While sitting outside Barnes and Noble, watching the world fade away, I was talking with Carl about the perils of aging. Specifically as it relates to what time I have to waste on goals and, because of the scarcity of time, the narrowing of goals.
3 years ago, music was my number one priority. I was collecting like crazy, adding cds daily into my large collection of music. I wanted to find the missing singles and unpublished bootlegs for my favorite bands. Thinking back to it, I really invested a huge portion of my time in that pursuit.
Now, reading and writing dominate my focus time away from work. Music is fading in its importance and I find myself faking interest in conversations with coworkers while they describe a new band they are going to Austin to see. That thought has become laughable to me, driving to another city to watch a band play for an hour. Not because its such an insane idea, but because, to me, NOW, its seems like a waste of time. I could list the number of bands I would drive to Austin to see on one hand and three of those no longer exist as bands: 1. CCR, 2. The Who, 3. Radiohead, 4. The Ramones, 5. Pedro the Lion.
Literature, the pursuit of writing, these seem lasting and time worthy now. I cannot speak for everyone else, and, to be clear, I don't want to. This is a personal decision. A personal trimming of the schedule. A personal re-arrangement of importance. Please continue on.
(the photo is not of my records. simply a photo found online to illustrate my itunes collection.)
4 comments:
That list can't be exhaustive. What about Led Zeppelin, if they somehow managed to teleport the 1970 incarnation of the band to the present.
I'm not quite there yet. Driving to Austin and Dallas to see the Faint.
It never fails to amaze me just how much music puts me in a better frame of mind. And yet, I play so little of it. It's like not taking your medications, when you know you need them. And no side effects.
As for narrowing one's priorities, I'd be with you there on the writing, except that I seem to be experiencing a monolithic bout of writer's block. I don't seem to have a whole hell of a lot to say these days. But thankfully, I have been reading. Shakespeare, James Joyce, and even Tim Russert's book about his father.
It comes and goes for me. For the past couple years, I really only listened to new music that my friends were making. The past six months, though, I decided to focus only on listening to stuff that had come out this year, and it's really rekindled a love for finding a new, exciting band. I hadn't expected that I'd give a shit about this stuff again at this point, but I think it's healthy to let it come in shifts.
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