I wrote a blog entry back in 2008 about a peculiar habit I have when reading a book: Even if I am enjoying the read, I often find myself sort of wishing I was finishing the book. I explained it like this: Because I’m busy, and because I have numerous other hobbies I like to indulge in the rare spare time I do have, I don’t get to read nearly as often as I’d like to. So I always have …
Blog Posts
Really, this is the post I think I was trying to write when I started the last one. I wanted to start off by basically saying, “Music is not my profession, but it’s also not a hobby.” And then, typically, I went off on a tangent and got all earnest and probably over-intellectualized and pedantic, among other annoying things. And I really don’t want to go that way with this post again and start pitching spiritual-sounding woo about how what …
Music is not a profession for me. There’s nothing wrong when it is someone’s profession, but it’s not how I, myself, make my living. And I’m actually quite glad about that. A profession implies that the trade is something you do for work, and work implies that commerce is, if not your only motivation, a significant one. I’m hardly a mercenary, but the work I do for my profession—which I happen to like—is still based mostly on being paid. If …
John Lennon once summed up a personal dichotomy by saying, “”Part of me suspects I’m a loser and part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.” The context of the quote involved a discussion about a Beatles for Sale track, “I’m a Loser,” which Lennon himself had penned; and I think it’s safe to say that he was speaking about his ego as person, in general. The sentiments, though, kind of remind me of what many musicians are like with respect …
So in setting up this blog, I was providing a tagline where, basically, I wanted to say that this will be a collection of thoughts, memoirs, and articles about music from the perspective of… well, from me. But what do I call myself here? I settled on “Creative Artist,” which is reflected in the tagline above as of July 8, 2108, but I really don’t like it. I never know exactly what to call what I do. I imagine others …
“Wow! You’ve got a drum set!” Actually I have not just “a” drum set, but what some people might consider a ridiculous amount of drum sets. (Not me, of course, and that’s a point I will readily defend with, I believe, good arguments. But that’s a story for another time.) I’ve had kids visit the house who were awed when they saw a drum kit, and they usually utter that quote above. Not my own kids, though… They think it’s …