Eclectic...Of Course
Virtually anyone who has any familiarity with the word has a standard answer when they are asked about their musical tastes. The cliched response is that they are eclectic. I certainly say it, and then I immediately catch myself, and follow up with the fact that most everyone wants to fancy themselves that way. Over the last twenty-four hours or so, I am musing that perhaps I can tab my entire life that way without qualification.
I just finished working out while watching Wolverhampton upset Tottenham in a Premier League soccer match. That, after last evening watching an old “Downtown Abbey” with my wife, followed by a tribute to Leonard Bernstein performed by the Boston Pops and various guests, followed by a thirty-minute infomercial (it was actually entertaining despite the hard sell) for a collection of DVD’s of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony concerts. I’ll probably buy it. That after an afternoon of working on my Quick Books account for DRCMedia LLC.
Merely a decade ago, I am pretty sure I would have bet you good money that I wouldn’t ever do any of those things, well, except for the Hall of Fame thing, of course. I am delighted to have by circumstances expanded my horizons, but it was hardly by design. I would never want to admit to being a creature of habit, but anyone who once ran 7,131 consecutive days, and still works out first thing every day, one who once ate popcorn every day for about ten years, and also spent a decade never wearing socks except for athletics or shoes period (I even got married in sneakers), would have to plead guilty.
So lets review the….ahem….eclectic events of the past day or so. Circumstance has, of course, brought on the Quick Books. I have spent my entire professional life broadcasting, and getting paid for it. Plain and simple. Now I have created dannyclinkscale.com, and I am running a business. It is far from my wheelhouse, but I am embracing the challenge. I love doing things like this blog, but digging in to the business side is a learned effort. I have always loved numbers and statistics, so shouldn’t bookkeeping be….err…fun???
“Downton Abbey” would not have once fit into something I might embrace. First off, it became so popular by the time I first watched it that ordinarily I would run away from something so trendy. But my wife liked the show, I like to watch shows with her, and soon I was as hooked as any of the millions who embraced the PBS show imported from England.
My daughter just completed school in London. I have been there four times now, and I love the city. But I always have found, and still really, really do, Americans curiosity with the monarchy of England, very curious. But most other things British, I enjoy very much. That now has spread to Premier League soccer, and soccer in general.
Ten years ago, I knew precious little about the game. I didn’t even know that the Premier League existed. I had heard about Manchester United, but that was about it. But in my first visit to Europe in 2010 (a trip that was financed in large part and inspired by covering the Ryder Cup), I was so overwhelmed by soccer coverage that I caught the bug. It’s hard for non-fans to get, but their football is actually somehow even more popular and omnipresent than the NFL is here. Yes, the NFL is king in the U.S., but we also have baseball, the NBA, NHL, college football and basketball etc. In the U.K., rugby and cricket get some run, but pretty much it’s full-on soccer.
I knew back then that Premier League play was going to start being televised on NBCSN, I had started to get some interest in the game, so I decided to pick a team. I had watched two Arsenal games on the trip, I liked their style of play, and Ian Poulter was always tweeting about them, so presto, that was that. I have jerseys and a scarf and all that. But now I am like an NFL fan. I don’t just watch Arsenal games. I’ll watch ANY game. They are on in the morning when I work out, it’s perfect. Adding soccer to my voluminous sports list just makes me...more eclectic!!!!
I can also credit my wife for causing me to give a classical concert a full-on go. She is an opera singer, was a professional at a high level before I met her, and you might guess that when I married HER, I was not wearing sneakers and no socks with my tuxedo. I have seen many operas and opera performances since I met her. I cannot say that I have embraced it like, say, Mark Knopfler, but I admire the craft. There is no improvisation, only perfection. Incredibly high-level perfection that demands admiration.
My wife once studied with Leonard Bernstein (she actually calls him Lenny when she talks about him, just like all the people on the tribute concert did), so watching this was special to her. But I wasn’t merely doing a favor, or just admiring this performance by the Boston Pops at Tanglewood with guests like Yo-Yo Ma like I do an opera. I loved it.
They were playing most Gustav Mahler. I know the name, that’s it. I could nod my head at a snooty dinner party, and say I knew his work, but no chance. I just know his name, like you might know Friedrich Nietzsche (I had to look up his first name), or Marcel Proust. I know they are both writers, but I would lose on Jeopardy if the question was to name a work by either. See, I’m not that eclectic.
But the concert was electrifying. Sometimes when listening to a classical piece, I can think that it is going on far too long. It wasn’t happening here. The music was soft and loud and soaring and lilting, and watching the soloists, people at the top of their profession, was really something. I NEVER otherwise listen to classical music. I hear it only in movies (John Williams was one of the guest conductors), or by happenstance. That might change.
It is nice also that my wife more than returns the favor. She loves all kinds of music, and we attend many popular music events, and watch countless DVR’d concerts. She still sings and performs opera regularly, so she doesn’t even have to make any apologies, she really is eclectic.
One of my greatest lessons about being open minded about music came in Nashville. My children lived there for five years, and I visited over fifty times and I loved going there. The way the usual schedule laid out was I would have them for Friday and Saturday night and stay at a hotel, they would return home Sunday night in preparation for school in the morning, but I would get to visit them at school on Monday morning before I left. So, I always had Sunday night to myself.
Nashville is often mistakenly known as merely being merely the country music capital. It is a fabulous music city, period, and I would take in live music on every one of those Sundays. It was virtually never country. In fact, the place I went to the most was the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar in Printer’s Alley.
But I would wander around as well, and one time I happened in to this place that was a boot store in the day time and a music venue at night. There were four men, at least in their seventies, up on a makeshift stage wearing bib overalls. Two fiddles, an upright bass, and a snare drum. It was about 8 o’clock as they started so I grabbed a beer and figured I would listen to a tune or two. You know, eclectic. I stayed all night.
They played straight traditional country, a genre of music I have little affection for. But these guys were badasses. They were so excellent I would have listened to “Rock of Ages”, and I never come to thee. It was enthralling. Watching them was like watching the lead clarinetist or the harpist for the Pops. People at the very top of their craft, their craft being two wildly different things.
Sometimes happenstance has to occur, and sometimes you need a bit of prodding to open your horizons. It isn’t always going to work. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a speed metal song that I like, but I’m not saying it couldn’t happen.
Because if I denied the possibility then I could never again claim to be….eclectic.