If you're a runner, or simply a watcher of runners, you may have noticed that when jogging or sprinting with a partner, people tend to match their stride with one another over time. To me this is phenomenal. The possibilities for moving forward seem endless, yet somehow when two people run together they unconsciously make up for differences in body size and tendencies in order to match each other's movements. I'm convinced that this has something to do with harmony and our tendency toward it.
If I were in the field of physiology or something like that I would study this, but then again maybe it's better to let this phenomenon remain one of the countless unexplained miracles of life. And so here I remain, amazed at yet another simple thing in life.
In other news, in light of all this rekindled Twitter buzz I started up my Thrill Twitter again. Thrill itself isn't really up and running as we speak, but music will always pump through my veins so this Twitter widget is a select list of music recommendations specifically focused in the world of indie music. Think of it as a refined place to broaden your musical tastes and wax music. I always take recommendations and love talking music, so feel free to reach out and contact me about it. In the meantime, enjoy.
Today's Blogger music recommendation is Lisa Hannigan, an folk-pop artist whose earnest voice and fragile lyrical masterpieces create a comforting, curl-up-by-the-fire sort of feeling. P.C. Greenwood calls Hannigan one of the most engaging and mysterious singers of the past two decades, adding that Hannigan could be "Jeff Buckley's long lost Irish sister." I very much agree.
Telegraph companies did not invent the phone. Music companies did not envision the future of the mp3. Print media did not invent the internet. Although I haven't read it, that's my understanding of the basic premise behind John Seabrook's Flash of Genius: and Other True Stories of Invention.
It's almost always an arguably unpredictable outlier that sweeps in and changes the world as we know it. When change does occur though, the doors swing open and fear and instability invade. In our world of exponential information flow, the speed of change is only increasing. But take note, my friends. Video did not kill the radio star. Even today, in a world where video is on TV, DVD, video game consoles, and streaming on the internet as the projected lasting vehicle for optimum promotion, radio still exists. And believe it or not, radio play still makes one huge difference.
And so for everyone who says print is on it's last legs, I vehemently refute. New creations in the media world do not kill. Rather, they expand the amount of information that is delivered. The VCR did not stunt the movie market as originally predicted. Instead it spurred the creation of even more movies.
When the printing press came into existence at around 1440 people were afraid of the consequences. Plato's allegorical Thoth in "Phaedrus" warned against recording knowledge in books, saying that the printing press would destroy the oral tradition of knowledge and pedagogy. This was, according to Katheen Tyner, partly because he wanted to maintain control over how people understood and interpreted exactly what they were being told. But isn't losing an element of control something that the once few media voices are afraid of now that information is on a many to many scale?
Despite all the fear oral communication still exists and people still go to the movies. The advent of new methods for delivering media often changes the mission statement of the old medium, but I will argue that it's usually all for the best. Of course there's nothing good about people losing magazine and newspaper jobs, but this is part of the inevitable growing pains of change. Jobs will move and shuffle and products of the printing press may mean new or different things than they once did. These changes aren't bad though. Thoreau will always be Thoreau and good literature will always hold value.
The advent of new communication mediums have changed our society for thousands of years and will continue to do so at only a more ferocious pace. If I step back to look at the big picture though, I have faith. You can call me blindly optimistic but I would argue that, for the most part, we make these changes in our methods of communication because new mediums give us what we desire.
The virtual community of blogs, mp3's and streaming video stands atop many other means of communication. We made the choice to employ these mediums and moved in this direction because people are empowered, informed, and freed by new media literacies. Like the people who constantly improve the iPhone with the creation of new applications based on what was once desired but just barely unattainable, the advent of new means for transmitting information enable us to do more with our lives.
Now the only matter that's left is figuring out how to best adapt to these changes and use the power we wield in ways that improve society. That part begins now, and the most exciting facet of it all is that we're right in the middle of it. This is the new Enlightenment. May it go down in history as a time of beautiful change.
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Green River Ordinance approaches with cinematic songwriting and a grand, easy sound. Blare them or let them play softly in the background as you fall to sleep, but listen to them at some point or another.
I was introduced to this video yesterday. It immediately burned a place in my mind and now it is impacting(and will continue to impact) almost everything I do. Kristen Wiig will make you laugh, Judy Grimes will tell you how to travel cheap, and a Korean baby singing "Hey Jude" will make you melt. But if you watch only one online video this year to date, make it this one:
I won't say much because frankly I'm still speechless, but this video speaks so much to Chris Anderson's recent blog on the power of scale in Wikipedia, the acceleration of our world as spoken by Fortune Mag's article on adaptation in the business environment, the potential of computer power in the future as spoken by Wired, and just about everything else that touches our worlds and my academic studies.
I kind of feel like I just saw the best Apple product to reach stores, read a bunch of incredibly informative journalism, and crashed into a world of amazing uncertainty. I'll admit, I have goosebumps.
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If you weren't blown away, check out Army Navy. They're a happy hardcore pop band. In this day and age who can really get enough uplifting guitar licks and inviting melodies? The band's new album just released so give them a listen and enjoy.
I am a determined lover of life who insists on trying almost everything at least once and becoming passionately obsessed with most of it. I read constantly, eat frequently, and rarely lose sight of my goals.
My work has brought me into LuxuryLab (a new think tank/luxury brand consulting company), music publicity, magazine writing (music features, restaurant reviews, etc), and coaching Columbia University softball. Learning is at the core of my being so I'm an aspiring DJ and renegade marketer on the verge of new academic discovery at NYU.
More than that, I'm the person you'll find dancing in the living room as the sun rises over New York City.
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