Music and Simple Thoughts

I just looked at my sister’s blog for a spot of inspiration, or maybe to engender a little sibling rivalry. Well, a one-sided rivalry, because I don’t intend to tell her about any rivalry until I can actually rival her. And that requires having more than one post on my blog.

Right now I am listening to Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left. Except for “Things Behind the Sun” off Pink Moon, I think I prefer Five Leaves Left. In general, Five Leaves Left is more melodramatic—something I appreciate more than I probably ought to. Just look at “Way to Blue” and the whining motif and you’ll see what I mean. Drake makes good use of the classical instruments, especially on “Cello Song” and “River Man.” In general, it makes the whole album feel darker than Pink Moon.

If that seems like far too simple an evaluation of an album, it’s only because anything else would be stretching beyond my limits. I am new to music in general, and while I’ve apprenticed myself to a friend who knows a great deal more, I’m still learning.

In book news, I began Night by Elie Wiesel on a recent trip to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Of course, instead of reading straight through, I skipped to his Nobel acceptance speech. I suppose a certain eloquence is to be expected, but it still stunned me. The words that most struck me were in his assertion that “Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.” I haven’t even read the book yet, but I’m already psyched by his perception and quality of character. He explains, just like Primo Levi, (possibly my favorite author and another Holocaust survivor) that “if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.”

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”—Elie Wiesel

Sincerely, Spencer Miles Kimball

P.S. Contact me with thoughts or constructive criticism at spencermileskimball@gmail.com