The SoupASonic

My parents are always close - this close.

"You're only as old as you feel", says the popular phrase -- but what if I feel exactly as old as I am?

Being 29 is fascinating. For once in my life -- I strongly feel that I've got a totally clear and conscious view of my past, present and future. I see our parents, glowing youthfully; I see our friends having babies, struggling to find babysitters and free time. These babies are making me feel really old, as if a whole generation just spurted up and planted my feet back in the sand. I feel that time is running out -- the last few minutes of "us" time, before either the corporate or the familial wall of responsibilities close in on us from both sides.

I feel 1000% alive and active, fully grown, mature, with all of my braincells and joints in prime condition, ready to storm the amphitheater with the my personal equivalent of a grand-ambition symphony, to shake the foundations, to do something unheard of; I look at people in their 50s-60s, meek and helpful, cheerfully distilling their own thoughts and I, respectfully, just want to come out swinging. What do THEY know about the present -- just lots of stories about the past.

And yet, what do I know..? I've just got a lot of energy. I just want to turn this world upside down because obviously it's never been done. Soon enough, God willing we'll have a baby who'll try to turn my home -- one I've been trying to scrape together, all of my studio gear, instruments, adapters, coziness, boxes of records, -- upside down, for the same exact reason, not trusting that I've ever learned or felt how to live. Clearly, I've barely retained anything from pre-school Math..

Let's pray for more energy, let's hope I've retained from my parents an unflinching forgiveness, empathy and love.

In the mean time, back to dreaming dreams.

The clock strucketh (?) 3am, and it appears that innabar and I are actually blogging at the same hour.

We've been sitting in the same room, facing each other and typing away at our respective laptops for three hours straight. Blame it on our Max Brenner sugar high.

Mind you, we don't perform the laptop-vigil too often - maybe once a week. But between all the scheduling, the promotion, the MySpace/Facebook friends and all of the videos everyone sends us from YouTube, it's inescapable. But let's face it - the amount of hours we spend catching up with "web-life" is going to skyrocket. How bittersweet -- what could be sweeter than sitting in the same room with your beloved, firing through our life in the sounds of clicks, accompanied by some anonymous MySpace bands.

For better or worse (or at least for now), the internet is a medium for loners - one person per screen.
With exception of collaborative document editing (writely) and some basic collaborative doodling, most of what's available does not encourage viral communication between people, neighbors, co-workers. Sure, they can "share", but nothing encourages them to experience anything at the same moment. Nothing, except - perhaps - Jon Stewart.

When I was a child, my parents tried to restrict my TV viewing. Now, as relative adults, we guffaw at little children with cellphones, and criticize parents for letting kids play computer games.
But it's not the same. TV is passive, Games are competitive.

Nobody I know sends 100 of their friends an email saying "I just subscribed to HBO, it's the greatest thing ever", but many of those friends could be seen sending me must-see links to YouTube.

In the future - I sincerely hope! - that instead of giving holiday presents, we'll all be sending must-see links, experiences, and things we feel passionate about. It'll be creative, competitive, and it could be expensive if you're a sucker for production value... but if it gets innabar and I to stop blogging and get to bed, we'd be ever grateful.

:)