Yeah, I made two typoes (at least).

Why am I so vain as to read what I post?

lunazure said
Editing for ebb and flow of your words, not to mention conventions, is just good writing skills. Poof!

I only proofread after I hit the send button. It is part of my psychosis.

lunazure said
Even in the desert, there is biodiversity. believe me. Most of the action happens at night.

I love the geology of the desert with the sunset hues and all; but looking at the sunlight on trees of different textures and shades of green really does something for me; especially if I'm in a subtropical zone. I've never been anywhere tropical.

lunazure said
"Hit the note in the middle" Justin is a Libra and it's all about balance. I can't explain it, but I TRY to sing (iffy results ok at times) and yes you have to be well centered and really hit the tones in the middle. Sorry I can't explain, probably there is a frequency explanation to physical scientists. Center of the sound wave, something like that.

Um.

lunazure said
Yea on the trained guitarists.... I wandered into a guitar teacher's studio once, and he actually had the notes on the fret that the student was supposed to learn. That was too much work!!! I think you either want to learn or you don't, no matter what the instrument. I can play piano and guitar, but have no drive.... if I HAD to and if I practiced, I'd be better. It's like dance, you have to practice practice practice and I'm too easily distracted.

I'm not much of a guitar player, though I've owned three guitars. It's funny how guitars have stories, isn't it? Anyway, it was difficult to play because I have such enormous hip bones. I could probably get away with an Ovation or settle for playing the lute. Anyway, I did some recording stuff, and because I'm not a guitarist, I put colored Avery dots on the fretboard as guides. I am definitely unacquainted with that part of the brain Justin uses to play music without scores, but I'd sure love somebody to make the introduction. That said, life for me is work, work, work, and waste time on social media.

lunazure said
After reading Poetics a bit last night, it came b
ack to me, what we learned in Drama class. Art is an imitation of life. It's not the REAL life. Good art reflects reality accurately, or gives you a view of Reality you hadn't considered yet. Justin isn't feeling whatever he was feeling when he lost that girlfriend and he wrote the poem. When he sings it, it's an "imitation" tho he does say he tries to recapture that moment when he sings with feeling. But that moment is gone forever. So, emotions become the art, the poem. Make sense?

No. Art is real as far as I'm concerned. Shall we describe reality as something made out of or moving basic matter, as in electrons and protons? A painting is definitely made out of matter and you can hang it on a wall to hind a messy stain or something, so it is material. A song is made of percussion that vibrates the eardrum. It sets matter in motion, so it is real. Novels may be held in the hand because they are made of matter.

If we go a little deeper, we can discuss the functionality of what is represented in the arts. (I'm not privy to the reason for capitalizing art, so I'll keep to my known conventions lest I signal something I ought not.) Trying to swim in a painting of a seashore would not be the same as being on the seashore. Hearing somebody sing about a love affair isn't the same as sharing household chores and whatever else the real world would bring. A novel can take me on a brave adventure to save a city, but by only reading it, the city is lost or saved without me.

Then, we get to the emotion, which to me, metaphysically speaking, is more real than anything else. The leaves of the seasons, like friends, come and go; but the emotion is always there. Songs, like scribbled notes on chits of paper falling out of a book, trigger long-forgotten memories. Justin's music, provides me with supreme emotion. I first heard it on the PA system in the college cafeteria. It was too quiet to hear the lyrics, but every time it came on, I got "that feeling." Sometimes, I wonder what security thinks if they see me walking down an aisle of a store and a Justin song comes on over the Muzak. It's like a bolt of lightning, commanding me to attention. It's autonomic, but I'll continue shopping until the song's over, too.

As an added bonus, the lyrics take my mind places I've been, physically or in dream. With exceptions of about four songs, the lyrics are soothing, about love and kindness. And so.

lunazure said
Yea I see what you were saying. You only notice bad actors or bad directors when it's a bad movie. (Like Wrinkle in Time.... great actors, but PEE you the director stunk, lousy pacing!) but the pacing to Jurassic Park for example, was really really good. But you don't notice often. I do watch Depp (as an old actor myself), and he does wonderful non-verbals, he's a marvelous actor. A good actor can go through their entire script without speaking a word, yet get the idea across to you, in fact it's an acting exercise often done in development of a show.

I think Depp allows the line between reality and fantasy to blur for himself too much. It's an occupational hazard for many stage performers. A lot of actors hide from Reality, because they are very good at it. Depp is out touring with Alice Cooper in a band called Hollywood Vampires right now.

I was thinking before of writing that Depp is good at getting into his characters. (I use his last name because I don't know if it's Johnny or Johnnie, and I don't want to look it up lest this computer be smitten by ads selling whatever searching for him would dial up for my profile.) I'm not qualified to know if he's lost control. I think I would give him the benefit of a doubt, just because he's a genius at playing parts. I'll pass on the HV's.

lunazure said
As a reporter of contentious things, please take care of yourself. The nuts target schools, newspapers, the IRS and anyone they are too immature to deal with rationally. I've told my son to take secret doors out of the IRS building where he works. Same to you, keep a low profile coming out of meetings and let others go first. If anyone threatens you REPORT IT. I know it's not Christian (you try to turn the other cheek) but just stay safe.

I've been doing this for 20 years. I try to defuse hype with fact, maintaining life, in reality, is mostly boring. I try to respect everybody about whom I write, considering how I would feel should somebody say what I write about me, and I pray but not as much as I ought. That said, I don't know anybody that reads anything I write. I'm a live-free-or-die person. I'm too scatter-brained to add cowering to my to-do list.

I wonder what/how Justin's doing.

#JHQA: And how are you today?

Why does my day feel a little lighter every time there's a Justin tweet, even if it is only something I've read before and posted by a social media management employee?

I'm hobbling along with a slow computer. Last week, simple standard alphanumeric characters in Microsoft wer too much for it to handle. It didn't have enough memory. I told the boss. I thought maybe one of the neighbors had cracked the WiFi code and was having a torrent, but when I tried to shut the computer down to restart it, I got the message that I couldn't because somebody else was using the computer. The boss thought maybe somebody had hacked the computer to mine bitcoin and didn't think anybody would be using it after 5 on a Friday. Well, it's happening again. I've got to post about 60 events online, and saving takes about 2 minutes and ordering up a new form for the next one takes another minute or two. So, I decided to see if I could post something here as I waited, and I lost.

As for mythology, I liked it from a child's perspective. I wanted to be a beautiful nymph running around in the woods with long, flowing, white robes. Diana was my favorite. That was before I learned about ticks. I mentioned in a former incarnation of this board how I had watched a television series, "Odysseus," with my grandmother. It was filmed in Italy. The special effects were laughable, but the colors were captivating, and the actors and actresses were strangely addictive. I have on occasion listed it as my favorite movie. I didn't like mythology so much when, as an academic pursuit, we started learning of the petty jealousy and drama and all around weirdness of the characters.