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Razorpsyche
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Name: Psychedelic
Country: United States
State: Massachusetts
Metro: Boston
Birthday: 9/23/1981
Gender: Female
Interests: violin, reading, all things musical, drawing, friends & chillage, being amused
Expertise: The psychology of music perception and cognition
Occupation: Research and development
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/14/2004
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| Reasons to smile
Have you ever been so happy that you don't know what to do with yourself?
Quoting the new Mrs. Hussain over lunch today: "Being married is awesome. Being back in the US is nice. And being
home. Wherever that is."
There's a reason why I still believe in "happy ever after".
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| "Digital drugs", ughThis is the dumbest, most uninformed, most stupidly sensational article I have read in a long time:
Web delivers new worry for parents: digital drugs
Binaural beats are a psychoacoustical phenomenon caused by energy at slightly different frequencies being delivered to each ear. The article claims that binaural beats mimic the effects of illegal drugs and are now available online for free, thus, the internet offers a new hazard.
First, a sanity check: if your definition of "drug" is anything that alters behavior and mental states, well then, drinking water is going to alter some kinds of behavior/mental states too. So is sitting in a chair for that matter. I'm the first to tell you that music can stimulate the same brain areas as drugs, sex, and chocolate for women (Blood & Zatorre, 2001). But is that bad for you?
The author's argument is thus:
A) illegal drugs cause damage to physical health.
B) binaural beats claim to elicit the same effects as illegal drugs.
C) therefore, binaural beats cause damage to physical health.
Now, just because two items may share some similarities does not mean they must behave the same way in every aspect. There are elementary logical flaws here, the smallest among which is the correlation-does-not-imply-causation problem so obvious to anyone who thinks.
The author follows up the above discussion with the seemingly logical public service announcement: "So, talk to your children. Make sure they understand the dangers of this culture. It could be a small jump from digital drugs to the real thing." The author manipulates you into thinking that your children are in danger, and that action must be taken NOW. My advice to the author is: make sure you understand your topic before making a big stink. It could be a small jump from a conceptual misunderstanding to making a complete fool of yourself.
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| No longer Gage Alas, poor Yorick?
Our lab paid a recent pilgrimage to the original skull of the famous neurological case Phineas Gage, housed in the Warren Museum within Harvard Med School's Countway Library. I wonder if/how neuroscience would be different today if it weren't for ol' Phineas.
Also on display (but that I couldn't sneak a photo of) were:
the tamping iron that shot through Gage's head on that fateful Vermont day;
skeletons of unborn dead fetuses at various ages;
skeletons of Siamese twins;
and various pre-antiseptic, pre-anaesthetic, mostly-rusty 19th-century
surgical instruments, e.g. the saws they used to amputate (ouch).
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| local joints on the psychedelic list
The Cellar has always been a local favourite, but once we discovered that one could get their truffle fries in an environmentally-friendly takeout box for $5, its coolness level has shot through the roof. To quote Flash upon our last tasting: "These aren't fries. These are solid awesomeness." And since solid awesomeness goes well with a nice velvety stout and good conversation, I am starting to concoct some beautiful plan of a small-scale gathering with all of the above elements.
Another, perhaps even more awesome joint right across my street is Cambridge Common, with its adjoining Lizard Lounge in the basement. Live music every night downstairs, with an excellent beer selection (try Smuttynose brown dog ale), and a laid-back pub & grill upstairs with never a wait, delicious sweet potato fries, and the new vodka-and-lemonade-beer thing whose proper name I fail to recall. Perfect for sitting outside in good weather and downing a few with visiting friends and talking about research and boys and music and/or whatever strikes one's fancy.
In contrast to the above two, the Tavern sucks. A recently-compiled comparative chart of Cambridge bars' multidimensional awesomeness, in comparison with our good ol' Berkeley favourite of Triple Rock, reads thus:
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Quality
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Cambridge Common
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Cellar
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Tavern
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Triple Rock
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Location
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3
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3
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2
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3
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Food
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1
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2
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-1
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1
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Drink
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2
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1
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1
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2
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Price
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1
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0
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0
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1
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Service
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1
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2
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1
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1
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Décor
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1
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2
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1
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1
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Crowd
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2
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2
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-1
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3
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Music
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3
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2
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0
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1
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Conversation
(Volume)
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2
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1
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-1
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1
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Wait
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2
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1
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0
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-1
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TOTAL
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18
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16
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1
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13
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So, Cambridge Common wins, with Cellar being a close second. This is not meant to be a slighting of Triple Rock in any way, but if you have any suggestions or additions, please do drop a comment.
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| I'm biased, but... social contracts of musicThere's a delicate social contract that dominates adult life. This
exquisite balance of human relationships is a game one must learn to
play or else risk being *gasp* outcast among friends, co-workers, and
any random social encounters as one fends for oneself in a big city.
How such a social contract develops can be infinitely interesting and
forms the subject of a few of my wonderful friends' professional
scrutiny, but it is certainly through living within the system that one acquires such social boundaries (and no, college does not make you smarter in that way).
One venue that transcends this social guessing-game is collaborative music making. There's an indescribable bond that is making music together. The harmonic feast for your ears and the rhythmic groove for your tippy-toes, the immense attention required to respond to each other, and the chillage that surrounds the party - can be a direct route to the heart in ways that the regular beer-drinking-party-going social scene fails to provide. I'm not the first to say it, but when it's good, it can be really good.
The movie Once, featuring charming Irish rocker Glen Hansard and the adorable Czech girl Marketa Irglova, was a nonmusician's sneak preview into that which musicians can have for each other. I love the movie to bits, and I find all the songs heartwarming, but as far as describing the bond that musicians have, I think anyone who's played good chamber music can give it the I-told-you-so look.
Of course, then there's the 1% of local musicians who are just mean - but we'll leave that discussion for another day.
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