The joys of systematic music listening

I have to admit, I am a sucker for different projects. Be they some stupid list of best of this and that in a crappy magazine, do this and that before you die, you name it. But my current project is the least reasonable and ambitious of them all: I am listening my entire music collection in an alphabetical order. This includes everything: lp's, cd's, singles, compilations, even my cd-r:s (which include five shoeboxes faithfully copied from library cd's).

The project has now lasted around 1,5 years and currently I am in Coldplay. Yes, Coldplay. Which brings me to the exhibitionist part of the project. I am posting to Facebook the picture of the cover of each record or more often, a Spotify-link to the album, so my FB-friends can see where I am going. As only part of my FB-friends are interested in music, this must be a drag for them. Then again, every now and then there are interesting discussions related to these postings (say, the entire output of the Cure - which is best, which is worst, which is the best cover etc.) and as many of my "friends" are much younger and more hipster than me, I grin when I think of the schock some of my records cause to them (this concerns especially my colleagues in the rock magazine I write for).

This is the external part. But the internal part is much more rewarding. I think it is interesting to hear the entire output of an artist or a band in a fairly short time. It brings out the development or decline (of course I listen only to the albums I own and I usually do not own the ones I consider flops, but there are exceptions to this) of the artist and gets you into the world of the artist. Perhaps one can compare this to systematic reading of the texts of say, some thinker, when you are trying to get inside someone's head.

While this works sometimes, it does not work always. First, I cannot work when I am listening to music which reduces my album listening to 1-2 albums per day. Second, this is so huge a project (estimated time 5 years) that I would be an idiot to listen only these albums. So I listen new stuff (I am writing reviews, so there are "compulsory" listening periods of new albums) and when I buy records, I listen then right after shopping. So when the list of releases from an artists such as Dylan is long, listening to it might take a month or more and it can be too much in one go.

But on the whole, I am satisfied I am doing this. It gives you perspective on your record collection which, if it consists more than few dozens of records, is not always well-remembered. My collection consists of around 3500 records, so there is stuff which I have almost forgotten. So in a sense this project is a revelation. At the same time it works as an inventory - last week I listened 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton and I had forgotten how slow and boring it was - Slowhand, indeed! So off to shop it goes. Of course sometimes the project gets a bit tedious, but I can always put it to halt for a few weeks and start again where I left off. As I am very stubborn, I intend to see this thing through. But I will return to the topic in a few years, let us see at what state I am in then.

Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee & Glasgow, May 2012

Professionally, May was the most important part of the stay. I gave a paper on Leibniz and Spinoza on affects in Scottish Seminar of EarlyModern Philosophy in Aberdeen. I had only one month to learn Spinoza and write the paper, but judging by response it went down well. The paper needs more Spinoza-reading an rewriting, but I am confident it will turn out to be an article. Met some interesting people too as well as meeting again some old acquaintances. Aberdeen on the whole was not my dream town, bleak, cold and grey although the university campus was nice.

Right after SSEMP I attended The annual conference of British Association for the History of Philosophy in Dundee, entitled Spinoza: the infinite, the eternal with a special emphasis on the book V of the Ethics. Most interesting conference, although my limited knowledge of Spinoza hindered a bit my efforts to take in everything. Got to read the Ethics again ASAP. Dundee was a more likeable town, much like Edinburgh in fact.

During these conferences I discussed with many about career opportunities and though I try not to worry too much about it, it is clear that I should try to learn more about contemporary philosophy. Finland is a small country and in order to get a job in philosophy, one has to know something about everything. So I have bought some books about contemporary philosophy of mind, epistemology and metaphysics here - one can get textbooks second hand with some hunting. Also attended a two day congress on epistemology in the University of Edinburgh. It was interesting stuff, but I find it a bit difficult to orientate thinking through things, not thinkers. Lot of reading to do, I am afraid. And have to attend conferences whenever there are those in Helsinki.

After the conferences in early May I have been mostly working on an article manuscript on Leibniz, Sophie and disinterested love which was given as a paper in March this year in Budapest and which will be published in a Hungarian journal. I am pretty happy with the paper so far. Other thing is that there is going to be a package of Leibniz-stuff fortcoming in niin & näin and I will edit the whole thing with Tuomo Aho. So I have been reading the texts and going through translations. I also interviewed Dr. Pauline Phemister for the magazine. The whole thing should be ready by end of June.

Outside of work, business of usual with my beloved wife. Charity shops, museums, pubs and movies. The highlight - literally - of the month was climbing to Arthur's Seat, the small mountain besides Edinburgh, and Salisbury crags, too which is beside it. Was not that hard to do, after all, although my Vertigo was a bit of a problem. We also went to the zoo which included a lot of climbing! Loved the penguins and the sea eagle was really impressive. I also loved the Forth Bridge boat ride - the railway bridge is fabulous and also visited an island and saw some wildlife seals busking in the sun on a great May day. Unforgettable.

 

Socially I've met some Finnish philosophers here who came to visit Edinburgh or live here - temporarily, at least. Besides this, there are the gatherings of the researchers of the IASH on fridays, pubs and discussions from all kinds of topics.

Pubs - that is something I am going to miss. And real ales - sigh. Having a lot of fish and chips, too. We finally got around to visit Glasgow with Susanna in the first weekend of June. Glasgow is not a pretty town, it is dirty, often ugly and noisy place. The west end, especially the university area is nice, though, with lots of cafes and second hand book stores etc. And the Kelvingrove art gallery was a nice place, although bit messy. With a Spitfire hanging from the ceiling!

Bought a lot of books there and had to carry them all the way to Edinburgh! The posting of all this stuff will cost a fortune, but most of it is included in my budget plan.

Coming up in June: Highlands, Locke Workshop in St. Andrews. Stay tuned!