{"id":100061866,"date":"2023-02-01T13:31:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=100061866"},"modified":"2023-02-01T13:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:31:12","slug":"picturing-the-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=100061866","title":{"rendered":"Picturing the Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The airport is already beginning to get to me…I can even smell the seeping odor of the word search books…the extended feel of transition in every item.” – Francie, ‘The Butterfly Lampshade’<\/h2>

How long does it take to get to a mountain? One of the underrated aspects of these so-tall-it\u2019s-frankly-a-little-pretentious landmasses is that if you\u2019re approaching one, it is probably not as close as it looks. Granted, I grew up in the rolling hills of middle Tennessee and made the majestic prairie metropolis of Chicago<\/a> my adult home. Maybe all mountains have a huge awe factor to me. <\/p>

I thought I semi-understood mountains, though. My parents took me hiking frequently, my church growing up had yearly ski trips (French Lick, Indiana was \u201cwhen Youth Group shared a hotel with a Harley convention\u201d before it was \u201cthe birthplace of Larry Joe Bird\u201d to me)\u2014I thought I at least sort of had a handle on mountains. Then I had to drive from Salt Lake City to rural Idaho one time and learned I had no idea<\/em> what mountains\u2019 whole vibe was.<\/p>

The western United States came up in conversation with some friends\u2014I strangely have a bunch of Idaho connections in my social circle now\u2014and I got to reminiscing about that SLC\u2014>ID drive with the homie Tommy Beanbags (real name). Tom and I only made that drive because we happened<\/em> to be flying into SLC at the same time. We were going to the same wedding, sure, but Beans and I at that point were best described as acquaintances. Tom\u2019s a quiet dude and I have social anxiety, so what we had to converse off of for four hours was this: 1) Tom\u2019s iPod and 2) how nuts mountains are. <\/p>

<\/figure>

I\u2019m old enough to remember the rollout of the iPod. My 16th birthday was in 2003 and I was PROUD of my CD collection, amassed in a big ol\u2019 case that sat at the feet of the passenger side in my 30-miles-to-the-gallon 1998 Honda Accord. CDs tucked behind<\/em> album covers, crucially. Don\u2019t wanna scratch the CDs, obviously, plus you need to see the album cover<\/em>. <\/p>

\"Amazon.com:<\/figure>

When the iPod came out, it made sense. All your music in one place, very easy to carry around, no one had cell phones then anyway. \u201cBut but but,\u201d I whined to the uncaring Tech Gods, \u201cwhat about album covers?\u201d I needed my album covers. Much like book covers, they are absolutely essential to my understanding of the album as an artistic artifact. A cover is an artistic statement in and of itself, and it serves as introduction to the rest of the album\/book. Covers don\u2019t make or break (or really have any affect on) quality<\/em>, obviously. Songs are songs, a novel is a novel. But some degree of care should be put into the first impression.<\/p>

This need to see<\/em> things maybe shouldn\u2019t be as important as it is to me. Mountains are big, I know this. And if poems made of \u201cmusic IMAGE metaphor,\u201d what does the cover art really matter? Logically, nothing. I know this. It sets the vibe<\/em>, though. When I finished <\/a>The Butterfly Lampshade<\/a><\/em>, I closed the book and thought, \u201cthat is an appropriate blue color for that novel.\u201d It wasn\u2019t my first thought, I\u2019m not totally superficial. But it was a thought. <\/p>

\"67-High-Resolution-Original-Goosebumps-Covers\"\/<\/figure>

Substack Reads directed me to this post from Rachel Cabitt<\/a>, , on how album art fits into the lineage of fine art. If you wanna get me to click something, point to something previously thought of as ‘low’ art and say it’s actually ‘high’ art. We should be thinking about how normal objects around us are Art, Actually<\/em> more. That’s one of the big takeaways from The Butterfly Lampshade<\/em>, in fact.<\/p>

There\u2019s something about becoming a parent that\u2019s turned my \u201cnoticing things\u201d dial up to 11. Maybe it\u2019s having less time alone with my own experiences\u2014when you are doing anything with a preschooler, your focus is primarily the preschooler\u2014and it\u2019s made me treasure my own sensory experience more. Or maybe it\u2019s naming the world for my little dude: \u201clook, there\u2019s a blue house! There\u2019s a black cat! There\u2019s a\u2026hey, when\u2019d they put a mural there?\u201d I crave the full experience of things, I crave the feeling of being fully present immersed. <\/p>

I didn\u2019t have full context for mountains until I was driving towards one. It made me appreciate them more, like obviously<\/em> mountains are photogenic, but there\u2019s an extra layer of understanding, summoning in my memory the ominous looming of a summit in the distance. There\u2019s an extra layer of understanding listening to, say, \u201cOnce You Get Started\u201d by Rufus & Chaka Khan and picturing Chaka\u2019s beaming joy on the album cover as she belts those first high notes. <\/p>

<\/figure>

Tommy Beanbags and I went from \u201cacquaintances\u201d to \u201cgood friends\u201d on that drive. This was in 2016. The iPod had already become an anachronism, but they\u2019d figured out how to put album covers on it by then. We probably talked about that, I don\u2019t remember, but I\u2019m uninteresting enough to have probably said something about album covers. We definitely talked about that mountain, and how we figured we\u2019d be there like half an hour ago, would\u2019ve thought anyway, but guess they\u2019re bigger when you experience them. <\/p>

Sorry you got an email, <\/p>

Chris<\/p>

Thanks for reading shipwrecked sailor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p><\/div>

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