Playlisted

Obsessing over the work that matters

By Zach Hively
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​On the rare occasions I speak with people, they like to ask how I’ve been. “Busy,” I say. “But like, actually busy. Like, all the time.”

Sometimes these people don’t believe me. Usually when they are not themselves small business owners or entrepreneurs. I think people who run their own businesses understand being busy all the time. Your small business is not like a small child—you can’t just give it some whiskey to knock it out for the night. A business never lets you rest.

Business doesn’t explain my busyness lately, though. No, in lieu of doing work-work, I’ve been working on a playlist.

Sure, you might say this project is “only” a one-hour playlist. You might think that with 100,000 new tracks added to Spotify each day, identifying fifteen or twenty of them to fill an hour shouldn’t be so hard.

You, however, might be wrong.

The hopes of a nation rest on this playlist. Or at least the hopes of a few people who belong to some nation or other. Like, maybe ten of us.

But for those ten or so, the stakes could hardly be pounded further into the ground if I hit my head against them instead of against this cinder-block wall.

See, I was asked to throw together a little music for a post-workshop dance practice coming up. Wide open, free and easy, no pressure—people may not even dance to the music I play, unless they’re not quite tired out yet, in which case they’ll dance Every Song, and oh also they’re learning a style entirely new to them so this playlist will basically be their first-ever impression of it, so if they don’t vibe with the playlist they could decide they hate this particular dance style FOREVER and it all came down to my poor choice of a Fine Young Cannibals song.

Just a one-hour playlist. You might as well tell Chopin that he plays just the piano, or Maggie Smith that despite a long and accomplished career in theater and on screen that she will just be remembered as the Harry Potter lady.
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This playlist matters. So, please excuse me. I have to return to it before my regular business realizes what I’ve been doing for weeks.