Let's take a moment to talk about Neil Diamond.

Take a moment and listen to this.

That song was written by Neil Diamond in 1966, and was probably the best non-Beatles pop song in existence until Abba recorded "Take a Chance on Me" in 1977.

I was first introduced to Neil Diamond by a film called "Saving Silverman". If you haven't seen Saving Silverman, or if you've only seen it on television, do yourself a favor and go rent it, but make sure you get the R-rated version. This movie features pre-School of Rock Jack Black, when he was funny and used F-bombs. In the film, the main character and his buddies have a Neil Diamond tribute band and Mr. Diamond plays a semi-integral part to the plot of the movie. I was a big fan of the movie and the soundtrack in particular so I ended up downloading a sizeable chunk of it (probably using Napster, back when every "funny" song on Napster was attributed to Weird Al).

Most of Neil's other songs lack the nearly effervescent joy of Cherry Cherry (except for Thank The Lord for the Night Time, which is pretty much the exact same song, which is to say, is completely awesome), but over the course of the 2 minutes and 40 some odd seconds that is Cherry Cherry, Neil Diamond crafted the quintessential pop song. It's got everything; a catchy, rhythmic guitar riff, clap along percussion, the hooky piano breakdown in the middle of the song, and most important of all, Neil's smokey, soulful voice.

I don't listen to contemporary pop radio. I've heard what "the kids" are listening to these days, and it doesn't interest me. There is something contrived about the music that gets played on the radio. It is music manufactured to sell records, to sell itunes, to sell Now That's What I Call Music. Granted, most artists would like to be able to make money performing their art, but a lot of contemporary music seems more like a product (or a production) than art. My cousin Katie once told me about the best concert she's ever been to. It was a Kylie Minogue concert in New York City. It was attended by mostly gay men and Australians (what's the difference, really?) and, by her account, was great because of the production value of the costumes, lights etc. Now, it is entirely possible that this was the best concert she's ever been to, (the only other concert I can say with certainty she attended was when Nickelback came to Cape) but in her retelling of the concert, the music didn't really even come up.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with liking musicians and music based on their aesthetic appeal (although I do think it's wrong with every part of my being... but I'm trying to be less judgmental), but all of the Lady Gagas, Taylor Swifts and Black Eyed Peas of the world can't compete with the three chord brilliance of Cherry Cherry because it has something that none of them will ever have the; unabashed talent and incandescence of The Jewish Elvis.

The Deplorable State of Werewolf Cinema

For pretty much my entire life, I've wanted to be a werewolf. Of the monster pantheon, werewolves have always been the most bad-ass of the bunch. For the most part they live normal lives, but once a month they become superheroes (or villains, depending on where they chose to be when they change). Unfortunately, werewolves aren't real (or are they? No they are not), so I am forced to live my lycanthropic lifestyle vicariously through movies and videogames. Sadly, both of these mediums rarely do werewolves justice. Case in point: The Wolfman.

The Wolfman had a lot of things going for it; Benecio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, this trailer, the director of Honey I Shrunk The Kids... the title of best werewolf movie was ripe for the taking. But, instead of being 90+ minutes of lupine awesomeness, The Wolfman was a plodding, joyless, boring mess of inconsistent accents, stilted, cliche ridden dialogue, a complete lack of suspense and as much characterization as is shown in the aforementioned trailer. People have backstories and histories, but there previous lives do very little to inform their choices in the film. Lawrence, the main character, is an actor for some reason. This bit of information is never relevant. It doesn't have anything to do with what the character does or says, it's just an interesting bit of trivia (I suppose it's possible that it's a nod to the original wolfman movie, but I've never seen it, so I wouldn't know). Hugo Weaving is supposedly playing Inspector Aberline, the detective in charge of the Jack the Ripper murders. This too is mentioned in nothing more than a throw away line. In fact, most of the lines in this movie are just unresponsive bits of pronouncement. Benicio will walk into a room and, apropos of nothing, will say something like "I wish things were different" and that will be an entire scene.

This movie suffers from what a lot of werewolf movies suffer from (At this point I should probably mention that I have not seen that many werewolf movies. I've only seen one of the Howling movies, Silver Bullet, Van Helsing, all of the Underworld Movies, Both American Werewolf Movies, Trick r' Treat... that might be it), and that is having the plot of a werewolf movie. The plot goes something like this; Main character doesn't believe in werewolves, gets attacked by a werewolf, becomes a werewolf, kills people, feels guilty, becomes a werewolf again, dies. The exception to this rule are movies about werewolves that also involve other monsters, especially vampires (and maybe the Ginger Snaps movies, I've never seen those). The problems with this kind of plot are: 1. you know the main character is going to die, so it's difficult to have any sort of emotional investment in them, 2. because of the werewolf mythology (ie; the Full Moon) the movie has to take place over a long period of time (usually over 2 to 3 months, which will give you 3-4 transformations), and these movies aren't very good with dealing with that much time compression, so there's a lot of montages of being in a coma or walking around instead of building containment rooms or saferooms or driving to unpopulated areas. The movies just tread water until it's time for another transformation.

One of my life goals is to add something significant to the Werewolf movie Genre, which won't be too hard, since most werewolf movies blow.

The Opposite of Clutch

If I was a DnD character (or a character from any pencil and paper RPG that uses a similar system of traits) I would have some sort of trait that allowed me to be slightly better than most people at most things initially, (so for instance, if the normal number for an untrained skill is 10, I would be an 11), but the downside would be that I improve at a much slower rate. The reason I would have this trait as a DnD character is because it is a trait that I have in real life (how's that for a segue).

I'm not lamenting this fact, nor am I complaining about it. That ability has it's uses, but it is also frustrating at times. It's especially frustrating at my new job. Learning to be a pharmacy tech is like learning a different language. There are so many different rules and tricks that one has to know and there really is no easy way to learn them other than doing them (or in my case, doing them wrong). I am constantly making mistakes at my new job. They are not big mistakes or life threatening ones, but they are mistakes that slow me and the pharmacy down. It is frustrating to feel more like a liability than an asset. I know that, with time, I'll figure out what I'm doing, and be better at things, but part of me isn't interested in learning all of these things.

I have been thinking a lot lately about knowledge of things. I am of the opinion that there is no inherent goodness in most kinds of knowledge. Knowing the capital of India (Mumbai... or is it Dehli... Crap. I just looked it up. It's New Delhi) isn't inherently better than knowing the name of the ship that Captain Ahab took to go after Moby Dick (the Pequod). Knowing one might be more useful, but usefulness isn't the same as goodness. Knowing either one of those things doesn't effect how I live my life. Although I could make the case that practical knowledge could lead to goodness or happiness. Knowing how to tie one's shoes is practical. Having your shoes tied makes it easier to get around. Being able to get around makes me happy. Epistemology was always my least favorite part of philosophy, but is also the part that has done the most lasting damage to my thought process.