THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE

 

WHAT IF ALL OF THE MUSIC STOPPED?

With my son being sick this week, there was one thing that seemed to most give him hope during the bleakest times: The top 40. Seriously.. for a child at 5, I am amazed with how adept he is with music and how quickly he learns to hear the words and learn them.. I credit my wife. While I can play piano by ear, her ears were in tune much more for life with the music.

That’s why the poignancy of this photo strikes me.. the ‘sound of silence’ cartoon.. you may have seen it before. It passes around a number of times when people of musical astuteness passes away..

But picture a world with no music. One where the notes fall from the pages of life and end tragically in a pile of nostalgic rubble? How depressing it would be.

It’s so simple to assume music will always be there to help and haunt us.. but the day music decides it’s done with humanity will be the saddest day of all.

I have a sense music won’t give up on us until we give up on it. Hope that never happens, though. The sound of silence is the only sound that keeps me awake at night.

Seriously.. did you ever stop and actually listen deeply to silence? It is one of the most frightening sounds that exists.

 

COMET TIME: SKYFALL

One comet to swerve closer to Earth than any other comet in centuries: An emerald-green comet will brush the Earth Monday, followed one day later by a kissing cousin that will swerve closer to the planet than any other comet in nearly 250 years. »

THIS IS ONE ‘FOR THE RECORD BOOKS,’ experts say..

An emerald-green comet will brush the Earth Monday, followed one day later by a kissing cousin that will swerve closer to the planet than any other comet in nearly 250 years.

The first and bigger of the two comets will be visible Monday to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere, as long as city lights are far away. Stargazers in the United States will probably need only binoculars to see the bigger comet in late March. Scientists, however, are bringing out the big guns. The Hubble Space Telescope, the powerful ground-based Gemini telescopes and others will be trained on the celestial visitors, which will provide an extraordinary close-up of objects usually glimpsed only at a distance.

INTERNET OVERLOAD

I just watched THE THREAD, a pretty good documentary on how the internet completely helped or ruined the Boston bombing investigation, depending on your point of view.. You should really give it a watch..

 

It forced me into a strange place.. contemplation over what this whole NET thing is doing to the world. To us. To news.. to everything.

I turned 21 a week before 9/11 happened. When that terror attack took place, I went online and immediately began updating –in HTML mind you–my website about the terror attack.. There is still a record of it somewhere on Archive.org. So in that regard, I was immersed in the NET world at 21 before REDDIT and Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Back then it was AOL Chat rooms and Drudge, along with very basic chats..

But now? Twitter? REDDIT.. The REAL error of citizen journalism is here. And it’s fast, sloppy, messy, and amazing.

But to what end?

 

The funny thing is after watching THE THREAD, I feel out of the loop. Even though I was a NET kid, it was new then.. it was all new. Now it’s ‘always been’ to the generation born since 2000. Think about that.. Kids of today have no idea what a boring Sunday afternoon watching NICK meant.. Now it’s constant life online. Nothing boring but yet everything is. Kids of today? You don’t KNOW boring..

 

And even though I was somewhat on the ‘cutting edge’ of media evolution with my VERY OWN DOT COM in the early part of the century, it’s rudimentary when compared to the fast paced information overload of today’s age.

 

Fast news.
Loose rules..
What you see isn’t what you get.
And the best chance of real factual information may come when the book is written years later.

 

But we are all experimenting with this old media murder. The journalists of yesterday who are still paying their school loans are watching the carpet pulled from them. YOU. Me. EVERYONE can be a reporter.

Is it too much/ Too much Trump? Too much of a good thing?
Live streaming until it gets dull?

Periscope…And all of the rest of the social networks popping up hourly.

Yes it is changing everything.
Everything.

HOGAN WINS!

The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape.

The wrestler, known in court by his legal name, Terry G. Bollea, sobbed as the verdict was announced in late afternoon, according to people in the courtroom. The jury had considered the case for about six hours.

Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker and a defendant in the case, was found personally liable, as was Albert J. Daulerio, the site’s former editor in chief.

WADE GETS TITOR!

It’s about to feel like 2000 all over again.
John Titor–the real time traveler!?–set for MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT with Heather Wade!?

Remember, TITOR never appeared on BELL’s COAST TO COAST AM, but was active in the AOL chat rooms of the early 20th century.. now 16 years later–and lots of time gone on–Heather Wade is able to brag up the fact that she may just have done the extraordinary: Contact made with the time traveler among us..

Fun times ahead .. ‘stay tuned’ appears to be the words..

For those who forget, some good reading here..

FORECAST for Foggy nightmares in the AM

A shroud of fog..

A hint of fear.

Nothing there..

That you hear.

Just the muffled scream,

Of humanity's dream.

Lagging behind,

And losing steam.