How lucky are we to be living in a world with so much incredible literature and entertainment unimaginably accessible? Growing up, I had bookstores (Barnes and Noble and Borders in the Chestnut Hill Mall), music stores (Newbury Comics and Tower Records just a short T ride away on Newbury St), walkable video rental (Newton Highlands Video and Blockbuster), movie theaters and some good music venues (Middle East, Ryles, Sanders Theater, The Orpheum, Great Woods). I thought I had it pretty good! Then computers and the internet shifted every paradigm! With the exception of live music, which I now enjoy at a much broader array of sites, I don’t do anything like I used to!
Sometimes I still pick up a paper book and I love it! Turning pages gets me nostalgic! But the convenience of having every book ever written instantly on my phone is something I would never have dreamed of when I was reading The Phantom Tollbooth, Where The Red Fern Grows or Lord of The Flies as a kid! Of course, I have memories of going to the local library branch and being amazed at the sheer volume of choice; we are lucky to have a local Brooklyn Public Library outpost across from the kids’ school and we check books out regularly! (We are very grateful for the free material given that they sometimes read a book per night!) I have recently discovered the New York Public Library App and have been feasting on books – especially audiobooks! Suddenly I’m “reading” when I’m biking to work or walking the dog! It may not have quite the same mental effect as deciphering letters on a page, but I love the freedom to experience books on-the-go!
My first download was Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The United States; a 35-hour captivating, inspiring, painful and exhausting epic that I didn’t quite get through in my first three-week checkout period but finished with a quick renewal! The speed that I read that tome through my ears was put into perspective by the year it took me with my eyes on my e-reader to finish The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow, taking history back to its earliest days of cooperative living by humanity, suggesting that our current arrangement of absolute top-down societal order is relatively recent construct and that our natural instinct is one of true egalitarian community. I love history, but I also love predictive Science-Fiction! Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, imagines the next half-century pitting a rapidly intensifying climate catastrophe against the natural and zoologic toll with human efforts to maintain habitability on our planet. A devastating inevitability but not without some hope and optimism! Another dystopian near-future is presented by Lydia Millet in A Children’s Bible, through the scornful eyes of youth upon the insipid ignorance of their elders, shaming our reckless lifestyle by the future we obstinately ignore.
I have read (actually, with eyes on printed or digital word) a few books about art and creation which connected with me. I have a mysterious urge to create (writing this blog, recording music, and making videos) that I can’t quite explain, but see it articulated occasionally in other works; Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and The Gift, by Lewis Hyde illustrate the deeply intrinsic self-fulfillment in artistic creation and the process of channeling and receiving inspiration, then passing it on as the gift it is. I seek challenge and purpose through creative productivity in my life and Art satisfies!
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read (or heard). A lifetime journey of learning and experience leading to revelation, compassion, understanding and nirvana. All within oneself.
I have been on the waiting list for months, but I was just notified that Michael Pollan’s This Is Your Mind on Plants is available for download in the NYPL App! Up next!
Compared to the old model of trekking to a rental store and browsing the in-stock available options, instant streaming of any show or movie ever made is… better. I made time every week to watch “The Wonder Years”, “Doogie Howser” and “The Simpsons” on their rigid schedules (cleverly gaming the system with programmable VCRs!), but we are now in an unprecedented golden era of on-demand “television”, with an abundance of amazing shows like “Severance”, “Succession”, “Only Murders In The Building”, “A League of Their Own (2022)”, “Somebody Somewhere”, “The White Lotus”, “Schitt’s Creek” and “Dopesick”. Anytime, anywhere. If I do go to the movie theater, which is rare since I can watch everything except some of the newest releases on my own projector screen from the comfort of my own couch, it is at the local Nitehawk Cinema with delicious food and beverages served to my seat – a revolutionary leap from the bucket of popcorn and syrupy sodas from the concession stand! “Sing 2” is perfect family entertainment, and when Alaina and I have a rare date night, we appreciate the efficiency of the all-in-one fun of dinner-and-a-movie; “Elvis” brought a fresh and sympathetic view of the legend and “Top Gun: Maverick” was a fun big-screen blockbuster somewhat spoiled and viewed as military-industrial complex propaganda by my reading of Zinn!
Live music will always be live music but the internet has changed accessibility of tickets – no longer forced to wait in lines at outlets or desperately redialing Ticketmaster – tickets are always available at market value and instantly transferred to my phone! Covid impacted the scene for years but it appears that we have had a reckoning and come to the conclusion that exposure to communicable diseases is worth the experience of sharing live music! After two years of almost no concerts, I have seen Phish, Roger Waters, Pavement, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Lettuce, STS9, Machel Montano’s Soca Kingdom, Ghanaian Legend Ebo Taylor, Goose, Dead & Co., Kronos Quartet, Sigur Ros and more! I have always been passionate about seeing bands, but my appreciation has grown considerably since I understood what it meant to have that void in my life!
I hope that we collectively remember how limited our access to entertainment was in the past so that we fully appreciate this incredible era we currently inhabit! And what might the future hold that could improve this rich entertainment landscape? I look forward to finding out!