In Which I Become A Music Critic

I wouldn’t presume to review an album I hadn’t even heard yet . I’m not that ‘educated’ (or that stupid). However, I do consider myself to have a relatively wide taste in music, and having played flute, trumpet, and percussion from elementary school through college, I consider that I have had enough experience to not only know what I like, but to also have enough experience to know what sounds good and what doesn’t. Thusly, (thank you Bucky Katt ). I am going to expound upon a few things that bother me, which I think the music world should not only read, but immediately implement upon finishing the last sentence. Because I am a consumer, and what I say matters, so there.

1) Although, as a general populous Americans may seem stupid, and television shows and personal interactions may tend to confirm this, this does not mean that we also want our music to be stupid. If I can predict the end point of every single line of your song, then I don’t want to listen to it. I do not want to listen to something that I could have written, because then I would be the singer/songwriter/rockstar and you would be the environmental scientist (or working at your local fast food joint. Your pick). Most Christian worship songs are good (or bad) examples of this. Although there are some better ones out there (‘Grace like Rain’) comes to mind. But mainstream music has plenty as well, mostly in the pop genre, which I try to avoid.

2) This may be picky, but don’t make the lyrics particularly annoying. For instance, I am a fan of Feist in general. But the lyrics to “1234” bother me. Every single time. I mean, “One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, and ten/Money can't buy you back the love that you had then” What happened to seven and eight? Does she have a personal vendetta against those numbers? Or was it just that they didn’t fit in with the melody? Either way, I want to somehow squeeze them in whenever I hear that song.

3) Don’t just sing the same lyrics over and over because you ran out of things to say. Unless you are Radiohead , and it’s somehow being used to make a point. Or, in the case of Sons and Daughters (Decemberists) and it’s part of a very successful, very melodic round.

4) This may be forgiven in some instances, if you can get me to forget the lyrics in view of the music. For instance, and I have a hunch it’s the overwhelming baseline, but Finger Eleven’s Paralyzer does this. Even though they repeat the chorus over and over….

5) Call me picky, but not only do I want interesting lyrics, I also want interesting music. If the music is only playing the same melody line as that sung by the lyricist, then I am b-o-r-e-d. Put in a syncopation, a rhythm section, something. For instance, in 15-Step (Radiohead, In Rainbows), the song key signature is 5 (1-2-3-4-5), not the typical 4-time (1-2-3-4) of almost every other rock/pop song played today. Count it, conduct it (if you truly are a nerd, like me), it is. Amaze your friends (or not, if you don’t want them to call you a nerd. Unless they, too, were in marching band. In which case, they may be impressed).

So, I’m done ranting and raving now. Time for all you people in the music industry to go out there and change things. Simon says.

I am Wonderwoman!

Okay, maybe not. But I do have superpowers. I knew from a young age that I had the ability to talk to animals, which was later confirmed in an on-line test. A quick google or yahoo search of on-line test + superpower will lead to lots and lots of free tests that will show you your secret (waiting to be unleashed) superpower right now. Of course, they may also want some personal information, so they can email you forever and ever about any other tests that you didn't know you needed to take right this instant!

Since becoming a mom, I have discovered other superpowers that I didn't know that I had. Like my superfast reflexes for catching things (food, toys, drinks that are ready to spill, open bottles of paint) before they fall off the table, the ability to forsee an accident before it happens, etc. Even more recently, now that my child is into craft-type things, I can no longer fool her with watercolors (who introduced her to 'real' paint?). So it happens that I have discovered I have the amazing power to remove BLACK paint from a LIGHT BROWN carpet. Even after it has dried. I am that good.

However, I do not have the power to transcend the parent-child time continuum of unquantifiable confusion, in that I have yet to be able to explain the term 'mad skillz' to my daughter. She wants to know 1)What they are, exactly; and 2)Where I keep them. If this is your secret superpower, please, come to my rescue!

Happy Birthday Chickie!

Today is Chickie's 4th birthday, so I thought I would put down a few things that she's been doing lately:

1) Two weeks ago I made her a paper crown, which we decorated together. She put the crown on and declared herself "King" and Toby (the male Corgi) her "princess."
2) I bought her some animal crackers last week. She eats them, but only after prancing them down the hallway, making whatever respective animal noise is appropriate.
3) Last week, we had the following conversation (gotta love the logic):
Chickie: Mommy, do cows eat yogurt?
Me: I don't know, I've never tried to feed yogurt to a cow.
Chickie: I think they do. And blueberries. Also, they eat blueberry yogurt.

Neuro musing

So, I just finished a 6-week summer class, Neuroscience. First, let me recommend not taking this as a summer course (imagine having to read six science chapters in one week, write two discussion posts, respond to at least one of someone else's, plus two short essays. Also there's two tests and a 5-10 page paper in those 6 weeks). Let me also not recommend doing it on-line. It was much more fun when I took it as an undergrad. However, I did learn some things, like all the weird diseases that they talk about on House (for example, I now know most of the tell-tale symptom's of Cushings disease). Also, I know why one might need a lumbar puncture, and what levels of molecules and antibodies should be in the serum, as well as what abnormal numbers are indicative of different symptomatic/disease states (Such as meningitis vs. multiple sclerosis). So, overall, I can be a more informed tv-watcher.
Go me!



However, perhaps one of my favorite moments of reading (which I did lots and lots and lots of in the past six weeks) was when I ran across the structure named the "nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis" (see above picture). I mean, who got away with that? And, just so you know, it has subsequently been renamed the "medullary reticular formation." I guess the first name didn't sound scientific enough for somebody.

Some Quotes

Okay, so it's coming to the end of the semester, and apparently the people who write textbooks seem to think no one is going to read the last chapters. So they throw sentences in there that really probably should not have been put in there. Or maybe it was just late when the publisher was reviewing it, and they decided not to review the last chapter, or whatever, what do I know about book publishing? Anyway, here's the quotes:

“We use intelligence to structure our environment so that we can succeed with less intelligence. Our brains make the world smart so we can be dumb in peace!”
- Andy Clark, 1997. Being There, MIT Press

“As a general rule, graphics packages offer sets of colors that are recommended for producing a particular overall look for your presentation. We suggest that you choose a particular set, and use exactly those colors, rather than designing your own combination. The color combination that you select are, with all due respect, likely to be awful, no matter what your drunken friends think.”
- Taken from “Presentation of Results” Quinn, G. and Keough, M. 2003. Experimental design and data analysis for biologists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

“If ‘good design’ were evidence of a kindly, omnipotent designer, would ‘inferior design’ be evidence of an unkind, incompetent, or handicapped designer?”
- Futuyma, D. 2005. Evolution. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Because

- Because I wrote this really huge thing for work today that involved one case, and had papers spread all over my desk that kept getting themselves confused, and I was scared that someone was going to sneeze on them...
- Because I just finished a 13-page draft of my Biometry (statistics for biologists) final paper, in which I had many layers of paper and math and paper and math and thinking, in which I was afraid someone might sneeze on my brain...

- Because it's Friday, and I need some serenity, and I took this picture and I like it, and it's nice to live 10 minutes from a free state park where you can take your dogs hiking when you want to.

Why it's fun to be a Biologist

Because you get to read (and write) sentences like this "A long-standing enigma in evolutionary biology is the widespread occurence of sex, in spite of its twofold cost" (Galvani 2003). I assume, of course, that the "costs" are the energy expenditures required to maintain two separate sexes and find mates in order to produce offspring, plus not being able to pass on all of your genes (where as asexual organisms don't have to worry about those things). Now, before I take all the fun out of sex, sexual organisms do have genetic recombination, so they give their offspring more chances of surviving in more diverse environments . Some organisms are hermaphroditic, so they can self-fertilize. Also, studies seem to indicate that parthenogenic lineages have reduced chances of extinction (perhaps due to the adaptibility thing mentioned earlier). Plus, the genetic recombination that occurs during meiosis in sexually-reproducing organisms helps create offspring with not quite all the mutations of mommy and daddy combined (just some). Whereas, if you produce asexually, your kids are getting all of your mutations, good or bad. Anyway, I think that's more than two, so I'll stop now. If you want to read the article (which is really about virus mutation and virulence in humans, also interesting), go here.