My problem with blogging has never been finding something to write about. If anything, it’s the scope of things I like to read about online that makes it difficult for me to focus on one topic with fanatic consistency. When I decided I wanted my own forum (okay, another forum) to share my ideas and interests, I tried excruciatingly hard to think of a topic that permeated my life and helped define “me” within this ever expanding sphere of people sharing ideas.
I really liked baking and cake decorating? Could I write about that? Maybe. It was a great activity when I was in the mood, but origami, bracelet making, collaging, and making playlists were also high contenders when it came to choosing a crafting activity.
I love movies. Could I write about those? I’d vote yes. I love everything about movies. The sets, actors, soundtracks, and plot all interest my more than they probably should. But truth be told, I’m a bit notorious among my friends for being untrustworthy with movie recommendations. Every year during college on my birthday, I got to choose any movie playing in theatres and my friends had to go, no matter what. I’m hoping to keep the tradition alive this year with the 2011 remake of “Footloose” if that gives you any indication of where my line of “quality cinema” stands. It’s just one of those facets of my personality that I’ve accepted and embrace with a laugh. And it makes sense. People think I have less than stellar taste because I watch and find something charming about so many movies, but it’s basically just because I watch SO many movies that I’ve just naturally tried to find the parts of them that are positive. I don’t watch Step Up because I think it’s a timeless classic. I watch it because those dance moves are ridiculous and it has a killer dance soundtrack. I’m not picky. I enjoy most genres and have a Netflix account. We all knew it was a recipe for disaster. So needless to say, this option was unlikely to win. If the only people who end up reading this are my friends, I need them to believe I’m at least semi-credible at what I’m talking about.
Now what’s left? Lending my voice to the invaluable dissection of the countless YouTube videos on the net? But was I qualified? Sports highlights? Check. Amazing cover songs and remixes? Check. Epic Fails. Check. Cute kitten videos. Double check. I’ve watched them all. Twice. But still, it didn’t feel quite right.
So as I looked ardently at these lists I had created of pros and cons; interests and hobbies, scanned everything in my world for a spark of interest that shone brighter than the rest, and finally, resigned myself to my fate as a consumer of media instead of a creator (i.e. prey, not predator), it was like the answer came floating on the wind, softly at first, then with a stronger clarity and tone, the beat beginning to engulf my senses pushing past that moment separating “hearing” something and “feeling” it through your entire body.
Sounds corny. Sounds cliché. Shut it. This is my blog and I’ll gush if I want to. At that moment, I finally, finally, FINALLY realized that the one thing connecting all of these things together was, as simple as it sounds: music.
If it were a food, it’d be bacon. It goes well with everything.
Even as I write this, I’m listening to “Popular” by Huey Mack, an amazing remix of the same-titled song featured in the Broadway show Wicked. Random? Check. Amazing? Check. Hoping I’ll show you more songs like this? I’m going to go ahead and check that last box for you.
The point is: I love music. I love soundtracks from movies, acoustic YouTube covers, creating playlists from artists I find online and from other sources, driving with the windows down and a perfect mix playing, sitting on a beach with headphones in while watching the world float by or dancing to the beat of a song in a sweaty club or an open field with 100,000 of your nearest and dearest (we’ll get to Bonnaroo later) where all you can hear is the music.
Sounds amazing, right? It is. I appreciate music so much and it constantly surprises, enlightens, and floors me. This blog is my attempt to express to others what I love, why I love it and how other people can discover it too.
