It’s taken longer than I intended to get back to posting, but since the pandemic began, and still, time is more fluid for me than it used to be. As always, there are half-finished projects piling up in the wings, not yet ready for the stage.

For now, I’ve added a music section and started it off with my Best-Of annual lists. I usually don’t finish them until after the new year, partly because my listening playlist is massive and partly because I’m perpetually tardy like that.

I started seeing live music again. Since the start of fall I’ve experienced three amazing live acts, all in relatively small venues: Geese, Ariel Posen, and Big Wreck. All were wonderful, but I was practically giddy being able to see Big Wreck for the first time. Ian Thornley is the last founding member, but since he’s both singer and principal songwriter, BW’s evolution has been steady and seamless. He’s part of my overstuffed pantheon of songwriting, singing, AND guitar heroes. It’s become cliché to say “they’re better live!” but in a performance context, it’s true for them.

Smaller venues give one a chance to have a more intimate experience, not to mention it’s usually much cheaper, so most of us can see more shows. I do love a recording with great production and layered sounds, but live performance isn’t just a connection to the performers, it’s a link to our shared cultural past, reaching back thousands of years to when music, dance, art, and storytelling could only be experienced in the moment, face-to-faces.