Taoist Preacherman, Guru of Reason, Peddler of Perspective

Artist: Tool Album: Ænima Year: 1996 I made this video a couple years ago, but it was taken down from YouTube, and I was given a copyright strike over it. I have in no way taken credit for the band's work, nor is my video a viable threat to their revenue from it on any platform. Google has chosen to enforce intellectual property laws in a way that is frankly preditory and which certainly stifles and disincentivises creativity--i.e., the exact OPPOSITE thing that intellectual property theoretically exists to achieve. I doubt very much if the members of Tool themselves would choose to repress my homage to what is probably their best song ever ... but because the handling of copyright is outsourced to soulless, parasitic corporations run by people who have never brought anything original into the world themselves but simply harvest a cut of the proceeds, people who make fan art or play covers (guilty on both counts myself) are well and truly f***ed ... at least on YouTube. Rumble seems thus far to be much more reasonable and accomodating toward independent creators, which is why I've taken another stab at uploading this over here.

Please find the notes for this talk here: https://srv689.hstgr.io:7443/d1da04066c303307/files/lecture%20notes.pdf This is the first of a three-part graduate lecture series I gave as part of a topology colloquium several years ago. Apologies for the audio and video quality. I had storage issues at the time and had to heavily compress the video long before I could--or ever did--properly clean it up and edit it. I've done what I can to make it as watchable as possible, but this lecture series was my first attempt at filming myself, so I beg a little indulgence. I'll be uploading the subsequent talks from the series as I can, along with more mathematical content. Let me know if you enjoy this type of content and want to see more discussion of topics in topology, geometry, and dynamical systems. Check out rallymoore.com to see what else I'm up to ...

Do you find yourself caught in a giant machine which only ever seems to steal, obstruct, destroy, and stifle creativity and freedom? You're in the right place. 'Ghosting the Machine' is the place where we critically examine the control mechanisms of the human world and beyond. If questioning things and challenging presumptive authority is something you hate or fear, than this show is not for you--because that makes you literally part of the problem on this planet. Otherwise, open up your consciousness, because we are going to slaughter some sacred cows at the altar of truth and sanity. 'Ghosting the Machine' has two major branches to it. One may seem more concrete, because it deals with ideas which are familiar from our cultural indoctrination systems; however, it would be a mistake to think of these things as truly concrete. In fact, one of the central points of this side of the show is to understand that the vast majority of what we've been taught to think of as 'reality' is actually completely made-up and virtual. The other aspect of the show is much more esoteric and, depending on your background, may be harder to grasp or relate to at the beginning, but this is the side of things which will really help you to expand your mind and perceptions beyond the nonsense you were taught to believe in. This is a project I've been trying to get off the ground for literally years. If what you see here appears a bit scattered or unfocused, please have patience. In order to give an indication of what I'm trying to accomplish in the series overall, I decided that the pilot would have to be a double episode ... and there's still far too much to say for two hours (even as an introduction). Take heart, however, because after the pilot, each episode will be tightly focused around a particular topic, which will allow us to get a lot more granular with respect to the details. Since the second hour is still midway through production and the release has thus been delayed, I wanted to get a teaser out so that people can get an idea of what I'm working on. Please check out my website to find some of my original music and orther artistic projects: rallymoore.com. If you're a generous soul who would like to support the message I'm trying to bring to people, you can visit my Patreon page to show your support: http://www.patreon.com/rallymoore. Thank you for watching, and stay tuned for the full episode.

Here we whimsically explore the minor sixth interval in one of its simplest contexts, demonstrated through a variety of well-known music. This video is for amusement rather than being a rigourous lesson in music theory, but this and future videos in this particular series can still benefit your musicianship simply by drawing your attention to common patterns and constructions within music composition and chord structures. Eventually, I would like to do a whole series where we approach music theory more formally from first principles: acoustic resonance, oscillatory dynamics, the overtone sequence, and principles of assonance and dissonance. However, this more academic viewpoint does not replace or discount the practical value of working with the usage patterns of individual intervals, chords, scales, keys, or modes. Although this is the first video uploaded on my channel here, I work with a much wider range of topics. I encourage you to visit my website--rallymoore.com--to find more of my original music, artwork, and video projects. In particular, please subscribe to the channel so that you'll be notified when the premier of my main video project--'Ghosting the Machine'--drops in the near future. I will also be featuring a sneak-peek of the first hour of this show, which will be accessible through my website, as indicated at the end of the video. Thanks for watching.