I’ve had a string of shitty days in the office. If you want me to churn out some busy work spreadsheets, fine. If you want me to build some Ikea furniture, I can do that. But if you want me to just sit there and wait around doing nothing…no thanks. Factory workers stand for 18 hour shifts in horrible conditions making widgets and pillows and shit and get to go back to a windowless dorm room to sleep for a few hours before restarting the whole process. That is hell, and my plight isn’t even comparable.
I can’t wear headphones at work, so I fill my days writing blog posts for EMPT and others. I sometimes can sneak a few minutes of reading a book in (currently: “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder). Far too much throwaway internet content slips across my retinas. It’s a sad state when the commute is more exciting and enjoyable than the work day.
My commute is about an hour: 45 minutes of waiting for, then riding the train, and 15 minutes of biking. Usually I listen to an audiobook and drift into whatever world the sonorous, slightly British male voice takes me into (for the past 6 weeks, early 1800s Russia). But today I needed a pick me up, so I queued up “Elastic Heart,” a newish collaboration between songstress Sia, blogosphere hero The Weeknd and hand-in-everything-these-days producer Diplo (That annoyingly, I’ve just discovered, is from the new Hunger Games soundtrack).
You’d be hard pressed to find three more consistent artists. Not that everything they put out is good, but each has a distinct sound that they’ve stuck with from the start. Perhaps it isn’t a combo you’d expect, but fuck it works so well. It’s becoming clear that The Weeknd needs to do more guest verses on non-Weeknd-y beats, and that Sia is a legit crossover act. And it’s long been clear that Diplo is at his best when producing for versatile female singers (See: Robyn – “Dancehall Queen” and most Major Lazer female-fronted tracks).
So pop in those hopefully not-Apple earbuds, or throw on your audiophile cans and forget the economy and all of your friends whose photos make you jealous. You’re probably young (I’d guess the average age of EMPT viewers hovers around 25?) with a whole lot of years ahead. Keep answering those phones and churning out spreadsheets with the knowledge that when you get fed up with it, at least you’ll have great music to listen to while you apply to that dream job from bed.