Tom Brady Gets It

I’ve never been a Tom Brady fan. I don’t have anything personal against him, except for the whole pretty boy, effortlessly great player, marred-to-an-outrageously-gorgeous- and-talented-Hollywood-starlet-only-to-divorce-her-and-marry-an-even-more-ridiculously- gorgeous-supermodel thing.

But I may have to rethink my opinion of Mr. Brady.  When asked about the tendency of some athletes to attribute their success on the field (coughTimTebowcough) or court (coughJeremyLyncough), Mr. Brady had this to say:

Look at the  attention I get.  It’s because I throw a football. But that’s what society values.  That’s not what God values. God could give a (bleep)...He didn’t invent the game. We did.  I have some eye-hand coordination, and I can throw the ball. I don’t think that matters to God.

Well said, Tom Brady, well said.

One of my pet peeves has always been the athlete who thinks that God, if he or she exists, would intervene in a game while allowing the kind of wholesale suffering that exists in this world to continue unaddressed.  So it’s good to see one athlete put things into the proper perspective.

I actually addressed this topic in song last year:

Marriage Rights and the Tide of History

Recent events in four different states give hope to those who want to see full equal rights extended to our fellow citizens someday. First, here in (my adopted state of) California, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of marriage rights in a case stemming from our passage of Proposition 8 a couple of years ago. Shortly after that, the state of Washington (my home state) passed, and Governor Gregoire signed, a law designed to make gay marriage legal there.

Close on the heels of those two actions came pro-gay marriage votes by the legislatures of New Jersey and Maryland. While New Jersey Governor Christie predictably vetoed the NJ bill, the Maryland action is expected to eventually make to the desk of Governor O’Malley, who is expected to sign it into law.

So the long, slow slog towards general acceptance of gay marriage continues. I mean, four actions in four states over such a short period of time must mean that momentum is building. At least that’s how I read it.  

Of course, many others will see those actions not as hopeful signs of a more tolerant future, but rather as further evidence that the world is falling apart around us.  For many Americans, gay marriage as a threat to all that we middle Americans hold dear.

I used to be inclined to think like that, but I got over it. And you know what? I really think the country as a whole is getting over it.  I fully believe that the tide of history is moving towards acceptance, tolerance and empathy, and I have no doubt that gay marriage will be legal and widespread within a few years. Within a decade or so, I believe it will be not just tolerated but accepted as normal by the vast majority of Americans.

It’s the getting there that is so distressing though. I find myself wishing we could just fast forward past the anguish that is going to accompany moving from point A to point B. Seriously, wouldn’t it be great if we could just skip over the ongoing vitriol and accusations, the shouting on the 24-hour news channels, the inevitable associations of gay marriage to bestiality, polygamy and other perils, the courts alternately moving the ball forward or backwards, the motivated few pouring money and time into one side of the debate or the other, the calls for Constitutional amendments that will never pass, and the tears of the faithful as they convince themselves that life as we know it is inevitably changing for the worse.

But the battles have to be fought, and the victories won, before we get there.  Someday though Americans will look back and wonder how people of our time could have been so worked up over something as innocuous as allowing gay Americans who are in love to marry each other.  

The tide of history is moving inevitably in that direction, and I wish we could all just jump on and enjoy the ride!

The Ewoks Are Not Dancing (Anymore)

A while back I was talking about Star Wars with my son James. We were speculating about what might have happened to Luke, Han, Leia and the gang after the dramatic conclusion to Episode six. Obviously, with the evil empire defeated, the Jedi re-established and order restored to the Galaxy, Luke and his cohorts would usher in a benevolent new system of Galactic government and everyone would live happily ever after. Right?

Ah, but what if that didn’t happen?

What if our heroes were well equipped to win the war, but not to win the peace? What if Han and Leia’s wartime love waned in the boring aftermath of ordinary existence? What if Luke turned out to be just another middle-management loser who couldn’t recreate his wartime heroics or deal with social forces beyond his control?

This line of thought led, as it often does with me, to a song. So, here is The Ewoks Are NotDancing (Anymore), a dystopian view of the Star Wars future, as told from Luke’s point of view thirty years after the exciting climax of Episode Six.

Enjoy!

(Oh, and I want to thank James for providing the outstanding guitar solo – it’s a cut above the usual guitar work in my songs!)

2011: My Year of Living Skeptically

For me, 2011 was the year I “came out” as a skeptic. That's a bit dramatic, admittedly, as my ‘coming out’ was not accompanied by any particular anxiety or family pressure or societal repercussions.  What I mean is that, after years of absorbing skeptical content and becoming more and more aware that I identified with the movement, I decided to get actively involved in 2011.

I started out by attending our local Sacramento Skeptics in the Pub events. I’m not one of the world’s great schmoozers, but it was fun to be in a group of people - disparate and eclectic as we are - who shared common interests and worldviews. The discussions at these events are lively and interesting, and I always found myself staying later and enjoying the events more than I expected to.

My involvement with the skeptical community accelerated when I posted a song I had written, The Skeptic in the Room, on YouTube. I was very pleased to see the positive reaction the song received from skeptics. I owe thanks to several people who embedded the video on their own sites, often accompanied by very positive commentary.   In particular, Shane Trimmer of the Sacramento Area Skeptics got the ball rolling by posting the link to the SAS site, after which it was picked up by Pharyngula, Respectful Insolence, Occam’s Razor and many others. It also got a boost when Jeff Wagg featured it on the Rational Alchemy podcast. So thanks to all of those who helped make it a viral hit (defining ‘hit’, of course, in the most generous way),

Events followed, including the SkeptiCAL conference in Berkeley and TAM9 in Las Vegas, where the conversations were lively, the presentations enlightening and the atmosphere convivial. I was particularly pleased to be joined in Las Vegas by my sons Ryan and James, both young skeptics who were also entering the movement this past year. I figure that between Ryan, a professional magician in San Francisco and James, a student of molecular biology at UC/Santa Cruz, we’ve got a least a couple of branches of the skeptical movement pretty well covered in our family!

One more highlight of the year came last month, when my son James and I performed The Skeptic in the Room for the local Winter Solstice/HumanLight party. That was a kick - not only performing with James, but also getting some actual live audience feedback to the song.

So, for the most part, my year of living skeptically was very positive, and I’m really looking forward to 2012, which will include a return visit to TAM and, hopefully, participation in the Reason Rally in Washington DC.

But, unfortunately, I found that skepticism has its dark side as well – that would be, in my opinion, the community's tendency to splinter into battling tribes who then attempt to - metaphorically! - beat each other to a pulpy mass.

From the ongoing arguments about the place of strident atheism in the skeptical movement to the elevatorgate kerfuffle to the great Gelato battle of 2011 to the regular debates about male/female interactions, the skeptical community seems to like to engage in internecine warfare.

I'm all for a healthy and rigorous debate, and I don't object to forceful argument at all. The disheartening thing about this is that these are all serious and important issues, and one might hope that a group that espouses reason and logic might find a way to discuss those issues in, I don’t know, a sane and lucid manner.  But these disagreements seem inevitably to devolve into name-calling, condescension and sanctimonious self-righteousness.  

I recognize that most of this rancor takes place in the cacophonous echo chamber that is the Internet, where being controversial and outrageous is a way to drive success, but it's disheartening nevertheless. Luckily, the actual real live, face-to-face interactions among skeptics at conferences and other events seems to be much more civil.

OK, got that off my chest.

So, to summarize – for me, my year of living skeptically was rewarding and exciting and satisfying. In most ways the skeptical world was what I had hoped it would be – a place where people who share certain views of the world we live in can learn, grow and exchange ideas among their peers and friends.

The Skeptic in the Room Unplugged!

Last weekend I had the chance to perform my song The Skeptic in the Room for the Solstice/HumanLight Party here in Sacramento. The event, sponsored by the local Atheists and Other Freethinkers (AOF) group, was well attended and very upbeat. The Mockingbirds, a local singing group, performed some lively parody carols in the spirit of the (non-religious) season.  Professional dancers Roger and Pam showed off some slick dance steps.  And my son James and I performed Skeptic. This was the first live performance of the song, and, while there were a few hiccups along the way, it was a lot of fun.  


Here's a video of our performance. If you watch it, please keep a couple of things in mind:


1.  We kind of threw this together quickly, so forgive the stumbling over lyrics here and there, and...
2.  Always remember, the camera adds ten, errrrr thirty pounds! (but, oddly, only to me, not to James.  There must be some scientific explanation for that - I suspect quantum physics or nano-particles are to blame).

If you prefer to watch the original, mistake-free version, it is here:

Tim Minchin is starting to piss me off!

As is true of all communities of thought, the Skeptical Community has its well known leaders and celebrities. And, as I have immersed myself in podcasts and books and skeptical conferences over the last few years, I have come to greatly admire many of the more prominent skeptics. Many of them exhibit traits I would love to possess myself:  The erudition and facility with language of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins; the commitment and productivity of Steven Novella; the joie de vivre of Richard Wiseman and Phil Plait; the charm of Rebecca Watson; the humanity of Penn Jillette.  

But there is one skeptical luminary that inspires waves of admiring envy in every fiber of my being:  Musician and comedian Tim Minchin.  While I know I’ll never be a microbiologist or a doctor or a scientist, I am a musician and a songwriter. And, like Mr. Minchin, I try to express my skeptical outlook in my music (click here to see what is unarguably my most successful attempt at this to date). But, like Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, I find myself forced to recognize and respect the brilliance and creativity of Tim Minchin while knowing that I, alas, will never match his skills.

And its really starting to piss me off!

Mr. Minchin’s latest triumph only increases my own sense of envy.  The new Musical Comedy Matilda - music and lyrics by Tim Minchin - has taken London’s West End by storm, winning rave reviews and already racking up theatre awards. You can see a promotional clip for the show here.  It is really rare to encounter something in modern musical theater that is truly new and unique, and Matilda appears to be just that - a brilliantly conceived and executed trip into a fantastical world of childlike wonder.  Of course, not having seen the show, I’m making this judgement based on the soundtrack and the clips that are online.  But I’m pretty confident, based also on the reviews I’ve read, that the show really is pretty awesome.

So why does this new Minchin triumph cause me so much grief? Because, along with my more common musical efforts, I have always dreamed of writing a Broadway musical. I’ve begun, but never completed, several such efforts - including shows based on William Tell, on President John Tyler (yeah, that would be popular!) and on famous hoaxes and hoaxers of history. But, again alas, none has amounted to anything more than a ragged collection of songs with no coherent story line.

And so, Tim Minchin, while I applaud your success and will continue to enjoy your work, you’re really starting to annoy me. Must you really be quite so good at everything?!

On the other hand, maybe I could just use Tim as inspiration to take another crack at finishing one of my own projects.  Look out world, here comes John Tyler: The Musical!

Bad News for Power Balance Could be Good News for Sacramento

Power Balance, purveyors of those magical wristbands that people (particularly athletes) believe are imbued with magical powers, filed for bankruptcy protection today, according to a report in the Sacramento Bee.  All I can say is, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of charlatans!

I won’t go into the copious evidence showing that Power Balance bands are no more magical than the rubber bands cluttering up my kitchen draws.  They have exactly the same efficacy – that is, none whatsoever.  I won’t rag on their scientifically dubious claims, as they have been so thoroughly debunked elsewhere.  And I won’t comment on the silly tests they do to prove the efficacy of their sham bracelets – getting people to believe that they’ve suddenly gained the ability to remain balanced with a foot raised while the person demonstrating this effect subtly changes the angle at which he pushes down on the person’s extended arm (well, I guess I did just comment on that).

But for those of us here in Sacramento (at least, those of us who have bothered to think about it), the news that the company may be facing bankruptcy and (dare we hope?!) liquidation is particularly encouraging. You see, last year Power Balance bought the naming rights to our local basketball arena. And so now, the outdated and rapidly decaying little bandbox, which gained its reputation as ARCO Arena, is known as Power Balance Pavilion.  Ugh.

So, even if the company survives its financial struggles, maybe, at the very least, it will have to cancel its contract and our little arena, if and when it again hosts NBA Basketball games for our beloved Kings, can have a name that will not bring embarrassment with it.