An Interview With Bug Stu
5-Minute Bug Stu Series
The Pie: Hey Stu, thanks so much for agreeing to come out in public and talk about your project here. I’ve passed along some pieces of our conversations before, but this public thing is new for both of us.
Bug Stu: Yes, that’s right. I’m not super social, but still, I do love humies. I mean humans. . .people.
The Pie: Yeah, that’s clear from what I know about you and your work. It’s actually a little surprising, given some of your history that the audience doesn’t know yet. But let’s start with the, haha, elephant in room, haha. The natural reaction from even the most open-minded would be, “It’s a talking…bug. What the, um, eff?”
Bug Stu: Oh man. . .elephant in the room, I mean, irony. That’s awesome. I caught that “eff” expression, too. I remember the first time I heard that –around 2005. So interesting. It’s one of the expressions I really dug into on humie language, since it was kinda new then.
The Pie: Yeah, I’ve read a few of your notes on that. I’ll admit I’m kind of intrigued about your linguistics work, especially, you know, with your bugness and all, if you don’t mind my saying. Anyway, maybe you’d like to talk more about This Project and what you’re getting ready to roll out?
Bug Stu: Yeah, I’d love to. And I totally get the incongruity of a bug, a beetle to be more specific, working on humie linguistics and other humie things. You know that.
The Pie: Yes. Anyway, I know you’ve got This Project and even some lighter multi-media stuff in the works. Can we start with the music lyrics project that you went kinda Beautiful Mind/John Nash on, haha.
Bug Stu: Hmp-hmp, sure. Pretty gutsy of you on the ‘Beautiful Mind reference, but I like it. Yeah, I’d have spent the rest of my life on that, but I finally realized I was just creating a bunch of notes on leaves and little scraps of paper that no one would ever see. And hey, I’d like to differentiate here and also clarify a bit on the Beautiful Mind/John Nash reference. Do you mind if I get into that. . .briefly? It’s actually relevant to the overall project or projects.
The Pie: OK, but let’s try to keep it brief like you said, I want to get into the series you’re working on before we lose ‘em.
Bug Stu: OK, well first of all, the timing of the movie, A Beautiful Mind, was significant for my work. It came out in 2001, which was amazing, since that’s about when I realized you humies were probably coming into a serious awakening to your own minds. I didn’t actually see it until it was on DVD and you guys watched it at home, but wow — even from outside the window. But the schizophrenia parts overshadowed the real story and the game theory stuff. And, I’m not schizophrenic, but if you heard me talk about brain science and weaving it into humie culture and customs, then noticing patterns in musical lyrics like I did in that 1995–2010 era, AND you’d seen A Beautiful Mind, you’d of thought “schizophrenia!” and smashed me. That’s just an expression.
So anyway, I’m not schizophrenic, and I don’t claim to have a beautiful mind, but there truly is some beautiful stuff brewing in your culture right now. It’s still just brewing though, and you’ve got to have studied brains, thinking processes, social trend formation, and related stuff to see where it’s leading -and to realize you already have it popping up here and there.
The Pie: Ok, thanks for that. You mentioned game theory, and I know that’s going to scare some people. I’d like to talk about that here another time, but could you just give maybe one or two sentences on the relevance of game theory to your projects?
Bug Stu: Ummm, well, OK let’s just say that game theory, in a multiple player long term game, is a way that some smart economists and psychologists analyze choices and outcomes. The concept has been around for over seventy years, but there’s new twist coming on soon, I’m predicting.
The Pie: Oh, OK. And leave it at that? Kind of a teaser for another time?
Bug Stu: Yeah, that works. Leave it as a teaser. Do you want me to go ahead into the music and lyrics project?
The Pie: Let’s do. I think that’s what most people are interested in right now. I know I’m very interested.
Bug Stu: OK, since you and I have talked about how I started This Project, you know how the singing of bugs and birds led me to notice the singing of humans and how all this all began. Should I go into that?
The Pie: Well, how about if we get back to that another time. Another teaser maybe, huh?
Bug Stu: OK, I know we’re close on time, so I’ll jump into, say, 1990-ish since that’s what your audience is probably interested in. I noticed that the sounds and the lyrics from Grunge were conveying a deep frustration, a vague, existential crisis, haha. . .as if “existential” isn’t vague enough on its own, right? Anyway, it got my attention more than any previous popular music had. Sure, I’ve liked most of your music for hundreds of years in one way or another, but this music and people’s reaction to it told me something was up. I kinda wanna say something deep was up. Hey, that’s funny isn’t it?
The Pie: Uh, yeah, deep and up, I get it. Yeah that’s weird, it does fit though. But you don’t start the real analysis or code-breaking until 1995, right?
Bug Stu: Right. The earlier Grunge was a sort of trigger though, that collective subconscious thing. That was what you might call the discordant thrashing of discontent. But, what I’ll call the resolution phase, which takes a while, started around 1995, at least in the mainstream.
The Pie: Is there a particular song you want to mention in this last little bit of time we have?
Bug Stu: Yeah, sure. And maybe your audience will want to go back in time so to speak, and pay careful attention to the lyrics and the video as well. Both are important, like with a lot of songs since 1982 with MTV starting. Maybe we could jump right into that analysis next time if you still want to do this again?
The Pie: Totally. So what’s the song?
Bug Stu: This might seem too obvious or overplayed by now, but it might be the key song in this whole shift I’m seeing. It’s. . . Champagne Supernova.
The Pie: Oh, awesome. I can’t wait to hear what you found. I always thought maybe there was something wrong with me, because I’ve never gotten tired of that song. It’s nice to know that maybe there was a good reason, haha. OK, until next time. And now I have a good reason to listen to that song again. Hey, sorry we went a little over on time. OK, thanks Stu. Be careful out there everyone.
Bug Stu: Hey Tim, where’s Em?
The Pie: Maybe she’ll be here next time. She’s staying at her home with this Corona thing going on.
Bug Stu: OK, yeah. These are crazy times. . .and much crazier for some than others. Give her my best. And go Humies!
The Pie: Haha, I will. Thanks, Stu.
(Link to Champagne Supernova. Stu’s insights on this next time.)
Intro to Stu post is right here!
