05.30.07 -- PINCHED NERVES, RYAN ADAMSI am not typing so much these days because I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder (from typing too much) causing my arm to go totally dead if I live on my computer and hold my body at the wrong angle. It has forced me to remember how I did business before I became a slave to email. Email was supposed to make our lives easier and we were supposed to be SO much more productive. Medical overuse issues aside, does anyone really love that they have email? Do any of you have email free days where you just don't look at it and actually use the phone? I am considering all of my options at this point.
My physical therapist said that they are making a killing from computer related stress injuries. He said high school kids hunched over computers for hours on end is a real issue causing major posture related injuries. I wonder how my own 14 year old is gonna do at 40 after generating 3000 text messages a month with one hand for years on end.
Ah..technology. I am not sold.
On another note, last night after catching up on what is happening with Lindsay Lohan and Rosie O'Donnell, I decided to cut off the idiot box and listen to some tunes on the back deck. We are in a real drought and the lack of humidity is actually allowing us to sit outside for hours at a time without sweating or getting carried off by mosquitoes.
I go thru tons of music as you can imagine. I usually listen to advances on CD. Why not digital Don? Because I have a bad habit of forgetting what I rip into my iTunes. Yep, I put it in and forget to listen to it because it gets lost down in there with the 12,000 other songs. Plus, I am a sound quality guy and just can't get used to shitty sounding digital files. I guess I am old. Or I need to rip at a higher bit rate. No, I am just old.
I have stacks of advances (some I am not supposed to have of course) and I shuffle thru them over and over. If they hang around for weeks and I don't listen, they get filed in a bucket at the office. More than once I have had to frantically dig thru that bucket and find that music that I promised to listen to but never really did.
Last night we elected to listen to the new Ryan Adams "Easy Tiger" advance. We had already listened to it several times in the car on our weekend road trip but not with the advantage of the open ear that wine affords.
And the verdict is in. This is an amazing record. It hits me like Neil Young did when I was in high school. It should hit everyone that way. I take it from reports that ole Ryan has done gone sober. Good thing since he was a well documented train wreck. Unlike his last several efforts, this one obviously had someone acting as a filter. Ryan is a prolific guy and that is a mixed blessing since his weaker stuff is only for the most fanatic fan. This release has not a stinker on it. Really exceptional and beautiful songwriting and performing.
It was a nice night. Two listens all the way through.
