Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Kemps Corner, Bombay. December 2005

Music: New CD - Deerhoof


Deerhoof - Milkman: A third Deerhoof album to add to the shelf. Discordant and melodic. This one is loosely a concept album about the Milkman pictured on the cover.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Art: Criticism

"Critic's descriptions are lively. Critics write to be read, and they must capture their readers' attention and engage their readers' imaginations. Critics want to persuade their readers to see a work of art as they do. If they are enthused, they try to communicate their enthusiasm through their choice of descriptors and how they put them together in a sentence, a paragraph, and an article." --Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Music: New CDs - Talking Heads

I had the Stop Making Sense record when I was a teen. Today, as I was surfing around some music blogs I came across a reference to the Talking Heads. Hmm.. off kilter rhythms by an arty band. Off I went to Waterloo Records and got three cds:
More Songs About Buildings and Food
Remain in Light
Speaking in Tongues
Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Ghum (Bollywood film title). Bombay December 2005

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Quote: Reading as excercise

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. -Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)

Monday, May 22, 2006

Quote: Reading to write

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Friday, May 19, 2006

Design: Is management of agreement still an issue

An article - The Abilene Paradox: Is the Managment of Agreement Still an Issue - linked from a David Pogue blog post.
Excerpt:
It is provocative to ask why people would actually speak against their own desires. What psychological reasons are there for doing something that is bound to result in both individual discomfort and in a lack of full and valid information for the group and our organizations? It is believed, according to Harvey, that people behave in this manner because they are afraid of the unknown. His hypothesis, quite different from others, is that we know what we are afraid of and that it generally has to do with loneliness, being left out, separation, and alienation. To avoid these, we will actually act against our best interests, hoping to be "part" of something, members of the whole.
We also tend to believe that any decision or action is better than no action at all. The problem is that there is incomplete information in individual minds. The need to act together, to be seen as cohesive, overrides the need to be explicit about group assumptions, desires, opinions, and even facts. Harvey calls this "action anxiety" and he believes it works in close conjunction with another piece of the paradox puzzle: negative fantasies. These are fantasies each individual harbors of what they think would happen if they actually spoke their minds and offered their desires or opinions to the group.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Quote: Thoughts lead to....

Giselle sent this: "I really liked this one young grasshopper…"

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.--Frank Outlaw

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Music: New CD - Gnarls Barkley


Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere: A good blend between old school R&B soul and hip hop. Short poppy songs - very enjoyable.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Zeitgeist: Talent is overated - Practice makes perfect

An article from Sunday's NY Times - A Star is Made - reviews research by Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University from his upcoming book Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance.
An excerpt:

"...the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better."

"Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome. "