Month: April 2024

Force of habit

From time to time I feel like my well is empty, and I don’t want to write anything, but I write something anyway because The Streak. Today is the 1,363rd day since I committed to posting daily in this space.

And I have a deeper understanding of that phrase “force of habit” as a result. Even on the days when my well is empty and I don’t want to write anything, the habit forces me to the keyboard.

An ingrained habit is powerful that way. And it turns out a good habit is as hard to break as a bad habit, thank the Lord and the stars and everyone and everything there is to thank.

You can’t measure the time between paragraphs, but rest assured that about five minutes past between the end of that last paragraph and the beginning of this one. Yep, my well feels empty tonight, and all I can think to write about is how cool it is to feel compelled to write even when there doesn’t seem to be anything to say. But that in itself is something to say.

And so I keep the streak alive and send you on your way. May you find something more meaningful than this to say as you journey through the next 24 hours, and may the forces that shape your life be only good habits.

Cross purposes

And what about the big questions? Why am I here? What happens before we are born and after we die? What is our responsibility to others and to ourselves? What is the secret of the universe?

And where do we get the answers? We could spend hours and days mulling it all over or just live the best life we can muster. And what will it all mean in the end?

Ah, meaning. That’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it — What does it all mean? as if it had to mean anything at all. “Everything is meaningless,” cries the ecclesiastical poet, and yet we keep asking.

And as the Grim Reaper taps on our shoulder or we see him approaching, we wonder “What did it all mean? Did I accomplish my purpose?”

What if the fellow who called himself the Son of Man, and his followers, had it right — that our purpose is to love one another? Oh man, oh man, oh man, wouldn’t that be sad? Because we hate that purpose. We even have special programs — they’re called “newscasts” — that chronicle with glee all the different ways we don’t love one another, usually multiple ways just in the last 24 hours. It’s the human tragedy.

Some folks are firmly of the opposite opinion. They believe our purpose is to murder as many people who hold different beliefs from theirs as possible. In its purest form this practice is called “war,” and it’s terribly inefficient because you inevitably kill a bunch of people who hold the same beliefs as yours but happen to live in a country ruled by the people you disagree with. It’s an unspeakably stupid purpose to pursue.

Many people are too busy seeking food and shelter and raising the next generation to spend quality time pondering our purpose in life, although one might argue that without food, shelter and a future there’s not much call for meaning anyway.

I stare across the living room and see that two of the four pictures hanging on the wall are a tad off-center. One of my purposes today will be to nudge them back. But I digress. (Who, me?)

If those are the main choices — and I know there are more than two — I think I’d decide that loving my neighbors is a better choice than slaughtering them. It seems better to risk erring on the side of life.

Listening: Artie Shaw in the Blue Room – In the Cafe Rouge

Saturday was Record Store Day across the land, and although I participated in a more modest way than in past years, it’s hard to step foot inside a record store and walk away empty-handed, especially on RSD.

The prize among the three albums I brought home is this 1953 two-LP box set of Artie Shaw radio recordings from the late 1930s and ’40s. I once shocked my Benny Goodman-loving father by suggesting that I liked Shaw’s clarinet work even better. I’m not sure he ever recovered.

And the prize among those recordings is an amazing version of “In the Mood,” the classic big band song associated with Glenn Miller’s monster hit. It seems, according to the liner notes written by George T. Simon, Shaw’s band was playing the song at least a half-year before Miller got ahold of it. Apparently composer Joe Garland offered it to Shaw first.

“Note that this version runs over six minutes and that it contains parts unheard in the Miller record,” Simon writes. “What Glenn did, of course, was simply to cut out portions which he thought were unnecessary.” Miller also significantly increased the tempo.

Listening to this “complete” version of “In the Mood” is a fascinating exercise. I think most people are going to prefer the familiar Glenn Miller piece, but this is a really interesting bit of musical history.

And, of course, even the most obscure recording is going to have been uploaded by now. I considered making a digital copy off the vinyl album to share with you, but I checked and found that someone out there already had. See/hear below.

What were my other prizes, you ask? A 10-inch LP by the Byrds called “Birdy” and the soundtrack to the 1985 movie “Ladyhawke.” I wanted to buy one or two of the special RSD 2024 releases but came down with a case of sticker shock.