Last night Candyce and I went to see the Phoenix Symphony with conductor Lawrence Golan at the Mesa Arts Center. They performed “A Musical Love Story”, which narrates the progression of a romantic relationship. If you want a good afternoon of music, make the playlist:

  1. Prelude, from Holberg Suite, Opus 40 by Edvard Grieg
  2. Largo, from Concerto in D major for Two Violins, BWV1043 by Johann Sebastian Bach
  3. Allegretto, from Palladio by Karl Jenkins
  4. Adagietto, from Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler
  5. Canon by Johann Pachelbel
  6. Serenade for Strings, Opus 1 by Samuel Barber
  7. Serenade for Strings in C major, Opus 48 by Tchaikovsky

I don’t think you find anything more inspiring and enriching than tickets for two to the symphony. Which affirms my belief that….

Your City is Not Boring. You are boring.

I am tired of meeting young adults who complain about their city. I can understand why teenagers whine that there’s “nothing to do here” because a lot of them don’t have a car or enough money to explore their city. But once you’ve graduated from the dramas of high school, there’s nothing keeping your from enjoying your city but your own laziness. There are a thousand things to do today, you just have to get off your ass and get out there.

I am beginning to see that these “young adult whiners” do not age very well. Soon they’ll be just an “adult whiner” sliding to the Middle. Tomorrow, they’ll be the adults that the new young people come to ignore.

Thoughts on Popular Music

Let’s talk about pop music. This is a difficult subject to bring up, because it’s hard to say only a few words and be done with it. That’s why there are dozens of music magazines that have something new to write about every month of every year. In the interest of time, I will write two paragraphs:

The problem we have today is that the overwhelming majority of new music is created for and marketed exclusively to young people. That’s why the most successful bands, rappers, and entertainers come pre-packaged with an image–or even better–a lifestyle. Teens grab onto these lifestyles because gives them an identity in a time in their life where they don’t know how to be cool.

Can anything so shallow be of any lasting worth? Last night we enjoyed music that was written over the course of the last three centuries. Will any music be written in my generation that is worth passing onto the next generation?