Opinions and appreciation in culture and art

I've come to realize that there are certain genres or styles of performing art or types of food that I just can't seem to get into. Despite 8 years of piano lessons, I've never really understood classical music. I enjoy flashy violin solos like "Tzigane," but I have no idea what's going on in Mahler's symphonies. I don't get pop or rock music. I still can't tell the difference between various wines. Conversely, there are people who won't get my love of musical theatre, opera, and intense TV drama. (I'm still working on being a better theatre audience member.)

What does it all mean? If I don't appreciate something, is it because it's something innate about my personality (like gloomy people who can't stand Annie-esque material)? Or is it some innate prejudice (like my dad telling me as a child that pop music sucks)? Or is it that I just never met anyone who explained the merits to me, that I didn't have enough exposure to the material as a child?

Whatever the reason, I've learned that taste is very subjective. We shouldn't be dismissive of people's opinions when it comes to art and culture because everyone's opinions are born of complicated circumstances that we're likely never to know. On review websites, instead of saying that other people are wrong, you should say that you don't understand where the dissenters are coming from, or that your taste is different. And if you have a friend who loves death metal or something that you're not into, why not take this as an opportunity to learn why your friend loves the things he/she does?

Link of the day: Hungry for a Month

Via Ramit Sethi, I read about an experiment to live on $1/day for a month. Surprisingly, it's not as exciting as it sounds.

Tech: Keurig coffee maker

On a spurt of inspiration (maybe from all those caffeine guzzling theorists I know), I bought a single serve coffee machine. It's a Keurig B40 Elite model.

It is really nice. All you have to do is put some water in it. Then turn the machine on and it will take about 30 seconds to heat the water. Insert a "K-cup" (a pod containing ground coffee) into the machine and press the brew button. It takes just 10 seconds from there for the machine to make a cup of coffee for you! The serving size of a "cup" is 7 oz -- just right for me.

Whether or not the Keurig will turn out to be cost effective, I'm not sure. But I enjoyed being able to wake up on a Saturday and grab a cup of coffee right away.

Some interesting blogs

I perused the most popular blogs on Bloglines and found:

• Cooking for engineers
  
• Joel on Software
  
• Lifehacker
  
• Word Usage

Wine recommendations by a physicist

Jo-Anne Hewett at the blog "Cosmic Variance" apparently was in charge of ordering wine for the SLAC summer school.

I have a similar job to Professor Hewett. I sometimes buy wine for large social functions, but unlike her, I have zero confidence in my ability to choose a good wine.

I wonder, maybe I should try some of these recommendations?