Soundscape #33: The Devil Is In The Details

Georges-Pierre Seurat. Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte, 1884—1886.

In this increasingly complicated world, everyone's got his/her eyes on the prize, all looking out for No. 1. Everyone gets swept along by the pace of city life. We all want that big promotion, that new car and that cottage by the loch. In the race to be top rat, we had assimilated all the differences that made us individual and unique. Creativity, the sense of adventure and risk, the pioneering spirit to go into the unknown for its own sake—all the qualities that would stick out in a sea of John Malkoviches—have all been sandpapered down.

It's almost like we are robots programmed to do a certain set of tasks in a certain amount of time. We all think that the hard work we put in will be justified by the big reward, the big destination at the end of it all. But what about the journey itself? We all want the fastest and easiest way to get to where we want to go but often forget that the journey itself has a lot of things to teach us, and they are all just the little things in life. Like that cup of coffee you need to get through the day. Or the smell of the grass and the colour of the sky just before it's about to rain. The cup of tea right beside the book you're reading and the music that's playing in the background.

You know what? Fuck the big picture. Live for the moment, live for the now.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Belle & Sebastian - Is It Wicked Not To Care? (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
2. (3:22) Teenage Fanclub - It's All In My Mind (Man-Made)
3. (7:02) The Broken West - Down In The Valley (I Can't Go On, I'll Go On)
4. (10:54) Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots)
5. (14:27) Death Cab For Cutie - The Sound Of Settling (Transatlanticism)
6. (16:41) Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want (Fear)
7. (20:00) Wilco - It's Just That Simple (A.M.)
8. (23:44) The New Year - Simple Life (Newness Ends)
9. (27:13) 18th Dye - Easy (& How We Got There First) (Tribute To A Bus)
10. (32:06) Earlimart - Nevermind The Phonecalls
11. (35:43) Evan Dando - All My Life (Baby I'm Bored)