Listen up

Aug 19, 2006

Last night, in between reading Pollan and fighting off sleep, I surfed the television channels and came upon a band singing on the Tonight Show. Problem was, I didn’t know who the band was, what song they were singing, or where to go for more information.

Laying across the bed, I mused on how the Internet has conditioned me to need those cues and links: I wanted to be able to rapidly click through to the band’s home page, read the lyrics to the song, find out if they’d be playing in Carrboro anytime soon, all while having that music as background soundtrack to my surfing. I’d probably check my e-mail and click to Daily Kos, too.

But this being television on the most basic of cable connections, I had only the visual and the audio, and so I actually listened to the music and enjoyed hearing the lyrics.

Quite a good reminder to me that I need to slow down and listen to the world around me, and let those sounds inform me and entertain me and educate me and sustain me.

Anton Zuiker ☄