Magic and Music

In the wake of Prince's death, I thought I would try to listen to his music with a more open mind.  I have a friend who loves Prince, well several friends, and I thought I might see if my feelings about the music changed  I found one or two songs to be ok, but still Prince did not speak to me.  I admit he was a musical wonder.  I admit that his music moved the masses; it just does not do much for me.  Call me uncool.  Wonder where my musical tastes lie, but I am not a Prince fan.  It's been a very long time, if ever, that I pretended to like something just to be considered cool.  I like what I like.  I love Guitar driven rock and roll and frankly something with a good lyric and a vocal line I can sing.  Close harmonies thrill me.  I love really OLD blues- not the stuff that the kids call R&B   but stuff like Charles Brown, who I saw with Bonnie Raitt and thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so good.   I was pondering musical taste on my way to work the other day. I have all but given up listening to the radio anymore. The guffaws and what passes for humor that I hear during drive-time reminds me of Jr High- and NOT in a good way.  I don't like bathroom humor. I would MUCH rather have music in the morning and I either listen to my book on tape or Pandora radio.  I was thinking, as I booted up my "Jim Croce radio  station" that the music I listen to reminds me of a simpler time in my life. I wonder if the music of my childhood and my teen years makes me happy because it was good or because it evokes a memory.  It's probably a little of both.  Today, what passes for popular music is so technologically repaired I am not  sure I am listening to a musician and not a machine. All the stuff my kids listen to sounds the same to me, as if they take the basic track and just lay stuff over it to make a new song.   Maybe I need to see if there really IS good new music out there, although at my age going to a concert with kids who are not my kids,might be a little weird.

I am feeling my age these days. The pain in my knees is no joke and I am trying hard to get to the point where I can walk unassisted.  I realize that until I can have the surgery, which won't be for a few more years according to my doctor, I will be in this pain.  Exercise helps somewhat  but I need to find a pool so I can swim.  There isn't anything close by and driving to Pasadena each day is just right out.  I am depressed by the pain and looking for magic and wonder in my life.  My doctor told me to try to find things that make me happy and to step away from things that do not.  I am in the process of finding that again.  I am looking at taking classes on line from the Library to see what might interest me and I am taking a new class in a new type of meditation which might help me feel better. I am trying to be hopeful.  Writing helps a bit.  I am hoping it will help me focus on what I want and what I don't.  I am thinking of changes and where I want to be in two years.  It's a modest goal.  Baby steps.  When I am walking, I just remind myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other and soon enough I will get there.