So Mom and I talked by phone finally. She thought I was mad at her because I didn’t respond to an email. I just didn’t know what to say. Thankfully my brother had similar advice to her about this moving in thing, ‘take it slow Mom’ was the quote I got. I was glad to hear this since Andy has always been pro-Mom dating unlike myself. We chatted and talked about it all a bit and it is better. It’s just different and a change and you all weren’t there in that hallway that day.

The new Stephanie Plum comes out on Tuesday! I already ordered it from Amazon. I figure the book will arrive late in the week and Patrick and I will end up reading it at our concert festival this weekend. I can just see us sitting in some shady spot me reading out loud to him as he lays in my lap, Red Hot Chili Peppers playing in the background, fans cheering and dancing wildly around us as we read and laugh our heads off. We are such a strange couple.

In my Lucky Magazine this month (the magazine of shopping!) there was an object displayed with the following description, ‘Eve Reid Spiky Hair Bracelet’. What is a Hair Bracelet and where do you where it?

Last weekend I went to a club with my friend Ulrike. It was medium hard music. One of the most interesting things I saw all night was a gentleman doing a strange ‘River Dance’ to ‘Back in Black’ by AC/DC. He was dressed as Jon Bon Jovi is his ‘I’m a cowboy with a six string, blah, blah, blah’ days. He looked incredibly happy though, so I was happy for him. The dance moves were odd though.

Did you know economics professor Ian Walker recently derived the equation that proves time = money. It is as follows:

V = the value of an hour
W = a person’s hourly wage
T = tax rate
C = cost of living…therefore

V = (W((100-T) / 100) / C

Amazing huh? You can now calculate how much money you are wasting in stupid meetings, doctor’s waiting rooms, watching sitcoms, etc…

I was recently discussing the concept of passion with someone and it got me thinking about myself. I was asking him what he was passionate about and in his trying to explain it to me, I turned it back on myself and tried to put it in words. So far it has been difficult. I started with a definition but am not sure this covers it. What do you think…Is passion an emotion that is an input or an output? Do we have passion for something and then act a certain way or is it that something causes us to exude a passion? Is our passion for fussball the same as our passion for our lover? Is energy passion? When you feel good because you’ve won a game, is that passion or joy? Are they different? How does one know if something is a passion or simply pleasurable? Using the example of sex, cause it’s easiest, it can be passionate or pleasurable or both or neither. It can be pleasurable, I argue, without being passionate, though the reverse is not true. So where is the line. And how do we find it. I can’t really come up with anything I am passionate about except everything I do. I don’t do anything without all my passion, at least that is what I would call it. But is that correct? Perhaps what I do is merely enthusiastic? I think I want passion though. Don’t we all? Isn’t passion one of those emotions up there with love and hate in terms of power and strength? Most people would probably say I am passionate about shoes and clothes, but that makes me feel funny. I think I am passionate about helping people, if even by making them laugh on a bad day. Hm. Anyhow, I’d be interested in what you all think (no dictionary definitions Minturn).

Music soothes the savage beast or teenager or mid-life crisis. Music is popular with a certain group because the music means something to them. Disaffected teens love uber depressing music because they can relate to it, it helps them from feeling alone. As long as the artist/musician continues to write music that speaks to the audience and the audience sees them as ‘one of them’, the artist stays popular. I don’t think it is likely that a bad can constantly sing to the same age bracket. As they grow older, the age of the listeners to theirs will spread and it is hard for a 14 year-old to believe a 40 year-old feels their pain. Of course, they might but that isn’t how the teen years work. Anyhow, when their genre is relevant to the audience, the artist stays relevant. There is a resonance factor from a a purely physical standpoint too, I believe. Certain music is esthetically pleasing to certain people’s ears. The sound, itself, literally resonates well with them. So why the Back Street Boys and N’Sync? Because they have the particular ‘thing’ that a world of teens need and want. But teens are growing and changing faster than any age group. They are changing so quickly that the music may only speak to them for one album, regardless of how strongly. Teens are finding themselves, trying to assert their own identity and find a path so where they are now isn’t where they are in 6 months. The older one gets the more stable ones personality gets. Adults have, for the most part, found themselves, so their interest is more fixed. Why do more people stabilize in the ‘Rolling Stones’ range? I don’t know. Why are there fringe bands? Because the diversity of the human race is wide but out there at the 6th standard deviation there aren’t that many people. So is the music that is created by the N’Sync of a lessor quality than The Rolling Stones? Maybe from a pure musical sophistication standpoint. The rhythms of N’Sync may be more simple or basic. The concepts and insights of the words to their songs may be less experienced, but the music in its whole is no less relevant to its listener. And if N’Sync changes with their audience, as The Rolling Stones have, then I think they’ll stay around. I don’t think the issue of whether a band makes it or not is based on musical quality but on listener relevance. Can a good ad campaign help the relevance? Certainly. It assists the listener in relating to the artist more. But it can’t be the alpha and the omega of the band. There has to be relevance and resonance. At least this is how I see it.

I may have some big news for you all next week (no I am not preggers and don’t plan to be any time soon). Got to get more details. I wlll say I am going to a meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. Wish me luck. It could be interesting.

Colourful outfit, hey? Matches my hair colour. I was just feeling punky and it was on sale. I’d think you would all be proud I have indulged in another colour. So now my wardrobe consists of black and pink. Goth and Feminine. Works for me. Cheers.