A few years ago, (dare I say it?? 5+ years ago???) I found myself heavily embroiled in a battle of epic proportions. You see... I had just discovered eBay and to someone like me, (who finds such great joy in the relatively unknown and obscure), eBay was like a gift from heaven. There I could find other people who, at the very mininum, hated -- but owned -- some of the music l loved and who -- more importantly -- would be willing to sell it to me at a greatly reduced price. I was like a kid in a candy store, bidding on and buying all sorts of music that would have previously been unavailable to me or at least been very difficult for me to find.
But then... something horrifying happened.
I began to find myself being outbid on several items that were of great importance to me. It happened once. Ok. I was disappointed... but I moved on. Twice: I began to grow irritated. Thrice: This was war! Then I discovered, much to my dismay, that I was being outbid by the SAME person. This was particularly distressing because I had always considered myself to be something of a stealthy eBayer. Never one to inflate the cost by bidding early, I always waited until the final seconds to swoop in for the kill. But now it seemed as though someone else was out swooping me! How could this be??
Clearly, this would not do.
Being the truly stellar military strategist that I am, I did a little checking on my new found enemy. And was told by another self-described music geek, who did a bit of buying and selling and lurking within the halls of eBay, that I should be very wary of my new rival because he was "very dangerous." Naturally, after such a warning I found myself a bit distressed, but I refused to give up. And so... after a few more bitter bidding battles, (most of which I lost), I decided that the only thing to do was to contact my nemesis and at the very least, try to to woo him to my side by batting my virtual eyelashes (which I have since learned doesn't -- thankfully -- work very well). And so... in a moment of freakish bravery I sent him a note basically stating that I didn't know whether or not to congratulate him on having such fine taste in music or to hire someone to kill him.
Luckily, he saw this as something of a compliment (and either forgave or didn't notice the whole eyelash bit)... and thus began my long standing friendship with [url=http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/...]shadowmusic[/url] -- who many of you know through the smattering of insightful comments that he leaves here with me from time to time.
I bring all of this up because it would appear that recently my [url=http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/...]good friend [/url] has turned his attentions from crushing the hopes of inexperienced eBayers to a greater and, I think, far more enjoyable purpose: [url=http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/...]His blog.[/url] To be fair, shadowmusic has been at tblog for nearly as long as I have, but recently his blog has taken something of a turn and is slowly morphing into something that I think is absolutely fantastic!
A quick glance reveals that [url=http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/...]shadowmusic [/url] is now using his blog and musical prowess to showcase the bevy of free and legal downloads available on the internet ~ with each post offering a new link to a new song that you can download and love for absolutely free and without the fear of the RIAA knocking on your door with a dead horse's head in one hand and a baseball bat aimed at your kneecaps in the other. I ask you: could anything be better? Apparently, yes. Additionally, my very dangerous friend has also opened up the floor for you to comment on each track, asking that you suggest other songs that you think might be similar.
It's all great fun, and I strongly suggest that you check him out. [url=http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/...]Now.[/url] Tell him I sent you... and maybe, every once in awhile, he'll let me win an auction or two. *wink*
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You know, I've always found music to be something of a binding agent. Like any other glue, it draws me to a person and holds them to me forever, no matter what paths our lives take down the road. As silly as it may seem, for me, music can be one of the most deeply personal things that I give to another person. Despite the overtly public stance I take on the subject here, I still consider the sharing of music to be one of the best ways for me to reveal some of the many foibles with which I am, (as someone recently told me), laden and -- in so many instances -- it's also the best way for me to get to know another person and the many nuances that make up who they are. To that end, these days, I've found myself quietly listening a plethora of troubled and powerful voices play in the background: Nick Drake, Beck, Damien Rice, Brad Roberts. And even though I've known these voices for a long, long time, suddenly they make such perfect sense.
posted by: shadowmusic (reply)
post date: 04.17.05 (2:50 pm)
Wow, a whole post about ME! I'm honored and grateful about this post and about our longtime friendship.
Thanks very much for the free publicity for my new "free legal mp3 of the day" blog.
I hope that those who love music (and who reading juniperflux's blog doesn't) will stop by http://shadowmusic.tblog.com/ and post some feedback (and suggest songs for everyone to check out).
Oh, it is my great pleasure to promote someone as special as you! I hope a few folks stop by to see you. I'm having great fun listening to all of your recommendations. :)
Well... isn't that about the nicest thing you could say to me? I love having you around. Your comments are always very meaningful. Come out and play more often, won't you?
posted by: lindy (reply)
post date: 04.18.05 (5:50 am)
I'm heading there now. I loooooove the story of how the two of you met. Very cool.
