As the Day Grows Dim I Hear You Sing a Golden Hymn

Congratulations to the recently-married Joey Halbert for correctly naming "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots as the Thursday Song of the Day.

Part XVII (Luke's Response)

One thing that's definitely worth mentioning- we shouldn't be leery of technology to the point that we're kept from participating in it. Whenever new gadgets/technologies come along, there are always haters. The anti-facebook people, the anti-twitter people, etc. History will reveal that I used to be one of these. Hell, I didn't have a cell phone until I was a junior in college. But now I'm of the school which says technology, especially technology that encourages togetherness among people, is good.

Usually I'm not the best judge of how balanced I am. That is to say that often people around me are aware of my imbalances before I am. And it then falls on my friends (or others around me) to alert me of such things. That's a friend's responsibility and privilege. And as technology continues to advance, and we continue to tread in ever-new directions, maybe it's on us (we friends) to help each other achieve balance.

And it's not a one and done thing. It's not like, "well we've achieved balance, good thing we don't have to worry about that again." Balance is something at which we must continually work. That last sentence is certainly true of me. One of the duties of the principal (the person in question, for example, me) is discipline. For me to achieve balance, I'm not relinquished of the need of discipline.

So achieving some balance between ever-imposing/connecting technologies and solitude is a lot like with the rest of life. We need to work hard. And we need help.

I'd guess you and I are similar in that we both like earning our own way. That is, the above-mentioned about accepting help, receiving guidance from others about our personal levels of balancedness sort of strikes a dissonant chord within us. Personally I'd rather buy a car from an Iraqi auto manufacturer than accept any help of any kind from anyone. I can handle myself, dammit! It's this stupid self-dependence which will be my constant opponent in my pursuit of balance. I'm curious for your thoughts on this self-dependent attitude. Are you like this? Does the idea of accepting advice/help rub you wrong?

The Heavy Stuff Ain't Quite at Its Heaviest By the Time It Gets Out to Suburban Minneapolis

Part XII (My Response)

I've enjoyed an episode of "Lopez Tonight*." That's the first time in my whole life I've ever typed that. Thanks for sharing that moment with me.

It's pretty tough to argue with the idea that we each have our own community to isolation ratio. It's also pretty tough to argue with the idea that J.D. Salinger's was pretty heavy on the isolation and light on the community. The thing that fascinates me about Salinger is that "Catcher in the Rye" was published in 1951 when Salinger was 32. He goes on to release a few more items throughout the next twelve years, and his last published work appeared in the New Yorker in June 1965. That means that he lived almost 45 more years (almost half his life) without publishing anything else. That is what is amazing to me.

How many writers/musicians/actors/chemists/lawyers/architects/professors/doctors/etc. would receive critical acclaim in their profession 1/3rd of the way of their life, work until the 1/2 way point in their life in that same career, and then just remove themselves from that career and make no further contributions in that field?

Perhaps this ties in with our discussion about how each of us has our own isolation/community ratio, but I think that with the way that technology has changed our interactions with each other, that isolation/community shift in the world as a whole has gone towards the community side of the ledger. That's not to say, though, that the community shift I'm talking about is what people would have called "community" 30 or even 15 years ago. It's this kind of quasi-community where I'm interacting with people on a much greater frequency through avenues like Facebook, Twitter, email, text messages, or even phone calls, but all of those avenues may crowd out more conventional face to face community experiences.

*This is not even remotely true.

The Time When New Media Was the Big Idea

One of my favorite running conversational topics with my Dad arises out of the following question, "Where do you hear about some of these bands?" In the end, the answer is not even really about music but has more to do with how my generation (Y/Millenial, I think) shares information as opposed to how Baby-Boomers (like my Dad) share information.

First, and as a bit of a digression, I should begin by saying that I'm not a member of the musical vanguard by any stretch of the imagination and do not take any great pride in listening to bands simply because no one else is listening to them. I'll listen to music if it is well done, regardless of the fact that it is perceived as popular or not, but as I said earlier, this really isn't about music. Instead, it has everything to do with the decentralization of the distribution of information.

Back in the 60's and 70's, if a band was really going to make it big, what did they need to do? First, they needed to all buy matching suits. Second, they needed to make an appearance on a show like "The Ed Sullivan Show". There are some bands, such as the Grateful Dead, that didn't take this route, and, in their own pot-addled way, rose to their own form of stardom, but for others, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and countless other bands, they rose to fame through those set and established means of ascent.
There were set avenues of promotion and distribution, such as TV and radio, that had to be utilized in order to succeed. Everyone at school listened to the same music for a few reasons: 1. There was not anything approaching the musical variety that we currently have so you had to listen to the same bands, and 2. There was no way that you knew of some band that your friends didn't know about because you all watched the same 3 variety shows and listened to the same 2 or 3 radio stations playing rock and roll in your town.

Somewhere in between the 60's/70's and today, and I'm not quite sure where, those strictures opened up to provide greater variety in content and methods of distribution. I'm not sure if it was the fact that the musical community began to splinter and diversify at some point in the 70's or that the advent of cable television in the 80's created a greater reception for niche musical genres, or the rise of the internet in the 90's leveled the promotional playing field, but somewhere along the line, my friends could be listening to the complete discography of some band that I had never even heard of and vice versa, although I was probably still going to listen to Hootie and the Blowfish while everyone else listened to rap/Limp Bizkit.
Which brings me back to the question asked by my Dad: "Where do you hear about some of these bands?" As I said earlier, it's not even about the particular bands themselves, but about how people share information now. I'll see an embedded YouTube video on a friend's blog and listen to a group like The Hold Steady for the first time, I'll hear a band similar to other groups that I like on an internet radio site such as Pandora.com, or I'll look at a friend's Facebook page and see that they really like Ronald Jenkees (I'm looking at you, Lance Agan).

In a strange way, the cacophony of noise and information that has been generated by the onslaught of the internet and cable tv has caused us to return to a new form of word of mouth to get information on a variety of topics, whether it is politics or movies or bands or tv shows.

As the method in which we share information has been changed from a vertical structure to a more horizontal structure, the number of potential sources for new information has simply exploded. This, of course, does not mean that all of those sources are necessarily reputable or even authoritative, but that they are simply more accessible than ever before.

I've rambled a bit here, but if I've come to anything even approximating a coherent point, let me know what you think.

I Was Chewin' Gum for Something to Do

Congratulations to Mr. Jeremy Masten for correctly naming "Never Let You Go" by Third Eye Blind as the Tuesday Song of the Day.

A few years ago, I jokingly referred to Facebook as the "Black Hole of Productivity", but it seems that some folks out there believe that between Facebook and a black hole, you might have better luck escaping from the former.

Are you a member of Facebook.com? You may have a lifetime contract.Some users have discovered that it is nearly impossible to remove themselves entirely from Facebook, setting off a fresh round of concern over the popular social network’s use of personal data.

While the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers keep copies of the information in those accounts indefinitely. Indeed, many users who have contacted Facebook to request that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records from the network.

“It’s like the Hotel California,” said Nipon Das, 34, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm in Manhattan, who tried unsuccessfully to delete his account this fall. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

"How Sticky is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free" by Maria Aspan in the February 11th edition of the NY Times.