Day Whatever I Left Off On: Hobbies

I pretty much consider everything I do to be a hobby. I have to. Otherwise some things just aren't fun. And who doesn't like to have fun? I know I do. It wasn't easy coming up with a topic for this blog post though. I could have blogged about blogging, but that's stupid. Obviously blogging is a hobby of mine. I could have blogged about drawing, but I haven't done much drawing lately, so it's sort of a latent hobby. I'm slowly getting back into it, but it's a progression. I want to dive right in, but I have so much trouble with my hands...

So, here's my hobby: music. I don't play an instrument, and I don't sing well, but I love music. Before I moved to the land of the Amish, I frequently visited a site called garageband.com. I found a TON of up-and-coming artists on there. A ton. They didn't know it yet, but I did. And I found their mass-produced CDs on shelves everywhere a couple years later. I was so proud of them. Even though I didn't know them, I felt I had "discovered" them. Those bands were like little presents to the world that the music industry hadn't yet thought to wrap. But I knew they'd make it.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. I google "garageband" and get this message: "Sorry, this page no longer exists." Whaaaa???? All my bands gone... just like that? No more Syd... Private Idea... etc. Bummer. Then today I found a site that makes music video slide shows for you called Animoto. They let you upload your own music for the videos, but they want it to be stuff you're licensed to use. None of mine is. At least I'd guess not since most are mainstream artists. That site directed me to another site: Jamendo. I like it. It's sort of like garageband, but I have a lot to get used to. It's lacking a lot as far as the features that I liked so much on garageband, like being able to listen and rate random music. The commentary provided help to artists that maybe had the right idea but a crappy singer.... This doesn't have that. But it's good in its own way. I just have to work a little harder to find artists that I like. So far I've found two: Jamie Rumley and Carlos Saura. Totally different artists, but both awesome just the same.

And that's it. Finding great music that no one's really heard of. I love to do it. And I love it when they do make it big.