4/18/2022 - "Plus ça change, plus ç'est la même chose"

This blog was my pandemic passion project. I started it in order to geek out, obsess, and communicate with people who care. As I got busier, I put blogging to the wayside. At least that was my excuse. Truthfully, I have never felt fully confident in my writing. Putting myself in vulnerable positions, where you all can read my feelings, emotions, and thoughts, has never felt comfortable. But at the same time, that was the challenge, and that is what I enjoyed. A close friend has mentioned that I should start writing more, but I shrugged that off. Excuses cluttered my mind and prevented me from opening up again, a full two years after beginning this blog.

I have since experienced many changes in my life: moving away from my family and friends, starting a new job, expressing my creativity in different mediums, and further committing to my passion of music. As a result, I have felt a pent-up bank of creativity and ideas that must escape my mind. I am a horrible artist, so drawing and painting are not an option. I cannot play a musical instrument to save my life, so translating my thoughts and feelings to notes is difficult. What is left?

My friend's suggestion of reviving this blog was an annoying pest in my brain. I knew they were right, but it felt like it wasn't my place to express myself anymore. A project that began two years ago, when I was a completely different person, and at a completely different point of life, did not seem relevant.

I recently turned out the lights in my listening room at my parent's house for the last time. I had let my final record get to the end of the last track, at which point I lifted the stylus off, shut off the receiver, and packed it all up. My once sacred place of listening took a different form and it was immediately unsettling. As I shut the door, I felt a need to express those feelings. I needed to let out this bit of creativity before it ate me up inside. Oddly enough, the last song my speakers had sung was "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" from Sinatra's live album, Sinatra at the Sands. So please, if you will, act as the bartender as I begin to lay all of my thoughts, feelings, and random thoughts onto you once again. You, however, are not paid to suffer through my ramblings, so feel free to tune out whenever.

As Rush says, "Plus ça change, plus ç'est la même chose." The rough translation meaning the more that things change, the more they stay the same. Although many things have changed in two years, and continue to do so, my passion for music and records, as well as my desire to write about them, remains the same. I cannot promise consistent entries, however, I can promise complete honesty, vulnerability, and multiple grammatical errors.