Alan N.





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NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES

Interesting conversation between Pharrell Williams and Dr. Ramachandran, a professor of neuroscience and psychology, Dr. Ramachandran. I attached my favorite part but the whole interview is worth the read. Available here.

EHRLICH: Pharrell, your group, N.E.R.D, is an acronym for “No one ever really dies.” The Buddha, who was, in a way, also a neuroscientist, said that matter can never come from non-matter, and consciousness can never come from non-consciousness—meaning he felt there was a scientific basis for the principle of rebirth, because in the material world, everything we can observe transforms. Trees die and they turn into soil, the soil might run into the sea, the sea could evaporate into clouds, et cetera. So nothing really disappears. Is that what you meant when you said “No one ever really dies?”

WILLIAMS: That is what I meant, for sure, one hundred percent. I’m not sure what happens before you get here or when you leave, but I know that while we are here, we are these animate, mobile beings, and there’s certainly electricity flowing through our bodies. Interestingly, I’ll add, our bodies are about 75 percent water—much like the planet. There’s electricity that comes from us, hence dragging your feet across carpet and touching the doorknob, you know what happens?

EHRLICH: You get shocked.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, that’s right. And that’s energy! So there is proof. If you had to run a simple test, that’s the easiest one to do. There is electricity going through us. That is an example of one facet of the energy that we harness as beings. When I was coming up with that name, I wanted to celebritize being smart, because I noticed that being a nerd when I was in high school was the corniest thing you could ever do. But for me, I was like, “Those are the guys that grow up and drive BMWs! I don’t get it!” So I was like, “You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna take my music and I’m going to slowly but surely punch away at that notion that being a nerd is not cool.” Being smart? I want to work that up, and that’s what our aim was, and I couldn’t find a better acronym.

Einstein said energy can’t be destroyed, it can only be conjured and spread—I’m not even sure if you can create it—and so therefore, if we know that our bodies are filled with energy, when the flesh dies, what happens to the soul? It’s gotta go somewhere. I don’t know where it goes, I don’t have the proof to speak blindly on the phone in this interview, but that’s it. That part I’m sure of: No one ever really dies.

Dreams

Inception was a film that I have been HYPED up about since watching the trailer for the first time. As much as people have been going around saying how good this movie is, I really wonder what aspects of the movie people out there really enjoyed. Even before seeing the trailer of the movie, I already had a journal entry in my personal diary labeled “Dreamworld Interception.”

Not only has the movie explained many theories and concepts of dreams well, it really makes people start to wonder how dreams are related to people’s lives. Without trying to go into further details of the movie, I would like to explore precisely how dreams are related to myself. It’s weird, because I dream a lot. I could be taking a short nap for one or two hours and when I wake up, it feels like that I have just returned from a whole different realm.

Without trying to follow too many similar points to the movie, I think the main message I want to convey is how dreams play a role in my life. Throughout my dreams, the people I see and encounter are always people that have inspired me directly or indirectly in my life, and loved ones.

I don’t know why, but I would constantly people that I see that I have looked up to in whatever stage of my life here and there. Whether I know these people directly, or have followed them in popular culture, they have always been an essential part of my dreams. When I see these people in my dreams, it’s not even set in an environment in which they are enlightening me with knowledge, but having a similar conversation. Out of these random talks I have with people, they become messages when I wake up. Come to know of it, it’s really how I interpret the message. I could be an extremist and take that message fully or just casually let it slip as another daily conversation, but it has to mean more? Does it?

Maybe, through the most obscure and random dreams. I have worked and hanged out with many people that I always wanted to hang out with. Now, the scary thing is that, many of these people I’ve dreamed upon have sooner or later became a part of my real life. Even though what we do or work upon isn’t exactly what I’ve seen in the dream, the fact that I am able to work with these people directly, after dreaming about it, is somewhat scary? Did I draw myself to these individuals? Or have they simply came into my life due my ability to project the future?

Whatever the case is, I will be able to learn more about how dreams are actually related to me in real life as I become more conscious of this subject. I could say a lot of things have came from my dreams, but there will never be proof. Could justalilhype! been an idea sparked through my head while I was simply dozing off, or was it truly inspired by my love of street culture? I can’t give you an answer, but what I can say is that matters that inspires me the most in life, are equally cherished upon in both my real life and in the midst of my illusions.

Steady Blogging

After over half a year of blogging steadily, I have decided to reorganized my blog. I’ve created separated categories for topics that I talk about. I went through over 100 blog posts and have noted that one of the main topics in my blog is about music so it’ll be good to easily draw out all the posts about music including new singles’ and mix tapes’ download links. I also noticed that from time to time I would be consistently blogging one subject over another. When I got my D90, I would constantly blog about new photos, and when I was eating out lots, it was all about food. Not saying it’s an bad thing but it definitely leave things out. Having categories let me keep track of my posts and allow me to not only talk about music and branch on to my other interests of street culture. Steady blogging isn’t easy at all, and it’s almost like daily homework, revamping my blog by bringing up categories allow me to be able to stay on track, and also be more creative and remember that there’s really no excuses for not blogging, as there’s endless of possibilities for me to discuss and share about.

Hova Live in Performance

Jay-Z is probably one of the best live performers out there.   Jay-Z’s aura on the stage is incredible. Every time he executes a song on stage, it’s different and original. He is able to capture the moment of the interaction of the audiences and the setting to craft the perfect performance. Due to his talent on stage, there are many music videos that uses these live performances as portion of the video itself such as Forever Young. Jigga also dresses pretty low-key in concert. Often times, you will see him rocking a simple black tee with shades and a pair of nice kicks. I’ve seen him perform at the latest Blue Print III Tour at Vancouver and it was great. With his classics and new hits off his new album, he’s able to bring his long time fans back to the 90’s while pleasing his newer fans with songs like Empire State of Mind and Forever Young. There are many dope performances of him that you can search online and check out but if you haven’t seen him perform live, you are missing out.

After the jump, I’ve attached his latest concert at Bonnaroo. He performs Swagga Like Us, Hard Knock Life, 99 Problems, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, H To The Izzo, Young Forever, and segments of his classics in between. Solid performance as always, HOVA!  My favorite portion is when he performs Diamonds.

Have you been to a Jay-Z concert? If you did, let me know which one you attended and your thoughts about it!

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justREAD! Jay-Z: A Great Song