Speaking of...

Vamos a ver...

That's Spanish for "we're gonna see..."

***

I've been watching a some clips Toland sent me of Sonny Sharrock performing in various contexts.

I said this 20 years ago, and I still stand by it: The scariest, most violent music I've ever heard wasn't heavy metal; it was jazz.

See, I'm wincing just saying that... "jazz." Well, it was the band Last Exit, featuring Mr. Sharrock, Fort Worth's Ronald Shannon Jackson, and... what, Peter Brotzman? I once knew. Oh, and Bill Laswell.

But it was the music of doom.

Got 10 minutes to kill?



Knock it if you want. Say it's tuneless. Say that you prefer melody, that you wish it had more than just driving percussion and a hodgepodge of sounds on top. Fine, fine. We don't all have to keep an ear on music's edges. I'm just glad that someone's out there pushing them nevertheless.

***

Oh, and the same goes for hip hop, which I could just as easily have been describing above. I can barely stand it, but I'm glad it's out there.

***

Speaking of doom, I've been getting into the Hellboy DVD lately. My coworker Denija was kinda enough to lend it to me. I saw part II in the theater last week and was really eager to see the first. It's a four-year-old film at this point, yet I still remember Toland's reaction to seeing it: "Hellboy rocked!"

It did. It does. I like the second one just a pinch more, but only because of the hyper-imaginative use of anachronistic gizmos throughout the film.

***

Heck, I'm even re-watching it with the cast commentary now.

***

Had a fine evening with Los Baums tonight, watching some fine MMA action on CBS.

***

Headed to DC for a few days starting on Monday. I'm looking forward to it.

***

Thomas Kuhn argued that paradigms exist only in science. He used the term "paradigm shift" to describe a profound change in a basic scientific assumption.

Social sciences, he posited, can utilize any number of solutions and models, and therefore cannot truly undergo a paradigm shift.

But...

Common scenario: Married addict cleans up but wrecks his/her relationship only after achieving sobriety. Yeah, the prior system no longer works.

Before cleaning up, the addict's relationship, no matter how unhappy it was, was working. The parameters were clearly defined. It was a relationship wherein each person knew what they'd get. One person, presumably, was sober while the other went through life affected.

Clean up the addict, though, and the relationship is profoundly changed, and not necessarily for the better.

Paradigm shift, sort of. It's not the same sort of change in basic assumptions, but the concept seems to clearly apply within the context of social sciences nevertheless.

***

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Kuhn.

***

Well, that just got way too highfalutin. If I knew any jokes about farting chimps I'd insert one here.

***

Speaking of farting chimps, I managed to avoid seeing Space Chimps today. No, I took the kids to see Wall-E instead. It's a fine little flick, and has some serious social and environmental commentary. At this particular point in the future, humans have fine-tuned laziness to the point that we're reduced to obese, semi-illiterate, littering fools on personal hovercrafts who spend our days watching little video holograms.

Anyway, it's quite a remarkable little movie, I must admit.

***

I'd better give it up. I doubt I'll update before DC. I return August 1. Y'all have a terrific, safe week.