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January 2008 Archives
January 4, 2008
A return of sorts
I'm back, in a way. Sorry for the long absence, I've been in a state of transition. Not that anyone's reading, mind you.
Since my start at "The Corporation" (which shall remain unnamed), I've been quite pre-occupied. Also, I've found my time monopolized by holidays and a little electronic product called The Orange Box (I'll leave that up to you to find out what it is).
As far as how I've been (and how are you?), I'm well. My job satisfaction is at an all time high, the holidays were very good to me, I'm looking to relaunch my comic, and I won a contest I had no idea I had entered. Well, I did knowingly post, but I had no idea I would be entered into a contest. Glad to know my writing and ready wit are good for something.
On the rough side, I'm very disappointed in myself for not keeping this site going, completely failing in my attempts to keep a music blog, and I may need to re-evaluate what I'm doing here and why.
In any case, 2008 looks to be exciting, and hope that is the case for you and yours.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on January 4, 2008 9:27 PM Permalink
January 7, 2008
Shifting focus...again
I give up. I'm not a business expert, I'm not a music critic. I'm just some dude with a webpage. I think my reasons for wanting to do this were all wrong. So I'm going back to the basic reason: I like to write. So that's what I'm going to do. Write. Write about whatever I feel like, and that's how it's going to be. And that's how I like it.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on January 7, 2008 8:34 PM Permalink
Solid investment advice
Okay, so, I'm going to talk about guitars.
I like guitars. Like, kind of a lot.
I have three. And I'm seriously working on getting another. But more on that in a minute.
Anyhoo. My first electric is...cheap. Literally and figuratively. Due to guitar-techy things I'm not going to get into, the action is too high (its strings are way too high above the fretboard), and it won't stay in tune when I play it. I've been alternating for the past few years between trying to make it be not a pain in the ass and just not playing it. Which is a shame, because I love the sound it makes. Because it's a piece of crap, the sound it makes with distortion is grungy and has WAY too much feedback. Which is why I love it. Also, it has a surprisingly clear, punchy "clean" sound (that is, when it's played without distortion, it sounds very crisp...maybe 'piercing' is better than 'crisp'). So that's my dilemma with it: I love it, but it drives me up the freaking wall.
Now, enter my total shock and confusion when I tried playing it today after well over a year of not touching it and having it go back and forth between a few houses, and it was almost in perfect tune. I am baffled, befuddled, and weirded out. So I played a few songs and made some nifty feedback. I took a video of the feedback because I'm a dork, then deleted it because I realized how dorky that was.
On to more guitar things. I've been playing Guitar Hero 1 through 3 as well as Rock Band, and it is fun. It frustrates me sometimes as a guitar player, because it doesn't behave as I expect or want it to. But it's fun to play with friends. So I resolved to buy a PS2 and all those games.
About a week later I scrapped those plans when I realized that money would be far better spent on an actual guitar.
Remember, I have 3.
But I don't have this one. Yet. Also, I want it in Black, which you can select in the dropdown below the picture. Because every electric guitar I own has to be black...? I dunno. That's just how it is, I make no apologies.
Believe it or not, I have actually begun taking care of my finances and making records, something I really should just DO. But I'm doing it so I can spend my money on a very fancy guitar.
Also, I contend that unless you are (A) a guitar geek like me, (B) averse to video games, or (C) both, you will not see the logic in my math. You see, to get all those fancy games would cost me anywhere from a few-hundred to near $1000 (depending on if I had to buy a next-gen system to play Rock Band). Not to mention with a video game system I could buy other games too. But I have decided my money would be better spent on a guitar that costs anywhere from $1500 to $3000 or even more.
Trust me, it works out. Honest.
Anyway, it'll take me some time to squeeze those funds out of my budget. But good things are worth waiting for. And writing about. Because I know I can't be the only nut out there who this makes sense to.
I feel bad that I didn't mention my other two guitars. Then again, I play them plenty already. But they are both awesome. Trust me, I could justify having 100 guitars. Well, justify it to myself, anyway.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on January 7, 2008 8:36 PM Permalink
January 21, 2008
Underlying causes
One of the things I find truly fascinating is the concept of social dynamics. Partly because they're so tricky. It puts an extreme emphasis on context, rather than the general. There are so many seemingly insignificant factors and effects that can change how people interact, get along, and relate. And the truly interesting thing: even if you try, there are some things that you can never truly understand because of your situation. You can be aware, you can be knowledgeable, but you never really understand. This refers to things like inequality. If you are privileged, you don't know what it's like to be limited. You can study and research and empathize all you want, but in the end, only those who live it know what it's like.
It's like the expression about walking a mile in someone's shoes. Sure, that's all well and good, but it's just a mile. You can take those shoes off. And they're probably a different size than you wear anyway.
This doesn't just refer to the privileged vs. the limited. It even relates simply to common groups of people. I often see people try to generalize behaviour to a large section of the population, when it might be that they can only really generalize to the specific group of the few involved. I saw an example where people were arguing about a case where a woman cut off contact between her boyfriend and his friends because she was offended at the way they spoke to him during a poker game. Instantly there were people saying "she doesn't understand because that's how guys talk to each other!" shortly followed by "they probably went too far and they're too macho to admit it", "I'm a guy and I don't treat my friends like that", "I'm a woman and I act like that, it's not just a guy thing", and so on and so forth. My point is, there's no way ANY of these people can really say for sure. We aren't part of the group, so we don't know what normal behaviour is for them. Also, we weren't there, so we don't know what was said to cross the line or not. We love to people watch, and we love to people judge. But we are often far too removed from context to really do it well.
It's not just the factors that cause division and inequality. It's also the things that bring people together that is intriguing. I find that a strong bond between people is that of shared beliefs and ideals. Many groups of people are formed around shared values. People are often grouped by the type of music they listen to, the politics they support, what they find important to them. There's much to be said for personalities, but you can almost watch the entire structure of a social group change just from a sudden discord in values. Many adults no longer associate with their friends from childhood or high school; it's called growing apart, but it's not all because they didn't have the internet. As we all become adults, we form new opinions and see the world differently than we did before. The subtlest things can affect our attitudes. And so as we and those around us grow and mature, we often find ourselves at odds in terms of our beliefs. And if it doesn't break friendships, it can certainly strain them.
Going back to what I said about music, this is a big one. It's not just that people are drawn together because they are more attuned to a certain beat, but often because of the implications that come from that music. Every sort of music comes with ingrained ideas about the kind of values subscribed to by the people that listen to it. And it's not just in the words or the attitude of the song, but even in the social connotations that come from them. Rap, punk, classical, heavy metal, emo, blues, country...each of these words refers to a body of music that has incredible breadth and depth. To an outsider, sure, they all sound the same. But the people who enjoy each type can go on and on about the varying degrees of meaning and sound, and about how there are even vast subgenres. However, to mention any of those above words brings certain assumptions to the fore. I'm sure you've heard them before, so I won't repeat them here. Some of these are untrue, some aren't. But those assumptions remain, and are often part of the value set of people who listen to these types of music. And that is part of what brings them together: assumed similar values.
I'm going to return to my earlier point about social groups forming around similarities, because I want to talk about what I just said: assumed similar values. So often we get ourselves into trouble because we make generalizations and get ensnared in these assumed values. It's the cause of many internet flame wars, foot-in-mouth moments, workplace disciplinary action, and so on. We think we're surrounded by like-minded people, only to discover that everyone's either vastly distanced in their opinions, or maybe they all agree...but not with us. These assumptions get made regularly. The clothes someone wears, the way they speak, the places we're interacting with them, the music they listen to, even arbitrary factors play a huge role. But often it's because there ARE shared values in play, but we mistakenly assume that these values go part and parcel with some others that we hold, but others don't. That's part of what makes friendships and group dynamics so volatile sometimes. Everyone gets along fine until a previously unmentioned topic shows up, and it turns out everybody doesn't quite agree so much anymore.
This is far from comprehensive (or maybe comprehensible, you can decide that one), there is just far too much involved in this topic to give it a really thorough look. At least, in one go. Maybe more another time. Also, this is not to say there aren't other reasons for what I've talked about above. Like I said, there are tons of factors which contribute, both major and minor. I just think these ones are a little more fun to think about.
Until next time,
JW
