Do Chicks Dig Musicians?

Renaldo-

Do chicks dig musicians?

-Ed


Dear Ewdard:

Depends..let's unpack:..by "chicks" I'll assume you mean females from the
ages of 18-45 so we keep things legal. And by "musicians" I take it to mean
any male person who plays an instrument with at least a modicum of proficiency. This would exclude for our purposes DJs and the like who do not play instruments per se..ok?

By the word "dig" I take it you mean are attracted to for the veiled subconscious drive of procreation but displayed as behavior raging from let's say winking to sport-fucking..fair enough?

I would say in at least our American western culture the "musician" is an archetype that satisfies a necessary departure from social norms. Mostly those pertaining to an acceptable mate/provider.

In past eras, musicians were often itinerant and therefore logically offered a refreshing alternative to the local male population. Add to this the psychological coloring and emotion that music evokes to listeners as well as the Dionysian quasi-religious overtones still imbedded in our subconscious and evidenced by the use of "stages as altars"

Musicians both male and female are well acquainted with the experience of power that is bestowed upon them for reasons that are both obvious and hidden. For example contortionists might attract a given subset of admirers due to the their unique skill set. Also obvious is that performers tend to at least present themselves as physically attractive representatives for their cultures... you can do the math.

I would say that behind the scenes that performing artists are, either consciously or not, enacting mating and religious rituals that suspend daily mundane reality and therefore tend to have heavy psycho-sexual sway over individuals participating in these "unstated" rituals. Add to this the power of the mob mentality at a given event where the many focus and project desires onto the few and you have a powerful formula for irrational love.

This is all compounded by the psychology of what drives a person to become a musician in the first place and the fact that in most cases that individual has motives for seeking intense attention often due to deficits in their emotional personalities.

To me art and especially music is the most powerful religious/ritual expression and even in our vapid commercial period the sway over sexual interest's is obvious from examples like Frank to Elvis to the Beatles to whoever is flavor. I shudder to to think about how many pedophiles are jerking off to Miley Cyrus.

So yeah chicks dig musicians but usually for reasons that are in part unknown and hardwired into our reproductive instincts.

Sincerely,
Renaldo THE

Writing as a Visual Art

Dear Renaldo The,

My friend Damian (he even LOOKS like the kid from the Omen!) and I both love your ensemble's performances, which we try to attend whenever we can. Yesterday we got into an argument that we could not resolve. We both agreed to ask you and accept whatever answer you give us as resolution of our conflict.

Here's our question: Can writing (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, etc.) be considered one of the Visual Arts? I say it can, because it is through visual symbols that ideas are conveyed. Also, arrangement of language on the page contributes intensely to how it will be read and perceived. Damian says it can't because even a birth-blind person can develop and create language, meaning, stories, etc., entirely without visualization of language symbols. He puts writing in the Conceptual or Sound Art category. Writing this I am already tired of thinking about categories and my cousin Sheila thinks I should abandon them altogether (both in art and in human relationships!).

Thanks for you consideration,
Darla



OK..well this is a grey-zone question as their are dissenting views based on Language/concept formations in human children who have an intuitive process still not fully understood by science where they essentially delete hypothesis and categories to arrive at word meanings at the alarmingly fast rate of 9 words a day after they reach 18mos old!

It is known that we process partial geometric shapes and derive conceptual wholes from the partial information and this abstract ability is linked to language formation as we use a similar process to infer greater wholes from smaller conceptual links.

Words are a form of pure abstraction in themselves as the word "car" for example is not a car in itself but an agreed upon utterance that conjures the image and meaning. The deeper connections of human mental process that would allow us to infer meaning and attribute language to secondary
representations is indeed partly visual: for example if we see two bushes, one large and one small we could infer Mommy-bush and baby-bush from the process.

We know that music and organized sound is processed in the center area of the brain while most language is processed in the frontal cortex so there could be an argument made for language and it's baby, writing, having separate categories of neural genesis.

Some religious groups have attempted to seek out the divine "sounds" of their language as if god spoke a particular dialect and that had hidden vibrations, fortunately this type of "study" is relegated to pseudoscience where it belongs.

As a musician I have many instances where words and sounds overlap in their blend to create "meaning" or meta-comments. I would say from my own sense how language extends to visual connections and sounds similarly can be manipulated for narrative devices that "artists" (those who deal in representations) have blended processes to achieve desired effect. Recent studies utilizing MRIs show how cross-modular binding bears this out, we unlike other critters borrow and combine otherwise segregated brain areas to achieve a final resulting understanding.

I still have to guess, barring hours of research but I would venture to say that writing is a complex processing outcome using BOTH visual and pure conceptual tools that are uniquely Homo-Sapien (as we know that Neanderthals lack voice boxes sufficiently designed to speak with and did not achieve the "artistic" level of our own species) Writing is clearly connected and dependant on signs and symbols as examples of both pictures and concepts respectively. It's seems logical that writing therefore requires a complex process can't be held fully by any one category... You're both partially correct and I'll look into this more. Also read Oliver Sachs as this is his main bag


I am interested however to find out what blind people "see" as a result of narrative imagination.

-Renaldo THE

The Ethics of Lying to Children

Dear Renaldo The: 

You say that telling a child that God exists is tantamount to child abuse, but do you even care that children who are suffering or terminally ill are comforted by being told that God loves them and that there's an end of their pain in heaven?  

Cindy

Hi Cindy, 

Wow... Great question! In fact I think the only good case for god can be made by the need to comfort sick children. Ironically, Darwin himself lost his final remnant of faith upon hearing of the death of his most beloved daughter, what kind of god could justify a protracted illness and excruciating death?

I turn my thoughts to my own children and if they were near death I would not hesitate to tell them super-natural "stories" of our reunification and the cessation of their suffering. Sadly that does not make the "stories" true. What is true however is that for whatever reason we humans can deeply love each other if we so choose. The power of blood and idea-kinship far outstrips the centrality of any individual and is in a real way a "higher power" without subordinating itself to fantasy.

The plight of dying children does not so much make me wish to lie about metaphysical absurdities as much as it creates in me a desire to help alleviate and prevent untimely, unnecessary, unjust suffering or death in this life.

In that breath it is every persons responsibility who has it within their means to help those who can not help themselves, create less suffering and spread real education and free-thinking. In that same way it seems that one of the greatest responsibilities we each shoulder is to examine our limiting beliefs. I have been led to a sense that all metaphysics are nonsense and only serve to oppress the minds that are molded under it's foot if taken literally.

I would also offer that as a child of an Orthodox Christian Priest I was deeply invested in the belief that god was real and present. However even as a child, I was ever aware of the cracks in that "truth." It seemed to me that we were still just grass swaying in the wind and subjects of "natural laws." All our bluster to claim knowledge of the wind's origin was pretty weak and ultimately ridiculous.

So comforting a dying child is the line I would cross where I would lie but something in me suspects the child would know it's pataphysical, well-intentioned but dishonest. Yes, I would say anything I could to comfort a dying child.

The knowledge that we're profoundly connected by our natural love for each other would at least be true.

Tough One either way.

-Renaldo THE