Questing and Moulting

Taking annual today.  Went to Lyle last night, probably the last time I am going to go and see the man.  Like your humble correspondent, he appears to getting old and his concerts now seem to be a touch formulaic.  Great artist still, and as always his backup band is amazing.  But it is time to move on.  Too funny, as were were driving back to the group disassembly point, we started listening to the melodic almost rap that the other folks in the car prefer to my Country/Hillbilly modified rock and roll.  I liked everything that they played and for some reason J. Found it unusual to the extreme that I asked Isaac to play "Run This Town" and Isaac confirmed that I "love that song. 

Today's Screed

I look at music kinda funny.  Now, I love my old standbys.  But music is a window into the tenor of the times we live in.  If you don't keep up with the music that people are listening to, you miss a major information source concerning the zeitgeist.  I think that it is important to keep careful track of the granularity of your research.  You have to steer clear of shit, flash in the pan temporary fashions (read here: Gundam Style).  But you can look back over five year blocks, rolling forward and get an idea of the times and the temperament of the culture that you live in.

Not that any of this is particularly useful in a day to day sense.  It is just a data point in an increasingly complex system of political economics that, in all of its outward appearances, seems to be heading in the wrong direction.    Currently, I find country music and the lyrical rap genres to be the most interesting and enlightening.

I do find it harder to get a broad spectrum of music here in Portlandia.  The populace here tends to favor the fashionable and hip, where style trumps substance and trend hunting is rampant.