Check out your local music scene. You probably have one; if you don't, I'd encourage you to make one.

There's a lot of other places like northern Indiana, especially my part of it. Dead in the middle and right below Michigan's border, South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart and everywhere in between are not known for cultural innovation. Despite being tied together by the highly-selective Notre Dame University and a cult for catholic football, South Bend and Mishawaka are not college towns nor cities.

It's really a weird place. We're building apartment complexes next to abandoned warehouses (one of which is an eyesore, the other an abandoned warehouse). Office buildings face ghettos face empty parking lots face prestigious schools face the projects. Gentrification blends with industry blends with the rural poor blends with the suburban, upper-middle class.

That should somewhat explain the kind of place the Michiana area is. That should kinda explain the boredom, disaffection and disorientation that creativity is made of (for me, at least). Hey, there's shit else to do, why don't we start a band? You play bass, I'll do guitar, one of us can shout and we'll find a drummer--shit. Let's go practice in my sister's basement. The venue doesn't have a PA, who cares?

It's probably something like that. At least, my recording project has operated under that ethos. But even if I haven't played any myself, I've been to more than a handful of local shows, those of which are a special experience. At least to me, it rarely matters what kind of music is being played. I feel physically present in a powerful way when watching live music, especially when the band is just feet in front of me.

No less, the thing I've found is how public and available artistic skill is. I think there's a certain infatuation in this country with the celebrity, the deified pop culture icon often seen as somehow above human, extraordinary in a literal definition. To that notion, I believe that I have seen better performers--artists, musicians, people--in public parks and warehouses than I've heard on the radio. That is without hyperbole.

That notion must speak to a component of local music that I find significant. When I see a really killer grindcore show--and the crowd is doing karate moves, and the floor is shaking, and I'm having a seizure, and it feels better than most things--it's right in my face. I have an experience that is unfound at a stadium seat. I don't sit motionless; I don't watch passively; I actively participate in the experience.

And it's dirt-cheap. It's rare for anything to cost more than $20, and you can get a sick-ass t-shirt for the same price. There's definitely room for the more expensive show and people still go to them (obviously), but I've had as much fun, if not more, at $10 ones. I only have to drive thirty minutes and pay an insignificant amount to get the whole thing: just as long, just as brutal, just as passionate and just as fun. And y'know what, I'd bet you could, too.

Look into it; it's probably out there. Especially with the internet, you can likely find yourself a venue, if not multiple. If you're feeling really ambitious, I bet you could find yourself a Guitar Center or thrift store, or your dad's high school keepsakes and make the music. In fact, I encourage you to. It doesn't matter if what you make is any good so long as you make it. Creation isn't validated when other people deem it "good," it's validated by sitting down and doing it.

I guess the whole point of all of this is to make things and be involved in making things. Whatever it is you're into, whether it be hip hop, extreme metal, folk, free jazz, whatever, I encourage you to find it around you. There are serious implications to even just watching live music in your area. In doing so, you help affirm and facilitate its creation. You help make meaningful, cultural things that you have a part in controlling. Hell, maybe you'll even make a scene.

So, the mainstream culture of Michiana doesn't speak to me. Consumerism, social apathy, and face-value nationalism are not customs I get anything out of conforming to. As I experience distraction and cynicism via ideas like "atomization," "late-stage capitalism," "parasocial relationships," "techno-feudalism," societal stasis and life inside of a machine, I don't feel so bad watching the mosh pit. Nothing is as scary when in the same room as real people, people you can actually identify with in a very lonely place.

It reminds me that it probably won't be so bad, and even if it is, I can reassure myself that I really was there. I really did go to that metal show; I really did buy that cool t-shirt; I did wear it; I still do. I still go to those shows in basements and warehouses with twenty other people. I still thrash out and have a good time. That must be what it takes to really exist nowadays. It's very humanizing when the vocalist for that noisecore band says "Dazzling Killmen, nice!" when he sees my t-shirt at the merch table.

I feel present, genuinely. Maybe that's the point: interact with others that you really like, find a scene with real people, go to physical places in your community and contribute to them. It's not easy, but what else is there to do? Curl up in your bed and fucking die? It'd be comfortable--and I shouldn't blame anyone for the pervasive alienation that young people (like me) have been socialized to respect--but I'd rather face the embarrassment of an awkward, human experience, than the inhumanity of life in a simulation.

In sum, life is hard, society is hard, the future is uncertain, little is new, but human creation is cool and you should go out and try and be involved in it.

End of story.