Russell Standish wrote circa 11-11-17 12:59 PM: > I suspect there might be quite a few others like me :)
Yep. I have gone one step further, though. I now try to buy all my music sans plastic (i.e. online). But I relish the diversity between my collections on various devices. I make some sullen attempts to sync my phone and laptops with my server. But I'm inconsistent. And I make no serious attempts to acquire all the music I listen to on myspace, last.fm, pandora, or anywhere else. I'm not a musician, but I pretend to understand a little of how many of them seem to feel. With the ability to construct a fresh experience anywhere you go, the robotic automation of studio recorded music pales a little bit. It took me awhile after puberty to really appreciate music as a contextual whole experience rather than scripted emotion.[1][2] When I finally did grok it, I began to appreciate all sorts of things I didn't even perceive before. Even bad music, if I'm there while it's being constructed, seems quite fulfilling. The diversity in my collections across devices feels like a shadowy reminder of that understanding. [1] I remember an event right out of college. I used to frequent the bars in Dallas and Houston that allowed open jams ... anyone with an instrument was welcome to walk on stage and play with whoever was up there already. That's where I fell in love with the blues ... or what I called the blues, anyway. I mistakenly told a coworker that I liked the blues. When he came to my apt for a party one time, he accused me: "I thought you liked the blues?!?" after looking through my LPs. I said, "Yeah, but only live." He scoffed and dropped the subject. [2] I've recently gotten into lots of "noise" performances. It's hard to describe. But for me, it's a bit like a good book or riding a motorcycle. There are windows (>100 pages, but still far from the end, into a good book, or from [2,8] hours on the bike) wherein you're sense of context is transformed, made expansive in some weird way. Noise bands do that to me (at least the good ones do). But I've tried listening to pre-recorded noise. It just ain't the same... it has an antiseptic feel... all tin-ny, weak, and unidimensional. Much of that is the attention most noise geeks pay to the venue and pa system, I'm sure. If they had a good production engineer and I used headphones, it might be better. -- glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org