So long, Jack

goingthruvinyl.com

Jack Bruce, from Bishopbriggs Glasgow, has died at 71. He studied composition at the  Royal Scottish Academy of Music and left the academy and Scotland at the age of 16, making his way to London where he became a member of the seminal Alexis Korner's Blues Inc, where Charlie Watts was on drums. Watts left to join the Rolling Stones and Ginger Baker took over, beginning the long love/hate relationship - or hate/hate relationship, that found its expression in Cream's roaring, racing backdrop to Eric Clapton's extended solos. Immediately after the breakup of Cream he got back into jazz, with the release of the album 'Things we like', and went on to work with such luminaries as John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa, playing a central role in arguably jazz's first supergroup, Lifetime. He left a legacy of songs and compositions as well as just enough recordings to establish his great width of abilities.

Susan Greenfield

Mind Change

Random House

In her new book, neurologist Susan Greenfield asks this question: We know that the human brain adapts to its environment so, in the new unprecedented cyber environment of the 21st Century could our brains be changing in unprecedented ways? And if so, what implications might such changes have for the generation of ‘digital natives’ whose brains will be influenced at a crucial time in their development?

Drawing on over 500 ‘peer-reviewed studies’ Greenfield explores (for the first time, it says here), what those changes could be. She examines three different aspects of the digital landscape: social networking, and its impact upon interpersonal skills and identity; computer gaming and its impact upon attention, as well as links with addiction, aggression and risk-taking; and the use of search engines and their effects upon thinking, learning and memory.

Greenfield’s interest is in finding how we can create a world where our technology does not frustrate, but actively fosters, some of the key features that make us human: deep understanding, creativity, sense of identity, and real fulfilment. These last three she listed in her introduction as part of Bristol Festival of Ideas as her ‘must-have’ items. Although she touched on the possibility of there being a whole generation of kids with underdeveloped pre-frontal cortexes as connecting with others via the Net instead of talking face-to face with the attendant body language and mutual consideration results in pretty raw, ill-considered talking, (True- see the comments column on any site, especially if it’s linked to the news media), Baroness Greenfield was able to remain optimistic about the cognitive near future. In her short talk in Bristol  she was able to touch on other related things, like the difference between facts and knowledge, and the chicken-egg relationship between low seratonin and clinical depression. Maybe that problem could be compared to an endless game of tennis, cause and effect constantly changing sides.

As for fulfilment, she allowed that we could get that out of a witty verbal exchange as easily as from creating something bigger, a symphony for instance.

And there we’re talking psychology as much as neurology.The important thing is to keep the game going.

Another thing that occurred to me was: we each can alter our mind’s environment to an extent. Noel Coward’s recipe for a Good Life was to ‘enjoy yourself as much as possible. It passes the time pleasantly, and gives you some memories to enjoy in your old age.’

And for Mr Coward, enjoyment was work. Perhaps I’d sum up the whole thing by admitting that nothing succeeds like success, especially in the cerebral cortex.