“Mort” by Terry Pratchett

I’m kind of embarrassed to say that this is the first Discworld novel that I’ve read. I would have loved these when I was younger, and I’m still into this sort of book now. Pratchett seems to enjoy taking classic tropes of fantasy literature and turning them on their head, making them amusing or absurd. For example, the Discworld is quite literally a disc that is balanced on four elephants and a giant turtle. It even states in the book that scientists don’t think that a world this ridiculous is possible. But here it is anyways.

Our protagonist here is Mort, short for Mortimer, (also the French word for “death” haha) who becomes apprenticed to Death. He’s a bit of a fool, but that just makes him more likeable. Death himself is also much nicer than you would think, he seems to have a thing for cats and gets lonely every once in a while. Mort’s job is to separate the souls from people’s bodies once they have died, a job that he constantly questions. Death’s response to many of his objections is that there is no justice, only death. And there is no fairness that can be found in death.

Mort tries to make it more fair by saving a princess that he developed a crush on from being murdered. Naturally, this upsets fate and reality, her subjects all think that she’s dead now and can’t see or hear her. This brings up an interesting note about reality in this world, whatever people believe in is what is real. A wizard tells Mort that the gods only die when people stop believing in them, and Mort develops a habit of walking through solid objects when he doesn’t know that they are there. Anything can be true if you get enough people to believe in it. Which is quite a heady bit of philosophy for a kid’s book.

As demonstrated, you don’t need to be familiar with the Discworld previously to enjoy this book. I’ll probably be checking out more of Pratchett’s novels now though, I quite like the world he has set up here.

Some Philosophy of Tourist Photos

Ok so tourist photos are really wacky things. We all take them, for no real reason though. We could definitely find better photos online, but we are sacrificing quality for personalization and use them as proof of the fact that we were there ourselves. A photo has an inherent claim to truth that no other art form really has.

Most tourist photos have a goal in mind of showing the place of interest without people in the image. We want to imagine the objects as having existed for all eternity, untouched by human hands. Which is absurd because most tourist destinations have been made by humans, or at least shaped by them.

If there are people in the image, photographers want them to be their travelling partners or usually family. And the whole arrangement has to be staged instead of a candid shot. A certain image of the trip needs to be imparted through the photo so we are all arranged a certain way and smiling. Tourist pictures are meant to be brought out and seen by others, and these future audience members need to get a specific impression from the photo pf your trip. There’s an element of vanity inherent to them.

Tourist pictures aren’t meant to be squirreled away, they are intended to be brought out later as proof of how cultured we are. As a sidenote, we all have this strange idea that by travelling and visiting different places we become more cultured and somehow more intelligent and worldly. Literally no other animal really thinks this, I wonder how we developed this idea?

Having said all that, there’s also websites like www.reclaiminghistory.org, which is a website that crowdsources images of ruined heritage sites from tourist pictures. Here they want all of the various imperfect camera angles to compile a virtual image of the work. Tourist photos are actually a method of preservation!

Personally I find that tourist photos can be a great way of examining how works of art are displayed. So what they’re next to, what information is given about it, what the room it’s in looks like. They capture a specific moment that would otherwise be lost in the history of the work itself.

So even though tourist photos are odd and somewhat contradictory, there are redeeming qualities to them. Bottom line is, do what makes you happy. Take a picture of something with historical or artistic significance, or don’t. It’s up to you.

“Whistling Vivaldi” by Claude Steele

This book seeks to explain how stereotypes of groups we belong to affect our performance. Why do minority students do worse in college? Why are women less represented in math and sciences? What do these stereotypes do to us? And ultimately, how can we lessen their effects?

Steele was part of the team that coined the term “stereotype threat” which is what happens when you remind someone of a negative stereotype of themselves and they subsequently perform worse. Remind African-American students that they are seen as less intelligent, and they will fare worse on a test. It’s been shown across demographics and throughout all sorts of situations. Here Steele takes you through his thought process and how he designed his experiments step-by-step, which is a really cool insight. He breaks it all down into terms that we can all understand in see within our lives, which makes it very relatable and applicable work.

Steele also shows that in trying to overcome these stereotypes, we tend to hinder ourselves in the process. Our brain gets so tied up in thinking about the stereotype that we cannot focus on the task at hand and subsequently do worse. So what can we do if we cannot simply overcome the stereotype with brute force?

Steele gives several suggestions. What has been shown to be very effective is a self-affirmation of values. Just thinking about what you value highly and affirming your sense of self has been proven to raise performance for an extended period of time. There is also how we give feedback. Instead of praising or discouraging, simply have faith in others to meet high expectations. This brings the focus away from them as an individual, and keeps it on the task at hand.

One of his findings that I thought was very important for white people to take into consideration, was that most white people aren’t prejudiced against African-Americans, they just are afraid of being seen as racist and instead avoid them. Which in itself is a form of bias. However, when they were encouraged to see their interactions as a learning process, the unwillingness to interact went away. I find this insight critical, since that’s what all white people (or people of any majority) really need to keep in mind. We are all in the middle of a learning process about each other and of different cultures; we cannot let the fear of messing up keep us from improving. Now more than ever, we need to make reaching out to each other a priority, rather than closing ourselves off out of fear.

Memories

Just a short think piece on this since I’ve only been posting about books for ages.

Memory is a really strange thing, you always fear losing it, but when it starts to happen you can’t remember what you’ve forgotten and aren’t as bothered by it. (I’m talking about memories about life rather than forgetting to turn the stove off or something.) I’m losing memories of college and what it was like, and while I don’t want to lose those memories, I’m not super concerned about it.

It is possible to completely psych yourself out about this, but really we have so little control over our memories. Going back over the memories we have changes them slightly every time, so even if we don’t completely forget them we still alter what’s remaining. Who can say what really happened years ago now?

It is possible to pick out the elements that you will remember, but what’s important here is the message, the take away, rather than the memory itself. Maybe you remember that time your friend stayed up with you all night. No one really knows what was actually said then, but the point is that your friend was caring enough to stay with you all night.

And this is all the opposite of what we expect from our brains. We want hard facts, definite dialogue, and certainty about our past. Instead what we get is murky feelings and uncertainties. It’s important to let go of these notions, and try to accept what you remember as what it is.

Variations on a Theme: Holiday/Winter Playlist

So I got bored of not doing anything creative lately so I decided to start doing a series of posts called "Variations on a Theme." Once a month I’ll put together a playlist based on a semi-random theme of my choosing, and talk about each song as well as its order in the playlist. I’ll put together a post about them all with links to the songs, hopefully this will be a cool way to share some knowledge about obscure songs and fun facts about them!

For the first post, I wanted to do something with all the holiday music blasting around. But here’s the thing: I really don’t like most holiday music, and I am not the hugest fan of the focus on Christmas as opposed to all holidays around this time. So this turned into a mix of holiday and winter themed music, winter is much more than just holidays but there’s also songs that are technically unrelated to holidays, they just pop into my head when I think about this time of year.

So without further ado:

1. “Waltz of the Snowflakes” (From the ballet The Nutcracker) by Peter Illich Tchaikovsky

Let’s get this party started with a little instrumental ballet music. This is one of the most iconic pieces from this holiday production that every dance company and their mom puts on. While the ballet does have to do with Christmas, I think that this specific piece is more about winter in general and the dance within snowflakes falling. It is also a gorgeous piece of music, with the violins and high woodwinds leading the melody. A choir even joins in at certain points, evoking the beauty and wonder at the sight of falling snow. This is it, this is the holiday season for me. Of course the dance is really what makes this piece, but even without any visuals it still does so much to evoke what every kid feels when they see snow falling outside.

2. “Winter Song” by The Head and the Heart

Let’s keep the mood slow and mellow for a second. This song is from the band The Head and the Heart’s self-titled album (and also their first one) released back in 2011. The song opens with simply the guitar, setting the mood for the rest of the piece. The lyrics reference a relationship that’s on the rocks, where the winter is the trouble that has set in. This is an almost perfect offset to the mood that “Waltz of the Snowflakes” evokes, here winter is cold and the absence of life. Instead of wonder, there’s only despair. Having said that, it is a hopeful piece where the speaker will be “back again to stay” at the end.

3. “Danse of the Floreadores” by Duke Ellington

Returning to “The Nutcracker” now, but in a different format. Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington adapted the Nutcracker Suite for a jazzy big band setting back in 1960. This set of pieces is incredible mostly in that there are very few arrangements of classical music into jazz that actually work. Thankfully this is the exception to the rule, all of the Duke Ellington Nutcracker pieces are amazing! This one is my favorite, there’s the opening with all the different instruments featured over a saxy refrain that then contrasts with the section parts later in the piece. This is the Ellington big band at its finest, they are all so tight and perfectly in sync with each other. We’ll be transitioning into more upbeat, swing music soon, so this piece makes the ideal transition being part of both the jazz and classical worlds.

4. “When Winter Comes” performed by Eddy Duchin’s big band

This song was written by Irving Berlin, but I enjoy this performance/recording immensely. You can tell from the sound that it was recorded decades ago. The horns are so together that they could be one instrument, and there’s enough scratch in the voice of the vocalist so bring to mind times long past. The lyrics talk about needing a lover when winter comes, a classic theme for a song from the time. Honestly there isn’t much too this piece, but it’s lovely to listen to.

5. “Ketsad M'rakdin” by The Alexandria Kleztet 

The Alexandria Kleztet is a band in the DC area that specializes in Eastern European and Jewish music. So here’s our token Jewish song! This band gets really great sound though, with the fiddle and the clarinet going nuts over the bass and drums. You can tell that they have been influenced heavily by jazz in the rhythms being played, but they also manage to stay true to their roots and capture the feel of Eastern European dances.

6. “Christmas Swing” by Django Reinhardt 

Reinhardt is the father of the modern jazz guitar player. He was incredible as a musician, self-taught, and made guitar a serious instrument worthy of the shredding solos we hear today. There isn’t anything really overtly Christmas-y about this song besides the title, but it’s a great piece to showcase his talent. It also fits well with the vibe of “When Winter Comes” because they both sound like old pieces, just because of the scratch. The end of the year tends to be a nostalgic time, might as well evoke that in the music being played as well.

7. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” by Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald is a goddess among mortals. Her voice is lovely and so melodic and clear. I could rant about her for a while. This piece is a little-known gem of hers that really deserves more attention. The backing horns are the perfect compliment to her voice, and you can practically hear her smiling as she’s singing. The trumpet solo reflects her vocals as well, with the phrasing and choice to have it muted. (Sidenote: there’s also a Billie Holiday version of this tune.) The perfect song for cold winter nights!

8. “Greensleeves” arr. Michael Sweeney 

This is a gorgeous arrangement of a gorgeous tune for concert band. I’m not sure why this is considered a Christmas song, but we’re going to go with it. The melody in the high woodwinds is perfectly introduced over the French horns, and it soars through the different sections effortlessly. The backing of the melody also deserves plenty of credit since it perfectly compliments it and reinforces it through the different chord changes.

9. “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Let’s wrap up this party with one of the few Christmas songs that I can stand. The main reason why I actually like this song has to do with the fact that it adds a little bit of guilt into the holiday season. It opens with “and so this is Christmas/and what have you done?” The holidays tend to be such a decadent time, what if we sat down to think about what we did for each other in the past year? Are we proud of ourselves? What do we want to change in the new year? John Lennon and Yoko Ono bought several billboards saying “War is Over If You Want It” (which I find hilarious) to reinforce their point here that all we had to do was STOP FIGHTING and there wouldn’t be any fighting. Which is a childish, simple idea, but I think that’s the point. A classic song, but a classic song that will make you think if you paid attention to it.

And there you have it, roughly 30 minutes of holiday/winter music! I hope you found some new songs to add to your party playlists, or at least a new perspective on some songs you already knew. The theme for next month is going to be Video Games so look out for that to drop on February 1^st!