4 Minutes and 33 Seconds

Disclaimer: This post is somewhat more contemplative than my usual work. Hopefully still a little bit funny though.

I went to the library this evening, as I am sometime prone to do on Friday nights. There is something about seeing all the empty tables in the periodicals that makes me feel like a real academic devotee. I just kind of feel like a Nike commercial. I feel like as I take my seat in the library there is a narrator (preferably Morgan Freeman) saying something like, "While everyone else is at some two-bit dance in the Cannon Center, Nick Hales takes his place among the pantheon of BYU greats by studying on a Friday." The lights fade to black...Just do it.

Sidenote: I youtube searched for quite some time to find a Nike commercial I could put here that would properly reflect my vision, but I couldn't find anything. The closest I got was this. You can just imagine me in that commercial, only my head would turn into a textbook.

Unfortunately it turns out that this library session was not one of my greatest library sessions of all time. I had just eaten a five dollar footlong, and this led to a certain degree of sleepiness. I ended up having one of those naps where I wake up in a violent burping fit and both of my hands have fallen asleep. Not my finest hour.

Having not lived up to my big dreams for the library I decided to head back to my humble abode and call it a night. I began my journey in somewhat melancholy spirits. The library was a failure, the footlong was sittin a little weird in my stomache, and it was just starting to snow. I called my brother to say hello, but got the message machine. He texted me back informing me that he was in, "Clash of the Freaking Titans." This boosted my spirits and gave me a slight chuckle because I couldn't decide if he meant, "I'm calling this movie Clash of the Freaking Titans because I think it is so incredibly awesome that it needs a freaking in the title" or "I'm calling this movie Clash of the Freaking Titans because it freaking stinks." Having already seen the movie at the midnight showing this morning, I realized that it was probably the latter.

After this boost in my spirits I was in a considerably better mood. The only thing left to drag me down was the fact that I had Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World stuck in my head. Now at this point most of you are probably thinking, "What's bad about that? I love that song." I love it too. It's just been in my head for far too long. Far too long. This probably resulted from one too many visits over here.

In an attempt to get this song out of my head I tried really really hard to listen to other things that were happening around me. Do other people do this? Do other people try to kick weird songs out of their head by listening as hard as they can to what is going on around them? I hope so.

As I was listening I was reminded of a song that I learned about in my Music 101 class last semester. It was composed by John Cage, and it is titled 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The basic idea is that the piece is simply 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Everyone in the concert hall experiences the piece slightly differently. The music is composed of whatever it is people hear during those 4 minutes and 33 seconds. I performed and listened to my own version of 4 minutes and 33 seconds walking home from the library today.

First of all, I am going to toot my own horn here and just say that I am pretty dang good at performing this piece of music. Pretty dang good.

Since coming to college I have come to appreciate a lot of things. I am a firm believer that one can appreciate almost anything if you learn enough about it. I used to think that modern art was the exception to this rule I have come to appreciate quite a few pieces of art this year, but I still feel like I am not quite there with modern art yet. Clearly these artists are doing something right. People actually appreciate their work. I just have felt at times like I didn't understand what they were all about. I have recently had opportunities to try to learn just what it is that modern artists are trying to do. Still don't understand it. I'm trying.

Tonight as I walked home from the library I feel like I finally appreciated what John Cage was thinking when he did this. Despite the fact that my efforts to listen to the things around me were only incited by a desire to dispose of a Tears for Fears song, I really, really enjoyed listening to my environment. Not in a cliche, random-song-erupts-out-of-regular-noises-in the-surroundings way. Not at all like this.

Sidenote: Some of you might not like me for saying this, but I just don't really like Phil Collins. It's not because he composes modern art, and it's not because I don't know enough about him, I just don't really like his work. Glad I got that off my chest.

I don't share this because I want you all to think that I am some super sophisticated art lover who understands things that you don't. In reality that couldn't really be farther from the truth. However, I sincerely enjoyed taking a second to listen to what was happening around me.

Recently my good man C. Cloyd Barton blogged about how he wanted to be good at basketball. He called for people to comment on his blog about what they would like to be good at. Of course, my initial response was that I would like to be good at eating lots of hot dogs really really fast. However, in the spirit of seriousness, I think I would like to be better at listening. I don't listen to people very well. I don't think I listen to much of anything well. There are many reasons why I don't listen. Mostly I think I am just a little to distracted all the time. The following are other reasons why I might not be very good at listening:

• I have a Tears for Fears song stuck in my head and everything else is just too quiet to get picked up.
• I am too busy pondering why I would actually spend 11 dollars to go see the midnight show of Clash of the Freaking Titans to hear what is happening around me.

Thank you for your patience while I tried to explain an experience that was slightly cooler than my average walk home from the library.