"You aren't going to admit that for the first time in your life, you committed a purely human, emotional act?"*

YouTube made today's status report so easy. Just in case anyone was wondering...

*A Gumbo high-five for whoever guesses where this quote came from, and by whom.

Mobtown or Charm City: It Depends on the Mood

Baltimore, 8:13 a.m. intersection of South and Baltimore Street:

Just out of frame on the right is the El Basha Hookah Bar. I've never been there, but I've heard it is interesting. 'The Block' is just up ahead, you can see the Hustler Club peeking out above the car in front. Further up is the Baltimore Police headquarters...cheek and jowl with the seedier side. There used to be a sausage place up on the left called "Polock Johnny's", by all accounts a great place to get a Polish sausage sandwich or a hot half-smoke when hunger struck after a night in the strip clubs. Or so I've heard.

Here is another look at my sort of adopted hometown:

Baltimore...I'm not certain how I feel about you sometimes...but I don't know where I'd be if not here...

Photo credit, top: Irish Gumbo

On Not Knowing What I am Doing

Okay, ten minutes...go!

I gave myself a little push, said "Take ten minutes and just write something, then stop!" I have avoided those types of exercises in the past, because I hated the idea of having to stop on an artificial deadline. Then I thought "Yeah, but isn't all of life on some kind of deadline?"

Totally derailed my train of thought. No, not derailed, wrong word, let us say redirected onto a different track. I avoided this stuff in the past because it seems to me in the past so much of the angst I feel about getting things done is predicated on deadlines, because I have always been a firm believer in the "work on it until it is finished" approach, not the "work on it until the timer says to stop working on it".

I once worked with a gentleman who often joked that "There's never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over!". At which point everyone laughs heartily and says stuff like "Good one!" or "What a kidder!" The real problem was that he believed it, and acted accordingly. The slapdash approach to doing anything drives me nuts, and that was a particularly bad example. Wait, it is a good example of what is a bad example. It always frustrated me that if we just took the time to do it right the first time, which may take a little bit longer than rushing through something, we wouldn't have to waste time doing something over, and thereby wasting more time and resources.

It still gets on my nerves. I have struggled mightily with this problem, in the workaday world. Everything is linked to efficiency, which is tied to productvity which (you saw this coming) is linked to money.

Yeah, okay, we all want to make money. This is an unavoidable fact of immersion in a money economy. The catch to that is it ends up being about pursuing the money to keep making money, which repeats ad nauseaum.

Earlier tonight (the night I am writing this) I saw a short video called "The Resolution Will Not Be Televised" by Jay Smooth*. In it, he says "My eighth resolution would be, Spend as much time as possible doing one thing at a time". Hells to the yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about! I would love to do that because it fits in with my natural inclination. It fits in with what makes me focused and comfortable: being able to do one thing at a time, and do it well. Therein lies my greatest calm, my inner peace. Inner peace: a beautiful butterfly which has yet to alight on my soul.

And that, dear readers, is my ten minutes. Fifteen, actually, because I had to fix the links, but still...

*It's on his blog, illdoctrine.com, a 'hip-hop video blog' hosted by the aforementioned Mr. Smooth (grin). I found quite good. A special thanks to the lurvely Anndi at transition, for bringing Jay to my attention. Word, Anndi!

Don't Let The Darkness Eat You Up

Today, a shout out to a favorite local reportress/blogger, Marissa Richardson of ‘b’ (a new local paper offering from the Baltimore Sun). She posts quite a bit about music and TV in a refreshing and insightful manner. Her recent post on the intersection of music media and TV was thorough, funny and got me to thinking (as they often do).(http://www.bthesite.com/archives/2008/10/thanks-to-tv-my-itunes-just-got-a-little-better/#more-2528)

Ms. Richardson writes about those light bulb moments of recognition, where background music suddenly becomes foreground. Songs that had faded in consciousness through the repetitive and pernicious association with television ads light trigger a notion: why is that familiar? Where have I heard that before? And is it in my music collection?

While reading the post and watching the linked videos, I had that same feeling. I was astonished at the recognition level, knowing I had heard much of the music before, knew the artists, but didn’t make the connections between what I was watching and who I had heard in other contexts i.e. radio/iPod/CD’s. “Teardrop” by Massive Attack is a case in point. I had heard that song on radio a few times, I had heard of Massive Attack, but never realized that “Teardrop” was also the theme to “House”, which I watch all the time! A ‘doh!’ moment. THAT’S why it sounded familiar!

It also triggered another cascade of memory. Where else had I heard it? It buzzed around in my head for a while, I was zoning out in front of my CD collection when it snapped into focus. “Teardrop” (http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/inournature.html) was also covered by Jose Gonzalez on his “In Our Nature” disc from last year. BLING! The light bulb went off. I get a great deal of amusement from that sort of musical “connect the dots”. I like finding the links between things, sussing out the cross-connections between one artist and another, or one form of media and another. Maybe it is a glimpse of a universal thread that gives insight into what an artist is thinking. Even if I can’t play a lick or carry a tune in the proverbial bucket it lets me feel like I am somehow in on the creative process; that is a valuable benefit of music that engages the senses.

Another valuable benefit is the occasional nugget of wisdom or encouragement that gets in your head while listening to a particularly good song. Inspired by my trip from Marissa’s post to “House” to Jose Gonzalez, I listened to “In Our Nature” on my way to work yesterday morning. There is a line in the song “Down The Line” where Jose sings ‘Don’t let the darkness eat you up’. Wow. Wow. Simple but powerful. I guess if hadn’t been so fatigued and stressed out (been in a bit of a rough patch lately) the line would have seemed merely good but perhaps not outstanding lyric. But in the grey light of another Wednesday workday with too much on my mind, it had the power of prophecy. I opened my eyes a little wider, took a few deep breaths and told myself that I could make it through the day. I felt a little less anxious, singing along with a Swedish-Argentinian musician and a talented local writer, both of whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting. Connectivity felt pretty good.

‘Don’t let the darkness eat you up’. My new mantra.

(Many thanks to Marissa Richardson and Jose Gonzalez for the inspiration)

The Rats Didn't Stand A Chance

Maybe we should get her a piano:

VIDEO REMOVED BY AUTHOR

Nah, she could never fit a piano in her mouth!