To All of the Cursed Out There:

What are you passionate about?  What can you do that no one else seems to be able to do?  On that note, what do you appreciate and to what extent do you appreciate it?

I am asking because I am one of these people that has a gift.  I call it the "Gift of Appreciation".  That is correct.  I was built with this keen ability to find the beauty in many things, to understand it on a deep level, to connect to the people doing what it is and see where and how this has come to be.

What I am not gifted with though is to ability to emulate.

I can listen to almost any piece of music and hear what is happening.  I can see the notes and chord structure along with the timings, the modulations, and be able to express what is so amazing about this piece of music to almost anyone in a way that they can understand, but can I copy it?  Rarely.  I can play a various chunk of instruments, but none of them on a level of depth and beauty as I can see in others.

I am not much of a sports fan, but I can watch a baseball game avidly.  I can see the difference in the long-term between an 0-1 pitch and a 1-0 pitch along with the ability to give people the run down of what is happening and why it matters for ever step of the way.  I can throw decently enough and hit okay, but could I ever play in the majors or even the minors for that matter?  There is no friggin' way.

I love chess.  It is a game that requires some of the most intense concentration to look into the board and into the opponent and see moves many places ahead.  I can explain the theory behind the placement along with the structure of the opening.  There is almost nothing more amazing than replaying games from Capablanca, Fischer, Morphy, or Kasparov and seeing the simple, subtle moves that make them great.  Can I see those when I play?  Goodness no.

There is the game of StarCraft which I love playing and watching.  It is like chess but in real time with strategy, tactics, information and build orders all taken into account.  I love watching the game.  There is nothing more amazing than watching TLO pull a win out of nowhere or see the simple things that MC or MVP do that make them champions.  I appreciate the greatness of July, NaDa, and SlayersBoxer with the ability to explain why they are great and why they were important to people that could not give a crap and get them to understand, but when I hit that button to play a ladder game, can I do any of it?  Not a chance.

The study of theoretical math is something brilliant to me.  I love playing with the ideas and trying to form pictures of simple numbers and symbols on a page and turning them into art, but could I ever have thought up the brilliance of simplicity in things like Fibonacci, Pythagoras, or Mandelbrot?  Heck no!

My favorite novelists are Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Dickens.  I sure as hell can explain everything they said and show you how there is a secret wonderful thing hidden in the beauty of a well-structured sentence, which builds into a wonderful plot.  I love graphic novels and can tell everyone everything great about Dave Sim, Alex Robinson, or Craig Thompson.  I can read all of these writer's books over and over and never get tired of them.  Can I draw a person or create a sentence with beauty and meaning?  Hardly.

Some of us in the world were born with this innate sense for the depth of things.  Some of us can teach and embolden people with their meanings and virtues.  We can see things in the way that the most passionate and able see them, but only with the granted ability to sense and not do.  We are those people that were given the gift of appreciation.  For years this pissed me off.  I could practice on the drums for months, be decent enough to play in various bands, but never reach the loftiness of the greats like Neil Pert, Danny Carey, or Gene Krupa.  I would try and try and pour my blood, sweat, and tears into these things that I loved but always felt like I was falling short.

For all of those out there that are afflicted with this gift as I am, I want you to know that it is not a bad thing, just a frustrating thing.  Without the appreciators, concert venues would be empty and the only people interested in an MLB game would be the other players watching from the bench.  Appreciators also make great teachers.  Sometimes people will question your credibility as you attempt to teach because you cannot do, but that is garbage.  Sometimes you have a stronger ability to harness the passion and pass it on than the people who do it.  Passion for something is contagious and those who can feel the tears come when watching an amazing film or staring deeply into a painting are necessary to this world. 

So please, if you are like me and if you sometimes feel like you are cursed into always being the bridesmaid but never the bride, learn to accept that position.  Where would a bride be without a great bridesmaid my their side?  Where would Mozart be today without us?

It seems like a curse, but let me promise you, it is not.

Day9 is the Man

This is a short post, but a long video.  I am a huge fan of games as a whole.  I play a lot of board games and I used to play a lot of video games, but now I am basically down to one:
StarCraft 2

StarCraft: Brood War was a staple of my childhood and I played it constantly for many years.  Since StarCraft 2 came out last year I have played it and I run the internal company league at work.  I love it.  I love the game, the theory, the community, and just thinking about it.  It is real-time chess with a ton more excitement.  Anyway, as a fan, I am also a huge fan of the American StarCraft Major-domo Mr. Sean Plott, known by his handle Day9. 

Once reason I love him is for the video that I am restreaming below.  Whether or not you love games, just listen to the man because the insight into personal growth and family is the real message of this.  Thanks to the community and thanks to you Sean!

It's Friday Bob Geldof!

It is time to write about the state of music again.  Really though, it is more about the state of us and our interaction with music.  This post is being prompted by a couple of events that have taken place in the last few days.  First and foremost is the brilliant and moving speech from the great Sir Bob Geldof which he gave at the SXSW music festival.

Bob Geldof may not be as well-known in the US, but is huge and highly respected in Britain for his contributions to music as well as his charitable events.  He is mostly known in the US as the organizer of the "Live Aid" concerts as well as staring as "Pink" in Pink Floyd's The Wall movie.  Bob was asked to be the keynote speaker at the hugely popular SXSW Festival this year.  He gave a strong and emotional speech that is right up the alley of things that I have blogged about many times in the past, which is the idea of the loss of soul in rock music and how it is killing itself due to apathy.  After reading sections of his speech, they sounded like something that I had written, only put together much more gracefully.  He said that he is amazed that with all of the things going on, all of the controversy as well as triumphs in the world today, why aren't the artists speaking out?  Where would the 60's have been if not for the music of the time, defined by it's rock music?  I noted this in a previous blog as well.  The fact that when we invaded Iraq many years ago now, that only a few mainstream musicians had the balls to stand up, write songs or album about the atrocity that we were witnessing.  Most artists were too afraid or did not care. 

This is still the case and I love that one of my heroes, Sir Geldof, stood in front of a large hipster crowd at SXSW and said it to their faces.  He was basically telling the audience and artists to stop being pussies.  I believe that he was trying to say that they are the ones that will drive change and drive the spirit of music but they are too busy inflating their fevered egos with twitter, facebook, and other diversions, too afraid to alienate some of their fan base while truly discouraging the ones that want to care.  The artists, rock musicians in general, need to grow a pair or rock music will lose all meaning. 

I once read that all people feel change, but that the artists are defined as being much more sensitive to those winds of change.  Now I love that quote and it has stuck with me from the moment I read it.  This is how I have defined true artists, by their creativity as well as their sense of the movement around themselves.  Now, talking about the ineptitude of music recently brings me to the next event from this past week which was the release of the single "Friday" by tweeny-bopper Rebecca Black.

If you have not heard of her, that is because this is her first single.  If you have heard it, then you should not be able to forget the song that is being hailed as the Worst Pop Song Ever.  It is worse than that new Kim Kardashian single, which is a really hard line to cross.  I do not blame the Ms. Black as she did not write the song, did not produce the song, and had nothing to do with it other than sing it at her mom's request.  She is the victim here.  If you heard anything about this, the company that made it released the song/video on youtube.  They released this young girl to the wolves holding a stick of dry salami as a weapon!  We all know that the internet is a harsh harsh mistress and dealing with her is hard water to tread, but this is what they did.  She has been called awful, a terrible singer, and told to cut herself and die. 

The issue here is not Ms. Black.  The issue is that this is the pinnacle in a long-line of garbage that the music industry tries to force feed us.  The lyrics are about on the level with Raffi while being passed off for teens.  This is worse than anything that Disney has forced down the throat of America's youth.  I have heard kid's songs with more depth and better structure than this atrocity of the ears.  Not to mention that when you pair it up with the awful overproduction and auto-tune features as well as the weird and puerile rap part about catching a bus, it is the perfect recipe for disaster.  In this case, the internet is not really lashing out at her as much as lashing out at the industry as well as the "artists" for the apathy that Bob Geldof spoke of.  Ms. Black seems to be taking it all with as much of a grain of salt as a teen girl in today's world can, but I hope she will someday understand where this anger and frustration over her release is really being aimed toward.

We are right now still a world of change, sometimes for the worse, but overall I believe we are still moving in the right direction.  As a people, we are evolving and changing, growing with every step.  We are now capable of so much that our grandfather's would have never foreseen.  We have the knowledge of the world at our beck and call while finding more ways to utilize our abilities to new heights.  The artists and musicians though are not following.  They are lagging behind when they should be the motivating force. 

I once read an essay by the great David Hume asking the question why we study philosophy.  I took a lot out of it, but mainly I found that the study of philosophy is the precursor to the study of science and knowledge.  The idea is that the questions of philosophy are the motivating force behind the questions and answers of science and evolution.  Without us asking "Why?" we would not have everything we have today.  I see art/music the same way.  Music and art should be the driving force behind social change.  The artist should be the ones that feel the need for change, write and rally, which will evolve ideas and politics.  Lately, they have failed in this mission and we are all paying the price.  We lost our ability to organize in a real and meaningful way behind an idea.  This is why the politicians no longer fear the constituency.  Once the politicians no longer fear the society, they are truly the most free people in the world to do and say whatever ideas come through their crazy heads. 

I must digress now before I break my own rule and start talking politics again.  But I shall leave you with the video that has caused all of this commotion. 

WARNING: I do not recommend this to anyone.  This is not safe for human consumption and we will all pay a higher psychic price in the end for this monstrosity of music.