Monthly Archives: November 2023

Take Two 8-Tracks And Call Me in The Morning

Music relieves pain.

Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Turns out, science backs him up. According to a 2023 study by scientists at McGill University in Montreal, listening to your favorite music reduces pain by one point on a 10-point scale. Scientists asked a series of questionsafter 63 participants experienced pain while listening to either their favorite songs, relaxing songs picked for them, scrambled music, or silence. Once each seven-minute round was over, subjects rated the music’s pleasantness and how many “chills” — that goosebump feeling you get when listening to moving music — they experienced. Listening to preferred music, especially moving music, far outranked other scenarios, and participants ranked the pain as less intense and less unpleasant. 

Although this particular study focuses on music’s impact on physical health, the medical world has long known the healing powers of music when it comes to the mind. Music’s ability to reduce stress and anxiety while improving cognitive ability and memory inspired a field of medicine known as music therapy, which has existed in some form since the late 18th century. So while listening to your favorite Beatles track or kicking back with some Beethoven won’t be enough to curtail serious pain, music can help mellow out the aches of everyday life.

Fibonacci’s Sharp Right


Fibonacci’s Sharp Right

Golden ratios dance,

On Fibonacci’s sharp right,

Sacred symmetry.

Numbers whisper grace,

In equations, truth embraced,

Divine order speaks.

Geometry’s hymn,

Angles form a sacred song,

Profound shapes align.

Quantum symphony,

Particles in cosmic dance,

Mathematics breathe

‘Napoleon’s’ Complex Brush with History

We know two things about Napoleon: He was short, and he was angry.

His actual shortness is like Hitler’s micro penis: It may be historically dubious, but it makes for salacious motivational narratives. In truth, the guy was 5-6, though his wars are estimated to have cost the lives of between 3-6 million soldiers.

Too bad little of this is on display in Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s tepid historical biopic that makes Oppenheimer look like Citizen Kane, which it ain’t.

Given the writers’ and actors’ strikes, it feels like the two movies were released back-to-back, though months separated their opening dates. Still, they both represent what classical Hollywood is all about: ginormous props, sweeping scores, casts of hundreds. Comparison is inevitable — and that’s bad news for Scott’s film.

Even with Oppenheimer’s half-billion take at the box office, Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus would have been hard to beat. Stars glommed over each other to snare even a single scene in the A-bomb story. The only A-lister in Napoleon is Joaquin Phoenix.

But the joke, as it turns out, is on audiences expecting anything akin to Phoenix’s Oscar-winning turn as Batman’s favorite nemesis. Where Phoenix was Taxi Driver emotive in Joker, he plays Napoleon like a constipated poker player holding a pair of jacks.

Even Napoleon’s famed military strategizing is glossed in scenes where he off-handedly proposes battle plans that bring victory — but no personification of a man who altered the landscape of Western military power.

Instead, we get what Scott must think defines Napoleon: his ill-fated marriage to Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). The love story continues even after the collapse of their marriage, and provides the movie with its few moments of humor and romance.

But this is strictly Oscar bait, and the big one may have been caught in the summer.

Napoleon the man is fascinating. Napoleon the movie is not.