Instant Band Night is imminent

August 07, 2017

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, your weekly window into whatever's on my mind. 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.As the podcast marches inevitably to episode 50, I have to make the announcement that I'm taking it from a weekly schedule to biweekly; the exigencies of recording a podcast while also preparing for the arrival of one's firstborn turn out to be incompatible, schedule-wise. Who knew! Don't worry, I'm still going to make the show, it just comes out a little less often. I will never tire of making this show. Especially because every now and then I learn things: for instance, that the educational ASMR videos I posited in episode 46 actually exist. I never knew this, but one of my oldest friends is capable of experiencing ASMR and sent me that link. Every day I'm learning!!!!!!!!Do I know anyone else who also has this power? Can you tell me if the video I linked works for you, and if so, to what extent? Not that I want to treat my pals like lab rats, I don't mean that at all -- I'm just honestly curious. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.I sometimes wish I'd become a sociologist, or an anthropologist -- whichever branch of social science would afford me the skillset to run some studies of modern American society that answer certain basic questions I'm now turning over and over in my mind. Like:What percentage of kids turn out to be the opposite of their parents?Surely this is something to which a number can be applied -- even if it's a figure with error bars of some size on either side, I'd just like to see it. 10%? 50%? I think it'd be a hard study to design, and even harder to pull off: you'd have to figure out which traits to include (humor? occupation? affability? fashion sense? politics? pop cultural tastes?), how to identify or possibly even quantify them, how to confirm them to a reasonable degree of scientific accuracy, etc. Is this a question for sociology or anthropology? Google's not as helpful on this point as you'd think. I'm just trying to prepare myself mentally for what happens if I have a kid who turns out (for instance) not to like Star Trek. After I abandon it in the forest, how do I ensure the next one won't have the same fundamental failing? I JOKE, I JOKE. Seriously, though, what happens if I end up with a kid who wants to [shudder] play lacrosse? What are the odds of this occurring? I need numbers. [pounds fist on table] I demand data. 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

  • I always, always had a goddamn inkling that fortune cookies were more about platitudes than actual predictions of the future. That's really weird about the lucky numbers, though.

  • If there was a potato cartel operating in the early part of the century (and it seems kind of undeniable that there was), I wish they'd had all the trappings of an evil secret society from movies or comics. Wouldn't you like to see what the Potato Cartel's henchmen uniforms looked like? Or their emblem? Their hidden lair? If I had the money to hire an illustrator, trust me, my wallet would already be out.

  • So there's some apprehension starting to build around the effect smartphones are having on our lives. Are we just fucked? Is there no way to unfuck ourselves? It's impressive to me in a weird way that there could be a societal-doom-level scenario that none of the science fiction writers of the past saw coming.

  • Shit, if only Science Exchange had researchers outside of biopharmaceuticals or whatnot, maybe I could get my sociological questions answered?! Also I would need more money. Why's it always about money? Oh yeah, capitalism.

  • This thing about elastic genomes is faintly unsettling and I don't know why. Someone got an opinion?

  • I need to point out yet another failure of journalism in this article about a nutrient powder created from electricity: they don't tell us what it tastes like. C'mon, people!

  • The one reason I'm not constantly making and eating risotto in an unbroken loop is that stirring it is a huge pain in the ass. Am I crazy or would a Thermomix help with that? And if so, why hasn't the entire country gone insane for these things?

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway49 - Tattoo Etiquette"Jon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Shayla uncover a book based on a previous idea, a corgi-based business, and some civic improvement concepts."The entire reason I do this podcast is to scatter my ideas over the face of the planet and hope someone picks one up and runs with it, and this particular episode's corgi idea is one I would really like to see done. I'm just putting this out there.You can subscribe using:iTunesRSSStitcherGoogle Play MusicYou can also just go to the website to play or download episodes:https://ideafactorygiveaway.simplecast.fm/Instant Band NightThis is an event idea I had forever ago and have probably discussed with almost everyone I know at some point: 

  1. There's a stage with one (1) band's worth of equipment on it.

  2. People put their names into hats labeled DRUMS, GUITAR, VOCALS, etc.

  3. Names are pulled from the hats periodically to make Instant Bands, who get 10 minutes in the green room to plan an 8-minute set.

  4. Rinse & repeat.

I made the Facebook event, but in the process of attempting to invite people to it, I got locked out of that very action for "going too fast" -- I guess to Facebook, having a lot of friends and being good at clicking is too close to bot-like behavior? The entire user flow around warning me off doing it was at best confusing, at worst misleading, but anyway you should come to this. Failing that, please invite people you know to it. I have a very strong suspicion that the more people who show up to Instant Band Night, the better it's going to be, so you should show up even if you don't play an instrument!507 55th St 94609Thursday Sept 148-11p$5 doorBYOB 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumHappiest Dog, Good Morning, Mayhem 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.