Montage

When I travel, I find that I need a very specific soundtrack. It’s not a particular artist or genre that’s important, nor am I in search of a precise beat or even a certain type of lyrics. No, what I’m looking for is specific in a way that’s more difficult to define. I’m talking, of course, about montage music. 

As the song plays through my headphones, I need to picture a series of images indicating to the viewers (yes, I know there are no “viewers” in reality, but you know full well why I imagine that there are viewers, because you do it too) that I am, in fact on a Very Meaningful Journey. Images like a very distant shot of the train I’m on as it speeds by. Maybe a close-up on my face from outside the window as I look past the camera thoughtfully. A shot that just shows my hand coming out of the window to do that cool wavy thing where you feel the air move over your arm. Definitely a shot where I see an amusing sign and smile to myself at how silly people can be sometimes. 

Are you putting together a soundtrack for the montage I’m building? I am, because I can’t help it. When I travel, I need songs that fit these images, otherwise my Very Meaningful Journey (VMJ) becomes simply a journey (j). Can’t have that.

 Some songs on my montage playlist:
“Breathe” – Michelle Branch
“Right Now” – Van Halen
“Waiting Game” – Yellowcard (all shots during this song are in slow-mo, of course)
“M79” – Vampire Weekend
"Angels of the Silences” – Counting Crows (this is a “Journey Starter” meaning it must come after a shot of me getting excited and maybe hitting my steering wheel with my palm right as the drums kick in)
“Have a Nice Day” – Bon Jovi

I want to hear other people’s montage mixes. Somehow I bet this could wind up being one of those things nobody agrees on, like pizza toppings or the best route across town. Everybody’s got their own, and I want to steal the bits I like from yours. You can have mine too, it’s okay with me.

Generalizing

I had this conversation recently:

Woman: "Men don't notice details. All they see is boobs and butt, and if they like what they see then that's all they need. The details are lost on men."
Me: "Well, at least we don't generalize, the way all women do."
Woman: [pause as she seems to ponder what I have said, then...] "Ugh, that is such a man thing to say."

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Things are still good in Germany, for all who have been asking after me. If I haven't responded to an email or facebook message that you've sent, please don't take it personally. It probably means I wanted to take the time to write you a "real" response and never got the time and eventually it slipped out of my head.

I'm very much looking forward to heading back to Waco next month, but in the meantime I am having the time of my life here in Weimar. The only things anyone expects me to do here are a) learn my music and b) perform it well. The fact that I'm enjoying so much is very affirming in my decision to make this my career for the rest of my life.

It's ridiculous how much the human mind is capable of memorizing in a very short amount of time, by the way. I remember it used to take me close to two months to really feel like I knew an aria. I remember one aria in particular that Prof Sadlier (my voice teacher) assigned to me that I STILL haven't learned a full year later (Billy Budd's aria, if you're curious). Then, this week, I decided I wanted to learn some new arias, and two days later I had three of them in my voice and I'm anticipating that by Tuesday of next week I'll have them comfortably memorized. In the meantime, I'm still memorizing the role that I'll be performing next month. That's close to two hours of music learned in only a few weeks. And I'm not even close to being a "quick study" compared to some of the people here. My buddy from Mexico, Jesus, has now learned five ROLES this summer, and I don't think he's even broken a sweat to do so (again, for the curious: Don Giovanni, Bartolo and Figaro from Nozze, and Don Alfonso and Guglielmo from Cosi. It's honestly some of the most impressive work I've ever seen, but I think it's really just par for the course for this job. I love watching these people work; it's inspiring.

Okay, time to go. I've got studying to do!