Dancing About Architecture

The age old quote thrown in the face of every idiot who takes it up him/herself to write about music is this: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Oddly enough, I have actually seen dancing about architecture. The modern dance department at the college I attended decided to turn the latter half of the aforementioned quote into an actual thing. Whoever said the quote (I'm too lazy to look it up) probably didn't take into account modern dancers who are more than happy to express - in gyrations that can only be decoded by fellow modern dancers - sentiments on everything from child molestation to Chinese labor law. As an innocent bystander I can appreciate the skill and technique involved in modern dance but I can say unequivocally that I just don't get it. Martha, if you ever read this, it's me not you.

Anyway, I guess the point of the quote is that words on a page will never come close to the things music can express. I accept this point as absolutely valid. Nothing that I can say will ever compare with the first time you sit down and listen to "Waiting For Her" by a-ha and come to the realization that they are oh so much more than the band that wrote, "Take on me."



Or maybe you don't like a-ha. Maybe that song I just posted sounds trite and terrible to your ears. Some things hit you in just the right way and some things don't. There's no accounting for taste, which explains why I like the idea of the Foo Fighters a lot more than I actually like their music. But back to the point: it seems an impossible task to take words on a computer screen and have them convey even the importance of a man like Jonathan Richman let alone the gorgeous simplicity of his music. I know that I'm tilting at windmills by writing this thing. As of right now, nary a person has even seen this blog, so I'm basically writing it as a personal vanity project.

I know that this blog was originally intended as a way for me to brag about how I still listen to vinyl, cassettes, and minidiscs, but I found that a boring premise as soon as I started writing. So this whole thing is off the rails and who knows where it'll go from here, if anywhere. I'm just coming to terms with the futility of this blog and I guess I'm fine with it. So there's that.