A couple of thoughts

 I assume you probably know the film Brazil. There's Jonathan Pryce's narrative of escaping into fantasy in the face of pain and oppression. Then there's the subtext of the film, a society that is being crushed under the weight of its own bureaucracy. 

I sometimes think back to the latter when I'm posting to Facebook, or other social media, or here. Am I adding to the massive collection of digital detritus that is collecting? I stop myself sometimes. When responding to a Facebook post, I'll occasionally think, "Nobody cares what you think about this" and stop what I'm doing.

Alternately: I have at times been abysmal at documenting my own work. I also at times question much of it. I recently came across a piece I wrote, I don't know when, titled "Iridescence." It's nothing special, I've composed too many other pieces similar to it. I don't remember if it ever got played, probably not. It made me think, there have been dozens of pieces I've written that have gotten one or two performances. In some cases, it was special circumstances and I wrote something for the occasion which I didn't preserve. In others, the work just wasn't that good and deserved to be withdrawn. I wrote a piece once titled "My Two Houses" at a time I had bought a new place and was trying to sell the old. It had a good center section, a bridge for lack of a better term, but otherwise it was too notey and fussy. Better it's left in the past.

Varèse infamously destroyed the majority of his compositional output. I'm sure in some cases it was a good idea. I have to wonder about some of the music he withdrew though. Is it worth hearing as part of the continuity of Vasèse's art?

I'm at a time in my life when I'm contemplating what my future could be, and what might be happening to me in the next few years in particular. So again, here I am posting something online, adding a small confessional to the digital trash pile of the early 21st century.

Tom Verlaine died this week. I had a CD copy of Television's Marquee Moon but I lent it to my daughter. She's taken a liking to Talking Heads' Remain in Light and I figured she might appreciate that album too. I would have put it on this week otherwise, and posted thoughts here.

I saw Tom play in 1982. Most of what I remember was that he was great. He played excellent but not flashy guitar solos. Tom is well respected but deserved to be better known.

I don't have a conclusion of witty observation to share at this point. Maybe there's an element of self-therapy in my online journal that I've been keeping. I've been extremely fortunate to have not lost many of my loved ones. You don't reach the age of sixty without seeing some people die though, and the past few have seen some deaths that really hit me. Two to brain cancer, several to suicide, drug overdose, and others I'm no doubt forgetting. I'm thinking longer and harder about the time I have left.

Time to get back to work. Take care of yourself, whoever might be reading this.

Tom in his prime: