Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 98

SCIENCE says YOU'RE RIGHT ...

Modern music is getting worse


 Science has proven that the combination of notes in modern songs 

have been losing their diversity over the past 50 years.

Take the “The Millennial Whoop”
 It’s a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale, 

typically starting on the fifth.

 A singer usually belts these notes with an “Oh” phoneme, often in a “Wa-oh-wa-oh” pattern.


It makes the songs seem familiar.  

And in an unpredictable world in chaos, familiar feels safe.

It also makes our modern songs stamped out as if by cookie cutter.


Speaking of music processed by cookie cutter ---

Songwriting is an impersonal process these days that would make Henry Ford swell with pride.

In fact, probably every modern song you ever loved was written by ONLY TWO MEN!

Lukasz Gottwald  and Max Martin 
Max Martin:
As for Lukas Gottwald ...
 When the New York DJ, a former pot dealer who later spent six years as the guitarist for the house band on ”Saturday Night Live,” 
wanted to start producing records, he sought out Martin, who became first his mentor, then his partner.
 Martin and Lukas have had such a strong influence on modern pop music that 
“Swedish hit-makers supplied one quarter of all the hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014

 No wonder so much modern music sounds the same!

When I got my first iPod in 2001, I noticed immediately 
that I became more fickle and impatient while listening to music. 
Because I could recharge the iPod for free at any time, 
skipping to the next song wasn't costing me anything in terms of needing to buy more batteries. 
I found myself getting bored with songs quickly and compulsively looking for something more engaging. 
Oftentimes on a run, 
I could easily skip through the beginning of 10 songs in rapid succession if the intro didn't grab me.  
Many, many listeners are the same, 
hence hooks appear almost at the beginning of most modern songs which repeat the same phrase like a mantra.

THE LOUDNESS WAR
I'm referring to the practice of using compressors to squash the music, 
making the quiet parts louder and the loud parts a little quieter, so it jumps out of your radio or iPod ...
no matter what setting you set your volume control to.
Since most modern songs sound similar, 
making your song louder than your competitor snares attention ...
at least until another song comes along to blow out your ear drums. 
AUTO TUNE 
Once upon a time, pop singers were actual singers. 
The pop charts are now dominated by artists who use Auto-Tune,
the software plug-in that corrects the pitch of those 
who can’t really cut it in the vocal department and turns their vocals into robo-voices. 
Back in the day, pop artists like Frank Sinatra and the Beatles 
used to be able to record albums in just a few days.
These days, artists are able to get by on looks, publicity and aid from Auto-Tune. 


 RAP MUSIC
Rap Music, like jabbing a stick in your eye, is an acquired taste.

I don't get the appeal, but then, I do not jab a stick in my eye or ear either.

Will any tune, Rap or otherwise, currently on Billboard's Top 1o 

have the longevity of Hotel California, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, or Sympathy for the Devil?

 I do not think so.  How about you?
Remember the beauty, nuance, subtlety, and stirring beat of the songs last century? 
Do you like most modern songs?

THE KEY TO WRITING _ IWSG post

THE KEY TO WRITING  is found in 
SELFIES
No, really.
Why people read is linked to why people take selfies.
The readers project themselves into the life of the protagonist.  
They see themselves through the eyes of their thoughts and actions.
Like they choose to post the selfies that project the image by which they wished to be seen,
 they pick the characters whose lives they wish to vicariously live.
If Kim asks herself really honestly why she takes her selfies,
 she’d say it’s part of showing everyone Brand Kardashian. 
'This is what I look like (after a bit of photoshopping) 
and this is how I spend my time (obviously I’ll have chosen the coolest thing I’ve done all week).'


 Dr Terri Apter, psychology lecturer at Cambridge University, 
says taking selfies is all about people trying to figure out who they are and project this to other people. 
“It’s a kind of self-definition,” says Dr Apter.  
“We all like the idea of being sort of in control of our image and getting attention, 
being noticed, being part of the culture.” 


Reading fiction draws people who wish to live vicariously through the characters' lives ...
to be as witty, as charming, as brave, as capable as those characters or 
endure struggles, becoming as successful and triumphant in the end as the heroes.

It is much like why audiences are drawn to apocalyptic dramas, 
imagining they could survive like the actors.

We often read to lose ourselves in the lives of people we wish we could become.  
Many lifelong readers read simply because reading makes them feel good, or because it's familiar. 
Many famous novelists confess to being steered towards books 
by a single transformative reading experience during adolescence.

When writing our book, we should ask ourselves where do our prospective readers want to go and why ...

and get them there in the most entertaining way possible.

 HOW IS YOUR WRITING GOING?

EMPTY ROOMS IN EMPTY PEOPLE

“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow”  - T.S. Elliot, The Hollow Men


Empty rooms in empty buildings range from Congressional buildings to churches.

Empty people with empty rooms within total even more:

senators who pass more gas than useful legislation; vain professors of philosophy; burned out mothers whose children run wild like weeds.

Derek Price, who was a British physicist, historian of science, and information scientist, discovered something about his peers in academia.

He noticed that there were always a handful of people who dominated the publications within a subject.





Price found out the following (now called Price’s law):

 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.

In other words:

Only a handful of people are responsible for the majority of the value creation. 

 Academics and intellectual bloggers love to dissect the world from their leather desk chairs, drinking their bottled water.

They love to explain how their perceived world works.

 But we have to live in the real world.


We don’t have the time to study all the 1419 mental models that exist.

We still have to put on our clothes every morning and work, so we can pay the bills.

But on the minefield that is life, it would benefit us to think and walk smarter ...

and if we find empty rooms within ourselves, to fill them with things and thoughts that matter.



If you’re feeling empty, you’re not alone. Many of us feel empty in different ways.

 For instance, you might feel empty because something is missing in your life,

 Or the emptiness might stem from slowly abandoning ourselves,

 not listening to our own hopes and desires.

You might abandon yourself unintentionally or unknowingly because you’re striving for perfection or others’ approval.


WHAT TO DO?


DENIAL IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT

 Don’t beat yourself up for feeling this way. Don’t try to dismiss or change your feelings.

Whatever has happened to hollow you out has happened. A new normal has been established.

Learning to live with it will take time.




DO NOT BE A STRANGER TO YOURSELF

  Instead of trying to fill the void with drugs, alcohol, TV, computer games or anything else, look within and spend time with yourself,

 Carve out time to explore your own desires, fears, hopes and dreams. This helps you create more meaning in your daily life and your future.




BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND

 It’s important to be self-compassionate.

Whether you are experiencing difficult relationships, losses or feeling a lack of purpose or meaning,

you are worthy of living a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Give yourself permission to find a path to it.

 
LOOK UP - CONNECT TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING


Walk into a lunch room, down a street -- sit and observe in a mall.

Everyone is looking down into their cell phone's screens. 

But our spirits are filled when we look into another's eyes and see we matter to them.

No wonder then that our cell phone generation feels so hollow.

We have succeeded in amassing more and more things, but we have less and less joy, less and less empathy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

THE INVISIBLE CONTEMPT

“All this pitting of sex against sex, of quality against quality; 
all this claiming of superiority and imputing of inferiority, belong to the private-school 
stage of human existence where there are 'sides,' 
and it is necessary for one side to beat another side, 
and of the utmost importance to walk up to a platform 
and receive from the hands  of the Headmaster a highly ornamental pot.”  - Virginia Woolfe
Misandry - 
{a strong prejudice against men} 
a term with which few are familiar.
And that is dangerous, for a reality without a known name is invisible and is doubly toxic because of that.
Almost everyone is familiar with misogyny, the contempt and devaluing of women.
Yet, that misogyny exists does not give license for misandry to thrive.

History hardly helps the reputation of the Male gender.  
Most murderers are male.  
Most tyrants from Caligula to Hitler to Stalin have been male.


 Angelization is a dangerous outgrowth of misandry


The political demonization of men is complemented 
by the angelization of women in a moral bi-polar totally sexist evaluation of gender: 
women/good and men/bad. 
Take Maria Montessori 

 Montessori broke gender barriers and expectations when she enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. 
She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at The University of Rome, 
where she graduated – with honors – in 1896. 
She was a single mother. 
Her educational method is in use today in many public and private schools throughout the world.
After all that struggling against male bigotry, she swung to the other extreme --
 "Perhaps...the reign of women is approaching, when the enigma of her anthropological superiority will be deciphered. 
Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality, and honor."

Human Nature being what it is, both sexes are flawed. 
To demonize the entire gender for the flaws of many of that sex is ... non-productive and untrue.

But our perception of reality depends on where we are standing, doesn't it?
The homicidal war against men kills mostly men. 
Men are the principal victims of homicide. 
But never mind reality. Politics is all
  POPULAR CULTURE
It gets into the act as well.
Misandry is now institutionalized in popular culture.  Take a few T-Shirts I have seen:
"Dead Men Don't Rape." 
Nor do most living men, of course.
{What do you think the outcry would be if that button said:
"Dead Black Men Don't Rape?"}
"So many men. So little ammunition." 
"What do you call a man with half a brain?  Gifted." 
And so it continues. 



The ghost of Mark Twain just chuckled beside me:
"What would the future be like without males?  Barren, son, mighty barren."
 Our sit-coms portray men as bumbling fools and idiots and usually overweight, with the women as sensible, together and attractive. 
Everybody might love Raymond, but he's an idiot. 
 Misandry is everywhere, culturally acceptable, even normative, 
largely invisible, taught directly and indirectly by men and women, 
blind to reality, 
very damaging and dangerous to men and women in different ways and de-humanizing. 
Misogyny or misandry is not a status or a belief; 
it is just a flawed view of Mankind.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Who's JORDAN PETERSON?

{Photo courtesy Adams Jacobs}
I first became aware of Dr. Peterson from a YouTube video where the professor was being shouted down by protestors for his defending free speech.


Bishop Barron, a Catholic Bishop whose views make me reflect upon my own,
spoke on the mild-mannered clinical psychologist and psychology professor at the University of Alberta and formerly at Harvard.


In 2016, Peterson released a series of videos on his YouTube channel
in which he criticized political correctness and the Canadian government's Bill C-16.
(An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code)
He subsequently received significant media coverage
and a lot of hate mail and protests from those who said they championed tolerance.

Some Jordan Peterson quotes:
"Everybody acts out a myth,
but very few people know what their myth is.
And you should know what your myth is,
because it might be a tragedy.
And maybe you don't want it to be."

"Why do dragons hoard gold? Because the thing you most need is always to be found where you least want to look."


"If you tell enough lies often enough, the truth will become entirely hidden from you… and then you are in hell."

"Ruling hell might be better than being a subject in hell, but not by much."

"Morality, like politics, is the alternative to chaos and war."



HAVE YOU HEARD OF JORDAN PETERSON?

IF SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

MEMORIAL DAY_ Have we lost its MEANING?

We enjoy lovely videos of Memorial Day with graves draped in colorful American flags

as lovely music plays in the background.


We watch and listen to stirring Memorial Day parades, 


flags snapping in the breeze and bands playing stirringly as they march in unison.


People in our country's neighborhoods will be having the biggest and best barbecues, 


but the forgotten spirits of those slain upon a thousand distant foreign fields would take us to the cemeteries on Memorial Day.


Would they tell us that we could eat all the barbecue we want on the Fourth of July 


and to just murmur a small thanks over their graves today?


No one sets out to be a hero, and certainly no one wants to die a bloody, violent death.


But thousands upon thousands found themselves in terrible situations where they needed a hero, 


so that is what they became.

They died so that we would have a chance to live as best we could.


 We couldn’t enjoy sun-drenched summer days like today without their sacrifice.

Living in the world today is a challenge unlike one that has ever been seen in the past. 


But as thousands rose to the occasion when all seemed dark, we, too, can rise to tackle the obstacles facing us.


Yes, today is a day where we mourn the loss of precious lives and innocence.
  

But today is also a day where we celebrate the victory of the human spirit over darkness ...

and this gives us hope.

ONCE in Meilori's with fae expert Ronel Janse van Vuuren

At Meilori's ...

that haunted jazz club that is never too far from myth, mystery, and ever-lurking faes.

Ronel Janse van Vuuren sat across from me at my rune-etched table.


The fog gathered near.  
 
The jazz murmured low in the shadows.  
 
The torches beckoned to all who wander lost in the dark of their soul.

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D5W5VBL/
 I must have spoken that thought aloud, for Ronel said low, "How do you know they are so lost?"
 
I smiled sadly, "On such a night, if they could be home, they'd already be there." 
 
She returned my smile.  "Just so.  Just so."

I tapped her book.

"Damsels in distress, curses, echoes of faerie tales and tragic love affairs swirl together in sixteen stories found in a dragon’s lair by a curious half-fae.

This is quite a book."


 "Nightmare," I whispered.  "That is most often the stuff of faerie all right."

The ghost of Mark Twain suddenly sat down beside me, giving Ronel a bit of a start.
"Son, you're going about this interview all wrong.  Let me show you how it's done."
He winked at a recovered Ronel.
"Whenever you give an interviewer a fact give him another fact that will contradict it. 

Then he’ll go away with a jumble that he can’t use at all."
"Thanks loads, Mark," I grumbled.
"No bother at all.  In fact, I'll do the whole blamed interview for you 'cause I know your questions will be plumb anemic."
He turned to an openly amused Ronel.
"What is the first book to make you cry, Little Lady?"
 "I think it was “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. We’re talking the late 90's here and a teen me."


Mark frowned, as since reading 50 Shades of Grey, he had sworn off modern novels.
"Does writing energize or exhaust you or both?"
  "A bit of both. A shiny new story leaves me energized and ready to write the whole thing in a weekend.
(I’ve done that)
Rewrites and edits leave me mentally and emotionally drained. (who wants to cut characters and scenes?)"

 Mark nodded sagely and asked, "What is your Kryptonite?"
"Insecurity. But that’s why I joined the Insecure Writer’s Support Group – 
we meet once a month (online) and share our highs and lows. 
I do have a new motto:
Warrior Up. 
I wrote about it for April’s IWSG."



Mark cupped his chin.

"Do you think someone could be a writer if  she does not feel emotions strongly?"

"I t depends on your chosen genre and the type of writer you are. 

If you expect readers to feel everything your
characters do, want to make a lasting impression, 

and find interesting plot twists, I think it’s important to feel your character’s emotions deeply."
Mark smiled at that.
"What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?  Me, I went bankrupt trying to invent a new kind of typewriter!"
"Does buying books count? He-he. 

Hiring an editor. I learned so much from her feedback. I believe my writing is better for it."
Mark wrinkled his lips thinking of his next question.
"I dislike Jane Austen so much, I have to fight from digging up her grave and beating her over the skull with her own shin bone!
What writer did you at first dislike but grew into?"

" Suzanne Collins. With a lot of others it is the other way around."    
Mark snorted at that.
"I was a cub reporter at sixteen.  When did you learn that words had power?"
"I was maybe four or five when a boy in my class said “voetsek” to one of the maids. 
Her expression… 

The hurt I saw inflicted by one word left a lasting impression. 

I had to ask my parents what it meant.  What you have to understand is that the word is an offensive one, of rejection in my country – 

though I didn’t know it at the time. 
It has roots in our unsavoury political past and still has sway in racial issues."
Mark sighed as he recalled his own childhood.
"What is the most difficult thing about writing about the other sex?"
"Figuring out how to portray emotions."

Mark chuckled,  

"I always seemed to write on for too long.  I had to get others to prune my works.
What did you edit out of your work?"
"A story that just didn’t work at the time.  There was something missing. 

I rewrote it and it was accepted for the fourth Clarion Call anthology “FairyTale Riot!” this month."
Mark tapped her book on the table.
"What was the hardest scene to write?"

"Mae’s reaction to her breakup and how she worked through it to become the Faery Queen I wrote about in other books. It was very emotionally draining."
I couldn't let Mark have all the fun, so I jumped in with a question.
"Do you ever Google yourself?"
"Of course! You need to know what pops up when
someone searches for you or your books.
 If it’s something unsavoury, you have to address the problem immediately – 

before it hurts your author brand."
Ronel smiled wide. "Thanks for having me, Roland."

C. Lee McKenzie

C. Lee McKenzie --
She is one of my oldest friends here in the blogverse.


When I read her posts or her books, I always see her smiling.

Lee is not smiling now.  
She has just lost her husband.  
Sigh.  
There are no words for such times.
C. S. Lewis, at the dying of his wife, wrote: 

the death of a loved one is an amputation.

When Kathryn, my fiancée, died, 

for long months, I would look long up into the night sky and whisper, 

"Come back ... even as a shadow,  even as a dream." 
But this is about Lee ... 

and a tangible thing you can do to say "I care" during this time. 

 https://www.amazon.com/Some-Very-Messy-Medieval-Magic/dp/1939844460/
Lee's newest book has just been published.

Lee is devastated by the death of her husband.  

And promoting the book which took so long to write is the very last thing on her mind.

But we can buy it.  
We can review it.  
We can promote it.
It is not much, 
but perhaps Lee will look back at the support she received from her friends in the blogverse and feel not quite so alone.


Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/some-very-messy-medieval-magic-c-lee-mckenzie/1127622061?ean=2940154648575
 
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/some-very-messy-medieval-magic
 
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/some-very-messy-medieval-magic/id1324257652?mt=11
 
Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079V72G8R
 
Foyles - http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/childrens/some-very-messy-medieval-magic,c-lee-mckenzie-9781939844460
 
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37537343-some-very-messy-medieval-magic

What is SOME VERY MESSY MEDIEVAL MAGIC about?
Pete’s stuck in medieval England!

Pete and his friend Weasel thought they’d closed the Time Lock. 

But a young page from medieval times, Peter of Bramwell, goes missing. 

His absence during a critical moment will forever alter history unless he’s found.

There’s only one solution - fledgling wizard Pete must take the page’s place. 

Accompanied by Weasel and Fanon, Pete’s alligator familiar, they travel to 1173 England.

But what if the page remains lost - will Pete know what to do when the critical moment arrives? 

Toss in a grumpy Fanon, the duke’s curious niece, a talking horse, and the Circle of Stones 

and Pete realizes he’s in over his young wizard head yet again...
Release date – May 15, 2018
 
Juvenile Fiction - Fantasy & Magic/Boys & Men
$13.95 Print ISBN 9781939844460
$3.99 EBook ISBN 9781939844477


DID YOU KNOW?
C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication?

But these days her greatest passion is writing for young readers. 

When she’s not writing she’s hiking or traveling or practicing yoga 

or asking a lot of questions about things she still doesn’t understand. 

At least she's still attempting to grow, right?  

Her blog is
http://cleemckenziebooks.com

But as you can understand, Lee will be taking time off to mourn and to heal. 

LET US DO WHAT WE CAN  TO TELL LEE THAT WE CARE.

WHAT STORY ARE YOU IN?

Carl Jung once wrote:

"Whether you know it or not, you are in a story.  

If it is not YOUR story, you can be sure you will have a bit part.

If it is your story, do you know what kind?  

If not, you may be sure that its ending will be bad.

Or if it is a thoroughly bad story, its ending will be worse."


Jung also said that you did not want to be a person who could not be cruel.  

Instead, you must be someone who could be cruel but chose not to be.

A man who cannot be cruel will be a perpetual victim.  

Rather be a person who can be dangerous if need be.

"Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks within, awakes."


My students often said that they hated me assigning them books that took thought to understand and enjoy.

I choose to write my own stories in that vein.  

I guess I have chosen to live out my story in a similar fashion. 

WHAT STORY ARE YOU IN?

Did you pick it?

or

Did it pick you?

PORTRAIT of an ARTISTIC SURVIVOR

She was born Maria Górska on 16 May 1898 in Warsaw, then part of the Russian Empire.

When she was ten, her mother commissioned a pastel portrait of her by a prominent local artist.
 She detested posing and was dissatisfied with the finished work.
 She took the pastels, had her younger sister pose, and made her first portrait.



How many artists and authors started like that,saying "I could do better than that!"



In 1915, she met and fell in love with a prominent Polish lawyer, Tadeusz Łempicki (1888–1951).
Her family offered him a large dowry, and they were married in 1916 in the chapel of the Knights of Malta in St. Petersburg.


The Russian Revolution in 1917 shattered their lives.

In December 1917, Tadeusz Łempicki was arrested in the middle of the night by the secret police.
Tamara searched the prisons for him, and with the help of the Swedish consul, to whom she offered her "favors," she secured his release.

The couple struggled their way to Paris  where Tamara's family had also found refuge.
Tadeusz proved unwilling or unable to find suitable work.
To support their daughters, Tamara turned to selling her paintings.
In 1928 she was divorced from Tadeusz Łempicki.
That same year, she met Raoul Kuffner, a baron of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and an art collector.


He commissioned her to paint his mistress, the Spanish dancer Nana de Herrera.
Lempicka finished the portrait (which was not very flattering to de Herrera)
and took the place of de Herrera as the mistress of the baron.
In 1929, Lempicka painted one of her best-known works, Autoportrait --(Tamara in a green Bugatti)

The wife of Baron Kuffner died in 1933. De Lempicka married him on 3 February 1934 in Zurich.
She was alarmed by the rise of the Nazis and persuaded her husband to sell most of his properties in Hungary and to move his fortune and his belongings to Switzerland.
Her Art Deco style fell out of fashion.
Art Deco was "rediscovered" in the late 1960's.
Her "rediscovery" amused Tamara.  She needed no one's approval to feel whole.

The best description of Lempicka's work was her own:
"I was the first woman to make clear paintings and that was the origin of my success.  Among a hundred canvases, mine were always recognizable"