I am so ready to be that wind.
Since returning home to Nice I’ve spent a lot of time pondering what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have an overwhelming urge to do something different and experience new adventures. Thankfully, Alicia feels the same way. Getting married seems to have triggered emotions contrary to what one would normally expect—instead of looking forward to settling down, we want to shake things up.
After discussing various remedies for restlessness, we agreed that what we want to do most of all is see the world before it becomes completely uninhabitable and/or fascist. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go on a worldwide adventure thanks to generous wedding gifts from both sets of parents and the money we’ve saved by not buying a whole lot of stupid shit we didn’t need. Throwing even more caution to the wind, we let our clients know that we will be closing our consulting practice for three months beginning in April. We figure we’ll lose two-thirds of our client base, but we’re willing to take the risk because we’re thinking of closing the business anyway.
Due to this seemingly endless period of worldwide instability, we thought it was silly to map out a three-month itinerary so we decided to start with Japan and wing it from there, only going to countries we’ve never visited. We’re leaving in early April and will likely be back in Nice by the first week in July. After spending a few days at home, we’ll repack for another summer in Cork County and get the hell out of France before the Olympics begin and the alert levels go off the charts.
What this means for y’all is that I have to wrap things up at altrockchick.com before we leave and I’m not sure I’m coming back. I had scheduled six months’ worth of reviews and when I looked at the list a couple of weeks ago, the little voice inside my head said, “You can’t possibly do this.” After twelve years and six hundred or so reviews, I’m pretty close to burnout. Because I’ve already quit three times and eventually came back, we can fix the odds of my return at 50/50.
While I don’t have enough left in the tank to fill the many holes in my study of popular music from 1920 to the present day, there are some tasks I want to complete before I head into the wild blue yonder. It bugs me that I haven’t done enough reviews of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to earn them a spot on the menu bar, so my revised plan includes two for Neil and one for Joni. As I don’t want to get close to overload, I’ve decided to change to a bi-weekly publication schedule for now, which means I will only be able to review three more XTC albums before I split. Because I haven’t done much in the way of kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll lately, I’ve planned to do a Song Series piece consisting of some great rock singles and tracks that appear on albums I’m unlikely to review. I filled the other two slots with my first exploration of Joan Armatrading and one glorious burst of nostalgic indulgence.
I originally published a fixed schedule, but as usual, shit happens and I’ve had to rejigger the damn thing several times. For the latest information on what and when I expect to publish before my departure, check the “Coming Soon” widget in the right-side menu bar. Note that several of the reviews will be pre-scheduled, appearing after our departure date.
We’re flying out on April 5 and from that date forward I won’t be accessing the site or responding to comments and messages (the last two reviews will be scheduled in advance). My mother has graciously agreed to approve or trash comments; she’ll also change the home page from time to time so the site doesn’t look like a virtual ghost town. The CONTACT ARC button will disappear along with my Gmail account. When I return sometime next summer, subscribers will receive an email link to a post containing the answer to the question, “Should I stay or should I go?” I might come back fully recharged or decide to write on topics other than music or give up writing entirely and become a schoolteacher, a video game designer or a physicist. Anything’s possible.
And that’s exactly where I want to be right now—in a space where anything’s possible.
2023 was a record year for altrockchick.com in terms of hits, visitors and comments, so I want to thank each and every one of you for making that happen. I wish you all a safe and joyful New Year!
Cheers!