I recently came across a new album from one of my favorite bands, CKY. I was certainly glad to see that their latest studio effort released and was excited to see if this album carried me the way that their prior two had. 
The new album, titled “An Answer Can Be Found” starts off with a signature CKY guitar riff on “Suddenly Tragic”. The intro song carries through strong and is complete with a “melt-your-face” solo after the second chorus. The following tracks, “The Way You Lived, Dressed In Decay, Familiar Realm, and All Power To Slaves” keep pace with the classic CKY sound in both pace and style. I would say pay particular attention to “The Way… and Familiar Realm”. Track 6, “Tripled Manic State” is the first track on the album to make a turn from their usual style. The song starts off with a manic groove and then settles into a song that comes across sounding a bit needy. The lackluster groove is occasionally broken with a screaming bridge that does give some feeling to the song, but the track is mostly a bore. Track 7, “Behind The Screams”, is an instrumental track that leaves me with an all-too-familiar taste of Led Zeppelin in my mouth and leaves my wondering why the track was named as such. Is it serenity and peace behind the screams? It is slightly confusing. Compared to my favorite instrumental track, Alice and Chains’ “Whale and Wasp”, I get no “picture” from this song. None.
From there, the album is turned up a notch with “Deceit Is Striking Gold, As The Tables Turn, and Sniped”. While I think that “Deceit” and “Sniped” are a bit of a strange turn for the band (with a change in rhythm styling and vocals respectively), both songs do carry through well, just not with the usual CKY flare. As was the case with “Infiltrate, Destroy, Rebuild”, the band’s prior release, this album ends with a slower ballad, this one entitled “Don’t Hold Your Breath.” It’s an easy-on-the-ears track that, while almost signifying the end of the album, seems to bring you down from the aural rush to which you were just exposed.
Admittedly, albums tend to grow on people with time, but so far, “An Answer…” leaves me wanting more. More of what “Infiltrate…” offered. While this effort will earn its place on my play list, I can’t say that it will rank up with with the bands prior release. Not every album can an improvement over its predecessor.
A Discussion On Blogging
In Phaedrus, a classic work (and required reading for my current English 3600 class), Plato discusses the advantages of public speaking versus writing in “A Discussion of Rhetoric” and “A Discussion of Writing.” Primarily, he cites the ability of an orator to defend his arguments as main virtue of speaking versus writing. He also cites the ability of a rhetorician to pick his audience, in order for his knowledge to be learned in the way in which he meant. Writers, he argues, are not afforded this same ability; once something is written down, anyone with access to the material can read it. Mostly though it is hard to understand his stance on this issue unless you understand that Plato assumes that there is an “ultimate” knowledge about every subject (which is where I believe the flaw in his argument is).
Plato also cites an orators ability to play on the “likely”, meaning that while he may not base his argument on the “truth”, he has the luxury of utilizing an argument that will likely seem truthful to his audience. This point isn’t necessarily positive, but it is valid. Deceitful, yes, but something that can indeed come in handy in a rhetorical speech. So, what does this have to do with blogging? Let me expand.
Blogging is not merely the act of simply writing down the daily goings on. In a more strict form, blogging is more about the author being able assert his take on a specific matter in a public way. Very much like speech writing when you get right down to it. The magic of blogging is that, unlike a book for instance, the author gives his readers the opportunity to interact with him, refute his arguments, and in turn gives the author the opportunity to justify his assertions.
Now, this comparison draws no conclusions about the validity of the an author’s content. Plato argues thoroughly that in order for a speech to be considered an art, the speaker must know his subject matter intimately. He must be able to compare and contrast with subjects or objects that are both similar and vastly different. The same holds for writing in any form, blogging or otherwise. In order for any argument to stand up to true scrutiny (differing opinions aside), one must be able and capable of refuting any argument. Regular readers will know how I feel about correct information found on blogs in particular.
In short, I find it interesting to see the evolution of communication and how it has come full circle from being completely interactive (public speaking/debate) to concrete (printing/TV reporting) and then to see how it is now headed back to its original fluid state. Not necessarily open for rationalization, but justification as well. My guess, however, is that Plato today would still disregard blogging as a “legitimate” form of communication based on his assertions that ALL writing is flawed.
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