This week was a real trip, because Clarice was really into the whole sleeping thing. She had just read “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, and there was a lot of science explaining our sleep patterns and our lifestyles surrounding it. So she spent most of the nights with little lights, and started to limit her screen time.
The result has been us sleeping at about 11PM, and she wakes up at about 7AM the next day. It’s been interesting, and I’m in a weird place of not being able to sleep so early, and also wanting to do other things before I sleep. But overall, timing of my own sleep has improved tremendously, and I’m scoring all kinds of positive numbers for my Oura ring tracking.
A sad side note that for this week in particular: the Travis Scott Astroworld Tragedies. It’s really hard to take in how someone would let things slide so badly in a live performance. I mean, I used to think that Travis Scott was famous for being with the fans, and being like a real stand up guy. I remember he was famous for like joining in on Fortnite, and giving away chains and stuff to fans who knew his lyrics.
But this whole tragedy, and the people surrounding him coming out that he’s got real issues in his own private side of things. That’s really hard news to take in.
A number of people decided to stop listening to him, or to throw his songs out of their playlists. This is one of the hardest parts about cancel culture that I don’t know how to address. Should we remove the artist from the art? I think it’s definitely intertwined, and it’s that person who is behaves in an unsavory way that produces the music or art that we might enjoy. It’s more revealing of us, and it’s a part of us that we don’t agree with. But at the same time, it’s a part of us that we try to figure out, and maybe we struggle with it.
I think of the way that one laughs at comedians who tell dirty jokes. Yes, the dirty jokes are completely different from someone who lets others die while he sings a song. But at the same time, a dirty joke is something we might have wished we could have the ability to say. Maybe we wish we could have made fun of something, but we would also think it would be inappropriate to do so. And that is where the comedian, or critic does it for us instead.
And Travis Scott is that villain inside us sometimes. He raps and shouts things that we wish we could join in and shout about too. But the truth of it is that we could not have produced that same art without that same darkness that he has inside.
I’m by no means defending him, but I would like to separate the art from the artist. Meaning I understand the art of his music. But I do not agree with his actions in any way. The same can be said for xxxTentacion, and Morrissey, and other musicians who have lived very questionable and outrightly inappropriate lives.
Maybe one day, we could have a situation where the artist and the art produced could be totally immaculate. But I have a feeling the art produced would be somewhat boring. It is that darkness, that part of us that is unwanted. That part is what makes art appealing at times.
Maybe one day, there could be art produced that doesn’t center around that, and instead, it could be a glorious expression.
Maybe one day.