Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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OK. True story.
So yesterday my kid played in her final concert with the wonderful Contemporary Youth Orchestra, based here in the Land of Cleves, and it was great. The theme of this year's "Rock the Orchestra" concert was hip-hop. Among the guest artists was Grandmixer DXT, credited as the first musician to scratch a needle rhymically over a vinyl record.
Cyrus Taylor, physicist and dean of arts and sciences at Case Western Reserve Univerisity, also has a kid in the orchestra and was there with his family, just a couple rows ahead of me. I've chatted briefly with him and thought about saying hello. I formulated a quip about his keeping Lawrence Krauss in check, but (mercifully) the opportunity passed.
This morning I picked up yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer. There in the Metro section is a story about Krauss leaving CWRU for Arizona State University to form an "origins institute." Cyrus Taylor is quoted in the story expressing his regrets over Krauss' departure.
Wow, says I. Pretty good coincidence. Glad I didn't snark to Cyrus about Larry.
So I'm musing about the concert. Among the compositions played was Farandole ("circle dance"), the last movement of George Bizet's L'Ariesienne Suite No. 2, as arranged for Bob James' 1975 album Two - a jazz-fusion classic that influenced many hip-hop artists. Grandmixer DXT accompanied on drums. Great stuff. They played it twice.
I've got the original classical Bizet on LP, so this morning I pulled it out and played it. I planned to play it for my kid.
Now, unlike the direct drive turntables used by Grandmixer DXT, mine has a 6lb platter rotated by a 35" rubber belt. The belt rounds the motor pulley, just 6mm in diameter, then the heavy 12" platter itself. This 46 year old belt's days are numbered: it has developed a small tear. When powering down the table I routinely ensure that the belt hasn't stopped with the tear positioned directly on the tiny pulley - that would open the tear, add stress and likely hasten the belt's demise. Unlikely, to be sure, and in fact it has never happened, but this belt will be difficult to replace. So I muse on Cyrus Taylor and Lawrence Krauss and wait for the table to spin down. I think on probabilities, coincidence, Farandole, Dembski, hip hop, turntables, inertia, and origins. Methinks: It would be quite something if the tear indeed stops on the pulley. The table stops.
The tear is positioned directly, precisely on the tiny pulley.
Wow, says I. Another pretty good coincidence. Second in the hour, too, and one that occurred while I was musing on probability and coincidence, which promotes it to metaincidence. I reported this to my wife. I wondered: maybe I'm passing though some sort of coincidence habitable zone. She says that she in fact also experienced a remarkable coincidence yesterday - but won't say what. So it could be true.
So last week my kid brought home a 6" thick stack of LPs. Another orchestra dad was giving a truckload away away during rehearsal (sure wish I had known). This morning, having just heard the original Bizet arrangement of Farandole, she insisted I play one of the LPs she picked up: More Hawaii Calls: Greatest Hits. "Sure," says I, "but not if it's in bad condition." But the LP, recorded in the early 1960s, has never been opened. I split the shrink wrap and we listened to pristine 1960s Hawaii schmaltz.
This is time travel, so I scanned the album cover looking for the date on which this turkey was recorded. Most LPs of that era aren't dated, true for this one, too. But on the back cover I find, "Produced by WEBLEY EDWARDS and BILL MILLER.
My name happens to be Bill Miller. (So stalk me.)
Wow, says I. Yet another pretty good coincidence. Third in 90 minutes. Fourth if you include the metaincidences. Or is it the fifth? But then there is Zero's thread...
Which raises the question, What does it all mean? It must mean something. And it does:
Shit happens.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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