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Life's Little Pleasures
Jan. 4th, 2004 12:12 pmI was listening to some music that fell off the back of a truck today - "Losing my Religion" by REM. It occurred to me that these guys were a pretty good band, and that I didn't really know a lot about them. That leads me to this blog entry.
One of life's little pleasures is discovering an artist you like but had never heard of before. Suddenly you have their whole repertoire ahead of you to enjoy at your leisure. For me it can be a writer, or a musician, or a director.
Closely related is being able to listen to a new favorite song over and over again (this works if you live alone, or don't mind using headphones - roomies may not agree with your choice of repeat).
The downside is getting into the habit of reading/watching/listening to this new fave and hitting the end of their catalog. Suddenly you have to wait for their new output just like everyone else. I wait, wailing and gnashing my teeth, for the next Christopher Moore and S. M. Stirling. Some, like Lewis Carroll I have read all there is and there will never ever be any more.
Worse still is when a creator loses their spark. I used to read everything that Christopher Stasheff ever wrote, but stopped when I realized that his first novel - The Warlock in Spite of Himself - was the best thing we was ever going to do. Larry Niven is in the same boat, but it took him longer to get to that point. And don't get me started on Elfquest. I owe EQ a lot, but in hindsight, I collected it far FAR past it's due date. Stick with the original series, ignore the rest.
One of life's little pleasures is discovering an artist you like but had never heard of before. Suddenly you have their whole repertoire ahead of you to enjoy at your leisure. For me it can be a writer, or a musician, or a director.
Closely related is being able to listen to a new favorite song over and over again (this works if you live alone, or don't mind using headphones - roomies may not agree with your choice of repeat).
The downside is getting into the habit of reading/watching/listening to this new fave and hitting the end of their catalog. Suddenly you have to wait for their new output just like everyone else. I wait, wailing and gnashing my teeth, for the next Christopher Moore and S. M. Stirling. Some, like Lewis Carroll I have read all there is and there will never ever be any more.
Worse still is when a creator loses their spark. I used to read everything that Christopher Stasheff ever wrote, but stopped when I realized that his first novel - The Warlock in Spite of Himself - was the best thing we was ever going to do. Larry Niven is in the same boat, but it took him longer to get to that point. And don't get me started on Elfquest. I owe EQ a lot, but in hindsight, I collected it far FAR past it's due date. Stick with the original series, ignore the rest.
