Here begins the blog equivalent of how every zinester prefaced her new issue back in the day: I'm sorry this took so long to get put out, a lot of things conspired to make publication take longer than it should....etc...
only yeah there's no excuse but simply ‘shit got real' for a second and voila! I haven't posted since March. Sorry, I hope you've found things to read, and now that I'm back I hope that I can deserve your attention once again.
You will notice that this blog has moved locations, from the now Google-owned Blogger to my very own url, www.funboring.com. The site is pure vanity and holds info about various past and present projects including a new blog for the Best Music Writing book series and a section about my recently completed Wildwoods Oral History Project. Check it out.
What have I done between April and now that was so damn intense? I will not bore you with a full recap but instead offer an amusing list. Her ‘tis:
EMP Pop Con 2007
Coachella 2007
Took a class on Bourdieu at UCLA
Finished BMW2007
Attended the wedding of my best friend from high school in Portland, OR
Vacation with dad down west coast on Amtrak
Left LA, drove Xcountry
Went to NZ for conference
Moved back to NYC
I also somewhere in all of this got/found myself single and stumbled upon some amusing truths about my relationship to creating, music, writing, economics, careers and dwelling that will surely come up at some point in my blog writing. That said, I do tend to approach the privacy issue here by mentioning people in my life by first name only and only when I have something positive to say about the person. More "public" figures who do things in a google-able context may be mentioned by full name as per below. I reference my own personal problem-children like those 19th century German authors always did, as initials (K-) or perhaps just as abstractions. This blog does not exist to pick or end personal disputes but it does use the personal as a gateway to other topics.
At a reading for the recently released Marooned book, in which I have a rather personal story about a long ago breakup, someone came up to me and asked "I loved your piece but wondered how you could be so revealing when you know a story will go out into the world" and all I have to say about that right now is - while I am not an emotional exhibitionist, I am also not ashamed of having them or making mistakes, getting into awkward or bad situations, of having to admit I was wrong and figure out new ways of moving forward. And yes, although I was never a riot grrrl (the wave didn't make it to Ohio) I am unafraid to cry in public. So, while I'm not going to litter the world with my personal bs, I would like to take an approach similar to that of Ellen Willis in her essay writing (rock and otherwise) and use these moments, however embarrassing or bizarre, as ways to frame larger questions I've been asking myself or looking into the world to try to answer.
Besides these types of first person essays, I plan to use this space to write short album reviews, show reviews, to post commentary on music, music journalism, and music news, to post music-related photos and eventually to post mp3s. I've toyed with the idea of making the blog more straightforward in approach to match the consistently awesome blogs of folks who love a specific genre Oliver Wang, but I guess I am more like Douglas Wolk in my wandering enthusiast ways and would hate to commit to one blog-writing style or musical genre focus.
So what is The Music Issue? Hopefully it is smart, engaged feminist writing on all things sound: popular, semi-popular, unpopular, "art" and otherwise. It encourages thought, debate, action. Or it is just another in the sea - you decide, perhaps in the comments section, with the warning that any type of conversation-stopping name-calling/offensive slurs will be addressed and potentially removed at my discretion (be profane if you want, but be on point for the argument, my friends, critics, readers, and/or community). So enjoy The Music Issue in its new funboring home and send feedback via any channel old or new. Many thanks for your eyes over the last five years and now let's move forward.
BCNU,
Daphne
PS. All text and photos on this site are subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. What do you want? Information. How do you want is? Free.
