Connectedness

Greetings visitor! If you are NOT viewing this from the safety and comfort of Ukraine (that seemingly primary source of robotic internet perusals and incursions [have those Ukrainians nothing better to do? Have I no better question to ask?]), then I urge you to read through and take a moment to “comment.”

That request requested, let’s talk future McMusicisms.

Last week? Busy. This week? Not so much. And a welcome reprieve it is. Time well put to preparations for a venture to a particular faraway place. (More on that later.) But before we make our getaway, we’ll have, as Bob Dylan once said, “one more weekend, one more weekend with you.”  Or, in this case, with two of our fave combos.

Friday, September 1, The Sparks Band returns to The Varsity Club Bar and Grill in Merrimac to lay down that 60s soundtrack from 6 to 10 pm whilst hungry patrons chow down on a standout Wisconsin fish fry.

Saturday, September 2, Big Wes Turner’s Trio at Tyranena Brewing. Billy Flynn joins Tom and Rick for what may be the last show of the season on Tyranena’s expanded outdoor area. Early show (6 to 9 pm) and food cart on site. Needless to say, the best beers in Wisconsin. Bring your growler.

And so, adieu. But before we leave, consider this word: disconnect.

Like so many English words, it operates as noun and verb. As a noun: a failure to understand, a flaw that impedes the putting together of two plus two to equal four. As a verb: to stop the flow, to cut the cord, to shut out, to turn the cold shoulder, to ignore, to...well, you get the picture.

If you’re on life support in the local hospital, disconnection can be fatal. But, in the age in which we live, to disconnect from the internet—that endless flow of data that monetizes distraction, the lifeblood of the current economy, the source of the latest and largest fortunes—is to run the risk of falling over in the forest of humanity unnoticed and unheard. Such disconnection becomes a kind of fatality.

“Maybe a good kind,” I muse ironically, given that without an internet connection connecting these musings to you, dear hypothetical reader, connection or disconnection, good or bad, living, dead, or undead, are academic at best.

“Maybe, a rebirth? Or a reconnection with the world of the senses?,” my musings continue. (Cue chirping crickets.)