Dilettantery
Reading A White Bear's post on dicking around, I thought of my own dicking-around-ish tendencies.
I graduated with great marks, solid recommendations, a splendid internship in a foreign country with a noted Human Rights organization, and . . . I decided to stay in town and play music. After all, I hadn't really played since high school, at least not with any level of dedication.
I tooled around with a few groups, and I now play regularly with two groups, quite different from each other.
With both groups, I've gotten to the point of feeling relatively competent. The Sparks folks are planning a three-week tour from mid-March through early-April. The other folks (who, yeah, haven't yet taken up a suggestion from this heroic thread) have been booking gigs at a speed of about 1.5/week through the month of February.
Despite acheiving this level of competence—or perhaps because of it—I feel ready for The Next Step.
Only, I don't know what that is. There's grad school, there's moving to another city and getting another (related-ish?) job, there's law school (way, way in the back), and there's even sticking around and really trying to focus on music.
This tendency towards something else is one of the things I simultaneously like and dislike about myself. I seem determined never to finish, and that's okay. But that bothers me.
Your thoughts in comments here, or you can join a discussion already in progress.
I graduated with great marks, solid recommendations, a splendid internship in a foreign country with a noted Human Rights organization, and . . . I decided to stay in town and play music. After all, I hadn't really played since high school, at least not with any level of dedication.
I tooled around with a few groups, and I now play regularly with two groups, quite different from each other.
With both groups, I've gotten to the point of feeling relatively competent. The Sparks folks are planning a three-week tour from mid-March through early-April. The other folks (who, yeah, haven't yet taken up a suggestion from this heroic thread) have been booking gigs at a speed of about 1.5/week through the month of February.
Despite acheiving this level of competence—or perhaps because of it—I feel ready for The Next Step.
Only, I don't know what that is. There's grad school, there's moving to another city and getting another (related-ish?) job, there's law school (way, way in the back), and there's even sticking around and really trying to focus on music.
This tendency towards something else is one of the things I simultaneously like and dislike about myself. I seem determined never to finish, and that's okay. But that bothers me.
Your thoughts in comments here, or you can join a discussion already in progress.
posted by Stanley at 00:36
5 Comments:
My brother!
(For me "the next step" turned out to be getting married and eventually having a kid, which has turned out pretty satisfactory.)
i think you should go to the desert and eat lots of peyote.
TMK: I'm glad your next step have worked out well. You seem to be a generally well-contented chap. Since my own M.O. seems to be "get pretty good at something and then move on," marriage and fatherhood might be a bad idea at this juncture.
bikkhou: I had completely omitted the peyote/desert option. Thanks for reminding me.
EB: Does this mean we'll be filming our Behind the Music special soon? I'm so excited!
(Also: you're going to the Philippines?! That's awesome.)
Commitment is for those that are good at it. You should consider yourself a humanitarian, one who is simply trying to understand mankind more by exploring their different perspectives.
Post a Comment
<< Home