The Pondering Absurdist

I will NOT start another blog about the $hitstorm that is happening in the world today because of the LOSER, low-IQ “leader” of this, “what used to be a great country” that I live in. I won’t be forced into dissing any of the MAGA sheeple who follow this idiot, I WON’T!

I’m a child of the early 60s, hence I’m now IN my early 60s. I’ve settled down into a couple of (okay, maybe a few) specific genres of music that I consider to be my favorites. The two at the top happen to be first, the “classical music” genre (including the gamut from Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic, to some of the Contemporary and modern artists who compose similarly, like Philip Glass, John Williams, Bear McCreary, et al.), and second, music from and around the 1980s. I was in my late teens and early twenties in the eighties, and I had moved out of my über-oppressive religious home and joined the US Navy, traveling around the country for different schools in electronics before being assigned to a ship on the East Coast. I discovered all that “worldly music” that I was sheltered from at home and grew to love it. I had some great times growing into an adult during those years, and several of the songs bring back good memories. I can sing along to a lot of the lyrics from those early 80s songs, and do frequently when I hear them.

As one of the very early subscribers to “Sirius Satellite Radio” (before they merged with XM satellite radio), I was able to purchase a lifetime subscription to the service for a relatively low price (I think it was something like $500 back in the early 2000s). Ever since then, I’ve had an unlimited subscription to Sirius(XM). If I buy a new car with SiriusXM capability, I simply pay a small transfer fee to the new radio and my subscription continues. With my subscription I’m also allowed to listen to SiriusXM streaming, on either my computer or my phone (through an app). As such, I have not listened to a radio “commercial” in over 20 years! I don’t watch any broadcast TV anymore (only streaming or DVD/Blu-ray), so no commercials there either. Because of that, when I try to play a YouTube video and I get interrupted by “commercials,” it really bugs the shit out of me, and I either walk away or can’t wait to press the “skip” button. I’m one of those who believes that the original intent of the Internet (educational and/or informational) should still be if effect, with the exception , of course, of explicitly commercial sites like Amazon, eBay, etsy, etc. If I want to BUY something, I go to Amazon or eBay, search for it, and BUY it! I don’t believe that any other websites should be making money off the content of others (or amateurs). I don’t need some asshole pandering an erectile dysfunction drug to me while I’m watching some guy restore his car or flying airplanes into Oshkosh!

But I digress… back to the OTHER “downer” topic at hand.

I brought up a bit of my previous history to provide a little background. When I listen to SiriusXM (anywhere), I am usually listening to “Symphony Hall” (while at work, in the office or at home in the mornings, or sometimes in the car, channel 78), or the “80s on 8” (while I’m working at home in the afternoon, or out in the yard on my own time, channel 8). The other channel that has some rotation in my car is “Spa” (picture yourself with “ambient” or “new age” music in a massage parlor, hence the name of the channel, Spa, channel 746) Often when I’m listening to the 80s on 8 I’ll hear a song that resonates with me, brings up memories, and persuades me to look up the song or the artist on Wikipedia (my favorite encyclopedia). That happened to me this afternoon as I was working from home. I heard the Robert Palmer song “Simply Irresistible” and I decided to visit the local Wiki for a few minutes to see what I could find. I read a little bit about the song, then transitioned, as I often do, to the artist’s (Robert Palmer’s) Wikipedia page. It was there that I found the DOWNER that caused this post. I read that Robert Palmer died at the age of 54(!) of a heart attack. Again, I’m now in my early 60s, so I have outlived his lifetime. I always hate it when I read a Wiki page that starts with “such and such an artist” WAS a singer, songwriter, actor, etc. I don’t like to see good artists leave this world, as we have too few of them.

While I have no desire to start pushing up daisies anytime soon, this caused me to start thinking about something that most would consider to be a bit of a downer. I wonder how people feel as they get older and older and start seeing more and more of their contemporaries, or those who were “well known” (celebrities, musicians, actors, idols, etc.) and still alive when they themselves were young and vital, “die off” for lack of a better phrase. These older people usually become entrenched in their own habits, likes and desires that a lot of younger people don’t have or understand anymore (as an example, I don’t particularly care for any of “today’s music” unless it is composed in the style of musical genres that I do like). Do these older people start feeling like they they have less to live for, or even no reason to live, because they don’t “fit” into the “modern age?” Or, do they follow the creed set forth in the poem by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (His complete poem available if you follow the link),

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

?

All are welcome to comment, of course, but those who are older might be able to shed some better light on this topic.