Nothing New

450 million year old fossils - the remains of a mass mortality event,
Royal Ontario Museum, Dawn of Life Gallery, 24 August, 2022

I've not seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, not the old run, not the new.

I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and read the books, but I haven't carved out a single second of my finite and fleeting lifetime to watch Rings of Power. 

Why not? Because even if I haven't watched a recent mega-hit, I'm willing to bet I've seen it before.

The logic driving media megaliths these days appears to be that you don't need original content to make boat loads of cash. In fact, the opposite is true. If something was a hit before, you can make the same thing a different way (see live-action remakes), or just make it again (see Spiderman), and boom, the money rolls in. Media-consuming millions love a good story, which is to say, a story they recognize and are comfortably delighted with. If they like a show, they want more of same.

Which leads me, as do so many other things, to the conclusion that the West is in its decadence. We're rummaging in the past for our stories. There is nothing new under the sun.

Except, perhaps, for what you might find in the comments section.

In my desperate attempts to drown out the neighbourhood and get a decent night's sleep, I discovered on YouTube sound-engineer-made videos of "colour noises" as described here:

"White noise is comprised of an equal amount of every frequency, all played at once. Any other colour is a variation on white noise, based on a rough analogy between the frequency spectrum and the colour spectrum. For example, "black noise" is silence.

Deep Red Noise is my go-to for nights untroubled by sirens and shrieking neighbours. The videos come in different run times, 12 hour, 10 hour, 6 hour and so on.

Here are some comments from the 10 hour video. They are real, but I have edited for length and spelling and have played with the order: 

Reminds me of the flight back home from deployment. 

Almost sounds alive. 

This is what beaches sound like without the moon. 

It feels like you’re on a spaceship and you can hear Saturn.

Okay but I’m starting to think that noises don’t have colours.

This is literally the same as your super deep brown noise.

Why are we listening to colours? We’ve all gone insane haven’t we? 

I’m a third grader. Why am I here? 

Is it meant to make my face hot?

Why can I hear people talking in the background?  

THE TINGLING IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! 

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen