Lamentations

Once upon a time, I worked at a record store. Okay, scratch that - once upon a time, I worked at a few record stores sequentially. My early career trajectory was pretty sad, as it led from fast food chicken stand to a few barista jobs to a few record store jobs. I can now say, without apparent prejudice*, that working for Virgin was the high point of my record store goon experience. Every day was a hard retail day of slinging the goods, but we were well-informed, the management was fair and just, and we got to listen to decent music, and occasionally (on two occasions) I got to lose significant quantities of brain cells by sticking around while the floors were re-varnished. Let's just say that the closing shift called for individuals with a unique lifestyle and attitude, and overall we stuck together.

Looking back on my experience there, a few things stick out - first of all, having a sedentary job now (one where I sit at a desk and stare at a computer for most of the day) is awful for many reasons. Secondarily, I now realize that my love of music, which far predated and will far postdate my job at the record store, has hit a barrier, and that barrier is knowledge. When I worked at Virgin, it was part of my job to know every new release, every side project, every exciting development, etc. Since then, frankly, I have found it hard and exhausting to keep up with every new development.

This is purely inexcusable, horrible laziness on my part. Henceforth, I'm going to try to keep as on top of music as I can. I've been slacking.

* - Rest in peace, former employer.