(no subject)

[brightly_lit]

Before I joined Tumblr, I had the impression it was a bunch of bitchy 15-year-olds barely interacting and reposting innumerable pictures of hot guys. After I joined Tumblr, I discovered I was exactly correct. Still, barely interacting is easy, I like looking at hot guys, so it's been all right, although after you see approximately 15,000 pictures of Sebastian Stan, you actually start feeling like maybe you never need to see another.

There are good things about Tumblr, namely that if there is any news whatsoever about someone you're into, THOSE PEOPLE ARE ON IT. Every single photo that may appear anywhere on the internet is on Tumblr within minutes, being passed around, hashed over, and thoroughly analyzed. It's like instantaneous fandom-news central, which is surprisingly gratifying. Now if only real news could be as accurate and immediate.

Anyway, I think maybe I know the reason why I finally felt compelled to join Tumblr when I did: very shortly after, lo and behold, one of the few people I follow cooked up the great idea to have fans submit songs for a fan tribute album of one of my favorite band's great albums (which is set to be re-released soon for the tenth anniversary).

This is sort of a dream come true for me. Not that anyone will listen to my song, but just to get to do that, to have an excuse to record a cover, to get to delve deeply into one of my favorite band's songs, to record music at all anymore (I self-released a couple of albums, but it's been a long time since I recorded a single note), has been soo so awesome and so inspiring and fun. I'm so grateful to get to be a part of it, even though it's fucking hard work! And lots of technology-related frustration, as ever. Maybe someday I'll be able to get my electric guitar to be audible through one of my interfaces, but today is not that day.

Anyway, so that's what I've been up to. I've been missing you all and trying to find a way back into interacting on lj, but it's taken me until TODAY to finally catch up after gishwhes. (YES REALLY.) Hopefully more posts and more responses to your comments to come soon. <3

Comments

[majestic-duxk.livejournal.com]

sometimes things just happen for the right reasons :)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

It's rare, but it happens!

[indiachick.livejournal.com]

I love those kind of projects, the ones that inspire you to really dive in, despite it being hard work as well. <3

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

The best kind, when working on it is the most fun you can imagine.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! Reconnecting with something you love is priceless.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

It truly is. It's been exercising a long-dormant part of me.

[galwithglasses.livejournal.com]

Tumblr is all that and all the Sebastian Stan, plus right now Loki and Thor. I like it for seeing things from fandoms I'm interested in but not anywhere to the same level as SPN. I know nothing about the Hamilton musical except what I've picked up from tumblr but it's been fun to watch the serious fans totally go crazy. Tumblr is also nice if you like pictures of nature, pets, weird weather, art, architecture, and in my case, ships and sailing. Lots of classic car stuff, too. I also follow a bunch of libraries with collections of unique or rare materials that they show off. It helps not to be invested too heavily so you can jump in and out.

It has been interesting and informative to see what issues are important to the group of people who congregate there. So much righteousness, enthusiasm, outrage, and hysteria though...some of it probably necessary and a lot of it exhausting. I feel like I'm at a non-stop teach-in. Fascinating to see how people get news about the world too. Makes me curious to see what classes at liberal arts colleges are like these days.

I'm glad you found the music project. It sounds really cool.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

The Sebastian Stan, wtf? I'd had a nice dashboard of maybe forty new posts a day, then I followed two Stan stans--just two--and suddenly there were over a hundred new posts per day, spamming the hell out of my dashboard with all the pictures--good ones, bad ones, dumb ones, every one. I finally had to unfollow one of them, and it's settled down quite a bit. I mean, I like the guy, a lot! But there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Tumblr is also nice if you like pictures of nature, pets, weird weather, art, architecture, and in my case, ships and sailing.

So true! I see some beautiful photographs, and some gorgeous fanart for fandoms I'm not even part of but that are exquisite to look at. I also ended up following someone for posts in one of my fandoms, but all she posts lately are gifs from Fallout 4, something I never thought I'd be interested in, but holy crap, they're amazing. It's so great when you can find a new interest, or rather, when it finds you. Your specific interests (libraries, collections, &c.) sound awesome!

And YES, jumping in and out is so great--Tumblr is really low-pressure that way, as opposed to lj and facebook, platforms where you really interact with people. There have already been a number of people I followed whom I unfollowed just because at a certain point it was like, "I've seen enough of that." I enjoyed it while it lasted, but suddenly knew I was done.

I'm so psyched about the music project. I just finished it tonight! I'm thinking of asking her if there are any unclaimed songs from the album so I could do another one, because it was SO FUN.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased you found this project via Tumblr, what a great idea and I'd love to hear your song once you've recorded it!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to get it together so you can hear it. :-> Thanks, bb!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

But to start you off, here's the original of the song I covered. :-)

https://youtu.be/8quiZ2dti0Y

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I know the song, my son's a big MCR fan - and I love Teenagers Scare the Living Shit Outta Me!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Your son's a fan? Go Sam! :-D

And lol "Teenagers"--I'm kind of hoping they'll need someone to cover an unrepresented song, and that's the one I'd hope it would be! :-D That's one I really relate to. ;-D

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

That would be a great one to cover!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Okay, here it is!:

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

You've got a really lovely voice, quite haunting (in a good way!), and this is such a great version of the song - I know MCR via my son as they''re one of his fave bands. Thanks so much for sharing this :)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Ooh, haunting in a good way is one of my favorite qualities. :-D Thank YOU so much for listening!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome :)

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I love it when hard work pays off and these kinds of projects are just awesome.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

It's almost like gishwhes, in that I get to fulfill an 'assignment' of a sort I otherwise would never think of. I don't generally do covers anymore, and of all their albums, that's one I was least likely to choose a cover from, so it made it an interesting challenge. Plus (as you've heard! :-D), I've never really done a full-band rock arrangement, and they are definitely ROCK, and that was always a direction I was interested in heading, so that was a fun and healthy challenge, too! :-) :-) SO FUN.

[siberian-angel.livejournal.com]

I came here via Milly mentioning the self-recorded albums you did. I don't know if - or why - you haven't recorded anything in a long time, but I just wanted to let you know that I think these acoustic pieces are amazing and your voice has a very ethereal and calming quality to it. My favorites are probably "From Your Grace" and "Little Life Blues".

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you so much! The story of why I haven't recorded anything in a long time is both complicated and probably not that interesting, but hopefully that may be about to change. Also, it's really nice to get some response to my music! Never getting much was part of why it didn't seem like a direction I was meant to go, because it's a challenging endeavor, so thank you--your comment means a lot.