The Virtues, Strike That, Virtue of Top 40 Music

I am largely not a fan of top 40 music.  Sure I had my phase as an adolescent when I bought a KDWB tank top at the state fair but for a long time now the top 40 has bugged me, a lot.  There are a few obvious reasons; like the degrading and overly mature lyrics that are daily piped into the school busses my kids ride, or the asinine melodies that are addictingly popular but increasingly similar, and the repetitive and commercial nature of the format itself. 

Just the other day a song came on and my oldest joyously proclaimed, “This song is always on!” to which he started singing and my wife knowingly smirked as I looked over to her, eyebrows raised, shaking my head.  Even country music isn’t immune to the top 40 tripery.  Tonight I heard an autotuned pop country song. Autotuned!

But this post isn’t about the breakdown of society through commercial music it is about the virtue (yes singular virtue) of the top 40. The top 40 makes my family happy.  There are few greater joys than to hear three boys belting out lyrics with passion and delight and for that reason I’ll forgo my news or talk for silly lyrics, autotuned voices and drum machine beats.

70 or 170

Imagine you have just wrapped up with a routine physical at your doctor. You ask, “What’s the prognosis doc?” and your doctor tells you, “Well, there is no easy way to tell you but… based on the results from your exam… I’d say you have about 120 more years to live.”

Would you live any different knowing you had twice as long to live? Would you live slower? Would you take on different projects? How would you approach your work? Interesting to think about, I’m not sure if it’s practical though.

Jazz Writing – Pretty Cool if You Can Handle It. Ya Dig?

Over the last 3 days, in between all of my other duties at work, I have been working on an article. The content doesn’t matter for this post; it was the process that intrigued me. 

On Tuesday I didn’t have a feel for the angle or arc of the story I was telling but I was on a short deadline so I wrote some all-purpose paragraphs that could be used pretty much anywhere in the text.  On Wednesday I attended an event that would be the subject for the article which I had written in regards to in generalities on Tuesday.  After Wednesday when I sat at the keyboard Thursday morning the story was more clearly defined and I wrote an introduction that set the stage and moved some of Tuesdays paragraphs around to fill it out.  I planned to tie it all together Thursday afternoon after teaching but when I checked my email at lunch I learned that the article was finished. 

It was pretty cool.  I read the email and the finished draft and saw that all of the things I would have had to work to say were said.  The other author saw the framework I had established, riffed off of some of the melodies I had laid down and set the hook to real our audience in with a line cast by the rhythm of our shared experience at Wednesdays excursion.  It was like writing in jazz and it was cool man.  

With deepest regrets

Regretfully I did not log any time on the couch today. But alas, tomorrow is another day.

I Briefly Considered a Retraction

Tonight I was stranded 6 miles from home so I pointed myself north and ran until I got to my couch.  Ok to be more accurate I was at a sports potluck with the family and decided to run home rather than join the others on the drive (but you have to admit the first one sounded way cooler).

In the first half mile I thought back to my sixth post ofthis blog in which I said I think I could run a marathon distance if I was 26.2 miles away from home and had a little food and water on the way and an iPod full of podcasts . I had my reasons, and I still do, but the first half mile of tonight’s run I seriously considered retracting that sixth post, at least partially.

By the end of the second mile I had slipped into a rhythm and my focus shifted from discomfort to the witty insights from the hosts of the How Stuff Works podcast.  When I reached my couch there was no doubt that I had just exerted myself but I could have continued too.

I’m looking forward to my marathon run, whenever it happens. I only hope tonight’s run doesn’t taint the purity of my unprepped run.

Resolved but not Identified (Definitively at Least)

My John Galt problem from yesterday’spost is resolved for now but the question is yet unanswered.  As I promised I replaced the front tire and tube on my bike in hopes of resolving a nagging flat problem.  I’m pleased to report that after gassing the tire up with a 78-21-1 mixture of Nitrogen Oxygen and other trace gases respectively, the pressure held overnight and survived a brief exercise up and down the alley. I’m planning to make the first commute of 2012 tomorrow morning and I am cautiously optimistic that all will go well.

Yet John Galt’s anonymity remains.

You may think that the tire and tube definitively answer the flat question but I didn’t tell the whole story. There was an inclusion. 

Replacing the tire and tube on a 700c wheel is relatively simple but that doesn’t mean it is easy, especially when you’re not that good at it. The basic idea is to unseat (or remove) the tire from one side of the wheel, pull the tube out, put a new or repaired tube back into the tire, then put the loose side of the tire back into the wheel.  The problem is that the tire fits really, really tight into the wheel and it has to stretch beyond its natural diameter in order to get off and then on again.  I’m pretty sure that every time I have replaced a tube I, at some point in the process, have thought, “I’ll never get this thing off (or on) I don’t know why I think I can do any of my own bike repairs.”

There is typically quite a bit of jostling and cajoling, perhaps even negotiation and pleading.  Needless to say I typically don’t get the tire on or off on the first try.  Last night as I pried and twisted the tire I started to hear a rattle. It didn’t register right away but soon my efforts shifted from replacement to investigation.  I removed a semi-flexible band that conceals the spoke tightening bolts and rotated the wheel until finally something fell out.  I found the particle, examined it and found it to resemble a twisted shard of metal.

Eureka! You might think. Surely the twisted shard must be the offending agent that claimed so many good tubes. But I can’t.

As you have likely recognized two variables were changed in this tires tale.  I can’t conclude in favor of the tire or the shard because both were changed at once.  If I was conducting an experiment I would be stoned or burned at the stake by an angry hoard of scientists for my lack of variable control or perhaps if my life was spared I’d likely be forced to wear a scarlet V as a constant reminder for my crime against science.

Fortunately I just want to ride my bike and my repair isn’t going up against peer review.

Why Won’t My Tires Hold Air? Who is John Galt?

I’ve been plagued by my bike tires since some time last summer.  I’ve repaired tubes, replaced tubes, inspected the tire for sharp objects, checked the wheel for intruding spokes and jagged edges but the tire won’t hold air. Why won’t my tire hold air seems to be asymptotically approaching the question: Who is John Galt?

I think a little explanation is in order. After finishing Deception Point I was faced with the decision of what fiction I would add to my current reading list. I decided on Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  I had the book in queue for some time and with a vacancy in the fiction section of my current stable of active books I decided to give it a try. I really didn’t know anything about the book except that people read it and it is somewhat well known.  Now, 3.32% in, I have two observations.  First – the text is an amazingly descriptive piece of writing. Second – “Who is John Galt?” is a reoccurring question that symbolizes a question or situation with no clear or even knowable answer.

There is no clear or perhaps even knowable answer for why my bike tires won’t hold air.

I nearly bought new wheels and a drive train to put on my bike to bypass my John Galt problem but I’ve decided to try one more thing.  I have been holding the original tires and tubes from the bike so I’ll see if they can provide any answers.  We’ll see.  If not, the next thing to do may be to throw some money at the problem.