FAQ

As I write this, I’m listening to my guest appearance on The Real Congregation (airing every Tuesday morning from 3 am to 6 am on WPRK 91.5 FM Winter Park, FL, The Best in Underground Radio, in case you’re wondering). Before anything else is said or done, I owe a HUGE thanks to Marc (with a C) for having me on the show. I had a great time on my radio debut (!) and I still feel a little humbled by the experience. As I told him as we were leaving the studio, the best I could have hoped for was not sounding like an absolute fool – and I think I accomplished that, so all in all it was a pretty good experience.

And while we’re on the subject of Marc (with a C), I HIGHLY suggest picking up a copy of his compilation, RetroLowFi: Ten Years of Marc (with a C). The link provided could score you a vinyl pressing, which sounds great. Because it’s vinyl. And it’s Marc. If you prefer CD, those are available, too. Either way, getting to know a great musician, superb songwriter, and awesome performer is well worth the spare change.

With my thanks given and that off my chest, it dawns on me that, after last night, a few people may be coming here after we talked about the Blog. Granted, there’s an idea of what to expect in the bio to your right, but a little more explanation may be in order.

(On a personal note, I have to admit I’m actually not too comfortable putting myself over like this, which is what a lot of this entry feels like to me. That strikes me as weird that I feel like that in just explaining myself, but I feel it’s a necessary step before I really push this thing down a hill and watch it roll where it may. I have to take the self-congratulations with the self-deprecation and just deal with it, so this is an exercise for me as well.)

Before getting to the nut of this thing, the bio states that I’ve done this sort of thing for a combined ten-plus years. And that’s completely true. I’ve done quite a few-—hell, a lot of interviews, feature pieces, news bits, you name it. I’ve covered a large bit of ground in my decade of experience, and I’ve loved every bit of it. And yes, I plan on continuing all of it.

First: the title of this particular post is somewhat of a misnomer. I don’t really get Frequently Asked Questions. Hell, I don’t get many questions, period. I’m used to asking them. It suited what I wanted to do, though, because it gives the impression that it’s a catch-all for what you can expect from the Blog from this point forward.

Let’s start with the aforementioned bio. The whole idea behind this was a revulsion and ultimate rebellion to being force-fed mediocrity and expected to fall in line and accept it all as gold. After a little prompting from Marc, I decided to let that side of me out in public to terrorize the countryside simply because I can’t hold stuff like that in. For good or ill, I have to say what I feel. If it offends you, fall back in line and pretend Lady GaGa is actually doing something new like everybody else.

Before you do, though, I have a very clear point to make: if something I say does offend you when I’m calling out idiocy, then you’re probably the person I’m actually after. I’m a HUGE proponent in the idea of thinking for yourself and not repeating what everyone else loves because, God forbid, you be labeled as weird, strange, or, my personal favorite, “creepy”. The ills of Political Correctness and how it has bled in to popular culture to completely destroy the idea of anything original or new is what spawned this thing in the first place and pervades a LOT of my everyday thinking. Consider this the warning show across the bow. It’s the only one you’ll get.

Oh, and I’m not the type to post a lot of pictures for the attention-span deficient. Sorry, but you’re going to actually have to read.

Second thing is you’ll notice not a lot of four-letter words to be found here. Yes, that’s deliberate. Anybody can curse. It’s easy. I pride myself on making a point and dressing people/situations down without being profane in the least. Or, as my wife puts it, “cussing somebody out without cussing them out.” Not only that, but I like the idea of offending people not with language, but with subject matter. And no, talking about Perez Hilton posting pictures of an underage singer without her underwear on and then putting Olympic athletes to shame by backpedaling his way out of being charged with child pornography is not what I consider offensive subject material.

Which brings us to number three: If you came upon this because you typed “pop culture” in to Google hoping for the same sycophantic gossip everyone else is spreading just to get readers, you’re in the wrong place. The only thing you’ll hear me say about clowns like Perez Hilton is how ludicrous they are in thinking they actually matter just because many are too dumb to realize the celebrity he cares about the most is himself. The fact that he even became somewhat famous and that he’s able to make that 15 minutes last forever because people are too dumb to ignore this loudmouth makes me want to puke up every chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten. And that’s just a small (but obvious) example of the absurdity I’ll be calling out here.

Leading right in to number four: this will not be an all-negati—hold on. I really need to emphasize this one. THIS WILL NOT BE AN ALL-NEGATIVE BLOG. I may have quite a bit of venom to unload, but it’s not all I am. Besides, that gets a little boring, too. There’s plenty of stuff out there I absolutely love, and I’m a firm believer in praising right moves as well as damning wrong ones. So, between the two, expect to gain a lot of insight to my overall tastes if you’re paying attention.

Five. There will be links to my stuff on Examiner.com, 411 Mania, as well as wherever else I may pop up. I would like this to be not only a place to be myself, but a place to archive my writings overall. It also gives you more of a complete picture, because this vein of writing overall is my passion, and they're just as much a part of that as this is.

…all of which, 1000+ words later, is a way of saying something I probably could have done in a paragraph. Did I say I feel weird about talking about myself? I meant it, really. It was necessary for me, though, to go through all that trouble to explain that this is me being me. For better or worse, ‘til death do I part, if I am to have a voice at all and be myself on a planet that seems to frown on that sort of thing anymore, this is the place I have to do it. And yes, it is something I have to do.

Besides, if douchenozzles like Perez Hilton can become famous doing this sort of thing, who am I to shy away from simply picking my own little corner of cyberspace to talk about what I want to?