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 |    My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Invalid Item" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by!  |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 24"Maroon Five" by Spencer Jordan I generally dislike songs named for other artists and pop culture phenomena, so this song about listening to Maroon Five is a bit of an exception to the case, but it's because I really like the rhythm of the song and think Spencer Jordan has a pretty great voice. I don't really know what it is about this song that works for me, but I find myself listening to it a lot in the car when I'm driving around and feeling a little melancholy. This is another song that I discovered on Spotify, and it's one of my most listened-to songs of 2021. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 23"The Heat" by Moody Joody I found this song through Spotify recommendations and have been listening to it quite a bit lately. I'd never heard of Moody Joody before this song, but I've been checking out some of their other stuff and really like their sound. "Villain" is also a really good track. Moody Joody is apparently a female duo collaboration of two individual artists (similar to how The Wreckers were a thing for a while when Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp teamed up) out of Nashville. Their songwriting is pretty strong, I"m excited to see what else they do. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 22"Driver's License" and "Good 4 U" by Olivia Rodrigo Sour was one of the most surprising albums that I discovered last year. I figured that Olivia Rodrigo, a Disney Channel actress, was going to follow in the footsteps of other young television actresses who decide to start singing and would release a generic pop album. I was really surprised to discover an album that had a clear point of view, an edge to it, and some pretty catchy lyrics and melodies. I'm definitely interested to see what Olivia Rodrigo does next. This was a really great album and I'm curious to see if she can replicate its success with her next effort. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 21"I Can't Hold Back" by Survivor I was actually on a bit of a Survivor kick last year, and had a hard time choosing which of their songs I was going to feature on this year's playlist. I almost went with "The Search Is Over" or "High On You," but this one had the highest play count throughout last year. R.I.P. Jimi Jamison, who might be the single greatest vocalist among all the 80s rock bands. He was renowned for having near-perfect pitch, the band's sound engineers almost never having to pitch edit his recording sessions at all. Survivor is one of my go-to bands when I want to get lost in an 80s rock rabbit hole. All I have to do is listen to a few of their songs (or Journey's), and then I'm suddenly revisiting Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Queen, Foreigner, etc. It's a gateway band to all kinds of classic rock.  |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 20"Take Me To Heart" by Quarterflash I love it when watching something reminds me of a great 80s song that I had totally forgotten. That was certainly the case with this song, which was featured in Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. Quarterflash is usually better known for their hit "Harden My Heat" but I've always enjoyed this song of theirs better, and when the show played it on their soundtrack, it reminded me of how often I used to listen to this track growing up. Back in the day, I remember Quarterflash being notable because the lead singer, Rindy Ross, also played the saxophone, which was unusual at the time. Quarterflash is also a consolidated band from two pre-existing bands, Pilot (not the Scottish one) and Seafood Mama. In the case of the latter, I think it was a very good idea to change their name to Quarterflash.  |
 I have to admit, seeing this notification made me chuckle. All due credit to Aennaytte: Free & Wild in GoT  who inspired the idea with "Reading, Writing, Reviewing" .Tonight I removed everything I had "fanned" on the site, hence the note above. That's not to say that I "unfavorited" people; I still have my favorites so I can keep track of the users and activities that I enjoy interacting with. But I've been really uncomfortable with the idea of obsessing over one's fans, and offering incentives to gain more fans. No judgement against anyone who does find the accumulation of fans important, or wants to encourage community-building by doing so, but for me personally it's just not sitting well. I suspect it's part of a recent, larger move away from social media on my part. I also check Twitter and Facebook less. I'm not as enamored with the idea of scrolling through a feed trying to make sure I haven't missed anything, whether it's Instagram, LinkedIn, or Writing.com. I've been through cycles of trying to add friends, followers, fans ... whatever term a site adopts for its audience. I've seen people, myself included, chase artificial metrics for success like who has the most CR, whether you can collect all the merit badges in the shop, if you can be the #1 reviewer for the month, or raise/spend the most GPs in an activity. And if I'm being honest with myself, I'm exhausted by all of that. Exhausted and ultimately unfulfilled. So I'm trying something different. I'm focusing more of my time on meaningful interactions rather than superficial ones. I'm slowly gaining back some of the time in the day that I used to use for productive purposes rather than social media interactions that haven't been filling the void that formed when I stopped exploring my creativity. One of the things that I love about this site is all of the different ways one can participate. You can write, review, run activities, communicate on the newsfeed, shower others with gifts and recognition; each user contributes to this site in their own unique way. For me, I want to reorient that engagement away from chasing social rewards (GPs, CR, fans, etc.) and back toward writing and running activities that celebrate writing. I have absolutely nothing against anyone who enjoys the social rewards on this site, but that's just not something that's a priority for me at the moment. Will I still visit the newsfeed and interact with others? Sure. Will I still collect trinkets when I find them? Of course. Will I still try to earn exclusive Merit Badges when a challenge comes up that strikes my fancy? Geez, I didn't swap out my entire personality.  But I'm going to try to be more intentional about not letting popularity and social cache drive the agenda anymore. And to that end, I've non-selectively chosen to "unfan" everything.Okay, maybe that last GIF was a little extreme. I still have my favorites. I'm still always on the lookout for new activities and users to favorite so I can follow along and interact with them. But I'm going to try to let that happen organically, where connections are built on the quality of the interactions themselves. I don't need to "fan" someone (and they don't need to "fan" me) in order to make a connection. Maybe I'll "fan" some things again in the future. One never knows. But, for right now, I think the right choice for me is to step away from the pursuit of fans and CR and the Writing.com social economy in general, and instead reinvest in the site's writing and creative community. Stay tuned, I've got some ideas about what to tackle next.  |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 19"Take Me There" by Delta Rae This is the last of my "Nashville" inspired choices, I think. The independent artists who remind me of the shows we went to in Nashville a few years ago. Fun fact, when I first started listening to this song, I assumed "Delta Rae" was a solo artist. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that six-member folk rock band consisting of a trio of siblings plus an additional vocalist, percussionist, and bass player. After the majority of the members had graduated from their respective music programs they, and I quote, "all moved into a big house in the woods in Durham, North Carolina and officially became a band." Living in a remote house in the woods with a bunch of folk band musician roommates sounds a little like what I imagine Hell would be like, or at least a really unpopular premise for a reality TV show. While I really like this song, I have to say I'm not a huge fan of their other work. Most of their music is more on the folksy side and pretty slow and subdued. This kind of upbeat song is more my speed, and what I imagine the real benefit of a six-member group would be, with everyone just absolutely letting loose and rocking out. I think the lead singer has a great voice and they do have a good sound, so I hope that they put out a few more uptempo songs that are more fun to tap your toes to. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 18"Obsessed" by Sam Riggs Here's the other side of my country/rock double-feature, to dovetail with yesterday's "When The Lights Go Out" . This single was first released in February 2019, which was the first of a four-month run where he was releasing a single every 30 days or so. In a weird coincidence, Sam Riggs also recorded a song called "When The Lights Go Out" but Patrick Droney's version is far, far superior.This song was my 8th most listened-to song on Spotify in 2021, so I'm slowly knocking out my Top 10. The ones at the top of that list you won't see on this year's playlist are "Problems" by A R I Z O N A, "My Thoughts On You" by The Band CAMINO, and "Lost" by Blake Rose (all featured on last year's Soundtrackers playlist), as well as a few songs that I heavily listened to in early 2021 but have similar vibes or inspirations to other songs I've picked for this year's playlist. Don't worry, I've still got a few left to feature, though. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 17"When The Lights Go Out" by Patrick Droney This was my 11th most listened-to song on Spotify in 2021, and honestly it's kind of amazing that the song made it that high given that I didn't discover it until mid-September. I found him through a friend's Spotify channel recommendations. I've listened to a handful of his other songs at this point and they're okay, but this one's really stuck with me for some reason. I'm also including the video of his live performance of the song from The Late Show with Steve Colbert because it also showcases some of his talents with a guitar which aren't present on the original song. There are times when I like music with a country flavor, but I tend to gravitate towards either country/pop or country/rock (which will also be evidenced by my next song choice  ). My wife and I visited Nashville a few years back and this was the kind of music we loved finding in the city, going from show to show as independent musicians played in venues all over the city. Listening to this song makes me want to go back to Nashville again for a visit. |
"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 16"What I See" by Elevation Worship feat. Chris Brown Everything that was true about the last song on playlist is true of this one. I love the rock sound to this song (the way it starts off kind of reminds me of an AC/DC song or something from a similar hard rock band) and I breathed a sigh of relief when the "Chris Brown" that's being featured on the song is a worship leader and not the "other" Chris Brown who's famous for his dance moves and assault and battery charges. I really like Elevation Worship and almost put a number of their other songs on my playlist this year. I've also been listening to "Jireh" and "RATTLE!" quite a bit over the past year. If you're looking for an intro to Christian worship music that doesn't always feel so... stuffy and religious-y, this is a pretty good worship music band to start with. |
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