Radiohead ftw

So i finished my radiohead binge last week. And it did not leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I learned several things from this little experiment:

1. I did not really tire of it. In fact i was strongly considering continuing on radiohead for the rest OF MY LIFE. but then i realised that i sorely missed my dear hayley. As talented as mr yorke is, sometimes i just a good ol' punk song to kick out the jams. As much as man does not live on bread alone, so too does he not live on one band alone.
   
2. It did not substantially alter my outlook on life. I did feel a little more negative about things, but this can be attributed to the 2 exams i have looking over my head like a cloud of bad dreams. (last exams EVER!). What it did change was my capacity and willingness to think a bit more about the bigger picture of existence and life. It drew out a dormant cynicism i have for much of life in ways i was not expecting, most in particular was the quote from last week i found from Steven Soderbergh about movies and how much i resonated with it. One could say that i was climbing up the walls a bit with it...I've wanted to read more than i ever have before, and i don't know if this is a side effect of radiohead in my head, or just my normal urge being enhanced, but the urge is there!
   
3. If you ever want to engage a bit more with your darker side, listen to radiohead for a week. Not Nine Inch Nails, that's a bit too dark. And not My Chemical Romance, that's a bit too emo. Radiohead is where it's at.
4. Radiohead is a genius name for a band.
   
5. Kid A is excellent and underrated.
   
6. I learned that 2+2=5 and that the ice age is indeed coming sooner than we expected.
7. I learned that 4th year medical and radiation physics is a bit too easy. But actually, I already knew that.
   

In conclusion, the qualitative nature of this experiment meant that any error encountered in data collection is negligible. Radiohead are a band with an extensive and varied back catalogue and can be used as a way to enhance one's mental capacity and ability to engage with intellectual materials (such as the study of physics and/or metaphysics). However, this may be done at the expense of one's ability to engage meaningfully and pleasantly with the outside world. It is recommended based on my findings that while it may be useful to listen to only one artist for a period of time, it is potentially unhealthy to extend this beyond any period outside of a week or a possibly fortnight without lasting side effects.



lol

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This week, i listened to a lot of jeff buckley. Then i watched michael jackson's this is it. Tortured geniuses both too good for this earth. I have this theory (possibly heretical) that maybe every now and then, God sends down a soul too pure just to live out that the old adage the brightest candle burns out the fastest.


it's late and i like blogging when it's late. bahahahahaha.

I don't write songs for Sony.
I write songs for the people screaming
down the road in their car,
crying with the radio on full blast.

Jeff Buckley's diary. During the post-Grace period when he was experiencing pressure from his record company to write a 'couple of hits' for his second album My Sweetheart The Drunk. I watched his Grace Around the World DVD today and was reminded of how amazing and pure the man was as a musician and an artist. It's a real shame, even an injustice that he isn't as big in his own country as he is here in Australia or Europe. The bigger shame is that he died so young and so needlessly.


Do yourself a favour and listen to Jeff Buckley. Like NOW.

We watch all these movies and what do we have to show for it?

I read an interview with director Steven Soderbergh- the director of the Ocean's movies, and sex, lies and videotape (the rare breed to tread safely between commercial success and indie acclaim). And he had something remarkable to say:

...I'm not saying movies aren't influential; I just don't think they're important any more. There was a time when they were important culturally [and] I think they're as influential as ever, if not more, but that's not the same thing.

...It's not specific to films. I feel that way about all art right now. I'm not convinced it does anything any more. I look at what's happening in the world today, and I don't know how many stories about ourselves we need to tell before people stop killing each other. If the works of Shakespeare can't stop the Holocaust, then what is it worth? I'm being serious.

What good has it done us to read all of these great plays about all of these incidents and go, "Oh my God, what a tragedy that this person behaved that way", and there's no translation to what is happening around us. It's just the same thing over and over.

How's that for 21st century cynicism? We pump billions of dollars into the film industry, and spend countless hours being 'entertained'...and what do we really have to show for it? If we don't learn anything from it, whether it be an intellectual lesson, an emotional lesson, a political or social lesson, then there is something seriously wrong with the film culture we live in.

But then again, I LOVE Transformers. So what does that mean?

Just something to think about i guess.


As a post-script....i love Radiohead.

http://www.houseofkloo.blogspot.com

Jigsaw Pieces Falling Into Place

On day 3 of 5 of my Radiohead journey, I have found some interesting results.

The first thing i noticed when limiting myself to one artist for a week is that i listen to a lot of music. Over monday and tuesday alone, I had already listened to Kid A 3 times, The Bends once, OK Computer at least 1.5 times, Hail To The Thief twice and Pablo Honey once. In Rainbows featured twice at least and even now it is pumping through my brain. So I had virtually exhausted my Radiohead collection multiple times over within a period of less than 48 hours. I don't have Amnesiac or other live recordings...but i think I should...

As i looked back on the past two days, i realised the vast amount of time i spend with earbuds playing music directly to my brain. And for that matter, how much time we all spend with our personal music players in some sort of symbiotic relationship that effectively creates the cone of silence between us and the outside world. We sit at our computers and look at windows for hours at a day without so much as a hello or a smile to those sitting less than a metre away.

Never before have we been so connected, and never before have we been so disconnected.

Just an interesting thought i had.


I guess that's what Radiohead does to you. It makes you think a little bit.

Have i noticed any difference in life from listening to nothing but Radiohead? Nothing too noticeably different. Probably just made me think about things i already had going on in my head. The past two days have been wet and dreary, which fit quite nicely actually...but it'll be interesting to see how Radiohead will relate to this incoming hot weather in the next few days.

Fake Plastic Trees

The gimmick of the week is this: I officially declare this week Radiohead Week whereby I will perform a little social experiment and listen to nothing but Radiohead until Friday! The aim is to observe what effect this has on one's outlook on life and whether there is any quantifiable correlation between quality of said life and the amount of Thom Yorke in one's ears/mind/soul. The hypothesis is that it will be something of a challenging emotional journey, with the worst result being that I inexplicably start reading Stephanie Meyer novels.

Stay tuned for the final results, discussion and conclusions! (Scientific credibility of my findings up for debate).


Or maybe it's just because I've finished and handed in my thesis, and i just needed another experiment to fill in the time.