It's not you, it's me.

This isn’t easy for me, you know. The beginning held so much promise, but I think it’s time we took a break.

You learned about my favorite books, music, and movies. You wanted to know where I lived, where I went to school, and whom I hung out with. Don’t get me wrong. That was great.

You made an attempt to introduce me to new things I might be interested in. Sure, you probably had some underlying motive there, but at least you cared enough to make some sort of attempt. I don’t resent your advances.

I cannot say you were ever unavailable for long periods of time. In fact, ever since the purchase of my latest phone you’ve been even more available. Anywhere, anytime. That certainly wasn’t the problem.

You even encouraged me to get together with my friends by passing along invites and message. What more could I ask for?

I know it’s normal that the excitement of new relationships can wane. You were so kind to invite others into our relationship in the hopes that it would be stronger. There were some particularly imaginative applications of that development.

You really want to know the truth? Really? Truly? It’s just that… well… I just can’t live with you.

You were so simplistic, shiny, and dare I say it, petite. Everything in its place. Beautiful, really. Now, you’re complicated, dull, and I’m sorry it’s come to this, bloated. Cluttered, even.

My friends do not need to know I no longer consider Madonna my favorite artist or just rented Sleepless in Seattle from Blockbuster. Stop being such a gossip.

Why is it that I feel guilty for “neglecting” you each time I get together with my friends away from you? I don’t want to upload my photos for you to enjoy.

I have no intention of making $1,000 today, no matter how easy that might be. Just shut up!

So it’s over, Facebook. We had a good run but it’s just not going to work. Please, don’t call me. It’s too painful.

I just need my space.

Posted at 05:28PM Nov 27, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  |  Comments[7]

Coming soon...

I apologize for the lengthy hiatus. I blame my instructors. You can blame me and I will be sure to pass that along to them too.

Hopefully later today I'll put up a quick post regarding some recent google (on the social front) and facebook experiences. Until then...

Posted at 09:15AM Nov 12, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

A special future

We left off with an exponential increase in the ease with which we distribute and receive audio, video, and text. From here on I will be lumping these three broad categories into an even broader category: information. At an unprecedented rate that continues to increase, human beings are consuming and creating information.

With the combination of more efficient compression (video: divx to xvid to x264 for example) and an explosion in the amount of raw storage (I now carry more storage space on my keychain than my entire desktop from ten years ago had), this is a trend that is unlikely to abate any time soon.

Now, before I continue let me introduce a quick word of warning. Much of the following makes the (not trivial) assumption that our current energy situation (read: unlimited and cheap) continues. If you are unfamiliar with Peak Oil theory I would strongly suggest you research whether you believe this to be the case, but for this strictly academic exercise we will not get bogged down in such minor details.

Back to information.

There was a time when the level of information present in the world stayed relatively constant. This fact can be attributed to two main reasons. The first of these is that information was not permanent. The fire at the Royal Library at Alexandria is proof of this; many unique (read: truly one of a kind) pieces of literature and science were destroyed. The second fact is that information simply was not being produced at the same rate as it is today.

It would be unfairly simplistic to say we are smarter than someone living three hundred years ago. The isolation (both physical and informational) necessitated diversity in the allocation of the subjects of that information just to survive. As we mentioned last post, farming knowledge, sewing knowledge, teaching knowledge, medical knowledge, etc. was necessary for survival. So while I may know more about physics, I can’t sew a button onto my pants let alone sew an entire dress.

If we make the assumption the amount of knowledge we can retain is finite (whether we’ve reached that point is inconsequential because if we haven’t, we will), we can also make some interesting conjectures about the future. As the level of information in the world continues to grow it will be necessary for individuals who wish to reach the cutting edge of their field to make sacrifices in other areas just to have space available for the information.

What I’m describing is specialization and we’re already beginning to see it. Think about the number of possible professions today and compare that to fifty years ago. Industrialization has proven specialization more efficient in the economic world and its naïve to think we cannot apply it to other realms.

But with this improved efficiency come sacrifices to the autonomy of the individual pieces in the whole. To combat this shortcoming it is vital for the communication framework to be as efficient as possible. While the network is improving (letters to phones to e-mail to sms messaging) there are still huge leaps here to be made especially in the transmission of multimedia.

Enter the social network.

Social networks are already used as communication devices albeit with a (not so) slight recreational bent. But if we think back to recent acquisitions (Cisco’s purchase of Tribe.net, Google’s purchase of YouTube) you can begin to understand why the infrastructure is an as important element as the reputation of these properties (more so in Cisco’s case than Google’s).

There is much more to come in this series and on this subject, the inevitable development of a hive mentality and the role social networks will have in this creation, as well as the idea of time as currency and even a few anecdotes grounded firmly in science fiction (downloadable memories anyone?).

This thought thread continues to be a work in progress so any thoughts, ideas, criticisms, and/or insults are very welcome. I’ll be devoting more time to this subject in the near future so keep on the lookout. Until then,

To be continued…

Posted at 01:33PM Oct 27, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

Help! I'm buried in content and I can't get up!

Think briefly about the free goods you have been offered this week. Maybe you’ve had the opportunity to take a free yard sign promoting a local politician. Perhaps a free sticker promoting a local band. Or a free estimate for a service you actually do need (carpet cleaning?). Did you pass up the free dinner at the free conference promising free tips on starting your own business? Are you writing with a free pen given to you by the prescription company promising free samples? Did you count your blessings when someone was kind enough to leave some free information at your door or under your windshield wiper?

And did you actually take any of these “free” things? Why not? They were free!

Other than the space to store them in.

Or, if not space to store them, room in the trashcan.

Or, perhaps the most valuable commodity, it requires your time.

As people age not only do they become more aware of time, but the commodity actually grows in value. Ask a four-year the value of an hour of his time. Watch a ten year old yearn to take advantage of every “free” offer out there.

But its not just that time grows in value as the individual ages. Time has grown in value as the age advances.

Let’s briefly think about what it was like to live even three hundred years ago. The average person never moved more than 50 miles from their place of birth. Most time was dedicated to merely surviving either by farming crops or sewing clothes or teaching your children (who themselves will be farming, sewing, and teaching).

So now what? Americans (and the developed world) spend less and less time surviving and more and more time deciding what to do with the additional time. So why are our lives not stress free? Why is the majority opinion that we now have more things to do and less time to do it in? We’re living longer. We can travel vast distances with remarkable ease. We can now compute problems in seconds that would have required days or been plain impossible. What consumes the additional time we absolutely should have?

Content, naturally.

We can now produce content in ways unimaginable ten years ago. Want to create your own talk radio program? Get out that ten dollar Radio Shack microphone. Wish to create a mini mockumentary? Borrow your buddy’s video camera for a day. Have something to say about why we are now so busy? Open up Google Docs.

All of these activities are as easy today as they were ten years ago. I could record audio tapes, use an old camcorder, or type with the tactile satisfaction on any old typewriter and end with a product as (or nearly as) polished as the one I create today. But you wouldn’t listen. Or watch. Or read. Not necessarily because you weren’t interested, but because you could not get it. No, the one thing responsible for this content explosion is not an increase in populous creativity or the ease in which we can create these things. It’s distribution.

Easy. Free. Distribution.

You now have access to the things I say, the things I write, the things I create in a way that was absolutely not possible as few as five years ago. But there are consequences to this explosion of free content, or rather, “free” content. Because remember, there is no free and it is imperative to remember this.

This is a topic I wish to explore in some depth and what it means for video, music, social networks, and a hundred other aspects of our current lives. For that reason I’m going to be breaking it up a bit but it should be worth the wait. So in the words of the dreaded first installment of any blockbuster…

To be continued…

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 25, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

A badass ballet

I already know what you’re thinking and it’s pretty much true. How can there be such a thing as a badass ballet? The terms are contradictory, oxymoronic. But ask me the subject of this production and perhaps I can begin to change your mind.

Pirates.

I attended Colorado Ballet’s production of Le Corsaire this past weekend at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, CO. The idea for the ballet originated as part of a “date night” for my girlfriend and me. My initial expectation for this voyage was between “lame” and “really lame,” but I came away impressed. Some of those reasons:

• Firstly, these guys can jump. Let there be no mistake about it, male ballet dancers are athletes. Yes, they wear tights. But so does LeBron James (at least before David Stern revealed his homophobia). The leaps and midair moves are nothing short of remarkable. Some of the one handed lifts defy gravity (80 pound ballerinas or not). Their thighs are the size of… well… uh… they’re large.
• Ellie Caulkins Opera House is a great facility. Very intimate (my way of saying there is no opera/ballet following in Denver) and newly remodeled, you can’t help but feel a cut above the bourgeois just upon entering. The brand new seats are a deep crimson and provide a deep sense of timelessness. Additionally…
• …the seats feature the “Figaro” seating system! This means each seat has a small LED screen politely informing you of the sponsors of the evening and kind donors who made tonight’s show possible. (For the record, the Figaro seating system was donated by an area doctor in memory of his departed wife, Ursula. How do I know this? It told me!) More importantly, however, this screen provides translations of opera lyrics or ballet storyline commentary in a multitude of languages.
• OK, the seats deserve a third bullet. You can “read” the ballet in French! Feeling haughty yet?

With a bit of program reading the story is easily followed. The short version is this: The pirate leader falls in love with a sex slave who is sold to a dirty rich old man. The sex slave falls in love with the pirate. The pirate follows her and rescues her and they live happily ever after.

The dancing was impressive, the orchestra was competent, and I watched pirates in tights chasing sex slaves. Move over Nutcracker, Le Corsaire is a badass ballet.

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 17, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

What a tragedy

As I am browsing a depressingly large collection of board games at Wal-Mart this past weekend something strange came over me. In this case strange was, specifically, Zero Mostel’s unforgettable rendition of “If I Were A Rich Man” from the Jewish classic we all know and love, The Fiddler on the Roof.

Perhaps I walked by a display with DVD’s of The Fiddler on the Roof for sale and was inspired by the moving cover photo of a fiddler who was on a… roof. Appropriate.

Maybe my subconscious was coping with the unfortunate situation of finding itself in a Wal-Mart by dreaming scenarios in which I would never again be forced to return to a Wal-Mart. (I would send my servants instead.)

Possibly my recent attendance of Spamalot (thoughts on that later this week) had thrown me into the musical mood.

Regardless, it did get me thinking about the importance of lyrics. Sure, lyrics make for an adequate foundation for any country criticism (your girl did what to your dog in the truck?) or pop-hop criticism (bling and hoes my niggas!), but good lyrics, clever lyrics greatly enhance the listening experience. That just leaves the question of what good lyrics are? In the recent Wal-Mart example, I would argue the following qualifies:

If I were a rich man, / Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. / All day long I'd biddy biddy bum. / If I were a wealthy man. / I wouldn't have to work hard. / Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. / If I were a biddy biddy rich, / Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

And:

“Sittin' in the mornin' sun / I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come / Watching the ships roll in / And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah. / I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay / Watching the tide roll away / Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay / Wastin' time.”

Or:

“i said a hip hop a hippie to the hippie / to the hip hip hop, you dont stop / a rockin to the bang bang boogy say upchuck the boogy, / to the rhythm of the boogity beat.”

Sheldon Harnick, Otis Redding, and Sugarhill Gang transformed these words from written language to lyrics. To someone with even cursory knowledge of “If I Were A Rich Man” or “Sittin’ On The Dock (Of The Bay)” or “Rapper’s Delight” it is impossible to read the words without hearing the words. More on this phenomenon to come.

But back to Wal-Mart, it was most likely my enjoyment of the utter bewilderment on the faces of the average Wal-Mart shopper as I went aisle to aisle belting out the wonderful lyrics in my Husky-Hebrew-Man voice. A voice that may be as close to Jewish as any Westminster, CO Wal-Mart shopper will ever get.

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 08, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

The Nano Knows

Apparently I am depressed and have been for the past few days. Depressed and angry. I don’t know why I am depressed or what I am angry about. In fact, up until a few hours ago I didn’t even really know I was depressed or angry.

Let me explain.

I drive a white 1998 Volkswagen Jetta. The main component of my car stereo is arguably the most ill-conceived and masochistic piece of consumer electronics equipment known to man: the trunk mounted compact disc changer.

Honestly, who thought this even remotely acceptable? Why would I want to be forced to stop my car, open my trunk, unload a poorly designed cartridge, reload a poorly designed cartridge, get back into my car, and finally wait for the stereo to cycle through all six discs to be sure I didn’t break something? Why is there not an “inefficiency task force” guarding against such design? I can only imagine the discussion that took place in hell to allow a product such as this:

Demonic Engineer: I’ve created a device that allows the driver the power of musical choice while driving!
Satan: Perhaps I should remind you what we do here…
Demonic Engineer: It’s a machine that holds six of your hundreds of CDs in your trunk and you can select which to listen to from inside your car.
Satan: Again…
Demonic Engineer: Did I mention it sits in the driver’s trunk?
Satan: So if you wanted to listen to music from a seventh CD…
Demonic Engineer: You would have to stop the car, open the trunk, and switch out all the CDs.
Satan: I’m beginning to like this. What else can you do?
Demonic Engineer: Well, I could require flimsy cartridges that cost $50 from a dealership to make the product work.
Satan: Quick, call marketing!
Demonic Engineer: Sir, we're already in hell.
Satan: Oh, right.

Back to my anger and depression. In the car I use a first generation 4GB iPod Nano and a cassette adapter to escape the demonic product that sits in my trunk. I throw it on shuffle and away I drive. It contains an eclectic array of music (all full albums) from artists such as: Arctic Monkeys, Dire Straits, Foo Fighters, Incubus, James Taylor, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Mae, Muse, My Morning Jacket, New Pornographers, Wilco, Wu-Tang Clan, etc. All of it gets played at one time or another.

But only when I’m in the mood.

Lately I’ve been cycling through the shuffled songs until I reach something by Billy Talent, or Wu-Tang Clan, or certain Mars Volta tracks. Every Billy Talent cut sounds beautiful (they’re not) while my favorite Wilco selections are like fingernails on a chalkboard. I hear the sweet melodies and quickly reach for my nano to mash the "next" button. There’s no other explanation other than depression and anger.

Now I just need to find why.

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 03, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  | 

a lovely first (blog) attempt

Webster’s defines a blog as…

Don’t worry. We won’t be starting out like that. I wish that was because Webster’s Dictionary doesn’t define blog. It does. Tragically. What’s next, a definition for music?

Sure, music is a series of notes occurring in space with some semblance of rhythm (usually) or melody (often) or organization (sometimes). These sounds are created and performed by musicians (mostly) with talent (rarely?) or sex appeal (always). But can we truly define it? Can we mathematize it? Would we want to?

So this blog will be about that – that being music. Because questions were good enough for Socrates we may as well begin there. What constitutes music? What makes music good (or bad)? What are some current examples of good (or bad) music? Was today’s good music once bad or vice versa?

There will be other questions concerning relevant aspects unconcerned with the art itself. How do we enjoy music? How do we consume music? Can these processes be improved? What is music worth to us as individuals?

And likely there will be some errata here related to events as I listen to music in my car (damn Colorado drivers). Or when I wish I could be listening to music (damn classmates). Or, perhaps, neither of those categories (Go Rockies!).

It should be a lovely ride.

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 01, 2007 by Justin Higley in Status  |