habemus papam

As a person of the Mosaic persuasion, the choice of Pope should be a matter of indifference to me. To some extent it is, though after the papacy of John Paul II everyone is a bit more interested in the office and the papal election process. I have no idea whether the new Pope - formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger - will be able to do as much for the office as his predecessor. It is well nigh certain that his reign will not be as long, as the man is already 78 years old. What really piqued my interest today was the unanimous bleating of the media about the new Pope's conservatism and lack of "progressive" ideas.

Right across the dial on both TV and radio, as well as on talk shows - talking heads, callers, punters and all manner of assorted experts verily foamed at the mouth about the lack of progress in the Catholic church, the refusal to acknowledge the 21. century, the percieved inability of the institution to deal with such hot button issues as same sex marriage, condom distribution in Africa and other problems near and dear to the liberal heart.

The "problem" with the new Pope and with the Catholic church is that it's not interested in dealing with issues near and dear to the liberal heart. The bailiwick of the Catholic church is eternal truth - not political correctness or a desire to be liked and accepted or a need to adapt to "modernity". The point is not whether we like it or not or whether we disagree with it or not or whether we think that the Church will lose priests or alienate followers or shed nuns. The Church is not a hobby club or a support group or a popularity contest. As far as the hierarchy of the Church is concerned there is only one thing that is important and those are the teachings of Christ.

As I said: this is not my religion and not something that I lose sleep over (I have plenty of other issues to lose sleep over) But I can't help but emit a good chuckle when I hear this liberal indignation all around me. Gosh-darn-it...yet another conservative Pope! Yet another obstacle to a perfect world as envisaged by the mavens of "modern" intelligentsia! Quelle scandal!!

constant yearning

These days, when the sun is blazing like it's competing with July, the birds are chirping at the top of their lungs and the first magnolias are budding a fleshy pink (alas, a state of affairs that is officially coming to an end tonight: the forecast calls for rain and then a marked cooling off from a high of 27 today to a more seasonal 10 degrees) - anyway, these days it's hard to concentrate on work. All I want to do is spend time outside. But work I must and as I type or make calls or email or search the net and all my other office tasks, thoughts occur to me about the nature of my work. See, the thing is, I am musician. In other words, I pay the mortgage by playing music to paying audiences. But in recent months and years, increasingly I am a musician only at night, when actually playing! During the day, there is no time to practice my guitar, no time to write tunes and precious little time even for the horn arrangements that I must write for my band. During the day, I am an office stiff: I spend every available minute in front of the computer and the fax machine and on the phone. Granted, there is no boss breathing down my neck, I can take my lunch breaks when I please and I don't have to commute to work on the subway with an army of desperate zombies. Nevertheless, there is very little in my day that has to do with music. Gone are the days when I would just pick up my guitar and write a tune, when I would dream about my tune being bought by a big time publisher and sung by a big time star. Gone are, in a word, the days of constant yearning, replaced by days of constant churning.

I guess many musicians solve this dilemma by hiring an agent. I've never had a full time agent working for me but I have been working with one part-time. This actually works out fine, except I don't receive a sufficient number of bookings this way to make ends meet. Also, my own bookings tend to be better "career" gigs - i.e. concerts and such, whereas agency bookings are usually long and exhausting bar gigs.

The startling thing is that, although alarmed by this development at first, I have grown accustomed to it. Sure, I'd love to have a manager and a full time agent, people to take care of the business business so that I can take care of the music making business practice. Yet, I have now been doing the administrative side of things for so long that I wouldn't be able to let go. No new songs get written but the mortgage is getting paid.