i heart auditory neuroscience

i've been on a bit of a brian eno kick the last week or so. i just impulse-bought another of his albums: nerve net, from 1992. it's really interesting music. as you should expect from mr. eno. he's better than anyone at creating aural landscapes: check out his "music for airports". it is absolutely just that - listening to it you feel as if you're waiting for a flight or changing planes. "nerve net" is a bit less ambient and a bit more upbeat, but it's still very richly-textured, slowly-evolving ear candy. i'm a fan. more than that, i think that he's probably got a decent grasp on how auditory cortex works and how music really is formulas, and you can use these formulas to create a predictable outcome in the listener's experience.

i've been reading jeff hawkins' on intelligence, and i'm not quite far enough in to do much in-depth analysis, except to say that i think he's missing a huge point, but i will withhold final judgement until i'm finished with the book. but it's got me thinking about computational models of cortex, and ways to simulate how our brain works, or at least to understand it. hawkins holds to the theory that there's a common cortical algorithm; that is to say, all parts of cortex, whether auditory, visual, etc. use the same fundamental method to find patterns in the environment. it's an interesting idea, and i definitely think there's probably some truth to it. but to say that in an adult human, visual cortex is the same as auditory cortex is the same as prefrontal cortex isn't exactly going to be accurate. though it's been shown that developmentally, they are interchangeable. anyway... too soon to know for sure, i'll have to finish the book and then wait 20 years before i can really know whether or not he's right.

(side note: watch hawkins give a talk on how brain science is going to change computing. he's a big-picture thinker, that's for sure.)

the question that remains, of course, is what that cortical algorithm is, how it works. and, of course, whether it's still too early to understand the cortex fully, because we don't completely understand all the underlying structures, and since the cortex is like built on top of and inextricably intertwined with the "lower" brain structures, without a bottom-up understanding our top-down knowledge will be incomplete.

great new music

(not even a harry potter related post here. enjoy, those of you who haven't finished the book, and read faster, dammit!)

in our bedroom after the war, stars

i bought this album last night off of itunes on a kind of an impulse. i'd logged onto itunes with the intent of buying the new polyphonic spree, but after listening to a few clips and reading a few reviews, i decided that i was not, in fact, in the mood for that exact album (though i will probably grab it eventually), and clicked, based solely on the name of the album, on this one. i'd heard of the band stars before, maybe even heard a track, enough to know that i liked their stuff, but i'd never really listened.

and now i've had 24 hours straight of listening, and i am in love. it's the best album i've heard since the crane wife, and though it's not quite as literary as the decemberists, or quite as amazingly catchy as the postal service, it comes close on both. and it stands up to repeated (at least up to 5) listenings in close succession, a definite sign of a good album (in my opinion).

best. impulse. album. purchase. EVER.

and now, more long-exposure madness:

i just want back in your head

tegan and sara at the triple door, seattle, tonight

all under the boughs unbound

The Decemberists' The Crane Wife is an album meant to be listened to on repeat. i'm not quite sure exactly why this is, but it has something to do with the seamless transition of the end of "After the Bombs" and the first sounds of "The Crane Wife 3"... like they meant to do it. HAHA we will trap listeners in an infinte loop of metaphor and legend!

so much shit to do this week - biochem midterm monday, symposium friday. mother's day tomorrow (complete with mom). 4 weeks until graduation - 3 weeks of classes left. homework due on wednesday and i have to find a windows machine to do it on. bleh.

and after graduation: 17 days until Rainier.

half irish, full suburbs

Stanford is known for producing a lot of successful and talented people, in business, science, and engineering... hip-hop has not traditionally been one of their strongest fields. But graduating with the class of 2007 is K.Flay, a white girl from Illinois calling herself the Suburban Rap Queen. She's got a bunch of songs available for download from her website - you should check them out. My favorite is probably "Hey Ladies" - but I also like "Work". Definitely worth a listen.

saturday

listening: imogen heap, speak for yourself. the voice behind frou frou is equally strong on her own. i just love her voice, and her songs are perfect background music for studying time.

just finished watching: the season 7 - aka series - finale of buffy. it's a bit of a letdown to finish an epic, but since i know now that it's not really the end, just the end of the tv show, it's not as hard as it might have been if i'd been watching it on network tv in 2003. today also marks the 10th anniversary of the buffy tv show - it was picked up by the WB midseason in march of 1997. buffy was more than just another tuesday night drama - it was such a powerful story that has impact far beyond the realm of tv. joss whedon has said that he intended for buffy to live on in her fans, to become a part of every woman on the planet, and i think he succeeded at least a little bit. there were so few positive female role models on tv, especially tv geared at teenagers, before buffy came along. and it was a show that wasn't afraid to take chances. case in point: "once more with feeling" - the musical episode. "hush" - the episode where no one is able to speak. "the body" - the episode that chronicles the 24 hours after buffy discovers her mother dead on the couch. if ever there was a more influential tv show, i have yet to see it. so here's my advice for anyone who likes butt-kicking, funny quips, or hot girls, or for anyone who enjoys battlestar galactica, or serenity, or anyone who likes reading comic books or watching action-packed anime. start at the beginning - "welcome to the hellmouth" - and stick with it. those who are able to make it through the first season will surely not be able to quit after that - all 7 seasons come together as a fully fulfilling story, an epic tale of a postmodern hero, a female fighter we can all embrace.

and with that over, i am empowered and inspired to geek out on my textbooks for the next 4 and a half days. wednesday morning, it's all over. wednesday afternoon, i'll be in friday harbor, up in the san juans, surrounded by the beauty of puget sound and all the pacific northwest has to offer. and when i get back on sunday, i'll have an entire week off from school. woohoo!!!

um OMG

OMFGWTFWOOHOO!

WTF is with all these great bands from the past deciding to reform this year? first the police, now the fucking smashing pumpkins? 2007 is the best year EVAR.

(thx jrad, o btw cn i hv my mrtni glssz bck?)