A few months ago MPR purchased a small college radio station which played classical music.

People were nonplussed and more than a few people were irate as it meant less choice for people who like classical music.

In the last year or so I had gotten rather attached to the alternative classical station, mainly because there were fewer gruesome reports of Iraq casualties for my children to ask about. “Daddy what is an Improvised Explosive Device?”

Then MPR surprised me with the announcement that the new format for the station would be sort of adult, eclectic, alternative, contemporary music station. When I heard about this I was both happy and irritated. I had pretty much given up on commercial music stations as I was irritated by their short playlists and constant commercial interruptions so I was thrilled that someone might play some interesting music with fewer interruptions. At the same time I was irritated by the fact the MPR news station had broadcast numerous digs at how bland and bad commercial music radio had become. It’s like they were priming us for their entry into the market. By profiling certain non-traditional Adult Album Alternative stations they were creating a little astroturfing campaign that would lead people to their station. I hate feeling like a sheep. Baaahhh.

So now the station is up and running. You can catch a stream if you like. It’s pretty good. I admit it’s a treat to listen to interesting music I’ve never heard before, broadcast without commercials.

This new station has already helped me in my continuous search for my feminine side, which manifests itself by my love for girlish music. My newest find is Rilo Kiley. Here are a few quotes from lyrics on the album, “More Adventurous”.

I know I'm alone if I'm with or without you
but just bein' around you offers me another form of relief
When the lonliness leads to bad dreams
and the bad dreams lead me to callin' you
and I call you and say "C'MERE!"
And it's bad news
Baby I'm bad news
I'm just bad news, bad news, bad news
And it's bad news
Baby it's bad news
It's just bad news, bad news, bad news

Any chimp can play human for a day.
Use his opposable thumbs to iron his uniform
and run for office on election day
fancy himself a real decision maker
and deploy more troops than salt shakers.

I think I’ve pointed out the blog Seraphic Secret before. Many of the entries deal with the death of Robert and Karen’s son, Ariel. His writing about grief is so real and so human; you can’t help but feel his loss when you read his posts. Here is an excerpt from a recent post.

I have always struggled with people who have all the answers. I was raised in a church where they had all the answers, direct from God. Turns out they were asking the wrong questions and mistaking their own wishful thinking for the voice of God. (I’ve come to think we all do this from time to time, it’s just a matter of degrees.)

I heard all the trite answers about death growing up; “God had a reason” or “It was for the best” or “They didn’t have enough faith.” I always rebelled against these answers. I never wanted to believe in that monstrous God.

When I was in fifth or sixth grade my pastor died. My family was quite close to the pastor and his family. We were over at their house all the time. He was 29 or 30 at most. He had two small children, the oldest was five I think. The younger child sat next to me at the funeral and doodled in a coloring book. At one point during the service he looked right at me and asked, “Why is my daddy in that box.” Even then I knew there was no good answer and I just shook my head and said “I don’t know why your dad is in the box.”

To this day, I still want to believe that his dad wasn’t in the box. More than once I have been somewhere and saw someone who reminds me of Pete. In my heart, I still want it to be Pete instead of someone with his curly red hair and swagger. I’ve wanted him to shake my hand and tell me he had to be in some government witness protection program. I’ve always wanted to believe he was still alive somewhere.

I think the best we can hope in life, is not answers to all of life’s questions but simply having people in our life to hold us when we ask them.

In my New Year’s Resolution I proposed that I drink more tea this year. I am happy to report that I am doing just that. Some work friends took me to a little shop near my office called Tea Source. I purchased a filter and some Black Currant tea.

I’m really enjoying drinking tea. I never really gave loose tea much thought, because I don’t like dealing with the mess. I have always liked the Good Earth herbal tea, but it doesn’t taste right in the packets, and I can’t drink a whole pot of it, when brewed from loose tea in the coffee maker. But now, with the magic filter, I can brew one cup and completely enjoy whatever kind of loose tea strikes my fancy.

My friends gave mixed reviews of “Lost in Translation“. People either loved it or thought it was boring.

I fall firmly into the “loved it” camp.

Like Garden State the director and actors transcribed feelings I’ve had but couldn’t necessarily articulate to the big screen.

The feeling of being someplace and feeling “lost” or being out of sync with everything around you was so intense in this movie. It’s a feeling I’ve had on more than one occasion.

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I just finished watching Garden State.

After thinking about the scene where “Large” fades into the wallpaper, I realized that one of my new Christmas shirts almost fades into the paint in my bedroom.

This movie truly moved me.

I’ve had the experience depicted in the movie where everyone appears to be moving around you.

I’ve had the experience of finding that one person in life who understands you for almost no discernible reason.

I’ve had the experience of feeling like I loved someone so much that life with the most meager, meanest existence possible, if shared with that person, would be just great.

And let’s not forget, I just went back to Milwaukee and saw an old friend.

Seeing small pieces of my life depicted on the screen was both uncanny and cathartic. Now don’t get the idea my mother is dead, depressed, or was in a wheelchair or that I’ve ever been prescribed or taken anti-depresants, rather I identify with the ideas and moods shown in the movie.

I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for a while. It’s one of the best soundtracks I think I’ve ever heard. The songs comfortably fit the mood and sequences of the movie almost as well as they seem to fit my mood at present.

When I like something so much, be it a song, a book, a movie, or whatever I wonder if something must be wrong with me or it. I have that feeling about this movie.

Seeing this truly great movie makes me even more frustrated by all the truly bad movies I saw last year. Excepting the Lord of the Rings trilogy which is in a movie category all by itself, this is the best movie I’ve seen since “The Matrix.”

Robotic Nation

This is exactly what I have been trying to tell people for some time, although I think this guy paints a far too dystopic view of the future.

It will be interesting to see how the take-over of traditional retail positions by robots will affect the general economy. Will there be enough robot repair, refurbish and programming jobs to offset all the fast food and retail jobs that will be lost?

When these kinds of systems are in place, what will a person have to do to get really wonderful personal service? When you complain to a manager will you simple get a videoconference with someone in India, China or Pakistan?

His ideas remind me of a sci-fi book “Kiln People” by David Brin. In that book, which I never finished because it was too boring, almost no one has a job because everyone can make these golem like creatures at home. These creatures that have your memories and can do any menial task. Some are even capable of quite sophisticated work. These golems then expire and can download their memories back to you. It interesting to think about a future where almost no one works because there just aren’t any jobs available. For a better review take a look at this.

While walking today with a Guy from work, I was reminded of his plan for fighting spam and punishing spammers. His suggestion is that any spammer should have the products they are hawking tattooed to their forehead in indelible ink.

It’s an interesting idea.

No one worries about making a fashion statement if you are simply trying to keep warm.

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After reading The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, I decided to pick up another book by this author. I chose, “In the Lake of the Woods”.

It was a very interestingly written story, which posed as a mystery, but in the end left bits of the puzzle missing, allowing the reader to piece together their own ideas about who the characters really were and what they did.

The book was set in Minnesota and had a very authentic feel to it.

I really enjoyed the non-traditional chapters which consisted of excerpts from books and the criminal investigations, which the book referenced in overt and oblique ways. They fit very nicely into the story and in their own way added to the narration.

Amazon link

In the Lake of the Woods

I recently read two books written by Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” and “Survivor”. I really enjoyed them both.

Fight Club

I had recently seen the movie and I loved it. I immediately got the book at my local library. I loved the book as much if not more than the movie. The author really has an interesting way to tell a story where it seems like the story is happening around the characters rather then than the alternative of the characters making the story happen. I loved it. The whole notion of duality in the book was far more robust than in the movie.

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

Survivor

This book started slow for me. I liked the idea well enough, but it was just really slow until somewhere in the middle of the book. I am desperate to know if all the cleaning advice offered in the book actually works. For instance, if you soap the inside of a crease in a pair of dress pants before ironing, will it really make the crease sharper? Then somewhere in the middle of the book, I really started to like it and by the end I was completely hooked. It was very unsettling to read a book where the page and chapter numbers are in reverse order.

In some ways his writing reminds me of William Gibson, except that when Mr. Palahniuk has a really clever original idea, he develops it completely as part of the story, while Mr. Gibson blows you away with the idea and never completes it.

One other interesting bit of the story for me was that I’ve know people raised in religious colonies, which made the entire story more real to me.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts. The author has a wonderful gift for twisting a phrase or thought.

Amazon Links

• Fight Club
• Survivor