Jelly Burger

According to an article I read recently, human beings don't do very well at making big, complicated decisions. It was a while ago, but I think the article mentioned picking a college and choosing a mate as examples, and I assume my careerist ponderings would fit the bill.

The point, as I understood it, was that the rational parts of our brains, all too often ignored in any case, are limited in their processing power. Decisions with too many factors just overwhelm them. So, all of those things that go into a college "fit," like location and prestige and cost and whatever else... apparently our brains can only process a handful of those at any one time.

So we can either make the decision rationally but ignoring the vast majority of the factors. Or we can make it based on intuition, and use our rational parts to justify that decision after the fact. The second one is obviously way more fun and also way more popular. But actually, we don't necessarily notice that we've shut down the rational process.

So once you read this article, you have to ask yourself what the heck you're thinking, trying to design a rational process for making a decision about what to do with your working life. It's not like designing a training program so you can run a marathon... apparently it's more like designing a training program so you can run to the moon.

Anyway, I've been asking everyone for their thoughts on the topic of "people who make a difference / make the world a better place / whatever," and I might as well ask you, too, Dear Internet. What job or career plan would you recommend to someone who, for the sake of discussion, is only concerned with making the most positive difference possible?

Now that we've got all that out of the way, it's time for the real point of the post:



The Purple Cow


I never saw a PURPLE COW,
I never HOPE to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather SEE than BE one!



The Purple Cow: Suite


Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"--
I'm Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!


Gelett Burgess
(1866-1951)

Unseat a Heart

Dear Readers,

I'll see if I can't reestablish something like a rhythm here. Unusually, I have a few things to report in addition to my existential wanderings and banal schadenfreude.

For instance: our song, "Chemistry," available over on the right, is going to be on a promotional CD called the Chill Out Acoustic Compilation, put together by some people who call themselves Quickstar Productions. You can listen to their previous efforts here - it seems like they produce an album of this sort every year or so (in addition to offerings in other styles).

We aren't completely sure of what to make of it. We got in touch with one person from a previous edition, Chelsea Carter, who we thought was good and who very kindly filled us in on her experience with Quickstar.

She, like us, seems unsure what to make of it. She felt like she was fairly treated and everything. So I guess we'll see what happens - and at least it was nice of Quickstar to want to include us. If you're interested in owning one of these, drop us a line and we'll send you one once they're ready. They'll be on iTunes, too.

In other news, Abbie is really good at painting. So far she specializes in fruit.

And finally, the road trip is 58 days away. Can you believe it? We can't.

Here's a little poem for you.



Romantics
Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann


The modern biographers worry
"how far it went," their tender friendship.
They wonder just what it means
when he writes he thinks of her constantly,
his guardian angel, beloved friend.
The modern biographers ask
the rude, irrelevant question
of our age, as if the event
of two bodies meshing together
establishes the degree of love,
forgetting how softly Eros walked
in the nineteenth century, how a hand
held overlong or a gaze anchored
in someone's eyes could unseat a heart,
and nuances of address not known
in our egalitarian language
could make the redolent air
tremble and shimmer with the heat
of possibility. Each time I hear
the Intermezzi, sad
and lavish in their tenderness,
I imagine the two of them
sitting in a garden
among late-blooming roses
and dark cascades of leaves,
letting the landscape speak for them,
leaving us nothing to overhear.


Lisel Mueller

long post no time

dear readers,

or maybe there are none of you anymore,

i am sorry for the long hiatus. rather than give an excuse, i'll just leave it at the apology, and mention briefly that there's a clean, final version of "chemistry" over on the right, which we hope you'll enjoy. and we'd love to hear what you think of it.

the road trip is almost upon us. we've got an itinerary thanks to abbie's hard work, and we're planning to email it out this weekend.

more news to come tomorrow. for real. meanwhile, enjoy this little ditty from good ol' emily:


It was given to me by the Gods -
When I was a little Girl -
They give us Presents most - you know -
When we are new - and small.
I kept it in my Hand -
I never put it down -
I did not dare to eat - or sleep -
For fear it would be gone -
I heard such words as "Rich" -
When hurrying to school -
From lips at Corners of the Streets -
And wrestled with a smile.
Rich! 'Twas Myself - was rich -
To take the name of Gold -
And Gold to own - in solid Bars -
The Difference - made me bold -


Emily Dickinson (# 455)

return me to a cigarette

i wrote a new one today. abbie likes it. but it's not as good as this!



maybe tomorrow i'll manage to get at least a rough version of the new ones up here. meanwhile, i humbly submit this poem, by my favorite gal. enjoy it responsibly.



There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons -
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes -

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us -
We can find no scar,
But internal difference -
Where the Meanings, are -

None may teach it - Any -
‘Tis the Seal Despair -
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air -

When it comes, the Landscape listens -
Shadows - hold their breath -
When it goes, ‘tis like the Distance
On the look of Death -


Emily Dickinson (#320)

i was born by the river

sorry for the long hiatus. i am definitely extra full of insight, wit, and touching poetry, though, as a result.

there's probably interweb slang for this phenomenon, whereby after missing a few days you feel the (sometimes paralyzing) urge to find something truly postworthy. otherwise you have to face the fact that you were probably posting too often before.

or else face the fact that there's really no reason for you to be posting at all. or at least no good reason.

my strategy, the obvious one, was going to be to post a song. but it's just taking too darn long. abbie and i have one we like, and we hope you will like it too. but at the moment it is missing some words. anybody got any words they can loan us?

meanwhile, please enjoy this poem, which was inspired by sacred heart's production of cinderella, and please take good care of yourself and get some sleep.


Lullaby


Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.



W. H. Auden

crazy experiment

a special exclusive for blog readers!!:

there's a new tune over at right. it's called "emily." it's what i did today! and it has some experimental experiments. i would really appreciate feedback if you have a minute to leave some. even if all you do is make fun of me - i would still be very grateful.

hope you're doing well. over and out.

continuing nerd education

so, music production is a nerd field. it appeals to a wide nerd spectrum, from hi-fi nerds to lo-fi nerds, from nerds with lots of nerd friends to loner nerds.

and it offers a treasure-trove of what i would call "nerd crack:" which is, of course, minutiae. not just any old minutiae, but technical, counterintuitive, obnoxious minutiae that every once in a long while turn out to be really important.

i remember using a program in college called reason, which was really cool (in a nerdy way). it's music creation software, and it's completely digital - you don't need to know how to play an instrument or anything. i remember one guy made a cool (nerd) song totally from sounds he made using a paper bag.

anyway, what made reason so appealing and (nerd-) useful was the knobs. rows and rows of hundreds of little knobs. if you've ever seen a mixing console in a recording studio, you know that there are lots of knobs involved in this process; but in reason, because it was all digital, you could have as many knobs as you wanted. you could build your rack so that the knobs went on to infinity.

and each knob represents a Decision. and most of them don't matter, but some of them do. thus, nerd-crack: you could spend hours and days turning little knobs this way and that to see if they made something cool happen - all while sitting in a dark basement with headphones on, getting paler by the minute.

well, i'd been in withdrawal for a while without really realizing exactly what i was jonesing for. turns out it was something very, very obvious. something even non-nerds recognize and maybe even use: the graphic equalizer.

seriously, how cool is this thing? if you've never played with one, i must insist that you try it. itunes has one. just mess with them while a song is playing and see if you aren't overcome with the giddiness of a schoolgirl as i have been.

of course, this might turn out to be a gateway drug for you - and you could end up a full-blown nerd. after all, you're already reading a blog instead of going outside.

be careful.

i've updated "the pirate song" and might do so again, soon. also "emily" is in the works, an older song that i still like and have never recorded.

here's a mardi gras picture i'm just getting around to posting:



and a poem:


The Red Wheelbarrow


so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.


William Carlos Williams



Thanks for stopping by.