Links

For Movie Watching, Pairing a DVD and a Drink Takes Care – NYTimes.com

~ Mark

I’ve been matching my drinks to my movies for at least 15 years. I’ve done it with my wife, in groups, or (and I’m not ashamed to say this) alone. It adds a new dimension — Alc-O-Vision? — to the plot, the photography and, especially, the sense of immersion if the film takes place in the same country from which the drink in my hand originated.

Yes and yes. The article also includes a shout-out to Out of the Past, which I rewatched the other night, and which might be my favorite movie of all time. OF ALL TIME!

For Movie Watching, Pairing a DVD and a Drink Takes Care – NYTimes.com

How do you talk yourself into something? | Psychology Today

~ Mark

It seems that when we talk to ourselves or others forcefully about the future, we create an expectation that we now feel that we have to live up to. If we fail to live up to our expectations, then we will feel guilty. So, the forceful “I will” statement motivates use out of guilt. When we ask ourselves a question about the future, “Will I,” then the activity itself becomes the focus. As we commit to this future activity, it becomes intrinsically interesting, and so we are more likely to want to do it.

How do you talk yourself into something? | Psychology Today

Why Do Harvard Kids Head to Wall Street? « The Baseline Scenario

~ Mark

Very interesting article. One good bit:

The typical Harvard undergraduate is someone who: (a) is very good at school; (b) has been very successful by conventional standards for his entire life; © has little or no experience of the “real world” outside of school or school-like settings; (d) feels either the ambition or the duty to have a positive impact on the world (not well defined); and (e) is driven more by fear of not being a success than by a concrete desire to do anything in particular. (Yes, I know this is a stereotype; that’s why I said “typical.”) Their (our) decisions are motivated by two main decision rules: (1) close down as few options as possible; and (2) only do things that increase the possibility of future overachievement.

And another one:

You internalize the rationalizations for the work you are doing. It’s easier to think that underwriting new debt offerings really is saving the world than to think that you are underwriting new debt offerings, because of the money, instead of saving the world. And this goes for many walks of life. It’s easier for college professors to think that, by training the next generation of young minds (or, even more improbably, writing papers on esoteric subjects), they are changing the world than to think that they are teaching and researching instead of changing the world.

Why Do Harvard Kids Head to Wall Street? « The Baseline Scenario

The Atlanta malaise

~ Mark

I needed this laugh today:

You know how it’s been around here – no one has jobs, certain people didn’t win certain elected offices so we have to treat them as private citizens, baby animals are dropping dead left and right and the AJC won’t let Mark Davis cover this so we don’t even know how to feel about the whole thing, not a single DJ in Atlanta will play Jermaine Stewart when we ask for it, we had to ride home on buses marked with red Xs a couple of weeks ago, and all the gourmet popsicles in the world can’t make us feel excited about summer because we didn’t even have time to get over spring’s runny allergy eyes before the humidity kicked in.

The Atlanta malaise

College and the Art of Life – David Salesin, Convocation Address, 28 September 2003

~ Mark

College is such an amazing time of freedom. For many of you, this is the first time in your life when it’s completely up to you, and you alone, to decide what you study, what activities you engage in, and how you structure your day. One idea I came up with as an undergrad was to try to maintain balance by making sure I engaged in four different types of activities every single day. These were:

-something intellectual (not so difficult at school);
-something physical (like running, biking, a team sport);
-something creative (like music, art, or writing); and
-something social (like lunch with a friend).

College and the Art of Life – David Salesin, Convocation Address, 28 September 2003

Colin Marshall: Openearedness

~ Mark

I went to City Skies Electronic Music Festival again last night and it reminded me of Colin Marshall’s post:

Take heed, experimental music-loathers: it’s not that us enthusiasts possess (or believe ourselves to possess) some higher discernment that allows us to draw infinitely more pleasure from the same sound waves you can’t stand. It’s that we enjoy the culture surrounding it.

Or at least I do; it’s the one live music “scene” whose adherents don’t irk me in some distinctive way. The experimental crowd lacks the pious immortal-worship of jazz fandom, the dried-out shushery of the classical set or the pro forma disenchantment/enchantment of young rockdom, replacing it with a relaxed yet eager openmindedness. Or openearedness. Whatever. The point is that they’re willing to listen seriously and see what sort of an art experience results, pretty much no matter what.

Colin Marshall: Openearedness

The Fifty Twentieth-century Works Most Cited in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index

~ Mark

“In Essays of an Information Scientist (Vol. 10, 1987), Eugene Garfield reported the findings of a quantitative analysis of cited works in the Arts & Humanities index.” See also Most-cited authors of books in the humanities, 2007, which summarizes my ambivalence nicely: “What this says of modern scholarship is for the reader to decide – and it is imagined that judgments will vary from admiration to despair, depending on one’s view.” My nerd side is excited to see lists like this, my mildly-cynical/skeptical-about-academia side isn’t so sure.

The Fifty Twentieth-century Works Most Cited in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index

Getting Their Guns Off – Magazine – The Atlantic

~ Mark

Certainly one of the reasons why World War II came to be called “the Good War,” and those who fought it “the Greatest Generation,” and why Americans have reserved their utmost sentiment for the European theater of that war, is because the 1945 discovery that we’d helped shut down a genocide redeemed that theater’s carnage—ex post facto—and bestowed upon that campaign a narrative, moral, and even aesthetic appeal that is exceptional for any war. Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers epitomize that theater’s irresistible appeal, with their mix of commendably upsetting, technically brilliant combat scenes and more general uplift. Every mangled limb, every shattered facade, every act of conditioned violence stage-whispers “Sacrifice” amid the gently weeping soundtrack and the faded–Saturday Evening Post color palette, with the overall effect evoking stateliness, esteem, even nostalgia—emotional luxuries that only a comfortable remove can give to the hectic, terrifying nature of combat. All of which takes viewers half out of the moment, despite the kinetic you-are-there cinematography.

Getting Their Guns Off – Magazine – The Atlantic

Anthony Bourdain, unreserved – chicagotribune.com

~ Mark

An excellent interview in many respects. I like this bit:

How do you avoid cliche when you’ve already done so many shows?

We try to undermine whatever it was that worked last week. We deliberately set up difficult things to do. Using new lenses, constantly experimenting with new equipment to give it a more cinematic look — letterboxes, widescreen, gyros, cheap do-it-yourself kind of innovation. The editing styles. We think about movies that we loved that have been shot in this area that we might try to rip off. In the case in Rome, we’re going to do the whole thing in black and white, and in letterbox. Can we do really gorgeous food porn in black and white? It’s never been done.

Anthony Bourdain, unreserved – chicagotribune.com

Spinning class, the scarcity heuristic, and me

~ Mark

When I really feel like dogging it at spinning class, I engage in some self-talk that goes something like this: This is 45 minutes out of the entire day, and 45 minutes is all you get. In an hour you will be at your desk, where you’ll stay for most of your waking hours. You’ll be envious of the joggers outside in the middle of the day. It’s very unlikely that you’ll get more gym time once this 45-minute opportunity has ended, so treat it like gold.

Spinning class, the scarcity heuristic, and me