Turning Old

Well, I am now 30. Bleh. So thirty years and about 40 minutes ago I was born, and in that time I hope so far the good outweighs the bad by a bit. Cristina Galdos' birthday party years ago comes to mind, and how upset she was about her birthday. Well, there is not much going on now to be particularly upset about, but it would sure be nice if I could say with confidence that I have not wasted all those 30 years, or at least that in the remaining 70 that I have left I am sure to make good use of my time remaining. Staying at Dillards much longer would, I think, count as wasting time, but every time I find a plan that seems to look good for doing something else the Universe throws new problems into the mix. Now it is Tammy's finances, as well as the simple logistical problem that neither of us has a car. I am amazed some days that I have done as much as I have, considering that I don't drive. I think on her own that Tammy would simply never do anything, but in any case, it is falling entirely on me, and any decisions I do make meet with her immediate disapproval as soon as I have already made them. Any input she seems to have made tends to be nullified in her reluctance to actually do anything different. Ghrrrrrr.
So, I think I may have found a decent apartment in Ft. Collins, and I most likely could at least get a job at the Ross there, but she has other plans she neglected to consider such that her money has to go elsewhere. So, while she hates her job and REALLY wants to move out of Longmont, she is maybe not going anywhere anyway. Now, the big decision: do I move anyway, on my own? I have almost gone too far towards leaving Dillard's now to change my mind, so I need to leave soon, in any case.

If only birthdays came with three magic wishes, or at least good job offers in Ft. Collins, or something along those lines.

The men of '39

Brian May's song '39 is a great classic Queen ballad, sung by him, with an acoustic guitar accompaniment, and a fun sci-fi fantasy storyline. The narrator is telling about how he and his fellow explorers left home one day, saying farewell to their loved ones, and when they returned after what for them was less than a year, they found that time had passed differently back home, such that the narrator meets not his beloved, but her daughter/son. I had only ever listened to this song at face value before, but tonight I am in another odd and somewhat pensive mood, and was glancing through pictures of recording artists at work in studios when this song came on. It struck me this time as a song about Queen, and other such artists. Brian, Roger and John are all about 60 years old now, roughly retirement age in any field, yet Queen(minus John, of course) just finished another tour. They are still living somewhat the lives of much younger men, rock stars, while the rest of the world is permitted to age as usual. By the time the rest of the world lets these men rest they will be quite old. It gets awkward to articulate this idea past this point without treading on uncertainty, since I don't know so much really about their lives now or then, but it seems to me that a rock star gets very little privacy, and they are unlikely to get to live openly among regular people, though having been in England for a bit I am not so sure if maybe the US and England differ on this a bit. Still, fans are fans. If you are a kid of Brian May, you probably do face some uneasy situations involving fans who want to get to your dad through you. You live on your guard as a matter of course. As a celebrity, you may find it hard to stop by a local grocery store anywhere, since someone might recognize you. And all this makes having a stable, normal marriage and family life very tough. No wonder John has receeded from view as much as possible. His kids actually seem to be able to use facebook relatively safely, even, since he is just a random guy with an electronics degree now. And no wonder Roger has had such a classic rocker's romantic history. The chaos of touring and all the rest is more like a continuation of adolescence and early adulthood. While you might get to be rather wise after going through something like what Queen experienced in losing Freddie, you are not so likely in that lifestyle to develop the sort of habits that make you attractive to your own age group later on. So Roger is dating someone closer to my age, instead, if the Internet is at all right. Of course Queen was not a heavy parties and drugs sort of band, part of why I can relate to these guys really; bands that did the wild parties and the alcohol left some rather impressive human wreckage in their wakes.

Romping through music history

Last week it was just a growing interest in Queen and electric guitars. But, through the wonders of Internet, I spent last night reading old interviews of Brian May in guitar magazines, pausing occasionally to pull up songs from Queen or Brian's solo albums, either off my computer or off YouTube, including those karaoke/instrumental tracks on YouTube that allow one to really hear the guitar parts, especially as I know the vocals well enough to keep from getting lost. I also pulled up the tracks Brian mentioned from other artists, especially Jeff Beck, and could listen to the bits Brian was talking about in all these songs, and could figure out what sounds go with the techniques mentioned in wikipedia for Brian's guitar parts. I learned more by far in those two hours or so last night than I learned in the few weeks of Music Appreciation 101 I waded through.

So tonight I am continuing my education. I am reading a book on important recording studios and the people who recorded with them, and at some point I realized I didn't really know what Otis Redding sounded like, or have much of a reference for Hank Williams, Sr., or really recall the sound of Roy Orbison's recordings. So I am back on YouTube, this time on a new playlist with no Queen, no Brian May. I really like Otis Redding, it turns out.

I really think this is how Music Appreciation should be taught. Give starting reference points, via required reading and in-class video/audio and then let students follow the music. A glass bead game of sorts, but with a focus mostly in music. Of course, the story of the producer at Stax Studio mixing Dock at the Bay after Otis died in a plane crash reminded me very strongly of Brian and Roger talking about making Made in Heaven off the material Freddie left behind, and Hank Williams is in there too, as he died very young. And Nat "King" Cole died at about the same age as Freddie, only of cancer. Brian's song, No One But You, is hovering in the back o my mind increasingly as I read this book. Sure, there are musicians, great and successful and talented, who did not die young, but it seems a lot of them did, maybe because they live their lives on a faster or bigger scale, and one way or another they wore out early. And of course the history of recorded music draws in the rest of the history of all of what else was going on at the time.

Really I wish now that I had more time for this. I am almost 30, and while I have a long time left before I am old, I feel old to be just getting into music as a serious pursuit. Yes, it seems silly, too. After all there are thousands of new musicians on the modern music scene every day, and I am just starting out. Maybe I have something valuable in me with respect to music, but maybe not, and I won't know except by trying. I have no band, and no friends currently who are making music, so for now I am just working on me. If the Universe wants me making music I will meet the right people and find the right situations to make it happen. I simply have to put in the effort to be ready for whatever the Universe throws my way. So, for now, it is my books- music industry, recording technology, physics- and the Internet, and my CD collection. And lots of writing and other creative pursuits. Making my own music was fairly easy back when I was a kid and used to using music as a form of my own self-expression, but I am not so used to it any longer. But as I seem to have reached a point where listening to other peoples' music i sno longer enough, I need to start making my own.

Karaoke Queen

Funny, but it is so much easier to sing Queen songs to karaoke tracks when I am 1) not looking at the prompter, and 2) when I trust myself about what to sing and when. It is not really all that different from finding when to come in after a long piano intro in choir, but the music is much more complicated and I had not really expected that I knew the percussion and base lines as well as I apparently do, at least as they related to the voice. Probably it is a good thing I did not have YouTube to find karaoke tracks on until recently because the experience of singing 'with' Queen is quite addictive. The more I let my mind settle into the music, the easier it is to feel the spaces where the lead vocals fit in, so even if I get lazy and forget the words, I still find myself humming the tune where it belongs. And while I obviously still really enjoy their music as is, it really is a lazy way of getting music to just listen to other people's recordings. I find singing with Queen more satisfying some days because I can't be lazy about the music that makes up the soundtrack of my life. I usually have music on when I wake up, and there is music when I am at work, though not of my choosing, and at home the music resumes as soon as I am on my computer. Some nights I do leave things silent, but I know what silence sounds like already, and if I don't need it I would rather hear something else. After all Life is shorter than one might think, and there is so littel time to really enjoy all that is around to be enjoyed.
Now I want to find me a band and do this stuff for real, write songs, perform them in a band on stage in front of a live audience, etc. I may never be able to play electric mandolin on stage or be a proper percussionist with my hands as they are, but I can sing, at least.