Nils wrote this comment in January of this year. Given our recent discussion about life choices and comics, I think it’s appropriate to bring out his well-articulated viewpoint:
I think that we have to learn to deal with uncertainty for the time being. We’re 21 for christ’s sake, the possibilities and choices that lay ahead of us are virtually endless. The problem is that high school and college have not primed us to deal with the unknown. There has always been a set track that we have been required to follow and that track pretty much ends with college, I think. We should all be prepared for unforeseen conflicts and always have back up plans because you never know how things will turn out. I’ve been thinking a lot about post graduation lately and I have thrown together a few scenarios for myself: stay with TV and pursue jobs in TV market, move to LA and attempt the film industry, join the peace corp, or move to Norway and do something (read: I have no clue). I think can live with those options.
In the past five years or so, I have experienced a recurrent and surprisingly urgent need to “figure it out.” It must be that the changing scenery and conditions of my young life cause me to attempt to assure myself I’m on the “right” path. As a result, I’ve taken a simultaneous keen yet shallow interest in philosophy: as if a cursory overview of the topic would yield the viewpoint for which I search. The Weepies sing that, perhaps, “this is not your year.” However, if I was to take guidance on life from media, it would not be that particular song (great though it may be). I would, in fact, take inspiration from the most profound (and, incidentally, most existential) comic I have ever read. That would be this strip of Zippy the Pinhead published on my Mom’s birthday, the 16th of September:
While slightly fatiguing to read when directly quoted, I’ll nevertheless reproduce Zippy’s conclusion here: “It’s not th’ journey or the destination that matters most — it’s th’ thrill of not understanding th’ paradox!” So, I’m where I started, but better equipped to move on: you figure it out for yourself, don’t you? I believe that doing so can be enjoyable. Let’s make it so.
The website iLounge has a 5+ year tradition of a journalistic approach to Apple iPod news; their reviews, articles, and regular news updates are completely devoid of snarkiness, instead focusing on facts and well-written leads. In short, they’re a well respected resource for Apple news. However, their review entitled “Apple iPod touch (8GB/16GB)” did nothing but attempt to reinforce the iLounge opinion that the iPod touch is a “downgrade” from the iPhone. Preoccupation with iPhone comparisons caused iLounge not to miss the boat, but miss the harbor on this one:
…you don’t just lose a cell phone by buying iPod touch instead of a comparable-capacity iPhone; you lose the dock, charger, camera, external speaker, microphone, battery life, screen quality, resilient back casing, Bluetooth, and several applications. Try to read that list aloud without taking a breath. You gain only a limited video-out feature, and a few millimeters of thinness, which we’d gladly have traded for superior performance.
By sequestering itself with a focus on the “iPod enthusiast” (à la auto enthusiast) end of the market, iLounge has lost sight of what an average iPod consumer wants. The iPod has never, ever, been about feature count; given their long review history, iLounge should realize that.
In terms of a public address system, tumbledry is really only a whisper in a gigantic stadium, drown out by the slightest clamor anywhere else. As such, I have never really intended to announce trends or write on the cutting edge of anything — if such writing does see the light of day, it is only because my interests coincided with that which was in vogue. This limits the scope of tumbledry and makes it merely a personal conversation with folks about my life and the things from it I choose to record. In the case of this entry, I feel an urgent need to express my infatuation with an album I ran across (courtesy of Mykala). Knowing that the whisper will be drown out doesn’t make the recommendation feel any less important.
Joshua Radin has been compared to Simon & Garfunkel, Elliott Smith, Damien Rice and Iron & Wine, but for me, these comparisons are pretty meaningless. The only thing I can recommend that will do justice to his album, We Were Here, is to follow these steps:
Carve 40:00 uninterrupted minutes out of your life.
Put headphones on.
Play this album.
I find the best time to do this is in before sleeping, but your schedule may vary.
