2021 has had a rough start, but overall, I think everyone is looking optimistically to the future. Now that the vaccine has been approved, it's just a matter of time before enough people are vaccinated, and the world moves on. Whether it takes a year or two is a matter of semantics. One thing is for sure: the end of the madness is within striking distance.
What's more, every one of us has learned some new coping mechanisms that we can now add to our toolbox of resilience. We have learned to get work done easier, or to no longer need to go to the office anymore. For millions, the hours wasted every day have just become a thing of the past. It seemed impossible for so many years to avoid sitting in traffic daily for an extended period of time. It seemed inevitable, something we'd need to learn to deal with and accept for the rest of our lives. Yet, in some of the most populous cities in the world, the bi-product of this exercise of lockdowns has turned out to be the eradication of traffic problems so bad that used to plague each of their populations and render their lives discouragingly frustrated.
And without much fanfare, a major leap for mankind has taken place. The phenomenon may not be discussed much to speak of in the media, yet it is one that is not lost on the residents of major cities from Sao Paolo, to L.A. to Johannesburg, Jakarta and Manila: traffic problems have been solved, and without substantial capital spent on infrastructure.
The big lesson here is that many of our society's most seemingly insurmountable problems may be solvable if we were to simply reorganise our priorities and think outside the box.
And even though we are still at the dawn of the digital age, where every action is becoming recorded and remembered, there are also major breakthroughs for the specie happening at an unprecedented pace. The fact that pretty much everyone can talk to each other, that everyone can find pretty much any business they are searching for, the fact that every person can find any destination effortlessly, the fact that any product can be sold to anyone, without the need for the seller to rent a store, the fact that you never have to leave your house anymore to eat any food out there that is served at any restaurant, the fact that you can now meet with anybody without driving to see them...
We are still waiting to find out how the music industry is going to adjust to the situation. But we are sure that what's on the side will be better in its own way to what we had before the pandemic. Let's take the radio show broadcasted on the internet by NPR called Tiny Desk Concerts. In the past, the artist had to fly to DC and record their appearance inside NPR's offices, behind the tiny desk. What they've learned during the pandemic is that in it no longer necessary for the band and their crew to fly to DC. The performance can be filmed anywhere and submitted to NPR digitally, thus exponentially expanding the possibilities of artists that could appear on their show.
Soon we will find a digital substitute for the live performance, one that I am sure will be "better" somehow, both for the audience and for the artist, because it will give the artist unprecedented access to their fans.
Until then, I invite you to enjoy this 2-hour set of uninterrupted music from the Music & Wine vault. In the meantime, we'll keep bringing you music to get your juices flowing ;)
Peace & love
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