McFerrin ingeniously demonstrates at least two big things about music and human beings in this video.

One, the power of the pentatonic scale.  And two, the ability for human beings to pick up music instinctively.

There is a real ah-ha moment at 0:42 that should make you smile (as says the Discover blogger).  There’s also one at 0:58.  Once the audience has the basic pattern he gets them to expand the scope of their repertoire without even thinking about it.  Very clever.

It’s little moments like this that remind us how much music is ingrained in our genes, which is why the lack of intellectual or emotional depth in so much of our popular music is so sad to me.

But as much as the heat may be horrible, at least I didn’t lose my apartment like these poor 17 people did yesterday.  This was just a couple of blocks from the CAD Files campus, and it was the biggest spectacle this neighborhood has seen since I’ve been here.  I hope those people have a place to live today.

Thanks to all who have sent the various birthday cards, missives, letters, wishes and telegrams.  I have over 100  emails that I’ve been ignoring the last few weeks, so if you’re waiting to hear from me, you will just as soon as I get around to those.

It’s even more unfortunate to be underemployed during a massive heat wave.  With no air-conditioned office to go to during the day, and with the CAD Files offices acting like a giant convection oven, I’ve had to find a cool respite in various public buildings: I’ve spent hours at Powells, I’ve seen some movies, and today I’ll probably go to the library and to the museum.  I guess that’s my birthday present to myself?

By the way, if you’re looking for a good film to watch, check out Summer Hours.  I saw it last night, and maybe it was just the air conditioning, but it’s very well-made and quite moving.

Well, according to some of the comments on YouTube, this song is about a monster who lives in a swamp, eats people from Prague, and who is killed by people in an airplane.

So, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, American popular music seems rather boring by comparison.

It was crazy time in downtown Portland tonight.  The Starlight Parade backed up traffic like mad everywhere (one of the many reasons I live where I do and can walk to these things), there was a soccer game at PGE Park (although I don’t imagine too many people went, as they were all at the parade), and some genuine paragons of humor  performed two live movie-riffing shows right in the middle of it all.  Cinematic Titanic came to P-Town for two live shows, and I got to see in person a fine group of people that I have genuinely admired for years from afar.  I didn’t see Friday night’s East Meets Watts, but I did get there tonight for Danger on Tiki Island.  The “danger” in the movie revolved mostly around homicidal trees and a garbage bag monster, but then I’m getting ahead of myself.

It really is a unique experience to be in a giant room full of MSTies watching a movie together.  MST3K, and riffing in general, is something that you either immediately get and appreciate, or it’s something that you don’t get at all, and it probably perplexes you why people are talking over the movie.  The crowd tonight was obviously in the former category.  I imagine that most people watching movies are not paying that close attention to what’s happening on the screen; they’re too busy texting or whatever.  But as Josh Weinstein said tonight, the people who like MST3K actually have attention spans.  I hate to use the word “treat,” but it was a treat to be in a room full of people who noticed that the height-challenged waitstaff serving beverages to the not-so-intrepid heroes of the movie only filled the glasses about a quarter full.  What, was there a beverage ration or something?  When the Star Trek movie can have a major plot point revolve around something called Red Matter, but never actually explain what Red Matter is, it seems like perhaps a minor quibble to worry about the quantity of beverage being served to characters that we don’t really like in a movie that we all think is horrible.  But that’s what movie riffing is all about, pointing out those kinds of little details that you might not notice at first blush, but when you have them pointed out to you, completely change your perception of what you’re watching.

I had a great seat in the first balcony of the Newmark with a completely unobstructed view, and was able to take some pics.  They’re not great, as I have an older camera, but they might at least give you a sense of what it was like to be there.

It was really nice to see the cast in person, and Josh, Frank, Mary Jo, Trace and Joel are all funny, erudite people who are great at what they do.  Josh showed that he can sing in any style of music and sound like any singer he wants to, and Joel fielded a question about Mike by deciding not to open a can of worms.

It is perhaps too much to ask that they come back to Portland sooner rather than later, but I genuinely hope that they do.

Dream House, originally uploaded by thecadfiles.

This is the house I’d buy if I had any money (or a job). You can’t see in this picture, but it overlooks downtown (right by the Vista bridge).

We’ve had an unfathomably crappy first couple weeks of weather this month, so today’s sunshine and 82° temp were a huge relief to everyone, especially me, and everyone was out in force at the waterfront and at Saturday Market.  What a great time, then, for some new Portland pics.  Sorry, there are big obvious smudges on the lens, which just show how little I use my camera.

The advertising budget for the latest Star Trek movie must have been in the billions (maybe they got some bailout money?), because one could not turn on a TV, radio or the internet last week without seeing someone talking about it.  Having finally gotten to see the movie myself this week, I can now become the next person on the internet to talk about it.  Yeah, it’s my turn!

Clearly, in terms of CGI effects, audio and general cinematography, this is the Star Trek all of us have imagined in our heads all these years.  Finally, finally, we get to see all of this space stuff rendered in a way that is remotely believable.  It doesn’t look like models flying in a two-dimensional plane anymore, it looks like a ship would really look in space, moving around dynamically, in three dimensions.  None of the movies prior to this one have ever had big effects budgets (or big budgets at all), and the only series that had really good effects (for TV) was the last one, Enterprise.  So, this movie, just in the way it looks and sounds, turned out not only to be worth all the hype, but it is also a worthy template for making more in this new, interesting Trek universe.

For instance, there is a scene where some of the intrepid adventurers (one, a doomed red-shirt guy)  jump out of a spaceship and land on something floating above a planet below them.  That description, though, does not do it justice.  When watching it, one feels as if you, too, have just jumped out of a spaceship and are plummeting to the planet at breakneck speeds.   It is perhaps the most riveting scene in any Star Trek movie ever made, and exponentially more dramatic and literally breathtaking than anything ever done on any of the series.  That one scene alone has forever changed my understanding of Star Trek, something I have been obsessed with since childhood, and something I thought I had a pretty clear handle on by now.

Of course, as with all Trek movies, there are plot holes and things one simply must accept in order to enjoy oneself.  There’s something called red matter that somehow makes black holes which somehow enable time travel.  None of this is ever explained, but whatever.  Hey, at least it isn’t the stupid Nexus.  When Spock returns at the end to become first officer to the newly appointed Captain Kirk, given the events of the movie, and given Spock’s already having been a higher rank than the (now) captain, it doesn’t feel particularly natural or “logical.”  And the fact that Capt. Kirk looks barely old enough to be in a fraternity, let alone the commanding officer of a giant spaceship, well, that’s part of why people on the internet have been calling this one Star Trek 90210.

But really, this is Star Trek, a movie about people flying around in space and shooting aliens with photon torpedoes, so I guess I should just shut up and enjoy the ride.  Given how awful many of the previous movies were, given how sub-par Enterprise was, I really should be glad that there is finally a Star Trek product that delivers amazing special effects and makes the Trek universe, for the first time in my life, look believable.

I think I will have to see this one again in the theater soon, and see if it holds up to a second viewing.  In the meantime, if you haven’t seen this incredibly popular Onion parody already, you should take a look and have a laugh.