I'm not alone in having to work a lot, but we all have at least a couple of moments each day to do... what?

What do you do with two hours? Well, that's quite a long time: you could listen to a James Horner score one and a half times, but the reality is that there are other important things to be done:

There is social intercourse (HO!) to be performed with the family, food to be eaten etc. And what of leisure activities like reading books, watching documentaries on TV, or listening to the radio? How much time does, and should, film music take of YOUR life?

For me, not enough, but I don't want to lose track of reality either.

Help!

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What do you do with two hours? Well, that's quite a long time: you could listen to a James Horner score one and a half times ...[/B]

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There is a glut of culture. All the art and expression of the past together with all the produce of the day.

Right now there are libraries filled with books, newspapers, and magazines to read; video stores full of tapes to watch; radio stations playing a thousand different songs; satelite dishes picking up 500 channels of news, sports, documentaries, and sit-coms.

It is simply overwhelming and this refers only to culture. Add actual living--food, friends, family, work, shopping, sleeping, and the need to be apart to rest and do nothing--and modern man lives his life hopelessly behind and out of breath.

Some are tossing the whole thing aside, "simplifing" their lives by going off to sell bait from a shack on some beach or living in ashrams. This might work for some. For others, it becomes just another pursuit that frazzles and wears you out. And not everyone can do a Gaughin and leave their families or other responsibilities behind. And not everyone wants to--modern life and culture are exciting, real hooks that keep you wanting more.

I try to do as much as I can but realize that there are limits. As much as I'd like to read every Shakespeare play and read every word of Tolstoy or Faulkner (or own and listen to every note of film music), it's unlikely to happen. From there it's simply a matter of figuring out what's the most important, what gives you the best feedback, of being selective, of giving up on time vampires like conversations you don't want to have, places you don't want to go, of spending time trying to figure out what film music to send someone who doesn't like it to begin with. Forget it. Let it go. Become detached. Walk away.

Pursuits are supposed to be fun, not just another thing you have to do. When playing Horner is a chore you're trying to fit in between other chores (of course, I find playing Horner a chore under any circumstances), you've lost perspective and need a sabbatical.

That's a personal decision. If it gives you more pleasure than other things, I suppose you should work it in as much as possible.

I'll actually set time aside to listen to film music. I also bring CDs and tapes to work where I'm able to play this music without interference except for the occasional puzzled look from passersby in the hallway.

I make tapes for people but I usually try to do other things while the tapes are recording like check on the laundry or talk on the phone.

Rule #1: Set aside only two to four hours per 24-hour period for sleep.

Rule #2: Delete all social aspects of your life.

If you attend these two simple guidelines you will find, as I have, that you will have much more time with which to treat your ears to music.

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Originally posted by JJH:
wasn't it Leonardo da Vinci who said that sleep was a waste of time?
NP -- [b]Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde, Mark McKenzie[/B]

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Heck, why be demented in REM when you can do it in the real world? Bring on the coffee!! (which I don't even drink, BTW)

However, my roommate's tastes and mind are considerably different: for background stuff, he's more into art-rock bands like Echo & The Bunnymen and The Cure. He actually has pretty good taste, but I can't have lyrics in the background while I'm trying to write, other people's words crowding my own. (Non-English lyrics don't count since I can rarely understand them.) Fortunately, and somewhat to my surprise, he's adopted my liking for Jerry Goldsmith and Akira Ifukube (he's predisposed to like Ifukube anyway, being a fellow Godzilla nut). He particularly likes the main theme to CHINATOWN (probably because it's melancholy), and responded well to my never-fails Goldsmith introduction disc, UNDER FIRE.

[/B]AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/B]

[Message edited by AaronR1074 on 10-22-2000]

The anecdote about your son is sufficiently adorable that I will pass it on to roomie if he ever wakes up. He has emerged from his room precisely twice today. On certain Sundays, one is wiser not to stir the leviathan.

Margaret Thatcher only sleeps four hours a night too. She must have loads of time to listen to film music.

Scott