Everything Under the Sun

October | Music and Art  |   Week 42 | 10/22/2023   Talk about the place that beauty and expression have in your life When I was 14 I stood at the gates of Buckingham Palace, flipped coins into the Trevi Fountain, and strolled through the Italian countryside among thousand year old grape vines. At 16 I walked the halls of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, stood atop the great Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland and walked in silent observation at Dachau. I was naïve, unappreciative and mostly emotionless, somewhat to be expected from a child but inexcusable by my modern standards. I didn't have a conception of beauty because I didn't have a conception of life. I didn't understand, truly, deeply understand, the nature of the human experience, the long arc of history, or the struggle and strife of an individual or of our species. I'd memorized facts, aced tests, read books and recited great speeches. But I had no knowledge that was informed by experience. And I had no s...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 41 | 10/15/2023 Literature and Cinema as artistic expressions  As I sit captivated yet again by the detail of Goodfellas, the thought provocation of Interstellar, or the emotional depth of The Dark Knight, I'm reminded of the various virtues represented in literature and cinema: temperance, prudence, justice, fortitude, faith, charity, patience, kindness, humility. I'm reminded of the archetypes: the tainted hero, the misunderstood villain, the damsel in distress, Icarus, Judas, Midas, Jezebel. The running joke today is about the alter ego or persona shift that arises after finishing a great movie, show or book. But it's not so much a joke as a statement of reality. We humans are mimetic and we look to archetypal characters for modules of behavior to integrate. I authored the content of my character starting early with the adventurous spirit of the kids from Magic Treehouse and the courage of the orphans of the Series of Unfortunate Event...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 40 | 10/8/2023 Describe your music affinities  As I have evolved as an individual so to has my propensity to seek out and enjoy music. Propensity lead to discovery. Discovery lead to affinity. Affinity lead to diversity; the archiving of a plethora of music, stratified by the various moods they induce and compliment. Diversity lead to particularity; emergent as music became connected to emotion. Like any artistic appreciation, generality gets wider and specificity gets deeper. I'll make mention to six specific genres/artists/moods and the context with which I appreciate them.  [1] Lifting -> Dopamine+ -> $uicide Boy$ Entrenched in the vigor and intensity of weightlifting, nothing feeds my aggression and fuels my drive like $uicide Boy$. I discovered this band and the genre which has formed around them about a year after I left college, as my focus on weightlifting became an obsession. Regular rap was too boisterous. Metal was ...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 39 | 10/1/2023 Describe your artistic style In the summer of 2021 I finally had the opportunity to obtain a permanent place of my own. I was 25 years old and everywhere I'd lived had been a shared residence or a temporary one. The walls of our college apartment were populated with Game of Thrones posters and my room filled with pictures of my girlfriend - I'd never taken a domicile, empty and available, and furnished it to suit my unique style. So this was the first time I had to introspect on and assess my artistic style. More than just the color scheme of my comforter and pillows, I had to decide what type of furniture I liked, what paintings and posters I wanted on the wall, and what items made my home feel like mine .  I'd always been minimalist and color avoidant. Fond of the 70's vibe which I'd seen in Mad men, I lacked the confidence to commit to it. In the same way with my wardrobe, I always enjoyed and even somewhat envied ...