How is it that I haven’t written here for eight months? Likely I’ve been traveling too much again: DC, Rio, two days back in Montreal to switch to winter clothes, DC, Seattle, Montpellier, Paris, Seattle, some west-coast roadripping with Liam (Port Washington, La Push, Portland), more Seattle, back to Montreal for a bit, quick trip to Seattle, then off to Wiveliscombe, London, and Brighton. And finally a small trip to DC to collect Liam and home home home. Now I’m obsessing over small renovations. Much needed nesting. Summer in the Mile End is glorious. No need to be anywhere else — except maybe camping in Wakefield — but at least that’s in the same province!
Okay. Enough excuses. I’m back. Really. I’m kicking things off with these:
Now aren’t you in a better mood? Were you dancing? I bet you’re at least thinking about it. Or wishing you were. Simple, joyous music.
My fantasy: I’m living in my grandmother’s time, on the prairies, everyone with ten to twelve kids. Big family gatherings. We eat stew thickened with browned flour and fresh veggies from the garden: corn, beets, small potatoes with thin red skins, and tomatoes and cucumbers sliced and sprinkled with salt. Finish it off with white cake doused in sucre a la creme. Then out comes the whiskey and the cards. The kids are under the table or in some corner upstairs, their world full of whispers and intrigue. Now my family was not so musical but I crave it. So in my fantasy out come an accordion, a fiddle, some spoons.
I’ve had little bits of this. I know what each piece feels like. It’s fun to gather up the fragments and put them together.
Think about it: Wouldn’t it be so nice if making music was something mostpeople did? Like writing and reading. Not something you consume. Not something veryspecial verytalented people make for you. Instead an everyday creative, collective act. A joyous togethering, washing away for a moment pain and discord. I would like that so much.
PS. I hear Eugene Hutz lives in Rio these days ;)
Maybe music IS something mostpeople do, maybe even everypeople. Maybe this is the tyranny of compartmentalization — born in the agricultural revolution, but perfected in the factory — shadowing us… so we keep the music to ourselves and listen to the veryspecial(ized). We watch the verytalented play soccer and hockey and even poker (really? card games?!). We laugh at the veryfunny. We line up to ride veryfun water slides built by the veryclever. We eat food prepared by the verygifted ($ometime$), but much more often by the veryveryBIGandCHEAPandCONVENIENT.
No wonder we keep our music to ourselves most of the time. Luckily, we’re much older than the factory — and we still YEARN to sing, play, joke, jump in a lake, and eat blueberries we find on the way to that clean clear water.
Thank you for the reminder.