I’ve been bad about writing. I’ll make up for now. I’m starting to write while I’m listening to Suzie Vinnick. That’s tough because I like watching Suzie and I like heckling via chat. I have no idea why any musician puts up with me. I really do know, it’s because I make it clear that I love her and want the world to love her. So help me with my guilt by checking her out now, Suzie Vinnick’s website. I confessed, did penance, so now I hope to be granted absolution.
Suzie’s been playing for an hour and half and said that she wants to keep playing. That’s what art is about. Jess Klein said something similar last night. She filled her usual hour but didn’t want to stop. It’s not to make money. It’s not because there’s a live audience demanding encores, it’s because of the love of making music. Nothing more commercial that than Hollywood but MGM got it right, ars gratia artis. It’s the musicians that have that attitude that I can watch on my computer. I’m not a fan of streaming shows. I need to see the artists loving what they do.
I have a dilemma. There’s a behavior that I would like to rail against but I don’t think I can do that without demonstrating that behavior. It’s too bad because the world would be better if people didn’t do it.
So instead of writing about that I’ll write about world views that I can’t relate to. I always work on theory of mind, I want to know how other people think, and I try hard to walk in their shoes. Sometimes I just can’t. There are attitudes wildly different than mine that I can understand, I just have to transpose them into a different key. Somebody obsesses on macramé? Fine, I have no interest in it but I obsess on things others have no interest in. I get it.
I’m in two Facebook groups that center around answering questions, one on Baseball Trivia, and the WFUV Question of the Day Group. Every weekday Corny asks a question and we’re supposed to come up with songs that answer it. For instance, today was songs that ask the question, “Where?” One song I suggested was Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. You get the idea. Each day I work on it. I try to think of songs that the station doesn’t normally play that I want to hear. Or songs that are just the perfect answer. Lots of us feel that way and make multiple guesses. When we knew the next day’s question I said, “Good, it gives us time to come up with good songs.” Somebody said, “I just go with the first song I think of.” I don’t see why that is fun. It’s even more extreme in the Baseball group. The question was which player had a seven year stretch with the given average stat line? One player made a guess that was ridiculous. The player in question averaged 20 homers/season, and he answered someone that hit 20 HR only in one season. When I pointed that out he said, “I don’t think about. I just say the first name that pops in my head.” If you are in this group you’d think you’d have an interest in baseball trivia. That you wouldn’t just blindly guess. When I don’t have any idea of the question I don’t try and answer. To my mind the fun of both groups is the intellectual challenge. Why is guessing fun?
Another thing I can’t understand is people just reposting “news” from unreliable sources. Haven’t they read about how people and countries actively spread disinformation? Do they just not care if what they say is true? These same people will decry Trump and his supporters for doing the same thing. It’s a mindset that makes my brain hurt. It’s the way I used to feel grading tests when students would just make up math on the fly.
There are times you just have to accept that you won’t understand something on a gut level. All you can do is say, “This person did X last time; They might do X again in this similar situation.” I have to listen to TAARKA‘s Wednesday Live show. I went to listen last night and asked them why they weren’t around. It was Tuesday. I’m an idiot.
Wise Madness 