Listening to...
Nils Frahm (Spaces)
I listened to this album during a recent thunderstorm from the 21st floor of my apartment building. I sat there watching the larger-than-life sparks of light spontaneously connect clouds to one another, light up the sky in sharp cracks or eerily illuminate the whole sky. Sometimes it's nice to feel small in a big world.
Reading...
Ernest Cline "Ready Player One"
Woah! What a beautifully written and descriptive book. Every step along the way I thought to myself how we in 2016 are only two steps away in technology from the worlds created in sci-fi novels. I felt really isolated while reading the book - probably just empathizing with the protagonist - but found it a very cathartic experience by the end.
In all, I feel my experiences as a musician and a teacher have led me to feel both extremely connected and extremely disconnected from those around me. At the center of what it means to be human is the battle between isolation and vulnerability or openness and it seems to get more polarized and twisted the more technology substitutes many of our previous methods of communication. Where is music's role in this? Does it serve to connect or disconnect? What is my role in music's bringing people together or inviting them into isolation? Neither one is better than the other. The balance between the two is what I find so hard to accept.
Spring is coming y'all. I often times think of myself as a sunflower. Always looking to the sun for energy, warmth and happiness. The winter months can be quite a test of endurance and patience...but spring is coming y'all! We are almost there! See you Friday at Transistor in Chicago! We will be bringing the sunshine.
Nils Frahm (Spaces)
I listened to this album during a recent thunderstorm from the 21st floor of my apartment building. I sat there watching the larger-than-life sparks of light spontaneously connect clouds to one another, light up the sky in sharp cracks or eerily illuminate the whole sky. Sometimes it's nice to feel small in a big world.
Reading...
Ernest Cline "Ready Player One"
Woah! What a beautifully written and descriptive book. Every step along the way I thought to myself how we in 2016 are only two steps away in technology from the worlds created in sci-fi novels. I felt really isolated while reading the book - probably just empathizing with the protagonist - but found it a very cathartic experience by the end.
In all, I feel my experiences as a musician and a teacher have led me to feel both extremely connected and extremely disconnected from those around me. At the center of what it means to be human is the battle between isolation and vulnerability or openness and it seems to get more polarized and twisted the more technology substitutes many of our previous methods of communication. Where is music's role in this? Does it serve to connect or disconnect? What is my role in music's bringing people together or inviting them into isolation? Neither one is better than the other. The balance between the two is what I find so hard to accept.
Spring is coming y'all. I often times think of myself as a sunflower. Always looking to the sun for energy, warmth and happiness. The winter months can be quite a test of endurance and patience...but spring is coming y'all! We are almost there! See you Friday at Transistor in Chicago! We will be bringing the sunshine.