Please follow me into the sea...

Don't worry if it's cold. (Phish)

I have a terrible attention span (& too curious a mind), so I'm constantly finding new books to read, movies to watch, places to visit...

What this really means - that I hardly ever finish what I started!  But I have an inexplicable addiction to physics books (yeah, I know - it's embarrassing) & an even more terrible habit of reading them front-to-back.  Anyway, I'm almost done reading The Elegant Universe by theoretical physicist Brian Greene, who is currently at Columbia University in New York.  I only wanted to mention it here because I think he does a brilliant job of breaking down complex theories into comprehensible concepts.  You can even watch the mini-series online, here.  

Salvador Dalí's The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, & a powerful welcome to the new physics of his times. (I think he was a Heisenberg fan.)  Speaking of which, I love his clocks - depictions of relativistic time? For me, at least a reminder to stop & breathe.  

For the more philosophically (or less mathematically) inclined mind, I read The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics some time ago, in which Gary Zukav explains the pillars of quantum physics through occasional allusions to ancient Eastern philosophies. 

Uuuff, enough thinking.  Time to kick back & howl at the moon.

Janis Joplin - Summertime (Live Gröna Lund 1969)

Besos.

We Walked around til the Moon got Full like a Plate

Oh, that was so real. 

(Jeff Buckley)

This year, I've chosen to do my thesis on synesthesia - essentially a fusion of the senses, so that stimulation in one sense modality (i.e., sound) elicits automatic, involuntary stimulation in another sense modality (i.e., vision). Synesthetes are people who "see music," "hear colors," or "taste shapes" - feats seemingly impossible to accomplish by the "normal" non-synesthetic brain, at least without ingestion of hallucinogens (i.e., LSD, ayahuasca, etc.).

I think their day-to-day experiences are much richer than the average person's, or at least more multi-dimensional.  For example, musical pitches aren't just sounds & numbers aren't just digits - they can have colors, sometimes complete with depth; and perhaps most interestingly, they can elicit particular feelings in their beholders.  

What would it be like to experience the world as they do?  I'm not inclined to believe that even a full description, backed by all corresponding scientific knowledge, would give us complete understanding of their worlds, much less make their actual sense-experiences more accessible to us.  (Hmm - qualia & Frank Jackson's Knowledge Argument - something perhaps to come back to?) 

While we're on the topic -Daniel Tammet is a high-functioning autistic savant who also happens to experience synesthesia.  He wrote I Was Born on a Blue Day, in which he describes, among other things, how his synesthetic experiences allow him to accomplish huge mathematical calculations in his head.  He also has a blog, in which he shares diverse personal ideas (not necessarily related to synesthesia). Here are some posts that I found interesting: 

• The Benefits of Self Sufficiency (agreed - something else to come back to?)
  
• 'Simplified Spelling' Is a Bad "Eyedihr" (why the English language shouldn't revolutionize its spelling)
  
• Falsifiability and the God Hypothesis (what would convince him to stop believing in God)
  
• Mänti (a language he's created)
  

And always finish with something to soothe the soul.

Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over

Besos.

Los Gatos Ya Nacemos Gatos

I came across this clip while surfing YouTube for musical pieces that would transport me back to earlier times.  You know, when I was    

                                                                                    young...

                                                                             free...

                                                                                     irresponsible...

                                                                                 and

                                                                                              in love... 

...well, with none other than my living room piano.  Alas, those days are gone.  

Moving on, right!  Umm... I learned to play this when I was 18 & studying music @ University. 

And she's... 11!?!  Ok, so it's not perfect, but I'd say it's pretty good!

Chelsea Dock - Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, 3rd Movement

Besos.

When the Wind Blows

As for the aura encompassing our humble abode during the last 10 days, only one thing is certain: that the chain of events having seized the inhabitants of Flat 2 (and sparing no trespassers) and their resultant effects in the hearts of all involved parties are describable only by a single term - ineffable.  (Please, allow yourself the freedom to click on the previous link & check out a whole list of ineffable things, according to Wikipedia.  And if you're really intrigued by the idea of "pre-Big Bang," "multiple dimensions," and the like, then - by all means - do yourself the courtesy of familiarizing yourself with Australian David Tow & his "Theories of Everything" - & most preferably on a night when you're already freaked out.)  

But if a general idea is to be given (regarding the nature of the last 10 days), then the following definitions will suffice:

Murphy's Law: Things will go wrong in any situation, given the chance.
Finagle's Law: (Murphy's corollary) Anything that can go wrong, will - and at the worst possible moment. (This one apparently is a favorite among hackers because of its allusion to the Second Law of Thermodynamics - Entropy - which states that the perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.)

Happy Valentines Day!  

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

-ee cummings

Matt Damon - My Funny Valentine

Besos.

¿A vos qué te parece?

¿Uno crece más del ombligo para arriba o del ombligo para abajo?

 
Mafalda 


Mafalda - El Pensamiento de Mao Tse Tsung

Sin palabras, chicos. ¡Mafalda es lo máximo!  (Gracias, Quino.)

Siempre hay un sarcástico materialista dispuesto a estropearnos la fantasía!

¡Cómo siempre! A penas pone uno los pies en la tierra, se acaba la diversión.

Con esta vida moderna, los juegos son cada vez más cortos.

Mafalda - Hoy Como Ayer

Besos.

seamos realistas...

pidamos lo imposible. (mayo del '68)

a lot to think about today. so instead of talking, let's listen.  

1. i'd rather learn from one bird how to sing, than teach a thousand stars how not to dance. (ee cummings)
   
2. be careful about reading health books. you may die of a misprint. (m. twain)
   
3. if i had only known, i would have been a locksmith. (a. einstein)
4. an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. (m. ghandi)
   
5. life is what happens while you're making other plans. (j. lennon)
   

2 of my fave wilco songs - from the documentary i am trying to break your heart:

wilco - how to fight loneliness

wilco - reservations

besos.

Nothing's Gonna Change My World

(I've had to re-write today's entry due to a # of technical difficulties.)

Hope no one's missed this article! Apparently, NASA is planning on beaming Across the Universe into deep space on Feb 4th to commemorate its founding as well as the original recording of the song. Sweeeet! I mean - what?!?

Ironcally, I woke up this morning to the lyrics of Across the Universe playing in my head. What better way to greet the morning sun (or clouds, if you live in London)?

Sounds of laughter shades of life
Are ringing through my open ears
Inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
Shines around me like a million suns
And calls me on and on across the universe
(The Beatles)

Speaking of which, I haven't yet seen the recently released musical, Across the Universe. It's a fictional story set against the U.S. historical background of the 60's, amid the anti-war movement and social protests of the times. What's cool - the story is paired with Beatles songs, and since these were written as a product of, or in reaction to, those same events, the movie makes for a potentially interesting blending of history, poetry, & one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Check it.

Across the Universe - Trailer

Besos.