Science + Music = Cool

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Sunday,
October 16, 2005

After lunch, Tito Gerry and family dropped off Grandfather and me at Kildonan Place, a shopping mall far bigger and which has more stores than Garden City Shopping Centre. I was glad that there was a Coles bookstore. After walking Grandfather around—who bought an orange cap for himself—I had him wait for me on the bench at front of Coles while I checked out the books on sale.

Due to monetary constraint, I contented myself with A Brief History of Science by Thomas Crump (2001, Constable & Robinson Ltd.), which was originally priced at C$27 but which I got for only C$6. The book is an account of scientific breakthroughs which show how the curious nature of humankind has continually pushed forward the frontiers of science and, as a consequence, human civilization. It also puts into light the fact that many scientific discoveries were results not of calculated experiments but of serendipity.

Passing by the magazines section, I suddenly remembered a recent issue of Uncut music magazine which features Britpop music. Fortunately, a few copies were still available. While at it, I decided to buy also a copy of Under the Radar, which features the same topic, and a copy of the latest issue of NME, which has The Killers on its cover plus a free audio CD of songs by The Arcade Fire, The Editors, and Kaiser Chiefs among others.

Before dozing off at around 1 a.m., I was able to finish reading Under the Radar from cover to cover. Interestingly I stumbled upon something worth quoting, which I wasn't expecting to read in a music magazine and which made me nod and smile in consideration.

According to Alex Kapranos, lead vocalist and guitarist of Franz Ferdinand:
"People write diaries not because they want to keep secrets. They write diaries because they [either intentionally or subconsciously] want their diaries to be discovered. They want to be remembered."