Tiny Desk Concerts and PDFs

So a lot of what I've been doing at work involves exporting InDesign documents to a PDF. This requires so. much. waiting. I have to wait for the book to load. Then I have to make sure the page numbers are updated. Then I have to check that the table of contents is accurate. Then I usually have to update the TOC, which usually crashes InDesign at least twice in the course of this process. Then I actually export the book to a PDF.

It takes a long time. And requires that I sit and wait for a long time waiting for InDesign to do its thing.

So recently I've taken to either reading essays by a favorite author, simply listening to a favorite podcast, or trying foolishly to multi-task. (It's usually a horrific attempt that makes me frazzled and causes me to forget what I was doing in the first place and thus never finishing said task in that day.)

So today while I've been waiting for my PDF to export and I've had to redo my TOC three times now (yes, three times and counting), I took the opportunity to check out some more of the Tiny Desk Concerts put on by All Songs Considered on NPR. About twice a week artists come to an office at NPR and put on a concert called a Tiny Desk Concert. (Is the desk tiny? or is it just a tiny concert? I'm still unsure.) They last only about fifteen minutes and they are literally shoved in the corner of this office space. Someone told me about them about a year ago, but I never took the opportunity to listen to them.

Friday I took the opportunity and I was most pleasantly surprised. Every single group/artist I've listened to has been so delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Givers, Noah and the Whale, and Gaby Moreno. They range from folk music to jazz to blues to latin to whatever you would want to listen to.

So this led me to discover Julian Gage, a jazz guitarist who looks about like this the whole time he's playing:

And his music is fantastic. Who would've ever put together percussion, guitar, bass, saxophone and cello? But it works.

So for the last hour I've been enjoying some lovely jazz while I wait endlessly for this PDF to come out without problems.

Cross your fingers. And check out those Tiny Desk Concerts. It will brighten your day.