Once Evergreen State College and now the Western World Part 2

Posted on June 10, 2020 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

Just 2 days after my previous post about how the microscopic events at Evergreen State College were forbearing about the macroscopic world we find ourselves, the original whistleblowers at Evergreen, Brett Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying (as a matter of hours ago) presented their 22nd Darkhorse podcast breaking down the connection between the dystopian events at Evergreen and what we see taking place in the world today.

As alluded to in other posts I was drawn to Brett and Heather’s quarantine podcasts as a form of sanctuary during this highly unstable period. This 22nd podcast I consider their most illuminating including the subsequent Q&A session. Some of the most engaging parts entailed:

1. Their realization (and Heather’s quotes from the literary classic ‘1984’) that we are seeing a Dystopian reality reminiscent of Orwell’s coming into fruition.
2. Brett’s mentioning how people have to stand up and be on the right side of history. The ones who begrudgingly appease this post modernist movement are just externalizing harm for those next in line who will feel compelled to join the ‘larger’ mob.
3. Brett takes aim at Ezra Kline for not doing this which I did in 2018 in my post titled – Ezra Kelin, a rational or irrational lefty?. Someone wrote in their comments:
“they don’t really mean all that, they’re really intent on something more moderate“ -Ezra Klein 2017/Neville Chamberlain 1938
4. Their repulsion about Science magazine publishing and enacting on ‘ShutDownSTEM’ in support of this movement. The attack on STEM seems to be in large part down to the postmodernist concept of Subjective Truth, but this is completely at odds with Enlightenment Science.
5. Brett and Heather’s personal experience relating to the fruitfulness of Jewish culture in the Q&A session, which I have also linked below is about as insightful as anything I’ve heard about culture in my adult life.
6. They expand on their views about the 1619 project which I also commented on in the Glenn Loury podcast.

There are many other aspects about the broader topic broached which I found tantalizing to the ear and I haven’t got time to outline here. But, if I had to count on one hand the most important podcasts I have ever heard since the inception of the internet, this one would most definitely be included. I hope you enjoy it if you haven’t already seen it and please don’t hesitate to tell me your take on it.

Tagged with: Brett Weinstein, COVID 19, evergreen state college, Heather Heying
Posted in politics, Science

Once Evergreen State College and now the Western World.

Posted on June 8, 2020 by observationblogger — 12 Comments

Really… Joe Biden can’t even say ‘that defunding the Police is bad’ without the press denouncing him?

As a white left leaning progressive I’ve been pushed to get my news from right-wing conservative programs for some utterance of what’s really going on. When I read the ABC Australian news, BBC or the NYT, I am constantly told I am part of a inherently guilty oppressive white regime majority.

I was a kid who grew up listening and admiring Bob Dylan but now I have no other place to turn for logic and truth than those expressed from conservative sources. The Press, Multinationals are all telling me how to think and that I’m part of this systemic racist problem.

I wrote about it before here ad nauseam – the danger of post modernist and anti meta-narrative thinking and the event at Evergreen College which this post is attributed and appears microscopic is actually forbearing about the macroscopic world we find ourselves. In a nutshell, the excesses of Social Media has caused a vacuum of effective moderate Leadership.

Really, God help us all …from an agnostic Christian.

Posted in News, politics

What’s Your Greatest Comedic Moment? Larry and the Battered Women

Posted on May 25, 2020 by observationblogger — 14 Comments

Larry David goes to see some battered women (women who have suffered from domestic abuse)…You might recall the fabulous actress Ma’am’ here as Eddie’s wife Catherine in the 1983 Vacation movie – Miriam Flynn. She made this scene work as much as Larry.

This post may not be to everyone’s liking, but such is comedy. I received a response to a comment on You tube which I had written eon’s ago about this video and I noticed it received 454 likes! That’s nearly boy-band territory and I was gobsmacked. My very likeable comment was as follows:

‘I think this is my favourite scene from the show. The support cast are just brilliant and the awkwardness and lack of sincerity conveyed by everyone in their suppressed anger states is utterly engrossing.’

Even before many decided my comment was so likeable I felt this scene… as far as comedy served was the best I’d ever seen. So in celebration of my intuition and the many likes I was greeted (and big-head), I commit this legendary video to my blog…

What ingenious comedic moment rings true for you?

Tagged with: comedy, larry david
Posted in Movies and TV

Burbujas de Amor (1990) – Juan Luis Guerra

Posted on May 21, 2020 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

Juan Luis guerra 1990

Burbujas de Amor (Bubbles of Love) is the second song to appear from the Dominican – Juan Luis Guerra in this music project. It appears on the same 1990 album as the title song Bachata Rosa (see image above) which featured here. That album was a huge hit, selling 5 million copies worldwide. Juan Luis Guerra is arguably the most popular music artist in all of Latin America and one of the most internationally recognized Latin artists of recent decades.

The ‘radio-play’ his songs get here in Colombia is obscene and for good reason – Juan is enormously talented and the high quality and plethora of music he has released makes the mind boggle. Also, he almost single-handedly populised bachata music on a global level. Bachata music originates from the Dominican Republic and features a more traditional bolero rhythm and aesthetic mixed with bossa-nova influenced melodies and harmony.

Today’s song Burbujas de Amor, like Juan Luis Guerra’s previous entry here Bachata Rosa follows on in that Bachata tradition. What I find so appealing about his interpretation of Bachata music is that it’s just wonderfully soothing to the ear and there is a ‘romantic’ element to it which is distinct from anything I’ve heard in contemporary Western music. Since this music was so far removed from the music I was accustomed, it took me time to appreciate it. But upon subsequent listens I couldn’t help but feel truly immersed.

Burbujas de Amor caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first released. Apparently some people interpreted its poetry salaciously and it was banned from airwaves in some parts. Regardless, it’s now adored and laps the radio waves. Like with Bachata Rosa, I’m just so impressed by the lyrics-poetry in Burbujas de Amor. A translation can never be perfect… and in this case it’s almost impossible to capture the beauty of the poetry, but here goes with a loose translation of its first part:

I have a heart
Crippled by hope and reason
I have a heart
That awakens wherever
Ay, ay, ay, ay
This heart
Undresses itself impatiently at the sound of your voice
Poor heart
That struggles for its sanity

I would like to be a fish
So I could touch my nose in your aquarium
And make bubbles of love 
Wherever
Oh-oh-oh and spend the night in vigil
Soaked in you

Tagged with: Burbujas de Amor, Juan Luis Guerra
Posted in Music

String Quartet No. 2 in D Major Notturno (1881) – Alexander Borodin

Posted on May 16, 2020 by observationblogger — 7 Comments

BDFTTY

I challenge long-term happily married couples to top this romantic gesture. According to Alexander Borodin’s biographer Serge Dianin, this quartet was composed as Borodin’s 20th Anniversary gift to his wife Ekaterina Protopova. Not only was he a Russian music composer (of Georgian heritage) but also a doctor and chemist. Romantic chemistry would appear to be one of his fortes but he regarded his musical composition as just a spare time pursuit although he is better known these days as a composer.

This chemist in his day was best known in his profession for his work concerning organic synthesis, and co-discoverer of the aldol reaction. Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg, where he taught until 1885. Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg as an illegitimate son of a 62-year-old Georgian nobleman and a married 25-year-old Russian woman. The nobleman had him registered as the son of one of his Russian serfs, Porfiry Borodin, hence the composer’s Russian last name. Thankfully Borodin was well provided for by his Georgian father.

The third movement below Notturno is the most popular of the 4 movements he wrote. According to wikipedia Borodin was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as “The Mighty Handful”, a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of classical music, rather than imitating earlier Western European models. The third movement also serves as the score to Disney’s 2006 short The Little Matchgirl and as an excerpt of the piece played in the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. His music is noted for its strong lyricism and rich harmonies.

References:
1. Alexander Borodin – wikipedia

Tagged with: Alexander Borodin, String Quartet No. 2 in D Major Notturno
Posted in Music

Lynyrd Skynyd (Free Bird) – How Life Once Was!

Posted on May 15, 2020 by observationblogger — 11 Comments

I think when I saw this video today in my YT feed of Lynyrd Skynyrd performing Free Bird I knew I was in trouble nostalgically from the get-go.

My understanding is this concert was performed just 40 days or so days before their ill-fated flight which killed members of the band. But what really made an impression upon me was just seeing how healthy and animated appeared the crowd – living in the moment. These were times before processed food, tattoos-makeup and portable technology became the vogue. And also before HIV and now the pandemic COVID-19 windswept the populations.

I like to remember this performance as how life used to be. Look at the radiance exuded from these fresh faces. It’s hard to equate that vitality and innocence to anything seen in recent times.

Tagged with: freebird, lynyrd skynyd
Posted in Health, Music, Reflections

Buffalo Bill (2000) – Sara Storer

Posted on May 14, 2020 by observationblogger — 10 Comments

Sara-Storer

What entails the Music Library Project?

This Australian country song was sent to me by mother many years ago and I took an immediate liking to it. Buffalo Bill is from Sara Storer’s debut studio album called Chasing Buffalo. Storer won the Best New Talent award at the Australian country music awards for Buffalo Bill.

And will the real Buffalo Bill please stand
Holding a beer and a gun in each hand
Those bright blue eyes give away more than he knows
When they sparkle as his story tells of chasin’ buffalo

Sara Storer was born on 6th of October 1973 which makes her my senior by 100 days or so which means I would call her Ma’am and stand-fast when she addressed me. She grew up on a huge cattle farm in Wemen, rural Victoria – Australia and completed her tertiary studies in Melbourne, becoming a teacher. Living in Camooweal, she met a retired water buffalo shooter, Harry Chandler, whose stories inspired her to write, Buffalo Bill, her first song.

Sara has since gone on to do six studio albums, three of which have have reached the top 30 of the ARIA charts. Despite her successful recording career, she has never lost her country calling. When in Darwin she married David O’Hare, a cattle buyer, in April 2012 and the couple have four children and live on a farm near Albury.

References:
1. Sara Storer – wikipedia

Tagged with: Buffalo Bill, Sara Storer
Posted in Music

Buckets of Rain (1975) – Bob Dylan

Posted on May 12, 2020 by observationblogger — 5 Comments

Bob Dylan 1975

Buckets of Rain comes from one of Dylan’s most critically acclaimed records – 1975’s Blood on the Tracks. It is the last song on the record and is certainly different from all which proceeds it. Dylan often does that on his records. He tangentially leaves us on a different note than the impression or mood the record might convey. It’s basically a light closing of a desperate album.

Compare for example today’s song Buckets of Rain – a reflective and lighter refrained piece about love with his gut-wrenching love masterpiece ‘If You See Her, Say Hello‘ which proceeds it 2 songs back. They both reflect distinct moods of someone thinking about the same thing and despite the bluesy whimsical tone of Buckets the narrator is still facing some awry conflicting emotions as seen below, not unlike where he went with Abandoned Love which has already been discussed here:

I like your smile
And your fingertips
Like the way that you move your hips
I like the cool way you look at me
Everything about you is bringing me misery

But the whimsicality of this verse hasn’t turned into the fervor of torment that is Abandoned Love which he would leave off his next record Desire. Buckets of Rain was recorded in New York City. The final album contains 5 recorded songs in NYC and 5 in Minneapolis. The guy singing this song seems like a deeply flawed individual not unlike that presented in Abandoned Love. He is thoroughly self-centered. Even his love for the woman is declared in a way which egotistically focuses on himself:

‘I got all the love…’

But the narrator in this case has humor and reuses the buckets metaphor is to associate his depth of his feelings – ‘all the love’ – with his misery, represented by the tears. And when he at last mentions her, it’s to compare her unfavorably with himself. He’s got so much love for her, she wouldn’t be able to ‘stand’ any more.

References:
1. Untold Dylan – Buckets of Rain
2. Bob Dylan Song analysis – David Weir

Tagged with: Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan, buckets of rain
Posted in Music

5/05 – 11/05/20 incl. False Prophet, Herd Immunity, Trees & the 1619 Project

Posted on May 11, 2020 by observationblogger — 3 Comments

news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

False Prophet – Bob Dylan
Song at Bob Dylan

2 days ago Bob Dylan released his third song False Prophet from his upcoming album Rough and Rowdy Ways which will be his first album of original songs in eight years. Dylan’s gradual unveiling of new music during this pandemic has been to me at least one of the few positive things to have occurred in the world. Rough and Rowdy Ways, which is almost certainly named after the 1929 Jimmie Rodgers classic “My Rough and Rowdy Ways,” will be his 39th studio album, landing 57 years after his debut LP. Due for release on June 19th. He’ll turn 79 on May 24th. ..….…(Listen to song).

Bret and Heather 13th DarkHorse Podcast Livestream: Herd Immunity Won’t Save Us
Video podcast at Bret Weinstein:

Bret and Heather’s podcast which is released biweekly is dedicated to the Pandemic and has become my primary source of information during this quarantine. This married couple who also both happen to be doctors in Biology are providing an invaluable community service by carefully responding to the great unknowns associated with the virus and unpacking with due diligence their interpretations of the various conspiracy hypotheses doing the rounds. Personally, I have found their measured discussions to be of a great relief during this time of immense uncertainty and frustration. …Watch entire video podcast

Rings Grow on Trees
Short Story at Intellectual Shaman:

Sometimes luck finds us, and the best kind finds us when we are young. -Intellectual Shaman

After reading Treasure Island, I had a habit of rowing to small islands and digging big holes for treasure; just because I hadn’t found any yet, didn’t mean it wasn’t there. It’s not about the treasure, but about the hunt; finding a map in an old book and understanding the riddles that can take you on an adventure. Strangely, if you think this way, treasure comes to you in different ways. And this is the story of one of the treasures I found without looking for it.…(Read Entire Short Story)

The 1619 Project’s Pulitzer | Glenn Loury & John McWhorter [The Glenn Show]

This is quite simply one of the most enlightening discussions I have ever heard surrounding ‘race’. I have watched it twice since it came out and recommended it to many since I was so impressed to see such a transparent yet passionate discussion about this controversial subject which hasn’t let up particularly in North America. Some of the topics they delve into are the following:

1. Nikole Hannah-Jones wins a Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project
2. This is “a desperate struggle for dignity” and
3. Self-hatred and patronization ..…(Watch entire podcast)

news on the march the end

Posted in Music, News, politics, Science

Bubak And Hungaricus – Anonymous

Posted on May 7, 2020 by observationblogger — 10 Comments

Bubak And Hungaricus is early 18th Century gypsy music which was arranged by Jaroslav Krček and included on the Amadeus soundtrack. The composer is unknown, but it’s a fun old Central European folk musical piece which seems to have been turned into a court dance tune over time. These folk dances which was performed at the palace as a curtain raiser to Mozart’s music show how classical composers constantly drew from the folk music that was all around them.

In the feudal courts of Europe, the usual instruments of strings, cornets, and harpsichords were often joined by folk instruments, like a bagpipe made from a sheep’s bladder. The ensemble heard here includes an ancient recorder-like flute, and a curious single-string double bass with a penetrating drone, the tromba marina, so named because it was used as a foghorn on ships.

Reference:
1. Amadeus – The Music – A Musical Process

Tagged with: Amadeus Soundtrack, Bubak and Hungaricus
Posted in Music

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