Beautifully naif

I've recently discovered the band Detektivbyrån "Detective's Office". Even though they remind me a lot of Yann Thiersen in the way they construct their songs around catchy melodies they differentiate in the way they keep their songs simple, using very basic instruments.



Listening for a long time may become a bit tiring unless you are in the mary-go-round mode, but these guys are very young and I think that they are going t grow into a fantastic band.

Tell me, tell me, tell me.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me how you do that trick", started the song by The Cure. Nobody now will deny that we live in the age of information, but how is that information shaping the world?

In 1985 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, senator by New York was talking to his friend Scott Miller (from the Sawyer Miller political consulting company) and made a bold statement - Russia's time is over -. Remember these were Reagan and Brezhnev 80's, the cold war was at its peak, so this sentence was completely against common wisdom. But Moynihan reasoned that the future of economy was information, and Russia will only have two ways; stay out of the economy or stay out of the information. Staying out of information would cause economical chaos, letting in information would cause political chaos. We all know what happened to Russia, but the reasoning can still be applied to some other countries were chaos or changes are happening at the moment; North Korea, Zimbabwe... as examples of countries were locking information out has locked the economy or China as an example were important social changes are happening due to a better flow of information (in spite of the efforts of the government to control this information and these changes).

More than 20 years later history has proven that Moynihan was right, information may not only make us freer, but also wealthier, or the other way around.

Charles Bukowski

For some reason every time I've read a book from Bukowski I had the feeling of being in a dark bar of LA having a beer with an old fellow speaking with the voice of Tom Waits *. The smoke of the cigarettes and vapors of the spirits melting with the smell of sweat of the few people left. The barman already closed the bar and listens, once more, to the story that Charles is telling tonight. He has heard it several times, in any of its variations; horses, drunken men, women... No one in the bar will dare to look at Charles' face and ask if what is telling happened or it is just his imagination, because whether it happened or not it not important. The fact that Charles is telling the story again is what really counts.

* I have never heard an interview with Bukowski, but my brain makes this association of Bukowski and Waits.

Improbable gathering

I have found in the blog Crisol de Músicas a link to a concert of a surprising gathering, the electronic artist Carl Craig, playing with "Les siècles orchestra" and the pianist Francesco Tristano. The result is as surprising as the line-up.



I love the way the piece grows adding layer by layer. Be patient and listen till the end, I think that is really worth doing so.

Spin, Spin, Spin!

Where have all the ideas gone long time passing... The tide of the BIG election is over and a sense of emptiness is filling all the news editions as the waters go back. What to talk about now, wonder the editors all over the world. oh yes, there is an economic crisis, we forgot!. Taking advantage of the quietness I started to wonder what was all about. And I arrived to two conclusions; politics are not about policies any more and you can win an election if you can put a good show.

Elections are not about parties they are about candidates and spin doctors know that people don't care much about the capabilities of a politician as much as how do candidates make people feel. It is not the message as much as how the message is delivered. They are packaging all our feelings, gathered from study groups into magic pills of spin that are being given to political candidates. And they know what to say to make us feel right.

There is no left or right any more, there is no conservative or liberal. It is all about how you feel about that guy you see on TV, or the internet, and your feelings will tell you who to vote. It's all spin, spin, spin.

To know everything about nothing

My friend likes to say; "There are people who think they know everything, and this makes us who know they don't very angry." It is sad in how many occasions you see stupidity and an absolute lack of humbleness hand in hand.

Lots of years ago the economist Carlo Maria Cipolla wrote a little divertimento "The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity", compiled in his book of essays "Allegro ma non troppo". In his text he argues that we always underestimate the number of stupid individuals around us and that the probability of someone being stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Then he goes into the definition of a stupid person; those whose actions are harmful to others without providing any benefit for themselves. In other words he separates stupid from evil persons. (i.e. those whose actions are harmful to other at their own benefit). Worst is that non stupid people always underestimate the harm that stupid people can do (just because they can not understand such a "stupid" pattern of behaviour) and finally concludes that the stupid people is the most dangerous type of person, because you can not protect yourself against stupidity.

Why all of this? I don't really know, I wanted to start a blog and this was the first thing that came to my mind.