If anyone's interested, there is a playlist containing one track each from the albums I included in my MiG Top 20 of 2014 piece at 8Tracks. (You don't have to be a member of 8Tracks to play the mix, although it will only allow you to skip a maximum of 3 songs.)
In a non-linear way it makes me wonder how Bad Thoughts is doing...one of the things that sometimes bugs me about the Internet board thing is that you can talk to folk for years and then have no idea what is happening with them when they don't appear for a while. It feels kind of...irresponsible?
I apologize for not accounting for my absence. There have been things in my life and here that have kept me away. I've been teaching at a nearby university this year--just adjuncting, but surprisingly well paying for history. Getting started there proved to create numerous problems. Because of an odd concidence of staff illnesses and new bureaucratic policies, I wasn't on the payroll for the first two months and had no access to any university resources for the first three weeks. I had no money and I looked completely disorganized, created some anxiety. I couldn't buy any music. About the same time, in a 24-hour period, people here were talking up three albums I had recommended in late 2013. It made me feel that my contributions were unimportant, and I haven't felt like writing anything beyond short comments on the RIP thread. I've been hanging around other forums--TrekBBS, Board Game Geek, and Mandolin Cafe. Teaching has improved signifcantly, as has my mood, but I really haven't felt like writing or sharing much about music. Hopefully my reasons aren't petty. If they are, I offer my apologies.
Hi BT, good to know you are still out there. My rational mind knows that folk drop in and out of discussion boards all the time, but still, when someone who is usually around disappears I hope it's not because of something majorly bad and feel kind of bad that I don't know. But teaching work sounds like a good thing, even accompanied by poor bureaucracy.
I think re-recommending albums previously recommended by others just happens from time to time as there is so much to keep track of. I usually try to search if it is an older album but it is sometimes hard to be sure that one is not half-remembering a past rec rather than discovering things. Even recs aside, I miss your contributions here. Bottom line though: good to hear you are well!
(And now that I look back at that line you quoted I suddenly realize it sounds as if I was saying you, or the absent person in general, are being irresponsible by not checking in; I was actually trying to say the opposite, that it makes ME feel irresponsible when I am suddenly out of touch with someone I know to some degree and can't check how they are doing. If one of my physical space friends suddenly disappeared I would feel irresponsible if I did not call them or drop by to see if they were OK. It's something I still find a little odd about the Internet. My apologies for wording poorly and making it sound as if I was criticizing you for using your time differently!)
Well, I just went through that NPR top 25 list, listened to the samples, and added what seems like nearly half the albums to a playlist for work tomorrow. I feel like I'm going to have multiple instances of zoning out of doing work just listening to my headphones. Oh well, worse things could happen, it sure won't be boring
I may have to save the guardian list for another day though, I was supposed to get some cleaning around the house done today...
BT: About the same time, in a 24-hour period, people here were talking up three albums I had recommended in late 2013. It made me feel that my contributions were unimportant
First, one is always allowed, in these circumstances, to post-slap with evidence that you "got there first". But also, it's not that your contributions are unimportant, but rather, in such cases, that everyone's posts are equally unimportant - certainly one should not expect that one's album mention 6 months ago impedes on the consciousness of another's discovery of the same album 6 months hence. Our collectively different schedules vary much more than our collective awareness and memory.
Bad Thoughts - It is very nice to hear from you. . .
RE: " It made me feel that my contributions were unimportant"
- A little something concerning how I feel about sharing / posting here:
I have over the past couple of years developed a passion for researching contemporary classisal and musique concrete and love to gather informations about composers, labels, ensembles and all the rest of it.
In that respect, my posts on the N&N threads and the various Emusers guides is a very useful tool for me for lodging the fruits of my research and I really don't care if someone takes it up or not.
- But it pleases me every time someone does.
- I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if it's important to you, it IS important.
I for one have missed your comments enormously over the last few months, BT, and always value your opinions, and I really do hope that this means that you will be back here more often. Best wishes with your university teaching. Having moved from the university where I'd taught for 18 years to a part-time post at another university for a couple of years after I retired, I know how difficult that can be - at one stage I couldn't access emails because my contract had not been finalised fully, so I wasn't on the pay roll. That took three months or more to sort out. Then I didn't get paid for six months. Fortunately I had my pension and my wife was in a good job, but it all adds to the frustrations. And don't get me started on university bureaucracy!
Good to see you back Bad Thoughts! I'm pretty sure no one meant to marginalize you; it's just really hard to keep track of who rec'd what first. I'm just glad it wasn't about a fight or argument or disagreement.
I'm also happy to see eythian hanging around; hopefully you stick past the administrative wrinkles?
Thanks for the encouragement, but I think I need to emphasize that "not getting credit where credit was due" was less of reason for not contributing as much as it added to the negative experiences of the time. I don't know if Greg's experiences were anything like mine, but it was difficult to run things without digital access to the university. I waited all summer to get into the library in order to scan and post things, but I could not get started until the fourth week. And I felt humiliated every day to appear so disorganized--I felt like an interloper. Psychically drained and anxious, I didn't feel like playing music--that is to say, not learning how to play new things or going out to jams, a major impetus behind my music listening. I focused more of my attention (and dwindling funds) on my son, buying engines for his model rockets and playing games. Teaching has been significantly more satisfying since Halloween, but I haven't had as much energy to explore music. Maybe that will change in the future.
I understand. Teaching at the best of times can be overwhelming; at the worst of times it sucks everything. I go through lulls too where exploring more music feels like an energy drain. I hope some new music brings you joy soon.
I was fortunate BT that I still had internet access through using someone else's log-in at work and having full access at home to the internet. For me as an experienced tutor I could get round those problems. Your son is far more important than music; I do not have my own children, but my grandchildren are very precious to me and I'd give them anything. It does get better, the first year teaching is always the hardest year, you build up a bank of ideas, resources, PP slides etc to recycle the following time. I virtually gave up on new music for a decade or more, which is why I know little, for example, of any 90s music beyond a few mainstream artists. Stick with it and it will improve, I know
you build up a bank of ideas, resources, PP slides etc to recycle the following time.
You would be happy to know I did an excellent lecture on Americanization last semester using Johnny Haliday, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Serge Gainsbourg, and Kraftwerk. This semester I hope to sneak in True by Spandau Ballet!
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I think re-recommending albums previously recommended by others just happens from time to time as there is so much to keep track of. I usually try to search if it is an older album but it is sometimes hard to be sure that one is not half-remembering a past rec rather than discovering things. Even recs aside, I miss your contributions here. Bottom line though: good to hear you are well!
(And now that I look back at that line you quoted I suddenly realize it sounds as if I was saying you, or the absent person in general, are being irresponsible by not checking in; I was actually trying to say the opposite, that it makes ME feel irresponsible when I am suddenly out of touch with someone I know to some degree and can't check how they are doing. If one of my physical space friends suddenly disappeared I would feel irresponsible if I did not call them or drop by to see if they were OK. It's something I still find a little odd about the Internet. My apologies for wording poorly and making it sound as if I was criticizing you for using your time differently!)
I may have to save the guardian list for another day though, I was supposed to get some cleaning around the house done today...
I for one have missed your comments enormously over the last few months, BT, and always value your opinions, and I really do hope that this means that you will be back here more often. Best wishes with your university teaching. Having moved from the university where I'd taught for 18 years to a part-time post at another university for a couple of years after I retired, I know how difficult that can be - at one stage I couldn't access emails because my contract had not been finalised fully, so I wasn't on the pay roll. That took three months or more to sort out. Then I didn't get paid for six months. Fortunately I had my pension and my wife was in a good job, but it all adds to the frustrations. And don't get me started on university bureaucracy!
But really good to see you back here
I'm also happy to see eythian hanging around; hopefully you stick past the administrative wrinkles?