three years - This is Somewhere

While I’m aware that introspective navel gazing can be boring as all hell it doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it.

This week marks the three year anniversary of the site “This Is Somewhere”. That’s the same sentence I started off my year two report with a mere 12 months ago. When I read through the posts on this site in the last three years I can sense my own internal emotions in a very personal way. In 2009 I reported on the highlights of GPN’s year – the moments I treasured and those I thought were important to the band’s development. A giddy sense of “wow this is kind of fun” seems to permeate the thoughts. I closed my one year piece with this . . .

The year has been something special, who knows what’s next. I’ve been struggling with my own thoughts about all this, strike it up to needing a recharge and a break to sort it all out.

The “break to sort it all out” never happened so in January of 2010 I started my report out with this

This week marks the two year anniversary of the site “This Is Somewhere”. I would be lying if I didn’t say it was sometimes a fuckload of actual work.

Different right? Eventually, the “work” did get to me. I took a break from the blog in June of 2010 for a few months but tripped over my own intentions by starting to post heavily on Twitter/Facebook during the same time period. I mostly successfully stayed away from TIS.com until one day I posted a rant just to make myself feel better – it did. I started the blog back up in September of 2010 always amazed at the sheer amount of “Grace Potter and the Nocturnals information” out there. I don’t have to tell you the story of the last month or so when the VH1 Divas show alerted the world to things we’d known here for years.

I may be more aware than anyone of the increasing volume of “Grace Potter and the Nocturnals” information out there on Facebook/Twitter and the Interwebs. Trust me when I say it’s 3-4x more than it was just a few months back. In case you missed it I’ve already listed my top happenings of the year which were indeed special. Sadly, I missed reposting a link to this – go read it now.

So, in 2011 I would like to achieve some sense of self-realization that would allow me to answer the question “why the hell do I do this“? Because not only is it a Fuckload of Work ™ it’s also a confusing nightmare of contradictions. Some might look at me as simply an ardent “superfan”, from time to time I’ve been called an “over the top obsessive” by people who know me well. I know a few folks close to the band who certainly are vocal about their appreciation for what happens here – the work, the detail. Grace? Matt? Benny? Cat? Scott? – don’t know, maybe to them I’m the weird guy who knows too much about them? Therein certainly lies some of the tension. Maybe some Jambase writer will pop the question someday and I’ll get to read about myself? But, whatever, this thing is totally of my creation so I made my web and now I need to sleep in it, the truth is a complicated thing and pats on the head and back don’t really solve it.

Sometimes, I wonder if we’re on the verge of “too much information” and maybe we need to turn down the firehose a bit? This blog alone contains 1,412 posts. Can you believe that?

When my thoughts drift in that direction I worry that we’ll all lose the repository of memories that this site has become. Just yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that there is no video and no audio of this years NYE show when last year I stood right up front and chronicled the whole thing for everyone’s enjoyment. Is that necessarily a good thing though? Is it necessary that someone does it? Do we really need GPN ETEWAF?

Is the band goes where I think they’re going in 2011 that may not even be possible.

All I can say is, stay tuned.

ps
As an additional insight into all of this is the fact that I’ve started a successful music marketing business. TIS.com looks pretty good on a resume.

pps
This post was mostly written while suffering from a severe lack of caffeine