Welcome to Litsy!

I wanted a quick audiobook to listen to this morning and decided to try this one by James Taylor. #TodayILearned how much his adolescence and family life shaped him and his music. I also had no clue about his close connection to the Beatles (I was born in a post-Beatles world). Very interesting. #NFN

Forgot I downloaded this when it was free on audible months ago. It was an interesting listening experience while cleaning the house this evening. I have never been a huge fan of a James Taylor‘s music but now after reading this I have a new appreciation for it.

I wasn‘t tagged and I‘m a bit late but here goes anyway with #wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. Tagged
2. All the action told after the fact making for very boring reads (calling out Philippa Gregory‘s The King‘s Curse, making me very wary of her books), and dialog without any indication who is talking, endlessly disrupting the reading experience (calling out Wolf Hall and why I won‘t read Hilary Mantel‘s books)
3. Diane Armstrong

I selected this free audible with no idea this was the singer of so many songs I sang to growing up. I wouldn‘t think about hearing about this man‘s first 21 years would be remotely interesting. But it was so good, giving some of those songs background, and getting to hear those songs again. It was insightful how a family that had everything still fell apart. And it‘s fortunate he‘s found peace. Beautifully done. 5 stars!

This is my review for an audiobook I just finished listening to.

This was offered free on Audible. If you are a James Taylor fan or have sung Fire and Rain then you should listen to this. Sad family life but honestly told by James Taylor with music played at intervals. Great Listen

We have to cooperate. We are divided between being and seeing, religious faith moves us towards a collective consciousness, so does music. It allows us to give our individuated egos the slip. Music is not only a human language, but it‘s also true to the laws of physics. An octave is double the octave below it, and half of the octave above it. Music is not arbitrary, it is empirically real and true. It follows the rules.

We all want to escape ourselves. I keep coming back to the idea that human consciousness is bifurcated, the tiger has teeth and claws, we have analyzing and predicting mechanisms, whose original function was looking for trouble. We are always on the defensive, we expect the negative. The best part of us knows we have to transcend that if we are going to survive as a family, as a tribe, as a nation, as a species, we have to think as a collective.

Music takes us outside the prison of the self, which is an ecstatic thing to have happen.

The success of an artist is not measured in how much he makes himself feel, his success is in how much he makes other people feel.

Perhaps art happens when the usual channels are not available and we have find a new path forward. Sometimes in describing that new pathway, we open a door that is useful to other people too.