I bought a watch this weekend.  Not the most provocative of things, I know, but I haven’t worn a wrist-based timepiece in years.  Why?  Because, who needs one?!  I decided, years ago, that my computer, my cell phone, my cable box, and my car have all the clocks that I need.  They keep me on time, or remind me when I’m late.

Let me stress the decision to abandon a watch was made years ago.  Recently, I had a revelation; I, again, need a watch.

Learn the way of the Watch

Years ago, I simply had a cell phone; now, I have a BlackBerry.  Years ago, I had a computer with email and a by-request internet connection; now, I have constant internet connectivity plus instant messenger.  We have evolved to that connect-me-to-everyone-right-now stuff and instead of living in the moment, we are living outside the moment.  I have become so busy responding to the immediate requests of others immediately, that I completely ignore the people I’m with and the actual conversation we’re having.  To put it bluntly, I’ve become an anxious, rude, half-listener with attention deficit tendencies.

How many of you can say the same?  Do you hang out with one group of people, but spend all of your time with them communicating with other people?  Catch up with friends at the bar, and you’re all standing around texting friends who aren’t with you?  Sitting in your living room with your family, but completely distracted from your kids conversation because you’re too busy updating your Facebook status?

Part of the problem is, when I go to check the time, I am sucked in to my email, my voicemails, my alerts, messages, tweets and the like.  And, damn the moment and what I may be doing, I must reply immediately. I’m guilty if I don’t respond and I’m guilty if I do.  Stress Recipe 101.

Hence, the watch and my new commitment to bringing myself back into the moment.  I’m hoping it tell me what time it is – literally and figuratively. Looking at my wrist will unplug me from the device-dependant ridiculousness that has been so overwhelmingly distracting.  Maybe you should consider conquering your time differently, too.

~pp

The Slacker Factor Podcast, Episode 12:  Quality Otter Haircuts and the Pirated Music of Bjorkestra (not necessarily in that order)

Tune in to see just how the words in the title actually combine to form a coherent episode of The Slacker Factor.

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Links:

Meandering Rant: Business and Competition by Christian

Book Report: Music Piracy by Rob

Music Segment:  Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra

The Slacker Factor Podcast, Episode 11:  Crazy like Patty (or Snooki)

Your crack team of Slackers explores what’s real and what’s faux and Patty decides she’s cooler than Snooki in her “Reality is
Overrated” rant. Christian ponders the future of the suprising long-time coming electric car. And we feast our ears on the alt-pop of Draz. Now that’s a show! (or is it?)

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Meandering Rant: Reality Is Overrated by Patty

Book Report: Electric Cars by Christian

Music Segment:  Sunday Rain by Draz

Before and since that night, I have enjoyed and analyzed comedy. (Admittedly, I analyze everything I enjoy.)  How psyched was I, then, when the May 2010 issue of WIRED magazine featured comedian and Web Soup host Chris Hardwick’s article Crafting a Joke: The Arc of an Act? Completely, and I was completely impressed. Many, many comedy professionals and feigned comedic personalities have attempted to describe their joke processes, but Hardwick, in sharing his approach and the perspective of others, boils it down to the essentials.

Want people to laugh with you instead of just at you?  Read Hardwick’s advice, start thinking funny, right it down, and go.

~pp

The Slacker Factor Podcast, Episode 10:  Green Fairy Drink Drink

Absinthe, three ways. Oh, yeah, and there was also some ranting about something..um… Rob invents an economic theory on the fly and some music by Zero 7…the rest remains a bleary, blurred whirl.

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Meandering Rant:
Rob invents a new economic theory on the fly (slackernomics?)

Book Report:
Absinthe Tasting – the crew downs three different Absinthes: Lucid, Absente, and La Fee, and barely makes it through the rest of the episode.
The Little Green Book of Absinthe by Paul Owens and Paul Nathan

Music Segment:  Zero 7

Borrowed from BT Internet Rangers

I was talking with a buddy of mine who reads the Slacker Factor and he commented that he enjoys the blog and podcast, but he said he thought I was a bit negative at times.  Maybe even bordering on angry on occasion. I certainly don’t view myself as angry.  In fact I know for certain that today the sun came up, a puppy was born, and a baby took his first steps.  So, life is great!

Unfortunately, Glenn Beck still sucks.

Kurt Cobain - February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994

Here is another interesting article from our friend JenX67 regarding a new exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum

When the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) announced the selection of Michael Darling as its new chief curator, they did so on Twitter. Apparently, one of Darling’s strengths is his ability to attract “a whole new audience”. Audience development is one of the biggest issues facing arts organizations far and wide. Whether opera, contemporary art or ballet, much has been written about how the arts are currently struggling to engage Gen X and Gen Y audiences. Darling, a Gen Xer, comes to MCA from the Seattle Art Museum where his final exhibit is a look at how Kurt Cobain impacted a generation. “This exhibition asks viewers to question how and why Kurt came to mean so much to a generation,” Darling says.

jenx67.com, jenX67 | are you there God? it’s me, generation x,

You should read the whole article and check out this link to a slideshow from the exhibit.  And if you’re in the neighborhood swing by the exhibit!

No offense or disrespect to The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, The Who, Chicago, Kenny Rodgers, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffet or Crosby, Still, Nash and whoever, but it is time.  You’ve had your heyday.  You’ve made your money.  Now, go away.

Still have the desire to perform?  That is why they invented Vegas.  Or Branson.

Otherwise, move out of the spotlight, and let someone else have a chance.

Oh, sure, I acknowledge that you have been contributors to the world of music.  As singers, and songwriters, and musicians, and rockers you brought your sound to the masses and influenced pop culture and ingrained our brains with your riffs and lyrics.  Your music will live in the hearts and minds of many generations.  Thank you and bye-bye.

Maybe you think I sound harsh, but think about it?  Imagine if the previous generation of musical talent kept trying to keep performing in a big way at major awards shows, sporting events, on tour, and on television.Oh yeah – they did.  Remember the late days of Elvis or Frank?  Sad, sad, ugly, and sad.  They worked past-their-prime, trying to hold on to their young musical glory, and it didn’t work.  Hello – It ain’t working for you anymore, either.

For that matter, go away “Play that Funky Music, White Boy”, “Celebration”, “We are Family”, “Mustang Sally”, “Freebird”, “Brick House” and “Sweet Home Alabama”.  It is time to stop you and all of your cover band and wedding reception over-played power.

It is my contention that the past stands in the way of the future.  It is too convenient to dance to the music you’ve been hearing forever and it is regressive to sing along at concerts of artists who had their heyday before you were born.

Sure, it is fine to reminisce once-in-a-while; even I sing along to The Beatles. And, maybe you qualify as  quirky-cool because your ringtone is an obscure Marvin Gaye B-side.  But, why spend hundreds of dollars to go to concerts performed by people who need to get themselves jacked up on anti-inflammatories just to take the stage?  And, why are those same people still making crazy money to sing songs about their sexy youth, when “sexy” and “youth” have been replaced with “wrinkled” and “old”?  If we fill our lives with only the songs we know, we are forced to look backwards and are missing the view ahead.

I know, I know – the past is comfortable.  It feels more real because you’ve already experienced it.  It is as grounding and familiar as those ratty sweatpants you refuse to throw away.  It is like making out with an old boyfriend or girlfriend again.  You know just what to do to make them feel good.  Play “American Pie” and everyone relaxes.

You are trampling the road more traveled, and it is making you soft.

What happened to established artists gracefully aging and mentoring the next generation’s creativity, instead of competing with it?  Why do we continue to demand the stuff we know, instead of striving to experience something new?  We should cry out for the future, instead of sentimentally weeping for the past.

It is time to put down your high-school facebook, I mean, yearbook and move forward. Rock stars prefer to burn out than fade away; it is time for the faded old burn-outs to go away.

Let’s advance things, shall we? Listen to a new song, a new band, or a new artist, today.  Dance to something you’ve never heard before, tonight.  Let’s change the demand for music, right now, and we’ll change the future of music, for the better.

~pp

< Be now in the now.  Listen to TSF9: We’re Next, We’re Now The Slacker Factor Podcast here, or on iTunes. >

The Slacker Factor Podcast, Episode 9:  We’re Next, We’re Now

The way things are today does not mean they need to stay that way. We can influence the future of music. Our interview with Tammy Erickson, author of Whats Next Gen X? confirms that we can upgrade the quality of professional lives. Listening to the music of Trixie Whitley brings us into the here, right now..

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Meandering Rant on How We Can Influence the Future of Music by Patty

Book Report: A Conversation with Tammy Erickson, the author of a new book about the challenges Generation X face in the workplace entitled, “What’s Next Gen X”

Music Segment: Trixie Whitley with Daniel Lanois in Black Dub

I think I suffer from the same malady many of us face today.  Time.  Its like a drug.  There isn’t enough of it, I’ve lost track of it, is it the right time, its running out, I cant afford it, and I am wasting it.  You get the point.

Now, none of this is new to most of us.  Every once in a while we look in the mirror but don’t see that 18yr old that we imagine we still look like.  Full of youth and vigor and lacking the lines and gray hairs we see today.  But I can deal with getting older, I really don’t have a problem with it.  What I do have a problem with is that I am not doing all of the things I always envisioned I would have done by now.  That’s not to say I won’t, its just…  I am a bit off schedule.  This is my problem.

I wont bore you with the laundry list of things I thought I would have done by now, but many of them are typical… seeing Europe, sailing the Caribbean, having that corner office, stuff like that.  I don’t think it’s because I’m not capable of doing these things, but haven’t had the time to really devote to getting to them.  Stuff keeps happening and it’s never the right time.

Perhaps it’s the trade offs I’ve made over time.  When I was younger I really wasn’t able to comprehend the impact parenthood would have on my life.  Its all good stuff, I just didn’t know how much of a priority it would become to ensure my kids have the best I can give them.  So I’ve traded my vacations to the Caribbean for vacations to Sesame Street Place and the like.  I’m ok with that too, but I still have “my” stuff to do.

So, for “my” stuff, call it my “bucket list” if you like, I wonder when I will find the time.  My kids are still young and I don’t have the financial wherewithal to pack up the whole family and go to Europe for two weeks.  And we all know that won’t fly with the boss anyway – two weeks off – in a row???.  Maybe what I need to do with my time is try and schedule it.  Maybe if I start to plan on the lower hanging fruit of my goals for now and hope for the best down the road.  But…

What if I am running out of time?  Jeeze that’s a gloomy thought.  Here I am, only 40, and wondering about a final nap on the big couch.  Well, I am hoping that I live for another 40 (or longer if the big guy allows) and that gives me a fair amount of time to get to the bigger things on the list, and maybe by then I will be in a better financial position to take on the larger trips.  Maybe I’ll even be retired before I’m 75 and have a time where I wont be trying to vacation with one foot in the sand and another strapped to my blackberry.    Which brings me to my last point…

This whole indentured servitude to Corporate America, am I wasting my time?  I am trading my time so that the corporate fat-cats can have their fancy dinners and be driven to and fro and fly first class etc etc?  Is my time worth only the paycheck I receive, and to cause me to put off the things I would really rather be doing?  Will I wake up when I’m 65 and wonder why the hell I spent the last 40yrs working in Corporate America??  That scares me.  That seriously scares me… a lot.  Of course, when I look at my kids I know that the sacrifice is all worth it.  If I would trade my soul to the devil to ensure my kids happiness, surely selling it to Corporate America couldn’t be all that much worse.  Could it?

Well, my time is up.  I appreciate your giving me some of yours.  And until next time…  ~cg