At Least They're Honest

The label from a bottle of Shaws juice we bought recently:

100% cranberry
Flavored blend with two other juices with added ingredients
From concentrate

Could you think of any other caveats they might add?

It's Always About the Small Things

I'm not a big Eric Clapton fan (my brother still can't believe I traded Crossroads to him for a song back in the day), but I do like his "Pretending" song. Its a killer track for many reasons - a good melody, excellent singing, and fantastic lead guitar - but it's the small things that really put the song over the top. Dig the synths in the background, or the horns that burp along behind it all. It's these small details, really only appreciated with headphones, that keep me coming back for more.

First Lines of The Tent

Why the hunger for these? If it is a hunger. Maybe it's more like bossiness. Maybe we just want to be in charge, of the life, no matter who lived it.
- Margaret Atwood, from "Life Stories," first story in The Tent.

Plastic Planet

We assume plastic is safe: is it?

An Obsession, Revisited

So Kelly found a copy of Civilization III (originally released in 2001) at the dollar store and picked me up a copy for Xmas. Ruh-row. I had bought this computer game when it originally came out and spent WAY too much time playing it. I'm talking multiple hours at a stretch. But now I just don't have too many spare hours!
I did find myself with a day off a few days ago. I had just come out of a long, dark tunnel of illness and decided to (mainly) devote the day to me. So what did I do? What you might expect - went for a run, relaxed with a good book - but I also spent a few hours playing Civilization.
Essentially, Civilization is a world domination game. It’s like Risk on crack. You build cities, distribute your armies, control how your resources are spent, and negotiate (and fight!) with other civilizations. It's fun, time-consuming and addicting.
But why is it so addicting? I suspect that part of it is the element of control - you have complete control over your world. The other part of is that there are so many little things going on – cities growing and building resources, armies traveling from one place to another, scientific advances being made – that each turn brings something new, so it’s hard to find a stopping point. There are probably other reasons, but I can’t think of them now – I’ve been spending too much time on the computer!

Poem of the Day

"The Consent" by Howard Nemerov

Late in November, on a single night
Not even near to freezing, the ginkgo trees
That stand along the walk drop all their leaves
In one consent, and neither to rain nor to wind
But as though to time alone: the golden and green
Leaves litter the lawn today, that yesterday
Had spread aloft their fluttering fans of light.

What signal from the stars? What senses took it in?
What in those wooden motives so decided
To strike their leaves, to down their leaves,
Rebellion or surrender? and if this
Can happen thus, what race shall be exempt?
What use to learn the lessons taught by time.
If a star at any time may tell us: Now.

I've always been amazed at how fast ginkgo trees drop their leaves. There's a large one at the end of my street and the day it lets go is a stunning event. One morning the three is golden symmetry, that night a skeleton arising out of its yellow carpet.

Understated Power

Been listening to a few songs recently that remind me of the power of understatement, including Cat Power’s You Are Free and “Crystalized” by The XX.

These songs are basically structured in a traditional rock n’ roll sense. However, the sound (mainly the muted instruments) contrast with what we expect from the form has taught us over the years (loud guitars and singing, etc.) Taking this approach one step farther is the lack of a dramatic release (typically an over-the-top bridge or ecstatic guitar solo). Since there’s a lot of power in anticipation, this missing release perversely enhances the songs' power. The tension driving the tunes derives from expecting something that hasn’t arrived yet, and so you keep listening.

Of course, the pitfall here is that you might feel let down by the lack of this release. Certainly, my first listen to You Are Free disappointed me. However, I found that once you let go of your expectations, the songs really grow on you. This may be a conscious decision by the artists, who probably know that they are thwarting listeners expectations driven by years of Classic Rawk. In many instances – certainly, in “Crystalized” – the song is enhanced by the lack of the traditional “release”. After all, who says tradition is always correct?

(As an aside, an interesting thought experiment would be to ponder the fact that both of these songs are led by women. Liz Phair has also played with musical expectations in this manner in the past. Does a strong feminine viewpoint contribute to this conscious rejection of the traditional rock n' roll form - typically seen as extremely masculine? Just thinking out loud here... I certainly don't know enough about modern music to make any judgments.)