Exploration #4

Yeah, I know.  I watched The Social Dilemma  the other day. Besides the big takeaways I'm supposed to have, I was really struck by one of the ex-destructors of democracy commenting on the state of post-social media internet vs pre-social media internet. She referred to the internet as a shopping mall - a function over form, sterile space that doesn't lend itself to creativity. I have fond memories of pre-social media internet, even though I didn't get to experience a lot of it. I particularly miss the concepts of having "my sites," web pages you'd visit every day, maybe even multiple times, hoping for an update on the topic that you and maybe 350 other people cared about. I still try to browse a few of those (Figure Four Wrestling, Voices of Wrestling, The Quietus, Gorilla vs Bear) but my time is so dominated by a powerhouse stable of four faceless social media platforms that it feels hard to have any part of the internet that's distinctly mine. I was a bi...

As an outsider, I've always had a sort of detached appreciation for gospel music. I grew up hearing it as interstitial music everywhere in Mississippi. It was never something I or anyone I knew would reach for for entertainment but I'd hear it in between stations, in a mechanic's waiting room, or from passing cars.  I've always admired it, honestly. Religious music, in general, is probably the least pretentious genre. It completes itself by existing. The entire point of the music is to give thanks to someone who has given you everything; just by lifting up your voice in exaltation you've completed the "goal" of the art. Record sales, touring, even peer appreciation are all sort of secondary to the true divine purpose of gospel and, in a way, I think that makes it potentially the most "authentic" art form. That definition only works if you give a shit about authenticity, which is something I still struggle with a lot when analyzing music. Realisti...