You wonder why I am mentioning this on October 19, and not on January 2? It’s because I made it on Rosh Hashanah, just two or so weeks ago. I know that most people don’t make new year resolutions on Rosh Hashanah, but I couldn’t come up with a good reason why they don’t, so I decided to start a new trend. We will see if it catches on.

My resolution related to my biggest problem as an American citizen in 2024. It’s perhaps the reason that I don’t understand why Kamala Harris isn’t running away with the election. My problem is that I don’t, and really never have (or at least haven’t since I was, maybe, 17) understood contemporary American culture. I haven’t followed musical trends since high school. When someone talks about going to a “concert”, I automatically think of, say, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. And when they tell me that concert was some pop or rock or hip-hop, or rap singer, I can’t figure out why they call that a “concert”. And, truth be told (I think), I have never been to a “concert” that didn’t feature a classical performance.

Similarly, I haven’t watched network TV shows is, I don’t know, forty years? Maybe fifty. So when someone tells me that “everyone loves Raymond”, I have to admit that I don’t, because I have no idea who Raymond is. Someone’s young son? A visitor from outer space? A dog? No clue.

I could go on and on. At times, I have vowed to correct this insufficiency, but have always failed. Then, sometime last year, I thought I might have found a way to do this. I saw that you could get a master’s degree in “popular culture” from Bowling Green State University. Then, I realized that not only would this be impractical, but that I might have to spend a year in Cleveland and even thinking about that brought a black cloud over my head that I knew would not go away until sometime in May. Plus I probably would not be eligible for a full scholarship.

I needed something different. And that’s what led to my Rosh Hashanah resolution.

We are among the few subscribers to the New York Times who still actually receive a printed newspaper every day. (Statistics that I have seen put us in a category comprised of only about 10% of Times subscribers.) Each day there is an Arts section. Yes, perhaps it is New York centered and a bit high-brow, but I can deal with that. And clearly, it’s a start. So my New Year’s Resolution was to read (or at least read through) the Times’ Arts section every day. And so far I have.

Of course, I have discovered (as you might suspect) that I hardly remember anything I read – after all, at 81 and 5/6 it is getting harder and harder to remember names of people, or books, or films and so forth. So I have to live with that, and assume that – as I look every day – things will begin to add up in my mind. We will see.

I find that the articles that mean the most to me, not surprisingly, are those from the classical music critics and, since I always have a phone or computer by my side, I make it a point to sample parts of what I read about. I have discovered already new composers, and recommend you go to YouTube and listen to music by Gabriela Ortiz, Mark Andre, and Osvaldo Golijov. And the articles about ballet, something I have had little contact with, are also interesting, and you can then watch parts of the dance.

As to less highbrow music, often the stories are biographical, which is always interesting. For example, there is a story about Van Halen today and how Alex dealt with the death of his brother Eddie. It was interesting (and probably forgetful), but at least today I know that Van Halen was a family name and the name of a hard metal rock group (I really don’t know what that means) that came to prominence about 40 (is that right?) years ago. And that Alex and Eddie Van Halen were brothers, one sort of the lead singer and the other the bassist and writer (if I have that right).

I will admit that I don’t have enough curiosity to play an Van Halen music (maybe I should drum up my courage), but there are some young musicians that I think are pretty good. What comes to mind is Chappell Roan, a 25 year old fellow Missourian, whom of course I had never heard of, and whose music I find really enjoyable. And, by the way, although she isn’t a singer, I found reading about another almost-Roan, actress Saoirse Ronan, very interesting. What a serious and adaptable actress she is. (And I learned how to pronounce Saoirse.)

I see, today, that Lin-Manuel Miranda and someone I never heard of are putting out a new album (I don’t know what that means today) called “Warriors” that is based (I don’t know how) on a 1979 film (which I have not seen) also called “Warriors”, which was “about a group of gang members fighting their way home from Brooklyn to the Bronx”. The article, which talked extensively about the film, said it was based on the ancient Greek book “Anabasis” by Xenophon. Aha! Now we are getting somewhere close to something I know a little about. And I know that “Anabasis” is a surprisingly enjoyable book about a Greek mercenary army enticed to come to Persia to help fight off the barbarians, only to discover that they were really expected to fight a civil war against the king’s brother, who wanted the throne. At least that’s what I remember. And they refused to get involved, and had to get back to Athens, which took them on adventure after adventure. Just like going from Brooklyn to the Bronx.

So, there is one more thing to add to my routine. I give myself a year to see what it does to me. If I find myself becoming an expert on American popular culture, I just may apply for a position to teach at Bowling Green. As long as I don’t have to move to Cleveland.