THIS, etc.

this is a pretty funny video. i hope this doesn’t look like i’m taking it personally or something. but it presents the opportunity for a counter-argument. something i’ve had in my head for awhile.

the whole fun of watching lost is when you can get really into it and you can watch and discuss the show with someone equally as invested. the fucking WORST thing is when you’re watching with somebody who has never seen an episode before, because without fail they will take every opportunity to remind you how bad the CG is or how over the top the music is or IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS HAVEN’T THEY GOTTEN OFF THE ISLAND BY NOW LOL

**this is essentially a different post that has been shoehorned in**

lost had the misfortune of coming after movies like cast away had ingrained into the popular consciousness the idea that any story about people stranded on an island would be primarily concerned with Gathering Food or Creating Fire. people who became disenchanted with lost when it seemed like the writers were making it up as they went along frequently argue – and i think i’ve heard the producers say this as well – that the show’s beginnings (aside from the pilot getting killed by a monster made out of smoke and goddamn fucking polar bears) would have you believe it was just a typical desert island tv show. of course if we take the smoke monster and polar bear into consideration it’s pretty obvious lost was batshit crazy from the start. any instance of the survivors hunting for food, for instance, was incidental to the actual plot (see: Boone’s death), and pretty soon the show did away with the survival aspect by having food fall out of the goddamn sky.

disclaimer: i dont know if any of this is actually true, these are just words i thought of

if sarcasm is saying what you don’t mean, then irony might be defined as not saying what you do mean.

dramatic irony is often defined as a situation in fiction wherein the audience has knowledge that a character(s) does not. for example, a character might say, “today is a great day, nothing will go wrong today,” while the audience might know of a velociraptor off-screen that is about to eat them. while it is true that in this situation the audience is aware of a velociraptor that the character in question is not, it is better to think of irony as i defined it in the first paragraph: that the author is not saying what they do mean. to convey the scene’s full meaning, the line might literally be rendered, “today is a great day, nothing will go wrong today (except that i am about to be eaten by a velociraptor).”

in a recent episode of 30 rock, liz lemon noted the irony of a situation in which she was locked in a closet by her gay nephew who she had recently outed. she then asked, “is that irony?” to which he replied, “not really.” the common interpretation of irony is as an unfortunate coincidence (see: that one alanis morisette song). however it’s easy to see how this comes about as these sorts of situations in fiction are often ironic because the author intends to convey meaning through unfortunate coincidence. perhaps if liz had been outing her gay nephew while she was locked in the closet, while simultaneously concealing or being oblivious to her own homosexuality, it might have been a more concrete example of irony.

there might also be a sense in which the title of this post is ironic, though it creates conflict. it is possible, or even likely, that when reading a blog post titled “the definition of irony”, one might expect a story about an ironic personal anecdote, rather than a meditation on the literal definition of irony. in this case, i said exactly what i meant, which was contrary to what was expected – reverse irony?

there is also the sense in which this entire post has been an ironic f u bro to henry whom i told i would be writing more stream of consciousness posts and that this sort of bullshit is the result

in the grand tradition of taking Things That Occurred and listing them, i have decided to take a look at the music that was important to me in 2009.

Norah Jones – Young Blood

i saw norah jones play this song live on the colbert report and it was pretty immediate. it’s almost like norah jones + kaki king + iron & wine?? instant success. probably the fastest a song has ever made it to my loved list on last.fm. it’s just subtle and beautiful and it makes me feel warm.

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Norah Jones – Young Blood

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

trying to keep up with new music, i end up overlooking things. my first impression of yellow house was that grizzly bear were just a sleepier animal collective. seeing them live in june changed that pretty quick. veckatimest reminds me of when i first got into radiohead, where each song would just run my life for about a week. this song just happens to be the one running around my brain for now.

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Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able

Lone

my discovery of lone (and the “wonky” movement in general) is just one example of how effective last.fm’s excellent recommendation tool is. they know me so well. i don’t know what else to say. i love it and ain’t nothin that could come between us.

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Lone – Sea Spray

Signalrunners – Meet Me In Montauk

ok so technically this song came out towards the end of 2008, but whatever. apart from being the catalyst for my whole trance/progressive house phase of 2009, this song has surprisingly strong sense memory associated with it. signalrunners have definitely abused the success of this song, as their most recent work following it – their remix of oliver smith’s ‘restless’, and andrew bayer’s collaboration with boom jinx – sound structurally as though they were built from the same project template. and while both of those songs still manage to be great, none of them surpass the original.

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Signalrunners – Meet Me In Montauk

i feel like i am forgetting something

i wrote you a song (finally)

blue sunrise

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ok i’m gonna try this again. we’ll call 2009 the beta version. expect opinions about life and the cosmos, and, if inspiration allows, music.