SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Static Journey Volume 2: Melville (2008).
At this stage, I realized just what the fine creator of this box set has set out to do: he is basically recreating the Rheos’ discs with live tracks, demos and other cool things. Initially I assumed that everything would be chronological (live concerts only from that tour, for instance). But he has gone beyond that simple task and is selecting the best version he can find. So a concert from, say, 2007 which features an awesome recording of a track from Melville will follows a track from a show circa 2000. It’s a very cool way to experience the disc.
And of course, if there isn’t an available live track, he plays the album track.
All of this cool stuff is supplemented with interviews, stage banter introducing tracks (even if the banter is not from the same show as the track). The live versions on this disc are spectacularly smoking, and the songs sounds fantastic. And, there’s enough jamming on these tracks so you can see the band really let loose.
Interestingly, I am finding this an excellent way to get reintroduced to the album. There’s something about an amazing live track that really lets you appreciate the quality of the song.
I’m totally hooked on this box set.
[READ: January 4, 2009] The Guinea Pig Diaries
This was another surprise Christmas gift from Sarah and it was another great one. I’ve enjoyed AJ’s (as he calls himself in the book) experiments in Esquire. The book contains at least three experiments which I’d already read in Esquire. There are some minor changes to the stories (most of which are designed to have them fit in with the general narrative of the book). But even if you’ve read them (and one of them goes back to 2005!) there’s a Coda at the end of each one with a sort of follow up to the experiment that was not included in the article.
The experiments include (read more about them on his site, but only after you finish all of this!):
My Life as Beautiful Woman
My Outsourced Life
I Think You’re Fat
240 Minutes of Fame
The Rationality Project
The Truth About Nakedness
What Would George Washington Do?
The Unitasker
Whipped
Jacobs is a very funny writer. He is neurotic and constantly trying to improve himself. And so, he undertakes these fairly absurd tasks is an attempt to make his life better/easier/less stressful/more awesome.
But the thing is that Jacobs is a nice guy, and hearing all of the things that he gets up to, and how it rankles him, is quite funny. Combine this with his wife (who, yes, is a saint) and how all of his experiments impact her and the rest of his family, and you have a great collection of essays.
In the first, he poses online as a beautiful woman (who is his nanny) to try and get her a date online. In the second, he hires an Indian outsourcing company to do all of his work for him (including sending emails to his wife). In the third, he experiences with Radical Honesty. This of course, means he gets to say whatever is on his mind to anyone. Including his in-laws. It’s rather cringeworthy and, of course, very funny.
The 4th story was new to me. It was set back when he was an editor at 
Entertainment Weekly (what a journalistic career he’s had!) and he looked just like Noah Taylor (who was totally robbed in not getting an Oscar nod for Shine. Because no matter how good Geoffrey Rush was, Taylor was equally as good). So AJ posed as Taylor for the Oscar party (Taylor didn’t go since he’s from Australia and didn’t get nominated). This is the only experiment which the average person would have no opportunity to try out for himself, but it is an interesting insight into what fame (even fake fame) can do to you. The Rationality Project shows him trying to remove every bias that he currently has. This was the most fascinating experiment to me, as there are so many biases that you never think of, and he tries to eradicate all of them through some seemingly very rational means (he buys every flavor and brand of toothpaste to see which one he likes best–he had been buying Crest all of his life but never really thought about why he did it).
In The Truth About Nakedness, Mary Louise Parker agrees to do a nude shoot for Esquire as long as AJ does as well. In the George Washington experiment, AJ tries to follow the 210 rules set out by our first President. Most of these are about acting proper and dignified. And, while he didn’t wear a powdered wig, AJ does bow to people (instead of shaking hands) and tries his best to not be emotional in front of anyone.
The Unitasker shows AJ trying to do only one task at a time since multitasking can be unsafe and is often unproductive. This is one where he goes to outrageous extremes. And finally in Whipped, AJ agrees to do whatever his wife asks for a month. He learns that what he thought of as a 60/40 split of chores around the house was more like 80/20. It’s also in this chapter that you realize that AJ is a pretty decent guy to begin with. Even though he puts his family through trials, he is generally a caring, loving man who looks out for his family. And that makes it all the more fun to see him put through these trials.
In addition to the experiments he includes two Appendices: George Washington’s 210 Virtues and a List of Cognitive Biases. This list (mostly taken from Wikipedia, but all fact checked) is a wonderful list for the reader to see what kind of biases he or she employs the most. It’s also fun just to see what kinds of biases there ARE, and how many we do and are completely unaware of!
The final section of the book is Notes, which are absolutely worth reading if you enjoyed the book. The notes are not footnoted or cited in the text in any way, so it’s not obvious that they’re there. But there’s some interesting and very funny comments in this section that lead to more information about the experiments. So don’t put the book down till you read them (it’s like staying through the credits to see the extra joke at the end of the movie).
While it might be interesting to undertake one or two of these experiments myself, I never will. Not even for day. For really the main thing to take away from the book is the importance of moderation. All of these experiments are designed to rid AJ of bad habits and quirks. But we all have bad habits and quirks and some of them can be endearing or even beneficial (a bias against eating poisonous food is a good bias). So, moderation is the key. Be aware of your faults and try to remove the ones that are the most offensive.
But mostly, laugh a lot. This book is really, really funny.
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