Blues, brews, and living online
Since starting this website in January 2007 I've become rather committed to living my life online in a sense. Every day—well, typically every night—I sit down at the computer and with words and pictures try to summarize, highlight or comment on something that happened that day. It might be an exceedingly mundane comment about jet lag or my attempt to look at the big picture, like how important travel is to our view of our own country.
I carry my camera in a belt holster virtually all the time. When I forget it I feel naked and unprepared. So you can see that I'm pretty geeky in this respect. But I've tried to sty true to a rule I set for myself early on: live your life for its own sake, not for how it will look on the web. I pull out my camera to take pictures of things I want to remember rather than seeking out scenes that will look good in a photo. I've been tempted at times to recreate things I experienced when I didn't have my camera, but have avoided that. It happens a lot while I'm running (always without camera): I'll encounter interesting people, scenes or human interactions at Edgewater Park with no way to record them. Oh well. You'll just have to take my word that these things happen.
Which brings me to last night. We went with friends to Wendy Park on the lakefront for a local blues festival. It was a beautiful late summer evening. The music was good at first, escalating to great when the final act, Kristine Jackson, took the stage. I had my camera and on several occasions thought what a good opportunity it would be to take a picture/video of the performance. I even did take a stab at recording audio one time, but missed the part that was most interesting. Frustrating.
Then my mental alarm sounded: live your life, don't record it.
I put the camera away for good, turned to talk with the people around me, enjoyed the music, and from time to time leaned back to look up at the stars.
You'll have to take my word that it was a great event. Kristine & the band were smokin' and the half moon shining over us was the magical finishing touch.
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