Posts & Arts: 132/1k.beats ~ 
Summary - BlazingCobaltX 
You are a kindred spirit indeed! Okay, so the debate one is crazy because I had an extremely similar experience in high school. We did reading+discussion classes and I loved those because I was very good at making arguments for my points, taking apart and disproving other arguments, etc. And so multiple people kept insisting I join the speech and debate club because of how much I'd love it. And so I attended a meeting and the teacher was talking with pride about how his team once won a competition by saying something so ridiculous that the other side couldn't even form a response, which forces the opposition to be judged poorly. And everyone was so in awe of this and thought it was so epic!! And I'm just like...no! That's not what this is supposed to be about!! So anyways that was my first and last speech and debate meeting and I never joined. It was then that I realized an important distinction. There's wanting to be right, and then there's wanting to *become* right. Whenever I debate someone (if that's even the right word!) I truly want to know if I am wrong. I put forth my best and most aggressive arguments in the interest of having them proven wrong. A good discussion is a win-win, either I walk away from it more assured that my beliefs are right (because they withstood my interlocutors counterarguments), or I walk away from it with new beliefs that are, as far as I know at the moment, without valid counterarguments. It's a beautiful way to become more and more knowing of truth. It is such a bummer that speech and debate is just about convincing people that you're right, regardless of your actual rightness. I couldn't agree more with your entire post there.
As for the Indian music, as fate would have it, I also studied this years ago, although I was more focused on carnatic music, and I wasn't able to find much high quality info. Your post would have been a real treasure for me in those days, but even today I learned a lot of new things from it. I wasn't aware of the alap, although that makes a lot of sense. I like that it's a bit like an overture, but minimal instead of maximal. Western classical fugues have always been one of my favorite forms, and your discussion of the alap made me realize that Indian classical music is surely hitting a lot of the same charms for me. The idea of rhythms counting up and then back down is also fascinating. I think I may have heard that before but not really appreciated it's connection to cyclical themes. Here is a wonderful piece I was listening to yesterday (on account of your post!) that you may also like:
As for the Indian music, as fate would have it, I also studied this years ago, although I was more focused on carnatic music, and I wasn't able to find much high quality info. Your post would have been a real treasure for me in those days, but even today I learned a lot of new things from it. I wasn't aware of the alap, although that makes a lot of sense. I like that it's a bit like an overture, but minimal instead of maximal. Western classical fugues have always been one of my favorite forms, and your discussion of the alap made me realize that Indian classical music is surely hitting a lot of the same charms for me. The idea of rhythms counting up and then back down is also fascinating. I think I may have heard that before but not really appreciated it's connection to cyclical themes. Here is a wonderful piece I was listening to yesterday (on account of your post!) that you may also like:
