no time to listen to you


The only cassette player and 2 cassettes in the house. J still has his Aiwa portable CD player, stashed away somewhere in the cupboards.

Music, the most sublime of arts. Or at least according to the romantic philosopher Schopenhauer.

The last few years I've grown somewhat distant from music. Perhaps it has been crowded out from my mind - among many other precious things.

Or perhaps music, as J speculated, has become too much part of our digital experiences and disconnected from the other frequencies of living - motion, touch, taste, sight. Re-arranging the CD collection, examining the booklet of lyrics and its art, rushing to the store when an album has first been released, popping the CD or tape into the player while the tea stews, making sure the batteries in your walkman are alive before you step out of the house...

The albums that accompanied me when I was a young(er!) person walking alone around various parts of our island during all the school and university term remain the most memorable; the very motley songs of Wawa, Suzanne Vega, Michelle Shocked, Leadbelly, Mavis Hee, Sandee Chan, John Coltrane, Faye Wong and the Cowboy Junkies. And whenever I feel the need to slow down, I go search them out.

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