What's In A Name?

Right, so, it has come to my attention that some people think the name of this blog is pretentious. I think I should take a moment to address this.


The title 'The One Most Responsive To Change' is not a reference to myself. I in no way am trying to infer superiority or that I am the only one who is able to see and correctly respond to something. I can understand now how that could be taken, but the actual explanation for the is far less self-gratifying and a little bit more complicated.


The phrase is actually a popular paraphrasing of the tail end of a quote often attributed to Charles Darwin, but actually spoken by Clarrence Darrow (in the vein of Darwin). The full quote is "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change". Good stuff, eh? It seems even more relevant in the current economic situation (being Irish and all, I have a lot to say on this matter, but I shall hold my tongue for the moment!). The use of 'responsive' instead of 'adaptable' seems to just be some oversight that was never corrected. But why is that the name of my blog? Well, the answer is either kind of a amusing or immensely boring.


Awhile back, I was messing around on Facebook and came across one of those silly tasks you can do that you publish the results of. I believe I found this one off of either Ruthie or Bev. Anyway, the task was to create your band name, album name and album cover art. I don't quite remember how you were supposed to go about all the tasks, but I know that the album name was taken by using the last few words of a random quote you were given. Mine just happened to be this. The band name and picture have long since been lost to me as I had no interest in them. However, the quote stuck with me. I found this when I was in my final year of college, just before I knew I was about to move country, away from all my family and friends. Finishing college is a big enough change, but moving country (to attend another college, FYI) was a bit of a bigger change. I had been making music for a few years under the pseudonym of Sounds Like and had just began jamming with my 'little sister' (ie. awesome friend who I'd known since she was in her early teens) Bev, which was a big change from the isolated, over-thinking, secluding pieces I had been doing up to that point. Hell, we even did a jam that I ended up liking so much that I decided to call The One Most Responsive To Change. I also decided that the material we had been working on would be collected in an album of the same name. 


To date, the album (well, EP) isn't finished yet, but the sentiment remains the same. The phrase is not about my own achievements over others, assuming people are beneath me. In fact, I have come to use it in quite the opposite way. I have opened up to people musically, which I feel has benefited me. I moved country, where I happily completed college and made some new friends I feel all the better for meeting. Now, with the writing, I use the title in reference to my own moving forward from what hasn't worked for me. Before this, I had a MySpace blog. It came out of my teenage years, so it is full of bad poetry and angsty rants. I always liked people reading my stuff, but that was the kind of thing you write while pissed off or with some agenda. When I look back at it now, I cringe (though I am far too sentimental to delete any of it!). This blog now makes my attempts to write stuff a little less rant filled, and without the bad poetry. I am hoping that what I write here might appeal to some people. I am interest and actively involved in filmmaking, so it is a good forum to get info/news/thoughts out that way. I am also maddly into horror or kind of obscure films, so I may from time to time use this as a forum to give my differing view on some of them. If anything music related comes up that I feel is relevant, I may try bring it up here too. You have been warned.


So, I hope that has shed some light on the blog title. I guess it is a bit more of a mantra for myself than anything. It's not a bad one to have either. Life will keep changing. I want to keep up with it.