Appearances are not what they seem

My job has all the appearance of being cool. Besides the fact that I don't do anything, there's the aspect that I'm in the music industry. I'm not looking over numbers concerning widgets, steel, or gasoline usage; I'm a part of the huge machine that makes magic! Of course, this magic is now being used to create Monsterah Carey and Nickelflack records. It goes both ways, but I guess I'd like to state my opinion here and now: in the twentyfirst century, the music biz is pretty boring, at least from the standpoint of the big boys. I wonder whether the small guys are doing anything really interesting. At least, above and beyond those who write, perform, record, sell, and tour their own material.

Now that I've seen that a certain industry is not particularly evocative, I look with trepidation towards the others which carry cache above and beyond the paycheck (and, often, to the detriment of the paycheck). Publishing, the supposed custodians of culture (since art is so hard to understand or feel anymore, at least, frequently), movies, the most vibrant and participated in art of our time (participating in architecture is passive for most), tv, the ultimate panacea, of which I am a fan despite its frequent poor quality, and fashion, where, despite the odds, a coat is never just a coat.

I think that my doubt lies not in how stimulating these fields may be, but in their ability to transcend a life from boredom to excitement. Jobs, even those that supposedly represent someone's life work, are still jobs, not some equivalent of going out and drinking. Even jobs where you can drink and hang out with friends (bartending) end up being work. Work is work, and the point is to find some people, a mission, and a group of tasks that are agreeable, not to think industry-by-industry.

Of course, staffers like people to be in the same industry, jargon usage, mostly.