"Modern science is based on the Latin injunction ignoramus - 'we do not know'. It assumes that we don't know everything. Even more critically, it accepts that the things we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge. No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge". - Yuval Noah Harari. This blog is a documentation of my journey of enlightenment, knowledge, and the pursuit of physical and emotional well-being.
I must be really weird. I just love brutal death metal. Cannibal Corpse is pretty brutal - they get moderately fast, but nowhere near some bands like Vital Remains or Origin. But they are just super heavy. I love the silliness of dripping blood logos and black guitars with red blood stains.
The musicianship in this band is pretty outstanding, but they never sacrifice brutality just to show off. I happen to really love Corpsegrinder's vocals, even though they're pretty one dimensional. He ranks right up there with Glenn Benton, Nergal and Max Cavalera as my favorite extreme metal vocalists.
I consider Dimebag Darrell one of the greatest guitar players of all time.
Had he not been shot and killed, he would have been about a year older than me. Because we grew up roughly around the same time, his influences are very similar to mine. That's not super uncommon for guitarists our age, but it makes me feel a sort of kinship and even understanding of his guitar playing.
Of course, he had become an incredible guitarist in his own right, and was and still is highly influential to me, in a lot of ways.
As a guitar player, his feel, his tone, his playing, is unmatched to this day. He was such a combination of his influences, from the soaring lead guitar playing that he got from guys like Randy Rhoads, to the groove of Eddie Van Halen, to the driving rhythm guitar playing of James Hetfield. And like those guys that influenced him, he fused his influences into his own recognizable style.
I remember hearing Cowboys-era Pantera on Radio Free Hawaii and Z-Rock in the early 90s, and then seeing the "I'm Broken" video at my aunty's house in L.A. when I took my professional engineering exam for California, and was blown away at the intensity and groove of that song.
As far as his personality, he just seemed like the most genuinely nicest person that wanted everyone to feel at home. It seems that tributes to him revolve even more around his generosity and spirit, than his incredible musicianship. He was a positive person.... and I hope to someday leave a legacy, as a person, in even a small fraction of a way that he did.
Style-wise, people in the know see it in me, but most people don't realize that my red-dyed beard and razor blade necklace are tributes to Dime. It's funny when people that don't know metal say "your red beard is cool" and "I've never seen a dyed beard before", but metal fans will come up to me and say "Dimebag, right?"
I feel fortunate to have a lot of people to look up to, and Dimebag is definitely on the top of that list.
I listened to an interesting podcast on Hidden Brain about coincidences and the meaning we attach to them. The author talks about how we might attach more meaning to things that are statistically more probable than we imagine they are.
This is the kind of thing I ponder all the time, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
Gardner initially postulated multiple, distinct intelligences. These are:
Musical
Bodily - Kinesthetic
Logical - Mathematical
Linguistic
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
He later added Naturalistic intelligence, but decided against adding Humor, Cooking, Sexual, and Spiritual intelligences, noting that they did not meet his eight criteria for establishing a category of intelligence.
My observation of people supports Gardner's theory - I've seen myriads of different combinations, from some who have great logical intelligence but very little interpersonal intelligence, or lots of interpersonal but very little intrapersonal, etc. I also get a little bit of sense that there is an overarching well rounded intelligence that some people have, while others have very little developed intelligence in any category.
He talks about how his theory has been used in education, his initial resistance towards getting into that field, and ultimately how he felt a responsibility to lecture in the field of education.
I stopped reading the book here because I'm not that interested in how this theory impacts the educational field. I think I'd rather read more about the theory itself. I'm also now prompted to read about emotional intelligence, which Gardner doesn't describe in his theory.
Trailer for this episode: "What happens when you discover a part of yourself that is so different from who you think you are? Do you hold on to your original self tightly?"
This podcast really made me think. The two stories revolved around the concept about our ideas about ourselves, and what happens when we discover something about ourselves that we didn't think we were.
The first story was about a woman who appeared menacing, being 6' tall with a shaved head and wearing all black, and who kept people at an arms length. She discovers that she is voicing a young giggly girl in her dreams. Upon reflection, she remembers some extreme forms of punishment as a young girl, and subsequent dream analysis reveals that her dreams are not answers in and of themselves, rather, they are the way that her mind reduces the trauma of her past.
The second story is of a man who has a very strong Mormon background and gets punished for saying the "f" word. He grows up to be a very "square" college professor, but finds a voice for his offbeat and often risque humor as a cartoonist with a pseudonym Lord Birthday.
The overarching theme in these stories seems to be early childhood trauma, or repression, and the way that adults overcome that trauma. It's interesting to me as a parent because I think that bringing up a healthy, normal child involves giving them the power to express themselves in a way that they are loved unconditionally.
Watching the news for the past few weeks, it seems that the world is descending into chaos. When a Bernie Sanders supporter shoots a Republican congressmen, and when a white man plows a van into a group of Muslims at a London mosque... a man from a party known to be anti-guns commits gun violence and a white man terrorizes Muslims in a similar manner to how a terrorist Muslim terrorizes white people.... I know these are just two isolated incidents, but when the tables are turned and people do unexpected things, I worry that a cycle of violence has begun.
I worry that, like Israel and Palestine, the cycle won't end.
There was a hint about this after the election. Prior to the election, Trump was saying that he might not accept the results of the election (anticipating that he might lose). The left was in an uproar, stating that he needs to respect the process of election. Then, when Trump won, people were protesting and saying that the electoral college process needs to be eliminated, and I thought that those people were hypocrites.
I am very liberal, but I don't consider myself aligned with the Democratic party as a whole.
I believe that the world would be a better place if two things happened: 1) if people practiced more compassion and empathy in their lives; and 2) if people exercised more humility and worked towards independent thinking and realizing their intellectual capacity.
I like this episode of Huang's World where Eddie Huang gets different perspectives, and bridges cultural gaps through things like food.
This is Panic! At The Disco's second album, and the last to include founding member Ryan Ross.
Though Brendan Urie is the lead singer and current songwriter, Ross was the primary songwriter for the first two albums. Though they achieved commercial success on their first album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" with a pop-punk / emo sound, they expanded their songwriting style on Pretty Odd.
Pretty Odd sounds like a lost Beatles album from the Sgt. Peppers era.
The songwriting is amazing, and full of Beatles'isms, from the opening of "We're So Starving" leading into "Nine In The Afternoon" ala "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With A Little Help From Our Friends". Nine also has a stringed instrument ending with a trumpet solo that screams George Martin arrangement. Even the 3/4 beat single bar transitions and the half time chorus suggests a strong Beatles influence.
Where I think a lot of Beatles influenced music might have Beatles elements, what makes the songs of the Beatles stand out is excellent songwriting and catchy and inventive parts, and the way the songs evoke strong imagery and colors. This is where I think Panic matches the Beatles. I would have loved to hear the Beatles record all of these songs in the 60s.
The musicianship is magically Beatles too! The vibrato on the lead guitars sounds like George Harrison, and bass lines have that McCartney-esque simplicity and movement. Occasional use of slide guitar reminds me of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The sound of Urie and Ross harmonizing sounds like Lennon and McCartney. And I'm in love with the sound of the rhythm guitar on "That Green Gentleman" - that sounds like a Tele through an AC30 with a fuzz box... like a less distorted tone from "Revolution".
The production took cues from George Martin as well. Hearing instruments panned hard left and hard right give the listener that Beatles feel without being super overt or particularly effected.
But despite all of the Beatles-isms, this album stands out on its own, and is full of amazing songs that I want to hear over and over. I particularly love "Northern Downpour" - which will always remind me of driving no place in particular with my 13-year old daughter and harmonizing to this song.
I think Apple Music is one of the biggest things to come out in the past 10 years that has impacted the way I listen to music. I have unlimited access to everything in the Apple Music catalog, and don't need to worry about the amount of memory that my phone has.
Now, I can listen to whatever I want, wherever I want, and that has been instrumental in discovering new music. I'm rediscovering all of the music I haven't heard from the past 15 years and sometimes even longer.
Well, I guess it's back to metal today. I can listen to other genres, but I always come back to metal.
I recently rediscovered Decapitated. I first heard them on their Organic Hallucinosis album in 2009 and (mistakenly) wrote them off as generic death metal.
Listening to "Homo Sum" from 2011's "Carnival Is Forever" shows syncopation without sounding like Djent music or some carbon copy of Meshuggah. That song reminds me of a more modern version of Pantera's "Primal Concrete Sludge" that has Dimebag's syncopated riff over a pretty straightforward double bass beat. In fact, it appears that like me, the guitar player for Decapitated is influenced by Dime.
"Earth Scar" from the yet-to-be-released Anticult is a more straightforward Slipknot style straight ahead rock/metal song. "Never" from the same album is a fast skank beat with an octave riff, that reminds me of something from Behemoth's Demigod.
Maybe that's what it is..... the elements of their songs that remind me of some of my favorite bands make them sound very familiar to me. They can blast beat and riff like the best modern death metal, but they incorporate enough different elements into their music to make their songs interesting.
Like Behemoth, Hate, Vesania, and Vader, these guys are from Poland. Of all of those bands, I think Decapitated is one of my favorites along with Behemoth.
Maybe listening to Maya Angelou is putting me in more soulful mood. My playlist today includes:
The Mexican - G.Z.A. featuring Tom Morello (a song that my son's breakdancing teacher suggested I learn, since he knows I play guitar - I was thinking it would be cool to play this song live with breakdancers)
My Shot Remix - The Roots (What a cool combination of musicians - my favorite M.C., Black Thought, with Busta Rhymes and Nate Ruess from fun.)
Unfuck the World - Prophets of Rage (Love the combination of Rage Against The Machine, B. Real from Cypress Hill and Chuck D. from Public Enemy)
Seasons of Love - Rent soundtrack (I fell in love with this song after hearing my daughter sing the lead at the end at a recent performance)
I guess I wouldn't normally call guitars "weapons", but these two guitars are so sharp and pointy that I think they might poke your eye out if you're not careful.
These are my two favorite guitars, and the guitars I'm using with my current band.
The one on the bottom of the picture is a B.C. Rich Custom Shop Warlock, made in the United States. It's a beautifully crafted guitar, super solid, it sounds amazing, and plays really well. It's also perfect to play sitting or standing. I bought it used, so it wasn't spec'd out the way that I would have spec'd it out if I had ordered it custom built for myself. I changed the pickups from passive DiMarzios to active EMGs and they sound great. I'll need to build a battery box into the back of the guitar someday. I also took out the second volume control and the tone control, so there are unfilled holes on the front of the guitar but they don't bother me. This is my main 6-string guitar that is tuned to drop C#, which I can use to play most heavy songs.
The guitar on the top of the picture is my E-II Jesse Liu JL-7 Katana, made by ESP in Japan. It is an impeccably crafted guitar, probably the pinnacle of guitar building, but very different from the Warlock. The Seymour Duncan blackout pickup in the bridge position is dead quiet and sounds great. It's a little harder to play sitting down, but I can manage. I was resistant to 7 strings for the longest time, but I really like this one. I can play songs in E standard by just ignoring the low B string, and it's not that hard. Or I can play songs that are in B.
I might want to get a third guitar for metal - probably a 7 string that I can tune to Drop Ab. That way, I can play any song in Eb standard (Slayer!), and anything that's kind of low with the Drop Ab.
Oh, then maybe an 8-string for super low things like Meshuggah or Deftones. I guess it never ends, does it?
I saw this movie years ago, and revisited it this weekend.
I thought it was a great movie about two friends. The primary characters are Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johanssen), two recent high school graduates who start out with similar thoughts on how to proceed into adulthood but ultimately drift apart. Both actresses were snarky, and they felt very "real".
The supporting cast of characters is quirky and fun. Seymour (Steve Buschemi) is so weird, but there's something immediately identifiable about him.... a vulnerability, but also a jaded cynicism and a confidence in who he is.
It's not a typically Hollywood happy ending, and it's vague and symbolic, but I'll leave it at that so as to not spoil it.
It was a great movie. I don't like artsy movies that I feel are pretentious. Black comedies are more tongue-in-cheek because you don't take things too seriously. In the field of black comedies, it was very smart, entertaining, and oddly satisfying. I would rank it up there with Pulp Fiction, Napoleon Dynamite, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Sometimes life isn't about happy endings. With that understanding, movies like this can be oddly satisfying.
According to polls and reading recommendations, this is a classic book, and the fact that the audiobook is read by Maya Angelou herself makes the book that much more compelling.
Being born in Los Angeles and growing up in Hawaii, for me, reading about Maya Angelou's early life in Stamps, Arkansas is both foreign and interesting. She talks a lot about racism and the church, which are a world apart for me. She also talks about her relationship with her family, and in particular, her closeness with her older brother Bailey is especially touching.
She describes herself on numerous occasions as tenderhearted, and goes through trauma that renders her unable to talk in most social situations, but she overcomes this difficulty and comes of age when she and her brother Bailey move to California to be reunited with their parents.
The numerous chapters of the book cover little stories, from her toothache and the racism they encountered trying to get her teeth pulled, to her mother's con-man friends' tales of conning white men, to her travels to Mexico with her dad.
It's a good book that traverses different themes, some very heavy, some lighthearted. It's a good biography and interesting from chapter to chapter, but as a whole, it's not one of my favorite books.
Pelligrino writes about the devastation of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first few chapters describe the pure annihilation and immediacy of the destruction, but slowly the narrative evolves to describe the physical and psychological effects of the bombings, primarily from the Japanese perspective but also from the perspective of the bombers.
Much of the book reads like a horror movie, with gory accounts of both obliteration and physical suffering of unimaginable measure. On the one hand, the endless variations on death seem almost gratuitous, yet the shock upon shock of reading these horrors underscores just how cruel and unfathomable were the effects of the bomb.
The book ends with the redemption of forgiveness, and the pledge for peace. While I feel that the point of the book could be made in a shorter narrative (taking out much of the gore), I think this book is essential reading to put war into a proper perspective.
Whether or not the bombings were justified has been fervently debated, but if innocent human life is sacred, then the answer is clarified by this book.
I was looking for podcasts to listen to, and Invisibilia turned up as one of the top rated podcasts.
From the description, "Invisibilia (Latin for invisible things) is about the invisible forces that control human behavior - ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions."
I listened to Season 3 - Emotions, parts 1 and 2. There were two primary stories - one about an accident that was caused by a driver whose young daughter died in a head-on collision, and how the family was sued by the driver of the other vehicle who suffered emotional distress from seeing the young daughter's dead arm hanging inside the mangled vehicle. The other story was about a man studying a tribe of headhunters who had an emotion that the man had never experienced before.
The stories were enhanced by one researcher's idea that our emotions are not shaped by the world around us, rather that our emotions shape the world around us. This was an interesting thought, and one day, when I was feeling down, I decided that if I changed my sad thoughts, that I could change my world and my perception of the world. It was quite empowering.
I did some really minor home repair things with on one of my dad's rentals this weekend. We fixed some slats in the storage area under the house, painted the stairway, installed electrical outlet plates, changed lightbulbs, touched up interior paint, and trimmed the bottom of the bathroom door to accommodate the threshold from the new flooring. Everything was relatively easy, with the hardest part being the trimming of the bathroom door, and even that was pretty easy.
I've been practicing a lot on my 7 string. I had a hard time getting used to this guitar, but I've been able to play songs in standard 6 string tuning (Desperate Cry by Sepultura) with it, without much problem.
What's nice is that I can switch between songs like that, and songs that are tuned down as low as B, without changing guitars.
I'm now inspired to pick up an 8 string, as the band that I'm playing in is learning a Meshuggah song in F#.
I'm generally leery of all "diets" that sway too much one way or another. I believe that a healthy body doesn't only involve weight loss, though that's a primary component, perhaps even the most important one. I also believe that a healthy body is one where blood pressure, artery health, blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides are all optimally maintained, and cancer risks are reduced.
Dr. McDougall makes a compelling argument for the consumption of lots of starch with a reduction of meat and dairy, citing older generations of Asians having healthier bodies, and also maintaining diets high in rice and vegetables. He backs up this statement with evidence from working for Hamakua Sugar Company on the Big Island, and the idea resonates with me, as I know lot of older Asians and see how their eating habits affected their health.
I'm not convinced that, as he states in his book, one can add 4 cups of rice to their diet every day and be healthy, but what I do take away is that starch keeps you satiated, and it's wise to reduce animal protein.
With that in mind, I intend to try to eat just enough starch to keep me satiated, reduce my meat consumption, and eat a lot more fruits and vegetables.
