Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Moving to Hong Kong

In less than a month, I will be in Hong Kong. My life will be changing in many ways and so will the nature of this blog. That’s probably okay with you since in recent months, Page 43 hasn’t been particularly active. Fortunately, unlike the rest of China, Hong Kong’s government allows blogging so I can continue doing this. I also plan on having a travel blog that I update quite regularly. Title TBD.

Right now, I’m in a strange juncture with music. I’ve just graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Arts degree but I’m about to leave the country to do something totally unrelated to my collegiate studies. It’s impossible for me to put music on the backburner though, so you can expect me to start writing about what kind of role music plays in Hong Kong society. As a totally unique “East meets West” city, I expect to find some interesting things happening musically over there.

That’s where the blog is going. I’ve decided to stop doing my little “Best of” posts as I’m always behind and I don’t really enjoy that anymore for whatever reason. Right now, I’m living on Bainbridge Island for June, trying to catch up on some music listening. A lot of great records have come out this year, one of which I’m listening to right now (Blue Scholars’ Cinemetropolis). One of the wonders of the Internet is that moving across the globe will not affect my ability to keep up with the newest records being released in the states. This makes me happy.

Over the next couple years, I’m going to do some serious thinking about doing grad school in musicology. I think being far removed from academic music study will help me evaluate if that’s something I really want to do. I’m also curious to see what ways I get music in my life in such a foreign situation. After four years of rock concerts, theory classes, ensembles, and radio shows, it’s time for something completely different.