rabbit hole

I saw a clip of someone playing the main riff from Alive by Pearl Jam, which made me want to hear the song again, so I watched a live version and ended up googling and reading other things about the song (the original meaning of the lyrics are pretty bad [imo] -- Vedder says they have changed for him over time based on how fans have interpreted the song) (which is one reason I rarely pay attention to lyrics -- save for Morrissey -- because I feel like their meanings are often disappointing.) Anyway, from the wikipedia entry re the origins of Mike McCready's guitar solo: "McCready was quick to disclaim creative credit for it, saying he basically "copied Ace Frehley's solo from 'She', which was copied from Robby Krieger's solo in The Doors' 'Five to One'."

So I listened to the Kiss song thinking McCready was being modest and was probably just influenced by it, but wow, he really copied the beginning of the solo note for note.

Here's Alive (go to 3:28)

Here's She, by Kiss (go to 2:47)

(In Five to One, the guitar solo on my computer speaker is drowned out by the organ, but I think it starts around 4:45. I'm on my couch with everyone in the apartment asleep, so I can't crank it up to make out the solo, and I'm too lazy to get up and grab my headphones, but it sounds like Ace Frehley's copying wasn't quite as explicit as McCready's.)

You can argue that that's Mike McCready's most famous guitar lick, from Pearl Jam's most popular song (it is according to Spotify), and it's just a lick he copied from Ace Frehley. 

(Did the producer of the album not know? Or did he not care?)

I can't do this daily but

it's still a good exercise, so,

This article about The Union Battle at Amazon compares the failed push for a union at an Amazon fulfillment center to the creation of a union at a Bethlehem Steel mill 80 years ago. (Arguing for its necessity by demonstrating the ridiculous wealth disparity between the company presidents and employees.) Bethlehem only stopped opposing unions out of fear of missing out on WWII military contracts from a union-friendly Roosevelt administration -- and the article ultimately hints that perhaps the Biden administration should do more to force Amazon to support unionization as well.

Years ago I did some grunt work on a case in which a Rust Belt manufacturer was trying to get out of promises it made to its labor union. The trajectory of the company was telling. Workers unionized in the 70's, drove wages and benefits up so high that the company could no longer compete with foreign manufacturers on price, so it closed its Rust Belt factories and opened them in southern states that were not as union friendly, and when one of the southern factories unionized, they closed it and opened one in Mexico.

It seems like lately the business/union relationship has become more confrontational than collaborative. 

I think Amazon sometimes gets a bit of a bad rap in the press about working conditions. I read an article last week in which the author claimed Amazon delivery drivers were under such intense time constraints that they didn't have time for bathroom breaks and had to pee in bottles stored in the truck. I'm sure this has happened to some drivers, but the article seemed to hint it was the norm. I see several Amazon delivery drivers on our block every day, and I have never seen one who appeared to be in the slightest hurry. They pull up, park in front of the hydrant, take out boxes, walk to my door, ring the bell, wait a reasonable amount of time for me to answer the door, politely hand me my package, walk back to the van, and move on. They're not loafing on the sidewalks texting or sleeping in their vans or anything, but they also don't seem like guys who are running around peeing in bottles and speeding through neighborhoods to make deliveries. Ok, this is getting off track and it's 11:18...

I meant to post yesterday but,

It took me two days to read this article about a psychologist who specializes in memory -- that's how little free time I have.

Elizabeth Loftus believes that memory is malleable and can be manipulated -- especially traumatic memories by authority figures. She has testified for the defense in many trials of prominent sexual abusers (including Harvey Weinstein and Jerry Sandusky) and argued that testimony of the victims is not reliable because traumatic memory is not reliable -- implying that the victims either convince themselves they were abused or have been convinced by others. This has made her quite unpopular in certain circles. (In her most famous experiment she has older family members convince subjects that they had once been lost in a shopping mall as a kid.)

Her professional story is weaved with the story of her own skewed memory of her mother's death. Long story short, her mother died when Loftus was 14 and she convinced herself it was an accidental drowning, when in fact it was probably suicide.

Overall it was an evenhanded snapshot of Loftus that got me thinking about the concept of memory and reminded me a little of this essay from Franzen's book on the same topic. (Kind of crazy that it was the September 10, 2001 issue of the New Yorker -- which I didn't read back then.)

I need to find some good humor to read.

experiment

Lately I've been feeling like handling three kids all day without a break is causing me to lose my ability to retain information, like I am a vessel that reacts to stimuli without the ability to look back or ahead. So to force myself to use my powers of recollection a little bit, I'm going to try summarizing an article I read during the day without looking back at it. (My breaks are typically only short enough to respond to texts, but I'm usually able to read an article or two through the day as well.)

Today it was this one about Sweden's pandemic response.

Sweden's response was unique in that their head epidemiologist didn't believe masks worked or that Covid was going to be much worse than a severe flu (and even if it was, it wasn't worth shutting down the country.) So they didn't shut down or wear masks and instead went for herd immunity, which is hoping enough healthy people get it and develop immunity so that it stops spreading to those more at risk.

The reporter speaks to a couple of Swedes who had severe--and potentially preventable--cases of Covid, but still supported the countries policies, citing the potential damage of a lockdown as an inferior alternative. 

Long story short, Sweden was probably wrong. Their infection and mortality rates were higher than other Scandinavian countries, and they ended up implementing some lockdown rules. (The counterargument to this is that they are the densest Scandinavian country and should be compared to other European countries like Italy and Germany rather than Norway and Finland,,, the counterargument to that being that the rest of Europe (especially Italy) had Covid spreading within their borders long before Sweden.) And Sweden's GDP also fell more than their neighbors (though less the European average.)

But it also touches on how the world seemed to be flying blind on this thing. (50% of deaths are from nursing home spread; and if we had any idea that was coming, we could have locked them down first.) (A lot of mask research has been done during this pandemic because previous studies seemed unreliable.) And there's an interesting article by Siddhartha Mukherjee about how some countries have been inexplicably been spared by covid -- using India and Nigeria as examples that didn't do a great job with lockdowns/masks/distancing, but didn't get devastated nearly as bad as anyone expected. (One explanation is that the coronavirus doesn't survive as well in warm weather, but still, the average Indian city is exponentially denser than the densest cities in America.)

Ok, it felt good to get that out.

2020 Oscar Nominees

No complete duds this year. 

Jojo Rabbit – Tricky to judge. It was laugh-out-loud funny at times, but holocaust-era comedies probably require some balancing that one this didn’t quite pull off. Grade: B-

1917 – Amazing filmmaking. Pretty good score too. But Birdman pulled some of the same tricks a few years ago (without the scale, but with a much better story and acting) which shouldn’t take away from this, but does. Grade: B 

Marriage Story – Solid if you’re in the mood for this sort of thing. Opened with some well thought out writing, but turned a lot of improvisational acting, which, for the most part, seemed to work. Adam Driver is fun to watch in anything. Grade: B+ 

Ford v Ferrari – My main gripe was that we were forced to endure a bit too much of the invented-Ford-boardroom-villain. An entertaining film, and Miles was an interesting character. Grade: B+ 

Joker – I wasn’t expecting to like this, but Joaquin Phoenix was great. Grade: B+ 

Parasite – Back-to-back wealth inequality films. Humor can get a tad diminished in subtitles, but still good. Grade: B+ 

The Irishman – We watched it in three sittings, could have done it in two. I’m curious what percentage watched it in one. And it never felt dull. There’s a reason these actors are famous, and it’s on display here. Grade: A- 

Uncut Gems – This should have been nominated. Unique story, and Adam Sandler was great. Grade: A- 

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Great acting, plus that Tarantino way of being slow but gripping the entire way through. (I'll leave out my lone gripe.) Grade: A- 

Little Women – I haven’t read the book or seen any of the film versions, and wasn’t expecting to like this, but I thought it was great. Grade: A 

American Factory – As good a take as I’ve seen on globalism and trade. (It won best documentary.) Grade: A+

2020 Year in Books

I’ll just list the ones I recommend. 

Normal People – A short novel about the evolution of a relationship (from teens to twenties.) Took place in Ireland, which allowed me to read large chunks to myself with an Irish accent. 

We Were The Lucky Ones – Non-fiction story of the author’s Jewish family in Europe during WWII. If you think your life is stressful, read this. 

Fleishman in Trouble – Three-part urban, domestic novel narrated by one of the characters. First two parts are great, the third felt like the author needed to beat a deadline. But still really good overall. 

Alexander Hamilton – If you’re considering a big historical bio, this one lives up to the hype.

Bad Blood – non-fiction about the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley startup 

Little Fires Everywhere – Short, suburban, multi-family novel

Say Nothing – Readable non-fiction about The Troubles in Northern Ireland