Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)
How are you? Where are you?
Oh hiii I didn't see you there! I'm pretty well thanks. Located near TTC, shops and amenities, 10 minute walk to the Tranzac.
What have you been up to since March or so?
I've been a bit basic and become obsessed with sourdough baking, although I will emphasize that I also did it BEFORE it was cool, when I used to work at a restaurant/bakery. Been slowly working on improving my poor comprehension of French. And I've made a bunch of music as well, off and on.
Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?
I found a new way to play the drums, which is documented here:
Mixed feelings about the whole livestream thing. I'm not one of those audiophiles that has a tube preamp for my ipod, but I have a hard time with the sound quality of streaming concerts. It is great that people are still able to get together and play under the circumstances though.
It's also been nice to rethink ways to collaborate, since I'm so used to doing it in real time. My friend Robin and I made an sort of dream pop EP together, sending ideas back and forth. That would have never happened if we didn't need to find new ways of staying in touch with our friends and peers.
Everything being online now has its advantages. The only barrier to entry is an internet connection - no basement stairs, a lot more things are free, you don't have to put shoes on... You'd think that being the first generation to grow up online, millennials would be in our glory. But I see disadvantages too - anyone who doesn't have the right kind of internet clout, tons of followers on social media etc, is going to have a hard time in this environment. And that's even before considering the platform problem, the fact that we have to host our work and our interactions with each other on facebook and twitter. I mean personally I might rather be on social media than at a bar sometimes, but that's more about sobriety than a loyalty to these platforms.
Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?
I've enjoyed reading a lot of Ursula K LeGuin - her fantasy series Earthsea as well as her SF Hainish cycle novels. Watching a lot of Star Trek too. Maybe it's something about imagining humanity persisting centuries from now. And plotwise the predictability, pacing and soothing technobabble are a nice balm for the brain. Also podcasts are a great diversion - Levar Burton has a great show where he reads short speculative fiction. I also like dungeons and dragons podcasts. I wrote a song about podcasts which I hope will someday be the theme song to a podcast about podcasts.
How are you feeling about 2021?
I don't know yet.
Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?
Maybe we would talk about tea. Caffeine isn't my thing anymore, but I love a good herbal tea. Fennel, ginger, roasted barley... Today I made some tea from fenugreek seeds, which is popular in Egypt in the winter.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment