en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/433661 Comments by Justin Wehr http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/09/there-may-be-no-hereafter-but-at-least.html#IDComment435875680 Oh, Anna. I am not sure whether you are making a profound statement or just being nitpicky. Assuming nitpicky: Color me unconvinced. I believe that fat is important, but the idea that salad + fat is important strikes me as someone's rationalization for ranch dressing. Fri, 7 Sep 2012 02:49:51 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/09/there-may-be-no-hereafter-but-at-least.html#IDComment435875680 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/09/there-may-be-no-hereafter-but-at-least.html#IDComment435873958 Thanks, Rebecca. Fri, 7 Sep 2012 02:47:12 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/09/there-may-be-no-hereafter-but-at-least.html#IDComment435873958 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-generation-that-waited-in-line-for.html#IDComment435255136 Ha, thank you for reminding me that we are not necessarily doomed. Food *does* go well with sticks. Thu, 6 Sep 2012 04:26:53 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-generation-that-waited-in-line-for.html#IDComment435255136 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-lovely-thing-about-money.html#IDComment431605482 It *is* pretty easy. The only real confidence you need to have is that there will be enough suckers who continue to care about money. Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:30:44 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-lovely-thing-about-money.html#IDComment431605482 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431558354 Good points. All art is communication. Yes. I am just saying that (1) some works of art communicate better than others, and (2) some mediums communicate in different ways, e.g., music communicates on a much more emotional level than other forms. That's interesting about Cyrano de Bergerac. That's probably another work of art that school ruined for me. I watched it in high school French class and got nothing from it. I should give it another try. Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:18:34 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431558354 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431554049 I'm not sure what you're trying to say. It seems like a few things. Maybe your main point is that the purpose of art is to compel people to act--"emotions" are just a means to that end. I would disagree. Astral Weeks does not change my behavior, nor does it need to to have value. Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:12:11 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431554049 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431546000 I don't think challenging music is challenging in the same way that challenging books or films are. Challenging music just means you need to passively listen for a longer amount of time to reap the rewards, whereas challenging books and films mean that you need to pay closer, active attention. I still say that music is almost completely independent of intellect, even the challenging kind, which separates it from other forms of art. --- I am satisfied with the reasons you give for Pandora being an untrusted steward, and I think that reasonably explains why we can't find local Van Morrisons. I also think it's a cultural issue. The people I grew up with were raised on video games and soccer practices. Always keeping "busy," never really stopping to think or wonder. Never being moved by anything other than Lion King. Most of the people I grew up with don't seem to be aware that Van-level art exists, or that it matters. Which means there probably aren't many people even attempting to be Van-like. Those few who do probably don't have enough like-minded people around them to help them get better. All this is to say that local Vans aren't just hard to find, they are hard to create. Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:59:55 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment431546000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment429744778 I still wouldn't say that Bach's fugues excite our intellect, because I wouldn't say that Escher's geometry-bending drawings excite our intellect. Escher's drawings give us the feeling of confusion, but don't make us think in any deep or important way. Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:40:15 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment429744778 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment429743019 Jack, you force me to think yet again, even more than before. How dare you, and thanks. Your main point is that music is un-algorithmizable, so I’m going to stick to that. I’m with you on music being largely subjective—certain musicians and certain songs by certain musicians are going to strike certain chords in a person more than others, to the point that which musician or which song will strike someone is largely unpredictable. Rebuttal 1: Is this unique to music? Isn’t this the case with all art forms? I’d argue that this subjectivity/unpredictability is even less true of music than any other art form. How people will react to painting or sculpture is probably much more unpredictable because those forms don’t have as direct of a channel to our emotions and so require more interpretation and thinking. 2: More broadly, variance in responses does not imply that responses are unpredictable. They’re just not perfectly predictable. 3: Pandora does a good job of giving me music that I consider good. I plug in Ray LaMontagne and they give me all of the cats we’ve been mentioning: Van, Bob Dylan, David Gray, John Mayer. I suspect Pandora does this successfully not because of the reasons they say – stuff like “acoustic rhythmic piano” and a “twelve-eight time signature” – but rather because they know through thumbs up and such feedback that people who like Ray LaMontagne also tend to like Van et al. 4: Astral Weeks is widely recognized as Van’s best album and one of the best albums, period. On the one hand that offends my contrarian senses because it makes me feel that I’m not as much of a unique little flower as I like to think. On the other hand, it gives me hope that art isn’t just a matter of “taste,” that it’s more than a weakly held opinion and more than cheap stimulation. There’s something *true* about it. The question for me remains: why can’t we find “the guy in your town who nobody knows”? I strongly believe that music isn’t just a matter of “taste,” which means that it is to a large extent predictable, and I believe (although less strongly) that there are unknown Van Morrisons in my town, but the two beliefs are basically incompatible. Ugh. Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:35:24 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment429743019 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment428706894 Jack, you are not allowed to apologize for verbosity. That was amazing and convincing. I appreciate the distinction between pop music and “the guy in your town who nobody knows.” I think that’s right, but it disturbs me that we can’t find him. Music is the most accessible art form, as you said, so why can’t we just plug Astral Weeks into Pandora and have a world of amazing music revealed to us? P.S. – You might have a moral responsibility to be reviewing music on Amazon and/or elsewhere. I currently have the top-rated review of Maroon 5’s new CD, which means it’s possible that my review is the world’s most viewed review of one of the world’s most deplorable works of “art,” which is kind of absurd because you know orders of magnitude more than I do. Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:54:55 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment428706894 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment428302619 Jack, this is fascinating. I had not heard that argument about 30s-40s era music. Do you have particular recommendations? I am always cautious to declare a devolution in music/art because it seems that every generation has a tendency to deludedly reminisce, but I suspect that it may genuinely be the case that music has been on a pretty severe downward slide since at least the mid-70s. When I look around at modern-ish music, there is distressingly little that I consider truly good: Ray LaMontagne, David Gray, and (gasp) John Mayer. But those guys in comparison to Van? Bob Dylan? Zeppelin? Pshht. (Okay, actually I think Ray LaMontagne might be in the conversation.) What's fascinating is that you -- clearly a guy versed in music -- are saying the downward slide started much earlier than the mid-70s. If that's true, I'm going to need better theories: the one about music being a popular social activity in the 30s and 40s won't do. Sat, 25 Aug 2012 07:23:00 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/on-weirdness-of-music.html#IDComment428302619 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-most-important-human-activity.html#IDComment427664578 I nearly had a long sidebar about how music is different than the other mediums. No other art form has such a direct channel to our emotions. There is something primal and instinctive and just plain weird about music that separates it from everything else. It’s almost completely independent of intellect. It inflames emotions or it relaxes, but it does not typically make you think. And for that same reason I’d say that music, while a fundamental and even sacred part of the human experience, isn’t included in the category of “the most important human activity” because you don't have to work for its rewards. Or if it's included, it's included for different reasons. Fri, 24 Aug 2012 06:16:46 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-most-important-human-activity.html#IDComment427664578 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/reflections-on-relationships-and-other.html#IDComment425011899 Harriet(!), Agreed. Although it might be lonely to be single and childless for the rest of my life, I suspect it'd be far lonelier to be married to a woman whom I viewed as merely a functional wife. Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:01:39 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/reflections-on-relationships-and-other.html#IDComment425011899 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/high-achieving-youngsters.html#IDComment419601950 Good to see you commenting over here. :) I think you nailed it with your last two sentences. Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:26:27 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/high-achieving-youngsters.html#IDComment419601950 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/high-achieving-youngsters.html#IDComment419601438 Good comment, Erik. “High-achieving” to me means doing things that are impressive. That look good on a resume. But what’s useful, i.e., what bosses/clients/colleagues need from you, is often (but not always) the exact opposite. I probably would not look for a Kenneth to fill my mind-numbing position because Kenneth is primarily concerned about appearing impressive, so he is going to unhappily do this job, which means he will likely makes lots of annoying little errors that someone will have to come behind him and correct. Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:25:09 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/high-achieving-youngsters.html#IDComment419601438 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/dissatisfied-is-not-same-as-not.html#IDComment414268770 I'm definitely not dissatisfied with my job, and am becoming increasingly satisfied. Things are good. Soon you should email me and tell me how things are with you. Fri, 3 Aug 2012 03:40:37 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/dissatisfied-is-not-same-as-not.html#IDComment414268770 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/dissatisfied-is-not-same-as-not.html#IDComment414267042 Good to hear from you, Rebecca. Hope all's well. Fri, 3 Aug 2012 03:37:07 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/08/dissatisfied-is-not-same-as-not.html#IDComment414267042 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/07/synopsis.html#IDComment408276921 I would be Sarah Silverman's friend. :-| Wed, 25 Jul 2012 03:26:23 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/07/synopsis.html#IDComment408276921 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/jw-gets-critical.html#IDComment368040340 I wasn't just randomly searching for a self-help/motivational book to pick on. I was browsing the book categories, hoping to find some existential material in the mold of DFW/Dereseiwicz/Weingarten, and The Charge happens to be the top-ranked book in such categories, even reaching the #4 position across all books, so I read the author's bio, visited his website, watched a few of his "transformational videos," and read about his promotion involving "high-performance secrets of multi-millionaires." There is something seriously messed up about a marketing guru selling meaning-of-life tips, and I haven't found an example more offensive or cartoonish than this. Sun, 27 May 2012 02:58:01 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/jw-gets-critical.html#IDComment368040340 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/03/office-obituary-part-ii.html#IDComment329616213 Too funny. I want to know what your motivational email signature quotes are. Mon, 2 Apr 2012 01:14:07 +0000 http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.ca/2012/03/office-obituary-part-ii.html#IDComment329616213