Friday, May 22, 2009

What Do I Wear At Night?

Sunglasses.

Yes, sunglasses, sorry to disappoint you; I don't even want to know what you were thinking.

Why do I wear sunglasses at night? So I can keep track of the visions in my eyes.

Confused? Ok, ok, I'll explain --- at least as well as one can explain wearing sunglasses at night. See, I take a weekly spin bike class during which we pedal to the sounds of the instructor's iPod. Occasionally an oldie sneaks into the playlist and I find myself biking down memory lane. Yesterday, for example, I was spinning in the 80's wearing sunglasses at night.

Interestingly enough, Wikipedia says:
The original lyrics for the song were about a totalitarian society that made everyone wear their sunglasses at night. Hart altered the lyrics to be "more romantic" after his record company pushed for something deemed more marketable.
It turns out that even pop/rock lyrics need to be dumbed-down in order to appeal to the audience. Alternatively it's possible that the music marketing execs are the ones who are dumb. Or perhaps both statements hold...

At any rate, the claim that content needs to be dumbed down because the masses are dumb will eventually turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Zzzzz (from behind the shades)...

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