My Life Needs Music

I've been wanting to craft up a post about music for a while now.  I'm just not sure how to start or what, really, to say.  Let me give it a try.

I love music.  I have for as long as I can remember.  I learned to play piano around age 4 and I did Royal Conservatory up to grade 8, which got me a high school credit.  How cool!

  

I still try to play, but truthfully I don't make the time much anymore (which goes for all my hobbies right now: knitting and crochet; "real" gardening - not just pulling a few weeds and watering when I absolutely have to; I wanted to learn to paint but didn't get past buying some paper and paints; and I'm sure there are more hobbies I had that I haven't done in so long I've forgotten!)

Music I still fit in, mostly because it can be a very passive pastime.  I put on the radio, and I use my phone and headphones when I walk from the car to (and from) work every day.  That gets me maybe 30 minutes of music a day, once you remove the commercials and talking from the radio shows in the morning.

There was a time when I had my finger on the pulse of current music trends.  In highschool and university I prided myself on knowing all the "cool" bands as well as the more obscure, but still great, other bands that toured around our area.  I would go to concerts all the time - so much so I'd try to schedule classes around the late nights I knew were concerts nights at the nearby bars.  That didn't really work out that well, but I tried!

Being a Canadian I got a lot of my music information from MuchMusic.  That was back in the days when they played more music videos and much less "shows."  Now they've gone back to videos an hour at a time randomly through the day, but there was a point where I'm sure they didn't play more than an hour of videos a week.  Anyway, I digress - but the network had great VJs and writers who managed to get all the good "music news" out to the public and had bands in the studio all the time.  It was worth watching if you were a music junkie, like me.

In the 90s and early 2000s I knew so much music news.  And my parents loved rock, so right from the beginning it was "classic rock" and "80s rock" (from the radio at the time) all the time in my household.  Of course my sister and I went through the "pop" phase, and I don't know if I ever fully left it behind.  I like so much varied music that I find it hard to pinpoint a favourite genre.  I'll listen to most anything, but less of the twangy old country music, and I have a low tolerance for old-fashioned rap. Personally, I feel that music genres do not exist the way they used to.  I know a lot of artists "cross-over" but I believe that us fans just like things in a broader scope that it's hard to classify artists in one genre anyway.

My favourite bands are from the 90s and early 2000s, and they're mainly Canadian Rock.  I can't define them any more than that.  And finally they are resurging.  The I Mother Earth, Our Lady Peace, Moist, The Tea Party, Wide Mouth Mason era bands are either touring again, or releasing new singles.  I'm returning to a happy place these days.  I saw Hawksley Workman here in Kingston earlier this year, for free, in the pouring rain.  No one was brave enough to come with me, so I said "to hell with everyone!" and went myself.  There was a small showing of people for the concert, but the rain stopped, the stars came out, and the show was fabulous!

Later this past summer Big Sugar came for a free concert as well.  It rained a smidge for that one, but they're cooler (or just more popular!) than Hawksley Workman and there was a huge turnout for that show.  I still got to be in the very front though!

The biggest thing I miss right now is the time I used to have to just absorb music.  I remember buying a new cd, taking it home, fighting with the wrapper (because those pull tabs never worked!) and then lovingly placing the disk in the player in my room.  I would just lay on my bed absorbing the new tunes, reading along to the lyrics if the band provided them in the liner, or just mellowing out to the tunes.  I would listen over and over until I had the song order memorized, and most of words (and all of choruses) learned well enough to get me by until I could just lay around some more and listen.

Those days are long gone.  Now I know the words to the choruses of the songs on the radio, but sometimes (okay, most times) I don't even know who the artists are.  It's a sad decline in my life.  Almost as bad as my loss of reading time (the post about that is here) but I still try.  Concerts are few and far between, but when I do get to go I totally soak it in - even if it's in the arena setting, and not the up-close-and-personal bar scene (because I physically can't stay up that late anymore and then function at 6:30am for the kids!)

I know all is not lost - I still make a little time for music - but I will never be as tuned in to the music scene as I was when I was younger.  I don't even know when I bought a cd last, and I'm so resistant to buying "albums" digitally.  I like to hold these things in my hands - cds, books, movies and so on.

Share your feelings with me - who are your favourite bands or artists?  Do you still make the time for hobbies that you enjoyed when you were younger?  Are your kids "coming around" to your tastes in music, movies, books etc?  I'm desperately curious to hear how other parents deal with the loss of what made you "you" in your younger years.  Or have you managed to hold onto everything you loved, and enjoy it the same?  Let me know in the comments!

Friday Night Concert in the Rain - I Still Had Fun!

I went to a concert Friday night - if you've been following me much you saw my post about how excited I was to go.  No, I'm not going to say I wasn't excited by the time it rolled around, but it rained like crazy all day.  Everyone asked me if I was still going.  I mean everyone - all my coworkers, my kids, even my husband who knows better.

I worked until 5pm.  I had a haircut scheduled for 5:30 which was about an hour, and I got drenched going the half block from my car to the salon.  When I left there it was still raining but not nearly as heavily.  My hair looked lovely - I did decline the makeup touchups (which implies I had makeup on in the first place, and I definitely didn't) as I knew I'd be standing in the rain later.

I was thinking I should eat, but I was anxious-excited for the show so I didn't want to go sit in a restaurant by myself for an hour.  I went to a coffee shop where I could see Market Square - where the concert was going to be - as well as how badly it was raining out.  The only people in the square were the crew for the show and some radio station people - oh and the people who work for the city that were putting this on.

As the time rolled on (very slowly) a few wanderers straggled around the square, then disappeared, then reappeared, sometimes standing under the radio people's umbrellas, and some people even came into the tiny coffee shop I was sitting in.

Concert in the Rain

With about 15 minutes to go before the openers were to start I wandered across the square (it's still raining!) and down to the bathroom, and when I came out there were a few standing knots of people that I went and joined right up front of the stage.

The opening band was a little hesitant about getting out there and playing in the pouring rain, but they did it.  The band was PS I Love You and they were good - also a local band which I didn't know.  There set was loud and a little raunchy - the mix was off and I really could not hear the singing at all, but otherwise it was good!

More people had congregated to the square by this time - like maybe 50.  It was still raining.  They squeegeed off the stage a few times and hesitantly moved some of the tarps off some of the stuff.  By the time the main act was to begin the rain had let up - not fully stopped, but let up.  However by this time I was soaked right through my coat and I was freezing!

Then Hawksley Workman appeared and everyone got excited and he made some comment about how we were all crazy for being out in the rain, but thanks for being here!  He disappeared for a bit while they continued to set up (and clean up), and his set started at 9pm.

They were fabulous.  Their mix was right and I could hear everything perfectly.  Might have helped that I was able to take my hood off!  The sky cleared right up (well, mostly) and I even dried up a bit.  This Hawksley Workman guy (who I haven't seen in at least 10 years) is a real character.  Lots of rambling conversation, as well as lots of great guitar work - the songs were awesome!   I even enjoyed the ones I didn't know!

All-in-all fabulous evening with myself for company, and some rain on my parade.  I'd do it again for sure.  Thanks to hubby for volunteering to stay home with the girls - and no thanks to my friends who all thought I was crazy for going to this despite the rain.

Share your concert stories in the comments - or comment on how truly crazy I am for standing in the rain!

Toodles!

Friday Night Out - I'm So Ready For A Concert!

On Friday I am going out.  Hubby is staying home with the kids and I am spending an evening with myself.  Potentially others may join me, but right now that is totally secondary.

There is a free concert in the city's market square and I am so there.  I missed the free concert in the square last year but hubby and I did catch the one the year prior.  I am feeling musically deprived (sort of) lately, and I think this will put the spring back into my step.

Before kids, and even before hubby, I was a concert junkie.  Although I was never one for the late, late bar scene (I like to go to bed before 10pm) I would willingly forgo my bedtime for a good rock concert.  Now I'm more an arena concert person, solely because I don't want to pay a babysitter into the wee hours of the morning.  Yes, I realize that makes me seem more old and less cool, but that's the reality.  There are a few bands I would still brave the late bar concert scene for, but not nearly as many or as often I used to.

I miss concerts where I can just weasel my way up front (I'm small) and totally swoon to whomever is up there making great music.  I can't put into words how much I'm looking forward to this on Friday night.  The show starts at 8pm and I work until 5.  I've actually booked myself a haircut for 5:30 that may be an hour, but what am I going to do in between?  I guess I need to eat something, but really that will take 20 minutes.  I could show up really early - I've been known to do that before...

People seem concerned that I'm going to this function alone - why?  I used to do tons of stuff alone before I had a husband and kids.  I'm someone who loves company, but only if they're going to enjoy what I'm doing as much as I am.  I don't want someone to tag along and then not have a good time.  Then I don't have as a good a time because I'm worrying about their state of mind.  That's less fun.

So I can't wait - in case you didn't pick up on that.

Toodles!