Annie Dillard
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living."
Annie Dillard Another 30 days draws to close. I almost feel like the cycles are speeding up. I just prepared the month's final work lunch for tomorrow: quinoa again. Seems fitting in an Ouroboros kind of way. So was it hard to break the habit of eating out over lunch several times a week? It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I did miss having a change of scenery in the middle of the day, so I took to shutting my office door (lucky to have one!) and moving to a different part of the room to eat and read during my break. It's a bit antisocial but it works. One of the main reasons I decided to take on this challenge was to save money. Let's break it down, arithmetic-style. I normally would have eaten out for an average of 13 lunches in a month, at approximately $6.75 each. I was able to bring lunches instead for about $2.75 each. Plus I saved just over $8 in gas. Before expenses for 13 lunches: $95.75 After expenses for 13 lunches: $35.75 Savings: $60 Not bad! Anyone who has watched “The Wonder Years” knows it is about the process of growing up and what stays with you from that horrible and hopeful time. And if there is one episode that has stayed with me for years
(god, it's pretty much decades by now) it's Coda, the one where Kevin reluctantly takes piano lessons. He eventually quits instead of continuing to push against his musical limitations. Although the entire episode is excellent, it's the opening narration that I can practically recall by heart. “When you're a little kid, you're a little bit of everything: artist, scientist, athlete, scholar. Sometimes it seems like growing up is a process of giving those things up, one by one. I guess we all have one thing we regret giving up; one thing we really miss - that we gave up because we were too lazy, or because we couldn't stick it out, or because we were afraid.” When I was a kid myself I thought this sentiment was unnecessarily tragic. When I was a teenager I thought it was tragic yet necessary. Now that I'm older I want to believe it's never too late, that you can still be the scientist and the artist. That you can pick up where you left off. Otherwise, all we have left is regret and fantasy. I've been doing pretty well with my piano practicing. Even when away from home during Thanksgiving, thanks to a couple of apps on my tablet. Technology is amazing. Here is a super thrilling video of me practicing Greensleeves. It may not be completely perfect yet but that's what practice is for. Practicing Greensleeves from J K on Vimeo. Last week I felt like I was having to scavenge the cupboard to bring a healthy lunch to work. So this week I planned ahead and made a giant pot of root vegetable soup on Sunday. The only problem is that root vegetable soup loses its appeal around the third lunch in a row. I failed a challenge. Stupidly, I forgot to bring multivitamins along to a Thanksgiving road trip and missed day 30. I guess it's hard to continue a tenuous habit when your routine is disrupted. Who knew? It's OK though, as the vitamin challenge is an easy one to redo. I have just started two more this month also: 1. Keeping a happiness jar This is a concept popularized by Elizabeth Gilbert. You jot down the happiest moment of your day for preservation. I think it's a lovely and quick way to save those fleeting feelings and experiences. To prepare, I cut up some pretty paper scraps and grabbed a pen to keep next to the jar. 2. Bringing lunch to work I'm keeping a happiness jar this month to shore up my mental and emotional well-being, but I'm doing this second challenge to improve my physical and financial well-being. I tend go out to lunch a couple of times a week, which is a waste of money and gas. Plus it's not like Noodles and Co. is the healthiest eating option around. So, for the month of December, I'm bringing my lunch to work every day. And it can't be a Cliff bar either. I started today with a quinoa pilaf and green beans. I've been taking a multivitamin every day as a 30-day challenge. It's actually been hard to keep a routine as swallowing one in the morning makes me nauseated, even I'm if downing the pill during or shortly after eating. So I'm just taking one whenever in the day I remember to do so. It helps to keep a second vitamin bottle at work given that this activity is good 20-second distraction from whatever PDF I'm trying edit.
Taking a multivitamin hasn't seemed to have any noticeable effect on my well-being. In fact, a nasty cold invaded my body recently and has lingered on for nearly two weeks. I've been practicing my Exorcist voice, and each morning I engage in a half-hour ritual I like to call, "The Removal of the Mucus." Sometimes there is a second showing called, "The Removal of the Mucus II: There Will Be Blood." Given this cold and the general slowdown that comes with the onset of chilly weather here in Wisconsin, I'm running a bit behind on my challenge timeline. I did start a new challenge today though: practicing piano for 25 minutes a day. I am not musically talented, but I wish I were (see my last challenge). Perhaps if I played every day, I would be able to master a song beyond "When the Saints Go Marching In" or "A Tisket, A Tasket." Elton John, step aside. There's about to be a new piano superstar in town. October 24
Alt-J Indie rock from England. The lead singer is a bit mumbly. The instrumentation is lovely. Listen October 25 Diablo Swing Orchestra Eclectic would be an understatement. It's described in PopMatters thusly: "Their sound can only be likened to a rainbow-colored pony that happily trots towards the horizon in a sweltering desert, leaving behind a glittering trail of microscopic razorblades that will rip up the interior of your lungs when inhaled." I'm digging it 100%. Listen October 26 Yello I thought I hadn't heard this Swiss electronic group before but it turns out they did the iconic "Oh Yeah" song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. File that one away for trivia night. Listen October 27 Blood Red Shoes Reminds me a bit of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or a more rocked out Garbage, depending on the track. Listen October 28 Bela Bartok Hungarian composer and specialist in musical folklore who was influenced by Liszt and Debussy. Listen October 29 Aslan Irish rock band that's had a multi-decade career. Someone on the internet said they don't get anywhere near the credit they deserve. Listen October 30 Ruth Welcome I have been on the hunt for zither artists since seeing a screening of The Third Man while traveling through Vienna, but they are surprisingly hard to find. Ruth was one of the most popular in the 1950s (18 albums!), but her legacy seems mostly lost to the ages. The sound of the zither is nostalgia in jar. Listen October 31 The Fratellis Picked up this band from an old college mate who sends out playlists periodically. I also didn't think I knew the Fratellis until I re-listened to 2006's "Chelsea Dagger", which happens to be the Chicago Blackhawks' goal song. Seemed appropriate to listen to a song called "Halloween Blues" today. Listen November 1 Vermillion Lies Two sisters who performed "dark cabaret" with folk and circus music influences a couple of years back. Listen November 2 Timbalada Samba-reggae with a big sound. I guess you have to have a big sound if you're playing at the Bahia Carnival in Brazil. Listen November 3 Mew Proggy alternative pop rock from Denmark. Listen November 4 Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys Get transported to another era. LA-based Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys perform songs from the 19010s, 1920s, and 1930s. Could be a bit gimmicky if they weren't so talented. Listen November 5 Balkan Beat Box American-Israeli group that blends electro, gypsy punk, hip hop, Middle Eastern folk and probably a whole bunch of other genres for a cultural cocktail of sonic enjoyment. A friend who shares my love of Gogol Bordello provided the recommendation. Listen November 6 The Everybodyfields Hauntingly lovely music with folk and bluegrass roots. Listen November 7 Lefty Dizz Talented Chicago bluesman who played his guitar upside down. Listen Saying you love music is like saying you love puppies or rainbows. It's not the most controversial stance in the world. Music turns the act of cooking macaroni and cheese into a epic moment. I read somewhere that's why people listen to Explosions in the Sky. It's the movie soundtrack effect.
Besides that quality, you know what's great about music? You know what I really love? That thing when the melody starts off really quiet and gets steadily louder. That thing when your foot starts tapping of its own accord. That thing when the harmony comes in. That thing when the beat slows to half-time. That thing when the beat quickens to double-time. That thing when the beat is so steady and persistent that Pandora calls it “headnodic.” That thing when the key changes and you really feel it, man. That thing when the singer shouts the chorus and everyone shouts along. That thing when the singer gets all breathy because the pathos is just too overwhelming. That thing when the chord progression is just a bit unexpected and yet completely perfect. That thing when the notes are picked and plucked with such speed and precision that you despair of your own dexterity. That thing when the sound trails off in a fuzz of distortion. That thing when the lyrics seem to have been taken from your most intimate thoughts and fed back to you through another person's filter. I'm not alone in feeling about music the way some people feel about church. It alternately intensifies, calms, and catalyzes emotions. It offers a common language. It makes me want to convert my friends. It keeps me sane, or at least somewhat sane. Sane-ish? Anyway, let's just say if I didn't have music, I would need a heap of therapy. Think on that, insurance companies. Time to reimburse for records and concerts as preventive medicine? You know Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” But music isn't just a good time, or an envy-inducing display of talent, or a replacement pharmaceutical. Music provides the experience of transcendence, the elusive sense of melding into something bigger. And maybe that's the best thing. Here's my music listening list from the first 15 days. No judging. If you see any of these names and think, "jeez, how did she not know of band xyz," well, you should probably work on being less of a smug bastard. And if you these names and don't recognize anyone, well, you are in the same position I was at the start of the challenge. Go forth and seek out new music:
October 9 Department of Eagles Co-founded by a Grizzly Bear bandmate. Have to admit I've been a bit obsessed with the song, "No One Does It Like You" since I first heard it two weeks ago. Listen October 10 Oneohtrix Point Never Retro electronica that for some reason makes me want to buy a calculator. Listen October 11 Ethel Waters She had a hard life, but man, what a voice. Listen October 12 Menomena Good melodic indie rock, and it's the kind of music that grows on me over time. Listen October 13 Jessie Ware Considering her videos have several million views, I'm late to the party. I will admit these are smooth tunes from across the pond. Listen October 14 Light Asylum I was looking for a post-punk revival band with a female vocalist, and lo, here comes this synth-goth darkwave duo with a powerful singer. Listen October 15 Eagles of Death Metal Another side project with eagles in the name, this one sounds like a bucket of silly swagger sloshed over some tongue-in-check lyrics and solid guitar riffs. Hardly a drop of death metal. Listen October 16 King Tuff Fun garage rock done well. Listen October 17 Sera Cahoone Alt-country singer-songwriter. It's totally badass that she started out as a drummer. Listen October 18 Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers I sometimes struggle with music that has too much improvisation (see: any jam band tune more than six minutes long; see: any jam band tune). But this brand of funky jazz from the middle of the last century has just enough structure to keep my brain soothed. Listen October 19 Atmosphere This Minneapolis hip-hop group comes around Madison on the regular, so I'm glad that I actually took the time to listen to their recordings. Listen October 20 Love Wow, Forever Changes is really a wonderful album. Can't believe I never listened to it before. Listen October 21 Jimmy and the Mustangs Rockabilly is one of those genres that are a blast when listening live, but I never seem crave it when I'm on my own. Listen October 22 Porcelain Raft Fuzzy and dreamy. It's like floating across a pool made of diamond dust and television noise. Listen October 23 2 Live Jews I said I had to explore some different genres. How about a rapping Jewish duo from the nineties who posed as old men, threw down some Yiddish rhymes, gave themselves a name that was a parody of 2 Live Crew, and reworked Fiddler on the Roof for their second album? Does that count? Listen For my next challenge, I am listening to a different musical artist or group each day. Here are the rules:
Here are some additional photos from the first two weeks of the 30-day photo challenge. Taken around Madison and Middleton. Successfully did 15 crunches and 5 push-ups a day. Uh, there's not a lot to say about this one. I had a hard time getting a routine going. There was one time I hopped out of bed around 11:30 p.m. to do the exercises (as I forgotten earlier). I also had to lay down on a grody carpet at Chicago O'Hare. I do feel a bit stronger, so that's good. I took a photo a day, but I have to admit that it's pretty easy when traveling in some of the most beautiful locations in Europe. Second half of my 30 photos below: |
JessDoing 30-day challenges, 30 of them, before I turn 30. Or something like that. Archives
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