Song Review(s): Blues Traveler - “Run-Around,” “Things are Looking Up” -> “Optimistic Thought” (Live, Nov. 21, 2023)

Ever iconoclastic, Blues Traveler got the necessary out of the way first, opening its Nov. 21 concert in the Ryman with “Run-Around.”

With that taken care of, John Popper and company got down to more-serious business, pairing “Things are Looking Up” with “Optimistic Thought” in a seamless transition that found Traveler nodding to the Blues that is its first name.

While Popper’s voice and harmonica are the band’s indispensable qualities, this paring, shared as a free, livestream sampler from the band’s tour closer, belonged to bassist Tad Kinchla, whose funky plucking and slapping gave “Things” and “Thought” the drive they needed as the band launched into “Moby Dick.” This, unfortunately, is cut after the opening measure, proving what they say about beggars and choosers.

Zep or no Zep, this giveaway from the band’s tour closer left Sound Bites wanting more. And that’s the sign of show-biz professionalism, with iconoclasm on the side.

Grade card: Blues Traveler - “Run-Around,” “Things are Looking Up” -> “Optimistic Thought” (Live - 11/21/23) - C/A-/B+

11/22/23

I went to go see Train last night with my girlfriend and other friends. Honestly, the last time I went to a concert was in 2013 (2014?) for Bruno Mars, who is a really great live performer. So, it was nice to finally watch another show, especially with company. Some highlights from the show:

1) Blues Traveler and Jewel were the opening acts. One, I didn’t know Blues Traveler was still performing. Two, Jewel is a country/rock and roll artist now, which was surprising.

2) Train ended the show with “Drops of Jupiter”, which made sense since that was their biggest hit. But, not gonna lie, I spent most of the show going, “When are they going to play Drops of Jupiter?”

3) Pat Monahan shouted, “How you doing San Francisco!” multiple times in the show. Sir...we’re in Mountain View.

4) I never thought I’d ever see Jewel, the yodeling folk musician, cover Led Zeppelin. 

5) SPEAKING OF JEWEL! I don’t know if she was drunk or if she’s just wild as a person, but her set was a little unhinged. She trolled the security guard with her yodeling, she sang “Intuition” but changed the lyrics so that she could reference Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, and then she told the crowd that she was 48 and she could do whatever the fuck she wanted. It was really entertaining lol.

6) Blues Traveler was my favorite guest performer. He absolutely killed it with the harmonica solos.

7) I was never a huge fan of Train, but they’re fun to watch live. You can tell the guys were having a blast on stage. I will say though, their setlist was kinda random at times (ex.: they random started playing the end of “Hey Jude” by the Beatles) and they showered confetti on the crowd multiple times. Also, people were throwing their phones on stage so that Pat can take a selfie for them. While that’s a nice gesture, I don’t think I’d just willingly throw my phone at Pat. 

John Popper (Blues Traveler) No Woman No Cry live harmonica complete

release tension (no text version under the cut)

Brian Epstein and his four young lads from Liverpool

📷 Paul Popper

john egan was only 27 …. he should have been at the CLUB!!!!! NOT pining over his straight best friend in a POW camp!!!!!

last night I was talking about how I’m on the poppers mailing list so I’ll get these marketing emails that are like “why not celebrate the coronation of King Charles with these poppers?” and someone told me how he’d once bought some nematodes and now gets marketing emails like “it’s mother’s day, why not treat your mum with the gift of nematodes?” Definitely feel like there’s potential for a zine of the best unhinged promotional marketing emails there.

Song Review(s): John Popper & Jono Manson - “Cabin Fever” and “Cover My Hands”

As they prepare for the release of Bootlegger Days!!, John Popper and Jono Manson have two singles that do what good singles should do: leave the listeners wanting more.

“Cabin Fever” is a dusky blues set to bluegrass instrumentation that sounds every bit like the quarantine-era composition it is. Helpless. Moody. Slightly frightened. And it puts Popper in unfamiliar territory that is as refreshing as it is different.

Is it a ghost that stands before me/or cabin fever setting in, he sings over banjo, bushed drums and bass.

Closer to home is “Cover My Hands,” a traditional, electric blues number that finds Popper singing and playing harmonica in the way only he does.

There’s nothing you can say that’ll make me feel better/so pass me that bottle instead, he sings.

Popper’s been a busy man; Blues Traveler has a new record coming in October. But Bootlegger Days!! (Sept. 15) has Sound Bites most excited.

Grade card: John Popper & Jono Manson - “Cabin Fever” and “Cover My Hands” - A/A-

9/13/23

Best (?) Of Top Of The Pops 78

The Toppers cover John Travolta and Olivia Newton John (I wonder if the singers actually heard the tracks they were covering before recording them?)

Bob: Nah, but I did go to a Blue’s Traveler party once. Y’know John Popper followed me all night blowin’ that damn harmonica. The freak.

FALSIFICACIONISMO DE POPPER

O falsificacionismo de Karl Popper (1902-1994) defende que a ciência se diferencia da pseudociência ou da superstição, porque hipóteses científicas podem ser falsificadas por meio da observação e de experimentos. É comum pensarmos que a ciência é um tipo de conhecimento que foi verificado. Pensamos no cientista como uma figura que busca, através de uma série de experimentos, provar que sua…

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Contra el riesgo existencial de la IA

Yann LeCun citaba un tweet de Benedict Evans que decía así: Existe una correlación muy alta entre las personas que piensan que el despegue de la IA es inminente y simple y que dominará el mundo y las personas que expresan regularmente ideas sorprendentemente simplistas sobre cómo funciona el mundo en el que ya vivimos. Es una gran verdad. Vamos a desarrollarla. Durante muchísimo tiempo se…

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Learning to become an I

"The Self and Its Brain - An Argument for Interactionism" by philosopher Karl R. Popper and brain-physiologist John C. Eccles, originally published in 1977, this edition was published in 1982.

It was an exciting journey to read this illuminating work, which deals with the problem of relation with body and mind and the connection between the structures and processes in the brain and the mental, conscious actions and operations. The liasion of Eccles and Popper is an interdisciplinary research, connecting areas of expertise to underdraw the Theory of Psychophysical Interaction, which means body and mind are interrelationaly collaborated, but the organism is in a constant shaping through the physical world.

Examining different kind of classical epistimologies, to underdraw their Theory of Interactionism, it was traceable why the system of materialism (critisizing the causally completed physical world and the continuity of matter [World 1] according to Popper and Eccles, the material world is influencable as the living organisms have the ability to change the environment (= adoption of new biological and ecological meanings = influencing the pressure of selection = infinity of inherent possibilities and propensity), the system of determinism (often considered under a natural approach, theory of the world as a deliberately construct of God or Goddesses, famous thinkers of this systems are Leucippus and Democritus, formers of the atomism and mechanic materialism - Popper is sharply critisising the methods of science as they are the dominant conception of science till today, using the image of clouds-and-clocks to present the illusion of mechanistic theories [heavy systems evoke the impression that they are working like clocks, but in reality those huge organic molecules are open systems and the deduced physical law can just be observable, because enormous molecular mechanics are influencing each other + the principle of how science is classified is a misunderstanding, monistic systems are denying the dualistic and pluralistic understanding of things and entities !!! As an alternative solution the theory of possibilietes and probalistic preformationism are proclaimed]), the system of panpsychism (the theory of matter, defining that all things and entities have an inner sight, which is of mental and conscious quality, is denying the interaction of genetic and cultural evolution in accordance to the emergence feature of the self-consciousness- All living organisms are active "systems of perception" and not only passive sensually recipients - developments are active processes, the essential nature of the self is continuesly changing and depends on the physical type, the intellectual initiative and ingeniuty) and the system of empirism (where to begin? As mentioned before, we are the products of adaption, what we percieve with our senses is encrypted and every interpretation is the work of many polyvalent operations [as the parts of our brain are highly connected and it is still not possible to verify how recognizing-process is established in total, because eventhough the brain is more or less divided in areas of function, our genes, environment and thought patterns are permanently forming our realisation, therefore are senses are also products of constant adjustment] also it takes more for the self as the empirical memory, we are not only the total sum of our experiences, there are mechanism that guarantee the continuety of our self [Theory of Gene-Identity by Kurt Lewin and Locke's Principle of Individuation] and we have more methods to percieve knowledge rather than only using the senses, according to Hume, who is denying the existence of autonomic consciousness the cosmology is simplified and the ethics, the freedom of human-beings to chose their actions in accordance to humanistic aspiration, undermined) are untenable, because the mind and the self-conscious are coupled with the biologic individual organism and the nature of the self can most likely be captured with the Theory of Navigator and the essential requirement of space-and-time (as we need the orientation to establish our self, cf. Alzheimer-dementia and the fundamentaly difficutly of spatial orientation and loss of memory = Not able to reproduce the Idea of the Self = Unability to prepare for the future = independent life becomes hardly possible).

The senses are considered as tools for our brain to contrive functions of perception. The brain is programed to seize the most fitting model of our environment and the model is subject to steady review and interpretation (after Ernst Gombrich "making comes before matching" Theory of Visual Perception) of the conscience (Inner Enlighment in accordance to Feigl, compatible with this term is an assessment of Einstein:

"Without this inner enlighment, the whole universe would just be a pile of rubble."

The interdepence of thinking, intellect, reason, subjective experiences (....) are shoring up the circles of repetition of the brain (by means of synaptic plasticity), generating dynamic engram and the growing of neoronal synapses (= Theory of Learning = Ability for Remembrance). The Theory of Interactionism is emphasising the intensive brain acitivity, which is the necessary condition for physical and mental processes, that means both processes are influencing and causing.

What is this Self exactly? Where can our I be located? In which context does cosmic-evolutionary stages bring the consciousness forth?

What seems trivial for the indolent, is a deep ocean of mysteries and wonders for the continous learner. Experiencing the self - is learning to become the self, as we all have the Idea of a Life-Plan (Rawl "Theorie der Gerechtigkeit"). We percieving the world and take action under the leadership of theory impregnated patterns. The personal task for the differentaited grades of conscience is to expand over our sure-thought-being and achieve goals that stand above instinctive longings and inclinations. Maybe the human-being is not the centre of the creation nor is the state of mind the product of the central nervous system (Central State Theory).

The universe is an open and creative system, just as the stars govern our conditions, we as dust particles have also the potentiality to influence in downward causations (never underestimate macroscopic structures).

It made a lot of fun to read this spectacular work and it animated me to draw more attention in actions and thinking-patterns, as taking the opportunity to crystallize sparkling diamonds to make my percieved world not only more worthy to live in, but to motivate other souls in lightening up the beauty of live, which we all carry in us, sometimes it is just hidding, because we used to negate the Good in conditions of uncertainity. If we are forced to live this earthly live, we should live it with love and inner peace, if everyone would train to become more and more self-sufficient, I believe, that there would be piece and harmony, because reason means a positive affirmation of life, the creation of a self, that is happy to improve itself, to evolve and take part for a better world, the product of domesticated and therefore enhanced awareness.