A Case Study in Music and Memory

"There are things you can't avoid; You have to face them, when you're not prepared to face them."
-- "Fight Test", by The Flaming Lips

I hear over and over that, of the five senses, smell is most closely linked to memory. I'm sure this is generally true, and there's no doubt I experience this phenomenon often. (For instance, oddly, the scent of a spring dawn always elicits images of Hudson Elementary School from my days as a 2nd grader. I don't know why, but it does.)

You may have noticed I have a strong affinity for music, and I think this influences the fact that sound -- and music, in particular -- randomly forges permanent bonds to certain memories. Some good, some neutral, some not-so-great. An interesting psychological phenomenon, for sure.

Whenever I hear "Glide" by Stone Temple Pilots, I'm immediately transported to nights during fall 2002, when I would drive home from my job as a Tony Roma's busboy at one in the morning in my '89 Jeep Comanche, windows cracked.

Whenever I hear "Merry Christmas From the Family" by Robert Earl Keen, I'm brought to a December concert back in '06, when I was sipping Coronas and hanging with old high school friends at a roadhouse in Tyler, Texas.

Whenever I hear "What Is Love" by Haddaway...

OK, so I'm kidding on that last one, but you get my point.

I don't really love the above songs, but they nevertheless became permanently associated with my past experiences. This is the way it's always worked for me, but recently, the stars aligned in an odd way.

In the last handful of years, my musical tastes have broadened considerably to encompass indie rock (Whatever "indie" is. Tangent: "Is Indie Dead?", a very interesting article by Paste magazine). The Flaming Lips is considered by some to pioneer this genre. A little less than a year ago, I decided I needed to see what all the fuss was about, and I bought their highly acclaimed '02 release, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Then I saw them live.

I was impressed. Very impressed. Yoshimi remained stuck in my car's CD player for several days straight. But interestingly, over time, the album became associated with an experience I didn't like to dwell on. It wasn't a BAD experience per se (the opposite, actually), but it was something from which I needed to move forward. Listening to that album, however, would inevitably conjure images from that period of my life to rush back into my head.

So I avoided it. To hell with my love of the musical qualities of Yoshimi; I just needed to ignore it for a while, letting that memory play out its course and exit my mind, stage left. But months went by, and I remained shy to glance at the CD cover art, much less play it.

Then one day I decided I needed to change things. It may have made sense at the time to avoid the album, but so many months removed, it started to feel silly to go to such lengths. So I put it in my work computer and listened from track 1 to 11, start to finish.

And you know, it was an oddly gratifying experience. The first track spoke directly to me (see the start of the entry), understanding that I felt like I wasn't mentally prepared to clear this psychological hurdle, but reassuring me that I actually was. Afterwards, I got to thinking: Why did I think this would be difficult? And how much did avoiding the album reinforce my overcautiousness?

I'll probably never shake the mental association I have with The Flaming Lips, just like I never will dissociate "Glide" from Tony Roma's. But at least now, as my emotional attachment with it diminishes, I can appreciate Yoshimi for what it is.

A damn good CD.

My, How Times Have(n't) Changed

Credit: Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson

Don't Make No Sense

I have the blood of both an English teacher and a former algebra teacher coursing through my veins. A blessing in many ways, but as such, I have a strong tendency to dissect the English language with an overwhelmingly logical mind, often to the annoyance of people within a 10-foot radius. (And you.)

But bear with me, because I've found something that will make your head explode.

Commonly, the "in-" or "un-" prefix negates the meaning of a word. For instance, "flexible" vs "inflexible", or "tie" vs "untie". This is the case the vast majority of the time...but not always, for no good reason at all, such as with "flammable" vs "inflammable", which essentially mean the exact same thing. (Look it up.)

My co-workers and I ran across another interesting example the other day.

Consider "valuable", which describes something that has tangible value. A Babe Ruth rookie card has value. Now consider "invaluable", which frequently is used as a more intense version of "valuable". Friendship, for one, is invaluable. Literally, if an object is invaluable, then it has no value; not because it isn't precious, but because the object is so valuable that its value cannot be quantified...if that makes sense. "Invaluable", therefore, has a very positive connotation.

Now consider "worth". The aforementioned Babe Ruth rookie card has lots of worth, in the same way that it has lots of value. But friendship is so precious that its worth cannot be measured. So would you describe friendship as "worthless"? Even though this is exactly the same line of reasoning we followed from "valuable" to "invaluable", the word "worthless" has a strong negative connotation. Friendship isn't worthless, but that lousy novelty t-shirt you got from your distant relative for Christmas might be.

How is this possible? "Value" and "worth" are synonyms. But negating them as shown above, getting "invaluable" and "worthless", are antonyms.

No doubt this is because the words evolved in different ways through the years. Sort of like "terrific" came to mean something very positive, even though it springs from same root as the word "terror", which ain't so positive.

Just another way the English language don't make no sense.

Will It Blend?

Trying to sell a blender? Forget those boring, pointless, 3am infomercials. Just upload YouTube videos of your state-of-the-art Blendo 3000 -- or whatever you call it -- blending anything and everything, from Bic lighters to golf clubs to light bulbs!

That's what Blendtec did...achieving hitherto unreached heights of randomness and hilarity. Check out Tom Dickson -- who isn't the greatest of actors, but apparently makes a living doing this while the rest of us are stuck behind desks -- as he blends a dozen glow sticks into an eerily fluorescent smoothie:



I think I like the background music best, if not the profound conclusion, "Yes! It blends!" See: Will It Blend? for more. It's actually staggering how many of these videos there are.

JoshCast #31 - Furr

Kudos to my brother for turning me on to Blitzen Trapper, an indie rock group hailing from Portland, Oregon. The title track from their 2008 release, Furr, in particular continually invites me to hit that rewind button, just so I can hear it one more time.

It's a whimsical tune about some wandering soul that, enamored by the wild, assimilates with a pack of wolves, only to be drawn back to reality six years later after meeting a pearl-skinned girl. ...Um, I think. It's probably open to all sorts of interpretation if you study its lyrics, but at any rate, it's a fun listen.

Pretty cool papercraft animation accompanies it on the music video. Check it out: