Kevin Marshall's America
ALTA MIRA & MORE, TONIGHT AT VALENTINE’S
A reminder that tonight at Valentine’s is Alta Mira with supporting acts Holly & Evan, Ben Karis-Nix, and the Ashley Pond Band. Downstairs, 8pm, $7. Pretty eccentric mix of stuff.
On Sunday, Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned play with The Loom, Life Among Trees, and Wailing Walls supporting.
More info at ValentinesAlbany.com.
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SEAN ROWE
In 2010, Sean Rowe joined the likes of Tom Waits, Neko Case, and others when he was signed by the world renowned Anti- records. Being lumped in with artists of that caliber can be daunting, but if early reaction to his forthcoming Anti- Records release “Magic” is any indication, he’ll be considered a peer in no time. American Songwriter magazine named Sean their Songwriter of the Week, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Nippertown has more.
Local music fans may have some familiarity with “Magic” – it was put out initially by Collar City Records a couple years back. In a move that speaks to the high quality of our local label, the re-release from Anti- is untouched and unmodified. Kudos to the folks at Collar City.
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ODD FUTURE
I honestly hadn’t heard of this group until everyone and their cross-eyed Uncle started posting video of their performance from earlier this week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Insane, intense, and charismatic, Odd Future made the perfect network debut. For all my hesitations regarding him as a host, Fallon continues to have the best musical acts.
More music & recommendations after the jump…
Poor Ringo. He always meant well, but he rarely brought anything useful.
What a week. We went from Valentine’s Day at the beginning of the week to the first glimpse of what it will be like when machines destroy love with their ability to answer game show questions effectively.
Let’s get our minds off the loneliness and despair of holidays meant for others and machines meant to replace us.
First, though, some cool stuff this weekend.
FRIDAY: Alta Mira with Holly & Evan, Ben Karis-Nix, and the Ashley Pond Band. Downstairs, 8pm, $7. More info
SATURDAY: The Albany All-Star Roller Derby Girls at the Washington Avenue Armory! The Department of Public Hurts take on the Capital City Legislayers starting at 7pm. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, and only $4(!) for children under 12. For more info and tickets, check out the Albany All-Stars website.
Speaking of roller derby, check out my guest post on derby girl Audrey Deathburn’s blog (warning: mute your speakers; music automatically plays and it’s a bit loud).
This week – artificial intelligence, Flexi Wheeler is INvulnerable, Amanda Talar is dressed to the 9s, and Daniel Nester has some mansplainin’ to doooooooo! This…is Blogorama.
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WE’RE YOUR SOURCE: This Week on the Times Union Blogs
Vulnerability is in the Eye of the Beholder (Roller Derby / Flexi Wheeler)
IBM’s Watson Has Heart of Gold (Rev. Alan Rudnick)
The Case Against High Speed Rail (The Buzz / Eric Anderson)
Are You a Mansplainer? Let Me Mansplain (Daniel Nester)
Moving Towards Minimalism in the Hudson Valley (Simpler Living)
Death By Twitter (Lydia Kulbida)
Ten Songs That Broke My Heart (Chuck Miller)
Am I Too Dressed Up to Date? (Amanda Talar)
Valentine’s Day: No One Likes It (High School / Katie Maffucci)
All the Lonely People, Where Do They Go? (CRUMBS / Andrew Gregory)
More amazingness is after the jump.
The secret headquarters of The Legion of Doom, where the three-day Jeopardy! event was shown while Lex Luthor and Gorilla Grodd plotted their latest scheme to defeat The Justice League. Image via Wikipedia
I watched the IBM Jeopardy! Challenge at RPI’s EMPAC facility last evening with an unhealthy combination of skepticism and ignorance.
The three-day event coincided with the airing of three episodes of the long-running game show “Jeopardy!” hosted by Alex Trebek that pitted two former champions (Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter) against Watson, an artificial intelligence software and supercomputer developed by IBM.
Watson won, which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the complexity behind the mechanizations. Despite its appearance on television, Watson is actually a room filled with 90 servers processing a complex network of hardware and software and combined information retrieval with language processing, reasoning, and other factors. If you’re interested in the specifics, IBM has an entire website devoted to it.
I was far more interested in the crowd reaction to the machine. Students and community members from in and around Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – some of whom participated in the development of Watson – packed the auditorium to what I estimate was at least ninety percent capacity. When the facade of the computer appeared, they roared in approval. Correct answers garnered enthusiastic applause while the machine’s wildly inaccurate guesses were met with laughter that ranged from slight titters to agonizingly forced guffaws. Members of the crowd buzzed with anticipation while some showed off t-shirts that read “I <3 Watson”.
The endearment shown towards the IBM project was understandable given the school’s technical focus, though no less distressing to someone like myself who has far more appreciation for things he can grasp and appreciate; things such as endurance, creativity, and feeling. To put it kindly a more arts-minded fellow, though it may be more accurate to say “a dunce.”
Somewhat connected in yesterday’s post about things you can’t call yourself.
Ever since I was in High School, I have seen many – including myself – label under the misapprehension of being the overlooked “nice guy.”
“Why doesn’t this girl like me?” we’d ask. “I’m a nice guy, certainly nicer than the guys she goes for.”
Conventional wisdom is that the girls go for the jerks, and the rest of us are left as victims of our own virtues, doomed to sit around and wait for one of the objects of our affections to wise up and realize the error of their ways and how much they’re missing out.
Except that’s the most shallow, pathetic, self-centered, and deluded outlook you can have. Who are you, and what exactly puts you on a pedestal and makes you superior to other men (or women) around you?
I started thinking on this yesterday when I was sent a link to the blog “Failbook” (highlighting the various misadventures of the crazy and the dumb on Facebook). The following was posted as a screen capture. Zoey, High School crush of Toby, complains about guys being jerks. Toby goes on a screed that makes him a folk hero of sorts:
What we’re supposed to take away from it is that, wow, girls can often talk about how mean and heartless guys are, but they’re every bit as bad, if not worse.
…no. No no no.
Firstly, no matter what the past may have been between the two, the dude in this example is highjacking someone else’s problems to make it about himself. If one needs wonder why Toby’s persistence hasn’t paid off, the culmination of his frustration clearly lays out the reason why: he does not, despite pretenses and obsession, know very much about her nor does he care enough to not make everything that she does about himself.
Her pain is inconsequential. His is paramount.
He lays out three years of unrequited affections, though it might be more apt to call it not taking a damn hint. Or, in some cases, borderline harassment. In year 8, Zoey clearly wanted nothing to do with Toby. So then he sent her candy and roses and “tried to be romantic,” which is a super creepy thing to say to a girl that isn’t your girlfriend and has made it clear she doesn’t want anything to do with you. In year 9, he still couldn’t take a hint. In year 10…well, you get the picture.
Now, I’m sure this girl has committed some wrongs in this situation. If we take Toby at face value, then to some extent he’s been taken advantage of in the past, which is wrong. But what makes Toby “the nice guy?”
The answer? Nothing, because he’s not. Instead, he suffers from what I call Nice Guy Syndrome.
Nice Guy Syndrome affects dudes who obsess over women (or a specific woman). The person suffering from it will tell people that he just doesn’t get it, because he’s such a nice guy. Except nothing that the guy does is selfless. All the supposed nice guy things he does – the candy, the roses, the badgering, the begging and the pleading – aren’t favors meant to make her happy, or make her smile. They’re all actions committed with the prerequisite that he gets something in return, in particular the physical affections of his obsession.
As a result, dudes who suffer from Nice Guy Syndrome engage in deluded, self-centered behavior exacerbated by an incessant victim complex. They’ll say and do things to try to evoke pity from others, but when you scratch past the surface you find that there’s no great injustice done other than the person deigning to say “no” to them.
To those who suffer, try this: if someone says they’re not interested, take them at their word. If you’re one of those that must be persistent, then by all means, stick around and be a friend. But that doesn’t mean continually asking them out over and over again only to get a no, sending flowers and candy, and engaging in various other clueless behaviors that strain the relationship and make the other party develop animosity towards you.
Most importantly, remember this one thing: the Universe, and the person you’re crushing on, owes you nothing. You do not deserve this person simply because you decide you want to get in his or her pants.
Try a little empathy for a change. Being the nice guy is impossible without it.
Charlie Sheen, social crack smoker. Image via Wikipedia
Charlie Sheen called into Dan Patrick‘s radio show yesterday morning to discuss his recent troubles
He said that he’s currently “peeing clean” and was surprised when he showed up to work on the sitcom “Two and a Half Men” and nobody was on set.
The kicker, though, was what he said about crack cocaine.
He advised listeners that they shouldn’t do the drug “unless they can manage it socially.” He then said that he, in fact, can manage crack cocaine socially.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Sheen has made history as the world’s first ever social crack cocaine user. I consider him a pioneer.
Who wants to hang out this weekend, watch some sports and smoke some crack?
Man, this guy is so dead by the end of 2011. I hate saying that so glibly, but trust me, he’s doomed.
Recently a friend of mine told me that something he had written online was controversial.
He was exaggerating. What he had written (let’s say it was a Facebook status) evoked something of a reaction from people that disagreed with him, which he then milked and tried to make into a bigger deal than it was.
One of the unfortunate symptoms of Web 2.0 is the need for people to make anything and everything they write and do seem like it has some weight or importance. This leads to people making outrageous claims and heaping certain labels unto themselves. These labels aren’t just ridiculous and undeserved, but actually indicate the person doing so is anything but.
There are certain adjectives that, when describing ourselves, we simply can’t use due to modesty and certain cultural mores. Unless you’re an athlete, and even then it borders on self-parody (see: James, Lebron and Henderson, Rickey).
Thus, I give you Forbidden Self-Descriptive Adjectives:
CONTROVERSIAL.
Anybody that tells you that s/he is “controversial” is clearly trying too hard. It’s bad enough when celebrities and musicians do it to artificially boost their standing in the public limelight, but when you do it amongst friends, it becomes particularly embarrassing for you.
"Ha ha ha ha! Yes, I am vetty smart. Vetty vetty smart!" Image via Wikipedia
BRILLIANT.
Einstein didn’t walk around telling everybody he was brilliant. Smart people are often insecure, but never about being smart. They let their deeds, words, and/or actions speak to that.
PATRIOT.
This is another thing that is better said through actions and deeds. It’s also become, in modern political discourse, a hackneyed adjective. The word is invoked more often to knock down opposition or make a political point than it is to honor someone who’s actually done something of merit. Also, can we stop pretending there are a large number of Americans that walk around “hating America?” It’s childish and stupid. But that’s a rant for another time.
A NICE GUY.
Fellow dudes, listen. I know that you’re frustrated because something didn’t work out and/or a girl doesn’t like you. But it’s not because you’re a nice guy. Real nice guys don’t tell people they’re a nice guy as an excuse or a plea for pity. Also, you’re most likely not a nice guy. You don’t do anything that’s particularly awful, per se, but a nice guy you ain’t. In fact, you’re kind of a selfish brat.
What’re some others? Against my better judgement, I’ll turn it over to you, the readers.
Anybody who attended college at the undergraduate level saw their fair share of awful syllabi (those semester outlines that college professors hand out on the first day). I know I sure saw some terrible ones myself.
I wish I’d saved some of them. I recall one that used Comic Sans MS (alternating with another font type) and others that were clearly done the night before, which would be confirmed via weekly updates that we’d have to make in pen, making it look more like the wall of Russell Crowe’s office in “A Beautiful Mind.”
If you’re a current or former student and have an embarrassing one you want to share, you could win a $10 Starbucks Gift Certificate courtesy of Intellidemia.
Go to the official event page on Facebook for more information.
Turtles and giant rats all want to hit that this Valentine's Day. Image via Flickr.
I struggled with what to write about the holiday, since I’m largely ambivalent towards it. I don’t garner any of that phony hostility towards it that you see all of your friends ranting about in an attempt to make everyone as miserable as they are (really, boxes of chocolate shaped like hearts bother you that much?), but as a single guy I also don’t have any stake in the holiday.
So for me, it’s just Monday.
Note: except it’s also my mother’s birthday. Everyone wish her a happy one; she’s off to Mexico to celebrate. Seriously. Quite a life she lives.
It’s certainly an interesting observance in our culture. As a child, Valentine’s Day is one of our first introductions to the craft of pretending to like people that we don’t, a skill we perfect as we grow older and become adults. You had to buy everyone in your class a Valentine, and you gave them out in a manner that didn’t indicate a preference towards certain people. Doing so taught us that even though some people are often annoying twerps, engaging in anti-social behavior towards and/or excluding them often leads to more trouble than it’s worth. It’s easier – and better for all parties involved – to just give them a smile and a tiny piece of cardboard that had a drawing of Michaelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles expressing a desire to fornicate.
It’s a shame that as an adult we don’t still engage in this practice (giving Valentines, not fornicating with mutant turtles). If I’d thought of it sooner, I would have gone out and purchased a box of the things and made up a bunch of them to give out at work; perhaps even to everyone that comes into my office.
Because why not, and how else am I going to celebrate? It doesn’t hurt to show a little kindness, even if the day isn’t for me.
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George Gerswhin, author of the greatest love songs of the 20th Century. Image via Wikipedia
My original intent was to post a video of Gene Kelly performing “Our Love is Here to Stay” from “An American in Paris,” but unfortunately TCM does not allow us to embed that video, simply link to it. Boo to you, TCM!
Anyway, I just saw the aforementioned film for the first time last week, and what a gorgeous spectacle. That song in particular is amazing. As contrived as the scene is, Kelly’s delivery and George Gershwin‘s gorgeous songwriting can’t help but bring a smile to my face and make me a believer.
Do yourself a favor: watch the above video, sing the song to someone, or at the very least keep it in your mind. It’s a wonderful little diddy.
…just kidding, they’re still the New York Post.
I don’t know if this guy was just directed wrong or if he’s naturally creepy, but he acts like a serial killer in this spot that’s supposed to be “romantic” but instead comes out looking like the climatic scene in a low-budget thriller.
The thunderstorm motif and jumpy woman doesn’t help matters.
When I searched for the video on YouTube, I was not surprised to find I wasn’t the only one who made this observation. So Kay Jewelers, what’s up with your serial killer commercial? It’s creepy. Everyone thinks the dude acts like a serial killer. Stop showing it on TV.
Every kill begins with K.
* Note – this is not to be confused with commercials for Jared’s, which make the people watching it want to kill people.
STALK ME
