Vacations and research and markets

One more day and then I'm back to work. Except I'll be at work one day and then it's my weekend, unless the schedule has changed.

The last vacation I took in February I mostly just read all week. This time I hardly read, except my two research books. Most of my time was spent doing online research (with a little bit of tidying thrown in.) So I'm feeling pretty good. My sooouuul feels replenished. And I actually thought about work very little, though I had the occasional dream.

Probably the most important part of my research is almost done--the technical knowledge of the music biz so that I can structure the plot. I have a better understanding of how the industry works, the variety of roles and jobs and companies that exist, and a few strands of ideas for what the baddie and goodie should be fighting over, which was something I couldn't figure out without thinking about the future of music and digital downloading.

I didn't get as much sleep as I usually do, though. When I have time off I can usually clock in a good 9-12 hours every night. I don't know why I couldn't sleep in as much this time--I guess at first it was the heat, and then it was just the "get up and get to work" feeling.

Speaking of which... sun's up... gotta take my sleepy pills and try to get to bed. Mehhhh. Meh meh! Doesn't like bed!!


Okay no I haven't gone to bed yet. I have to tell you about this billionaire Carl Icahn. He's an "activist investor" which I'd never heard of. He believes investors should have more power to change up ineffective boards and get rid of crappy CEOs and top executives. He believes there are a lot of good companies being ruined by lazy boards and crapitude execs.

Just interesting. Interesting to see someone who in theory is part of the Old Boys Club (I mean he's rich, he's male, he's white) but is attacking The Club because he thinks they're undemocratic and therefore bad for market capitalism and therefore bad for the country.

I don't know if (within the confines of Approval for Market Capitalism) he's right. But he's interesting!

Compassionz! Yay!

From Empathy is What Sets Vegetarians Apart (At Least Neurologically Speaking) in Psychology Today:

The study - in basic terms - investigates this hypothesis by placing subjects into a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) machine and looking at the "activation" of different brain areas as subjects view a randomized series of pictures. The pictures used for this study included neutral scenes and an even share of scenes depicting various kinds of animal and human suffering.

The first main finding of this study is that, compared to Omnivores, Vegans and Vegetarians show higher activation of empathy related brain areas (e.g. Anterior Cingular Cortex and left Inferior Frontal Gyrus) when observing scenes of suffering; whether it be animal or human suffering.

People will pay for the dumbest things

Part of the fun of researching for my Henry V novel is gathering ideas of kookiness. Since the book takes place in the entertainment industry, and in California, the possibility for kooky characters is great. People can have weird jobs and weird lifestyles.

Like being a baby-naming expert:

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal the professional baby naming business is booming. Anxious almost-parents are paying up to $350 for baby naming consultation that includes phone interviews and packets of name options with name histories, linguistic origins and personality traits, all information that is easily found online for free. The naming "experts" weed through millions of name choices and then deliver a handful of options that fit the parents' vision for their baby. (Psychology Today)

Now there's a job that just about any novelist could do, since we spend so much time thinking over such things. How on earth do you get "certified" for such a thing?? That's a "truth is stranger than fiction" job.

Saaaltyyyy salty salty salty...

Really interesting article on salt in the New York Times. I skimmed most, but the first couple pages have Fun Facts!

As a demonstration, Kellogg prepared some of its biggest sellers with most of the salt removed. The Cheez-It fell apart in surprising ways. The golden yellow hue faded. The crackers became sticky when chewed, and the mash packed onto the teeth. The taste was not merely bland but medicinal.

“I really get the bitter on that,” the company’s spokeswoman, J. Adaire Putnam, said with a wince as she watched Mr. Kepplinger struggle to swallow.

They moved on to Corn Flakes. Without salt the cereal tasted metallic. The Eggo waffles evoked stale straw. The butter flavor in the Keebler Light Buttery Crackers, which have no actual butter, simply disappeared.

...

processed foods, along with restaurant meals, now account for roughly 80 percent of the salt in the American diet. The rest comes from the kitchen salt shaker or occurs naturally in food.

...

In calculating the percent of the daily recommended sodium intake in each serving, companies use the standard for healthy adults below middle age, a teaspoon of salt, or about 2,300 milligrams. But the recommendation for the vast majority of Americans — children, adults of middle age or older, all blacks and anyone with hypertension — is less than 1,500 milligrams a day.

When you make similar recipes at home, the amount of salt you use is minimal compared to these descriptions. I guess because you use more expensive ingredients. If I make cookies, for example, there's some salt in my processed ingredients (margarine) but otherwise you're putting maybe half a teaspoon. And you can eliminate that teaspoon and the cookies will still be tasty.

In something like guacamole the salt makes a big difference, but again, more than 3/4 of a teaspoon and it will taste too salty.

Shows what a difference it makes to your health to sometimes make homemade food. Or at least, you have more control and knowledge. A good reminder for me, because the more I work the more processed food I buy.

Mind you - I don't have a very discerning palate, but there are some foods that I now like much better when homemade. Hummus, cookies, granola--the store bought versions don't taste as good as they used to. Especially cookies! I'm always disappointed by processed cookies, even brands I used to love.

Mmmm. Cooookies.

PS - Steve Bell

It's a few minutes after the last post... figured I'd put on Steve Bell while I read my book, cause I don't listen to him that often. And one of my other favourite lines caught my attention. And also seems relevant to this topic of the changing music business (and is a great quote for all sorts of change):

Some will trust in the things they think they know
They should think again and let them go

Music Industry: Stay awake!

I'm reading a book about the internets and the music industry (Ripped by Greg Kot). And there's a couple things I've read so far that were a bit funny.

In chapter 15 he's talking about how labels in the 90s got in the business of SUPER promoting only a small number of people, making them into mega-artists:

"So when the system started to buckle in the post-Napster era, upper-crust artists were reluctant to pull a Prince and go into business for themselves. ... Musicians loved to complain about their record companies... but few were eager to assume the responsibilities of distributing and marketing their music."

And in chapter 18, re. how Radiohead had a #1 album because of leaking it onto the internets, and where they should go with their future albums/promotion, Radiohead said this:

"it's about effort. Effort and energy. And whether we really can be asked to start a 'revolution' at this particular moment, when actually the first priority is all the other stuff. ... I love picking fights. However, there has to be a natural reason to do it."

The comments remind me of a song by Steve Bell. It's written from the perspective of the apostles in the garden of Gethsemane, trying to stay awake but unable to. I've always enjoyed the song because it's a great representation of the feeling that you have something important you know you should be doing, but you just can't get up the energy to do it.

There's a part of my ready now
But mostly I just want to sleep one more hour
...
All of us thought we were ready
All of us thought we were fit
Not one of us thought it would end
In a slumbering bliss

I can imagine a lot of big artists feeling this way when they saw Prince first walk away from the big labels. You know that if you join him, it would make quite the statement; but ummm... you've got this new album you're working on, and how would you promote it anyway, and all the work involved, and the Big 5 suck but what can we do about it? etc.

Scenes from a marriage - High Five

Scene: On the bus, Mabel asks Fernando for a high five, which he doesn't give.

Mabel - You left me hanging. You never leave a brother hanging.
Fernando - Good thing you're not a brother.