Day 2 – Ordinary

Write about one ordinary moment that happened yesterday.

So, today’s prompt already has me questioning my decision to do this challenge. How on earth am I supposed to spend 30 minutes writing about something ordinary when the only thing of mention that I did yesterday was go to the shop. That’s it. Everything else was either uneventful to the point of hilarity, or (the one un-ordinary thing I did yesterday) set up this blog. So, I chose that and figured I’ll just figure out my point during. I don’t want all of these prompts to end up with me ranting about some weird subject, but when the prompt is specifically about something I did, it’s difficult to translate that into a short story.

I went to the shop. Something I now do on a near daily basis. There was nothing special to it, nothing remarkable. Nothing that would make it any more worth mention than any other time I’ve been to the shop. Which begs the question, why am I talking about it? Well, I’m not sure. I guess I’m employing the same technique that got me through my English exams and I’m just going to hope I find my point through the process of making it. 

As my fingers hit the keys, the keys send electric signals which lead a tiny computer to display a letter on a screen my mind cycles through the various parts of my journey to the shop. I walked the same route I now always do: the scenic route. Although, calling it the scenic route may be an exaggeration. I’m choosing to walk down an urban city street as opposed to a different urban city street, though I guess it’s because the first time I walked down that street was when  my dad first visited me. Even though it was raining cats, dogs, and a manner of other household pets at the time, it remains a happy memory, one I reminisce on every time I go to the shop.

Choosing a longer road to walk down every other day exclusively for a small sentiment is probably the first step in my mental decline, so I guess I’ll argue for another reason: music! Recently I’ve been trying to listen to more albums. Not just all my music on shuffle for me to pick and choose as to which songs I do and don’t want to listen to. Instead I’m actively trying to appreciate the art of the album. There is a skill to making a song, there is a skill to making several songs, and there is a separate skill to taking those songs and arranging them in a certain way. There’s an art to it. Without it we’d might as well just arrange all songs in alphabetical order, with no care for themes or motifs. An album is a statement made by an individual or a group, frozen in time to be re-appreciated and re-evaluated with every listen.

To continue this point (because filling my half an hour time limit writing about just a trip to the shops would be as much fun as jumping onto a bicycle with no seat), Varg Vikernes (also known as Count Grishnahk), the former guitarist of Norweigan black metal band Mayhem and founder of Burzum talked about how he constructs on album on his blog. I’ll be paraphrasing, but he compares it to casting a spell, because he is a mentalist and literal murderer. The first song or two settle the listener, giving them a hint of what to expect from the album, like a spellcaster chanting their mystical magic words. He said how he almost wanted people to fall asleep during this section so that they could visit the mythical fantasy world his songs create in their dreams. Then, the main bulk of the songs are the spell talking effect. The listener is now completely invested and apart of the journey. The victim of the spell is now transported, cursed, or whatever the effects of the spell were, and these songs represent their experience under that spell. Finally, the last few songs bring the listener out. They’re calmed once again and brought back into the world of reality. The spell wears off and the person affected is free to go about their business until they next cast the spell.

This belief is all well and good until you consider most albums made in these modern times are more packaging than anything. A way to group a set of songs together so people can find the specific songs they like on Spotify and never even consider the other songs. It’s a disservice to the musician. This is a strange point to end on, I know, but you try and pull some greater meaning out of a 15 trip to buy microwave pizzas, okay?