December 16th through the 22nd

I think I am ready to sort out that week now. I've only been working on the post for two weeks.

It started with a comment on my blog. I had three posts about death that week, and in the first one I mentioned Ken Ober. That post was inspired by the reaction to Paul Walker's death, but the more important part was Ken, because there was grief there, and a lack of closure.

I have no idea how it was seen, but this was the comment I got:

Hi Gina,

If it gives you any kind of closure, I can tell you that Ken Ober died from heart failure -- not a heart attack, but from the gradual progression of heart disease which, it seems, is primarily hereditary. His death was sudden and unexpected but clearly the disease had been at work for a long time. But, please, even if I've helped with some closure, don't let it stop you from saying things about Ken. He's worth remembering.

Regards,

Ken's brother

I kind of hate writing about this, because it's special, and I don't want to cheapen it, but it is special, so I am writing about it. A question was answered, but more than that there was the acknowledgment, and the shared feeling, and the connection.

In writing, that week was a lot about death, but it was also about life. I posted that during the day, but that night I went to a concert. It was a great show, which would make for a pretty good week anyway. Also, I knew that I would review those bands Thursday and Friday, and they would be bands #99 and #100 since I started doing this. That felt big, and I liked that it was going to coincide with a live show.

I also liked that it ended up being who it was: TEAM and Third Eye Blind. In the reviews I wrote about their mutual appreciation and their fostering of connections, but I am going to give an example. December 30th, Alex Kopp tweeted "Listen to @WeAreCalledTEAM everyday. Just do it." and then Alex LeCavalier replied that he could not stop listening, because they were so good.

I hate musician feuds, but even more so I love musicians supporting other musicians. I love that their egos are not too large to let them appreciate someone else. I love that they don't get this mindset that there is only a limited amount of success available and they need to be competitive and greedy about it. Basically I love people supporting each other and being kind to each other. Maybe musicians stick out more.

And overall, both of these bands have been great about paying attention to the fans too. I wrote about Third Eye Blind Wednesday, and I will write more about TEAM tomorrow, but they provide a lot of warm feelings. So, among the various bands and members, there were favorites of my reviews, which I appreciated, but there were also comments on the blog.

These were lengthy, detailed comments, one from someone at the show, one from a long time fan who had not been able to go. Again, there is that connection. I don't know them, but we all care about something, and have feelings about it, and it was good.

I guess what I am getting at there is that week it really felt like the blog mattered. Then, December 22nd, Patrick Stump replied to me.

I was about to leave for church, and I saw that he tweeted "@HarryConnickJR Makes such great holiday records." I replied "You would too. I can see you doing great with standards." What I did not know was that just an instant later he replied "I'd love to sing standards. Someday."

When I came back I had messages asking how I was even alive, and I saw that a tweet I was mentioned in had a lot of Favorites and Re-tweets (currently 78 and 10). That is cool, and getting a reply is cool, but the part that I really liked is that it validated what I had written when I reviewed them, thinking that he would do well with standards, though probably when he was older.

I have started getting better at hearing things, like picking up on when a band uses different tunings, or why they would do it. It makes me feel like I am actually getting good at this. So all of that happening around my 100th review felt significant. It wasn't a culmination, because I'm still doing it, but it was something. More good experiences keep happening. Maybe two more quotes can tie it all together.

“Hip-hop writing was done by people who were looking at it it from the outside. It wasn’t life or death. They weren’t gonna die if they didn’t write about the stuff. Whereas we probably would have.” – Reginald Dennis on The Source magazine, from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang, p 412

"You are what you love, not what loves you back."

(And yes, that last one is because of the line "You are what you love, not who loves you" in the Fall Out Boy song "Save Rock and Roll", which I guess ties in well, except I am hearing it in Elton John's voice, not Patrick's.)

These things that I write and draw, I feel compelled to do. I will be restless and unhappy if I don't do it. If I am the only one who cares about it, that's fine; I still need it.

However, more and more lately I want to share it. I end up sending links to different people, or responding to things, and I feel silly doing it, but it's been turning out okay. It is loving me back. That means a lot. 

Related posts: 

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/06/fall-out-boy-this-isnt-just-concert.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/concert-review-team.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/concert-review-third-eye-blind.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/and-then-everybody-died.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/02/internet-connectivity.html