Category: Musicology

  • Analogy as the core of cognition

    I majored in philosophy in college. At Princeton nearly all liberal arts majors (and many of the engineering students too) have to write a senior thesis to graduate. I was interested in philosophy of language and wrote a thesis called “Is Metaphor Necessary for Communication?” In it I argued that metaphor was much more than…

  • My blogger code (2.0)

    Am I a geek? Yes, I am a geek. B9 D+++ T+ K S F I+ O X- E+ L C-\- Y4 R- W P+ M5 N N+ (via [Powazek](http://www.powazek.com/2006/03/000568.html), and wondering why they use N twice.) That is all.

  • It's not you; it's me

    I was catching up with ALLABOUTGEORGE and I was intrigued by his Johari window. (I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try the negative-orientd Nohari window.) It seems like a cool way to find out how you are perceived. If you’re interested in helping me with this, please stop by and pick a few adjectives…

  • How to do precisely the right thing…

    I’m here at SXSW Interactive and I’m scattering my blog notes to various blogs, depending on the topic and relevancy. This one is kind of general and about psychology so I’m stowing it here Raw notes from the Daniel Gilbert Presentation: How to Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times: standing in a…

  • Beck's still got it

  • With the Cadillac and gas money spent

    It was great to see the main rap from Hustle and Flow win the Oscar for best song, but did they really have to alter the chorus to sing about “a whole lot of [w]itches jumping ship”? I’m as sensitive as the next guy, but witch just doesn’t make any sense in that context. They…

  • A writer's dream

    Last night I had one of those long elaborate dreams with several movements in it. Near the end, though, just before I woke up, I was in a big bed after a long night and Oprah Winfrey showed up in my hotel room I think it was. She was going to get in bed with…

  • Remember Asteroids?

    This was once my favorite game: (via TED)

  • Turns out the basis of smarts

    Is knowing what to ignore.

  • Addictive flickr guessing game

    I’ve got a deadline, so I’m going to stop playing this fastr game and get back to work.

  • Sims + Trekkies + Disco = ?

  • The meme of fours

    OK, so nobody tapped me for this but it looks like fun: Four Jobs You’ve Had 1. Paralegal 2. Architecture studio assistant 3. Vendor at Yankee Stadium 4. Literary agent Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over 1. The Sting 2. Dr. Zhivago 3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead 4. Army of Darkness Four…

  • Five weird habits of highly effective people

    My blogdaughter, Frances, sent me a blog meme that sounds like fun: Yahoo! 360 – Good Bloggin’ West – Five Weird Habits of Highly Effective People… OK, so here are five of my weird habits: When someone’s voice or way of talking sounds funny to me I, almost involuntarily, imitate them under my breath. Sometimes,…

  • Serenity… well, not now, but maybe later

    According to Empire: Movie News, the Serenity movie didn’t do well enough in its theatrical release to justify sequels, but Joss Whedon is still sanguine that he will be able to continue the story, perhaps on TV again, possibly in the miniseries format.

  • Another language peeve

    When did touch base morph into touch base*s*? Is it because few people still follow baseball? In baseball touching base is making an important connection. Touching bases sounds like two people each holding some kind of “base” and touching them together. I can’t picture it.

  • U2 at Jazz Fest 2006

    Ruh roh! Rumor has it that U2 has been booked for Fest. This may be good for turnout but it may also be kind of a nightmare for just hanging out and being mellow.

  • National Novel Editing Month

    “Enough with the Grateful Dead already,” writes so-called Bill. “What happened to Cecilia?” Well, I didn’t get into the 50,000-words-in-November winners circle. (Some people hit that number in the first week! I on the other hand, have a life.) I did, however, hit my personal goal of 30,000 words by Nov 29 and I took…

  • When you go to California….

    A friend on a mailing list, writing to another friend who’s contemplating a move, passed along this wonderful quotation: Someone had mentioned an analogy that had begun to prey on my mind. Going to California, he had said, was like entering a swimming-pool. It was pleasant, you swam a few laps, and before you knew…

  • December 18? I'll take it

    Warning… adult content.

  • Strange blog-spam problem

    Movable Type is doing something bizarre here. I’ve got this entry, Blogging a yoga conference @ Radio Free Blogistan and it shows 19 spam comments in the counter and on the individual archive page. The spam comments are also showing up in my list of recent comments in the sidebar of RFB. Ironically, they’ve all…

  • Fest Lives!

    I’m not sure bigger is always better, but I’m glad to hear that Festival Productions is committed to making Jazz Fest happen on schedule next year: Planners promise bigger Jazzfest We may need to get our plane tickets soon!