Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Initial Reactions....

Yesterday was quite the day as I wandered about the Kansas City International airport, waiting for a part to be repaired on the plane assigned to my ticket. To make matters....you know, there comes a time when typing no longer appeals to me and I have to go back to writing everything down on paper. My guess is that the soul-less interface between my thoughts and the keyboard become too much for me to handle. I guess there's something to be said for mobility and user-friendliness when it comes down to a writer's personal tastes. Mine you could say revolves around the primitive technology that's carried our civilization for a couple thousand years now. But then there's something to be said for the immediacy of the typed word that offers unlimited opportunities for sharing with others that the handwritten form cannot. A handwritten letter will always be personalized as each hand that writes is as unique and distinct as a snowflake. It also supposedly takes more time to write down our thougts than it does by computer. In the end the artists, no matter what the medium (books, films, design, illustration, music, etc.), must always use the tools they are most comfortable to use.
To continue further on this train of thought, I need look no further for examples than some of my favorite artists and styles of music. The sub-genre known as "breakcore" encompasses some of the most hectic yet addictive beats & rhythms of golden-age hip-hop, drum 'n bass, found sounds and gabba, all wrapped in insanity. The artists who create this style of music often use at home DIY creations of instruments based on their unique way of creating music. A look into drum kits shows us that sometimes its the familiarity with tapping out a rhythm with your fingers is easier and more connected to the brain than plucking a guitar string. In an age where the masses opt for trying to imitate their idols instead of create new art themselves, its easy to forget that art does not always have to follow a certain formula or utilize the same core instruments (guitar, drums, turntables, etc.) in their basic physical structure.
I guess it is for this reason that I will choose to forgo the comuter for a while in exchange for a tab of paper from which to gather my thoughts. Maybe the real reason is that I have become tired of reporting on my daily life ala monotone diary entries. The need for random thoughts and theories on life seem to be more fun to write about than the mundane and trivial. Or maybe its easier for me to keep a diary by paper and pen than it is by keyboard and CPU. In this short amount of time I have gone severely off course in my original intentions for this entry and instead have created a short discourse on the importance of the artist to remember to tailor their methods of creation to their own personality and not be stuck in one-dimensional atmosphere.

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