Are you into music? I mean really, really into music? Do you hear a song and ache for it to go on to retain a feeling? Could you happily sit in front of speakers for hours listening with no other stimulation? If so, welcome to my world.
I have always loved music. Some of my earliest memories of childhood include singing (which I’m not good at) and attending concerts. For the record, my first was the Pointer Sisters, and no, I’m not exactly proud of that fact. It seems that my childhood was mostly spent listening to the radio, to tapes, and to the odd record.
As I’m sitting here on July 4th, 2010, I was thinking about the relevance of my existence during these times. Sounds deep? It wasn’t. You see, I am listening to classic concerts and regretting the fact that I couldn’t experience them. All of these bands that I love, and I can only relive their moments through digital replication. So of course I thought that I would have preferred to center my lifespan in a time when these concerts were created.
And then I realized that this course of thought was useless. No, not because I can’t change the passage of time, but because the span would be to vast. Would you like to sit with the Habsburgs listening to an original Handel? I would. Would you rather catch a studio performance of Lightnin’ Hopkins? I want to do both. How about sitting in a pew of Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity to catch the Cowboy Junkies? Could someone do all this on one stage, please?
I submit that one of the greatest advantages of modern technology is the availability of entertainment. Music, movies, and games all on demand and at our fingertips. I, for example, do not have the space for a full drum kit. Instead, I have a collapsible electronic kit which allows me to govern noise levels and footprint while still being able to create and enjoy. I have a MP3 player with which I carry thousands of my favorite songs in my pocket. They are ready for me to listen at my convenience.
In other words, while it is tempting to think of living earlier and enjoying a specific concert, I would rather live now with the facsimiles of everything ever recorded.
We live now in a time when so much music is being created. Popular and independent, bands, solo artists, and composers have more access to their art than at any other point in history. You and I get to take full advantage of the situation. We can create through access to instruments that are of a higher quality, and yet cheaper, than ever before, home-based recording and playback systems, and internet-based distribution methods. And for those that choose not to create, we can choose specific genres, artists, albums, or even songs to make up our personal on-access libraries.
Music is one of the purest and most accessible forms of artistic expression available. Enjoy it!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Hurrah for Morning People
I have always been a morning person. Even as a teen (when being a morning person makes you just about the strangest thing in the world) I woke up early. In fact, I routinely encountered unhappy parents that (though they were themselves morning people) could not take my extremism.
As I write this at 6:15 in the morning after reading the news and two chapters of a book, making coffee, checking e-mail, and a number of other things, I find myself thinking about what to do. The answer? A bit of creative writing.
So let’s look at the morning person. What traits does s/he display?
• Early-to-bed, early-to-rise.
• The ability to accurately describe a sunrise.
• The ability to awaken quickly, or so it seems.*
• Depending on the morning, a keen desire to:
o Keep the late sleepers sleeping. “Let them sleep, this quiet is nice!”
o Make as much noise as possible, because watching late-sleepers struggle with 8:00 AM is fun!
* -- In actuality the early morning person may take a long time to wake up. The difference is that they start waking up at 4:30, which is well-before anyone else cares.
For me, early morningism is easily identified. While I complain at times about wake-up calls, the truth is that I can not remember when I last slept past 7:00 AM. I routinely wake up before 5:30, with 4:30 and even 3:30 definitely within the realms of possibility.
The early wake ups are part of the key to my success, while also spelling my downfall. Being up at 5:00 in the morning means that I can accomplish a lot before the later risers even begin to stir. Early morning is my reading, researching, and cogitating time. By the time that I reach work, for example, I am updated on news, fully fueled (breakfast being a favorite meal), and brimming over with ideas.
On the other hand, asking me to a 10:00 PM showing of a movie is a mistake. Falling asleep is a probability bordering on certainty, no matter how engrossing the film. This, as can bee expected, makes a dent in socializing. “Hey, what’s up with that guy sleeping in the corner?” “Don’t worry about him; he’ll be up at 4:30 ready to start the party over again.”
It also, as I sit here thinking about it, will seriously impact my work with a band when I get to that point in my playing. How many places do you see advertising for live music starting at 4:30 PM? (Quaint Italian restaurants with violin players don’t count.)
I’m going to make a guess here. I hypothesize that, if we were to survey people across the U.S. that we would find those on the East coast are more likely to be late risers. Consequently, those on the Pacific coast (and probably in the mountain states as well) would end up being more likely to be morning people. And, in fact, I think I know what drives this phenomenon, but would ask an additional survey question to confirm:
Are you a fan of a televised sports team?
Why does this matter? Because fans of a east-coast team are much more likely to stay up and watch a game that is broadcast from the west coast. In short, our circadian rhythms are driven by live television schedules. Isn’t that disappointing?
Are their exceptions to this rule? Of course there are. Just as I am an extremist to one end of the morning people, there are extremists to the late people (I see them in the coffee shop at 6:00 AM as they get a good night cup). And between us is a whole mass of middle ground that I will call “normal people”. Enjoy your normalness, you make me just a little bit more quirky, and we all know that I need another oddity.
As I write this at 6:15 in the morning after reading the news and two chapters of a book, making coffee, checking e-mail, and a number of other things, I find myself thinking about what to do. The answer? A bit of creative writing.
So let’s look at the morning person. What traits does s/he display?
• Early-to-bed, early-to-rise.
• The ability to accurately describe a sunrise.
• The ability to awaken quickly, or so it seems.*
• Depending on the morning, a keen desire to:
o Keep the late sleepers sleeping. “Let them sleep, this quiet is nice!”
o Make as much noise as possible, because watching late-sleepers struggle with 8:00 AM is fun!
* -- In actuality the early morning person may take a long time to wake up. The difference is that they start waking up at 4:30, which is well-before anyone else cares.
For me, early morningism is easily identified. While I complain at times about wake-up calls, the truth is that I can not remember when I last slept past 7:00 AM. I routinely wake up before 5:30, with 4:30 and even 3:30 definitely within the realms of possibility.
The early wake ups are part of the key to my success, while also spelling my downfall. Being up at 5:00 in the morning means that I can accomplish a lot before the later risers even begin to stir. Early morning is my reading, researching, and cogitating time. By the time that I reach work, for example, I am updated on news, fully fueled (breakfast being a favorite meal), and brimming over with ideas.
On the other hand, asking me to a 10:00 PM showing of a movie is a mistake. Falling asleep is a probability bordering on certainty, no matter how engrossing the film. This, as can bee expected, makes a dent in socializing. “Hey, what’s up with that guy sleeping in the corner?” “Don’t worry about him; he’ll be up at 4:30 ready to start the party over again.”
It also, as I sit here thinking about it, will seriously impact my work with a band when I get to that point in my playing. How many places do you see advertising for live music starting at 4:30 PM? (Quaint Italian restaurants with violin players don’t count.)
A Possibly Interesting Study
I’m going to make a guess here. I hypothesize that, if we were to survey people across the U.S. that we would find those on the East coast are more likely to be late risers. Consequently, those on the Pacific coast (and probably in the mountain states as well) would end up being more likely to be morning people. And, in fact, I think I know what drives this phenomenon, but would ask an additional survey question to confirm:
Are you a fan of a televised sports team?
Why does this matter? Because fans of a east-coast team are much more likely to stay up and watch a game that is broadcast from the west coast. In short, our circadian rhythms are driven by live television schedules. Isn’t that disappointing?
Are their exceptions to this rule? Of course there are. Just as I am an extremist to one end of the morning people, there are extremists to the late people (I see them in the coffee shop at 6:00 AM as they get a good night cup). And between us is a whole mass of middle ground that I will call “normal people”. Enjoy your normalness, you make me just a little bit more quirky, and we all know that I need another oddity.
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