April Post: A Retrospective

Here is a blog posting I wrote back in April which is still poignant to me today:

Music is the Key

I spent half my weekend in Brooklyn, New York, sitting in a dimly lit cafe overlooking Stone Park and eating a dinner of arctic char, wilted pea shoots and fried oysters drizzled with sauce gribiche. I drank cold, sweet vermouth and felt the vibrancy of the artistic and cultural soul of Brooklyn in each butterscotch and licorice sip that slipped past the tip of my tongue. (My uncle explained to me that drinking through a straw would be a crime – “Melissa, Vermouth such as this should not be tasted hastily through a plastic tube that pushes the liquid to the back of your throat, but instead should be savored, from the front teeth, tip of the tongue and then to every taste bud beyond…”)

The area itself is known in part for its elusive hipster inhabitants, 20-somethings expressing the counter-culture of today through non-expression and non-chalance in their fashion choices and attitude. Male faces were unshaven, clothes were un-ironed and blandly colored, yet the appearance of these so-called “hipsters” screamed with a deliberate cohesiveness that even an ironic printed tee could not obscure. Funny that even non-conformity these days seems somehow dictated by an unwritten code of conduct and dress that even the most culturally liberal of citizens unconsciously follow. Nevertheless, I thoroughly loved it all, and the Elvis Perkins concert at the Brooklyn Bell I experienced later that night was so full of life that I fear I am happily changed forever because of it. At one moment during the show, a girl standing next to me in the front row decided to take a picture of Elvis’ shoes, to which he commented, “Is it really so necessary to photograph my footwear? Well yes, I guess everything needs to be documented in this world we live in today.” And then I was lost in that moment as well, in the idea that everything needs to be written, to be noted, and that nothing can be done without the knowledge that other people know we do it, otherwise it may as well have not been done at all. A profound concept for a Saturday night, to be sure, but one I am still pondering as I write these words to you now.

So what is the point of this entry? (Well does it even need a point?) I guess it is my own personal declaration for my re-devotion to music, no to great music, no to all kinds of great music, and also to great eating, and to mindful living, and to an entire philosophy of life that echoes with more depth than my philosophy at present in a world that is fast-becoming sadly opaque. So I give up existing by giving the most un-meaningful of things any meaning, and I vow to sift through the cultural muck and return once again to that time when importance was not dispensed lightly. I tread now with a heavier heart and an even heavier mind…. Adieu!