At this time of writing, I am sitting in the study at the computer, just doing what I tend to do most days..."play" DJ for my imaginary radio station WSPC solely by following my musical spirit and picking songs that I am able to find upon You Tube and then post them in a sequence to my Facebook page, thus creating a "set" of music friends are able to click upon should they choose to do so.
It is what I have done for years, and I would suppose more truthfully, for the majority of my life. Of course, technology was not nearly what it is currently during my upbringing in the 1970's and 1980's and my young adulthood in the 1990's, but that said, the sustenance of music and all that it has delivered to me and graced my life with is only something to celebrate and therefore share with whomever, wherever and whenever. This is just who I have always been and who I feel that I will forever be for I love music that much. It is that tremendous of a gift to me.
With the creation of Synesthesia, I always intended this site to exist completely as a virtual home of celebration and decidedly not criticism, like my sister blogsite of Savage Cinema where I write film reviews. Even so, for both sites, my intent was to write as purely and as honestly as possible while always remembering to write for any potential readers as opposed to writing for any other writers. What that essentially meant to me was that I was committed to always finding ways to say whatever I felt needed to be said but hopefully with purpose and grace and not the type of knee jerk venom and vitriol that has truly littered the internet. As music has provided me with limitless joy, I wanted Synesthesia to be a joyful place for you as well as myself, and if you have been visitors to this site, I deeply hope that my joy has been felt through every word that I have written.
Writing about music remains difficult for me as it is really not at all like writing about films or books. Music is so ephemeral yet so enveloping and how can mere words really capture the full quality of what I am listening to and how I am responding to it? But I really love trying! I truly do and again, I hope that you can see the honest attempts as I try to share with you thoughts and emotions about something that is so important to me.
The evolution of Synesthesia has been as organic as I have always wished for it to be. I just wanted a place to write about albums and musicians just like sports fans trade baseball cards and jaw about states and scores. I wanted to have a location to compile my obsessive list makings of songs and alums I have been listening to as well as trying to write explorations of the music that has grabbed me tightly and forced me to pay rapturous attention. Some of the first ideas I had and wrote for the site have been discarded because they began to feel like chores, and never did I ever want to have anything regarding music to feel like a chore. But, it has been very exciting to also see what Synesthesia has become, especially over the past year.
By writing about local bands to Madison--from album explorations to extensive interviews, my annual experiences at the University Of Wisconsin-Madison campus radio station WSUM-FM, reports from love shows I have attended and now, with my adventures in the real world of community radio with my Savage Radio program on WVMO-FM, I have found myself capturing glimpses into the larger Madison music community from supporting local businesses (record stores, concert venues) to the musicians, DJs and radio stations. Perhaps this site is a way for me to be a tiny part of this great community. But even so, it allows me the set-up to showcase the individuals who really make this great community what it is. I am tremendously humbled to bear witness and for any times that I have been able to be within their company.
Most of all, I am humbled by any and all of you who have ever visited this site and have taken the incredibly valuable time out of your busy lives to read anything that I have written. Never will it be lost upon me about everything that is jockeying for our collective attention spans and to know that anyone, anywhere has decided that my words were worthy of their time, that is all that I could ever ask or hope for. I thank you so very kindly and please always know that my gratitude is bottomless.
And now, as I head into the fourth full year of Synesthesia, I promise and pledge to continue with the same passion and positivity that I have always wished for this site to contain. And as always, for the music that you each experience--and if there is also anything that I may possibly inspire you to pursue for yourselves and in turn, what you may inspire me to seek out, let us all play it LOUD and LOVE it like the finest of art, for that is what music truly is.
Music is art. Music is life. Music is...THE BEST!
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