oldies band; the Ramones are a lame version of Green Day; the Beatles are as relevant as the Cold War; Elvis fought in the Civil War; and Robert Johnson probably walked with Moses. Maybe there's some good stuff in that old music, and that good stuff will get carried forward, but only in small doses, and only in ways that the popular culture in general approves of. And it doesn't matter if people are making mainstream music or something that's "alternative" to the mainstream; a shared musical history influences even the ways we try to be different. It is the base everyone starts from.

But, since people outside today's 25 year-old generation don't share that same base, today's current music hits fewer and fewer of the sweet spots we (all us 40 year olds...) expect good music to hit. It doesn't measure up to our standards because our standards were based on what we grew up on, not what they grew up on. And we continue to diverge.

Or, shorter version: every generation is influenced by different music; musicians write from their influences; and the less your influences line up with mine, the less I'm going to appreciate the same things you do. And get off my lawn.

And, no I don't mean to pick on the music of today. I have no doubt that this happens to all generations as they grow up, listen to what came before, then make their music, and eventually start wondering WTF is up with all that noise their own kids call music.

It's why the years of release from my favorite album list looks like this:

...heavily weighted around the years when I was in my early 20s. That was my generation's music. The music of the 80's was the music of the people a bit older than me.

And that peak in the early 70s is there either because the early 70s were an absolute pinnacle of musical quality, or it's because that's when my parents were in their early 20s, so it's the music that I really grew up listening to. I tend to believe the latter. Or perhaps my subconscious really likes Cisco's logo.

That's my theory, anyway.

This message was brought to you by Sudafed. I apologize for any stupidity.