Already in the post 2004 blah. A leap year, so we have to tidy up the world, keep the springs tugged tight. Nobody wants to fall apart and not know which day to plant the crops.
Music and science have fallen to pieces in my mind. I've stopped listening to music, at least seriously for at least a few months now. I have tons of recorded music, records, tapes, compact discs, yet I just look at them with disgust. The sounds are so innocent. Even jazz has fallen out of favor in my head. I still enjoy it, but can't seem to pop on an album and really listen to it. I just have it in my ears and not my head. On my way to work I listen to talk-radio, the guys in the morning chatting about funny stuff. Nothing real, nothing on the news, at least nothing we should worry about. Is news just made for us to know about information that if normally we wouldn't hear about we would not worry. Ignorance is bliss. On my way home I flip through radio stations back and forth, a few classic rock, a few modern rock, and a few in between.
Just listen to a song long enough to despise it. I listen now not for the song but for the recording. Is the recording better, more clear, more distinct. Was the mix done well? Is this a new super audio cd with more clarity, more separation. I probably listen to my car radio more than anything else on a daily basis. Redid my stereo at home, souped up and all nice to look at and listen to, yet I rarely pop a cd in when I am at home. If I do it is a short time and rarely enough time for the stereo to really soak in and become melded.
Science has also gone down the drain. This is because I have no stimulation. No work to keep me excited. No conversations of science. No thrills and chills about new discoveries. Just boring and dull day to day filling of time, like this thing.
I decided to learn the bagpipes a few months ago. Why not? A totally new concept in music for me. I played the trombone as a kid, for years, since 4th grade. Only 9 years old and I was eager to learn. I practiced and practiced and got pretty good and played solid through the end of high school and a bit in college, then gave it up. I picked up drums, at least a drum pad, and had lessons for about 1 1/2 years. It was great, I learned to roll, learned some beats, even picked up a set for a bit. Then I moved and I never kept it up and now I can roll and play a few beats, but it is largely lost. So I need something back, playing music is more enjoyable than listening perhaps.
In one of those moments of it was meant to be, I was looking for drum lessons in Orange County. Figured it would be better to pick back up something I already knew something about. I found a website for a local pipes and drums band. They offered both bagpipes and drum lessons. I thought about it for a while and decided, what the hell, I should learn the bagpipes. It's a challenge, really a big challenge. It's a very hard instrument, one of the most difficult. It's an entire sub-culture of players across the world and instrument makers that still make the instruments from scratch. Solid wood instruments that have been played for hundreds of years. The tradition of the tunes go back for some 500 years. There is even a classical music for just the bagpipe.
So that's where I am learning a new instrument. It's one of the most difficult things I have done in my adult life. It doesn't just come easy. It isn't one of those things you learn how to do and then can do it. It is more like you are shown how it supposed to be done and then you have to practice and build up your fingers for the next year to even come close. Quite a challenge!
New look to the page, simple, no extras....enjoy
