Archive for September, 2004

the face of a genius

September 24th, 2004

Hans Zimmer Do you recognize a genius when you see one? You're looking at one right now. Hans Zimmer has composed and co-authored more movie soundtracks than most of us can keep track of here, here's an exhaustive list: show me all of em Not surprisingly, he's done it again. With Harry Gregson-Williams, he turned out yet another magnificent soundtrack for King Arthur. I haven't seen the movie and I don't plan to, it's supposed to be terrible. But the score is another masterpiece. If there was a way to keep a human being alive forever and there was one spot open for all of humanity, I'm hard pressed to find anyone who would be more fitting for it.

Unlike what one enthusiastic soul wrote on cdnow.com, I hardly consider this Hans' best work. There isn't enough substance nor consistency in it to really rank in the top group. But that doesn't mean I haven't been listening to it for 3 straight days and that's how you really identify a genius, a craftsman whose average work is a masterpiece...

All hail the king!!! :star:

the fear of.. surprise?

September 7th, 2004

During an hour long visit to my least favorite hangout last week, the dental chair, it occured to me that the visit seemed interminable. I felt what I always feel at the dentist, an almost constant fear of pain. The situation is pretty unique, being in that position there is little to be done for relief, I can't really move much, I can jerk my head a little but that's pretty much it. It should be said that dentail pain is probably my least favorite kind of pain altogether. Headaches can be really bad on occasion and they're exhausting but rarely do they hit me with such a force and unpredictability as dental pain does. And the reason why dental pain is worse is that it's so unpredictable. With most kinds of pain, I can tell in advance what situation will cause what magnitude (and in most cases what kind) of pain. If someone were to hit me with a baseball bat, I know in advance what to expect. With dental pain it's completely different, I never know what's coming and there are times when I get struck out of the clear blue sky.

So reflecting on this issue, little by little it dawned on me that it's not so much the pain that is the subject of the fear felt so clearly. It's the fear of being surprised by pain that stirs the pot really well. I really hate sitting in that dental chair and not because I'm in much pain (little or none most likely) but I do feel the constant threat of pain to surface at any time at all. It's not knowing what might happen that is to be accounted for the significant mental strain of this situation, not actually feeling pain. And let's face it, most times in life pain isn't so bad, very rarely do (I think) most people feel much pain for long periods of time. Once the pain comes, you know what it's like, often we can cope with it. But fearing pain is a big problem, not knowing what to expect, that causes serious stress. So it's the fear of surprise that is the real issue here..