Of Music and Life

What I've been missing lately is music. And possibly alcohol, thinks Buddha.

Early on, when I had no hi-fi, I wrote more about albums and songs. The blog became a reason for me to search the internet for new artists, to go out and buy new discs. Later, however, after I acquired a hi-fi and became comfortable with it, I started writing more about gear. I got bit by the bug, as they say. There's nothing wrong with that; afterall, the gear sings along. Music was still in the air. But, most recently, all I've been writing about is work:

Here is the story of how I get to work. Here is the story of what I do at work. Here is the story of how much work is involved in work. Here is the story of our little interactions at work.

Am I becoming, I wonder, one of those aging rock stars who has nothing left to sing about but what it was like to be a rock star? This is one of my greatest fears.

"You know, Stephen, if I went home and listened to two hours of music each night, I'd die before I got through my entire collection."

"That's a dark thought, JA."

"But, you know, I bet there's a beer with my name on it at home."

"A much better thought, JA."

COMMENTS
Al Marcy's picture

Discovering that being young and stupid may not be the Ultimate Goal of Humanity is painful ;) Aging is not optional. Music and sex really help offset the distress. Then we die. What is the UGoH? Perhaps the Universe needs to giggle, occasionally?Just a guess ...

tris mccall's picture

i'm looking right now at the walls, and i count twelve cd cases, each with seven compartments of sixteen cds each. 12 X 7 X 16 = 1344, plus 80 more in the active pile to my right, plus about 200 burned cds in a stack by the bathroom. that works out to 1624 albums. i think i average about six albums a day. that means it would take me 270 days and 16 hours to get through my entire record collection. that actually doesn't seem as daunting as i thought it would when i started adding it up.

Jim Teacher's picture

I am becoming an aging lion.At least they can still kick some ace.

Buddha's picture

Yup, adding up the hours can be daunting.

If I drank only one bottle of wine every day, I'd only get through about 40,000 more bottles before I die.

Actually, that's not so bad.

As to listening to music, it's something that should kind of be happening at all times. Then it has a chance to ebb and flow, to creep forward and then to recede, as our paths and soundtrack dictate. I think that makes for better emotive bonding to music than a formal listening session," and it points out the difference between ""critical listening"," like Hi Fi people often do, and nutritive listening"," like we all do when we have our critical listening features turned down.

Two hours a day of critical listening is real work. I bet alot of us forget about how hard that is to accomplish each day. Way to listen, JA!

On top of that, add in the work of listening to every LP twice...magnetized and unmagnetized, and real tedium could set in!

Way to keep it real, Stephen.

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