About Me

I am a bisexual woman with a passion for sex, music and the advancement of human rights, in that order (No. 3 used to be baseball, but the game has become boring with its emphasis on power and pitch counts).  Please note that the reference to sex is neither an invitation nor an advertisement; it’s simply my belief that you should know who you’re dealing with.

More to the point, I am a lifelong music lover who has explored and studied many forms of music, with a particular interest in the history of popular (i.e., non-classical) music dating back to the 1920s, the early stages of commercial recording. Music has been a large part of my life since childhood—both parents are serious music aficionados who kept the stereo going day and night, and I went through years of training on piano and flute, in both jazz and classical styles. During my teens I immersed myself in punk and taught myself to play guitar, primarily to make noise. I’ve studied to some degree the history and the content of blues, jazz, folk, country, pop, and, most of all, rock ‘n’ roll in its various forms. I find the evolution of music fascinating, whether it’s “How did the music of Louis Armstrong turn into the music of Miles Davis?” or “How did John Lennon write ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ only three or four years after he wrote ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand?'”

Since 2011 I have translated my passion for music into what you see on this blog: reviews of classic and contemporary popular music. The original intent of the blog was to support new artists in their efforts to get noticed; over time the blog morphed into more of an exploration of music history due to the inconsistent quality of contemporary music and my lack of sufficient influence to draw attention to promising talent. To qualify for a Classic Music Review, an album must have passed the three-year mark since its release so I can avoid the “shiny new thing” syndrome and determine whether or not the music will stand the test of time.

My reviews often integrate experiences and stories from my personal life, so you might find a little background helpful.

I was born in San Francisco in 1981 to a French mother and a second-generation Irishman. My mother won the coin flip and named me Arielle, which translates as “lioness of God,” a rather unusual moniker for someone who is not the least bit religious and has no interest in religion whatsoever. I grew up in the City, finished high school, then broke my Dodgers-hating father’s heart by choosing to attend college in L.A. I earned a degree in International Relations while spending most of my free time fucking my brains out. After a brief period back in The City, I landed a job in the marketing department of an international company based in Seattle, where the great music scene inspired me to start the blog. Disgusted with the United States after the Sandy Hook massacre, I was fortunate that my mother had secured dual citizenship for me at birth and helped me become fluent in French, which enabled me to move to Paris in April 2013 on a relocation sponsored by my former employer and wound up as their Director of European Operations for a couple of years. Go fucking figure. During that period, I also managed to complete a Master’s in International Business on the company’s dime. They asked me to come back to Seattle and take a role in the executive suite (which I politely declined); in exchange, they showed me the door and gave me a nice severance package so I could move near my parents, who had relocated to my mother’s birthplace in Nice. Maman and Dad make frequent appearances in my reviews because they know music and have lots of opinions about music that are sometimes at odds with mine.

In 2023, I married my life partner, Alicia, who also pops into my posts from time to time. She is also a musician who plays the cello and though I can’t figure out how it slipped into her DNA, she’s into heavy metal. You can find the story of our marriage by clicking on the button “Honeymoon Series.” When we returned to Nice after an around-the-world honeymoon, we found that the Alpes-Maritimes had shifted to the far right in the elections and immediately decided to sell our house and temporarily move to my father’s property in Ireland, where my parents had relocated. The world tour had inspired me to seek work involving international relations and human rights, and I landed a six-month consulting gig with the EU, requiring a temporary move to Paris. Lucky for us, the EU extended my consulting contract and allowed me to work remotely. We moved to Ireland in May 2025 and expect to live there permanently.

I would describe myself as very independent and self-confident with a ravenous appetite for learning, as demonstrated by an extensive study of American pop culture history during my teens. I am afflicted with the usual insecurities, and though I consider myself very sociable, I insist on doing things that many people consider anti-social, like smoking cigarettes (about which I feel no guilt) and jacking off in public (which I do very discreetly to relieve tension). My Myers-Briggs type is ENTJ and is much closer to the truth than my horoscope sign (Leo):

ENTJs are among the rarest of types, accounting for about 2–5% of those who are formally tested. They tend to be self-driven, motivating, energetic, assertive, confident, and competitive. They generally take a big-picture view and build a long-term strategy. They typically know what they want and may mobilize others to help them attain their goals. ENTJs are often sought out as leaders due to an innate ability to direct groups of people. Unusually influential and organized, they may sometimes judge others by their own tough standards, failing to take personal needs into account. From Wikipedia.

Consistent with that profile and adding a bit of spice to my bisexual orientation, I am a dominant female with an ingrained preference for what is referred to as BDSM. This is also not an invitation to anything but will explain the curious comments that pop up now and then in my posts and the sexual reactions I have to certain music. The site used to feature erotic tales and several graphic pictures of me from three erotic photoshoots, but I decided they were becoming a distraction. When I began the interview process with the EU, I removed all pictures of me except for the Gravatar, the tiny pics that appear at random in the lower right corner of the album array and the photo above. You never know when prospective employers are going to snoop into your online presence to find a reason not to hire you.

Because I pull from so many different genres and styles, you’ll find the blog to be quite eclectic, but the majority of the posts cover rock and its variants. I originally chose “Alt Rock” for use in my pen name because it was the least offensive genre available in our classification-obsessed culture, but now I’ve become fond of it because it has multiple meanings due to my distinctly alternative lifestyle and off-the-beaten-path perspectives on music.

My musical tastes are personal, as are all musical tastes. I have no pretensions that I am the almighty judge of musical excellence. What appears on this blog are my opinions, nothing more. I respect your right to think differently and encourage you to state your case in the comments section—hopefully without getting nasty or sexist about it.

I’m hard to classify, but when I write my reviews, I put everything I have into them. I hope you enjoy my work and comment to your heart’s content!

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