2015 Meta Reflections
It occurred to me that maybe a year-end summing up of this blog would be in order, some sort of attempt to pluck out a few main themes and draw some conclusions. But that idea didn't appeal to me. So I set out to understand why. I think it's because I like the slow accretion of ideas, images, and topics that is itself the composition or the point of the site. I'm sure there are conclusions that could be drawn, but going there myself feels like it would disrupt the actual doing of it, just like overthinking can stunt the living of life.
OK, an odd claim from someone who devotes a few hours each week to this blog in order to communicate thoughts. But the thoughts aren't about me exactly. They are about my concerns and enthusiasms, mostly the latter. The blog is a pretty good reflection of how I choose to focus my mind on an average day or during a typical week or month. For me it seems a more constructive and non-neurotic use of my mental apparatus to figure out what I would like to say about that Beach Boys song I'm listening to in the car than to spend too much time thinking about myself and my problems.
The question is always what to leave in and what to leave out. I've read my Bukowski, but nothing raunchy is going into this blog, even if a fair amount of raunch might present itself during the course of things. I mean, like many people I get those Judd Apatow movies. Yes, I want to maintain some decorum here, for both personal and professional reasons, as well as so that the site can have a reasonable amount of aesthetic and tonal coherence.
Many really great things I love, like free jazz, don't make it onto the site either. There's a time and place for everything. And this isn't it. In a way, my visual art and poetry postings track more closely to my tastes and interests than do my music posts. Here's why. A poem or image of a painting allows the viewer to take in as much as they choose to in a given moment, but a three, four, or five minute music video asks a lot more, so I try to choose music clips that are awesome and arty but also accessible. Actually I do the same editing with art and poetry, but to a lesser extent. For example, for poems I want them to have some lively language and imagery but also to not be totally incomprehensible, which characterizes more poems than poets would like to admit.
Then there's the non-art stuff, which boils down to philosophical and spiritual reflections along with some political commentary. For the former, I often just look at my bookshelves to see if there's something invigorating and thought-provoking that would be fun to share. Emerson works good in this regard. A single sentence of his can send your mind spinning out in several directions at once. As for the politics, well, sometimes things just intrude upon life to the point where they can't be ignored. The strength of this blog, I hope, is that if you're not into the occasional politics, you can return in a day or two and encounter what I think are some of the greatest and most beautiful things that humanity has to offer.
OK, an odd claim from someone who devotes a few hours each week to this blog in order to communicate thoughts. But the thoughts aren't about me exactly. They are about my concerns and enthusiasms, mostly the latter. The blog is a pretty good reflection of how I choose to focus my mind on an average day or during a typical week or month. For me it seems a more constructive and non-neurotic use of my mental apparatus to figure out what I would like to say about that Beach Boys song I'm listening to in the car than to spend too much time thinking about myself and my problems.
The question is always what to leave in and what to leave out. I've read my Bukowski, but nothing raunchy is going into this blog, even if a fair amount of raunch might present itself during the course of things. I mean, like many people I get those Judd Apatow movies. Yes, I want to maintain some decorum here, for both personal and professional reasons, as well as so that the site can have a reasonable amount of aesthetic and tonal coherence.
Many really great things I love, like free jazz, don't make it onto the site either. There's a time and place for everything. And this isn't it. In a way, my visual art and poetry postings track more closely to my tastes and interests than do my music posts. Here's why. A poem or image of a painting allows the viewer to take in as much as they choose to in a given moment, but a three, four, or five minute music video asks a lot more, so I try to choose music clips that are awesome and arty but also accessible. Actually I do the same editing with art and poetry, but to a lesser extent. For example, for poems I want them to have some lively language and imagery but also to not be totally incomprehensible, which characterizes more poems than poets would like to admit.
Then there's the non-art stuff, which boils down to philosophical and spiritual reflections along with some political commentary. For the former, I often just look at my bookshelves to see if there's something invigorating and thought-provoking that would be fun to share. Emerson works good in this regard. A single sentence of his can send your mind spinning out in several directions at once. As for the politics, well, sometimes things just intrude upon life to the point where they can't be ignored. The strength of this blog, I hope, is that if you're not into the occasional politics, you can return in a day or two and encounter what I think are some of the greatest and most beautiful things that humanity has to offer.
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