{"id":75,"date":"2021-01-04T02:59:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T02:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/?p=75"},"modified":"2021-01-04T03:00:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T03:00:31","slug":"diva-or-what-could-have-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/2021\/01\/04\/diva-or-what-could-have-been\/","title":{"rendered":"“Diva”, or, What Could Have Been."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The year was 1994, and I decided to be an audio engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I figured I could do some creative work – my yearbook pic caption says I wanted to do “Graphic Design”, but I figured that, if that didn’t work out, then I’d do audio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t remember what got me on this track, I really don’t. But I do remember, as I toured colleges, that I’d ask to look at their radio stations. I wasn’t interested in the film studio; where do you mix the audio at? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I went to school to learn how audio worked. I spent days in mixing studios and in front of SoundEdit 16 (RIP) mixing sounds. I scored people’s films, I did group projects and took the audio part. I loved every bit of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, junior year of college. We were talking about the role of sound in film. I’ve already written about my Miles Davis experience<\/a> in this space, and at some point I’ll get into Blazing Saddles<\/em>, but we watched a French film called Diva<\/em> in class, and I…I was stunned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a movie about…sound. About recording. About high fidelity recordings and music piracy. And I drank it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to grown me. I have this movie on VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray. I watched it again tonight, and there were some things I didn’t remember and some things I noticed this time. I don’t think it’s especially rated as a classic to anyone, but it’s in my Top 10 Movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I think of what could have been. If not for a system which encourages peonage, or taking out huge loans, or possibly being a 30 year old “intern” making $1K a month…that could have worked out for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, here, but for the grace of God, go I. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year was 1994, and I decided to be an audio engineer. Well, I figured I could do some creative work – my yearbook pic caption says I wanted to do “Graphic Design”, but I figured that, if that didn’t work out, then I’d do audio. I don’t remember what got me on this track, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}