Oh man. How to get this out. How to say this thing I'm thinking. I'm all spit and babble tonight. Slobbering all over myself.

Oh well, here goes . . .

It's 2006 and all over the Web people are contemplative. Well, either that or hungover. For the most part, people are making new beginnings. They are coming up with new business strategies. Many are quitting smoking - go Kim, go Catherine! Some people are looking at the digital culture we find ourselves in and realizing we're on the verge of something big when it comes to education, and the only way to not get left behind is to jump in.

I think it's happening . . . there's a wave of change occurring, and it's not just because of the new year. There's a breakdown in our culture on the way, some kind of collective collapse. It's going to involve a dramatic re-organizing of the old media. Records, books, film. Television, print, radio. It's all due for an overhaul. As people become more empowered to publish their own content in the form of blogs, podcasts, photos, film, there's less of a need for the old infrastructure of record labels, publishers, and movie houses. This is no new revelation, and I'm not pretending to be some kind of prophet, but I think the difference now - in 2006 - is that we're actually beginning to see some tangible signs of this change. It's here. It's all around us. It's not just abstract notions any more. And thank God, you know? We needed it. We were beginning to feel that burning jones for something different. We needed a revolution, damnit. Spirit. Passion. It's been too long. Why should the hippies keep having all the fun and glory?

Social bookmarking - sites like del.icio.us - or other online tools that allow the democratic masses to create content and share that content with others - ie, flickr, upcoming , wikipedia - have become huge and the use of these sites is leading to this profound change in how we all relate to each other. Add to that technologies like Skype, where phone calls across the world are free, and the conversations we have can be recorded and published . . . and now we're beginning to see a small glimpse of the kind of information-sharing that is to come.

And amidst this revolution in culture, I continue to be plagued by a chronic impatience, a side-effect perhaps of the new media.

I no longer listen to 'an album.' I put my entire music library on shuffle. For new music, I listen to a podcast. When I'm in a particular mood, I listen to that one perfect song. I have complete control over the programming. I can fast-forward or skip if I don't like something. I don't have to listen to NPR at a certain time, I can listen to a podcast while I'm doing the dishes. Radio as we know it is not 'dying.' It is dead. And rigor mortis is setting in. And that includes you too, Sirius. Howard isn't enough.

The same goes for TV. I watch television on my own clock, not NBC's or ABC's. I TiVo. I skip commercials.

Then there are books. Today when I sit down to read, I wind up reading online. It's not from a lack of interest in print - I still manage to get at least one book in every other month or so - but shit, it's just not the same if I can't bookmark it or link to it. I start reading something on paper and I immediately want to find it's context online, want to see what others think of it. I become frustrated when there is no immediate sharing of ideas. No conversation. I can't help but wonder: Will authors write 'books' in 2020, or something else altogether? Maybe something more 'collaborative.' Is 'modern lit' still something that is going to be bound by paper - landlocked from comments, tags, the chatter of voices. Many, many, voices.

So resolutions . . . it is a time for resolutions, right?

If you know me, you know that in my daily life, I'm a creature of habit. I like my days to follow a routine. Cereal, coffee, swimming, dinner, up late, rise early. But a consistency in daily habits is not the same as consistency in overarching interests and life goals. Here I have a problem.

Often I have the uneasy feeling that if I slow down for one second, if I spend too much time on any one thing, that I will miss something else. So far, this sense of urgency and restlessness has served to keep my pen in a lot of different wells which I used to think was good. But I've begun to realize that all these different interests add up to a lot of things left undone.

So here's how it boils down for me in 2006: I've made changes - 2004 and 2005 were both years full of big changes - but now I need to focus. I need to narrow my goals. The time has come to realize that I will not be an Olympic swimmer, for instance. That is one goal I can safely take off the table. And maybe I won't be a real-estate mogul. (I'm really not sure why I ever thought that might be a good idea.) But I still have plenty of attainable goals, ones that involve music for instance. But it's going to continue to be difficult if I try to go after all of them.

So my new year's resolution is two-fold: narrow my focus and take on a little less responsibility. I will try to establish some kind of consistency with my larger goals, try to not change for a little while and see where that takes things.

link to this | comments (2) | File:  Writing  Music  Media  Chewing