A #vinylandbook pairing: I just finished Hank Green’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (the sequel to his first novel), a brilliant and moving sci-fi-ish exploration of how technology distances and isolates is if we let it, or brings us together if we force it to. I’m pairing it with the Punch Brothers’ The Phosphorescent Blues, a progressive bluegrass concept album on the very same topic. . If I can go off on this album a bit: The lynchpin of the record is its last track, Little Lights. Chris Thile says he was struck by the difference in the experience of playing concerts in the 21st century: it used to be that he’d look out and see darkness, but now he saw all these faces lit blue by the screens of their cell phones. And while the “people don’t have real experiences anymore because they’re looking at their phones” trope is well-trodden, he was struck by something else: they looked like constellations in the night sky. Hence the chorus: . Shine little lights of ours Like Orion’s Belt of stars Connected only from afar . From up close, a star is one thing, a ball of flaming gas—from afar, a group of them form a meaning that none of them have on their own. That’s a deeper meaning behind the changing landscape our phones have brought us: we can make constellations. . On the album, they crowdsourced that chorus, encouraging Punch Brothers fans to record themselves singing it and using an enormous digital choir in the final mix. (I might be in it—to my frustration, they didn’t publish whose recordings they used.) And what a perfect representation of the lyrics in form—a multitude of voices that could never have been lifted together without the internet. If we can only find ways to connect instead of isolate, our potential is only increased. . This album is pseudo-religious for me, and these books created the same feeling. If you read them (and obviously I think you should), I recommend timing it like I accidentally did and finishing it at the same moment as you listen to “Little Lights.” It was a complete experience. #punchbrothers @christhile #hankgreen @hankgreen #vinylandbooks #bookstagram #vinyl #vinyladay #lp #vinyloftheday #vinyligclub #vinyljunkie #vinylcommunit https://www.instagram.com/p/CDmkz5uJstA/?igshid=suhco35wcsbs
