Drew hosted this meeting in Hollywood and managed to collect a record breaking number of attendees with 11! The book this month was Music, the Brain and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain. An appropriate scene was set with Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same screening on the TV. Somewhere close to 9pm, some semblance of a discussion began.
In attendance were Drew, Lisa, Mike, Mike, Marco, Lorisa, Patrick, Tom, Lien, Chris and myself. Lorisa brought Cameron, but I think he was just tagging along which I don't think counts! I wasn't allowed to count my friend who was visiting or my husband when I last hosted, so I'm not letting anyone else get away with anything. In any case, Drew's night is the clear winner. A trophy should be presented at the next meeting, though it probably wont.
Unlike my heroics of last month in which I read the whole book, I shamed myself this time around, having read only two pages. I was hoping to learn a lot this time around by listening, but the general consensus seemed to be that the book was rather technical, thus rendering it difficult to summarise.
There was some discussion as to the causes of hearing loss and various tales of ear damage followed. Lien was presently suffering some ringing from an accidental loud burst of noise from a website while she was wearing headphones. Chris told of a co-worker who also received and ear injury with headphones, lost his balance and wasn't fully recovered for a good six months. The book stated that hearing loss through aging starts to present itself around the age of 40, which resulted in Lisa declaring that a good time to die.
Drew said he chose the book as, quite simply, he had wanted to read something to explain why we respond to music as we do. This was the only thing he found, and while people who had read it agreed the author was very thorough and well researched, I got the idea that it was sadly a bit too technical for easy grasping. Mike said while he didn't finish it, he had to re-read parts to fully understand it, but would always be glad he had done so.
I was disappointed to learn that the author spoke little of rock and pop music. This startled me as that is the very music that makes me giddy and ecstatic. Still, from the sounds of it, there is a lot to be learned from it. I will keep it in my "To read" list. Winding up the book discussions, we were excited to hear that Tom had auditioned for the role of Klaus in a stage version of "Pest Control".
The meeting wound down kinda earlier than usual with a rival party and a Deerhoof show drawing people away. Those who remained after that somehow ended up in a discussion about starting up Street Wars. It's a game where each person is assigned a target and are required to go out and "assassinate" that person with a water gun. It goes on for several weeks and requires planning and stealth. I'm very much looking forward to this!
I now live in great fear that nothing as interesting as Guitar Hero, hot tubbing and street wars will come to pass at the next meeting which will be hosted by moi. Next month's book will the Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Levy with I consider to have a terrifying cover!
