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.

New - High Fat Content Energy Drinks

Intro:

What I have noticed about certain foods is that they are designed to be guilty pleasures.  Sometimes these foods and drinks actually seem like they try to increase the amount of chemicals or general unhealthy composition in order to appeal to bachelors and kids.  Some common examples that are similar to my idea would be adding mild stimulants, such as taurine or caffeine, as in the case of Rock Star.  Another example would be selling extra fatty greasy salt fast food burgers.  The idea is to increase the guilty pleasures, but I must add that my idea is designed to create something that would hopefully only be used in moderation.

The idea:

My idea is to emulsify a fat in an energy drink.  Something that is emulsified means it is like Greek dressing.  Shaking Greek dressing makes it emulsify.  In general, the idea is to have fat in an energy drink that is designed to be shaken in order to suspend it in the drink.  Remember not all decadent drinks have carbonation, and the idea might be reminiscent of a souped up cross between a milkshake and an energy drink without the carbonation.

New Invention Maybe: 1 Minute Rewind Idea

Ever find yourself using multiple tries to navigate through and replay the sweet spots in media. This one may have already been thought of but just in case: this is not an invention that finishes rewinding a VHS tape completely in one minute. I know that one has been invented before. What I am talking about would be an invention that would be similar to an instant replay. Let me explain: In my generation cassette tapes were a real pain in the butt, in fact the inability for the user to find the desired place in the music was super annoying. This is still true in digital media, but not so much, as there is the loading bar idea, where audio and video that enables one to click to find the right spot. This is where the idea of this blog comes in: imagine a button that rewinds media exactly 1 minute at a time. Obviously, there could be some settings which could make this something at 30 second rewind, but that is beside the point. This rewind idea would be extremely useful at websites like Facebook.com which is loaded with short media files, audio and video, where the ability to find the sweet spot in them for replay or reviewing would come in handy.

Hilarious & Extreme News

The news is all about trying to catch our eyes with extreme words, and/or scare tactics, like the "Alert" messages I have seen flashing at the bottom of Fox News. As they say, if it bleeds it leads, but this needs to be made fun of rather than nagged at.  Many people are angry at the news stations like Fox bring.  I don't judge that.  However, rather than complain, I suggest giving Fox some competition!  I have thought about starting a news program satire business, upping the extremeness to complete absurdity, and using television as a medium.  I take my inspiration from tabloids like the Sun, etc that I see in the super market, but only making it more extreme than this!!!  No holds barred pure joking news comedy.  Imagine a news show where the world ends 7 times in just one day.  Or, imagine news parodies that joke about the destruction of an entire continent with nuclear weapons.

Popular Classical Guitar...huh?

Maybe I am wrong, but it occurs to me that classical guitar and/or lute is ripe for popular business exploration.  Classical guitar has never had its in phase, so it is really something different.  It is also soothing, and not quite so abrasive, especially in comparison to the highly compressed songs which may go out of style.  This music may have strong appeal to young introverts, catering to them.  What classical guitar needs most is a pioneer artist, especially a sexy one, that can attract some attention.

All People Are Created Equal?

In order for the quote to be true, that "All men are created equal before the law." We must append it with under the law, which is wishful thinking, because this idea was put forth during a time were slavery was both legal and practiced.

"If I were to make a nomination for the most destructive belief in our culture, it would be the belief that some people are born smart and others are born dumb. This belief is not only badly off target as a shorthand description of reality, it is the source of many social pathologies and lost opportunities" - The Lie Quoted (http://qz.com/340304/degrees-dont-matter-anymore-skills-do):

If you read the article, notice how they don't use any statistics or data to back up any of their claims. I will go with my Psychology 101 Professor taught at college, Rutgers. He asked for his students to raise their hands if they believed that everyone has an equal ABILITY to succeed aside from circumstance. Most of the class raised their hands, like QZ would. Then, the Prof went on to say that given everything that is known (the real data that is - not just some sort of heartfelt concoction like "We are all created equal because if we weren't that would be unfair to my conscience") indicates that people are not alike in their abilities. There IS such a thing as innate APTITUDE!, and it won't go away despite the fact that so many people dislike it.

Think about it. If someone has a disability like Down's Syndrome, they are never going to be able to score a 150 in an IQ test because their academic ability is less at birth. I don't claim this saying that it doesn't offend my sense of idealism. However, let's be honest with ourselves!!!

We are not all the same; here is but one way that we are different. Chabad.org):

"There are four types of student. One who is quick to understand and quick to forget--his flaw cancels his virtue. One who is slow to understand and slow to forget--his virtue cancels his flaw. One who is quick to understand and slow to forget--his is a good portion. One who is slow to understand and quick to forget--his is a bad portion." - The Truth Quoted (Ethics of the Fathers 5:12)