Slee's Rants

Gotta give a quick link to my former roommate. He's having trouble landing a job. Sounds familiar.

On Memory

This is something I wrote about a year ago. Not sure why I never posted it.

Our thoughts, our memories, are fleeting. Our memories are not perfect. They are moving, dancing, changing, leaving us. We chase them down, mold them into what fits the present, but they are never what happened exactly.

Over time you may have a memory that you vividly remember. It may be a rather poignant or significant or appropriate memory of an event. As such, you tell the story often. But through the course of telling and retelling it, the story changes. You may not notice the change, and most probably won't because you want to tell the story as it was, because you believe that it is so perfectly suited for illustrating some nugget of truth about human life that you don't think it needs embellishment. But our memories change. Our telling of them, our thinking about them, the way we call them to mind in present situations - these all change our memories. It is impossible, by the very nature of time and space, for our remembered events to be completely the way they happened.

Even our best attempts to capture events -- photographs, video and audio recordings -- even these are false remembrances of how the events actually occured.

But what does all this mean? After all, all we can truly know with any validity or truth is the past -- what has already happened. Should we then distrust human intelligence and memory? Because it is indeed fallible, and so often is entirely or partly wrong, should we have no concern over what has happened before?

It is a strange thing, thinking about what one has thought about before. In one instant, a person can have a totally involuntary, naturally-occuring, instinctual thought -- one that comes from seemingly nowhere, or is a response to some sort of stimulus. But on the heels of that new, unplanned thought, one can reflect on it and think about it rationally, considering from where it came, why it occured, indeed the way it passed through one's brain. Why did I think that? What does it mean? Why does it have to mean anything? What was I doing when it occured? How was I different then I am now, as I consider it in completely different tones? How am I different than I was for having thought it?

Or are these simply idle thoughts? What do they really matter in the grand course of human existence? No doubt people have thought things for thousands of years, and for just as long they have thought about what they think, and why they think what they think. Why am I now so engrossed in reflecting on something that for everyone else was merely passing, unimportant thoughts? Or do others think these things, but simply never speak up on account of how silly it would appear? It IS ultimately irrelevant to human life. But we do plenty of things that are irrational and only serve to hamper us in our pursuit of life -- whatever we choose to pursue. Why should thinking about thinking be any different?

Avett Bros: A Review

The Avetts new album, "I and Love and You" has been out for a few weeks now, and I drove through wet snow to see them last night at the House of Blues in Boston, so I figure it's time for a review of both.

I've been a huge fan of the Avetts for a couple years now, snatching up anything I can find that they've recorded. I've got all of their records on my iPod, and I've got all of them on heavy rotation. But the strength of the Brothers is their live shows. They've got seemingly limitless energy; are accomplished, diverse* musicians, and legitimately enjoy being on stage, feeding off a crowd's energy. It's a rare thing, I think, to really connect with a group of musicians as a part of a faceless crowd; but that's what they accomplish.

*It's fun to watch the brothers switch instruments for nearly every song. Both of them play the drums and piano; one plays guitar and a foot-powered high-hat while the other plays banjo and a kick drum. Sometimes they even alternate verses while they're singing. Obviously they're great musicians and take pride in their craft.

Throughout their existence, the Avetts have had a really unique sound in popular music, using bluegrass instruments (banjo, stand-up bass, cello) and rhythms infused with a rock, almost punk-like sensibility to create songs ranging from foot-stomping ragers to toe-tappers to heart-breaking ballads. On their last album, however, one could sense that they were moving a different direction. They began incorporating a full drum set into their percussion and the bluegrass elements were taking a backseat to the backbeat of rock and roll. All in all, though, the songs were still beautiful and fun.

On "I&L&U", the Brothers have nearly completed their progression into a full-fledged, 4-part rock band. Drums are incorporated into almost every song. Instead of banjo-driven melodies, piano plays the major role. The resultant music is not bad -- in fact, it's still miles ahead of the electronic drivel played on today's top 40 radio and the same old tired classic rock that pretends to off an alternative to the former -- but it is decidedly NOT what the Avetts cultivated. It begins to sound like well-written, well-performed variations on Beatles tunes. Again, not a bad comparison, just not what's expected from the Avetts.

I don't want to sound like some pretentious music critic pining for the "older stuff" of a formerly lesser-known band, and lambasting their popular, newer music. This is a common dynamic. At the show last night, the boys still had all the energy and power they had when I first saw them a year ago. The venue was bigger and we had some jerks in our view of the stage, but I still enjoyed the hell out of the show.

But once again, I felt just a little, tiny bit disappointed. They played nearly every song from the new album (with the exception of the titular track and one of my favorites, "Ill With Want."), and sprinkled in a few older tunes. A couple times they really let loose and we got the head-banging, foot-pounding raw energy that makes their live shows so dynamic.* And we got a few moments of heart-breaking, poignant ballads.** But these moments were a little more rare than expected. The rest was a respectable, fun rock show. Again, not a bad thing, just not the transcendance I've come to expect. Of course, this could be simply a matter of me building too lofty expectations.

*Laundry Room; Tin Man; Wanted Man; and Talk on Indolence.

**Tear Down the House; Living of Love; Left on Laura, Left on Lisa; Perfect Space and an amazing closing of the night with If It's the Beaches

For what it's worth, I'm still a huge fan. I will listen to "I and Love and You" along with all of the rest of the Avetts' music. Just know that I'm a little disappointed that I may have missed the glory days of this band, when their drive seemed a little more raw and powerful. All this is not to say that they can't recapture that... but it seems as if they've decided to move away from it.

More Pictures

We've entered peak foliage season here in New England, and I went up to the same spot in my back yard to get some photos. Enjoy!




Mount Kearsarge is there in the distance.

A couple panoramic shots. Turned out nice, I think.

Jealous? You're jealous...

Nanny Statism

I just found this today. It's probably not a big deal, because it really has no chance of passing, but what bothers me is the quote from our president. Did he even think about what he was saying before he said it? I mean, why not say that you think it might be a good idea to ban alcohol, butter and salt? Or while we're at it, how about you just give us a list of government-certified foods? Then let's ban television, since our kids watch too much of it.

Like I said, I'm blowing this a little out of proportion since it's got no shot at becoming a reality. But this is absurd. We can't just tax anything that we think should be limited, or eliminated gradually. Hey, Uncle Sam, how about you go back to just protecting me from those who would do me harm and/or King George, and let me worry about what I put in my body? Then I might pay taxes.