Thinking Chaos, Thinking Fences

July 16, 2003

Is John Mayer for Girls? I do this all the time. I've got the musical taste of a teenaged Lilith Fair attendee. I recently ordered John Mayer's live album. I didn't know that much about him, but I'd downloaded some songs and liked their detail-heavy lyrics and Dave Matthews-esque groove. I'm listening to the CD for the first time today, and there are a couple places where he has the audience sing a line or two. It sounds like a frickin' Dixie Chicks concert out there! It's apparently an entire audience of altos and sopranos. After a little investigation, I found this image. If you click it for a larger version, you'll note that there appears to only one glum-looking man in the first three rows. I mean, I know Mr. Mayer's a good-looking bloke, but that's a bit silly. My suspiscions about my taste and his audience were confirmed when we both responded positively to his brief segue into Let's Hear it for the Boy and Girls Just Want to Have Fun during the outro of 83. So, speak up all you closet male Mayer fans. Persuade me that my musical tastes are, indeed, more manly than I think they are. Either than or I'm going to go listen to my Stephen Sondheim box set. "Isn't it rich, are we a pair?" 4:10:20 PM        Music The Arts

Skateboarding Explained (Slightly) Skateboarding really didn't become cool again until I graduated from high school. What was cool when I was in school? You're asking the wrong guy. However, I've observed with some interest the emergence of skateboarding and its associated marketing tie-ins. I don't really know anything about skateboarding termonology (for God's sake, don't Google that phrase), so I can't tell a fakie from a nollie kickflip. Well, I can now because I just looked them up. However, I have figured something out. I know why all those skateboarding teens look so darned sullen. It's cause they're miserable failures at their chosen sport. Have you ever watched your average teen mob skateboarding? What's their success rate on the average trick? 5 percent? 8 percent? You'd be surly if you missed 92 times out of 100 too. This no doubt impacts their self-confidence, which impacts their self-esteem, which explains the super baggy clothing. It's all a tangled Web. 12:52:36 PM        Sports

Speak Italian Without Uttering a Word Further to these comments on Italians, James sent me the uber-Italian gesture page. It's mostly in Italian, but the videos are awesome. On a related note, here's a nifty Flash animation explaining how Italians are not, in fact, European at all, but a separate people all their own. A few of the examples--queueing, pedestrians--apply to Ireland as well. 12:43:45 PM        Politics