Theorizes that when under influence of enough alcohol, the here and now is not only what matters most to you, but also influences what matters to you. That is, you don’t think much about the future and potential consequences, but that also in not thinking, you let your environment determine how you act and feel such that you experience very different things under the same influence if in a quiet bar by yourself versus a crowded and rowdy frat party.
More formally…
A cognitive-physiological theory on alcohol abuse in which many of alcohol’s social and stress-reducing effects, which may underlie its addictive capacity, are explained as a consequence of alcohol’s narrowing of perceptual and cognitive functioning.
The first explanation is a lot easier to understand, in my opinion. I got it from Malcolm Gladwell in this podcast episode below, talking with Oprah Winfrey.
(#alcohol) Myopia theory about how being drunk makes only what’s here and now (your immediate environment) matter to you. Also, that #blackout drunk doesn’t mean you’re anything close to passing out, you just can’t remember. #myopiatheory#blackoutdrunkhttps://t.co/WVf3npPoUz
What were your favourite pieces of music that you heard for the first time last year?
I don’t necessarily mean music that came out last year, just that you heard it for the first time last year because it was new to you. If you care to share, you can put it in the comments following the post. I’d love to know to expand my musical horizons.
Below are a list of favourite songs I heard for the first time in 2009, enough that would fit on CD were I to have made one. Most were from musicals as I really got into them in 2009 after my classic jazz year in 2008. A few were one-off takes on television events, though, so I’ll start with one that was both. It was available on YouTube like most of my selections so I have included the videos to have the music right here for you. I also linked the songs to blog posts I did inspired by them, where I did one.
Someone Like You
from Jekyll & Hyde Linda Eder & Frank Wildhorn on 2000 PBS Special
Linda Eder delivers a loving performance of this gorgeous song with touching lyrics, accompanied by husband Frank Wildhorn, who had composed the song. (blog post)
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If You Were Gay
from Avenue Q
Rick Lyon and John Tartaglia Love and humour, not just in song but also video spoof. (blog post)
The Internet is for Porn
from Avenue Q Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Rick Lyon & the Guys
Possibly the funniest song I have ever heard! (blog post)
Mix Tape
from Avenue Q
Stephanie D’Abruzzo and John Tartaglia
A song that dragged my emotions up and down, enhanced by Stephanie’s nuances of acting while singing this song. (blog post)
As Long as You’re Mine
from Wicked Idina Menzel and Norbert Leo Butz
An often overlooked song from Wicked that I only heard once I saw the musical, rather than hearing the more popular songs from it. However, I loved it immediately, especially the soft-spoken ending.
Academy Awards 2009 Introduction
Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway
This number was both brilliant and unexpected in being clever, funny and spectacularly performed. My intro to the full talents of Hugh Jackman. (blog post)
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Monologue Song
from Saturday Night Live November 7, 2009 Taylor Swift
How to trash everybody you want to with class and humour while being really cute about it. (blog post)
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Dark Eyes
by Bob Dylan Judy Collins
Judy Collins gives this sad Dylan song a haunting rendition. (blog post)
Better Angels
Lesley Gore
The original It’s My Party girl seriously grows up with this beautiful tune I first heard on CSI Miami (compilation video of episode shown below).
I Got a Feeling
Black Eyed Peas
Just an awesome dance song, ’nuff said cause I’m getting dancing! Best 2009 song in my opinion. (I chose the flash mob version shown on Oprah for the video cause it’s also so awesome!)
Wake-up
The Arcade Fire
I heard this song via the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are and thought they had made a pretty good choice for a theme song.
The Closest Thing to Crazy
by Mike Batt Katie Melua
Pretty much describes what feeling in love feels like to me. (blog post)
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Gayla Peevey
I heard it on a Telus commercial and loved it immediately, a bit surprised I had never heard this 1950s seasonal classic until now. (blog post)
You’ve Gotta Have a Gimmick
from There’s No Business Like Show Business Bernadette Peters, Julia McKenzie, Ruthie Henshall
This is probably the ultimate example of my claim that girls have all the fun songs in musicals, and the video only emphasizes the point.
Married
from Cabaret Ron Rifkin, Michelle Pawk A charming little song about marriage. A compact version is shown below.
Mystery
performed on the show Inside the Actor’s Studio Hugh Laurie
A hilarious and charming example of how lyric writing sometimes feels like to me, trying to find desperate rhymes and more desperate words that conform with desperate rhymes. (blog post)
Love, Look in my Window
from Hello Dolly!
Ethel Merman
There isn’t a video for this one but the piece was written for Ethel Merman when she joined Hello Dolly! If you hear her perform it with the emotions she does, you’ll know why it was written for her. I can hardly keep from crying at points in it. Probably good I don’t have the music for that reason!
After creating my version of the next generation of pictorial Facebook tagging meme in theMost Likely to version,the logical progression was a Least Likely To version below so this is original at the time of posting as far as I know it. While one can use this poster in a pessimistic way towards tagging people for the future, to identify friends who would be least likely to do something, I meant it as a reflective exercise with the instructions being to tag friends who were least like to do something.
This is an exercise to acknowledge how people change in big ways we don’t expect, but that we should afford them the chance to in life, rather than blocking them in by removing their potential. I’m generally a positive kind of guy, though with a bit of a wicked sense of humour, at times, as you can see by some of my choices in the poster below. As a result, despite using the same poster as the Most Likely to version, I changed the picture text to be more general in some circumstances. We may dream or lift others to the post of president, for example, but in reality, just being a leader applies to far more of us than president, no matter what kind of president you want to consider.
Here’s how to get the new graphic for your Facebook fun:
Click on the picture below to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Upload it to your Facebook profile.
Tag your friends!
Click the Back button on your browser to return to this post.
Please click here for a complete list of over 100 Facebook picture tagging memes on this site with which you can use for fun with your friends.
In case you don’t recognize some of these people, they are as follows, left to right:
Top: Peyton Manning, Wangari Matthai, Osama bin Laden, Paris Hilton, Jet Li
Middle: Pamela Anderson, Bob Dylan, Oprah Winfrey, the current Dalai Lama, Sue Johannson
Bottom: Claudia Schiffer, Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, Anna Nicole Smith, Barack Obama
I’m too tired to put links to all these people but you can Google them, and maybe guess why I’ve put labeled each as such.
Note: Since this posting, I have evolved Facebook picture tagging memes on my own ideas far beyond this concept I saw. My ideas involve real world and life actions rather than just associating ideas. They are listed under the Action memescategory, involving what I call Facebook 2.0 tagging memes.
The pictorial Facebook tagging memes that have been going around in many variations seems to have evolved into that common high school year book feature, the Most Likely To… page. I saw one just hours ago, but it was so poorly done (mostly due to almost unreadable small type) I went and created my own, text, picture compilation and all. Here’s how to get it:
Click on the picture below to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Digital Citizen 