I was standing in line at the grocery store today and found myself focused outside of myself, looking around at the store, and seeing how strange large grocery stores are. It was fascinating to be standing there, looking around with people wandering around the store, standing in line, talking, all amongst the countless number of items on the shelves, the unnatural light, the artificial floor…
While I was standing in line I found myself tapping into a musical sound world within my mind that I had not been in touch with in quite a while, filled with slow and gentle melodic fragments and quiet tones, rich and present, all floating by in their own time. I have not been working on much music recently, finding daily life going by quickly with one thing or another. Beyond all that, I have been thinking about the state of the musical world (from pop to dance to classical to computer to…), how it lives in society today, as well as my own connections with music, whether it be the music of others or be the music of my own creation.
So there I was, standing in a long line at the grocery store, and there I found myself once again in a state of experiencing things in a way that was familiar but also strange. It had been a long while since I can remember last being in that state of curiosity and observation. I think it was important to have made that connection to that experience today, even if briefly, to remember all the other experiences, to reconnect with the impressions and memories from the past, and to once again be in touch with that world of sound…