Black Swan

Thom Yorke wrote a song called “Black Swan” that resonated with me in terms of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 (and today) commonly called “The Great Recession”. He wrote the song in 2006.

The “Black Swan” was a metaphor used by Taleb in his excellent book “Fooled by Randomness“. The point of that book (broadly stated) is that people under estimate randomness and long-tail events; Taleb is an options trader specializing in the valuation of far-out-of-the-money options and whether or not they are fairly priced. The metaphor specifically for the Black Swan is that no one ever anticipated that there was a black swan; all swans were expected to be white and it would be viewed as a very remote or unanticipated event if a “black” swan were to turn up.  When settlers reached Australia, however, they were surprised to find black swans, meaning that they had significantly under-estimated the probability of this event occurring.

While you can’t directly tie art to a particular business concept I liked the part of being “ground in the bitumen” and then general feeling of being lost and angst that is summarized as “this is f*cked up, f*cked up”.

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Andromeda Klein, Frank Portman (2009)


 
Christine O’Donnell’s youthful dabbling in witchcraft, not that there is anything wrong that, reminded me of the best book ever ever ever about a teenage girl witch in contemporary America: Andromeda Klein, by Frank Portman. I could not put the book down, and I laughed out loud many times.

Dr. Frank, as he is known in entertainment circles, used to lead the pop-punk band The Mr. T Experience. MTX had many beloved favorites, including the timeless Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend (Why Can’t I?).

In his dual role as author / musician, Frank created a “theme song” for the book, a snappy tune I have found myself singing on many occasions. (“Andromeda Klein, Andromeda Klein, Born under a cryptic sign … .”) It is always good to hear “Cthulhu” rhymed with “woo hoo hoo.” The song is featured above. Some devotee, in a true labor of love, made a video which actually depicts the main character, Andromeda Klein herself, with her Tarot deck and her black hoodie, and her wig and sword and candles … .

Dr. Frank has a very cool blog, Dr. Frank’s What’s-It. Obscure and wonderful music videos appear on it. I heartily commend it to your attention.