The Covid and the Odyssey
Hello my dear friend!
How are you? No really – How ARE you? I sincerely want to know.
Me? As I wrote my friend Sue the other day – “I’m actually doing just fine. It’s weird, scary, wonderful, confusing, tragic, liberating and transformative all at the same time”.
I don’t even know how to accurately describe or analyze it, but every day is a strange adventure into the all too familiar and the unknown at the same time; every minute of every day our own design. Easy for me to say, I don’t have 3 kids needing to be nurtured and entertained, a cranky husband and guilt for being the impatient bovine spouse. But I KNOW that our experiences are as unique as our fingerprints and I’m so curious about yours. Especially about how your relationships are faring. If you’re willing to share, write me at shari@shariulrich.com. Of course, confidentially. Or if you really want to be confidential and old school, you could send me a letter at Box 152, Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G0, with no return address! I truly want to hear from you. It’s such an interesting time.
My everything is rather boundless right now – my aversion to dark entertainment, my appreciation for where I live – the set, the island, the province, and the country; especially the country. Here’s the thing America - no matter how old we are, we still want to feel like a grown up is in charge. Enough said.
So here we are - a good six weeks in now. For me the novelty of being home has worn off a bit, but not the appreciation for having one. The days are filled with an enhanced version of ‘shoulds’ mixed with the “ever longer ‘someday’ list” (from This Life): I should meditate, do yoga, finish my book, update my song catalogues on all those proliferating platforms; re-grout the kitchen counters; re-build the gate, the fence, the fish pond, the stairs, my attitude; post on instagram, facebook, twitter and lord knows what other new platform on which I’ll be 3 years behind everyone else; cull the clutter from every closet, cabinet, shelf, and room; write a new album, stream concerts, shoot videos…it’s endless. (And yes, I’m aware that sentence was a punctuation and grammar test – feel free to take it – I clearly failed.)
The indecision of where to start often leads to the most important activity - a nap.
For some reason, I’m well built for solitude. And I only question its okay-ness because most people have a decided aversion to it. Since my mid-twenties, the only time I lived full time with anyone was when I was married between 1986 and 1996. Oh, of course, I did live with Julia for 18 years! (By they way, I highly recommend the British show “Breeders”.) I’d like to think my preferred state isn’t because I’m hard to live with (though I’m sure they’d say otherwise!) but by now, as I’ve heard Jann Arden express, it’s unimaginable that I could ever share a house with another person. By now, I am far too accustomed to spontaneously emitting all manner of utterances and sounds to re-train myself to consider the presence of another.
I’m old enough to remember the scourge of polio virus in the early 50’s. My cousin contracted it. I have a distinct memory at probably 3 years old of going to our local high school with thousands of other kids to get my sugar cube with the vaccine. Oh, the power of the vaccine. Need we more evidence of the importance of science? You don’t get to turn your back it when it’s giving you a reality check on the planet and then beg for it to hurry up when you need a cure.
I just rolled out the video for The Sweater and will be releasing new videos every week or so. And yes, I will do a livestream soon!
Regarding The Sweater, when I went off to write this last album I brought along a box of cassette tapes (yes, cassettes!) of ideas I’d collected since the 90’s (until the invention of the digital recorder – pre iPhones!). I went through them to see if there were anything worth pursuing on there, and the music for what became The Sweater was there. I didn’t intent to write a song about dementia, but I swear there’s a mysterious thing that happens where the music has a complex and nuanced mood that dictates the story. Magic - who am I to question?
I was thinking about the future of concerts, and how unlikely it is that the huge arena shows will return. And dare I say, from my perspective, that would be a good thing. No more rapacious scalpers, no more obscenely expensive tickets, no more shows that are more spectacle than music - with a cacophony of noise that renders the subtleties of music impossible. I was also realizing that my first and last arena shows were Beatles. The first was the Beatles at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and the last was Paul McCartney at BC Place. (A good friend offered me a ticket so how could I say no?) The best part of Paul’s show was the incredibly cool horn section, but I’d say for both, it was the cultural phenomenon of being in room with 30,000 people whose lives were ALL significantly impacted by the music of the Fab Four (and thank you Paul for including so many of those songs). By the way, I also saw the final Beatles’ show at Candlestick Park. Writing about it led me to find audio from that show here https://www.beatlesbible.com/1966/08/29/candlestick-park-san-francisco-final-concert/ which though crappy sound, was interesting to hear 54 years later, considering I likely heard nothing but screaming that day.
But really, that’s the lure and thrill of live music – to be in a room full of people who all love that artist’s music and are excited to be able to hear and “meet them” live. “Sidedoor” does offer the closest we can get to that experience with their concert streaming – and I will get on the calendar for one in the next few days. I’ve been taking my time figuring out how to give folks decent sound for it. As Jonathan Byrd preaches – “great sound will make your video look much better.”
Okay – enough out of me. I didn’t mean to be so chatty! You’d think I was spending a lot of time alone or something!
Be kind to yourselves and your loved ones. And tell me everything.
Shari