A Self Perpetuating Engine

When I first started Feed Your Head 2 years ago, I thought it would be a nice outlet for me to pour out my passion for music to a few curious readers. After standing on the side, watching and listening for a couple of years, trying to catch up to where music was, it got to a point where I was no longer content to be just a casual observer.

When musicians and other fans began approaching me with a genuine, "who are you, and what are you doing here?", I began opening up to them and I found a welcoming community of artists unlike any I've encountered before. And every time I went out to a show, the circle grew, and it continues to grow to this day.

I had been using blogs like Radio Free Silver Lake, Classical Geek Theatre and Buzzbands to facilitate my musical education and, determined to find a way to contribute, I thought, why not a blog from my perspective. As someone who grew up during Rock's golden age, and loved it, to some one who shunned rock and roll from about 1985 to 2005, then came back to it with virgin ears, I realized my viewpoint might be oddly unique.

Almost like someone who spent twenty years in a coma, or on another planet, who now sees everything as new, sometimes I feel like a time traveller, which is part of the reason so much of the music I love sounds so fresh and original and exciting to me. So I launched this website on May 9, 2008, and almost immediately, things started to happen. People were very supportive and encouraging, and never having written a word in my life. I surprised myself, by picking up a pencil and pad, and like turning on a faucet, the words just started to pour out.

Within weeks, the website became the engine that was running me, and all I can do is hang on for the ride. I stopped trying to figure out what comes next, because it just happens by itself. After less than a year, Joe Fielder announced he was leaving town to take a job in Boston and wanted to leave Radio Free Silver Lake in good hands and I was highly flattered to learn I was the first person he asked.

Offered the weekly Show Low Down column, I had always looked at Joe's column first thing Monday morning, I agreed, if only to make sure that weekly tradition would continue. I was also scared to death because my computer skills are, to put it kindly, primitive...and this was a daunting task. 60 weeks later I'm still at it and it has been a gift that I will always value.

So I guess the point is, don't ever limit your imagination as to what you can accomplish. Stay open to new experience and you may never stop surprising yourself. I've always heard that with age comes caution. I'm finding the reverse to be true.

whrabbit