“Yet what are the obscure causes that draw a man to his family, his house, his memories, like a spring draws a small flock of mountain goats?”
Category Archives: Videos
Constraints can lead to…
“So many witnesses observed the utter freedom of his flights of thought, yet when Feynman talked about his own methods he emphasized not freedom but constraints.” -James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
In the spirit of Richard Feynman and indeed, all great scientists, artists, athletes, martial artists and dancers), pianist Nahre Sol reinterprets the jazz standard, Autumn Leaves, by employing some of the same constraints used by legendary composers. The results are as varied as they are mesmerizing.
Feeling Versus Trying To Be (Mechanically) Perfect
“When I took my time, when I really engaged with the emotional part of my being as I played, I started playing in an imperfect way [which sounded much better].” -David Walliman
David Walliman describes his journey from being technically sound to being more musically in touch with his playing of the blues. In the process he discovers that being technically sound yet without feeling can lead to boring music.
“I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It.”
Reorganizing Cities, Towns and Villages for Conviviality
Reorganizing and redesigning our cities, towns, and villages around the Dutch concept of “Autoluw” could not only make them far more livable, alive, and even communal, but dramatically reduce our dependence on automobiles. (I am borrowing the term “conviviality” from Austrian philosopher, Ivan Illich. For more on the topic, see “Energy and Equity” by Ivan Illich, published in Le Monde in 1973.)
McMindfulness
Chris Hedges and Ron Purser dissect “capitalism’s most effective ideological tool for conformity.” Ron Purser is the author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality.
Quantizing the drumbeat of John Bonham
“The quantizing of drums led to the dehumanization or robotic type of rock music.” -Rick Beato
Michael Hudson on the financialization of everything (including education)
“It’s the financial sector that endows the universities, endows the business schools, and hardly by surprise, the schools teach that there’s no such thing as unearned income.” (from the interview)
David Graeber on the financialization of education
“The British government [financialized the university system]… to force students to look at education not as a value in itself, but rather as a marketable product that they have to use in order to get a job someday in a really bad market.” (from the talk)
Charles Eisenstein on mental health
“Mental illness is built into society as we know it, and therefore, to heal mental illness or to foster mental health is fundamentally a social, political, economic problem.”
-Charles Eisenstein