so much everything

There is so much everything in the world. It is such a grand wonderful beautiful thing, but mind boggling-ly hard to navigate.

Even in music alone, there are so many cultures and aesthetics out there. Jeff and I were talking about "when does a vernacular music become an art", specifically bluegrass/newgrass (which is kind of in the 1930s if it was jazz; a Charlie Parker is going to come along and totally revolutionize the music in the next 10 years), but also turntablism and hip hop culture, and pluralism in classical music. I want to hear the really good stuff from all of it, but I certainly don't have the authority or time to dive deep into it. I want someone to surface from the cultural depths and point me in the direction of the leading artists in each genre.

Check out www.music-map.com and type in any artist you want. It's such a cool little tool, a fresh new way to get to new music in a "six degrees to kevin bacon" sort of way.

And tonight, Brevan came over and we just listened to new groups from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Stuff I barely know anything about yet. It was all so amazing. The Cuban aesthetic is: playing music is your life, you belong to one band, you practice six days a week, and you become the tightest band in the world. What else is there to do?

All of the music was either latin jazz or timba but from a fresh non-New-York perspective. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. When was the last time you listened to music and said to yourself "this is amazing, my ears have never experienced anything like this! I mean I can hear some influences, but their spin on it is so crazy!"

Well that happened to me tonight listening to Klimax, http://www.timba.com/artists/klimax/index.asp
and Los Van Van's (http://www.vanvandeformell.com/) latest album which is still only availible in Cuba and select sketchy shops in Miami.

I am politicaly apathetic/moderate/conservative (depending on the day) but one thing I will surely hate on the Bush administration for is their fucking travel restrictions on Cuban musicans and products.

Anyway, that's all. And it says to me, why specialize, why just end up being another slavishly career-oriented musican. There is so much out there in the world that most people don't know about yet it is so stunningly beautiful. You just can't deny the existence of a supernatural being when you get such good vibes from complete strangers thousands of miles away or in the mountains of North Carolina forging breathtaking traditions that make everyone feel good. It makes me happy and inspires me to learn more, to retain artistic integrity, to explore less-travelled roads.

Oh and today is my half birthday.