Abstinence

[James R. Coplin]

>Quite a few bar members have been on the move over the last 6 months so:
>
>1) What is the longest you have been without any musical equipment
>2) Did you come back revitalised?
>3) What is the longest you have been without any listening music?

1) I have been without a full studio setup for almost a year and a half now.
I had to pack up everything when I sold my old house as I didn't want a
bunch of strangers mucking around with my gear about and it took up too much
space anyhow.  I finally got it out of storage last Feb when I moved into my
new place but it still isn't fully hooked up.  I can make some noises but I
really can't record yet and not everything is hooked up.  It has been
dreadful actually.

2) I don't know yet.  I can say that things I'm puttering around with have a
much different sound than I expected and I am looking forward to getting
back going again.  However, school starts for me next week and I rushing
trying to get a ton of woodworking done for trim and builtins around the new
place so I seriously doubt I'll be able to do anything until snow flies and
shuts down my shop for the season.

3) This one is more interesting, I don't think I've ever been without music
for more than a few days since the mid 80's.  Even when I have traveled to
remote locales, I've taken enough batteries to last for most of the duration
so I've never been more than maybe two days without.  I always found the
dichotomy strange that I was in locales where if I or someone I was with
died, there wasn't anyway to get the body out for a week or more until the
plane came.  However, during that time where I was incommunicado, I could
listen to any number of musical selections I had brought. It seems to me
that books and music were about the only things that could not be denied to
me.  I can see why books favor so significantly on so many immigrants lists
of things they bring with them (along with instruments).  Music surely also
currently meets this requirement. With batteries become increasingly better
and storage smaller and more efficient, this shouldn't change any time soon.

What I'm not sure about is what the effect would be by going without music
for a week or two.  I find it striking that I've never had to.  It seems
like a fairly simple thing to do.  Yet, I'm not about to try it.  Odd
actually.

James R. Coplin