17 posts tagged “music”
I've had a rough run since my birthday, nothing I've wanted to talk too publicly about. I have some really great friends from here and home that have pulled me through it. I owe them gratitude beyond words - truly, more than I can express and they know who they are.
So this is life, and living. You take from it what you can, you make mistakes, you hurt, you cry. But the next day, you pick yourself up and you start moving on. You use what you know, you use what you can, you find a few great people to trust, and you just do it. You have enduring faith that tomorrow will be better, and most days, it will be. That's what it's like to live.
A very good weekend, indeed.
- I lost my Jimmy Buffett "virginity" on Thursday night. Dad took me to the Buffett concert at Riverport - my birthday present. It was a seriously good time - the peoplewatching is second-to-none. Things seen: a blender powered by a Weed Eater motor, a flagpole with both Buffett pirate and Mizzou flags, and several of my dad's coworkers. The music was solid, the liquor flowing - it was everything it is purported to be, and if anyone ever has the chance to go to a Buffett show, do it.
- I bought a new-to-me car - a 2006 Chevy Aveo with about 33K miles. It's a nice, very small car, with fairly decent gas mileage... and nothing falling off the bottom of it. I can actually hear myself think in this car - the last one was desperately needed about $1000 in repairs, including a new muffler, new central exhaust, and new axles and boots. Anyway... it's silver and it needs a name. I have not yet ascertained my car's "gender," but suggestions are appreciated.
- I went to services with my dad on Friday night. Mom wasn't feeling that great, but we were on Oneg duty, so someone had to go. It was a very small minyan - maybe 15 people. A funny moment: it is our tradition that the pre-b'nai mitzvot children (under 13) undress the Torah before it's read. On Friday, I was the youngest person there, so I was goaded into undressing the Torah, which I haven't done in almost 10 years. Quite a bit of teasing ensued.
- After services, I spent some time with Zach, which was really great - I've missed him a lot this year, and haven't seen him since he was in Chicago for a protest at the end of October. So we went for a drink and then hung out at his dad's for a while, watched the end of the Cardinals game and caught up.
- Saturday was mostly a study day, and then we went for dinner with Aunt Ruth for my birthday. She made a pie for dessert, and I stayed around for a little bit after my parents left, just to talk to her about things.
I should be heading back to Chicago in a little bit, just waiting for my iPod to charge... this week is not going to be an easy one in any sense of the imagination!
"And the less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine."
Music has been an enormous part of my life for the last thirteen years - I've been an instrumentalist since I was nine, with flute and piano, and now guitar. When the sweet sounds of Jack Buck and Cardinal baseball weren't permeating the thick St. Louis summer air, the radio was on the oldies station. I've seen Chicago live more times than I can count, and the Beach Boys at least three times, plus both Billy Joel and Elton John twice each. I started seeking my own musical footing when I was ten or eleven, falling early for the poppiest of pop, into post-grunge and alternative in high school, and in college, jumping wholeheartedly into indie rock. Now, my music tastes transcend genres, but one belief has always remained consistent:
Sometimes, you stumble across a song that is so perfect, that so fits your life, that you think the artist must have been in your head when they wrote it. You don't find those songs - they find you. Those are the songs that you can't hear the way they were meant to be heard until you're ready to hear them that way.
Mine right now is off the new Chris Walla album, "Field Manual." The song is "Geometry &C." I won't divulge too much as to why - maybe in a neighborhood post after finals are over - it's 4AM and I have to take a nap so that I can wake up and continue to study in a couple hours, but here's the song and the lyrics:
Geometry &C
It used to bother me, all these shapes I can't describe;
How we all fit together like wordless verse,
singing da de dum dum, da de dum dum da de dum.
I was there.
I saw you searching the corners for a light, but it's not there.
It was never there, your files and books are void of air,
and your heart fills your mind.
This is geometry, this is the life of you and I;
How we all pull for a second together, and down,
we're singing da de dum dum, da de dum dum da de dum.
It's a call, it's a connection we make to find a light,
and it's brighter than we remember it being the last time we tried...
How we tried.
You don't need to speak just now;
You should keep it down and let that ticker pound.
Let your heart keep the time;
The loudest part is in control.
Let your heart keep the time,
and the hardest part is letting go.
Let your heart keep the time.
