NYC is a professional musician, hopefully he will offer his opinion of this. 

As for music being too easy to consume, I like it because it puts so much at my fingertips. However, I grew up learning to appreciate music as Rick mentions. I sometimes wonder if young consumers of today have the same appreciation for the creative, and performance, process of real music.

https://youtu.be/1bZ0OSEViyo?si=bEy6YHvnkLdh_w6V

Disclaimer: not NYC

I grew up in a music household. Mom worked in a record store, bought music and we listened to more music than watched TV it seemed. I ended up working at the record store too, and gained a diverse appreciation for music. We were one of the few places in Cleveland that you could get niche music like Polka, Zydeco, or fill your juke with vinyl. Even when I stopped working there, most of my paychecks went to the Record Exchange, and I bought and traded all kinds of used material to expand my collection and my musical horizons. College radio stations were plentiful, and local shops and publications included their broadcast schedules so you could find music that didn't fit mainstream avenues.

The new era makes finding new bands and genres so much easier, and makes connecting with bands and fans so much better. I've discovered SO MUCH just trusting the whims of the algorithms, and also found plenty of stuff that I could do without. Pop music is still out there, but I can't remember the last time I subjected myself to top 40 type of material. It's funny. I think the ability to consume is much easier. But, because of that, I also find myself much less inclined to listen to the same album or artist on repeat like I used to in my younger days when discovery was much more of a challenge. I don't BUY material as much as I used to, but there's also a trend toward streaming over physical copies, too. Streaming makes it much easier to produce and distribute material, but that sometimes comes with the price of quality. Go back and look at movies in the early days - Epics and major productions were the norms, because the expense of putting everything together made it burdensome to put mediocre out there and likely not see a return. Nowadays, you can produce a movie on a phone, if you really wanted to. Much easier to produce means much more out there, including the garbage. If you know where to look, there's still decent stuff being made, though.

There's plenty of great music out there. You just gotta know where to look. And be willing to wade through some drivel.

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It is freaking chilly here in south central NC. We're in the frigid polar vortex jet stream dip that has had us in below average temperatures for about a week and a half or two and it's not going anywhere. Today our high will reach a lovely 39°. Our low was 19°. We're under a winter storm warning from tomorrow at 1pm and it looks like we're going to get a little snow and mostly freezing rain that will happen overnight. I'm not looking forward to that freezing rain. Not at all.

Meanwhile, southern California is burning down around itself. They have the most beautiful weather most of the time but when things go sideways it's apocalyptic. I feel for the folks who have lost everything. I can't even imagine. My brother's wife's house burned to the ground when she was around 12 years old. They were a family of six and lost everything. That would be devastating at any age.

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I’m thinking golf is out today. 

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1:15 pm current conditions in my neck of the woods.....

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I’m thinking golf is out today. 

Pssh.

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I’m thinking golf is out today. 

Pssh.

On the positive side, the tee sheet is wide open.

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In this week's episode of "Karen Learns":

https://youtu.be/BKTyKuI4mok?si=JdG4csGr1L5UtaNt

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We ended up getting sleet, freezing rain then rain that froze to everything it landed on. I would've preferred snow but there's something to be said about pine needles individually encased in ice, or pine cones, or small branches on bushes and trees. It really is pretty.

Thankfully we got enough to for it to make for a pretty landscape and not enough to be destructive. We'll maybe get to 44° with a real feel of upper 30s and clearing skies so it should all melt and not cause any issues with traffic. I have no plans to go anywhere.

Hopefully everyone else in the path of this weather event came out relatively undisturbed. Even if we had lost power I would consider it a win compared to those who have lost everything in the fires in CA.

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We ended up getting sleet, freezing rain then rain that froze to everything it landed on. I would've preferred snow but there's something to be said about pine needles individually encased in ice, or pine cones, or small branches on bushes and trees. It really is pretty.

Thankfully we got enough to for it to make for a pretty landscape and not enough to be destructive. We'll maybe get to 44° with a real feel of upper 30s and clearing skies so it should all melt and not cause any issues with traffic. I have no plans to go anywhere.

Hopefully everyone else in the path of this weather event came out relatively undisturbed. Even if we had lost power I would consider it a win compared to those who have lost everything in the fires in CA.

Yeah, supposed to be in the 50s here so it should be all gone by the end of the day.  If not today, certainly tomorrow since it's not supposed to get below freezing tonight and in the 50s again tomorrow.

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We ended up getting sleet, freezing rain then rain that froze to everything it landed on. I would've preferred snow but there's something to be said about pine needles individually encased in ice, or pine cones, or small branches on bushes and trees. It really is pretty.

Thankfully we got enough to for it to make for a pretty landscape and not enough to be destructive. We'll maybe get to 44° with a real feel of upper 30s and clearing skies so it should all melt and not cause any issues with traffic. I have no plans to go anywhere.

Hopefully everyone else in the path of this weather event came out relatively undisturbed. Even if we had lost power I would consider it a win compared to those who have lost everything in the fires in CA.

Yeah, supposed to be in the 50s here so it should be all gone by the end of the day.  If not today, certainly tomorrow since it's not supposed to get below freezing tonight and in the 50s again tomorrow.

Ice melted with 43° temps but nothing dried out and we're going down to 19° tonight so all the wet and damp is going to freeze hard.

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How to cure road rage.

https://youtube.com/shorts/DXSV1iWImN4?s...Wsx0zJqL2k

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At the dmv oldest getting his license today. Caught myself feeling a little emotional when he pulled out for the road test.

Strange feeling having almost an adult child.

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We're in that boat too, Eric. I'm kinda "hurry up and get your license so I don't have to be the taxi anymore" stage, but a third driver in a one-car household means I need to keep the bike well tuned.

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At the dmv oldest getting his license today. Caught myself feeling a little emotional when he pulled out for the road test.

Strange feeling having almost an adult child.

We're in that boat too, Eric. I'm kinda "hurry up and get your license so I don't have to be the taxi anymore" stage, but a third driver in a one-car household means I need to keep the bike well tuned.

Wait until they start having kids of their own and you become grandparents..

I still can't believe I'm someone's grandfather..

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We're in that boat too, Eric. I'm kinda "hurry up and get your license so I don't have to be the taxi anymore" stage, but a third driver in a one-car household means I need to keep the bike well tuned.

Well he passed so insurance sucks now haha. Luckily we have more paid off vehicles than drivers perks of running auto shops for 18 years. I told him he’s now my got get it boy and a cab driver for his siblings.

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At the dmv oldest getting his license today. Caught myself feeling a little emotional when he pulled out for the road test.

Strange feeling having almost an adult child.

We're in that boat too, Eric. I'm kinda "hurry up and get your license so I don't have to be the taxi anymore" stage, but a third driver in a one-car household means I need to keep the bike well tuned.

Wait until they start having kids of their own and you become grandparents..

I still can't believe I'm someone's grandfather.

yikes if he’s anything like me I’ll be a grandfather in the next 5 years!!? Oh no I’m not ready for that

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At the dmv oldest getting his license today. Caught myself feeling a little emotional when he pulled out for the road test.

Strange feeling having almost an adult child.

I've got until the first week of March for my son to get his license. I just hope and pray he isn't anything like me when I was 16. I lost my license within 2 months of getting them   

Grew up working in an auto salvage, saved my money up to buy me a Mustang. 

2 wreckless ops from spinning my tires and a couple speeding tickets. It wasn't worth it. Not one bit lol

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Congratulations to Blue Origin for achieving success on the first launch attempt of their New Glenn rocket. First stage recovery wasn’t successful, but the second stage achieved orbit. 

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/...ight-video

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Dang. Bob Uecker has died.

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Congratulations to Blue Origin for achieving success on the first launch attempt of their New Glenn rocket. First stage recovery wasn’t successful, but the second stage achieved orbit. 

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/...ight-video

Bezos to Musk... ...."My rocket is bigger than yours."

Musk to Bezos........"Yeah, but my rocket stays up longer."

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When you get into the endzone, act like you've been there before.

Congratulations to Blue Origin for achieving success on the first launch attempt of their New Glenn rocket. First stage recovery wasn’t successful, but the second stage achieved orbit. 

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/...ight-video

Bezos to Musk... ...."My rocket is bigger than yours."

Musk to Bezos........"Yeah, but my rocket stays up longer."

And can get it up multiple times.

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