One Strange Rock

"We are the only species on this planet that can construct realities in our mind, and then go actually build it." ~ Leland Melvin, astronaut

For three billion years life didn't even have a brain.

Chance, coincidence, and impossible odds.

Humans do things that might seem pointless. But we do these things because we're smart.

The human brain sets us apart from all other creatures on this planet. Inside there's a vast network with a hundred trillion connections. That's more than the number of stars in our Milky Way. All this depends on tiny cells sending electrical signals called neurons.

Most of life on earth does just fine without a brain. Some brainless creatures are so successful you can even see them from space. e.g. coral animals and the huge reefs they create. Life needs to sense its surroundings, otherwise it's just flailing in the dark.

You don't just hear with your ears. You hear with your brain.

The eagle is like a weaponized telescope. To see like an eagle you need more than eagle eyes. You need an eagle brain. If you're an animal with eyes, you're going to need a bigger brain.

Each creature had to develop an array of senses, and brains to support them.

The planet's significant and varied landscapes shaped the brains of each species. It was the same for human type of creatures.

How come humans are so different? Just because a macaque can shuck oysters with a rock doesn't mean it will want to open a seafood restaurant. But a human wants to create that next level.

Fire. As far as we know, this planet is the only one with the right conditions for fire to burn. But fire also allows us to cook food. It's more than making it tasty. It helps the food to break down so our brains have access to more nutrients quicker. One of the key events in our ancestral history is when food was cooked for the first time.

Fossils that were once at the bottom of the sea show us that parts of the earth's surface have been forced upward. There are overarching themes that are visible from space which are the ways the earth has geologically developed.

It's hard to know how our ancestors adapted to changing climate and vegetation conditions. However, we came out the end with bigger brains, and we went across the planet.

How do you get a brain that can tell a damn good story? We have learned to speak.

We link signs and sounds to thoughts and things. In countless ways creating almost infinite meaning. That takes a lot of brain power! So why do we have any language at all?

It's partly connected to the sizes of our brains. One theory is that it was something really tiny. One gene that we humans posses, if you don't have it, you'll struggle to talk. We don't know where this gene came from, but it gave us more precise control over our lips and tongues. A small genetic twist gave us the ability to hear and articulate fine nuanced sounds.

The ability to work as a team to accomplish something great is significant. The importance of communications can't be overstated. Communicating helps you face failure without fear.

Our brains can find work-arounds. A brain over time, can find ways to compensate for losses or changes forced upon it.

Our brains give us language. Writing lets us pass on that knowledge in time.

The astronauts say that the colours from earth which burst into your eyeballs from space are overwhelming.

Everything we've achieved as a species is the product of a lucky chain of accidents. "To get here we needed a planet to congeal, out of dust in the right place for life to form and mold our world, allowing us to breathe and grow complex. We needed to be shielded from the sun, gifted with a moon. and granted seasons. We needed just enough bombardment and near annihilation to let life meander through its twists and turns and evolve a species with a brain as complex as yours and mine."

With these 86 billion neurons we've left the planet and looked far, far out into the universe trying to unravel the mystery of the cosmos. But no matter how far out we look, the most far out thing we've found is right between our ears!

Music Hamilton: Two Important emails

July 31, 2019

Hi Jeff,

Despite my enthusiastic agreement last Thursday about launching Music Hamilton by August 31st I’ve had sober second thoughts and I must tell you that I can’t commit to this.

Yesterday I took the time to listen to the entire recorded session hosted by HCF where Tom Wilson and Kojo shared. I found Tom’s words telling. He basically said, “I don’t know what needs to be done.” Tom’s take on the situation is that artists must be the driving force; they make their own desperate way and they bring the songs and the stories to us. He wants us as “music industry people” to not forget the artist’s key role in being tellers of the city’s history.

I care and feel strongly about the music community and the music industry in Hamilton, but I can’t commit to forging a company with such lofty goals that seeks to become a significant force – in fact, the brand champion for Hamilton: City of Music – connecting people, producing events, achieving basic social justice steps and support for musicians, and boosting the industry. Not from zero. Not with two people and zero capital. If we are really talking about starting, funding, shaping and growing a corporation that is meant to be big in five or ten years, I don’t see how.

Maybe it’s too soon?

I am not looking for any more volunteer hours. None.

I know we have agreed that this will just start as a planting of a seed, with very small objectives at first. But, an August 31 launch would mean dozens of hours, and that would only increase constantly with time as you and I scramble around trying to do our corporate diligence. I’ve already given 4 hours to the NUANS search. I’m not able to commit to the years that building this business will require. Yes, we talked about getting funding for basic administrative and executive staff, but in front of that is likely a couple hundred volunteer hours. I just see a wall. No start-up capital for me means I’m out.

Thank-you for your undying enthusiasm, your confidence in me, and your friendship.

Best regards,

Glen

----------------

Hey Glen,

Thanks for the email. Hope you’re having a good week.

No worry here either. I have been having the same thoughts about the initiative. You’re right and I agree that it could not be done for August 31 even if we worked everyday. It’s too up in the air and we would very much need start up capital of some nature. And I also agree that I don’t want to volunteer my life away anymore either. I’ve over-volunteered enough the past 20 years and burned out from it. I get you there. The initiative does need capital to get it off the ground and I don’t think that is impossible, but it would still take some time still as you said. I also thought that the Music Hamilton might’ve been better approached as a for-profit project.

I do think the Music Hamilton concept would work with specific goals and funding and the right partnership. Tom is right about the artists being the driving force but he also supports what Madeline and I and the music team wanted to accomplish. His view is that our city is incompetent and the wrong place for this kind of activity. And despite all the input from musicians, music business people, etc. the city didn’t listen (but we did). Other cities have done it right but they have progressive elected officials and staff, we don’t really at all. I’ve talked about this with Tom a lot over the past few years and the role of the city’s original music team was suppose to be that music community catalyst — Music Hamilton could be the catalyst that the music team was suppose to be. Tom saw that we were in fact part of the music community as business people and musicians/artists — and that is what Tom, Madeline and I talked about — we knew what to do or what needed to be done.

So the bottom line for me is I think it is still an important initiative for Hamilton, for our music community and for us. I’m just not sure what approach is most appropriate right now. But there’s no doubt in my mind that the advisory team is as lame as can be and will accomplish very little for the bigger music community. The economic impact study, if done right, should have a lot of data to review, analyze, etc. and perhaps we could wait for that to happen to see what the report reveals. But I am going to meet with Lou at TAH to see what his plans are for the bar, live music, him, etc. in Hamilton. Lou would be vital to any resurgence of the Live Music Venue Alliance.

It’s sad that nothing seems to work in Hamilton when it comes to supporting the music scene. It’s a track record of collapses — Hamilton Music Awards, the music strategy, the city of music project, the Blues Society, etc. I still think it can change but like you said, neither of us are willing to put in all the volunteer hours it would take on our own without remuneration of some sort.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. I think we’re on the same page. And we’ve both been frustrated with other initiatives we’ve been part of so it’s hard to jump up for another project when we are unsure of whether we can get it to happen without sacrificing our life. Lol.

See you when I get back. Let’s get together for lunch. And I you have the cover art for Brenda’s album - can’t wait to see (and hear) it.

Jeff
----------

These two emails reflect the end of a seven year long chain of events. Jeff Martin and I worked together on my three magazines. His enthusiasm and editorial skills were significant elements in the completion of those projects. For the Music Strategy Implementation Team, we served on it together from its formation in 2012. We were both on the team when it imploded. Jeff basically was thrown under the bus. Half the members left. I stayed on and resigned a year later. Jeff and I carried the idea of an alternate corporation called Music Hamilton which would become a brand champion for Hamilton's music community and industries – basically a service company that would help artists and groups seek grants, give them a leg up, create performance opportunities, produce a blues festival, resurrect the Hamilton Music Awards, etc.

These two letters represent Jeff and I agreeing to let Music Hamilton go, for now.

60-Year-Old Imaginary Me Talking About A 100 Year Old Cabin

The imaginary year is 2021. This is the story of the log cabin I bought in 2019 for the sum of $12000.00.

The property was in a town called Nakina, Ontario which is about as far as you can travel on an actual road before you then have to fly in by plane. Nakina is about a half hour drive north of Geraldton off the Trans-Canada highway, northern route. My friend Ken Williams lives in Smooth Rock Falls, a mere four-and-a-half hour drive to the east of Geraldton. To drive there from Hamilton is a two day trip.

Nakina is surrounded by great fishing and hunting. It was originally founded as a support for the railway, but now that purpose has subsided. The town is now surviving as a hub for hunting and fishing tourism, with the Nakina airport being used by local pilots. You can fly in from Thunder Bay.

This log cabin was built around 1923 by a Finnish guy. Since then it has stood the test of time. There is no sewer or water hookup and the interior is unfinished. So back in 2019 I looked into the registry and found that the owner was a local outfitter and that he had paid $1500 for it in 2017. Basically he had done nothing to the property and I suppose he was using it to accommodate customers while they were waiting to fly in to one of his nearby fishing camps, or he was planning to fix it up for that purposes.

Asking price was $15000. The lot size in town was about 50 ft by 150 ft. Again, no hydro or water hookups were in place and the cabin was being sold "as is." I took the opportunity to figure out how to do a title search and discovered that there is a provincial tool called Teranet which is the public registry for all properties in the province. A few years ago the government digitized all property records. As it turned out, the owner had paid only $1500 for the title to the property in 2017. I figured I had nothing to lose so I put in my offer of $9950. After a bit of back and forth we settled on $12000.

I had thought long and hard about the options. There was absolutely no practical reason for me to leave it there and fix it up or flip it. The cost of adding water and sewer and hydro connections and upgrading the building with insulation etc. made no sense.

For me the exciting piece was to save and move the cabin shell as an authentic restoration project. The cabin would be disassembled, moved to an ideal location at some future date and then rebuilt on a proper foundation with services and insulation so that it can become a year-round dwelling, or at the very least a seasonal cottage with basic comforts of water and sewer and hydro.

When the deal closed my plan was in place. For the first winter I made sure that the roof repairs were made to keep the interior dry. In the spring of 2020 I arranged to get a shipping container delivered to the site and then I went up in July for a couple of weeks. A friend and I disassembled the cabin and tagged every log so that it could be put back together. We put the entire structure in storage in the shipping container and left it there in Nakina on the property for the winter of 2020.

I've been keeping an eye out for a suitable location on which to rebuild the cabin. My goal is to have the cabin rebuilt by its 100th anniversary in 2023.

[Update July 2019: The cabin idea was never completed. I had originally thought it would be cool to rebuild the cabin on a half-acre lot in Temiskaming that I had purchased. Brenda thought it to be a waste of money, and that whatever gets built on that property should be something new. She (correctly) saw this as an old, decrepit cabin that actually has no historic value, especially if moved off site.]