They are coming for us all
Norah Jones had Rachael Yamagata on her latest podcast episode. These sessions are such a treasure, but I rarely have time to listen to them. Rachael's voice is so singular and hearing them play together is sublime. I was surprised to learn that she was not classically trained like so many other musicians of this style. I wish they had performed more songs on the show, but the ones they did sound beautiful.
It is moments like these that make me wonder if I should have pursued a life of music rather than a career in science. The latter has not been as rewarding as it could have been due to all the interference from corporations, politicians and other stakeholders more interested in personal profiteering than benefiting the world. Of course, commercialization and exploitation are rampant in the music industry as well. But being able to create something that people can enjoy or not seems preferable to building something that just gets stolen or buried because of competition.
I realize as I am writing this that late-stage capitalism does not spare any of us. It has always squeezed the creativity and soul out of most workers, but now it seems intent on wiping out whole industries of artists, technologists and scientists. Norah Jones and Rachael Yamagata speak a little about this in the podcast, but they strike a more hopeful and positive tone about it. Perhaps there is still a chance of salvaging humanity from the billionaire grifters. The answer may be to simply keep doing what they want to take away from us, such as co-creating spaces for thinking, learning and building that benefit everyone.