Left to my own devices

     Blogger Kevin Drum  took a crack at free will  awhile back, specifically, as to whether or not it exists. Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has made a video about her lack of belief in the concept of free will that makes for an interesting (if sometimes difficult to follow) watch. I find this to be a fascinating topic of discussion, and have had in-person conversations about it every so often. While I don't pretend to be some sort of scientific expert, I wanted to share my thoughts about it here. Particularly, how the idea can be (unscientifically) compared and contrasted with various societal, cultural and religious touchstones.      First, let's center on what free will is. Merriam Webster defines it as follows: 1 : voluntary choice or decision 2 : freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention      I think we'd probably all nod our heads in agreement with the first definition. It's the second one that I find to

I'm a little late, but am finally getting around to announcing the winners of this year's Matt Awards , celebrating the best in cinema! No doubt you were all waiting with bated breath for the reveal. Without further aideu, here, then, are this year's winners...

The venerable band KISS have made the news for selling their music catalog, brand name and IP (intellectual property) to Pophouse Entertainment Group. Apparently, KISS and Pophouse have already been collaborating. The company is responsible for the digital avatars that ABBA used during their recent(ish) concerts, and now it sounds like that may be where we're headed with KISS. The band already debuted digitized avatars of themselves back in December 2023, and that may be a sign of things to come. From the article:  The ways in which Kiss' avatars will be utilized has yet to be announced, but Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says fans can expect a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss experience on the horizon. That bolding was from me. I'm not sure what a "KISS experience" refers to, but out of what was mentioned, it sounds the closes to something akin to a music concert. And this gives me the springboard to talk about a topic I've been thinking over for awhile -- namely

Some of you (let's be honest, probably none of you) may have noticed that my annual 'Top 10 Songs of the Year' posts have been absent. The last one I did was for 2021 . The lack of a yearly reflection on my favorite songs has been down to a couple of factors: 1) last year was... distracting for me, for a variety of reasons, and it was difficult to concentrate enough to think about making a list, and 2) honestly, I haven't been all that jazzed about recent music -- at least, not enough to warrant a Top 10 list for each  year. But, I still love music, and listen to it. A lot. So, the thought occurred that I could definitely comprise a list of ten favorite songs of the decade... so far, at least. We are in the fifth year of the 2020s, so there's definitely been enough time for several songs to tickle my fancy. In fact, it was a bit difficult to whittle things down to just ten tracks. Here, then, are my Top 10 Favorite Songs of the 2020s, so far....

Those of you who like cinema and follow awards season were probably pretty excited this week, because you knew that the most important movie nominations were about to drop. And, no, I'm not talking about the Oscars . Of course I'm referring to The Matt Awards! For the uninitiated: I've always enjoyed movies and, during the 1990s, I was a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio. Titanic was released in December 1997, and I saw it 5 times at the theater. In early 1998, the Oscar nominations were announced, and Leo was nowhere to be found. Salty at the perceived snub of my crush favorite actor, I decided I could do better than the Oscars, and so the first Matt Awards were born. DiCaprio was nominated for Titanic and, of course, he won. Over the years, the Matt Awards have allowed me to recognize (if only for myself) the best in cinema of the preceding year. Quite often -- though not always -- my nominations will bear some similarity to the Oscar nominees, though less seldom have my w