Music, Sting

Wow. I was talking with my RF, Ross Shacter today, and he was mentioning the kind of stuff he does. Eli ran into him at the Medical School Office Building, and he was lecturing on modeling something or other in belief networks. Which is what I’m studying right now in CS221 so I mentioned that to him, and so we started talking about it. So I said that the stuff he does sounds a lot like AI stuff. And he says, yeah, that’s what it is. So, I come home and look in my index for the Artificial Intelligence textbook and whoa. He is the man. I’m not kidding. That’s pretty insane. Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool. So EESOR and AI are pretty related, I guess. Who knows, maybe me and Dave Hong will end up collaborating together. Perhaps we will win a Nobel prize. For humor.

What is it about music that’s so powerful? I’m not really a passionate guy, I’m more lazy and really quite stoic about things, but when it comes to music, it just affects me. I can’t explain it. I know there are people out there who just don’t listen to music. And I can’t believe that. Actually, if you can believe it, I didn’t really listen to music either until junior high or high school. All the musical knowledge I’ve gained I’ve gained since then.

Anyway, music just hits me, and I can’t really explain what it is about a song that hits me. Irwin just got into MPEG-3s and I’ve been listening to Every Breath You Take by the Police. What is it about that song? Every time I hear it, it just stirs up in me these emotions that I can’t explain. I mean, that song just really moves me. And it’s not an explainable thing, you know? It’s not like I can point to some musical trick they do, or some cool progression, it’s just good. And really when you come down to it, you can’t explain music, it’s just good. Or it’s not. But there’s really no explanation beyond that.

Sometimes it’s disturbed me how much music gets to me. And I wish I could be that passionate about people, or especially God. Someday, I guess. If only I could understand what it is about music that makes me so passionate.

And Sting seems to do it to me more than most. I don’t know what it is. But he writes some incredible, moving music. It’s heavy. I listen to it, and I always feel this way. I can’t explain it. It’s like a mixture of really happy, longing, sad, even depressed, content, and excited all at once. Dang I love it. Maybe it’s just I feel he reveals his passion so well in his music. Like Every Breath You Take. People have called it the stalker song, and if you look at the lyrics, it really is. But it’s so real in its passions. Maybe it’s wrong, but heck, I’ve felt that way. Or a song like Fields of Gold or Shape of my Heart. So much passion.