So, reading through a friend’s post, I realized that I have a couple hobbies that I used to really be into that I just don’t particularly care about anymore. I suppose it’s not that odd – you just don’t have the time, money, or mental space to devote to everything you might be interested in, and my hobbies were often niche enough that it took effort to keep up.
Comics: I wish I could still be “into” comics as much as I used to be, but I’m just not. Whether it’s that I don’t have the time or ability to sort the wheat from the chaff, or that *most* comics (just as they did back in the day) suck, I haven’t been able to find anything that’s really caught my attention and held it. Recently, an ex-coworker of mine had lent me The Walking Dead, which I enjoyed, the Kurt Busiek Conan books, and Y: The Last Man. Of the three, I liked Y the best, but they were all pretty good. Oh – he also loaned me the Joss Whedon-written Astonishing X-Men, which was absolutely awesome. Based on these reads, I went back to a comic store, but was utterly unable to find something that I was willing to spend money on without a guarantee they’d be of a similar caliber.
Music: I have essentially the same problem, here. I used to really be into music – finding cutting edge stuff, really getting into it. I went to a lot of live shows in high school, and had a lot of fun. Saw Radiohead on their first tour of the states, and really early Pearl Jam, before they hit it *big*. These days, I hear about all sorts of bands I ought to like, and probably would if I was willing to invest the time, but I’m just not. I like music – it’s not like that’s changed, but I don’t *care* about it. It occupies almost no mental space. It’s not something I think about, pretty much ever, unless I’m actively looking for something new to listen to, and even then, I can barely be bothered to really try any of the hip new things.
It’s sort of strange, because these things have a way of sort of defining who you are, when you’re obsessed with them. One of my friends, H, I think of as “music girl,” in some respects, because I know if it’s hip, and new, she knows of ’em, and has an opinion. My ex-coworker was really into comics, and you’d see it in the clothes he wore, and things like his computer backgrounds. Not that that’s a bad thing – he wasn’t asocial, he just loved comics. So, it’s weird, because in high school, it was pretty much music and comic books, and now it’s not.
*shrugs*
Yeah, I’d been complaining about something similar to the lady (in my case – it was about art), and she came back from Japan with a water color paint set. Funny thing is, it’s actually like a coloring book for adults. It comes with pre-drawn famous paintings, and you’re supposed to add the color. She figured it would be a good way to get back into it without getting all frustrated at how much my art sucks now…
I’ll probably give it a try this weekend and see how poorly I do 😀
Changes in our interests are pretty natural thing, of course. Time, money, and mental space (as you said) are all important factors. For myself, what my friends are into is also a huge one. I first got into music in a big way because the guy I was dating in LA is really into the music scene, and it’s stuck with me.
Some hobbies we pick up in a vaccum, and keep going with even if those around us never get into them. But we evaluate everything we choose to spend our time on against a matrix of priorities in our lives. For myself, I think that a lot of things I used to do a lot have fallen by the wayside because I didn’t value them more than time with my friends. So I spend less time mucking around with my website, for example, and more time at live music shows instead.
I used to be a huge comic book fan (shocker!), but gave it up when they started costing as much as a cheap lunch.
I used to buy tons of them. So many, that when I was a kid, one store owner asked me if I really wanted to buy that many one particular week.
But the price kept creeping and creeping and creeping. Sure, the paper got better. The coloring, unbelievable, etc., but so much of it was putting a hat on a pig. And it didn’t matter if the comic sucked or was awesome, it still cost a lot.
And since I couldn’t stomach shelling out for comics that were probably going to suck, I scaled back until I stopped. That was a while ago.
The last time I went into a comic book store was about 5 years ago (I still see them in book stores like Borders). At the time, I really wanted to buy a comic book. It had been a few years since I last bought one, and I assumed stuff was going to be great. Of course, it sucked. I spent about an hour in there and I couldn’t find one comic book I liked.
My focus is generally on the art, so I can go through comic books quickly just by flipping through a few pages. And I saw nothing good. Lots of great coloring, but not much else.
Since then, I haven’t had much interest in going back. Based on that last experience, and also on all the “different universes” they keep talking about. I don’t know what the hell is going on. What universe is this Captain America in? Is he the classic or some “reality” comic? I don’t have the time to figure it out.
Music: I used to really be into music when I lived in Boston simply because I liked WFNX, and I heard a lot of stuff I ultimately would go buy.
Now, it’s really hard to find stuff I like.
In NYC, it deserves its reputation for being probably the worst big city radio market. Consequently, I don’t hear new music that I haven’t consciously sought out. And, honestly, it’s a lot of work. Especially if you don’t want to resort to P2P systems. What am I supposed to do? Learn about new music from 30 second snippets in iTunes? Stream it over the Net … when would I have time for that?
My point is that it’s difficult to be into music without some crazy music friend that’s always telling you about stuff, or via the radio.
Lastly, doing any art. I never do anything anymore. It’s depressing. I can’t paint indoors and renting a studio would be too much money for the time I’d have to use it. I bought a Wacom tablet, but it’s so different, and a surprisingly different skill-set. Plus, it lacks tactility in the final product, which I’ve always appreciated, but do even more when I put something together that’s wholly digital.
Other than these three things, I have pretty much the same hobbies as always have.
A_B