Of course, whenever I have work to do, I find myself here updating my journal. Actually, that's heinously false, otherwise I would have updated sometime in the last two weeks. Either way, here I am, with plenty to say. I hope.
Last night I saw a couple of bands at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. Dear Nora (*swoon*), Rainer Maria and Mates of State. It was a really nice show, with lots of pretty male/female harmonies. I adore harmonies. But now I have these large black X's on my hands, because it was an all ages show and I'm not old enough to drink.
If you've *ever* read this thing, you know how I feel about age limitations for things. As if the day I turn 21 I'll be suddenly capable of being able to drink, but I'm not now. So ridiculous. But what really bothers me are age limitations on shows. What the fuck is the purpose of excluding people from seeing your band, just because you're not a certain age? I know it has to do with costs, and selling alcohol or something like that, but the same process takes place in both cases, the ID check. If I go to an all ages show, I can't buy alcohol because I don't have ID, I don't have one of those wristbands and I have these semi-permanent X's on my hands. What's the liability of this? Why would there be some purpose to not letting me in? I'm giving them money, and I'm not buying alcohol...and if I wanted to, I would get a fake ID, and go to your damn 21+ shows, too.
One of the most noteworthy qualities of 20th century and music that comes afterwards is the use of meter. Prior to that, most music either had a very fixed or nebulous meter, but never (to my knowledge) a fixed meter that would shift throughout the song. I used to wonder if we would ever run out of music, that the chord progressions would all get reused and so on and so forth, but people are pretty impressive in their abilities to spawn change. So you can fuck with your meter, you can fuck with your tonality, you can fuck with your instruments, you can sample things...there's a pretty wide variety of non-traditional ways to create new and exciting music. Rainer Maria and Mates of State are both really great at that, and I can appreciate they're effort. Personally, I have a hard time messing with those things and still making music that seems natural to me. I guess there's a reason why I'm just a nobody musician instead of playing to a sold out Bottom of the Hill.
For now, it's back to the world of 'need to do' instead of 'want to do', but I'll try to keep this journal more up to date. And please, leave comments with suggestions on things to write about. I like writing, and if people prod me I'm much more likely to update.
Of course, whenever I have work to do, I find myself here updating my journal. Actually, that's heinously false, otherwise I would have updated sometime in the last two weeks. Either way, here I am, with plenty to say. I hope.
The time will come, my legion of followers, for another entry. But not ten minutes before I have class, not before I take my midterm - maybe tomorrow when I'm in the OCF. That's always conducive to blogging.
If you have topics, shoot. Otherwise I believe I'll ramble about what's happened in the last over-a-week (!), and it will be a sad state of affairs if I can't think of anything.
