What an exciting time it is to be a Dave Matthews Band fan! Enthusiasts everywhere are either waiting by their mailboxes for Warehouse packages, or already enjoying the new live releases; tour dates are out, and Steve Lillywhite recently tweeted that this new album will prompt us to stop referring to our favorite DMB records as the “Big 3,” and instead call them the “Big 4!” Steve is, of course, making reference to the first three albums that the band released under his production, “Under the Table and Dreaming,” “Crash,” and “Before These Crowded Streets,” which are widely considered the best Dave Matthews Band works of all time. So much excitement, indeed! So what are we to do as we wait for all of these good things to come our way?
Even by the most conservative standards, it seems safe to start celebrating the upcoming release of the Dave Matthews Band’s 8th studio album! Earlier this week, Stefan Lessard, who is always good about letting fans in on the progress of the group, tweeted, “Just imagine yourself dancing to something new and something beautiful!” And if that’s not enough to wet your whistle, check out this video where Rashawn Ross talks about his role on the new record. 
Over the weekend, I watched a beautiful movie called, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” about a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, who loses his father in 9-11, and embarks on an emotional journey to find the matching lock to a mysterious key. Of course, the lock and key are symbolic of this boy’s search for meaning in a world where his father died an unjust death on what the boy calls, “The Worst Day.”
I hate New Year’s resolutions. Mostly because I feel like they put unnecessary pressure on people to do things that they believe they “should” be doing. It’s not that I don’t think people can change, or that I think trying to improve upon oneself is a hopeless endeavor, it’s just that it seems to me that people are more successful at making necessary adjustments when the impetus for change comes from within, rather than from the fact that it happens to be January 1st. That being said, I have noticed a very interesting yearly pattern in my own life, where I start new projects in September, which happens to be the Jewish New Year. But what fascinates me about this dynamic is the way that it occurs. It’s not like I sit down and plan for Jewish New Year resolutions. (Does anyone even do that?) They just happen, and then, days, or sometimes weeks later, I realize what time of year it is. You would think that after several years of this I would catch on quicker, but, as is often the case, insight doesn’t always follow a logical time-line.