Has anyone ever not liked music?
Of course there are certain types of music that people prefer less than others. There are even genres of music that people outright refuse to listen to. But I'm looking more generally. Has there ever been someone who just didn't like the sounds of music? In order to answer that question, we need to look at the side of society who simply are limited in their scopes of music. I've had conversations with people who say they just don't really listen to music, whether it be based off of a lifestyle choice or perhaps because they simply don't get any time to sit down and listen to anything. Any of such excuses are acceptable. It's understandable why music might not be able to reach some of the masses, but let's look at the sample space of the majority who have the opportunity (or the gift rather) of listening to music. I've never heard of anyone that listened to music and never did again because they didn't like it. It just doesn't happen.
But why?
Music is, first and foremost, a convention of art. Just as books express magical worlds unknown to reality and paintings convey images from the artist's thoughts, music is active poetry, culminating instruments and vocalization and literature into a harmonious blend of different tones, sounds, and emotions. And we, the audience, are the instruments of this blend, the recipients of the carefully constructed art form presented even in a physical manner. Perhaps the greatest part of receiving this art form? There are so many different types of music, genres, instruments, moods, infinite possibilities to attribute to every personality, even the most stubborn. Appreciation through audio, just as culinary art requires appreciation through taste. Truly, music is the most unique form of art.
Which is why you should check this out.
So yeah, this entire blog is actually just a cleverly disguised advertisement for a Tumblr blog that I just started. But hey, it was an alright post, right? I started the blog to post a whole bunch of different songs, from the modern to the classic to even the baroque, heavy metal and post-disco and new wave, anything and everything to give a variety of music to people looking to discover something new. Perhaps you'll find your new favorite band, or maybe a song that won't get out of your head for the next few days, but what I started this out to do was to share my love and appreciation of this unique art form. Hopefully you can appreciate this gallery just as much as I do.
Enjoy!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Next
What will you do next?
Great. What will you do after that? Fantastic! What about after that? Alright. How about after that? We could play this game all day. So let's do it. Obviously, we could choreograph every last one of our actions to reflect the actions that we have in mind. We are the controllers of our own fate. But when does that control suddenly shift gears, and we become passengers beholding our own fate? If we were to plan every action of, say, a given day, so as to be able to predict every event that takes place in that day, how accurate would our predictions be? Well, the truth of the matter is that life is so complex and intricate, there could be no way we could expect to know every event that would take place in a 24 hour period. The random variables that may encroach our plans, the people we happen to run into, the improvised events that detour the path ahead; all of which prohibit accurate predictability. But what decides what those prohibitions may be?
What ends up deciding the unpredictable?
This question, although simple in premise, brings forth a divide in philosophy that to some invokes strong feelings. By the nature of the word 'unpredictable', there is no way to predict what will happen. Every day we wake up blind to the events that are to come, from the trivially minuscule to even the most grand of events in some cases. But are we enabling a self-intrinsic bias to believe that simply because we can not predict the outcome of an event, there are not others who can predict our fate? Our own fate. Predestination. Have our lives already been laid out for us? Is every single action, from the routine to the unpredictable, not an act of chance but a carefully determined, algorithmic process that all happens for a reason?
Woah. We're getting pretty philosophical here.
So what does all of this mean for us? What does it matter whether our lives are constantly creating new events to experience or that every action, from our past to our present to every event in our future, has already been decided for us? The importance lies not within what side we have taken, but rather the fact that we have the ability to question the future. As before mentioned, there are those who have devoted their entire lives to the quest of discovering where they have come from. I also mentioned last week the topic of scrutinizing the unknown. This is exactly what the meticulous act of determining our future does. Time devoted to something that should, more or less, be unknown. I'm sure we've all been asked the hypothetical question "if you could know what date you would die, would you?" Well, my question is why would you want to? Having such knowledge merely trivializes the events and the days that are in between now and your death. Whereas, life is this extraordinary entity of unknowns and variables, where not only is the negative contained but also the most positive experiences that life has yet to expose to us. So why wait for what's next?
Make it happen.
Great. What will you do after that? Fantastic! What about after that? Alright. How about after that? We could play this game all day. So let's do it. Obviously, we could choreograph every last one of our actions to reflect the actions that we have in mind. We are the controllers of our own fate. But when does that control suddenly shift gears, and we become passengers beholding our own fate? If we were to plan every action of, say, a given day, so as to be able to predict every event that takes place in that day, how accurate would our predictions be? Well, the truth of the matter is that life is so complex and intricate, there could be no way we could expect to know every event that would take place in a 24 hour period. The random variables that may encroach our plans, the people we happen to run into, the improvised events that detour the path ahead; all of which prohibit accurate predictability. But what decides what those prohibitions may be?
What ends up deciding the unpredictable?
This question, although simple in premise, brings forth a divide in philosophy that to some invokes strong feelings. By the nature of the word 'unpredictable', there is no way to predict what will happen. Every day we wake up blind to the events that are to come, from the trivially minuscule to even the most grand of events in some cases. But are we enabling a self-intrinsic bias to believe that simply because we can not predict the outcome of an event, there are not others who can predict our fate? Our own fate. Predestination. Have our lives already been laid out for us? Is every single action, from the routine to the unpredictable, not an act of chance but a carefully determined, algorithmic process that all happens for a reason?
Woah. We're getting pretty philosophical here.
So what does all of this mean for us? What does it matter whether our lives are constantly creating new events to experience or that every action, from our past to our present to every event in our future, has already been decided for us? The importance lies not within what side we have taken, but rather the fact that we have the ability to question the future. As before mentioned, there are those who have devoted their entire lives to the quest of discovering where they have come from. I also mentioned last week the topic of scrutinizing the unknown. This is exactly what the meticulous act of determining our future does. Time devoted to something that should, more or less, be unknown. I'm sure we've all been asked the hypothetical question "if you could know what date you would die, would you?" Well, my question is why would you want to? Having such knowledge merely trivializes the events and the days that are in between now and your death. Whereas, life is this extraordinary entity of unknowns and variables, where not only is the negative contained but also the most positive experiences that life has yet to expose to us. So why wait for what's next?
Make it happen.
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Unexpected
So this is the future.
2015. Hoverboards. Advanced architecture. Self-lacing shoes. The moment we've all been waiting for. And...well, it's not. In fact, it's pretty far from that. Granted, it's only been just over a week in to the new year. A year that, quite frankly, crept up faster than I would have ever expected. Perhaps what strikes me even harder is the amount of growth that has come through in just a year. Only last year was I beginning to take my first steps towards being done with high school. Fast forward and now I'm 6 months into adulthood. Full time job and looking for a place of my own to live. That's...not really something that I ever really envisioned myself being anywhere in the near future, and yet...it's already here. 2015. A fresh start. Time to get all of my ducks in a row and pursue what I will ultimately end up spending the rest of my life doing.
At least, in theory.
What a concept. 18 years old and I'm already being pushed to make decisions that will affect the 50+ years to come. Pretty high expectations if you ask me. Not necessarily expectations I would have put on myself, but expectations nonetheless. But...whose expectations are they? What looming chart of successes and failures is held over our heads to feel that pressure to do the things we are forced to do so early in life? Are we simply characters within the choose-your-own-adventure book, or is our plot already written? Well, really our own decisions are exactly that - our own. We can't necessarily blame the outside factors associated with decision making. These derive from our own judgement. If only it were as easy to flip through the pages to find the best outcome and our happily ever after.
But does any of that even matter?
Why stress so much importance on the meticulous and often mundane decisions that form the lives we live? Obviously a reckless mindset isn't the most suitable one for our well being. However, every single day, people like you and me spend so much time worrying about the decisions that we make or the decisions that we will make. This even affects us to the point where we are affected by other's decisions. We live in a world centralized around the concept of choice. Merely a toss of the dice in some cases. So much so that we fear what is to come that we don't even need to make decisions about. A constant stress. Is it worth it?
Then why live a life that is based around this mentality?
2014 taught me something no other year has yet to teach me. A decision does not have to make or break your world. In fact, it shouldn't. Nor should that of anyone else's. I spent a very fair portion of the end of the year conflicted between mine and other's choices. Tested friendships and morals. And, y'know, it is really, really tough. To know that those you care about, those who you would do anything for...there is no decision you can make to save them. But does that mean this story line has concluded? Maybe it's about time to write our own books. Our future has not even begun the first draft of what our biographies will become. Expectations will change, just as they have from years ago. The expectations from 30 years ago of 2015 certainly did not meet with what they have become, but does that make the world any less incredible? No. So why do the same to yourself? Break the bounds of expectation.
Here's to an unexpected 2015.
2015. Hoverboards. Advanced architecture. Self-lacing shoes. The moment we've all been waiting for. And...well, it's not. In fact, it's pretty far from that. Granted, it's only been just over a week in to the new year. A year that, quite frankly, crept up faster than I would have ever expected. Perhaps what strikes me even harder is the amount of growth that has come through in just a year. Only last year was I beginning to take my first steps towards being done with high school. Fast forward and now I'm 6 months into adulthood. Full time job and looking for a place of my own to live. That's...not really something that I ever really envisioned myself being anywhere in the near future, and yet...it's already here. 2015. A fresh start. Time to get all of my ducks in a row and pursue what I will ultimately end up spending the rest of my life doing.
At least, in theory.
What a concept. 18 years old and I'm already being pushed to make decisions that will affect the 50+ years to come. Pretty high expectations if you ask me. Not necessarily expectations I would have put on myself, but expectations nonetheless. But...whose expectations are they? What looming chart of successes and failures is held over our heads to feel that pressure to do the things we are forced to do so early in life? Are we simply characters within the choose-your-own-adventure book, or is our plot already written? Well, really our own decisions are exactly that - our own. We can't necessarily blame the outside factors associated with decision making. These derive from our own judgement. If only it were as easy to flip through the pages to find the best outcome and our happily ever after.
But does any of that even matter?
Why stress so much importance on the meticulous and often mundane decisions that form the lives we live? Obviously a reckless mindset isn't the most suitable one for our well being. However, every single day, people like you and me spend so much time worrying about the decisions that we make or the decisions that we will make. This even affects us to the point where we are affected by other's decisions. We live in a world centralized around the concept of choice. Merely a toss of the dice in some cases. So much so that we fear what is to come that we don't even need to make decisions about. A constant stress. Is it worth it?
Then why live a life that is based around this mentality?
2014 taught me something no other year has yet to teach me. A decision does not have to make or break your world. In fact, it shouldn't. Nor should that of anyone else's. I spent a very fair portion of the end of the year conflicted between mine and other's choices. Tested friendships and morals. And, y'know, it is really, really tough. To know that those you care about, those who you would do anything for...there is no decision you can make to save them. But does that mean this story line has concluded? Maybe it's about time to write our own books. Our future has not even begun the first draft of what our biographies will become. Expectations will change, just as they have from years ago. The expectations from 30 years ago of 2015 certainly did not meet with what they have become, but does that make the world any less incredible? No. So why do the same to yourself? Break the bounds of expectation.
Here's to an unexpected 2015.
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