Here we go! Welcome! And congratulations for not being on social media right now. That’s why I’m here.
The name of this blog comes from a 1989 song by Bob Wiseman, a title I also used to name my 1990s campus radio show. To me, the song was always about feeling like you didn’t belong, that you were built for better things, that you’re built for things outside the contraints in which you currently find yourself. Like, say, pitching stories to a media environment that doesn’t deem you clickbaity enough, or giving away your best bon mots for free to a social media platform that makes money off the fact that you’re interesting to others in the attention economy.
I’ve written about music my whole life, primarily Canadian music. Perhaps you know that, which is why you’re here. If you don’t know why you’re here, you can see some of the things I’ve done here.
I’ve been blogging consistently since 2007, and writing professionally for 15 years before that. I’ve allowed Twitter to atrophy my brain for a not-so-lucky 13 years, somehow completing two large book projects during that time period. I used to have a weekly album-review column in a small-city newspaper, which ran for almost 20 years. I’ve been looking for credit in the straight world lately, and welcome any freelance writing or editing work you might need done.
In the meantime, I’m migrating my musical musings to this website. Maybe other musings as well.
I could continue blogging at Radio Free Canuckistan, powered by Blogger, a Google company that pretty much no one uses anymore. I never monetized that site with ads; maybe I should have. But that brings me to Substack. We’ll see how it goes. I may slowly migrate some of the better RFC content over here, and have at least one aspect of my life not tethered to Google.
I’d been thinking about Substack since it started, but I was busy writing books, life happened, and other reasons. But the reason to kickstart this now is the collapse of social media as we know it.
I had to be talked into using social media all those many moons ago. I eventually fell in love with Facebook, as a town hall filled with all my friends (real friends: I didn’t connect with anyone I wouldn’t have over for dinner). I tried to gradually fall off that train as the truth about the Zuckerverse unfolded, but got sucked in again during pandemic lockdowns, where it was a life-saver. I liked (sometimes loved!) aspects of Twitter, but over time felt the downsides outweighed the benefits. Not that I could quit it: it’s like nicotine. This past year, I stayed on primarily to promote my latest book. Now, of course, all bets are off. And I’m likely off it as well.
I really enjoyed Cadence Weapon’s recent Substack post about this.
Instagram? Not my bag. I’m not a visual person. It requires more brain power of me than I want to dedicate to social media. It also only really works on my phone, which I try to avoid picking up if I don’t have to. Instagram, to me, is an unnecessary envy machine, largely disconnected from real life—but if it works for you, great. Though I can’t say I understand people who get self-righteous about the evils of Facebook (or Twitter) and then announce that they’re on another dopamine dispenser owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
But what about TikTok, you ask? Dude, I’m 51 years old and my attention span is already frayed.
SO HERE WE ARE NOW / ENTERTAIN US.
I’ll try and keep it snappy. Album recommendations. Live show listings. I’ll start things off with my favourite things of 2022. I’ll post interviews eventually. Some stuff will go behind paywall. We’ll see how that all works out. There are chat and community functions on this website that I’ll try and explore, so nerds can unite.
In the meantime, thank you for being here. Thank you for caring about culture. Thank you for not thinking Canadian culture in particular, whatever that might mean, is some dorky niche. Thank you for your curiosity. Thank you for investing your time. I don’t take it for granted.
We’ll get this party started shortly.