Check The Time.

So for the past few months something odd has been happening to me.  At first I thought it was a coincidence; then it repeated itself.  Over, and over, and over, and over again.  It has to do with clocks.  Pretty frequently, when I make a conscious decision to check the time, I’ll see all the same numbers.  So, 4:44, 1:11, 3:33, etc.  But I believe in coincidence.  I don’t really believe in determinism.  I tend to think a large part of existence as we know it is basically made up of odd, charming coincidences.  So imagine my surprise when this repeated numeral clock phenomenon starting happening to me.  So today — my day off — I’m finally reading up on it and trying to make some sense of it.

The skepticism is out there, to be expected.  This guy thinks that there could be several rather simple explanations for the phenomenon, working in conjunction to actually make one’s chances of seeing these things fairly high.  The first thing he mentions is that a digital clock readout with some sort of unique pattern is obviously far more memorable than a non-pattern.  Our brains don’t remember 8:51 but do remember 11:11.  He also proposes that clocks have a far more likely chance of having patterns in them then we’d imagine because of the simple fact that clocks have very few numbers to work with.  Especially on a non-24 hour clock: hours only go to 12 and minutes go to 59.  In most reported cases, the digits are small — 11:11, 3:33, 1:11, etc — which means that if most of the time the clock is showing smaller numbers, the likeliness of the pattern will increase.

But with all these reasonable explanations and my moderate personal skepticism, I still can’t help but feel something when it happens.  It amazes me.  Even with all the evidence the above article presents to say, “not a big deal, it’s just coincidental”, I still can’t help but think how unlikely it is.  Now I’m running the numbers in my head: 1440 minutes per day… divided by 2 for a non-24 hour clock is 720 minutes (or, 12 times 60).  Now in my case I’m only noticing repeated numerals, all the same.  Which means there is only 6 options, right?  There’s 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, and 11:11.  720 possible combinations divided by 6 options equals 120.  Now divide 1 by 120 and you’re left with a .0083 (repeating)… A .83% percent chance of seeing a repeated numeral time on a digital clock.  That isn’t much.  You have a better chance of dying in a car accident, which hovers around 1%.

So I keep coming back to the question of, “if something so unlikely keeps repeatedly happening to me, what does it mean?”.  And that I cannot say.  I’ve got a few numerology pages up on my tabs right now that I’ve been digging through.  Believe it or not, a whole slew of people have experienced this phenomenon though.  It happens all the time to people.  Particularly with 11:11 (which is the time that I first started seeing repeat itself; then it evolved to include the other 5 of the 6).  This page has hundreds of reports and testimonials from people, collected from 1996 to 2006.  Surprisingly, the Wikipedia page on the 11:11 phenomenon has given me quite a bit of insight.  It’s related to Synchronicity: a concept developed by Carl Jung which states that “just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by meaning”.

It’s also odd that I’m experiencing this now because we’ve just passed November 11th, 2011… 11/11/11.  Which the Huffington Post dubbed the “Greatest Binary Day of All“.  In fact, in the past two years we’ve seen a number of binary days (dates consisting of only 1′s and 0′s).  The next binary day is January 1st, 2100.

Of course, I could be succumbing to some amount of confirmation-bias and/or post-hoc analysis.  Either way I find it to be incredibly interesting.  Now that I’ve thought about it consciously for some amount of time I wonder if it will keep happening.  The key is to think about it though… to not look at clocks just for purpose of seeing if there’s a repeated numeral time.

Interesting stuff.

-Sonny

Number, Artist, and Prime-Time Changes.

Few quick things:

- Great, well written and explained, article about how JJ Abrams’ version of Star Trek (still haven’t seen it) is basically a rip off of Star Wars IV: A New Hope.  This guy’s dead on, he gets it.  Coincidentally, I’m not saying the movie sucks, just pointing out that this reiterates what I said before in “The Wrath of Reboots”: looks decent enough, but it ain’t REAL Star Trek, it’s an imposter.

- I didn’t realize this last Fall (probably because the Bengals suck so much ass, and are therefor never spoken of late in the season), but Chad Johnson — overrated NFL reciever currently playing for the Bengals – legally changed his name to “Chad Ocho Cinco”.  What a fucking idiot.  I hate football players so much.

- Future legendary, may be there already, comic book artist Phil Jimenez will be joining the uber-British Warren Ellis on his book Astonishing X-Men starting this Fall.  Here’s what Marvel released as a “preview” of how he’ll be drawing Ellis’ X-Team… LINK.

- Upcoming ABC show FlashFoward actually sounds really interesting for a prime-time network television show.  The show is centered around a very bizarre worldwide event which many people, who aren’t into speculative Sci-Fi, may roll their eyes at: for 2 minutes and 17 seconds every single person on Earth experiences a simultaneous mental and physical black out.  I know, it could be horrible… At least they’re trying; instead of creating a show about slutty whores trying to marry a celebrity (or dance).

-Sonny

Ain’t/Is Noise Pollution? Pick One.

I just read through my girlfriend’s December-January edition of Rolling Stone. Why I didn’t take that time to find some new, free web-comics is beyond me (most people wouldn’t even believe how many great ones are out there; they just require digging).  A bit disappointed in myself.  This being the last issue of the year, the magazine of course needs to flex its “2008- The Year In Music” muscle.  If music magazines were high schoolers Rolling Stone would be the asshole who lifts a ton of weights and bangs everyone’s little sister.  That bastard.  As always, there were a few things in this issue that chapped my ass a bit.  The one I’ll discuss now though is on the second page in the “2008- The Year In Music” section: where the main article of the page exclaims “Can’t Stop The Rock”.

Let me preface this though.  The spirit of Rock & Roll, the REAL spirit of Rock & Roll, will never die.  Ever.  Ironically, like the spirit of Christmas.  As much as O’Reilly shouts out his rallying call (from the top of a boulder holding a torch like that one Orc in The Two Towers), “there is a WAR on Christmas from the far-left!!”, X-Mas will never die.  Neither will the X-Men.  Rock & Roll will always soldier on.  It has since the beginning and will ’til the end.  It’s alive every time a teenager discovers Zeppelin for the first time.  Every time the middle-aged man, married with kids, breaks out his old Marshall when the wife and kids are gone and CRANKS it.  It’s there when fresh guitar players first improvise “Voodoo Chile”, or when fresh drummers take their first stab at “Moby Dick”.  It’s there when normally conservative women let loose and get drunk at the bar to Joan Jett or Janis on the juke.  When everything else fades or passes, it remains.  Broken, bloodied, tired, weary… maybe, but never dead or gone.

I’m referring to, as I said, the true spirit of Rock & Roll.  This Rolling Stone article is making the case that this was the year “rock” returned to its glory.  The year which Rock finally seized and people actually noticed and cared.  Why?  What evidence do they submit to prove this point?  Listed in order of appearance:

• New albums from Metallica, AC/DC, and Guns & Roses, in what they’re calling “Rocktober” and “Rockvember”.
• Kid Rock “had his biggest year ever”.
• Bon Jovi and Motley Crue raked in a whole bunch of cash and sold out a ton of shows on the road.
• Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were sold in the hundreds of thousands.
• A special Aerosmith Guitar Hero grossed more than $25 million in its first week.
• David Cook, a “rocker”, won American Idol.
• 3 of the years Top 10 selling albums were Rock.

Really Jann S. Wenner (Chairman, Editor, and Publisher)?  Those are your reasons for why 2008 was the year Pop Culture “[couldn't] stop the Rock”?  Alright, alright.  Fair enough.  I’ll start with the videogame thing since it’s the only thing taking up two of those bullet points.

Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are HURTING Rock & Roll, and what Rock & Roll means (especially to the mainstream).  I know you don’t like to hear that since the main headquarters over in New York just got the Wii version of Rock Band, but it’s fucking true.  What could be more stifling to the future of Rock & Roll than these games?  “Hey kids!  Do you want the feeling of being in a rock band, or shredding on the guitar, without having to spend all that time and energy drinking beer and getting high with your friends, or learning an instrument?!?  Are you sick of picking up your ax only to not be nearly as good as the greats?!?  Then you need [one of these shitty video games]!!!  Call now, and don’t forget to tell Mom and Dad!”  There was a time when Rock & Roll scared the piss out of parents.  A time where if a kid came home from his friends house with a guitar Mom and Dad would ask each other: “would you ever had thought he’d turn into such a punk/hell-raiser?”.  Thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the Rock & Roll experience is becoming as family and user friendly as Trivial Pursuit or LIFE. This way, there are no ringing ears, no drug experimentation, no sexual aspects, no pushing and shoving, and no real life experience as only Rock & Roll can deliver.

Speaking of ringing ears, 4 pages after “Can’t Stop the Rock” strolls an article entitled “Fans Say Rock Music Too Loud”.  It talks about how producers have begun to use a trick known as “dynamic range compression”.  A digital technique which broadens the volume range; it makes quiets very quiet, and louds very loud, essentially.  In the case of ear-splitting louds, this can cause a distortion on the Master.  I don’t like this simply because it seems like a cheap ploy to make a record sound more dynamic than it actually is.  However, most people don’t like it because it’s been making their rock records too loud for their ears.  Hey (need to look up the name again) Jann S. Wenner: don’t you find it ironic that your magazine has a section which features one article entitled “Can’t Stop The Rock”, and one “Fans Say Rock Music Too Loud”??  Or do you find it ironic that you’re magazine cites AC/DC’s return, the band who wrote “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”, as a reason Rock is alive and well while also featuring “Fans Say Rock Music Too Loud”??  I mean, this is shit you’d find in The Onion for God’s sake.

Now the rest of it.  AC/DC has and always will kick ass.  AND, the new Metallica record actually ain’t half bad.  Guns & Roses I could give two shits about at this point in their careers.  I’ll say this: it’s fucking weak that AC/DC made a deal with Walmart to exclusively sell their CD, thank God Metallica finally got rid of Bob Rock, and fuck G & R.  Kid Rock??  Seriously?  I haven’t even heard that guys name this year until now.  I know he’s touring, and playing some sort of Warren Zevon/Skynard mash-up, but he didn’t seem to make that big of a splash.  Presumably because he’s too “rebellious” for the mainstream.  To say that Rock ruled the road this year because of Bon Jovi and Motley Crue’s tours is so lame.  I feel so bad for anyone who went through young adulthood in the 1980′s and these two are their version of Dylan and the Stones.  David Cook sings glorified assembly line mush that I’d hardly consider true Rock & Roll.  3 of the Top 10?!?  Well- considering the Top 10 features T.I., Lil’ Wayne, and TWO Taylor Swift albums, I’d say that’s not saying a whole lot.

Like I said before, Rock never “went away” and it never will.  And all these things combined point to the “mainstreaming” of Rock & Roll, which would be good if it were pure, but it isn’t.  Do you know how the term came about?  Why it was so scary for suburban whites in the cozy 50s to see their children become infatuated with it?  Because “rock & roll” was a term used by black dudes and gals back in the day to refer to fucking.  Ya know, back when human beings weren’t allowed to drink from certain fountains, or even marry each other.  Well- we’ve come a long way from what it means to the mainstream haven’t we?  I don’t even think the term “rock band” refers to a rock band anymore.

-Sonny