$20 for Wonderwall

Issue no. 13: on to the next dream

May 25, 2024

I love people-watching. I like to think sometimes about what it will be like to be old and spend all day sitting in a shady seat watching people pass by.

Synopsis of Issue no. 13

Things I’ve Seen
- The Lonely Few
Musings
- Sprummer Style - Boots in Bushwood?
- Future Dreams
- *insert eighth note*
Unnecessary Extemporaneous Funky Fresh and Fun Findings, Wanderings, and Ponderings

Musings

Sprummer Style

The sun is out. The air is warm. I nearly experienced sun poisoning from attempting to photosynthesize far too much without nearly enough respect for the fact that I have been contentedly germinating under layers upon layers of clothing for nearly half a year. The light now is fantastic. I always forget how the quality of light around this time of year makes everything look more vivid. I don’t think it’s possible to ever experience enough weather like this. The residents of Bushwood are out and about, but something has been causing me great concern over these last few warm days. The prevalence of boots. I love boots - in winter. Once sprummer is under way (the real distinction of spring to sprummer is that there are still days of dreary rain but it is net-too-warm for boots), the only boots I would consider wearing are hiking boots. Hence my confusion as I have been spotting thick cowboy boots and biker boots all over the place. Maybe I’m losing my mind, but it feels like the sun comes up, and I see boots. At the coffee shop, I see boots, etc. It is concerning. On Tuesday I was walking and was hit with the first, “I wish I was barefoot” thought of my time in New York. It is surprising that more people aren’t acting upon this. I guess my croc compatriots feel the same way. Perhaps this will be the first of a series on sprummer style. Start with shoes, and work our way up. I will decry sambas until I die, so they aren’t worth discussing. Also, why all the camo?

Future Dreams

Why do we associate dreams with the future? I recently was impacted by a shockingly vivid and drastic night of dreaming, and it sparked a great deal of reflection on dreams. The night of dreaming in question covered events from the past, current anxieties, future possibilities, and people from all walks of life (real, fictional, distant). I started thinking about dreams that I have had in the past that came true and occurrences of déjà vu and noticed that whenever a dream has come true it has been a positive dream. (In the spirit of candor - I dream about roles a lot. The first dream I remember coming true was when I dreamed about being cast in a production of Les Mis when I was nine only to wake up to the news that I had been cast.) I have dreamed about callbacks or roles in the past, and sometimes the dreams have come true, and sometimes they haven’t. I guess all this is to say that I find it interesting that there is so much association of dreams with the future over the past or the present. It seems that we often prioritize the relationship between dreams and the future but there is a great opportunity to look at dreaming as processing all the mental color and light that we can’t get to in a day (or won’t get to due to psychological constraints). Dreaming is an interesting way to get out of the unfortunate inevitable linearity of time.

Waking Life is a great movie about this.

insert eighth note

I was listening to “Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls) the other day and was curious about a lyric. The part of this song that always gets me is during the orchestral interlude when the strings hit and then cut out and then ferociously come back and then go, etc. (I know there is likely a term for this, but I don’t know it so I will just describe it as best I can). A frustration with Spotify has been building for months now, but seeing this beautiful rock/orchestral moment be represented as *insert eighth note* was such a bummer. Lyrics are important, but this is music! The lyrics are only one component of the piece, and we are all seriously missing out by not having any attempt at a musical language tool. I started thinking about the possibilities of what services like Spotify or Apple Music could accomplish if they built out musical education features. (For years I have wanted to make a VR program that would enable people to make music using gestures and colors to totally escape tonality and notation, but I’m sure someone will make it soon.) What if there was even a semblance of a way to follow along to what is happening with your favorite songs? It could be as simple as a chord progression or as involved as a bass line. It could identify moments of certain instruments. There could be a playlist for music education of songs and breakdowns of said songs that could explain concepts of scales and rhythm.

As I write this someone just started smoking a pipe and I am infatuated.

If the most readily accessible tool for engaging with the music we listen to is the lyrics then that will increasingly be our focus. I would venture to suppose that music without lyrics has been decreasing in popularity over the last few decades largely because we simply are not provided with the tools that can enable us to understand and subsequently appreciate it.

“Tahquamenon Falls” by Sufjan Stevens is playing. This song cemented my dream of living in a house surrounded by wind chimes and sound bowls.

By suggesting that we could better appreciate the non-lyrical elements of music I only hope to say that we could take where we currently are with our societal relationship with music and add more. Add some layers of sonic-appreciation to the music cake.