Just saw this article from Rolling Stone: "Jewel-Box Heroes: Why the CD Revival is Finally Here." I concur with pretty-much all of it. I'm still a CD consumer and love my rather enormous collection of CDs and I'm glad to see the industry continuing to use the format.

A couple paragraphs from the article that stood out to me, that I felt like I could respond to:

I have so many good memories about going to the CD shop, the A&B Sound in Victoria, for example. 

I have Spotify and I'm grateful to use it. There are many songs that I don't have on CD that I can find on Spotify really easily. Spotify has been a great way to confirm the music I enjoy. Without Spotify, I probably wouldn't've discovered Betty Davis or 

But there are also some CDs I own on the shelf that aren't on Spotify: Pierce Pettis' Chase the Buffalo, or Ray Condo's Swing Brother Swing come to mind. 

A few years ago I had to lead my youngest daughter through the process of opening a plastic CD jewel case. It seemed strange to think that she had lived 12 years with me and still had not learned how to do this activity that seemed so essential to my own childhood. By the time I was 12 years old, CDs were around enough for me to figure them out. And they've been a key part of my life ever since.

At home today, I always have a few CDs on the go. They are the best medium for dinner music: they're mixed well and there are no surprises. CDs sound excellent, and they have a nice little booklet full of fun information. Lately I've been collecting Time-Life and Putumayo CDs in order to expand my dinner music ability. It's a joy to find a new CD, whereas most of the songs I learn from streaming and Shazam... they slip away.

And they're still pretty cheap, which is nice. 

I've recently really enjoyed Pat Finnerty's "Why does this song stink" videos on YouTube. I love not only that he agrees with many of my biases about why certain songs "stink," but I also really appreciate the creativity by which he builds his videos. They are deliberately lo-fi with various basic animations and simple jump cuts. 

He's done excellent videos about "Hey Soul Sister,"  "Don't Tell me How to Live," and "All Summer Long," but his best tour de force so far is the "Kravitz Bowl," a hilarious hypothetical "football game between two bad songs."  

Finnerty's videos are wonderful if you have specific techno-culture-based taste in music. I think it's safe to say that most people who play guitar, really love pop music, dislike Train's music, found "Kryptonite" insufferable, or were bewildered by Warren Zevon's presence on "All Summer Long" will enjoy his videos. Finnerty's clear love of music and willingness to create in-depth videos about why some music doesn't quite work, well, I appreciate that effort. I remember first hearing Train songs, or "Kryptonite," or both Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman" and "Fly Away;" I thought, Something's wrong here. Something's off. And Pat Finnerty seems to be able to put into words just what's so off ​about that sort of corporate-driven bland music.

In addition, Finnerty appears to have a real knack for getting people involved in his videos. These videos are masterclasses in being friendly and inclusive with the people in your community, in making them feel connected to your projects. He appears to have a knack for getting people on board, even the likes of Dave Grohl. His empathic extroversion is seriously admirable.

Cheers, Pat.

I feel as if I'm suffering from a creative block right now, both in music and photography. I've gone through this sort of thing for a very long time, but it feels rather acute right now. I can't seem to conceptualize anything: no visions for interesting photographs, no melodies or lyrics to work with. I don't want to dwell on the problems of creative block, though. I'd rather try to pin down some solutions.

In no particular order:

• I need to get my earbuds out of my ears. I've written about it before, but for the last many years I've listened to a lot of podcasts. This is ok for learning and entertainment, and an illusion of company and conversation, but audio also fills in a lot of the moments when creativity can happen. If I want to break out of a creative block, I need to make room in my mind for creative possibilities, rather than listening to others' creations all the time.
• I need to make deliberate time for creativity. This might mean I need to sit down and practice piano every day, or it might mean I need to sit with my guitar, or it might mean I need to work with a sketchbook to imagine possibilities for photography. But I need to set aside time for it, even though my days feel so busy.
• I need to make sure I'm keeping up with exercise. Over the last couple weeks, due to the omicron variant of covid-19, gyms have been closed here in BC. I don't really like working out if I'm not at the gym, and the weather's been too miserable to go for runs outside. But I need to make the time and deliberately keep up with my exercise. So much of my muscle mass has faded since moving in with my partner, just because I now need to share my schedule with someone, and because I've had to spend so much time in the car. I need to make deliberate time for exercise.
• Speaking of the car, I need to get a trustworthy vehicle ASAP. I don't want to write about it here because it would be boring and tedious, but car trouble has taken up an inordinate amount of my time over the last few months. I need to get that sorted out so I stop stressing about vehicles.
• I need to stop taking courses for a bit. Over the past year, I've taken two post-grad courses: an introduction to school counseling course and an introduction to Special Education in BC course. I've learned a lot, but it's exhausting to spend so much time dedicated to something that zaps so much creativity. 

With those notes, it's clear that I have an issue with time. I think I'm particularly bad at organizing my time when I have a partner because I don't like rushing, and partners need lots and lots of quality time. I've learned that the hard way over the years, that the less time you provide to your partner, the worse the relationship gets. However, all of my creative and exercise activities are rather non-partner-specific. I still haven't found a way to balance my partnered and solo activities. 

I miss creating. I miss feeling like I wrote a worthwhile song, or took an interesting photo. Here's to hoping that, as the days get longer, my creativity can flourish again.