The Song: "Pride of Frankenstein," Too Much Joy. Words & music by Too Much Joy (Jay Blumenfeld, Tim Quirk, Sandy Smallens & Tommy Vinton). Track 8 of Cereal Killers, 1991.
When/how acquired: Purchased cassette, 1991; purchased CD, c. 2000.
Listen/read about it here.
People are pack animals, which should scare anyone who stops to think about it. Management and Organizational Behavior was a required course in the Business school when I was an undergraduate, but since I was in the School of Foreign Service, I missed it, and now I'm sorry. It would come in handy. I have, however, read Charles Mackay's classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, which is as timely and interesting today as it was when first published in 1841.
As with everything else in modern life, the Internet speeds up and facilitates pack behavior. I've done a lot of thinking this week about the time I spend online and its unintended consequences on the rest of my life. Haven't come to any conclusions yet, but a subscription to Mac Freedom may be in my future.
This song is one of the highlights of an album that ranks among my all-time favorites. Too Much Joy probably still stands as the band I've seen most often live, even though officially they broke up about ten years ago. (My brother Ed and I were both at the concert recorded for their live album, Live at Least, and I think you can hear us singing along with the Theme Song at the end of the show.) Anyway, it felt appropriate, especially because I've just watched the original Frankenstein again on Turner Classic Movies.
3 comments:
I've loved having a Lenten break from the social media scene--now on only after sundown on Saturday for 24 hours. I've gotten sooooo much work done. Twitter is the ultimate hive mind. It's actually kind of fun to peek in w/out playing. All info, no pressure. (And you know I hate pressure.)
You can do it! xoxo
take care ~~~ visiting here with a smile ~~~
Laura, that's what I need to do. I can't quit the Internet altogether -- I need it for research, and even for editing -- and I can't give up Facebook because it's the main way I communicate with my (very large) extended family. But I don't need Twitter, and once I've finished this one project I'm working on, I can stop reading customer comments, I hope.
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