This post is going to be a kind of "What I Did over Winter Vacation"-style essay.
I am a mediocre academic. I made peace with that about halfway through grad school. Like most of my peers, I showed up hoping that I would be the second coming of Marx. Pretty much on day one, however, I realized I was surrounded by a bunch of people (most of whom were much smarter, harder working, and more interpersonally politically savvy than I) with the same aspirations. (I had a similar experience as an undergraduate, having been a big fish locally as a musician only to find myself a small fish at the music/music business-oriented university where I matriculated in Nashville.) Ironically, that afforded me a great deal of long-term comfort (a/k/a mental health) because it freed up winter, spring, and summer breaks to do other things, like riding my bike anddrinking too much brewing beer and making music. While my peers are killing themselves to get out the next paper, I'm fine with being a rounded human being.
Over the last year or so, I've been getting heavily back into the music stuff that I'd really abused since late in grad school. I've been songwriting at a pace not matched since high school. I upgraded my DAW and bought a new acoustic guitar. Finally, I can report, I'm in a new band. (OK, so, we're currently only a duo, but it's collaborative music making; cut me some slack.) We've done a couple open mics, and in a couple weeks, we're doing a duo/singers/songwriters showcase here in Athens. Exciting stuff!
So, to the point of the post. Having cut the cord over the summer, I've found myself watching a lot more YouTube. I surprised myself over the winter break in the kind of content that I was consuming. Without further ado, here are the three YouTube channels that have been dominating my viewing time over last four weeks:
Don't call it a midlife crisis. Call it a pre-midlife enrichment.
I am a mediocre academic. I made peace with that about halfway through grad school. Like most of my peers, I showed up hoping that I would be the second coming of Marx. Pretty much on day one, however, I realized I was surrounded by a bunch of people (most of whom were much smarter, harder working, and more interpersonally politically savvy than I) with the same aspirations. (I had a similar experience as an undergraduate, having been a big fish locally as a musician only to find myself a small fish at the music/music business-oriented university where I matriculated in Nashville.) Ironically, that afforded me a great deal of long-term comfort (a/k/a mental health) because it freed up winter, spring, and summer breaks to do other things, like riding my bike and
Over the last year or so, I've been getting heavily back into the music stuff that I'd really abused since late in grad school. I've been songwriting at a pace not matched since high school. I upgraded my DAW and bought a new acoustic guitar. Finally, I can report, I'm in a new band. (OK, so, we're currently only a duo, but it's collaborative music making; cut me some slack.) We've done a couple open mics, and in a couple weeks, we're doing a duo/singers/songwriters showcase here in Athens. Exciting stuff!
So, to the point of the post. Having cut the cord over the summer, I've found myself watching a lot more YouTube. I surprised myself over the winter break in the kind of content that I was consuming. Without further ado, here are the three YouTube channels that have been dominating my viewing time over last four weeks:
Don't call it a midlife crisis. Call it a pre-midlife enrichment.
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