Comments on: Burnout http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany/2005/08/15/burnout/ Music and culture, mostly. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:30:48 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: 11v http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany/2005/08/15/burnout/comment-page-1/#comment-56 11v Wed, 17 Aug 2005 01:37:00 +0000 http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany2/?p=541#comment-56 I'm on something of a rebound from trying to do too much, having begun writing for four magazines, the BBC and milkfactory. I do think it's essential to focus and maintain as wide a perspective as possible. Providing a useful response to something is ultimately a personal endeavour undertaken for oneself, but of course it's necessary to remember that the writing will be read by others. If I stopped I would miss it very much - the intensity of teenage listening is partially regained through the concentration of responding in the moment to the music. I feel now, thinking about listening and writing, that I'm swimming in music. I'm doing front crawl (I'm crap at breast-stroke, I'm unable to co-ordinate my arms and legs). Most of the time my head is underwater, I keep my eyes open though my vision is inevitably blurred. Every so often I lift my head and momentarily glimpse the sky as I take a deep breath before submerging once again. I sometimes think about returning to dry land, but I love the rhythms, the meditative concentration and the illusion of progress so I continue to swim. Up and down, up and down. I’m on something of a rebound from trying to do too much, having begun writing for four magazines, the BBC and milkfactory. I do think it’s essential to focus and maintain as wide a perspective as possible. Providing a useful response to something is ultimately a personal endeavour undertaken for oneself, but of course it’s necessary to remember that the writing will be read by others. If I stopped I would miss it very much – the intensity of teenage listening is partially regained through the concentration of responding in the moment to the music. I feel now, thinking about listening and writing, that I’m swimming in music. I’m doing front crawl (I’m crap at breast-stroke, I’m unable to co-ordinate my arms and legs). Most of the time my head is underwater, I keep my eyes open though my vision is inevitably blurred. Every so often I lift my head and momentarily glimpse the sky as I take a deep breath before submerging once again. I sometimes think about returning to dry land, but I love the rhythms, the meditative concentration and the illusion of progress so I continue to swim. Up and down, up and down.

]]> By: Dan http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany/2005/08/15/burnout/comment-page-1/#comment-55 Dan Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:35:00 +0000 http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany2/?p=541#comment-55 I don't write reviews - well, not usually anyway - but I have two thoughts that are possibly conflicting about the way that cd reviewing might change your approach/appreciation of music. First is that you have to listen and assimilate a lot in a short space of time; I now listen to an awful lot more music than I did when I was a teenager, for any number of reasons - cultural exposure, economics, the acceleration of an obsession - and I sometimes miss the intensity with which I used to listen to my one prized new lp for a month or so. On the other hand, when I have felt compelled to write something about music, my listening becomes more focussed, my attention solely on the music - it's not a state of mind that's all that easy to get otherwise. It would be a shame to become jaded about the music itself rather than just the reviews (I might add that I'm not saying you are, but the post suggests it as a possibility). Is it possible to be more selective? I don’t write reviews – well, not usually anyway – but I have two thoughts that are possibly conflicting about the way that cd reviewing might change your approach/appreciation of music. First is that you have to listen and assimilate a lot in a short space of time; I now listen to an awful lot more music than I did when I was a teenager, for any number of reasons – cultural exposure, economics, the acceleration of an obsession – and I sometimes miss the intensity with which I used to listen to my one prized new lp for a month or so. On the other hand, when I have felt compelled to write something about music, my listening becomes more focussed, my attention solely on the music – it’s not a state of mind that’s all that easy to get otherwise.

It would be a shame to become jaded about the music itself rather than just the reviews (I might add that I’m not saying you are, but the post suggests it as a possibility). Is it possible to be more selective?

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