This morning I feel pretty rested and happy. The cut on the inside of my lower lip is bugging me and I don’t want to go to work, but I’m still feelin’ OK. Tonight Manda and I are taking Reed and Jana out for dinner. I don’t know where or when, but we’re going somewhere at sometime. To eat.
Last night I read _electric_monk‘s journal for the first time. In one of his entries he opined that he had neither gotten wiser nor more profound in the last 10 years and to that, Chad, I say bull pucky. You have progressed admirably as an individual. I am proud of who you are and what you’ve made yourself into. When I first met you over 10 years ago I could only hope to see you be who you are today and although many of us may never say that kind of thing to your face, I know I’m not the only one who thinks it.
The big reunion between Amanda and her long lost brother is fast approaching. I, for one, am extremely excited about it. I mean, how many people get to rediscover a long lost sibling? It’s the kind of thing you see on TV (and in case you didn’t know, I love things seen on TV)…
I can’t stop thinking about playing music at My Adventure Flowerland though. Mainly, I can’t stop thinking about the ways I want to take advantage of having a live audience. Reed loves an audience because he can “work” them, get ‘em all lathered up. Rhett loves an audience because when they like his music it provides validation for him, but he’s really playing to the select few in the audience that understand his particular brand of music. I love an audience because I want to experiment with them. I don’t rock like Reed and I don’t want to sing passionately for a handful like Rhett. I want to take a novel situation and make something unique out of it. I doubt I will play any songs that anybody in the audience will have heard before… I am not even sure I will play “songs”. Whatever people are going to be expecting when I get on stage, I hope it won’t be what I do… Reed gives the people what they want, Rhett gives the people what he has and I give the people what I want them to have… Robbie is just a cute little pixie and everyone loves her.
Back to Chad… he made a comment about how being at orange st. the other night was fun because he got to see the nostalgia of others. Sadly, I felt the nostalgic vibe creeping into the whole thing. Everybody warmly remembering three years ago when they were still young and hip and the center of the social scene. There were all these new kids there who didn’t seem to care too much about what was happening and it felt just a little too much like reliving old times. Dang it, we’re too young for that. We should be creating new, interesting and relevant music, not revelling nostalgicly in our single pasts. I hate nostalgia and I fall victim to it more and more these days. This is why I will not be playing my old music at My Adventure Flowerland. If I can’t come up with something new and interesting, then what right do I have to be up there at all? The past is the past, it should be treasured but not glorified and not viewed as a better time that is forever gone. The present is what you make of it… even if you’re getting older. I don’t want to ever forget that.
More From Ryan Sutter
- an actual personal entry…
- this morning I met Campbell
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and the sadness of finishing a book
- October Ridge
- impending anniversary
