Doldrums

09 Sep 2021

Ends in “Y”

‘Round and ‘round it goes, when it stops, no one knows… The monotony of life during a pandemic is really draining me. Hell, it’s so pervasive, I’m fairly sure that I’ve written about just this topic before. Even my rants on monotony are becoming monotonous. It’s the meta-pandemic! I’m sad to say that living in this household is a big contributor to my feelings of malaise and confinement. I know things won’t always be this way, but it just feels so. far. away.

That reminds me – lately, I’ve been thinking about what the future might look like. It’s really (literally?!) the only thing I have to look forward to. The trouble is that it’s getting harder and harder to see through the murk. Normally, I wouldn’t mind the unknown, but the stakes are higher these days.

I’m sitting here watching a travel show where the host is visiting Alaska, and I’m thinking to myself how much I would love to take a trip there. One day, I’m sure. It sure would be nice to think about traveling to far off new places without those ideas getting shot down and squashed.

Brighter Notes

I’m going to try to end on a positive note, since this post is boring and full of dread. I guess I can say that I’m feeling pretty good about my latest music-making setup. For most of the year, I’ve had a semi-permanent setup. One where I had to plug my gear into the mixer for a jam session, but then pack it all up at the end of that session. The time spent plugging and unplugging wasn’t really conducive to productivity. So, I got a little creative and carved out a little space on the bar in our makeshift office. I can squeeze in the MPC, the mixer, an Alesis microverb (pretty damn good for 50 bucks!), iLoud micro monitors and the small eurorack palette that I’ve been putting together. It’s almost like it was meant to be, as these were the machines that I’ve been wanting to focus on for the next little bit. I was so inspired that I jumped right into creating a minimal techno tune today. It’s still early and needs some polish, but I’m excited about building this project out into something.