How
are you? Holding up ok? I hope you are being safe and respectful and
finding joy in unexpected places.
I’m
holding up well enough. The wife and the
cats appreciate the broadened quality time with me and I them. The time is being
filled with a seemingly endless honey-do list and I’ve gads of time to work on my music. Between the house-work and the mouse-work I’ve
been able to occupy my time…time…time...
Time
– it is a unique concept these days. For
myself - and so many of you, I’m sure - this concept of “time” has been a new
experience. Not just for the fact that most
of us are living thru our generations’ first - and hopefully, only – pandemic
but for how it has begun to shape our everyday.
Routines are smashed or repurposed (I’ve stopped watching cable/national
news and have subscribed to just about every standalone network that includes British
TV) while we wait.
We are all waiting for the day we can safely reconnect/touch/embrace
our loved ones, get back to our jobs, return to something akin to normal (whatever
that may look like in the future). Until
then, we are finding ways to occupy our time; games with the family, exploring new
interests and hobbies, video conference family gatherings and happy hours, learning
how to be a performing musician with nowhere to perform.
The
implications of this new reality have sent shock-waves thru my foundation. The thing is… it never occurred to me that, long
as I was physically capable, I wouldn’t earn a living performing music. Music is transcendent, right? It goes anywhere and everywhere. It is
mutable, viable, transferable. At its minimum
- where there’s a sidewalk full of people there’s an opportunity to open my
case, play a few songs and make a few bucks in tips. What happens when the sidewalks are empty?
The venues are closed? And standing on the corner trying to gather a crowd is an
arrestable offense? So, I’m learning how
to share myself by myself.
Most
of my life has been shaped by performing in front of crowds - sharing in the connection,
the back and forth of the emotional energy that is part of the live music
experience. Its a big part of why one
becomes a performing artist and the
concept
of not having that connection has been difficult for me to accept. We may live in a digital age but I’m from an
analog world where the live experience has always been a visceral and tangible
part of the music.
I
gotta say… it’s a little freaky playing to a 4x6 inch screen while reminding
myself that you’re all out there on the other side of it – alive, involved,
listening. I’ve been learning to trust
in the connection of scrolling comments and floating emoji’s as I shuffle my
way thru a set of music willing myself to make those virtual connections a synergetic
reality. (and trying not to focus too
much on why I didn’t bother to comb my hair before I hit “RECORD”.) With you, I’m learning to accept this new
reality and 'virtually' sharing myself with you all gets easier with each time I start
a video session.
You,
my Fine Folk, are the reason for what I do and why I do it, so…
Thank
you for continuing to listen.
Thank
you for your comments, your floating hearts, your waving hands.
Thank
you for filling my virtual tip jar.
Thank
you for sharing your time with me.
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