Porcupine Tree and The Mozart Effect

Was chatting with my wife today, and I mentioned that it is getting to be longer, and longer for bands to be successful. She set me straight. In my words, “In pop music they can’t be young enough.” However differently, I look for more than fluff, so that is what I see. What I am talking about may be called (in my own words), “The Mozart Affect.” Specifically, what I mean is that Mozart in all his grandeur was not a success in his lifetime. This affliction is not new. For many artists, take for instance the painter Vincent van Gogh who may have never even sold a painting in his lifetime, this is true, meaning that his works upon passing became priceless.
Below I use the Porcupine Tree discography to illustrate my idea.
Including, all releases (no promotional stuff), the following is a discography up to the first charting selection by year, which with Porcupine Tree it happened to be a single, though they eventually came to have charting albums. It was 20 releases later, and it barely charted.

1. Tarquin's Seaweed Farm 1989
2. Love, Death & Mussolini 1990
3. The Nostalgia Factory 1991
4. On the Sunday of Life 1992
5. "Voyage 34" 1992
6. “Voyage 34: Remixes” 1993
7. Up the Downstair 1993
8. Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape 1994
9. Moonloop EP 1994
10. Staircase Infinities EP 1994
11. The Sky Moves Sideways 1995
12. Signify 1996
13. "Waiting" 1996
14. Insignificance 1997
15. Coma Divine 1997
16. Metanoia 1998
17. Coma Divine II 1999
18. Stars Die - Rare and Unreleased 1999
19. Stupid Dream 1999
20. "Piano Lessons" 1999. Was Porcupine first charting single. It peaked at 164 in the United Kingdom.

Prohibiting Soda Consumption to those Under 18yrs Old

All ye teens, before you shake your fists in angst against me, have you actually met a middle aged adult that wouldn’t like to drop a few more pounds?  Soda consumption rates are a crisis in the USA.  Diabetes is an epidemic, even among the youth, unlike any previous generation has ever known.  It is my opinion that consumption of soda is probably worse for a body in the long term than consumption of alcohol, or marijuana, which is not to advocate for binge drinking, or smoking pot.  Therefore, it would be prudent to prohibit the age for soda consumption to be 18yrs old and above.

For some, I imagine this will be unpopular, especially those looking for his or her first chance to throw a riot in some city while taunting police officers.

There has been a long history of humans restricting stuff, especially for young adults, but even for adults.  There once was a time when there was no drinking age for alcohol.  Later, that age rose from 18yrs old to 21yrs old.  Thus, for young adults the restricted list has come to include lottery tickets, cigarettes, and booze among others.  Even adults are restricted when it comes to the consumption of prescription drugs.

Although I stand for it, I don’t claim that my argument is not without some problems.  I know some of the rebuttals.  The most important is the importance of learning responsibility.  That sounds good, as some may be able to link the raising of the drinking age from 18 to 21 as delaying young adults from reaching maturity, such that they are less responsible when they get to age 21 in college through lack of exposure.

Another argument is that any of those that are pro-legalization of substances use both the Bible and freedom as stepping stones to argue against this idea.  I have to laugh at those who say the right smoke is freedom.  IMHO, as a former smoker, there is no freedom in smoking because for the vast majority of smokers, their addiction would better be likened to slavery than freedom.