Good reading to get your minds working again

Someone proposed an idea that the various and varied sciencebloggers each make a few "back to basics" posts that would explain for the novice or the "I haven't used it since I left school so I don't remember any of it" crowd. Topics of biology, physics, math, and more are all covered. Evolving Thoughts has created an index to the posts out there so far.

realization:

"Careless Whisper" is really George Michael's coming out song.  Its a farewell to the last woman he would ever sleep with, a woman who knew he was gay (or certainly could tell something was wrong in their nights together) but never openly said anything.

...think about it...

quote of the day

Personality Secrets in Your MP3 Player (/. comment by shotgunsaint):

Anyone trying to analyze my personality through my music tastes could only come to two conclusions: Schizophrenic or Elitist Snob. I'm not sure whether either of them are wrong :)

on audience arrogance

sorry.  i'm a pig-headed elitist arrogant jackass, but THIS attitude just takes the cake...

classical_music: when is "classical" not?:

bunrab : so perhaps composers who want to make a living in music ought to at least take into consideration whether I'd ever pay to hear their "music" again after hearing it once.

"opinion" or not, this attitude here did come across a little more condescending and arrogant than you might have expected.

The day that composers choose to take into account the commercial value of their music over their own artistic needs is the day their music has died within them.

I would rather Reich be Reich than have Reich be someone else merely to collect your hard-earned money. If anything, were Reich to change merely to please you, but you don't give him your hard-earned money anyways, then who has gained and who has lost?

The musician does not get to choose their audient, so don't use "money" as a means of implying that they can, or that you as an audient would be willing to negotiate terms of their performance in such a manner.

If you don't like it, FINE, but don't expect that your money is all that important, or that money is the only means by which the composer can value his work.

50 beers to drink before I die?

lets see...well, about 22/50, with several on the list of "never going to unless i actually go to germany" and others on the "never going to 'cause i don't like the style", so there you go.

does hollywood never change?

The last few superhero movies have been full of directors, writers, producers, actors all constantly changing hands.  Singer left XMen for Superman, Burton was doing Superman, then wasn't, but Burton coming into it kicked Smith out as scriptwriter, Cage was going to be the man of steel (sorry, I *still* don't see it), then Burton left and things hiatusified for a while.  Spiderman went through a few "creative changes" along the way, as did FF, Hulk, and Batman Begins.

Well, the upheavals continued this week as Josh "Firefly" Whedon left the Wonder Woman project while the director of The Flash has left THAT project.  Makes me wonder what really goes on in Warner Brothers that they keep pissing off the "talent" all the time.

Granted, Kevin Smith was very open about what the studio wanted him to do with Superman, though thankfully those proposals never saw the light in Superman Returns.  But really, Hollywood can't be all THAT bad, now can it?