Isolation
Crikey.
It’s me again, composer and human Tom Elstob - self isolating since ‘97.
Looking back over my first two blog entries feels eerily like I was writing about another life.
My project with CoDi:Move and Hijinx Academy 2 is on hold. You know why.
There’s a strong chance you’re reading this whilst in isolation during the covid-19 outbreak.
Alternatively, if you are inexplicably reading this 50 years into the future; hello - how are you? What’s that shiny thing? Did we ever destroy the patriarchy?
Hello from 2020. We are all at staying at home.
We are doing this to prevent the spread of a potentially lethal virus reaching the vulnerable people in our society as best we can.
We are all at home.* All the time.
*Except for the heroes of our national health service and a few other allegedly unglamorous professions; supermarket staff, refuse collectors, postal workers. I like to think some of us are reassessing what we think about the contributions certain vocations make to society.
“But what about composers?!” I hear you scream at me from a distance of no less than two metres at any time...
Well...What good is a composer during a quarantine? What do we contribute to Society? What are we worth? (about 94 quid a week according to the government. I’m sure some would find that quite flattering.)
Now that everyone is stuck at home for the foreseeable future; most of us are likely to be consuming more television, films, music, radio and video games than usual. I’m certain very few people will be surviving off Victorian hardbacks and water biscuits alone.
Joking very slightly aside, music continues to permeate every aspect of our culture and our contribution as composers is hard to define, but evidently important.
Hopefully you shiny people in the future will read about this pandemic as a time when humanity all pulled together and learned to fully appreciate the contribution of many many hitherto undervalued people and underfunded professions in our society...
I don’t mean composers. But thanks anyway.
I can only apologise for the strangeness of this CoDi:Move blog post. And I only hope it reflects the strange times we are living in.
To finish on a joke;
I’ve been borrowing a line from Stephen Fry for much of my adult life: When I’m first introduced to someone as a composer and they ask “are you a classical composer?” I respond:
“Yes, I was born in 1790.”
Thanks for reading,
Stay safe.