Soundscape #21: A Cup Of Tea And A Good Book (Or, Alone But Not Lonely)

Edward Hopper. The Night Window, 1928.

It is always a struggle for time between work and everything else. The only solution is to set up some kind of a momentum or a routine so that the 10000 things you need to take care of will get done. Throughout the working week, it's just about getting from Point A to B, doing everything from A to Z. Sometimes I feel like I'm a robot just trying to accomplish everything I've been programmed to do.

That's why for me and almost everyone else, Friday nights and weekends are manna from heaven. Finally I can have a good dinner, maybe watch a stupid mindless movie with friends without thinking about the time. Friday nights are especially important because you've just finished your stint in hell. Friday nights always smell so much fresher somehow. But even that can get a bit routine-y as well, don't you think? We'd always meet up with more or less the same friends, eat at the same places, and bitch about the same things. I'm sure most of us find comfort in this kind of routine to the extent that a plan-less Friday night or weekend would seem disconcerting. I used to dread the thought of a Friday night alone and wonder what kind of loser I was if I didn't have plans for the weekend.

However, I realise that I don't have time to and for myself anymore. When I'm at home, there is a programmed list of things that I have to do (eat, sleep, tv) and by the time I get them done, I don't have the time to do the other things I want to do, like alphabetise my books and cds, read more, write more. So I'm gonna set aside 1 Friday night a month to go straight home, make some nice tea with lemon and pick up the book that I've been trying to finish for the longest time and just be with myself.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Alexi Murdoch - Blue Mind (Buy Time Without Consequence)
2. (5:40) John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - You Are Too Beautiful (Buy John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)
3. (11:13) Miles Davis - Blue In Green (Buy Kind Of Blue)
4. (16:48) Tom Petty - Free Fallin' (Buy Full Moon Fever)
5. (21:02) BB King - The Thrill Is Gone (Buy Why I Sing The Blues)
6. (26:27) Muddy Waters - You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had
7. (29:25) Chet Baker - Look For The Silver Lining (Buy Chet Baker Sings)
8. (32:07) Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Autumn In New York (Buy Best Of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong)
9. (38:04) Jaymay - Gray Or Blue (Buy See Green Or Blue EP)
10. (41:33) Josh Ritter - In The Dark (Buy The Animal Years)