Ebb and flow: an album of immeasurably related thoughts

1. Ebb and Flow
You need the normal conflicts of life, like the work week to make the weekend feel good; Friday’s up because Monday’s down; rainy days make sunny days nice. You need contrast; you need ebb and flow. Without both, life is just ebb.

2. Free shows you should watch on HULU.COM:
A—Murder One
This is a mid-nineties courtroom drama that started before Law and Order reached its immortal peak. The show’s unique angle is that it follows one trial through every possible phase of criminal procedure. This is the format for the first season, but the second season follows three consecutive cases over the course of the 18 episodes. Dexter fans ought to watch the second season from episode 13 on. The case is about a serial killer who kills bad guys—and this show is from1997.

B—Journey Man
Like Quantum Leap, but this guy leaps through time as himself. He has to use his intuition (and an i-phone and google which is called “spider crawler” in the show) in order to help people, or situations. This is one of the better-conceived stories premised on time travel.

3. What is a show? A show shows us things; it does so in showey ways. If a show shows off, the show might be turned off by us.
4. How would your concepts of motivation and achievement change if, just for a moment, you suspended the idea of a “genius” from your mind—as if there were really no such thing as one?
5. Most shows that are premised on the implication of some greater scheme going on behind things (Quantum Leap, Lost, X Files), lead miserably and inevitably to disappointing conclusions. This is because we are compelled by the mystery. Lost, The X Files, and lately Heroes, reach a point where they carry on almost nonsensically. This is why I urge you to watch Journey Man, which appropriately ends abruptly, discontinues, before it ever gets to try to explain itself.
6. Explanation is an activity best-fitted for things that can actually be explained.
7. Is it possible to explain how humor works without being boring?
8. There are some albums, like The Beatles' Abbey Road, or Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy, that make perfect sense as cohesive wholes.
9. Conversational flow is premised on the things you want; they are small, incremental things that change along the way.
10. A conversation is like a tennis game where you get to catch the ball, put it away, and switch it with one you’ve had in your pocket.
11. A conversation is like a tennis game where suddenly you’re playing Jenga.
12. If I had to pick which works of art are most like conversations, I would have to say musical albums. This is because the residual feelings from earlier songs are stimulated by the current song. Also, there is a process of relationship between listener and artist.
13. The 70’s notion of playing whole album sides is one of a very short list of good ideas from that decade.