Hotel Rooms in San Francisco and our Raison de'tre

Cut to Sunday morning. In a hotel room in San Francisco, drinking my coffee and watching a Woody Allen movie, this quote melts its way across the screen...

"We all fear death and question the purpose of our lives. The job of the Artist though is to not succumb to despair, but instead find an antidote to the meaningless of existence."

It's been a long year for all of us. Economy is not too good, the news is always negative, and with the growth of social media and twitter and twatter and facebook and foursquare, meaningless jarble seems to be abound. And until recently, I was kind of annoyed by it -- how many videos of nonsense can be put in your face, and how many blogs about nothing are out there (note sarcastic reference to self)? But when I heard this quote, it changed my whole perspective. It literally turned me 180 degrees.

If you haven't questioned your existence, then as Socrates said, life isn't worth living. It's part of the project, part of the reason we're here. And no, everything doesn't happen for a reason, but I can sure as hell create a reason for just about any random coincidence that does happen. Point is though - as we all ask the unanswerable questions (i hope you guys do too or im worried about myself) it's super easy to throw your hands in the air, and say F&(# it.  But Woody's quote here says different - you think you have some artistic ability? Then it's your JOB, your responsibility to society, not to succumb, but to try and find something that we all can take pleasure in, that we can all find meaning in.

And so think about music & musicians. That's exactly what they do. They give us a nanosecond, a moment, when we're listening to our favorite song, where we cease to question, and we for a minute have the answer: ahh, this is what life is about. And I've never thought of it that way, but after hearing this, I came with a renewed sense of social responsibility to keep bringing music that the South Bay hasn't heard down here.  What if the band on Saturday gives that feeling to a few people? Mission accomplished.

Go buy a CD today (i know, i know).
Thank the person/musician that has provided you some of life's antidote.

And if you got a song that does it for you, share it with us.