I just watched the pilot of Lie to Me, a new CSI-esque show about a psychologist that studies “microexpressions” to tell when someone is lying or telling the truth.

The show was suggested to me by a friend because one of the supporting characters practices the idea of radical honesty. However, I was more intrigued after the introduction to the show because everything he was saying sounded familiar.

After a bit of Googling, I realized that the main character’s background was being set up almost exactly the same as the life of Paul Ekman, who got a chapter-long profile in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, which I just read recently.

Nothing deep to say; I just thought it was a funny collection of coincidences. The show is fun and interesting and I’m curious to see where it goes. And I really hope they signed off with Ekman and Gladwell about this, because it’s practically plagiarism.

There are plenty of places in the world where a kid dying is pretty common, but we can’t deal with it because a dead child is the greatest failure of a culture that believes it’s reversed the order of nature.

Billy Chenowith, from Season 1, Episode 9 of Six Feet Under

Another one to file in the “westernized culture has way too many problems” category. I’ve got major writer’s block right now so I’ll just leave it at that.

In other news, I think I could be considered a quote collector. Every time I find a quote I like, I write it out, save and categorize it with Evernote. Not kidding.

I’m probably apologizing to myself more than anything, but I hate that it’s taking me so long to get my songs written. Too much going on, and now I’ve got this ear infection that I’ve been using to excuse myself from getting things done for almost a week now. It’s a valid excuse because I really am having a hard time focusing on things, especially in the musical realm.

I have nothing on my calendar for the evening, so I will try to hunker down and get something done. It probably won’t be anything like the last two singer/songwriter type things I’ve done since singing and playing guitar are questionable activities for me at the moment. (although watching Once twice this weekend was very inspiring in that regard). You may end up with some random electronic tweak-out that consists of me trying to figure out how to sound like Radiohead, Burial, Daft Punk or Massive Attack without any equipment other than my laptop.

In other news, with all the downtime I had last week, I was able to get back into Six Feet Under. Consequently, I started to wonder why it was I enjoy the show so much. The pilot was compelling enough to draw me in, but the show as a whole isn’t quite what that first episode made it out to be, and yet I still like it, albeit for different reasons than the pilot.

I realized that it was that the cast is made up of highly (sometimes excessively) rational people, much like myself, so I identify well with all of them. Then these well-developed characters are written into story arcs that have, not even two seasons in, addressed nearly every kind of life situation imaginable: death (obviously), sickness, failed relationships, successful relationships, affairs, parenting, drugs, homosexuality, sexuality in general, faith, money, broken family, business… the list goes on. I don’t know how they’ve managed to elegantly pack in so much in so few episodes, but they have.

So, apparently I am most satisfied with stories that take a cast of deep thinkers and throw everything possible at them, and they come out the other side stronger and wiser for the wear. It seems so simple a realization, but I’m finally starting to understand myself in that regard to the extent that I don’t just get it, but I feel it.