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maybe the Amish have it right

Listening to:	summer insects
Reading:	Shadow of the Hegemon, OS Card
Weather:	just gorgeous

I might be totally offbase on this characterization, but I believe that the Amish are opposed to education beyond the basics. I think they cut kids off at 8th grade. I think it's part of a belief that knowing too much beyond what you need to live a simple natural life doesn't make for happy healthy people.

I'm starting to agree. I have always noticed that music, in particular, is something that most people around me can typically enjoy more than I can. I believe that is because I know things about music that make me quite critical, such that I hear things that I know to be crappy that many others don't detect. Your out-of-tune violin makes me want to fucking kill myself rather than listen to it. A band's mix that has the bass all blatty with no clarity or highs makes it so I can hardly enjoy a note, even of my favorite song, or perhaps especially of my favorite song. Your cheesy overused guitar riff in that heartfelt song you wrote encourages me to start mentally writing my grocery list before verse 2, while your other friends are hanging on every word.

I like beer. My friends like beer. One of my circles of friends has been slowly developing a sophisticated knowledge of the craft of beer over the past 15 years. We have tasted and critiqued and learned about hundreds of handmade small batch brews, and though we each have different preferences, none of us is any longer likely to throw a 30 pack of PBR in the cart, as I did many times in my teens and 20's. Now when even when I'm with a (different) group of people I absolutely adore, and the circumstances are perfect, and we all get down to some beer, food, music, and comradery, when someone hands me an ice cold Budweiser, I cringe.

Thank goodness I never could afford any of that super skunky red-haired crystally weed some of my friends pull out before they melt into the couch for a few hours. I still actually prefer brown outdoor schwag, probably cuz I barely know better.

So it appears to me that learning a lot about the things you really dig makes it hard for you to enjoy the bottom 90% of it. Does Ebert hate most movies? Or just think about what color the new livingroom carpet should be during them? That kinda sucks, doesn't it?

Pondering. But not too hard.

permalink posted by cat 10:21 AM

read 2 comments

Comments:

As usual, you are spot on!!! I, too, have an overly critical ear to music... mainly due to the 4 years of theory I was fortunate enough to enjoy during high school. I've come to regard it as much of a blessing as a curse... Beer is not Budweiser... Beer is something Much More enjoyable, tasty, and rich... And as far as schwag... I think you know how I feel about that! (But I'll take what I can get) ;)

# posted by  Willie : 4:01 PM

 

Hey Cat.

Do you read the "Beers To You" blog by Rich Ireland?

Chuck Conroy

# posted by  Chuck Conroy : 11:24 AM

 

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