So I’ve spent the majority of the last week sitting in my room because of the two massive snowfalls that we’ve had in Baltimore. We’re talking feet of snow, here. We’re talking so much snow that I had to miss three days of work, two because the place wasn’t even open. That’s not going to be good for my paycheck. That’s a pretty substantial amount of snow.
But what’s weird is that in the five days that I’ve been snowed in, I haven’t really listened to too much music. I’m really trying to figure out why that is and I’m sort of at a loss.
I mean, I always listen to a base amount of music; every night before I turn in I put five discs on repeat. And when I wake up, I generally continue listening until the disc changes and then I begin my day, so that much of my routine survived the snow.
But the majority of my conscious listening is done when I’m traveling to and from work. And since I didn’t work, I didn’t use that time listening to music. In fact, the closest I came to listening to music while battling cabin fever was organizing my CDs. Before I’d gone on my recent vacation I’d put a ton of music on my laptop and I never bothered to return the CDs (and cases) to their rightful place. I literally had stacks of CDs just lying around my room.
I think that part of the problem is that I haven’t picked up anything new all year. It’s not that there aren’t albums out that I want to buy – there are. It’s really just that the month of January was pretty cold and I didn’t really feel like going out of my way to spend money I didn’t need to spend. Thus far, the first quarter hasn’t produced anything that I absolutely need to listen to.
Another part of the problem is that there’s a competition for my attention when it comes to discs. I recently picked up The Shield complete-series set and I’ve been working my way though it. I was a fan of the show when it aired, so getting to revisit seasons and get behind-the-scenes tidbits like commentary and documentaries is a true treat. Truth be told, I spent quite a bit of time blowing through the fourth season.
Added to that is that the Six Feet Under series set that I’d ordered last week arrived on Tuesday. Pretty much everything I said about The Shield is applicable here, too, except I’ve just begun the first season.
And even thought I haven’t been able to get to the comic shop this week, I’ve still got a ton of comics that I brought with me from my visit to Tucson. So I’ve had plenty of things to keep me busy and distracted from being trapped in a house due to a ton of snow. Sadly ,it’s really nothing music-related.
Yeah, I’m really at a loss when it comes to music content this week. I did enjoy listening to a lot of Doves albums in my various states of consciousness; they really did provide the soundtrack to my dreams and allow me to wake up peacefully. I replaced them with some of Beck’s albums last night, and he seems to be doing equally well. Oh, and I listened to the two most recent Paste magazine samplers; they had some good stuff there. And as I type this I’m listening to Gilles Peterson’s J-Dilla tribute show.
On the plus side, I go back to work tomorrow, so I’ll get back into my routine of listening to music. And I’m sure that next week, weather permitting; I’ll have a column devoted to something musical.
