How about a little bit of positivity for the quarantine period? The music industry is capitalizing on the digital festival space while artists are live streaming as much as they can to maintain their audience. Brownies and Lemonade teamed up with Proximity to put on a 3-day festival as a fundraiser for musicians affected by the pandemic. Most of my favorite artists turned on their cameras to record an intimate set for the online world. If Louis the Child, Chet Porter, and Manila Killa are all on the lineup, I will be in attendance to see what it’s all about.
Disclosure, Madeon, and Purple Disco Machine are a few other artists that are independently streaming during this time. I look forward to their weekly scheduled streams because the artists seem to be playing for themselves instead of the masses. I do appreciate the makeshift setups in each of their house (Madeon is playing on an ironing board and disclosure has been playing in their kitchen).
With all of this free time, I started spinning solo in efforts to try to maintain some sort of creative outlet. I think it would be pretty fun to practice towards a live stream but I don’t want to set any more goals right now. Maybe sometime soon but not now.
Even comedians are joining the streaming space. My favorite podcast “Asian, Not Asian’ did an experimental stand-up set via Instagram live one Friday evening. Fumi and Mic spewed jokes from start to finish but it was clear they couldn’t read the audience like a normal show. Yet I believe their efforts are fruitful because they have a window of opportunity to grow their following during this time period. Most people don’t carve out time to explore podcasts during their busy schedules. This is an opportunity for listeners to discover Asian, Not Asian!
When the music isn’t playing in my room, I feel slightly less motivated to attempt any type of productivity. My consumption of worldly news fluctuates throughout the week. I think by Thursday I’ve stopped checking my news alerts while on Monday morning I am the NYTimes number one reader.
From the time that I’ve written this, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I’m grateful for the creators out there for the live streams and constant output of new music. It has not been a solution to my complete boredom but they are a glimmer of hope while the suns still out.