Summer Stay-cation!

(July 17, 2008)

I can't remember (and am too lazy to check) if I wrote that I've quit local music. I know. It's nuts. "I have never heard of such a thing," wrote Ad Frank in an email. "I just can't imagine it," wrote Anderson Mar in my Myspace blog comments.

I started unraveling my threads in October. It was kind of like extracting oneself from a spider web. First I quit as Senior Associate Editor at The Noise when everything started to suck over there (some will argue that it always has sucked and only took me 12 years to reach my limit) and then I quit the weekly WBOS HD local radio show, then I dismantled Low Budget Superhero, took down the Sonicbids drop-box, and finally, once I had nothing left to offer any local musician, quit the Rock and Roll Social. Stepping away from local rock to focus on other things has been something I've been thinking about doing for about a year, maybe more like two years. I was less and less enthusiastic about going out to shows. I went, but the frequency dipped to once a week, then to once a month. Still, I was mentally fighting the "who cares" feeling. OLD people don't care about local rock. I do! So I fought the feeling even though I knew it was...time to bring this ship into the shore, and throw away the oars, forever...cause I cant fight this feeling anymore...I've forgotten what I started fighting for...and if I have to crawl upon the floor, come crashing through your door, baby, I cant fight this feeling anymore...sorry, that little outburst was McC's fault.

Some people aren't quite getting it. At my last Social in June someone said "Well yeah, you won't be here anymore but you'll still review CDs, right?" Um, no...I won't. I'm sayin'...I'll NOT be a local rock person anymore. Just be a regular person who can't get you a show or give you a review.

Even though it's been a slow untangling process since fall, now that the last thing is gone (The Social) feel like I'm on summer vacation! Only instead of always going somewhere, I can stay where I am. I can STAY HOME and not feel guilty about it, which is just as bad as going to see bands and, while there, not feel like being there.

On a Friday night, I can go home from work and, if I want to, I don't even have to put on shoes again until Monday.

During the week I have no meetings. No playlists to make, no mp3s to burn. No bio's to write, no obligation-listens due on any CDs or EPKs. No flier to design or distribute, no press release to write and send, no Myspace reach-outs, no callbacks.

Now I'll have to make a real effort to see my friends; since they're all DJs, bookers, writers and musicians I'd see fairly regularly, it'll be important to not fall off the planet.

Or maybe I will fall off the planet.

I can always get back on again.