Yesterday’s expedition was to return A Storm of Swords to the library. Good thing that Mel lent me a copy and all the remaining Song of Ice and Fire books as I am not close to finishing it. I had planned on going shopping but discovered that I forgot my phone, so I cut my expedition short. I needed it to find the best route to the store. I don’t know where I’d catch the bus near the library.
I spent a lot of time yesterday working on my top albums list. It drove home how difficult it is to be a professional musician. I’m listening to every album put out in 2019 by an artist I love. What I’m sadly finding is that some of them are lacking the genius that attracted me to the artist. It’s hard to be consistently great, it might be impossible. To make it tougher, it’s very difficult to evaluate yourself. I can’t count how many times I’ve talked to musicians who are unhappy with their performance or their album when they actually did great. Many artists are too hard on themselves. Other’s get so excited about a project that they think it’s great when it’s not. Arthur Conan Doyle belittled his Holmes books, he thought his reputation was built on his historical novels. Artists have doubts when they shouldn’t and the same goes with confidence.
That has to be so tough. They always want to make great music but sometimes they don’t. As I went through my list, I found some albums that I couldn’t listen all the way through. Some failed my most basic test, the ability to hold my attention for the duration of a song. And these are artists that have made music that I love. That I’ve hung on every note. I feel guilty not loving their music. My duty to My Gentle Readers, and now My Gentle Listeners, keeps my honest. I won’t praise an album just because I like the artist on a personal level.
I’m making progress. As of now I have seven of the top ten chosen and eight albums vying for the other three spots. Some of them might displace albums already chosen. If I made the list twice, I would not have exactly the same albums on them. Make that seven albums in contention, I just eliminated one. I’m pretty sure the album I’m listening to now will make the cut.
Last night I went to watch TV and put on Amazon Prime thinking to watch Man in the High Castle. To my surprise I saw that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was available. It was supposed to be released tomorrow. Was the release date given by Greenwich Mean Time? I’m not complaining. I love that show, much more than The Man in the High Castle. Mrs. Maisel is not just laugh out loud funny but thought provoking. That’s pretty much my goal here.
Damn, the album I’m listening to now is so good that I’m finding it difficult to write. It got moved over to the elect. I think that means I should stop listening to it and move on to the next maybe. I did it. It’s a total change of pace. There are many different ways to make great music.
There’s no happy medium. When I love the music, I can’t write. I’m going to declare victory and make breakfast. Today I’ll be ambitious and make an omelet. I’ll be extra ambitious and have brown and serve roles on the side. Then I’m off to therapy. Tonight, I’m seeing Molsky’s Mountain Drifters at the Jenkins Family House Concert. It’s been way too long since I’ve been there. I feel bad as I keep having to miss concerts by the Jenkins’ children Steph and Reid. The timing has just been bad. Steph is playing tomorrow with Steph Coleman and it’s killing me that I have to miss it. It’s being billed as The Stephs, but My Gentle Reader know it’s The Stephani. Special plurals are a good thing.
Wise Madness 