Speaking of Music

In some small way, music is like drugs to me. We have all heard that comparison before, I guess (or any combination X is like Y where X and Y could represent love, religion, music, drugs and a number of other things dear to some people), but it was not until I stopped using my iPod (or any other portable music device) on a daily basis that I realized how much it has generally been clouding my thinking.

I am not talking about listening to music in the background at home here, but rather listening to music in the foreground while walking or commuting. Suddenly, I think a lot more, and I think way better while walking than while staring at a computer screen. And most importantly, I come up with new (and actually listenable) music myself, something which I find impossible to do indoors unless I have had at least a bottle of wine and in the latter case the music in question is not listenable when I have sobered up.

So, this evening I will be sitting on a cold and possibly somewhat damp bench in a park close to my home, composing a new song.




In other news, I scanned some of the other old pictures I found. They are as interesting as the others - especially the profile with the purple lipstick. I cannot for the life of me understand what the crew were thinking, but it certainly is a great memento to show the grandchildren.

I was pretty upset today by a debate article in Svenska Dagbladet, one of the largest "real" (as in not only concerned with tv-shows and insane and/or nude celebrities) newspapers in Sweden. Not only was it written by Jan Myrdal, one of the Swedish left's least likable people in my humble opinion, due to his love for dictators and massacres worldwide, but it was also the single worst argument for not allowing same-sex marriages. Disregarding the classic "Think of the children" argument which I can actually see myself sympathizing with to some extent (as long as there is scientific proof to back it up), it was all a rambling tirade of gibberish which only serves to affirm my animosity towards Mr Myrdal. Nowhere did he manage to convey a good reason that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry.

Being neither a homosexual (because of laziness, I use the term here to describe all the various forms of non-heteresexual people who are sexually attracted to consenting adults), nor a hater of homosexuals, I have not had the energy necessary to get a deeper understanding the whole gay debate or the mechanics behind it. My main problem is understanding what the problem is. As long as we disregard the question of having children and discuss only consenting adults (as well as assinine ideas such as trying to force religious institutions to marry homosexuals even though it is against their tenets!), I have never seen a good reason to not allow homosexuals to do the same thing heterosexuals do. Well, gay men usually have abysmal taste in music, but apart from that, they are generally like everybody else. The previous sentence might be illegal under Swedish law.

Speaking of music! I have started digging classical music again. It has been ages. I used to love Dvorak, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bach and many others, but I realized when I accidentally put a (J.S.) Bach mp3 on my phone that I have hardly listened to any in... five years or so. No more of that bereavement, though!