The Oppenheimer Report - 2/3/20

The other day, I was in a creative mood and I had an hour to kill so decided to record some musical ideas for songs I was beginning to write. These days I’m not as prolific as I once was, so I felt compelled to strike while the iron’s hot. Typically, I record my songs on a portable multi-track recorder, let them breathe a bit and tweak the lyrics over several months, sometimes longer. If I feel I have a decent song musically and lyrically, I present it to one of our many talented local producers to record it. As I said, the muse has been elusive lately, so when I do get an idea or a melody in my head, I try to record it immediately.

I had my portable multi-track recorder, and I had my pair of cordless headphones. For this song, I was working on lyrics to music I’d already composed. I noticed the outlet into which the cordless headphone base was plugged was dead. When I went down to the basement to check the breakers, it took me a long time to find the breaker that had tripped. The little orange warning strip that indicates a tripped breaker was for some reason only partially visible. When I finally figured out which breaker had tripped, I reset it, came back upstairs, got my guitar out, and tried to turn on my little multi-track recorder. The batteries were dead.  I’d recently broke the DC transformer for it, so then I spent another ten minutes looking for fresh batteries for that. When I finally did, and just as I pushed “record”, the phone rang. The moment was gone, and I wasn’t going to get it back. If I’ve learned anything in 45 years of trying to write songs it is that there is a right time and a wrong time. The muse will come back, but I can’t say when.

I made a startling observation as I looked around our house today. We are surrounded by electrical devices and electrical wires, and they seem to be multiplying. I must have fifteen transformers of various voltages that I think I might need some day. I have extra cable for TV’s, RCA cords, speaker wires, musical equipment, computers, TV remotes (one for which I defy you to find the mute button), cell phones, and lots of “labor-saving” devices. I realize that, although we live in the bucolic splendor of the Almaguin Highlands, I spend an inordinate amount of my time focusing on technological problems. The internet router needs to be re-booted, or the computer crashes, the alarm system sensor batteries need replacing, or one of a dozen computer-controlled appliances malfunctions.  Last week it was the oven. In university I met a guy who eschewed all modern technology; I thought he was crazy extremist. As I grow older, I’m beginning to understand his point of view.

Yesterday was 2/2/20. That was a weird date to see on the calendar. Will we make it to 12/21/21? We’re all so worried about destroying the planet, which we may be doing, but perhaps it will be nothing we can control. I heard an interesting statistic on the news last night: 60 Million people have been quarantined in China because of the latest viral outbreak. As my cell phone rings or texts me with the latest scam, informing me that my bank account has just been drained, or that Microsoft needs access to my computer,  or that Canada Revenue has a warrant for my arrest, I am beginning to wonder what the heck is going on. The other day I watched a story on the news about drones in China that fly around scolding citizens for not wearing protective face masks during the Coronavirus outbreak. How strange is that?! Big shout out to George Orwell. I wish we spent half as much time inventing technology that could improve healthcare as we do to develop new (and easily hacked) applications that allow our cell phones to control everything.  Just sayin'.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer  c2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED