Sometimes I feel out of sync with the culture. I couldn’t pick really put my finger on it until I read this B.A. Nilsson review of a David Bromberg show from November 9. It was less about the specific show, though.
“I have recordings galore at home, yet something magical continues to happen in that confluence of real-time happening and audience presence. By virtue of being in the house, emanating pleasure, we coax a better performance out of the band.
“And I’m here to tell the abundance of cell-phone wielding recordists that no crude video comes even close to the live experience. You’ll never be able to revisit it with as much excitement again, so you might as well keep the f****** things in your pockets. (But you won’t. You’re frightened of primary experiences. You might as well be having sex by mail.)”
It’s that I feel somehow out of touch with people glued to their tiny electronic devices, which wouldn’t be so bad except that they are, at the same time, totally oblivious to people around them. Did you ever listen to a guy speaking near you, and you think he’s talking to you, but he’s on some miniature phone?
I’m not some romantic looking for the days of hand-written letters, but I feel out of time sometimes. I NEED the “primary experiences that Nilsson is talking about. Seeing a concert in person, or watching a movie in a theater is preferable to me; the DVD or Netflix replay is just not the same.
That’s my thoughts at the close of the year 2012. Who knows how I’ll feel a year from now?
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We lost a lot of musicians that were part of groups & music we knew, but we may not have realized the artists were part of them.
Some of these really COULD make my life easier.
Yes, Arthur, I’m sure your mom WOULD be very proud of you.
This year I made a concentrated effort to leave my phone in the car whenever I went somewhere..whether it be shopping, a restaurant, a walk..etc. Now it annoys the heck out of me to hear other people’s conversations with their phones, especially if they are also conducting other ‘business’ at the same time…like at a register…where interacting with another human would be more beneficial to all of us…lest we forget how to communicate face to face. I am so with you on this!!
Thank you, Roger, that means a lot to me. And I’m stealing that video link!