How many times has some fuckhead been like “good morning!” to you, all chipper? This makes a number of GROUNDLESS assumptions.
Groundless Assumption #1 : That this is a morning.
Groundless Assumption #2 : That this is good.
Okay, generally it is morning. Though, oft is the case, I will call someone who works in a “place of business” at around 12:05pm and they will proudly answer the phone with “Good morning, Gerhardt (for example) speaking…” and I will be quick to say “this is no longer morning.  If you check the …

It’s just too easy. A conclusion is the capstone of the work. To merely reduce the physical stimulus of a work until it is indistinguishable from background noise is an insult to all involved. It’s an analogue to drifting slowly to sleep. How could these proud artists subscribe to such a thing? I would wager that they didn’t even do the fade-out themselves, some ornery audio-boardsman who fancies himself a “technician” likely finger-straddled fader and rode it down to -999db.

Thankfully, for reasons that nobody understands now, the fade-out has itself faded from the public discourse, being replaced by bombastic and confident conclusions that divide themselves from the great whisper of nothingness with maximum contrast. Conclusions are drawn hard and there can be no mistaking when a work of art ends and nothingness begins.

In non-collectivist societies, most individuals seek to impress upon others their distinction, their originality, their uniqueness– this isn’t surprising, considering the emphasis on individualism in assessing the value of a person.  Personal value– value as a human, and social status, run in lockstep with job status, income, intelligence, and other indices that all rely on exclusivity: something that one individual has that others do not.  These indices and collections, of friends, of money, of unique attributes, serve not only to reinforce an individual’s value but establish it.
Money is a valuable …