I have this habit, actually,

of doing real good research. I wish it was a more productive skill, academically. It’s not. I don’t do it with theoretical textbooks – I do it with pop cultural texts. Especially music. My friends actually often ask me how I come to know the music, I know, or have read or seen the books and movies I’ve read and seen. And I think they ask me with the hopes of discovering the latest website, library, or I don’t know what – they’re looking for me to refer them to some magical resource center full of awesome goodies. Anyway, I always sort of shrug and say, “I dunno, I just do.” Which frustrates the hell out of them, cause it furthers my pretentious aura. Like, oh, what a rock snob, she won’t share her super secret special website that knows everything before everyone else does. The truth is, when I absorb texts, I make constant bookmarks, of the stuff the texts themselves reference as references or potential influences. It’s meta, I’ll admit. Like, I just picked up this Anniversary addition book, celebrating 60 years of Playboy or whatever. And I’ve been skimming through that, and there are TONS of footnotes to be made there. It’s kinda dangerous actually. It’s a loopy meta process, and you can find yourself skin deep in to do: reading, listening, watching, lists if you let yourself get far enough.

I built an entire college radio show around this concept actually. I’d read about all these bands and musicians I loved and admired, and every now and then in interviews, they’d refer to these seemingly off-kilter inspirations. Like, a life-changing moment for me was that time I was reading The Deerhunter Blog, and Bradford Cox posted a youtube clip of the Supremes, and he had written a note, like how he was obsessed with the beat or something. Stuff like that. Deerhunter do not sound like The Supremes, except when you think about it, and then realize they sorta do. I find that stuff fascinating. And of course I had known about The Supremes, but after that connection had been made in my brain, I went off and downloaded the whole discography of The Supremes. You read enough, and footnote enough, you end up with this concept of a radio show, that tries to merge contemporary artists and their early influences. Seemingly opposing genres, influencing the crap outta each other. I always thought that was so cool. Also, it was not dissimilar to why my friends asked me for art recommendations – they thought I had good taste. So when I read authors mention other books, or musicians mention other artists, I take those as mini-recommendations. Like oh shit, if X thinks that’s good, then it must be fucking good. You can end up in a never-ending spiral of stuff to check out if you explore shit that way. So that’s it. That’s my secret guys. How do I know about cool stuff? There’s no supreme resource center I can refer you to – I am also you. Art is a sharing center folks - I share, and am looking to discover too. <