Tales of Passion, Music, and the Brain

Remember that forum thread I mentioned? It's still going on. It reminds me of one of the black and white films I watched in my avant-garde cinema class. Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean-Paul Sartre is staring into a mirror is staring into a mirror, with a with a with a knife in his hand knife in his hand, demanding demanding that the image that the image in the mirror mirror answer his questions his questions. He is outraged because the image in the mirror refuses to answer his questions. Answer his questions. Answer my questions! Demanding. Outrage!

I don't understand it. If it wasn't so boring, it would be funny. Funny.

We are passionate people. But sometimes, I think, we lose sight of the goal. In the excellent closing piece of our Festival Son & Image report, John Atkinson writes:

...Without the passion for what we all do, as audio manufacturers, as audio retailers, and as audio writers, we have no reason to survive. And when what we do is tied to music, perhaps the greatest of life's renewable pleasures—the others are sex and food and drink—why have so many lost sight of audio's underlying passion?

It's a good question. I don't have an answer. I don't understand why we get sidetracked by less important things. As music lovers, let's not lose sight of audio's underlying passion. Okay? I demand you.

I found a great "Line of the Week," one that I hope will make you want to explore our forum, join, and add to the conversations. It can be found in the same wild thread I mentioned above, and it comes from the beautiful Buddha. It's in response to something Jean-Paul Sartre said to Jean-Paul Sartre. It goes like this:

In all fairness to JA, I think he later said that he had been high on LSD that day.

Intriguing, right?!

Meanwhile, this week's most popular forum thread was started by the very passionate and talented Ariel Bitran. The thread is called "Listening While Not Listening." Ariel wants to know more about our listening habits.

Can you listen to music while you work/study? To what extent? If not, why not? And finally, and most importantly, if you can, what albums do you go to for moments like these?

The discussion soon morphed into a fascinating exploration of the brain's processing abilities. Again, I don't understand it, but at least it's cool.

Are there any neuroscientists in the house?

Add these to the list of books I need to read: Daniel Levitin's This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Lord knows I am obsessed!) and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Perhaps these books will help to explain and focus our passion.

COMMENTS
rvance's picture

We don't need no stinking neuroscientists! Listen to the music, let it move you, become immersed in all its glorious effects. Enjoy.A great philosopher (I believe it was T. Roszak- or maybe Matson) once asked: "Does anyone understand a frog more than an 8 year old child holding one in their hand?" But we chop up millions every year on dissection trays to display our mastery of all its sub-systems and declare that we are seeking deeper knowledge of the true essence of the frog. Bullfrog bullshit! I think the child knows more.Just play the music...

toomas's picture

It's not that the child knows more about the frog per se, but he does have an better understanding of the frogs place in the world. As you said, frogs are not meant to lay on dissection trays displaying their entrails - nothing important to be learned that way. But you can learn much more about frogs by just watching them croak, sleep and hop around.

john devore's picture

As fascinating as the sinews and veins of the frog may be, a frog is nothing but a formaldehyde-soaked corpse when pinned asplay on a little tin of wax. It has lost all of it's essential frogginess.

Chris Wall's picture

Or, as the song used to go (and, actually, it still does - the great thing about art is that it's very predictable in certain ways; Romeo and Juliet always die (sorry for not including a spoiler alert), but, back to my song reference..."I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in and stops my mind from wandering..."Music, good music anyway, fixes that hole and lets my mind wander.

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