Pipe Dream J

Some days you are just confined to a seat on a car ride back from Pennsylvania that you wish you could just get away from. For those times, there is always music... and sleep. And with sleep comes dreams, which are really just ideas that make up a story. So, while in this state of rigor boredom, I really thought about how much of every day I am completely unable to listen to music. From 6 something in the morning until 2:10 every day is devoid of all forms of music. And, let's be honest, if they played a 4 or so minute piece of good music that fits the mood or betters the mood during the 5 minute time frame to get from one class to the other, everyone would feel much better about being stuck in one place for 45 minutes. And think of the practical uses beyond that. The bells were good in the way that they kept the school schedule constant for all teachers, whereas now they need to keep their eyes near the clock to ensure that they let the students out on time. The bells were removed because the school felt like a factory due to them. What I'm saying is that if a group of people sat down, scoured the internet to find good music, and created a playlist of 4 minute songs for every break between classes needed for 4 years of school (or however many years), then people would be much happier entering their next class. And, as an added bonus, the songs being played would keep the classes synchronized without the use of factory bells. But wait, there's more! If the songs being played were about 3-4 minutes long each, it would be an effective warning for the students that their time is almost up. In conclusion, playing songs between classes would be fricking awesome, someone just needs to sit down and find them all.

Gravity... of the mind.

Serious, heavy, same meaning. So, no Doc "there is no fricking 'J' in gigawatts' Brown, quit the idiocy. Today and yesterday, might as well be the same thing, I went college hunting/visiting/suffering whichever. And I realized that Spring Break is already half over, I still have most of my homework to do, a lake of movies to watch, a fricking ocean of music to listen to, a permit to get, weights to lift, people to make happy, and I'm going to be gagged and dragged by my family across three states in an unknown amount of time. It's about here that I discovered exactly why everyone is always rushing, time is of the essence, we have little time to be relaxing at all. It was also about here that a little thought popped into my head. Mind you, I'm no novice, let alone an expert, on this subject, but I have full faith that science and the human race will be able to find a way to accomplish this. At least one field of scientific study should be solely devoted to learning the strings behind metabolism and how we could slow it down with the assistance of medicine or by sheer willpower alone. At the moment, we can slow down our metabolism by 10% at most, and that is while sleeping. However, there are those who can slow down their metabolism by over 50%, and that is by will alone. So, if we could find the strings behind the process, our time on Earth could be effectively doubled, the need for food could be reduced, meaning that less food would need to be produced, meaning that we could spend more time elsewhere, fighting pollution, furthering technology, creating world peace, and more time to rest and think.

The Worst Thing to Happen to Music.

Between my bouts of bending backwards and not, I realized that someday, a person might come across that statement, try to translate it, and then be confused out of their mind. But, music also just happens to happen, and it is easier for more people to discuss.  When iTunes was first released in 2001, people were thinking "Hey, awesome! An alternative to piracy!" But, the thing is that piracy isn't anywhere near as much as a problem as it is made out to be. It is an easier way for the band or musician to get free publicity without needing to put forth any effort. And, as hard as they try, you can't pirate a true live experience. No, no, no. The real problem is that it is now possible to get songs one by one. Quick insight into my mind; all of the songs I've grown to love are because I have either been sent the link by a friend, or heard it on the album and I'm sure I'm not the only one like this. The songs are now seen one by one instead of how they should be seen, as a mural of beauty in sound. Now it's story time again. I've had access to Dark Side of the Moon for the past 17 years and never gave the album (save Money) a listen. It was only after my friend played the entire thing through after I fell asleep that I actually listened. But, now we need to look even further back. All the way back to what is perhaps the greatest medium ever, able to create PVC pipe, blood bags, tape, and records; vinyl. Now, when vinyl was birthed into existence, it swiftly decided to follow the rules of other flat objects and have two sides. As such, artists with any one hit wonder needed to have another song to fill the empty side. The "B side" is an interesting beast, as the songs are either going to be incredibly terrible (more often than not), so terrible that it's awesome, or so incredibly awesome that it is awesome. The truth of the universe is that the greatest things only happen once. So, since B sides were mostly filler, the bands just flung whatever they had left and called it a day. But, these songs were sometimes (always?) done in one or two takes, which means that many mistakes could make it through the final cut, some of which created classic rock's greatest moments. Certain songs which were not even a sparkle in the band's mind when they were writing their one hit have weathered time far better than their A side counterparts. Songs like Louie, Louie (The Kingmen), Tutti Fruitti (Little Richard), and Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley) were all songs thrown together at the last minute that have since gone on to become classics. And this isn't really asking too much out of the musicians. B sides were BS anyway, and I'm sure that they have a great deal of experience with that assuming they had schooling. I mean, is an extra 40 minutes of work for another song that is put on for free with the hit to much to ask, really?

Why?

Alright then, I'm sure all of you are wondering why my blog background is just fire. But first, the far less interesting story of why the picture is what it is; it reminded me of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Now that that's over, the burner is there because it was the first thing that truly got my attention simply because how pretty it was. There was one particularly dark night a few years back, not stormy scary, but calm and cool. I was hungry and bacon was about, so my younger self just thought, "Hey bacon, that's pretty cool." So I fired up the burner and the reflection just blew my mind. I spent about an hour staring at this, I swear. The reflection, shadows, and tints that were created by the fire were all just so beautiful. That was the first thing that really got my mind looking beyond the obvious that I was so fixated on for the first years of my life.