7 awesome song videos

In my Learning Community today we were talking about the presence of video when we listen to music. How much does seeing the band perform affect our perception of the audio? What is it about the movements, facial expressions, and emotions of the performers that reach us as the audience? It's a lot of fun to think about, and got me specifically wondering what songs were most enhanced by an accompanying video. Well, here they are!

1. Best of You (Live at Wembley Stadium) - Foo Fighters. I was torn between this song and the next one, (Editor's Note: I'm actually torn between every song Foo Fighters played at Wembley Stadium. Such an amazing concert that I've only seen on YouTube.) but when Dave Grohl is in tears, that song has to be at the top of the list. Foo Fighters as incredibly powerful as it is, but when you have 80,000 other people singing along...come on.

2. My Hero (Live at Wembley Stadium) - Foo Fighters. 4:10. All I need to say about this. Gives me goosebumps every time, and I love that Foo Fighters always plays "My Hero" acoustically in concert. Watching Dave Grohl run around the stage reminds me a little bit of Bono during U2 concerts. Which reminds me...

3. Where the Streets Have No Name (Live at Super Bowl XXXVI) - U2. The song starts around 6:15. What I find interesting about live performances is how in-tune the singers are. I think that the heightened emotion of some concerts (as in the two I've talked about so far) might make singers a little more out of tune than they would be in the studio, but nonetheless, it's about the performance. I don't need to say a lot about this one, either.

4. Ocean (Live from Red Rocks) - John Butler Trio. Any version of this song is amazing, but this one especially is one of my favorites. Granted, when Vicki and I saw JBT live, I had never enjoyed a live song like when John Butler played "Ocean," but as far as videos go, I think that this is the best to actually watch him do his thing. The dude feels his music. Watching him feel his music makes me feel his music. Point videos.

5. Layla (Live at Madison Square Garden) - Eric Clapton. God damn, I love Eric Clapton. My favorite part of this song is easily when he plays the opening riff and the bassist flips out. That, and the first few measures of the piano outro. If there's anything I love more in music than Eric Clapton, it's the outro to "Layla." Even if it has a saxophone that has no business being part of the outro.

6. Hallelujah (Live at the Fillmore) - Rufus Wainwright. Despite the fact that Wainwright's version of this song has the one note that I want forever changed (G to G# on "composing" in the first verse and at the same point in the other verses), the guy has a lot of emotion in this song, right from the start. Which isn't how the studio version sounds, at all. Painfully amazing.

7. So Far Away - Avenged Sevenfold. For those who don't know, Avenged Sevenfold's drummer passed away in December of 2010, in the middle of the production for their most recent album. The lyrics, and more importantly, the video, of "So Far Away" tell the story of The Rev and his friendship with the rest of the band. I'll let the video do the talking for me.

I was going to talk about ten songs, but honestly, the last three would be Foo Fighters videos. And as much as I love them, I don't want half of these music videos to be theirs. Two-sevenths is fine.

(Editor's Note: For the record..."Monkey Wrench," "The Pretender," and "Walk.")

A rock and a hard place

Alright, I'm doing it. I've been going back and forth about this for a couple of days, but I feel that if I don't blog about this, I'm going to continue this feeling of needing to blog about something. A couple of days ago, someone at Stonehill decided to draw a significant part of the male reproductive system on a rock near our Dining Commons. Now I'm not condoning this. Despite my appreciation for/inherent use of childish humor, it has to be in the right context (which this, clearly, was not). But it's pretty understood (I hope) that drawing stuff on other stuff that shouldn't be drawn is a bad thing. What I'd like to talk about is the response by the Stonehill student body following the incident.

And before I start, let me again say that I'm not advocating bias, or conflict, or whatever you wanna call this. I'm advocating Newton's Third Law of Motion, which goes something like, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." And I'm going to come out and say that I'm not so sure everyone reacted in an equal way. Students put wooden boards in front of the rock, "reclaiming it as a symbol of peace," and encouraging others to "never be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation," and that we "must always take sides." Those last two quotes are taken from Elie Wiesel, author of the book Night.

I want to say a couple of things about this. First off, I'd like to know who sees this act as one of humiliation, aggression, and sexual violence. The people who brought this to someone's attention either thought they were being humiliated, or simply that this wasn't something that we should have on a rock. I'm betting on the latter, but if someone feels otherwise, please let me know, because I just don't see it.

Secondly, a symbol of peace? It's a rock. I know it says "Be free to be you" on it, but that doesn't make it not a rock. If the rock truly is a symbol of peace, then it's the second time I've heard of a rock being more than a rock.

And lastly, I don't think we need to rebuild Stonehill. Stonehill's atmosphere and community is the reason I came here, the reason I've absolutely loved my first three-plus semesters, and the reason I never want to leave this place. I think that this reaction was over-the-top and disproportionate to the incident that sparked it. Maybe I'm not seeing the initial incident as seriously as everyone else is, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

The enigma that is the NBA's Eastern Conference

With every team in the NBA 15-18 games into the shortened season, some very interesting trends have developed, and can be interpreted with just a quick look at the standings. Although my interest in the NBA has become very bleak, I can't say no to numbers, so every once in a while, I'll check the standings. Here were my first few thoughts when I took a look.

- What a difference a couple of big-name changes makes. Cleveland, now in their second year without LeBron, is 6-9. The Hornets, in their first run sans Chris Paul, sit at the bottom of the West with a 3-13 record, scoring 86.4 points per game. Meanwhile, Paul's new team, that other team in Los Angeles, leads the Lakers by one game in the Pacific Division.

- The Pacers and 76ers are a combiend 22-9? When was the last time this happened? Philadelphia leads the league in +/-...something is not right in the NBA.

- There is a four and a half game gap between the 6th and 7th place teams, where three 6-9 teams are tied. (Un)fortunately the Celtics are one of those three teams, and by some virtuous tiebreaker, sit in playoff position.

- The Celtics would be tied for 12th if they were in the West.

Is everyone okay with this? I read an article a while ago that tossed around the idea of taking the top sixteen teams, regardless of conference, and reseeding for the playoffs. If there's ever a time where this gets serious support, it's now. No way should a playoff team allow more points than it scores. Or have a losing record at home. Or be winless against the other conference. (The Celtics fall victim to all three of these perils, allowing 90.4ppg against 89.6 for, with a 4-5 home record, and an 0-4 record against the West, the only team in the league yet to win a game outside its conference.)

While none of this makes sense, if there's anything to be learned from this NBA season, it's that nothing makes sense anymore. Might as well start accepting that sooner rather than later.

To hell with music

I don't know how, but there may or may not be a secret vault of music that my computer can open, but not me. Throughout the multiple times I've put music onto my iPod/into iTunes, many different things have become available to me. Including, but not limited to, an entire Coldplay album, a live version of "Bad" by U2 that I've never heard in my life, and multiple downloads of the same song. Granted, considering what I've had to go through regarding my music, I should have probably come to expect this, but like, come on. In the meantime, enjoy the only version of "Bad" I want to listen to.

If I could, through myself, set your spirit free

I'd lead your heart away

See you break, break away

Into the light, and into the day

A lucky find

All horrible puns aside, I just read an incredibly interesting article about superstition for my Research Methods in Psychology class. Even though it was a few pages, it had four experiments, a couple of which were really thought-provoking.

One experiment had participants putt ten times, using a "lucky" ball, or a ball that "everyone else has used." (The ball was the exact same every time.) The people who used the "lucky" ball had more successful putts than the control group, suggesting that believing you have luck on your side improves subsequent performance.

Another experiment was a memory game, turning over pairs of cards to get a match (18 total pairs), and each participant was either in the presence or absence of their personal lucky charm. Participants who used the lucky charm completed the game faster than the control group, furthering the belief that superstition fuels performance.

What's great about this is that it makes absolutely no logical sense. Well, almost none. While it's true that the type of golf ball you use has no effect on the number of successful putts you make, it's the raised self-efficacy (belief in your own abilities) that heightens our confidence, and ultimately brings us to greater success.

My best personal example of this is every time I pitched in high school. I consider it more of a routine than a superstition, but I suppose the same principles apply. I always wore my practice shirt under my uniform, which was certainly more of a comfort thing for me. Then there was what I always did after every pitch caught by the catcher - walked towards the plate, caught the ball, and stepped in the exact same place on the mound, stepping behind the rubber and turning around to face the batter. It's not that I thought that helped me succeed, but it did make me feel comfortable on the mound, which is always important for pitchers.

So I guess it makes sense to be superstitious, even though you wouldn't really think that. I'd also like this opportunity to cite the article I read for this post. If SOPA ever pans out, there's no way I can safely assume I can just talk about an article without bad things happening.

(Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2009). Keep Your fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance. Psychological Science, 21, 1014-1019.)

SOPA

I've just now started to understand what SOPA is trying to do, and honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. As far as my understanding goes, people post stuff on websites that is not theirs. The people who do own that stuff, if they got mad, could have sufficient legal justification to immediately remove said stuff. But does that mean that the said owners of said stuff have never been on the other side of it? Is there someone who has never used something that wasn't theirs?

While I think it (initially and logically) makes sense for people to have the right to say "Hey, this is mine, don't use it," one, doesn't mean you have to actually say that, and two, isn't that what the Internet and social networks are about? Isn't Facebook about telling the world everything you do and showing your friends stuff you found? Isn't that the entire premise of my blog?

Although the protest of SOPA makes no vernacular sense (Stop "Stop Online Pirating"...Encourage Online Pirating?), the point is beyond that. The point is to have the ability (and possibly/probably the right) to share what we want with the world, and if SOPA would put an end to that, well, let's put an end to SOPA.

(Editor's Note: And my political quota is forever fulfilled on this blog. Three paragraphs.)

The newTunes Project

What would you do if you had a total of zero songs to listen to?

I'd get some songs.

I am faced with this situation for the third time in about four months, although this time, I'm done considering it unfortunate. I've lost the music on my iTouch to the following: updating to the new operating system, having to get my computer fixed, and water damage (the source of which shall remain undisclosed (the toilet)). My thirteen hundred songs went to eight hundred, and then six hundred, and now, zero. But this was an opportunity. An opportunity to not only, for once and for all, have songs on my iPod that I actually listen to, but to enter an internal discussion about what songs people need to have in their collection. I decided that the best course of action would be to ask. Ask anyone and everyone.

So, let's do it.You have the world of music at your disposal. The #1 overall pick in the draft of songs. What do you take first?

(No, seriously. I would absolutely love it if people commented, or talked to me about this. I'm incredibly interested and wouldn't mind trying out some new music!)

In dir ist Freude

For my seminar today we went to the chapel and heard the music professor play a couple of Bach pieces on the organ...my god I love the organ. It just sounds so brilliantly powerful. Anyway, this is one of the pieces we listened to. Translating to "in thee is joy," "In dir ist Freude" is definitely something I'd consider if I ever renamed my blog. (Not that I ever plan to.) With a title/accent like that, and awesomely loud organs, who wouldn't love it?

The math behind Risk

Risk - the game of world domination. My friends and I have started to fall in love with it, but for different reasons. Some like it because it's overtly competitive, some because you get to play with army troops, and me because of the immensity of mathematical probability in the game (what else is new). While I was going to go through the probabilities of each possible roll of the dice and determine a strategy based on numbers of attackers and defenders, what I realized (thankfully) fifteen minutes into the project is that Wikipedia has graciously done this already. What I will do in this post is show some of the most interesting things I found while reading the entry, and give my own interpretation.

Outcome probabilities of one dice roll.

Based on the table above, the defender has an advantage when an equal number of dice are rolled (or if the defense rolls two dice, and the offense one). Otherwise, the advantage does to the offense. But what does this mean in the long run? What if the offense has 26 people, and the defense has 18, which is a real possibility in the later stages of the game? Is that a wise numbers game to play? Luckily, this table offers some insight.

Outcome probabilities of a sequence of dice rolls.

From this table, it does not benefit the offense to attack if 1) the offense has fewer armies than the defense, or 2) the offense and defense have the same number of armies, given that it is four or fewer. So in that 26 on 18 hypothetical situation, the offense can expect to win, and conquer the defending territory. The offense can also expect to carry about eight armies with them, since the 18 will probably cancel out. But what if there are a few territories the offense can attack with only one defender? The last table is a guideline for what you can reasonably attack if all territories in your way have one defender in them.

Want to take out a bunch of one-army territories? Use this table.

A simple rule of thumb if you want to go after a cluster of territories with one army defending is to subtract two from the amount of attackers you have, and divide by two. You can be 90% confident in winning those territories given the amount of offense you have.

None of these tables delineate a specific strategy on how to play Risk; they merely just display the chance involved in each roll of the dice, and the preparation required to unleash a full-blown attack. The decisions are still yours - hopefully this post has helped you in your quest to conquer the world.

January

Charged with a chilling energy,
He feels the cold race inside him,
As though it's being pumped from the heart.
January has got the best of him yet again,
For new and old reasons.
Reasons he wishes he could forget.
But that would make life too easy.
He wouldn't appreciate what he has
Without being fully aware of how delicate it is.
Nor could he.
He wouldn't be able to appreciate February
Without May, November, or now, January.
So the days pass by, one by one,
Until he is home.
A less permanent home, perhaps,
But a home nonetheless.
A home without a May, November, or January.
As the strings of time play their melody,
He wonders what will come.
If home is where the heart is,
Or if home is just a place to distract the heart.
But for now,
His heart is pumping out the chilling energy,
As he expects it to for a long time.

But am I really talking about him?

Brand New Day

I pride myself with House knowledge to the point where given most situations or problems, I can recall (with great detail) the episode and scene that best resembles what's going on in real life. Or some quote that someone said (usually House) that explains everything perfectly. Anyone who's ever heard me "go House" on them has rolled their eyes at another attempt of mine to use television as a model for real life. While you may think this post is going a certain direction, I'm taking it in the complete opposite way. Oops.

One of the few things where I can't pull some House-related thing out of my ass is stuff with House and Cuddy. It might be because I was so focused on everything else House said, but I never really followed (with as great detail as other things) or even enjoyed the House/Cuddy stuff. Because that's not what House was about. House was about being this miserable, lonesome, brilliant man who could solve puzzles and use metaphors like he created the idea (something else I pride myself on being able to use). That's where I'm taking this post.

It kinda sucks though, because I can't throw down a quote or video and freely interpret it to my own life. Which is usually what I bank on being able to do whenever I talk about House. And not that I'm not able to do that, it's like I'm stuck. Heh. Stuck. That's something I can run with. Season 5, Episode 14. "The Greater Good." Granted I had to look up the episode and title, but I got the right season.

Wilson, as he tells a patient, that he is stuck. Stuck because Amber died in the bus crash, and she was the only person he had loved in a long time. He was still living in her apartment, and had kept everything as it was before her death. And he had told this to the patient, and she replied with one of the best pieces of advice House has ever sent out. "The only wrong thing is to do nothing." And that's so true. Hah. See, this is the beauty of knowing everything ever said in a TV show. Also from House - from "One Day, One Room" actually: "Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were." More truth. If you feel stuck, do something about it. Sitting around will only keep you stuck.

The end of "The Greater Good" is a montage to Joshua Radin's "Brand New Day." The last scene is Wilson in Amber's apartment, doing the dishes. He looks at a mug that she drank from, with her lipstick on it, and begins to wash it.

10 things about Duke basketball

In the first of four things I will watch on TV today (Bruins/Canucks and NFL playoffs), Duke is playing Georgia Tech. And in the first four minutes of the game, I've already started to notice a lot of things about Duke. Probably because this is the first game I've actually watched in a while, instead of just having on, but nonetheless, it's time I write about Duke.

1. Quinn Cook is good. And he needs to be good, I think. In the first four minutes, he has 5 points and an assist, and is running the offense the way it needs to be run - a good balance of transition offense and finding players off the dribble. Cook should be the point guard of this team, because...

2. I'm not sold on Austin Rivers. I will say that he's NBA-ready. He only looks to score off the dribble, and doesn't play defense. Perfect! Too bad that won't fly with Coach K. Even though Rivers is the Blue Devils' leading scorer, he has the second-worst FG% on the team, and is third with 32 turnovers. If he can play to the college game, but still have that NBA/killer mentality, he will be great. But he is not there yet.

3. Duke (and any program that wants to be playing basketball in April) NEEDS to play more non-conference road games. And I mean ROAD games. Not the Maui Tournament, not Madison Square Garden...I mean thousands of opposing fans up in your face all game long. This game against GT is being played in the Atlanta Hawks' arena, one of two home courts for the Yellow Jackets. The same happened for Duke against Temple. The only true road game Duke has played resulted in a 22-point loss to Ohio State.

4. I hate Doris Burke. It might be completely irrational, or she might have said something that I completely disagreed with at some point in time, but I listen to essentially none of what she says. Just had to get that out there.

5. Doris Burke just said that it was okay that Duke hasn't won on the road yet. Are you kidding me, Doris Burke? It's going to be a two-horse race for the ACC Regular Season Championship, and it will be between Duke and UNC. If Duke wants another championship, the one-seed in the conference tournament, and a potential one-seed in the NCAA Tournament, they have to win on the road.

6. In related news...where did the ACC go? Yes, over half the conference has four or fewer losses, but where are the rankings? Duke and Carolina are 3 and 4, respectively, but the only other ranked team is Virginia at #23. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for the 2003-04 season, featuring Chris Paul, Jarrett Jack, J.J. Redick, and Sean May, but the ACC had six teams in the Top 25. They probably won't see that at any point this year.

7. I know I've mentioned this to a few people, but...I'm pretty sure they've mentioned the all-time wins record and Coach K every single game. Multiple times. Like yes, I understand that each game you show the coach and his record, so it probably makes sense. But it gets old when 1) Duke is on TV so often, and 2) I watch almost all of those games.

8. I think I like Duke's blue road jerseys better than their alternate black ones. I've always been a fan of black uniforms, with the right color scheme, but I'm staring to like the royal blue all over the place.

9. This team can be very good. But they need to round themselves out as a team, especially defensively. With Cook running the show, Rivers, Curry, and Andre Dawkins can run around as the other guards, and the rotation of the Plumlees and Ryan Kelly will fill out the forward spots. I do miss the versatility of Kyle Singler, who could play literally anywhere on the court, which Duke lacks this year. If Duke wants to make a deep run in March, they will need someone to step up.

10. God damn it, I can't wait for Duke/UNC at Cameron Indoor. Last year's game in Krzyzewskiville might be the best game I've ever watched, and EASILY the most fun. At least, the second half was fun.

Bruins vs. Canucks

Well, I was going to have an actual post about tomorrow's rematch between Stanley Cup teams, but this article is about 7 times better than anything I could have produced here. Enjoy!

A Walk to Remember

When my friends and I participated in Stonehill's Relay for Life last year, we had a blast. It was a fun night on the football field until we ended at 4 a.m., playing games, walking laps, and singing songs. We were joined by 46 other teams and over 400 other people, but the message was the same for each person there. The night was about celebrating, remembering, and fighting back. Cancer affects all of us somehow, whether it's someone in our family, a friend, or someone a friend knows. Which sucks, obviously, but it gives us the opportunity to do something for humanity, for the human connection. It grants us the chance to be by someone's side as they fight the biggest battle of their life, and show your support for that person no matter what. And for the people who aren't as touched by cancer, it's an opportunity to know that you're part of the difference that can change lives forever.

Every year at some point, I watch, and subsequently distribute throughout all forms of social media, Jim Valvano's 1993 ESPY speech. Jimmy V, who was the coach of the NC State men's basketball team, died of the disease only a few weeks after he gave his speech for winning the Arthur Ashe Courage award. His speech, my favorite of all-time, is not just about cancer, or how to fight it. It's about how to live your life, and how you should approach each and every day. It is this speech that is the motivating factor for me personally when it comes time for Relay for Life, and hopefully, it becomes one for you, as well.

If you would like to know more about the American Cancer Society and the work they do, you can click that link. They have a ton of information about the disease, information completely independent of Relay for Life. If you would like to donate to our team, you can start here. Yes, money is important in finding a cure for cancer, but until then, we will do whatever we can to strengthen the connection between people, because that is something that cancer can never take away.

"And I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter, and some thought, and to get your emotions going, and to be enthusiastic every day..."