Matthew Amsden

Talk is Cheap

" Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand" Anonymous

"When ideas fail, words come in very handy" Goethe

"There are very few people who don't become more interesting when they stop talking" Mary Lowry

Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair trigger balances, when false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act" James Thurber

"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reaches only to the end of the bar." Edward R. Morrow

"The hand that ruleds the press, the radio, the screen and the far spread magazine rules the country." Learned Hand

What you do with Nothing

"You say I started with practically nothing, that isn't correct. We all start with all there is. It's how we use it that makes things possible."

- Henry Ford

Pretty is What they Eye (and Ear) Arranges

I understand that Monday, tomorrow, is Stephen Sondheim's birthday. I've gone in and out of phases where I've really like musical theater, particularly when I was in high school and early college. While I collected just about every "Original Broadway Cast" recording I could find back in the early 90s, I've kept only a couple - and listen to those rarely.

There is one musical theater CD that I bring out regularly. Sunday in the Park with George is one of those pieces of art that every time you experience it, you are amazed by something new, something you didn't notice before.

I can't even venture to guess how many times I've listed to tracks on the album. Several songs are on my top 25 iTunes list. Even though it has been in my collection for over ten years, over which time I've gone through a large number of different musical taste changes, it remains one of my favorite albums.

This afternoon, the track Beautiful came up on a random iTunes playlist. The main character explains to an older woman, lamenting that the old view is being replaced by factories, and urban sprawl explains:

"Pretty isn't beautiful. Pretty is what the eye arranges."

The significance of this point is at once obvious and completely eye opening. The mind creates beauty and aesthetic pleasure. it isn't just there for consumption. An artist can lead the mind towards appreciate, but an artist does not create the beauty - every individual human does that for themselves.

Chinese for Crisis

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.

from John Pocaro's mktg@mfsft