I have been having some thoughts lately about the things that I find so meaningful in my day to day life. There are just some things that seem to stand out above the others and I would like to question why I feel as much.
I begin with a story. A couple of years ago a girl by the name of Gemma moved from Scotland to my home town of Yorba Linda to intern at my church. She is a great girl and we always had a lot of fun together hanging out. A few months into her stay one of her best friends came out to visit from the UK. His name was Marcus Mumford and I spent a little bit of time hanging out with him during the time he was here. The one thing that really stuck out in my memory pertaining to Marcus was that he rolled his own cigarettes. He carried around with him a bag of tobacco, papers, a cigarette roller, and a bag of filters. Now it wasn't all that special in my mind, I had seen people roll their own tobacco before, but the funny thing was that I had never seen anyone roll their own filters into their smokes. Also, whenever Marcus had downtime he would pull out his tobacco and just roll a number of cigarettes to save for later. I remember specifically sitting outside the In-n-Out down the street from my church and he was just rolling away. Placing each cigarette into a case he had with him.
Now all of this was interesting to me, but not especially memorable until a couple of weeks ago when I found out something interesting about Marcus. Gemma, after returning home to Scotland, got herself a work visa allowing her to stay out here and work for the church. She came back out here a year or so ago but due to my schooling we haven't been able to hang out as much. A couple of weeks ago however news of Marcus being in a new band came to my attention. They are called Mumford & Sons and as it turned out they were playing a sold out show at the Troubadour in LA the next day. I immediately downloaded all of the available music that they had out and began to listen. It was something special. I proceeded to find out that during Marcus's stay here in the states one of my friends had introduced him to blue grass music and to the banjo. When he had returned home he picked up the instrument and began the band. I tried to get tickets for his show the next day but sadly was unable to. Yet I have continued to listen to the his music non-stop since first getting a hold of it.
Now that I have told my story it is time for some more serious questioning. The music that Mumford & Sons released is definitely very good, but I am really wondering lately why I find it to be so meaningful. I am certain that it has to do with the fact that I met Marcus but his visit didn't make much of an impression on me or provide me with any special kind of life-good. My memory of him is especially vivid now but I don't think I made any kind of impression on him and don't feel that I have any special relation to the guy. No more so than anyone that brushed against him on a street corner or took his order in a coffee shop. Yet still, I feel a sort of special connection to his music and find it a meaningful part of my life these days.
I feel that this tends to happen a lot for me, and I really wonder why I am this way. Why I feel the need to find and acquire these meaningful little vignettes in my life. Another such example is the band Local Natives. I have been following this local band since I was in High School and they were named Cavil at Rest. I once got them connected up with AS at Biola and they played an show on campus a couple years back. They recently released their first full length album Gorilla Manor, and have come into some appeal and acclaim on Pitchfork as well as getting air time on KCRW. When ever I hear one of their songs on the radio, or hear that they are playing in town it gives me a special feeling that I only know how to describe as some sort of meaning theft.
Watch them here on Blogotheque
There is a kind of desire in me to find out why it is that I find these interesting little things so meaningful. I guess you could say I am finding meaning in writing this blog right now and in my questioning of myself. But why is it that I find so much personal life meaning in the music that I listen to? And how is it that this good feeling is exponentially increased by my knowing the people in the band. My friend Joel Walker is an amazing songwriter and I think that one of these days he will be discovered and his band will get big, but even now when I listen to his music I can feel it and read it so much more simply because I know him.
Sorry to leave it at that. I have no definitive answer to these questions yet, and not even a real theory that may kind of explain these things.
One thing I do know for certain though. Playing records is much more meaningful than listening to an Ipod or cd.
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