Robots!

Okay, so I guess this will stand as the first real post. I'm feeling this will all be pretty free-form, with that one holding focus. I'm feeling good about this.

Looking up that first word, I realized you can get so lost in the pages of a dictionary, if you care about words. So much information! Thus, this post's WotB. I remember looking through one of the Samuel Johnson dictionaries, the first to be published en masse in America. I was amazed at the sheer enormity of the task undertaken. Some times I think about creating my own dictionary, because often dictionaries are of such uncertain usefulness. The definitions are often so far from actual usage and synonyms are often misleading.

Music:
Many of these posts (is it awkward to call them posts) will circle around the various media stimuli I am encountering. By that I only mean I'm going to write about books I read, music I listen to, movies I see. Okay? Okay. I'm listening to Flight of the Conchords, which I downloaded from iTunes. It's my first full album download, during my first downloading session. It's such a silly concept. Apparently the band has a HBO show, and they sound as if they're British. Sometimes you want to know backstory, sometimes it's a purer (whatever that means) experience without. It's been compared to Tenacious D because it's humorous and comes from a TV show. The musical influences are so different, though. Tenacious is more about hard rock and ironically panning uber-serious acousticals. This is more aligned with techno (see: Talking Heads) and rap. It actually reminds me a bit of Andre 3000 or Del tha Funkee Homosapien. I haven't listened much to Del and regret not having more on my computer. I'm forced to simply listen to Gorillaz for the short gasps he gives there.

I like all these different approaches to music lately. Gorillaz represents a fictional band and was created by the lead singer of Blur (if you didn't know). Or, I've also been listening to Gnarls Barkley's Odd Couple, which represents a coupling of hip-hop throat with frenetic, internet inspired fingers (DJ Danger Mouse illegally mixed the Beatles-Jay-Z Grey Album, thus catapulting himself to notoriety). My last thought on this: it's funny (haha) how humorous music can often be taken as not serious. Flight of the Conchords is doing quite well, according to Amazon.com and iTunes. But what kind of awards might it receive? Certainly not a Grammy. Still, dour, serious music get's tedious soooo quickly (to me, of late). I guess it's important for any artist not to take her or himself too seriously. I love the moments on Tha Carter III when Lil Wayne can laugh at his own lyrics, the sheer silliness of the weight of certain ideas or, conversely, the hilarity of some of the extremity of some of his obscenities. That's a lot of of's. Purposeful. Funny. Now laugh.

Line:
Binary solo! 0000001-00000011-0000001-00000011!
-Robots, Flight of the Conchords (which reminds me of the first iteration of "robot" in the world of media: R.U.R. by Karel Capek)

Life:
I think I've been spending too much time on Youtube. My functioning seems to be on a level ADHD (is that politically correct?), which I often accuse the entire generations now forming, being born, coming into existence. This accusation comes from my belief that first TV, and now and even moreso internet, has produced a population of under-30s who have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. Everything is clamoring for our attention. But I won't get into that now. Another thing to chew on: the pervasiveness of apocalyptic themes in major media. Robots is an example. There are a whole bunch of songs by Gorillaz that circle around this. All those U.K. movies, headlined by V is for Vendetta. I guess it's just in people's consciousness, a useful metaphor when so many things seem to be going wrong.

I just ran up-stairs to check on my cousin. She has trouble sleeping; she's always worrying. She has a dire fear of needles that extends so far as to make her freak out at the idea of mosquitoes penetrating her skin. She got shots today. Meningitis and something about cancer. If they have a shot that prevents cancer now...awesome? I need more details. I bring her up because it is my nature to include in my writing details from my actual doings and goings-on. She will come up often. We will call her K for this blog's purposes.

Books:
I'm pushing through a seven book series I last read in high school. It's always interesting to peruse these relics for one's personal history. The reading is so light and made more so by the fact that it's familiar waters I'm swimming. I picked up the first book on a whim because, during my grad school semester, it's tough to do any "serious" reading. Now, I'm on book four and it's only been two or so weeks. Okay, so it's not the most impressive accomplisment, but considering everything else going on in my life and that each book is 300+ pages.

The series is called the Apprentice Adept Series (this phrasing seems clunky to me. it's unclear what kind of precedent I should set myself for labeling titles. italics for everything?) by Piers Anthony. Not much to say there, really. He writes with a lot of energy and provides quite a spirited (read: easy) read. The ideas are often interesting enough, but not as thorough or probing as guys like Alfred Bester or Philip K. Dick or even Orson Scott Card (another author of my youth). I've never invested quite enough to the genre to really say. Sure I've read Bradbury, but I haven't read Asimov. Suffice it to say, this series is predicated on the idea that a futuristic world (presented as fairly ideal even in its strictly delineated caste system) is parallel to one of fantasy and certain people can cross between the two. It's great for Anthony to be able to explore both potentialities, both genres, because he's certainly spent enough time in both (a prolific author with one 25 book series under his belt and multiple 7-bookers), and he does quite a facile...er, facilitating job of it all. But the real highlight here is the Game Anthony has set up as basis for transition from serf to citizen. The intricacies that play out from a simple 4x4 grid are quite wonderful to take in and mirror Anthony's ability to take the most triffling themes of sci-fi/fantasy and make them mildly intriguing in moral and philosophical questions. Could you fall in love with a robot? Would you resist the temptations of a wiley citizen, even if it meant the end of the world? Etc.

Collusion (ha!):
I'm guessing posts will not always be as wordy as this, but that is the theme of this blog, so. At the outset, of course I'm bubbled (as opposed to the more ebullient "bubbling") with enthusiasm. We'll see how this goes. Don't know how long this bold-ing of themes will last, either, but it's fun to play with formats.

Two for the price of one, people (Who you may be, I do not yet know. Hopefully you exist. Readership! Ah!), because I feel so good today and because it's one I always refer to. Immersion because it's a term that's been floating around my head (I taught in an immersion setting. I am immersed in words, among other things) and I was in the iSection of the dictionary. Enervate because for years I've thought it sounds opposite from its actual definition, thinking it should be more similar to "electrify".

WotB: 1. immersion 2. enervate
WotB Quote: "the luxury which enervates and destroys nations" -Henry David Thoreau